Character Memories

[msk]

Snow White was walking backstage with her handler when my 4 year old granddaughter ran up and asked her to please just twirl once. Snow White took my granddaughters hand and they twirled together. The look of awe was worth the entire price of the trip.
Later that day Mulan spent so much time with my girls just talking about girls and how powerful they can be.

 

[Atilley]

2 years ago was my kids first time at Disney. We happened to be in the area where Vanellope and Wreck it Ralph were meeting. The line was really short so I figured why not and steered the family in line. It turned out to be the best character interaction the whole trip. My DD then 13 was wearing a tiara and a shirt that read "Normal is too mainstream that's why I'm a princess". Well Vanellope make a gester as she read her shirt and then points to herself. My daughters eyes lit up. The handler said "Vanellope you are no princess" to the horror of my DD who then took Vanellopes arm and said that's right "she's a queen". Watching them two stand their ground against the evil handler was priceless. That memory will last me a lifetime and I only hope We have another interaction of that caliber when we go this October.

 

[Misha72683]

A special one from our trip was Donald. We were having our picture taken by a random PP photographer and then suddenly, Donald approaches and his handler asks if we mind if he takes a picture with us! I don't know if we were in his spot or if he just saw or what, but it was such an awesome moment.

 

[ALittleWhistle]

Great thread!

My personal favorite was seeing Mary Poppins. My son's shoe was untied, and when she saw him she did a "Tsk, tsk" and talked about how little boys never seem to be able to keep their shoes tied. Then she asked him to hold her umbrella, then knelt down in her lovely dress, and tied his shoe.

For me personally, my most memorable interaction was not with a famous character, but with a couple of wonderful actors. It was the last day of our trip, and all of a sudden, for no particular reason, I got overcome with panic and could feel tears behind my eyes. We sat down near Seven Dwarfs Mine Train I believe; me with my face in my hands trying not to cause a huge scene and ruin everyone's day. All of a sudden, a woman and a man in costume (I assume from Cinderella's court), came running up, the woman fussing at the man. I looked up and they were coming toward me! The woman chastised the squire for not cleaning out my stables in a satisfactory manner, and demanded that he apologize to me. He apologized multiple times in different manners, all hilarious, and each time he did, the lady would make him take many steps back and approach me again with a bow and an apology, saying he wasn't doing it correctly (mumbling, not bowing, being mildly insulting). My panic just flew out the window. I was so appreciative of the two of them!

 

[Mage of Disney]

When I was six, I got to meet Donald Duck in Animal Kingdom. He pulled down my hat. For the next day, I was giving him my best 'evil eye' (hard to do when you're six), and the next day, at a character breakfast, after Donald signed my autograph book, I poked him in the mascot eye.
Also when I was six, I got to meet Duffy. Apparently he's rare to find? I was just in shock that a teddy bear came to life, but to this day, I'm sure I made that memory up, despite my mom saying it wasn't made up.

 

[Mattysmom]

Kids are so excited to meet some of their favorite disney Jr

 

[qv09vvp]

My favorite memory...and I had NO idea how magical it was at the time. smh Anyway, first family trip to WDW in 2002. My daughter was 6 & my son was 8. We walked quickly to Winne the Pooh ride & we happened to come along Tigger. Well, Tigger decided to ride in a car with my kids. My daughter kept telling Tigger...there you are, there you are! I have pictures! I love it.


It was our first trip as a family & I although I thought it was totally cool - in hindsight I can see that was Disney MAGIC! No wonder that first trip has turned into so many for us!

 

[Stephanator]

My mom loves Chip & Dale. One time at MK we get in line and walk up to meet them. My mom hugs Dale and I tell him, "You're her favorite!" and then glance over at Chip who's hands are up and he's shrugging like, "What about me?" I look over and I say, "Oh, and I've heard you're quite famous too!" He puts his hand up and brushes his shoulder off. I immediately fist bumped Pimp Chip.

 

[Funfire240]

My most fun was with Donald Duck one day at AK. We had the picture with the kids and I jumped in for a pic with my favorite. DD, 4 at the time, tells Donald how I'm his favorite. Well with not realizing it, I had an "I Love Mickey" shirt on that day - that did not go over so well with Donald! (not to mention just before my kids were getting his autograph and I couldn't find the page with his picture!) There was a lot of teasing going which left me almost falling over laughing. The picture end up with Donald having me put my arm across the Mickey on my shirt and pointing with the other to him so it showed that I loved Donald while he held up number 1. It's hard to explain here and probably doesn't seem that funny to most but in the moment I was loving it!

 

[JediAng]

On my first trip when I was 5 y/o in 1997, my favorite character, since Toy Story first came out, has always been Buzz Lightyear. When I met Buzz and Woody in Hollywood Studios, Buzz figured out he was my favorite, Woody did his normal autograph signature in my book, and then Buzz stamped my book six times on two pages, including over Woody's name. I was really young in Kindergarten on that first trip, but i still have a vivid memory of meeting Buzz, even at 5 y/o. To this day at 24 y/o he's still number 1 for me.

On my college program, I went to see Aladdin a couple of times throughout the months I was there, once in Morocco, and once at MVMCP when he was hanging out with Abu. He remembered me, and the autograph book I had (it's not a normal one, I had a different looking journal type book for autographs during my CP), and when I pulled it out for Abu, he goes "I remember that!!! I signed it with Jasmine when you came to see us in Morocco!" This was several weeks apart, like more than a month, it made me SO happy that Aladdin remembered me, then he spent an EXTRA amount of time with me, doing multiple poses for pictures not caring that other people were waiting. One of the few times I didn't get over looked in a character experience, being an older "adult" with no kids around, sometimes i got passed by quickly with hardly any interaction. That moment was one of the best experiences I had the 10 months I was there on my cp.

 

[AshleeH]

My oldest son still talks about how Pluto "ate" his head on our first trip (he was 7). He told Pluto about this when we saw him again two years later and Pluto slowly crept up to him... and then "ate" his little brother's head instead . That was a trip highlight for them.

My all-time favorite Disney memory as a child was searching all over the parks for Chip and Dale (Chip was my favorite!) and we couldn't find them anywhere. This was in the days where the characters wandered the parks. I was so disappointed watching the fireworks that night - all I'd wanted was to meet Chip. I felt something on my shoulder and turned around and there he was! Now, years later, with the clarity of a parent, I know my parents must've seen him and called him over and explained that I'd been searching for him all day and he was my favorite, but that was the epitome of Disney magic for me! Seeing the commercial that was out recently of the little girl searching for Mickey and the similar outcome always makes me smile because it's a mirror image of that memory for me.

My favorite memory as an adult was on our first family trip. We were stuck in Frontierland during HalloWishes (all the trees - you can't see anything). My older son wanted to ride BTMRR again, my younger son wanted to watch the fireworks, so my DH took him to a better location and my older son and I ran to get on the ride. It was us and a group of college guys - we snagged the very last car since we pretty much had our pick of where we wanted to sit. It ended up being the best seat in the house! We saw the entire fireworks show and then - the timing could not have been more perfect if we planned it - as we started to go up that last big incline, the grand finale went off. Words cannot describe the perfection of that moment and location. Just as we topped the rise, they sent off the final single white fireworks that circle the park to end the show and then less than two seconds later, the ride dropped and we finished the last of it. It will always be one of my most favorite Disney memories.

 

[tinkerbell1112]

in 2012 my son was 9 and we were at the Ohana breakfast. He was angry about something (don't even really remember what), but pouted through meet and greet for Stitch, Pluto, Lilo. Mickey wasn't going to have it. Mickey pointed at him, pointed at his eyes, and did a shoulder shrug, as if "what's wrong". I told him he was being grumpy. Mickey proceeded to mess around with my son and eventually got him to crack a smile

I also had a Belle experience with my daughter when she was 7 - this time Disneyland. Belel remembered my daughter from a prior meeting and remembered that the autograph card she'd signed before was different than the one she was signing now (same trip, just different times). She also remembered that they posed a certain way for the first photo and so posed a different way for the second.

Cruises can be a completely more intimate experience. We did have Tiana bump into my daughter all over the trip we took last year on the Magic. Each teim she saw my daughter, she called her her best friend and remembered she'd been wearing green (just like Tiana) the first time they met.

Disneyland breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen, Rafiki had a ball when my daughter as he caught my daughter looking at his red bottom. Rafiki turned from another table, glared at my daughter, pointed at his eyes, then at my daughter, then at his bum, then shook his finger. Had all the tables around us cracking up.

My, I could go on and on, but these were some of my absolute favorites.

Character experiences are my absolute favorite thing. With the talking characters we always plan questions to ask and things to talk about so we can keep the conversation going. I hope my kiddos never outgrow them. I keep a small notebook with me and jot down their answers and the things talked about so I can remember when I scrapbook the photos!

 

[MelissaBee]

My DD6 loves to dress as who she is going to meet, so we tend to get great character interactions. Meet and Greets have always been her favorite part of Disney, so we have many fun memories.
One of my favorites was when DD was three. She loved Brave and really wanted to know what Merida's mom's horse's name is. So when we went to WDW, she asked Merida her question. Merida responded without hesitation "Frederick". Then she walked DD over to a spot on the pavement with a horse prints in it and told her that Angus made one set and Frederick made the other.
Having a special question to ask also tends to produce good interactions.