Does anyone else ever feel rushed....

[tjknitz]

during chacter meals?

At Tusker House they said they were running about 25 minutes behind and at one point in our meal they were removing breakfast items and putting lunch up. The characters were almost acting rude! They would come to our table, motion us to get up, quickly sign and then just walk away without so much as a 'goodbye'. I know they were running behind, but still. Other than that one though, most of the character meals I felt like I was so rushed to meet the characters. I don't expect to spend a lot of time with them - I know that. But I just felt like they were rushing. The only place I didn't feel this was at Crystal Palace. The characters there were wonderful! Played with my 13month old for a quick sec...waited for a hug, hugged her back and moved on.....

Is it just me???

 

[laurainsem]

We felt a bit rushed at CM's. Some of the characters would signal us to stand us, snap a quick picture, and run along. The only one who didn't do this was Minnie, she was great! At Ohana's everything was more relaxed, including the characters. It was much more personable and even though we didn't have kids, they still showed us attention and took their time which was nice.

 

[koolaidmoms]

during chacter meals?

At Tusker House they said they were running about 25 minutes behind and at one point in our meal they were removing breakfast items and putting lunch up. The characters were almost acting rude! They would come to our table, motion us to get up, quickly sign and then just walk away without so much as a 'goodbye'. I know they were running behind, but still. Other than that one though, most of the character meals I felt like I was so rushed to meet the characters. I don't expect to spend a lot of time with them - I know that. But I just felt like they were rushing. The only place I didn't feel this was at Crystal Palace. The characters there were wonderful! Played with my 13month old for a quick sec...waited for a hug, hugged her back and moved on.....

Is it just me???

I think at CP we have had plenty of good interaction like you mentioned but at 1900 PF we felt like they were only there for a second and even were skipped once by Alice. Needless to say I had to go speak to a CM because my DD was sobbing!.

What I have done to help slow things down was to talk to them (the characters) as the kids were posing for pictures or getting their autographs about how excited the children are to meet them and how much they really like them as the kids are hugging them. I do it calmly and slowly and it usually slows the rush down. Then they usually start to interact more with the kids with high fives and extra hugs.

We also don't leave the restaurant until we are ready to. You can pick up all the food and plates around us and until we are finished eating and put back together we don't leave no matter how much they rush around us. I figure I paid for my meal I am going to enjoy it. All of it. JMHO.

 

[tjknitz]

I think at CP we have had plenty of good interaction like you mentioned but at 1900 PF we felt like they were only there for a second and even were skipped once by Alice. Needless to say I had to go speak to a CM because my DD was sobbing!.

What I have done to help slow things down was to talk to them (the characters) as the kids were posing for pictures or getting their autographs about how excited the children are to meet them and how much they really like them as the kids are hugging them. I do it calmly and slowly and it usually slows the rush down. Then they usually start to interact more with the kids with high fives and extra hugs.

We also don't leave the restaurant until we are ready to. You can pick up all the food and plates around us and until we are finished eating and put back together we don't leave no matter how much they rush around us. I figure I paid for my meal I am going to enjoy it. All of it. JMHO.

I feel the same way - I'm staying there until we are done! With 3 kids, it's hard to rush them and then expect to have a good time in the park with starving kids an hour later...lol

I will use your suggestions next year - just trying to talk to them and explain how excited the kids are to see them, etc etc. Thanks for the tips!

 

[dsnymomx2]

we did TH when it first became a character BF and had a wonderful experience. So I booked and adr again this past March. We had an 8am adr and I totally felt rushed.

 

[TillyMarigold]

We felt a little rushed by our server at Akershus, but OTOH we had made it clear we booked for the food and not the characters. He wasn't at all rude, but our entrees clearly came out as soon as they were ready, and as soon as we put our forks down he brought dessert, etc. I think the whole meal was about 40-45 minutes.

The characters themselves were lovely and made very amusing conversation with us, though not as long as they did with the tables that had kids.

 

[Iwant2BAprincess]

I always figured it was because I have 2 boys and not cute giggling little girls-they seem to pop in and I am doing good to get off a focused shot before they are moving on-especially ran into this at CP last week. My best exp. by far was GG. As far as being rushed thru a meal, definatly wasn't an issue last week, we could have taken after dinner naps at most of the places before the check was handled.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The only CM issue I have had was at 1900 park fare. And that was a very late Cinderella (who apparently had a wardrobe malfunction backstage as a CM told us privately out of the kid's ear shot.) She did eventually make it to the ball.

We've gone to the Playhouse Disney CM and CP. We also went to Hollywood and Vine when it was Mickey and Minnie and it was just DH and I--admittedly, I kind of felt stupid without kids, so dont' know if it was me or how I perceived M&M to be happy to see us.

Ordinarily we plan to sit through the whole rotation of characters--at CP I have been told it is about 45-60 minutes (I *think*) and we use that guideline for the other restaurants.

When we have missed a character due to timing of sitting, or someone at the buffet, we have politely let a CM know and then when we are ready, we just quickly let the CM know and she brings the character back to us.

I figure when the restaurant is in the theme parks, they are geared for quick turnover and not a 2 hour extravaganza.

If you are getting re-visits from characters, that is my cue to wrap it up.

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

I have never actually paid for one of these character meals, but in December I will being paying oop for one extra one for my little girl, and I had best not be treated with a "rushed" enviroment. We WILL get our monies worth out of this meal. I don't care if we are there two hours!!!

 

[onelilspark]

My friend and I went last October to Chef Mickey's for breakfast...sporting our Minnie ears. I thought we were extremely lucky when we were being sat before the family that checked in before us, but figured it must be because we're only 2 and they were 4. We were sat in room where the characters were on the way out...at a 4-top. Ok, no biggie, maybe the characters were moving fast that day, we were hungry anyway.

So we went and we got our food. After our first plate of food, we were at the restaurant for probably all of 20 minutes our waitress brought the check. I asked for more water... She came back about 5 minutes later to check to see if we were ready to pay yet, she "didn't want to keep us waiting." ...I asked again for my water. I went up for some more food which my friend and I split. I finally got my water and she checked again to see if we had a card in the billfold. I smiled and said, "oh don't worry, we haven't seen any characters yet, we're not ready to go." She seemed a bit taken aback by this, but I finally caught onto their game...you see, the family the checked in ahead of us was being sat in the same room we were in, that was just now being cleared. They were trying to turn our table, thinking we were adults and there only for the food. Sorry, but we're both wearing ears. Think a little. I was more than a little ticked off. (The characters were great with us though!)

So yeah, I've been rushed at a character meal, but not by the characters!!

 

[MarkinNM]

I wouldn’t say rushed but more like a chaotic atmosphere that is a character meal. We ate at 4 character meals on our last trip and didn’t feel rushed but it was just kind of hectic, with kids jumping up and down being excited in seeing the characters. As a matter of fact while at Chef Mickey’s the characters came around 4 different times to our table and Donald stayed and goofed around with my daughter for a long time and he did this several times during the meal. Tusker House we were there for about 1 hour and just made all 4 of the characters, Crystal Palace several rounds were made by each. I think it depends on the server and the crowd and what you expect out of the character meal.

 

[bytheblood]

I have never felt like I was being rushed, but I have seen the characters rushed to the point of them being rude.

 

[NC State]

I wouldn’t say rushed but more like a chaotic atmosphere that is a character meal... it was just kind of hectic, with kids jumping up and down being excited in seeing the characters.

I agree with you and that's why we don't do them anymore.