Help - 5 year old twins afraid of characters

[Two Princesses]

I have booked a trip to Disney with my husband and twin 5 year old daughters.. Already booked two "character meals" (Princess meal at Epcot and Cinderella's castle).. And, I just realized that my kids are afraid of the characters.. They've never really been around many characters, so yesterday when they went to a bday party at Chuckie Cheese, they freaked out at the character, Chuckie....

This scared me as I know there are a ton of characters at Disney and I'm so afraid that it will ruin our trip when one of the characters comes up to my daughters and they SCREAM and say that they want to leave.

I am almost ready to just cancel the trip but am wondering if there's anyone else out there that their children just weren't into all the characters... and, if so, what did you do? I think that I will definitely cancel the princess meals, as I know now that the girls will be freaked-out by the whole idea...

Thanks so much for reading my post and offering advice

Linda

 

[Irishhockey]

I can't remember the names, but there are sing-a-long dvds that actually have the characters as seen in the disney parks. Does that make sense?

We used this numerous times to get the kids used to "seeing" the characters. The Disney Parks planning DVD helped alot too. When they watched it, the kids knew exactly what they were going to see in the parks which I think helped assure them.

Of course seeing it on the screen and in person is completely different but it definately helped! Once we were at character meals we made sure the adults goofed around first with them to show the kids it was ok.

On a side note, I think the Chuckie Cheese mascot is scary too... thats not just a kid thing

 

[Barbers2005]

Well, they should be alright at the princess meals because they are "face characters"- there is nothing remotely scary about the princesses. For the other characters, try letting them see them from a distance first, and try to find someone that they know and love. For dd5 (4 at the time) Mickey was the dealbreaker. We saw him a few times in the park at AK and she watched him take pictures with other kids. Once she saw how friendly he was she wanted to get closer and finally wanted to meet him and take a picture. Dd was really scared of Chuckee too, a lot more than with any of the WDW characters.

 

[Stucas]

When I was little I was scared to death of characters, clowns, everything really. My mom would take me and my older sister to six flags and would make us see all the characters (and way back when they had clowns, ahh!) and we have numerous pictures of my sister with different characters and then me screaming and hiding (great memories right?)

When we went to disney I was still in my scared to death mode,HOWEVER I don't remember having ANY problems with Disney characters. I took pics with people got my book signed. My only reasoning is maybe it was okay because I knew the Disney characters better. (I was never big on looney tunes[six flags]) The next summer I still had issues with SIx Flags, so it had to be something at Disney. I just like to think its part of the Disney *magic*


I do agree with the person who said to watch videos with the dressed up characters in them. My niece and Nephew are going next year and I think I'm going to go find some videos for them to get used to.

 

[Hannathy]

Just avoid them!!! You can spend a week at Disney without interacting with a character if you don't want to. There are always lines of people waiting to see them and get pictures so just keep walking. We didn't stand in any lines this yr because neither kid wanted to waste riding time doing it and the only character we have a picture with was Chip and Dale because we just happened to be standing right where they came out early one morning and by fault were first in line. Don't worry about them coming up to your child if they don't want it there are plenty of kids around who will want them to interact. I may re-think the character meal. I'm sure you are spending all that money for the kids and if they are going to be afraid they may just enjoy HDDR more. There is no rule you have to do a character meal, we never do.

 

[Lynne M]

Keep the princess meals. You'll see women dressed up in pretty gowns, no masks or costumes like Chuck E. Cheese.

It's easy to avoid characters at WDW, they don't just walk up to people. They stand in one spot, and people line up to get autographs, photos, etc. You can easily walk around them, and the kids probably won't even notice they're there.

Also, the characters are very, very good at dealing with frightened kids, especially at the character meals. They quickly pick up on whether a child is nervous, and will keep their distance and just wave.

If you want to get your twins a little more comfortable with the characters (and assuming they don't completely freak out even if they see one at a distance), you can try standing nearby as a character signs autographs. They'll see other kids hugging and interacting with the character, and may come to feel that it's 'safe'.

And most of all, remember that this is just a temporary phase. Don't push it, avoid the characters where possible, and realize that in a couple of years, they'll be over this and will want to stand in every autograph/photo line they see.

 

[IATink]

I agree, don't cancel the princess meal! Both of my daughters have been frightened of characters, but they were okay with the princesses. They would go up and get autographs from the princesses and were not scared at all.

With the other characters, my daughter would watch from a distance as her older sister would get closer for the pictures. Gradually, she began to warm up to it. When we went to Chef Mickey's my oldest was totally into it, but my youngest wanted nothing to do with the characters. The characters were very accommodating and knew when to back off.

 

[disnut8]

Don't cancel your trip! Don't even cancel your meal plans. Take a deep breath and exhale.

This happens all the time at Disney World. And the characters are well prepared for it. As soon as they see a sign that a child doesn't want to have anything to do with them, they will back off. They'll wave from a safe distance.

We went to Chef Mickey's breakfast with a toddler. The mom thought she would have sooooo many opportunities of her daughter with the characters. Cassie took one look at the first of those huge fuzzy characters and wailed. The character backed off and all the other characters did the same. She wasn't ignored but she wasn't played with and hugged and stuff.

You could try this as an ice breaker. You approach the characters. Once Cassie saw her mother having fun with Chip, she totally relaxed and let him come to her. Too bad he was the last character since we were already done and almost out the door.

We once went to a character dinner with two teenage boys and no other kids. They only went because they were promised unsupervised time in the arcade later. By the end of the meal, they were calling the characters over and playing with them.

Remember, from a five year old's perspective, those characters are HUGE!

 

[thirtycats]

I can relate!

My son was scared of characters.

When he was three, he was TERRIFIED! We tried taking him to a character meal and had to leave because he was too scared.

He did okay as long as we didn't approach characters. He seemed okay as long as they were far away.

I explained to him that they were people in costumes, that they were probably moms and dads and once the day was over, they'd take their costume off and go home to see their kids.

This worked a little.

 

[Disney_Freak2007]

You don't have to go near the characters really, because the lines are long most of the time. So don't cancel the princess one.

 

[fairestoneofall]

My DD 5 absolutely hates Chuck E. Cheese. However, she had no problem whatsoever with the characters at WDW and LOVES them. So, you may be surprised.

I will say that DS 2 is afraid of the characters still. So, we just didn't take him to any of the meet & greets. And at the character meals, the characters could tell he was afraid. They would interact with DD 5, but just wave to DS2.

 

[Jrabbit910]

Hi Linda,
I can understand your kids being afraid of Chucke Cheese... he looks like a scary mouse or whatever he is... There is just so much to see in Disney and if you prepare them before hand (watch dvd's and go to the Disney Store) I think the children will be okay...
Remember Chucke only appears (as far as I remember) on commercials and isnt as widely known as the Disney charchters so I think you will be okay.. plus I think the cm will help you out alot when bringing them to see them.
Good luck w/ everything and I hope they arent afraid.. dont cancel your trip...

 

[indykaren]

When my youngest DD was small, she was afraid of the characters. As others have mentioned, it doesn't create a problem, because you can just avoid them. It will give you a lot more time to see the rest of the park!

If it were my girls, I would just ask them if they would like to do the princess meals. If they said yes, I would give it a try. If they hesitated, I would just cancel the character meals. At 5, they should be able to communicate what they're feeling fairly well, if you ask them in a neutral way, without trying to lead them to either a yes or no answer.

Don't cancel your trip because your girls might dislike the characters. There's so much more to do and see at Disney!

 

[Tinkalink]

I know what you are going through. We went to WDW in Feb. with our DDs (ages 6 and 4) and had heard all kinds of horror stories. What's worse our 6yr old is terrifed of Stitch. We couldn't even get her to take a picture with the Easter Bunny!
So we took several DISers' advice and had them watch several of the movies. Some we had ,some we borrowed and some we got from the library. We watched a different film about every other night. Besides getting aquainted with them, it also freed me up to plan some details on our vacation.
The two meals you booked are perfect for little princesses such as yours for the two reasons stated above. The princesses are actual ladies in dress who act very gentile and polite. They are trained to sense a frightened or upset child. I've seen them in action. They will approach the table quietly with a smile and a small wave. Depending on the response they will stay to welcome and fuss over your daughters, or they will move on.
Our 4 year old was still cranky after her nap when we went to Akershus for dinner. When she reacted sour , my DH got her to go outside for a minute and Ariel interacted with my 6 year old - she was thrilled! The 4 year old came back and was much better.
They both love Cinderella, so she was a huge hit.

 

[SueM in MN]

I can't remember the names, but there are sing-a-long dvds that actually have the characters as seen in the disney parks. Does that make sense?

The sing-a-long video is called "Disneyland Fun" and you can find it on Amazon.com
If this link doesn't work, it will pop up on a search on Amazon. Even though it is DL rather than WDW, most of the rides they show are pretty similar.

There is also one called Beach Party at Walt Disney World that shows the characters at Blizzard Beach and other 'beachy' scenes at WDW.
The last one is Campout at Walt Disney World.

A good thing about those DVDs is that they show kids interacting with the characters.

 

[cleo]

Just chiming in with one more 'don't cancel' opinion. My son has never liked the characters. Wouldn't go near them when he was a toddler and kept a very close eye on any that came close to him. We just walked past them, moved on to something else, and he was absolutely fine.

We decided to just thank our lucky stars we didn't have to stand in those long lines and we went on to the next ride. They're easy enough to avoid, so don't worry about it.

 

[Joanna71985]

I also have to say not to cancel. The characters are really good about kids who are scared. They see it all the time. Also, I feel that the princesses are not as intimidating as the others. And your kids would not be the first to be scared of them. I was at Norway once and there was a family there who had 2 little girls who were scared of them. So I just let the princesses know and they took care of everything.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

OK first off Chuck E. Cheese is the anti-Mickey.

Second, my 5 yr old was aslo scared of the characters and did not want to go near them unlike his brother(7) who got the autograph book and was good to go until we did a character meal at the Land in Epcot, Mickey, Chip and Dale threw me out of my seat after telling them he is shy around them and little scared after this encounter he wanted his own auotgraph book and ran to see every character(this has become one of my favorite Disney memories).

 

[momsoftwins]

to one mom of twins to another. i took my girls when they were 2 and the non masked characters, the girls did fine. but mickey, daisy etc. they flipped. well this past thursday we went to the local mall to see the easter bunny and they sat there perfectly and loved it. after ward we were talking about the disney trip in less than 3 weeks and they asked me "this time when i see mickey and goofy, can i hug them." " i wont be affraid" so just let your girls do so much or as little as they want. but the princess meals are a great way for them to see the girly characters. the look on my twins faces when we had dinner one evening at norway was priceless!!!
have fun and good luck