Character meals,so i can limit queing for my ASD son

[tinkerpea]

Hi all.

My boys aged 7,7,10 really love Scooby doo and the Avengers are there any character meals where they can meet these? My son has ASD and so when it comes to meeting characters at Disney we book meals for them to get the pics etc as its easier then My oldest waiting in lines for god knows how long!

We skipped Universal last trip 2 yrs ago as when we went 1st yr with them the accomadations they gave us for our son "pretty much hardly any" made us have such a miserable time that we didnt want to face going back even though its a childhood fav place of mine!! They told us they have no accomadations for other then for myself and my son to wait in a seperate room or area whilst Dh and the other 2 kids qued up then we would join them,problem with this is my son when in a strange place does not want to be away from any of his family including his Nan who doesnt do all rides and yet has to que with us until he rides,so it just didnt work we tried queing all together bless him he lasted nearly 30 mins on 1 ride but just melted down when a big child started banging on the metal bars and playing with the chains......this yr i contacted Universal after hearing that they have much better accomadations then this and we was informed wrong about that being the only accomadation,still not 100% sure ths is correct but if it works anything like Universal Hollywood then we will be fine they let you go through fastpass line or what ever they call it if its over a certain time they write the time on a card you then go to the next ride when that times up!...............

Well anyways this yr we are taking the boys on a 22 night surprise trip which will include a few day at Universal,We are planning on staying onsite for at least 2 nights to get the early entrance etc but this wont help with characters right?
Anyways if theres No meal with these characters could anybody give any info on what character meals they do actually have and what they are like....

Thanks Sorry for the rambling on I get a little "Ok alot carried away"

 

[buckeev]

Tink,
As parents of an Autistic 14 y/o, we understand a lot of what you deal with! He IS the sole reason we made our first trip to Orlando 8 years ago, and continue to back as often as we can.
Our son is absolutely obsessed with the characters and parades, so we try to get in as much "face time" with them in a "controlled" area.
The on site hotels at Universal offer characters in 3 different restaurants on scheduled nights...call ahead to make sure who/ when/where...
We did a couple of nights meals at The Kitchen restaurant (HRH), and the characters were awesome with our son! ( the food was very good too, as was the entire staff!)
Also, starting up very soon will be a new character meal opportunity at The Cafe La Bamba, But details are a bit fuzzy still, ( at least to me), so check back on that a bit later.
Best wishes!

 

[damo]

Because you are staying onsite, you probably won't need any special accommodations. You will get unlimited express pass access which allows you into the short lines for pretty much every ride.

I'm sorry you were informed incorrectly last time as Universal is excellent with special accommodations.

 

[Pembo]

We were at Universal at spring break and even with big crowds found very short queue lines for characters except Spiderman...who surprised us in the store! Characters at Universal are no where near as hard to see as they are at WDW.

 

[tinkerpea]

Tink,
As parents of an Autistic 14 y/o, we understand a lot of what you deal with! He IS the sole reason we made our first trip to Orlando 8 years ago, and continue to back as often as we can.
Our son is absolutely obsessed with the characters and parades, so we try to get in as much "face time" with them in a "controlled" area.
The on site hotels at Universal offer characters in 3 different restaurants on scheduled nights...call ahead to make sure who/ when/where...
We did a couple of nights meals at The Kitchen restaurant (HRH), and the characters were awesome with our son! ( the food was very good too, as was the entire staff!)
Also, starting up very soon will be a new character meal opportunity at The Cafe La Bamba, But details are a bit fuzzy still, ( at least to me), so check back on that a bit later.
Best wishes!

Hi thanks for replying
We try and go every other yr (would go more if we didnt live in the UK) we should be posted in the states for 3 yrs next may fingers crossed and it will be great to take shorter more frequent trips!
We find being at Disney is just Amazing for my son plus it means all the boys get equal attention"its not always like that at home" so the Twins get to play and do stuff with there brother and really enjoy that time together,instead of them constantly being told off by their brother for them annoying him for even breathing next to him

Like i said we know he will just LOVE Universal but the accomadations last time which split the family or made us be in long ques just didnt work and it was so very hard for us all Characters all ways scare me the que for them is always so long that we book a meal for anybody that he would like to see it makes the whole holiday so much more special, So any meal for Universal characters will be just brilliant

Thankyou again for the great info

 

[tinkerpea]

Because you are staying onsite, you probably won't need any special accommodations. You will get unlimited express pass access which allows you into the short lines for pretty much every ride.

I'm sorry you were informed incorrectly last time as Universal is excellent with special accommodations.

Hi thanks for replying,
We wont be staying in the hotel for the whole trip just a few days,The others we will be staying on I-drive to shop etc but I know that we will want to go back a few days which is why we will need the accomadations...

I was completly devastated about our last trip to Universal it was atrue disaster we had heard some many things about how good they was but it just wasnt! Hoping this trip will be alot different

 

[buckeev]

You probably are aware of his, but make sure to go Guest Services at any WDW park, or at DTD before you do any parks and request a Guest Assitance Card. It can sometimes help with some of the issues that might arise with your son.
Also, try to do the same at Universal, I too have heard that they can sometime help out with a similar card to alert CMs to your situation.

I have a Father/Son trip scheduled for early June, but I'm not telling him about it yet, mainly because he will freak out if the Despicable Me attraction isn't open when we go. So far, US isn't giving an exact date, but looks more like mid-June, which might be a tougher time for me to shut down the shop.

 

[damo]

Hi thanks for replying,
We wont be staying in the hotel for the whole trip just a few days,The others we will be staying on I-drive to shop etc but I know that we will want to go back a few days which is why we will need the accomadations...

I was completly devastated about our last trip to Universal it was atrue disaster we had heard some many things about how good they was but it just wasnt! Hoping this trip will be alot different

Did you stop at Guest Services and get the GAC last time?