Character meet and greets, double standard?

[buzzrelly]

You can’t get an in person, non distanced meet and greet on the star cruise with Cinderella. You can’t get a non distanced meet and greet with Cinderella in the parks either.

But you used to be able to get an in person meet with Cinderella in CRT.

Same goes for any Star Wars characters. They never had in person up close meet and greet with them after Star Wars weekends ended.

Pre-pandemic, they did have in person meet and greets in the Launch Bay.

It just seems to me that if they can bring back up close and personal character meets in the Galactic Starcruiser, then they could bring them back to the parks/restaurants.

 

[snikki]

But you used to be able to get an in person meet with Cinderella in CRT.

Pre-pandemic, they did have in person meet and greets in the Launch Bay.

It just seems to me that if they can bring back up close and personal character meets in the Galactic Starcruiser, then they could bring them back to the parks/restaurants.

It also seems to me that the reason for not having personal character meet and greets has nothing to do with safety.

 

[roctavia]

The starcruiser isn't officially open yet, right? So these must be special press/VIP somethings? It's also possible that there is a vaccine requirement for these events, which would make it easier/safer from an employee standpoint to allow more meet and greets.
The will never be able to verify vaccine status for people in the parks meeting other characters. It's a different situation at the moment. Not to mention that who knows if they have the staff available to expand the meet/greets at this point.

 

[Boopuff]

I never understood why full characters (Mickey, Donald etc.) couldn't have meet/greets! After all they're fully covered!! And with their big heads, and the guests were masked, it just seems dumb. My guess is that each character had a handler and photopass (at some locations) and that they just don't have those people to staff all the meet/greet areas.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I think Disney is gonna do with character meet and greets when they return to Walt Disney World fully is that they will try an experiment at first and the experiment is making guests pay to meet characters and take photos and pay extra for autographs and interactions like hugs just like malls do with Santa Claus and Easter Bunny photos every year. And once this experiment works I can see it might work for people who bring their kids who have their heart set on meeting certain Disney characters but for some people the experiment will fail. Because the main thing that I have noticed about character meet and greets these days while they used to be fun and full of joy to meet characters they have turned into and have become an annoying pain. Because it used to be that the children would get their autographs from the characters have a quick conversation and have a hug and a photo and that was the end of their turn and then the other children would have a turn and do the same thing. But if you have noticed and observed character meet and greets at Walt Disney World today you'll see families with one or two kids and the character spends two hours with just that one child and it will shock you. I've seen these types of character meet and greets on Youtube and when you watch it you will be surprised at how different character meet and greets have become. But Walt Disney World should have rules on meet and greets when they fully return and it would be as follows
1. Characters should spend a time limit of ten minutes with each child of a family then meet the next child in the same family. If the child really adores that character ask a cast member to bring that character privately to meet that child if possible
2. Characters should sign autograph books only to save time for the next family
3. The following items cannot be autographed by characters. This includes casts posters plushies and diaries and storybooks
But as for character photos Disney will probably charge $100-120 for each unless you have the Disney Chase card you could probably get a discount if possible

 

[1lilspark]

Nah IF they were to monitize things they would make all outdoor locations distance selfies and keep the ones where you could hug/autograph/photopass to be genie + only no standby

 

[Mrs.AMC]

But you used to be able to get an in person meet with Cinderella in CRT.




Pre-pandemic, they did have in person meet and greets in the Launch Bay.

It just seems to me that if they can bring back up close and personal character meets in the Galactic Starcruiser, then they could bring them back to the parks/restaurants.

Who said you could never meet her in person? I said you couldn’t do it now so there was no double standard.

 

[mom2rtk]

We did a distanced meet with Cinderella in Fairytale Hall in January. Then walked over for our breakfast at CRT where apparently it's too dangerous to offer even a distanced selfie meet. Hard to keep up with what's safe and what isn't.

 

[kc51570]

What I think Disney is gonna do with character meet and greets when they return to Walt Disney World fully is that they will try an experiment at first and the experiment is making guests pay to meet characters and take photos and pay extra for autographs and interactions like hugs just like malls do with Santa Claus and Easter Bunny photos every year. And once this experiment works I can see it might work for people who bring their kids who have their heart set on meeting certain Disney characters but for some people the experiment will fail. Because the main thing that I have noticed about character meet and greets these days while they used to be fun and full of joy to meet characters they have turned into and have become an annoying pain. Because it used to be that the children would get their autographs from the characters have a quick conversation and have a hug and a photo and that was the end of their turn and then the other children would have a turn and do the same thing. But if you have noticed and observed character meet and greets at Walt Disney World today you'll see families with one or two kids and the character spends two hours with just that one child and it will shock you. I've seen these types of character meet and greets on Youtube and when you watch it you will be surprised at how different character meet and greets have become. But Walt Disney World should have rules on meet and greets when they fully return and it would be as follows
1. Characters should spend a time limit of ten minutes with each child of a family then meet the next child in the same family. If the child really adores that character ask a cast member to bring that character privately to meet that child if possible
2. Characters should sign autograph books only to save time for the next family
3. The following items cannot be autographed by characters. This includes casts posters plushies and diaries and storybooks
But as for character photos Disney will probably charge $100-120 for each unless you have the Disney Chase card you could probably get a discount if possible

2 hours??? Even your suggestion of 10 minutes seems excessive and longer than I have ever witnessed for any character meet and greets. It was always in and out-hug, sentence or two, picture, autograph.

 

[disneydentist]

It might well be a union issue. Given the difference in the roles it's possible that the characters in the Star Cruiser are members of Actors' Equity rather than "regular" cast members. Different union, different contract stipulations.

 

[mom2rtk]

2 hours??? Even your suggestion of 10 minutes seems excessive and longer than I have ever witnessed for any character meet and greets. It was always in and out-hug, sentence or two, picture, autograph.

Yeah, characters often have a set that lasts 20 or 30 minutes at most. 10 minutes is way over the top. Just doesn't happen.

 

[snikki]

I saw it on another site that shall not be named but found another site that I can post here...

Character meet and greets drop physical distancing at Disneyland Paris - Walt Disney World next? (wdwmagic.com)

 

[xiphoid76]

Was watching videos this morning of guests hugging characters again in Paris. It almost brings tears to your eyes. I can’t wait for that to return to the United States. I think it will be soon!

 

[rangerxenos]

Unless you are saying they only offer the same characters in person on the galactic cruiser experience I don’t see how it compares at all. Y’all (figurative not saying you) are just trying to stir up crap
You can’t get an in person, non distanced meet and greet on the star cruise with Cinderella. You can’t get a non distanced meet and greet with Cinderella in the parks either. So where is the double standard, upcharge?

Same goes for any Star Wars characters. They never had in person up close meet and greet with them after Star Wars weekends ended. So no double standard there either

I mean come on, Disney is screwing enough up without folks making up new ways they are getting screwed over.

Um, they used to have M&G with Chewbacca, Darth Vader and Kylo Ren Pre Covid.

 

[Jennasis]

I prefer the new meets.

 

[Jacq7414]

I wish these meets and greets would be back. My daughter was so excited when we went back in 2019 and had those meets. I hope they can get it back soon

 

[kilik64]

I saw it on another site that shall not be named but found another site that I can post here...

Character meet and greets drop physical distancing at Disneyland Paris - Walt Disney World next? (wdwmagic.com)

Dagum. We go next week, my wife is gonna be UBER mad if they change this like the week after we go. I doubt they change it for next week but fingers crossed.

 

[DeeBee3]

This is definitely not about safety so it must be an internal Disney or union item. Meeting outside still distanced is not "good," but meeting inside maskless is good. That is not logical. Therefore, it has to be some other reason.

 

[kilik64]

This is definitely not about safety so it must be an internal Disney or union item. Meeting outside still distanced is not "good," but meeting inside maskless is good. That is not logical. Therefore, it has to be some other reason.

Bob Chapek.

 

[revdon64]

But it's really the optics, right? No distancing, no masks in the $3k/night completely indoors, "simulated cruise" vs no contact, "wave and pose for a pic with the character in the background" for the regular folks. It just looks bad, like nobody in management is thinking about this stuff. All people really want is some consistency.