Characters as an Adult - Should I feel bad?

[brb1006]

Wow! I am so sorry that happened to you. You absolutely did nothing wrong. I go solo or with just my DH (we are 22 and 25 no kids)/adult friends all the time and love meeting characters! The magic of Disney has no age limit. Keep on enjoying your character meets! It isn't your fault the woman was ill-prepared and didn't show up early enough. Don't let that ruin your trips, you deserve the opportunity every bit as much as the kids do.

Also, if you do end up going to MNSSHP, dress up! DH and I went as Cinderella and Prince Charming on our Disneymoon and it was so much fun.

That reminds me of a story from one visitors who seen Peter Pan call out a guests for calling him gay for dressing up as a Disney princess.

 

[cagirl4life]

Apparently that lady got pixie dust in her panties and it was chafing.

Love this! My new way of explaining when someone is not feeling the magic!

I am 25 and I still go and see characters. I love meeting characters. Most of the time I just take a photo because I don't want to take up too much time. But I have had some fun experience. One time when I went solo to DLR I took a photo with Mater. The whole time he was making comments on how I was cute and it was fun! The PP was telling him to stop flirting! That same trip I went to see the princesses. I was just planning on getting the photo. Cinderella had a long conversation with me about what I was up to in California and we talked about my cousins wedding the next day. It was sweet. And the handler Got pictures of it on my camera which was a surprise when I was going through my photos later. On a trip my my best friends we went to see the princesses and Tiana was so much fun! We had a whole convo about my shoes and it was funny. Each of the princesses took the time to talk to us just as much as the kids! Personally I think they enjoy having adults come and meet them. It allows them to have different conversations than they do with the kids.

 

[Chief Powhatan]

My avatar says no - you should not feel bad.

"pixie dust in her panties"!

 

[DisneyRyan]

I'm 26 and recently went to meet Anna and Elsa.

 

[SaraJR]

I just got back and hope you never feel bad there were so many adults in my lines ( except minnie i was the only person alone over 6 lol) but it was great! i saw old people playing socerers and one old lady with full face paint! i met tons of characters and got pixie dust (not in my panties) lol i did a very detailed trip report on my blog alovingvegan.blogspot.ca best week of my life!

 

[SoCalTrojanSkip]

One of our favorite experiences at the Halloween party this year was doing the Peter Pan meet and greet, as well as the Tinker Bell meet and greet. We were dressed as Mr & Mrs. Darling from Peter Pan, and had great interactions with the characters.
We may have gotten weird looks, but to be honest we didn't care. The CM's and characters were amazing in their interaction with us, and the parents in line got a big kick out of it.

 

[Ringsgal]

A couple years ago some friends came to CA and DH and I met up at DLR. One in their group had never been to any Disney park and wanted as many autographs as she could. Even though I was a passholder at the time, I had never done autographs either (for stupid reasons now that I think about it). So on day 2 of our DL adventures together, she and I left everyone else and went around to as many characters as we could with autograph books and our cameras. Both of us are 30+. No shame in standing in line for characters at any age - we both have autograph books with pictures to commemorate our adventure. We even ran into Fairy Godmother by Sleeping Beauty's Castle as she was headed off to some other location. One of my best memories from DLR.

 

[DisneyBelle_x]

No reason to feel bad at all, Ive only ever done Disney as an adult and a childless one and love meeting the characters, no way would I feel bad for doing so even with a parent with that attitude. Disney is for everyone not just her child and as an adult I've paid to go and if I want to will meet characters as much as I like, in my 30's or not its my choice and no ones right to make me or any of us feel bad for doing so

 

[Dug720]

No need to feel bad AT ALL! (Ditto on the cruise line - I've heard the grumbling about adults more there than at the parks, but I just smile and ignore it there as well.) I love meeting the characters - I do meals and everything. And I've had some fantastic character interactions. A few...

* On a solo trip, I did breakfast at 1900 Park Fare and Tigger kept playing peek-a-boo with me around the door he would come through. Tons of attention.
* A family trip (all adults) we did breakfast at Cape May Café and were seated at one of the tables with a booth on one side and chairs on the other. My sister and I were on the booth side, and Goofy decided that we needed to be THISCLOSE to each other. If he looked over and we'd spread out again, he would come over and sit next to me and scootch me over until we were THISCLOSE again. We still laugh about that.
* Another family meal at 'Ohana, Stitch had a blast playing with all of us. He even gave my dad the "Talk to the hand" thing when he tried to drink the coffee from the carafe and it was empty and my dad said "I did it, Stitch. I drank it all."
* The day after the marathon in 2014, I went to MK and happened upon Merida's greeting place. I LOVE Merida, so I got in line. She was AMAZING with everyone (like, the most amazing interaction I've EVER seen - I immediately went to guest services and asked how I could send TPTB a complimentary note about her) - and when she saw my medal she chattered about how she tried to run it... on Angus, but they wouldn't give her a medal because she was on Angus.
* Marathon Weekend 2015, my friend and I were playing in MK and decided to do Goofini and Donald since the line wasn't long. Well, The Great Goofini during our meeting time, hooked my arm under his and proceeded to walk us down, past Donald (between the camera and Donald, which set off a cute interaction with them) and almost to the exit door! I was cracking up, and my friend was snapping pictures of the whole thing. I still don't know what it was about me and that particular day, but it's a treasured memory.

I'm going on a solo 5-night trip in August, and I actually just looked up the character experiences on the website (knowing they can change between now and then, but toil get an idea) and wrote down characters I want to see with their locations and times. Can't wait!!

 

[Elevationist]

Just this morning, I came a cross a YouTube video of a young woman absolutely laying into the manager of Teppan Edo because she showed up to the restaurant with no ADRs and was demanding her party be seated at a hibachi table. She was told she would have to wait, and after seeing people with ADRs be admitted ahead of her, she lost her tiny little everloving mind on the manager. Was in his face and threatening to sue, and even accused him of sexual harassment because he pointed at her.

The point of my story is this: Crazy folks are crazy, and haters gonna hate. Brush that right off and don't you give it another second of your thoughts or energy. You do you, and have a WONDERFUL time doing it!

 

[MDDisFan]

Unfortunately, that woman let the trip become stressful and took it out on you. Not your issue, but hers. And her children have an unpleasant memory they will not forget. I feel bad for them.

As for you, live it up! I went to Disney for the first time ever last year--at 38 years old. You bet your bottom that I went to a Character Dining experience EVERY day, stood in line to meet everyone I could. My son was deliriously happy and so was I. Live it up! Enjoy meeting everyone!

 

[kimis]

My boyfriend (26) and I (22) had our first trip together (my first trip, ever) last week. My family never really had the disposable income to visit, and I'm a huuuuge Disney fan, so the trip meant a lot to me.

We made our very own autograph books, with the expectation of getting a few signatures here and there, but we enjoyed it so much once we got there that we spent most of our trip doing character meet-and-greets. To my knowledge, we only missed 3 characters (excluding characters only present for meals or unadvertised wandering characters).

I'm sure we might've gotten some weird looks from some adults, but I didn't notice. In fact, a lot of the parents we talked with in line were very pleasant, and their kids thought it was encouraging to know they wouldn't have to "give up" characters just because they got older. But on our last day there, we were waiting for Woody and Jessie (we tried to show up to all the meet-and-greets at least 15 minutes prior to their start time), and a woman who showed up after the meet-and-greet had started (but who was still able to get in line), started screaming at cast members that we shouldn't be there because we're adults and it's not fair to her/everyone else's children. She even went so far as to say that we'd cut in line and deserved to be thrown out of the park. No one else said anything like that to us our entire trip, but I can't stop thinking about it.

I looked into character stuff a lot before our trip. I made sure to get the clickable Sharpies, as suggested by the resources online, and we always had our books on a fresh page and stacked one on top of the other for our greets. If a character had signed previously, we made sure to remind them that we'd already met so they wouldn't waste time, and we didn't try to force an interaction with them unless they initiated an interaction (Baloo/Louie and Drizella/Anastasia were great and the highlights of our trip). We tried to always be conscious of the line behind us, and we never had an experience where we were the last people in-line before a cutoff and a family with kids tried to get in line (we would've certainly given them our place).

TLDR; Should I feel bad about doing meet-and-greets as an adult?

DONT waste another second feeling bad! My dh and myself are almost 60 years old and we do all the meets and greets! In fact we have a trip coming up in a couple weeks and we have made our fastpass for several meets and greets---including Anna and Elsa! I am so excited! That lady was either having a bad day or throwing a fit because that's what she does. So hang in there! Continue to get those pictures and autographs!

 

[kimis]

Disney is all ages don't feel bad at all im 35 and a hug from stitch is the best thing ever

So true! Besides part of the magic at Disney is we all turn into children again! By the way I am almost 60 and the grandma to 11 so I speak with age. hahaha

 

[Jason2015]

Never feel bad about lining up. My wife and I went to Disneyland without our kids a year ago and did tons of character stuff, even a character breakfast. My wife used the excuse she needed the signatures for scrapbooking and I took selfies with each character we saw. We had a blast and every CM was really nice about the whole deal. Everyone has what they enjoy when going to Disney and if it isn't causing others not to enjoy their time then what's the harm?

 

[ChimCher-ee]

Oh jeez! How terrible! Don't, don't, don't let it stop you. In fact put it out of your mind for good (practice this every time the thought creeps up on you), so it doesn't become a permanent part of your memories of the trip.

I've never been to one without DD, but I sure intend to. I fell in love with Mickey and Minnie when we had our M&G - - it affected me more than DD! And I cried when I met Mary Poppins (that one at a breakfast I chose really for me, even though I told DD it was so she could see Alice and the Mad Hatter - - even at 8 she wasn't fooled). So I'm never going to stop going!

 

[mayonegg]

You totally shouldn't feel bad! I'm starting to plan for a trip in October for my birthday (I'm turning 29) with one of my oldest friends who's never been to Disney World. I've been to WDW a ton of times during my life, so when I go now, I generally skip meet and greets and do just rides and shows and food, but because this is his first time, I've been trying to gather as much information about meet and greets as possible (things have changed a lot since the days when I wanted to meet all the characters). I'm actually really looking forward to meeting all the characters again. Disney is for everyone, not just kids!

 

[~Lisa~]

I went on my first solo trip last year and did all the character meet and greets I could! I didnt really pay attention to others reactions so I dont know if I just missed it or if it didnt happen but I enjoyed myself immensly. Even got a few princess selfies!

 

[brb1006]

While not related to the topic of this thread, I bet some adults probably won't mind meeting Judy and Nick from Zootopia if they ever show up at WDW hopefully though.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

She's a witch, actually telling the cast members to remove you from the line because you didn't have kids with you. She just wants some sort of an advantage for her little snowflake(s). There is no age limit to meet characters.

 

[FairyPrincess8]

I'm 31 and my mom and I just got back from our first WDW trip. We brought t-shirts to have signed. We met almost every character we could. And I didn't feel bad about it one bit. First, there were plenty of adult only groups in line with us. Second, we paid more than the kids and same as the parents. We also waited the same amount of time.

We did try to be considerate. Most of the time we took pictures together. There were three exceptions. Snow White because she was mom's favorite growing up. Belle because she was my favorite growing up. Tinker Bell because she's my favorite now. We had markers and shirts ready.

It was awesome watching my mom get as excited as a 5 year and hug each character. We didn't get to go when I was little. If anyone had made any snide comments to us, I probably wouldn't have stood for it. Luckily, most parents in line didn't seem to care at all.

Now, we're talking about going back in Oct. 2017 because we love Halloween!