Do your kids know the Disney characters before visiting?

[pooh_mania]

My kids (almost 3 and 1.5) only watch Barney once a day. No other TV. They are familiar with Pooh & gang because there's lots of Pooh books. But I've been having trouble finding any of the other Disney characters, especially Mickey & Minnie, except on videos. It seems like Mickey and gang are not "popular" at the moment, so it is tough to find ways to introduce them to toddlers.

My question is, will it still be fun for them to meet characters if they aren't familiar with them?

Thanks in advance,
Therese

 

[HappyMommy2]

How funny, we had the same "problem" before out trip last month!
Our kids (also 3.5 and 1.5) were only familiar with Pooh, etc. from books--almost no TV or videos for them, either; they're just not TV watchers. I went all over town looking for Mickey books--NONE to be found, not even at the Disney store! I finally ended up buying a small plush Mickey and a Mickey T-shirt at the Disney Store for each child, and I told them my own made-up stories about Mickey Mouse, about how we would go to his house at WDW, how we'd give him a hug, etc. We had the Disney vacation planning video, which showed some brief glimpses of "big" Mickey at the parks. I also finally found a Mickey coloring/story book at Wal-Mart.

Amazingly, in a month's time, DS3 became completely crazed for Mickey just from these little things! It did make it much more fun at the parks to have DS excited about Mickey. He still talks every day about meeting Big Mickey!

I guess it would have been fun if DS had recognized other characters too, but I'm sure he will on some future trip. In a way it was probably nicer this way; we didn't have to go running around searching for a favorite character for an autograph!

 

[mkcp91]

I have just started Disney Character Training for my 2 1/2 year old DS - he, too, is a Barney fan. Our trip is tenatively scheduled for September 2004 and I think he'll enjoy things more if he at least recognizes the characters.

I tried to get him to watch some of the movies, but about 20 minutes into Cinderella (my favorite!) he says, "doesn't anything HAPPEN in this show?" Okay, so he's not into Princesses, but he does like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. - so I have hope for him that he inherited the Disney gene.

I have started buying him the Disney Read-Aloud Storybooks. They are about $9 each retail, but I just got Lilo and Stitch 1/2 off at the Disney Store this week! There are a LOT of words in these books, so I mostly paraphrase what is happening on each page. These are beautiful hardcover books that I'm sure we will enjoy for years to come. Also, I just checked Amazon and found a collection of stories for about $11 called "Disney Storybook Collection."

As for Mickey and Minnie, I found a great book called "Mickey Mouse Stories" at Ollies Bargain Outlet which DS just LOVES! Check the Bargain Book section at your local bookstore. Amazon shows a lot of Mickey books that are out of print, but many sellers in the Marketplace are offering them for not too much money.

We introduced DS to Mickey by getting him a Mickey Mouse plush for Christmas last year. He had never seen a Mickey video or book at the time - we just told him it was Mickey Mouse and now he can recognize Mickey ANYWHERE!

I think that toddlers will be less apprehensive and have more fun if they are familar with the characters in advance - but if they don't have Disney Boot Camp like my little Nate, I'm sure they'll catch on VERY QUICKLY while at the parks.

 

[onecoolmama]

I am going in October and my kids DS2 and DD11mo are so into Sesame Street that I didn't think I could ever get them into Disney. I use to put on Disney's House of Mouse and DS would fall asleep!

We are big ebay people and I went to a few garage sales to get Disney Moives to sell on ebay. I found the older Mickey, Donald, Chip and Dale, and Goofy cartoons and brought them home to sell. Well DH explained that I could not sell those becuase he loves those movies and they were the cartoons he grew up on. So he started watching them and to seal the deal he would ask DS to watch them too. DS was hooked! He loves those movies and now..4 months later he still puts in those movies! Good thing I got them for as cheap as I did!

Now, we are taking DS to the Halloween Party and I told him how cool Peter Pan was and we got his costume. So he now knows Peter Pan and Tink and Capt. Hook. Then I put in the regular Disney Movies too..and we've rented 101 Dalmations and some of the movies we didn't have..he NEVER watches a whole movie, but as long as I point the Characters and name them..he will be excited to know and see them when he gets there. DD will be 1 and I just think she is going to fly by the seat of her pants..she doesn't know any of the characters..but she will eventually and we wil be back!

 

[crisi]

My kids are tv kids and we have stacks of videos - including Disney.

But we didn't have a lot of Mickey Mouse. The kids catch on really fast to the whole Disney is about Mickey thing. They didn't know several of the characters - the Alice set, Chip and Dale - and it didn't make a darn bit of difference, they still loved them.

Unless you are opposed to having them watch TV - If you get the Disney channel, have your kids watch a few House of Mouse episodes. If you don't get the Disney channel, find someone who does and have them tape an episode or two for you. House of Mouse is really good because nearly every character gets a cameo in the title sequence.

 

[Scarlett & Rhett]

Your kids have never watched any of the Disney movies?

 

[opus_00]

We are going in October with our 1 yo DD and our 3 yo DS. DD is too young to have a clue, but I do hope to introduce DS to enough of the Disney characters for him to enjoy meeting them in person! The only TV he really enjoys watching is Sesame Street, the Wiggles, Barney, and some of the Baby Mozart videos. The only Disney characters he knows well are the Pooh characters, and I just learned that he knows who Mickey is.

DS is too young to be interested in an entire Disney movie, I guess. I didn't know about House of Mouse until this morning, and I turned it on for him. He smiled and said "Mickey" when he saw Mickey, but he wasn't too interested in watching the show. Anything with a "plot" is a little too much for his short attention span, I think!

My recommendation is to look for some Disney books that are mostly pictures with very short text, and maybe get some of the sing-a-long videos that others on this board have mentioned. Check out www.overstock.com for cheap videos. You can do a search on Disney and find tons of stuff. I think shipping is only $2.95 regardless of how much you buy. I'm going to do this myself this weekend. I had bought some videos for the kids for Christmas this way. It's a great way to try out different videos without spending lots of money on something you don't know your kids will enjoy.

Even if they don't know they characters before the trip, they WILL afterwards! Have a GREAT time!

Paula

 

[BevS97]

my dd was too young for the Disney movies before our first trip (we tried Cinderella and she was scared in the first scene, the cat chases the mouse and that was her finished)...

We got some read aloud books of the famous stories, there are versions of all the Disney stories at every childs level.
There's a good list here Amazon Also the Disney Store has lots of different books, we have a great one called 'Princess Storybook' which has about 10-15 stories in it, I believe they do another one which is not Princess's but the 'other' stories.
Disney Princess Collection

Adventurers Collection


We also got one of the Sing-along videos, ours is from Disneyland Paris, it shows the characters as they appear in the parks, and they are dancing and singing around the park. It gives the kids a good idea of what to expect when they actually meet the characters.

Bev

 

[BevS97]

This is the other book I was thinking off,
Disney Classic Storybook

 

[tublady]

Also you might try your local library for Disney books. I did that for our upcoming trip in September for my 2 year old. I was having a hard time finding Disney books and tried there. Granted you have to return them but since the selection is large you can get other ones. They also have a lot of videos to checkout as well, including the sing along character ones.

 

[Princesa]

Same thing at our house!!! We are heading down in September for the first trip for DS 3 1/2 and DD 1 1/2 (and DH's first trip too )

DS is a big fan of Buzz and Woody and at least recognizes a lot of the rest. He loves Mickey, and I don't think he's ever seen a video with him--only Mommy's shirts! He is still completely thrilled to meet him--and is planning all sorts of things to tell him (I just got a new bike, I love you, can you come over for a sleepover...you can bring Minnie, she can sleep in my sister's room!)

DD though was a Pooh only sort of girl....until Mommy started planning this trip Now I seem to have developed a little Princess fan!! She loves to look at the books we have, and points to the ones on her shoes for you to repeat their names. She can spot Princess merchandise in a store from a mile away...."Oh, Mommy!! Me see!"

She will turn two during our trip next month and had never cared in the least about princesses before three months ago... Now, whoever thought a parent doesn't influence their child's likes/dislikes at this age

Can't wait to see them meet the characters!

 

[pooh_mania]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. It is really amazing what a marketing machine Disney is when you stop and think about it.

I wanted to post an idea I just found. I was at our local Michael's Craft store and they had lots of stickers, sticker books (good for autographs), color books, etc with various Disney characters.

On my way to check out, they have these wire baskets of misc. stuff. I found these cute, small color books with stickers. They had 4 different books: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck. I like that the books are small, simple pictures of the characters, and there's stickers included. Each book was $1.69. They are perfect for my 2 yr old.

Therese