Ever had a Bad character experience?

[Minniefan1]

I kinda sorta did. In January we had lunch at CRT. I don't know why, but DS (3) found a little piece of sequin on the floor that must of fell off one of the costumes. He just held it with his little fingers and kept showing us. Well when Jasmine came by, she asked what he was holding, and took it. I told her he had found it but seems to like it and she looked at me and flicked it on the ground! For the pic it was Jasmine and both my DS's and they were holding thier swords. I was holding DS's (3) arm so he didnt fling his sword and hit her, but his arm jerked just a little, but I obviously had control of it and she turned and gave a semi dirty look. It wasnt even the arm closest to her, it was between him and me! It dissappointed me especially since Jasmine is one of my favorite princess's

 

[Ashton7]

I wouldn't say exactly "bad" but a little disappointing. Mostly, have only had fun and good experiences. But last Christmas I had a friend we hadn't seen in 10 years staying with us for 3 weeks. We took her to Crystal Palace because we'd been there before and thought the food was decent and the characters fun. The characters kept totally skipping our table! And when a handler came and asked us if we'd seen the characters and we said "no," they brought over one character who acted like they couldn't get away quickly enough. It was really strange. When we were there previously, they all came by and visited my SO and me even more than once. My friend was in an ECV but surely they are used to that there! I felt badly that she didn't get the character experience very much, although she is an adult so it's not like she didn't get over it quickly. ;-)

 

[RMulieri]

I never had a bad experience,Just a funny one. when I was at LTT for dinner one night while on my honeymoon, Minnie Mouse while posing with DH for a picture ,did Pass Gas really, really loudly and made us crack up laughing.She made gestures like she was so embarassed.

 

[Jennifer815]

In truth, this wasn't that bad, but it still makes for a good story, and I'm not too thin-skinned, so it didn't bug me that much--I definitely laugh about it now.

Went to Cape May for Breakfast this past June. All the characters were really cool, pictures with me and my friends, no problem. Except for Chip, who took pictures with my friends, then walked away when it was my turn. We joked about "Chip the Disser" for the rest of the day.

Fast forward to a few Days later, Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner. It happened again. Chip takes pictures with my friends, walks away. Now what's interesting is that one of the friends was at Cape May, but the other was not, and I was still the only one snubbed by "Chip the Disser."

Two different locations, two different sets of dining companions, two big fat disses from Chip.

Don't know what kind of beef Chip has with me, but apparently, I'm not on his good side.

 

[Luv2Diz]

We had a bad experience with Baloo during a September 2005 visit. It was ridiculously hot out and we had been waiting in line to see him in the MK on Main St. We finally get close to the front of the line and he goes trotting off. Even the character attendant gave a "what the heck" look. Baloo apparently got bored doing character greets. First he went trotting over to Guest Relations, then scampered out and across to the nearby men's room and actually went in! Then he came out and quickly waddled over to the gift shop that resembles a fire station and pretended he was looking at T-shirts. We finally caught up with him there because my daughter really wanted to see him. I am sure he thought he was being funny but it was rude to those standing in line waiting to see him.

 

[maxiesmom]

Out of my many meals, I have not had a truly bad character experience. We were missed by Jasmine at the princess breakfast in Epcot, but once we told our waitress she made sure she came around to our table.

Before this thread turns out too badly, I want to say how appreciative I am of the Disney characters. There job is not an easy one. They have a limited time they can be out and about, and mobs of people who want their undivided attention. I think with what they have to deal with every day, they do a great job!

People like to see the characters interact with their family members. If they do to little they will get complaints, do to much and it may be intrepreted as being too rough or pushy. Remember the non-face characters have very limited vision, and may not be able to see the expression on your kids face to know if they are enjoying the attention or not.

 

[scousemouse09]

We met the Queen of Hearts in the UK pavilion in Epcot. My sister was terrified of her, so she clung to my dad and my dad handed over her autograph book. She signed it, snapped it shut and motioned "off with her head" while pointing to my sister. She just howled for about half an hour, while I was hysterical laughing (she was 6, I was 12). She'd kill me if she knew I was posting on here

 

[Jacklynn]

One time while doing the Character meet and greet at Epcot, it was almost closing. There was one character (can't remember which one) who you could tell was VERY ready to get out of there. Literally they were pulling people over to get their picture taken if they didn't come over fast enough, and literally pushed us away after our picture. We were very rushed by the character. Sadly it was my In-Law's first character experience/interaction so hopefully they didn't notice *too* much.

 

[kidrericha]

Uncle Scrooge wiped out my life savings in a ponzi scheme.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I had eaten at the Crystal Palace several times, and I brought my family there for their first visit a few months ago. The characters usually visit with each table at least one time. My brother got up to get a plate of food, and Tigger came over to visit while he was away. I informed the handler that he was away, but he would not let the character wait even while I went to alert my brother that our favorite character, Tigger, whom we'd adored as kids, was visiting with us.... There was no reasoning with the handler. He said that they had a "tight schedule," but the restaurant barely had 30 people in it, if that. He didn't let Tigger visit my family again, although Tigger somehow had time to play with table in the section behind us (four giggling high school aged girls) three times! We missed out on that photo opportunity, but seeing him visit another table like that just rubbed it in the wrong way.

My fiance and I canceled our regular dinner reservation there on our recent visit. I haven't gotten over it yet.
I wish the handler would have taken more time to listen.

If his schedule was so tight, Tigger's handler should have went to a surrounding table until your bother came back. And once she saw he was back, she could have sent Tigger over to you. That's so rude that the handler acted that way!

 

[disney111]

I've never had a bad character experience. (Well, unless you mean the villians but they are supposed to be bad )

 

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

I never had a bad experience,Just a funny one. when I was at LTT for dinner one night while on my honeymoon, Minnie Mouse while posing with DH for a picture ,did Pass Gas really, really loudly and made us crack up laughing.She made gestures like she was so embarassed.

While this is EXTREMELY funny ...Poor Minnie! Maybe she didn't feel very well. Major bummer for her.


I try to stay pretty positive and not give any of the CM's a hard time because I don't know what kind of things they have to deal with, but I do have one moment that to this day confuses me.

We were at AK and went to Camp Minnie-Mickey during FoTLK. Needless to say, the place was completely deserted. Maybe three other families were around meeting characters. Well we met Mickey, Goofy and Donald and had great interactions and great photo ops. Well we go up to meet Minnie, and there was one family in front of us. After that family, Minnie went to take a break. We decided to stick around because we needed the break and the handler said she'd be back in 10 minutes.

SO....the place is completely empty, a fresh "new" Minnie comes out, and so my friend goes up to meet her. She asks Minnie to dance with her (just as she'd asked EVERY other character including Minnie herself at MK the day before, and all were happy to do so) and Minnie, not even very in character, just shakes her head. My friend, a little perplexed says again, "Will you please dance with me?" Well at this point Minnie just flat out ignores her and gets in the Minnie pose and stands still. The PHOTOPASS woman jumps in and says, "C'mon Minnie, dance with her! It's lots of fun, don't be shy!" Minnie does not move from her pose! She's stiff as a board. Well she gets her picture taken with Minnie and walks away feeling pretty dejected. As we were leaving, the Photopass woman says, "I'm sorry guys...Minnie must not feel well today!"

Later on as we were leaving AK at closing time, all the characters were at the front taking last minute pictures and hugs. Well we see Minnie and I say, "Hey! Why don't you try dancing with THAT Minnie, I bet she's..."different" by now." So she goes up to dance with her and.....exact same reaction. She just stiffens up and doesn't move. IT WAS THE SAME MINNIE.

I would like to think that Minnie was just having a bad day, but it was very odd and a little dissapointing.

 

[Beehn]

My DD1 wasn't too sure about the characters during our Chef Mickey breakfast a few months ago. We were having her do high 5's and fist bumps instead of hugs. Goofy and Minnie gave both my daughters fist bumps. Then when Donald came around I asked him to give them fist bumps. He put his hand on his hip, and shook his finger at me. I said "oh, don't you do those" and he just walked away. My husband thought maybe it wasn't considered approporate, but I'm not sure why not. I was a little embarrased, like I had asked him to do something illegal or something!

 

[jordanashlyn]

none for me

 

[liamsaunt]

I don't know if I would classify these as "bad" experiences, but they were odd!

One time my then boyfriend, now husband, were walking in the World Showcase, and suddenly something whomped me over the head--REALLY hard! I turned around and it was Doc. This was the early nineties, before they came out with handlers. I asked him why he hit me, but of course he did not say anything. I have a picture of a very disgruntled me standing next to Doc the head whomper.

On another occasion, we were at MGM with one of our friends who is, as they say, "pooh sized," mostly in the belly. Stromboli was standing over by the Great Movie Ride. He came up to my friend and grabbed his belly and just started shaking it up and down! I was horrified! Luckily, my friend thought it was funny, but I could see many people getting upset.

 

[Howellsy]

When I went to DLRP as a child, the Genie got thrown out of a shop by this assistant because he was stealing basketballs and throwing them around outside with some kids A couple of people found it funny, but the CM clearly didn't!

My worst experience in WDW has only really been with characters who haven't bothered much; I've had a half-hearted Lilo, Tigger and Goofy before, but they're mostly fantastic

 

[bentleygirl22]

I've never had a bad experience here....

 

[Amanda_the_awesome]

I have never really had a bad experience with the characters.
Well unless you include the time when I was 10 when I "accidentally" stepped on Jafars cape and he turned around and stuck a fist in my face. I thought that it was in character and funny so it didn't really bother me and plus I put that on my self.

 

[bellazachmom]

OK, I think I am seeing a trend here ...

Our one, and ONLY, disappointing character interaction was in 2007 at CP for breakfast!! (See the trend?!?!) We had a wonderful meal, the kids loved marching in the parade and Pooh, Eyeore and Piglet were AMAZING. We were just waiting for Tigger and my son (2 at the time) was literally bouncing in his seat as he watched him get closer and closer to our table. He makes it to the table next to ours and spend 3 - 4 minutes with the family there - crawling on the floor, taking individual pictures, playing peek-a-boo with a napkin, that kind of thing. Then it's our turn: he poses for one picture with my DD and DS and then moves on!! My son keeps saying "Tigger, come bounce with me!!" but he doesn't even look back. I start thinking that maybe he just spent too much time at the previous table and is behind "schedule" so I let it go. I look at the next table and he is bouncing with all the kids!! He then proceeds to spend a good 4 minutes with them before moving on!

This is the one and only bad experience we have ever had and we have had 100's of character interactions thanks to meet&greets, character meals and the much missed Little Ones Extra Magic Hour. I think that the characters and their handlers do an amazing job and hope that they experience at least 1/10 of the enjoyment that they give our family while they are spreading their very special kind of Disney Magic.

 

[tinkfan355]

Nope. Ive never had a bad experience.