Favorite Character Moments

[Dippy Dawg]

It's all about the magic and the joy on the little ones faces. A few of my favorite moments:

As you can tell by my username I like the goofy one. On our honeymoon all I wanted to do was to see Goofy. On our first morning we had breakfast at the Poly and low and behold as soon as we get to our table, there he was. He came over we shook hands and took a picture, I was ready to go home!!

Fast forward 9 1/2 years and its our first trip with our children DD 4 and DS 2. DD was very excited to go and could not wait to meet Minnie and "give her a big hug and kiss". We drove from Louisiana check in and went straight to the park. The look on her face when she saw the castle for the first time is indescribale, you have to see it you self to believe it. Anyway we headed straight for ToonTown and into the Minnie / Chip and Dale line. The closer we got to the front of the line the more anxious she got. I was holding her and she was getting scared and was staring to cry saying "Daddy I don't want to see any characters" Well you could imagine after driving for 12 hours and the money involved in a Disney trip and this being the first day of a week trip I wanted to say to her "Look here kid your gonna see the characters and your gonna like it!" But of course I understood her anxiety and suggested that we wait it out. Well now we are at the front of the line and I guess that somehow Minnie had heard about the scared little girl in the line, out of nowhere Minnie appeared and my DD gave me a big "help me daddy hug" all of a sudden my DD jumped down, ran to Minnie gave her a big hug and kiss and walked off hand in hand to the meet and greet room. I have a picture of them walking away from behind. Definetly one of my favorite Disney pictures. Since then we cannot stop her from going up to the characters, except for Hook and that guy from Pochahontus.

Fast forward about 2 days DS still very nervous about the characters and not wanting to go up to them without mom or dad. We were in the meet and greet area with another family visiting Tigger, Piglet and Pooh. No one was in the Pooh line and we were in the next line. Pooh got on all fours and started crawling around, my DD and DS ran over and started crawling over with Pooh, again another favorite picture.

Fast forward 18 months to today and we are 9 days away from our next trip (3rd in past 18 months) and are anxiously awaiting another favorite character monent to share, maybe this one will involve the newest edition to our family our 5 month old DS.

 

[Wade Shrader]

Well, I've posted this on the disABILITIES board, but I thought I would go ahead here, as well.

My wife and I have 7 yr old triplets (2 boys and 1 girl); they were born VERY early and my 2 sons have cerebral palsy, one of whom is in a wheelchair. We took them as a reward for surgery for the more affected little boy. They were 4, and he LOVED Aladdin at that time. Well, we ate at Cindy's for Breakfast (for my daughter-who loved it!), but who else was there, but Aladdin!

He was great with our kids, taking an extra amount of time with Benjamin, who told him he wanted an Aladdin's lamp for a souvenir. Well, Aladdin said for us to wait just a minute. He came back later to say that "sometime during our vacation a lamp would magically appear before us." That night, when we returned to POR, our room was FULL of Aladdin stuff for all 3 kids, including a lamp. There was also a message for us to meet him during the parade at a certain time. During that parade, all the characters came up to us saying "you must be Aladdin's special friends." We then were escorted to see him again after the parade.

We then saw him (same one) again the NEXT year, and he remembered us, and escorted us over to the Carpet ride, where we opened it by riding with Aladdin.

For those parents like us with special needs kids, there just isn't any other place on Earth like DisneyWorld.

Thanks for letting us share!

 

[harleyquinn]

I'm so glad everyone has memories like mine! That's why Disney rocks!

After reading your stories, I'm so thankful that I have some personal stories for myself, but I can't wait to have those magical moments with my future children!!
Thanks everyone!

 

[Sleeping Beauty fan]

Wow, that one really got me, Wade!! Love that Disney Magic!!

 

[tkroar]

My DS (4) will talk to anyone especially the characters. Loves the princesses and will talk and play games with them. He runs into Aurora at France and she plays a game with him and he tells her he will see her later. He then goes and sees Jasmine in Morroco and she give him a kiss on the cheek. This matches the kiss from Aurora. After a few other visits to the character bus we see Aurora still in France but from the other side of the water (Exit at gateway) and she waves for us to come back. When we get there she sees the other kiss and he tells her we are off to find Meg. She then kisses him all over his face and tells him that he has no more room for kisses. As we leave I ask her if she will be at CRT a day or so later. She says that Aurora will be there but to be sure to find Alice at the Tea cups. So we go to breakfast, I am worried that Aurora will not remember the game or the kisses. a different CM as Aurora walks up to our table and says hello to my DS by name and asked about the game. She then reminded us to see Alice by the Tea cups. I spoke to her alone as we walked out and she said they talked prior. So now we are off to find Alice. I want to thank her for that and DS wants to see her. As we are in line Alice spots him and starts yelling to him. When her gets up there she goes into the game again and telling the Mad Hatter about his game. Alice then asked me if we can come back for the next time they come out. Of course I say yes. We arrive a few minutes early and as she comes out she spots him and runs right to him. She then takes him on the Tea cup Ride. I have pics of my sone with Alice on the tea cups. They rode it twice, The CM asked her what she was doing and she says "it's my ride, and I will ride if I want." She then has to go and tells us where to be for the parade. She finds him and gives him one more kiss. But she had everyone in the parade call to him by name. The guest next to us says "does he know everyone". It was a special day for him and us. I went to guest services and found her name so I could send pics and a big thanks. I hope we run into her again someday.

 

[DisneyFanatic]

We had so many character moments on our first trip in Oct/2002:

During the Pooh and Friends character breakfast Tigger imitated everything my DD (then 10) did. It took her a moment to realize what was going on, but after that she had fun with it. When she stomped her foot in disgust, Tigger did the same. When she grunted, Tigger's mannerisms showed he was "upset". Then DD started pointing at him and laughing, and Tigger mimmicked back. Everyone around us was laughing and having a great time.

My DS favorite character is Mickey. One of the days we were at MK in front of the castle when Mickey, Minnie, and Donald showed up. We had our picture taken with Mickey and got autographs. DS (then 7) had his Mickey hat on, and when he tried to get his picture taken with Donald, Donald kept knocking off the Mickey hat. There was no way he was going to allow DS to wear his hat and get his picture taken with him. DS loved it!

Another day we were at MGM and when we entered the park we saw the green army men from Toy Story. They came over to us and when they saw that DS has a Mike W. pin they pointed at his map of the park and showed him where he could get his picture with MIke and Sully. He thought it was so cool! During the same trip DD got autographs from Cruella and the Evil Queen from Snow White. They insulted her as they gave her their autographs, and when it was time for DS to get his he told Cruella he did not like her attitude and would not get her autograph. Everyone laughed! Eventually Cruella did give him her autograph but not before insulting him, to which DS just ignored.

There too many more to mention. We are going back in Oct 2005 and I can't wait for our newest DD (currently 16 months) to experience the characters for the first time. My other DD is now 13 and DS is 10 and they have already said they are taking her for autographs . I can't wait. The characters truly make your Disney vacation extra memorable!!!!

 

[KirstenJB]

My favorite memory is getting a kiss from Figment. my family and I had just come out of the figment ride/store and I look across the way, when low and behold I see figment sticking his head out of his little picture area. So I take the opportunity and run up there without saying a word. He takes my hand and leads me back to the picture area. And I get pictures with figment. Then while photopass photographer was trying to get the pictures to load on the card from my dad, I told figment he was my favorite character....and he gave me a kiss. Figment has been my favorite since my first trip back in 1993. I've never "met" him before, and he totally made my trip. When we got home, and onto the photopass site, I was heartbroken to find that the pictures didn't upload. And the only picture i got was from my dad's camera of figment playing with my tassel on my grad ears. So i'm disappointed, yet the happiest girl in the world...It's a candid picture that I love. So thats my favorite memory.

kirsten

 

[harleyquinn]

What awesome stories! I want to meet Figment!

tkroar what an awesome experience for your little one! I've seen little boys with the lipstick kisses. Its so sweet!

Keep the moments coming!

 

[kakiegirl]

July 2002 my dd then 3 had her face painted like tigger. She was just so excited all day because everyone kept making a big deal over her. Late that evening we went to see the characters and all the pooh characters where there. It was not crowded so they spent alot of time with dd. Winnie the Pooh signed our autograph book to our little tigger. Tigger really had a good time with her. She is six now and has still not forgotten that and loves to get her book out and read where Pooh called her little Tigger. It was a disney magic moment.

 

[bradyloganmom]

Nov. 2004
moment #1--Our 5 year old son is nuts over Pluto. At the AK parade he was wearing his Pluto hat complete with ears and sitting in a WDW stroller. Pluto stepped out of the parade route to give him five and take his hat. Logan LOVED it!!

moment #2--Our 9 year old son is nuts for Minnie. We were in Minnie's line at Toontown fair about 8:30 on the night before Thanksgiving. We made it to the front of the line when all 3 lines seemed to come a standstill as far as CM's coming out to get the next group. Eventually, Tigger bounced out and got the next group in the Pooh line instead of a CM. Then Snow White came out to get the next group from the Princess line. Brady was so excited in hopes that Minnie would come out and get us. We tried to warn him that she probably would not. Well, never give up on the Disney magic or Pixie Dust, Minnie herself came out, took Brady by the hand and led him and our group to her room. Brady was speechless and me and DH were almost in tears!!

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Gawrsh... it seems like there have been so many for me and my family. I'll start with this...

1) November 2004 (DS 5) We were at "Turtle Talk with Crush" and just had a great time there that day. DD-7 and DS-5 enjoyed exploring Seabase Alpha. We went in to Turtle Talk not relly knowing what it was all about. Turns out it was the highlight of our trip. Crush swam out and talked to many kids, including DD. He called her by name and sang a little song to her which we thought was really sweet. Crush asked for questions, and took a few from kids. DS had his hand up but did not get called on.
As we were getting upto leave we see DS come running toward us with silent tears streaming down his face. DW hugs him and reassures him that Crush couldn't talk to everybody, and that maybe he would get to talk to Crush the next time we saw him. DS seemed somewhat placated so we were leaving the theater when we hear behind us, "DUDE!" Crush had come back to the aquarium glass and talked personally with DS for several minutes. He apologized for not seeing DS' hand, and asked what question DS had. DS asked him something about whether sea turtles can put their fins all the way in the shell. Crush was upbeat and silly -very engaging. He told DS to come up and "give him some fin" on the wall of the aquarium.
DS was the happiest little boy in Disney World, and DW and I were absolutely blown away by the kind, loving, special treatment our son received.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Special moment #2: We were celebrating DD's 5th b-day by having breakfast at the castle. Cinderella made such a big deal over DD. She insisted on having pictures made with DD and Prince Charming. Cinderella and Prince Charming signed a special proclamation for her (DW put that in a scrapbook the day we got home .) PC even got down on one knee and proclaimed this DD's special day. DD felt so special for the whole rest of the trip. It sure was a magical moment for DW and I too.