Help me improve character interactions

[Miskey]

I also have wanted to meet Gaston for like 4 years. Whenever we've gone he's not on the time schedule and when I ask a CM they just say "Gaston just comes out whenever he wants there is not schedule". Once I waited 90 minutes at Gaston's tavern and he never showed up. So if you have any ideas on how I can meet Gaston I'd really appreciate it. It's the only thing I REALLY want to do this trip

We love character meets and have found KennyThePirate to have very accurate schedules.

It's my personal opinion that the best thing to do is go in without preconceived ideas of how the interaction should go and just let things progress naturally!

 

[krm222]

I saw this video once where a teenage boy tried to put his arm around Tigger and Tigger like pushed a teenager because Tigger didn't want him to do that.

That kid was grabbing at Tigger's costume zipper and choking him. As long as you don't try to kill the characters you'll be fine.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Well if no one can tell me what's going to happen we'll just keep doing what we're doing. I'm not going to do or say something to a character if I don't know what's going to happen after I say it.

Holy cow!!!
Do ya think they're going
to do something nasty? Maybe give you 1 finger instead of 4?!?
So much of the character interaction is UNscripted...
And so much fun!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I'm always so awkward around characters, so I don't try to plan anything out beforehand. I'm just not open enough to say or do anything like that. But, I've had some pretty amazing character meets by just letting things happen. Sometimes it isn't anything more than a hug and a picture, but my meet with Gaston on my last trip was amazing. Same with the Buzz Lightyear meet. I think it depends a lot on who the friend of that character is and who you have with you to interact.

 

[onenursebrandy]

The best interactions we have had were at Akershus princess breakfast. It was just dd17 and I. Aerial told my daughter she had great legs, and wondered if she used them a lot. Cinderella asked her about her curfew and then "scolded" my parenting when she told her that her curfew depended on her activities and wasn't a specific time. Mary Poppins corrected her posture. Belle was looking for chip and mrs Potts because my daughters cup was empty. Aurora was worried about the color of her dress being switched!
All interactions were completely sporadic! My DD still says it was magical, and wants to go back and do it again!!! Really magical!

 

[Jen731]

I don't know if your daughter has seen the princesses recently, but they were amazing with my 4 year old. Each one of them would tell her a little story and ask her some questions along the way. It was beyond magical. I know it's all scripted but I totally didn't care. She thought she was in princess heaven. So I wouldn't worry about her interactions with them.

I would usually prep my older daughters when we went to think of a question for the princess, even something simple like "Where's Dopey?" usually gets a smile and a little conversation from the characters.

I also would have my kids copy the pose from whatever character they met. So I have cute pictures with minnie where their little hands were on their hips. And this trip my 12 year old was all about taking selfies with the characters, and some of those turned out to be adorable.

 

[Nancyg56]

Well if no one can tell me what's going to happen we'll just keep doing what we're doing. I'm not going to do or say something to a character if I don't know what's going to happen after I say it.

How can you know for sure what they will do or say? The characters want to have fun with you and your kids and they respond to everyone. You can tease them, or not...it is your decision, but as long as you are appropriate, and are not trying to trip them up, you will be fine. In my opinion, the best interactions are the unplanned ones. My DGD traveled with her "best friends", Marcia Fiona (her cabbage patch doll) and Pluto, whose poor eyes she had painted with bright red nail polish. Oh my!!!!!! WHat fun we had watching the characters interact with her and her "friends"! Marcia Fiona was dressed in her Disney Attire every day, and Red Eyed Pluto was along for the ride a lot, so the charactes had plenty of fodder to work with. Just have fun and don't worry about setting them up for a predetermined script.

We love character meets and have found KennyThePirate to have very accurate schedules.

It's my personal opinion that the best thing to do is go in without preconceived ideas of how the interaction should go and just let things progress naturally!

Exactly.

 

[Disneylover99]

I don't want to run the risk of them getting upset and yelling at us. It seems like it's safer to just say nothing at all if you don't know what type of reaction you're going to get.

If you're truly worried about this, then don't ask them something or say something potentially insulting. Asking Donald to sign Mickey's autograph seems kind of rude to me. Calling Chip and Dale squirrels seems kind of demeaning.

Do people really line up to meet characters to ask these kind of questions? I know that character interactions are for fun, but that just doesn't strike me as fun. Maybe I'm a stick in the mud.

 

[Nancyg56]

If you're truly worried about this, then don't ask them something or say something potentially insulting. Asking Donald to sign Mickey's autograph seems kind of rude to me. Calling Chip and Dale squirrels seems kind of demeaning.

Do people really line up to meet characters to ask these kind of questions? I know that character interactions are for fun, but that just doesn't strike me as fun. Maybe I'm a stick in the mud.

I would never ask Donald to sign Mickey's name, but folks have reported that the Chipmucks are hysterical if you mistake them for squirrels. I think that there is a difference between teasing the characters in a friendly manner and trying to set them up to be angry or insulted or to try to trip them up by asking questions they may not know the answer to.

 

[bucky1023]

As others have posted no one can tell you exactly what is going to happen since there isn't a set script that all of the characters follow. We have joked with different characters and the experience is never the same so you never know what will happen. As long as you aren't doing something that would hurt the characters or is inappropriate there won't be a problem.

Enjoy the interaction and have fun

 

[DisneyHardin]

Out our house we have a real chipmunk problem with them tearing up our flower beds. So, we we were at Disney and met Chip and Dale, I told them to steer clear of my DH because he traps chipmunks in a cage. They were hilarious, they acted like they were hiding from DH and seemed appalled and then assured me (through gestures of course) that they would never tear up our flowerbeds.

 

[pearljamin03]

I like to tell Piglet at Crystal Palace that the bacon I had for breakfast was delicious

 

[Gracie09]

My dad asked Donald if there was duck on the menu (we were at chef mickeys). My girls told chip and dale that their dog likes to chase chipmunks in our backyard and they pretended to look around for her. I found that the girls come up with the best questions things to say so I just sit back and take photos or video.

 

[SarahSnow]

What a great board. I love reading all these interactions.

 

[Tod&CopperFan]

Some of my favorite character interactions:

My DD's favorite princess is Tiana and when we met her and she learned she was my DD's favorite, she gave my DD a real heart-to-heart about "follow your dreams" before she let her go. It brought tears to my eyes.

Tink looked utterly disgusted when my DH gave her a pucker up face!

I asked Anna about her favorite sandwich and she gave a very long answer about chocolate! lol

 

[Sparkly]

I sang asante sana squash banana to Rafiki which seemed to go down well! He danced with me!

 

[Disney_Alli]

I love interacting with the characters. I tell them how much I enjoy their characters or things we have in common, this summer was especially fun as I got to show my favorite princesses the tattoos I have in their honour. I showed Aurora my tattoo of her in the blue version dress and she confided in me that she prefered it blue too and told me she must speak with Merryweather about changing it back. I told her it wasn't fair she was left in pink so much. All the characters were great fun - I honestly thought Donald was going to keel over from delight seeing my 8 week old nephew in a Donald outfit with his little tail, he especially enjoying being told over and over again he was my brother-in-law's favorite. The Beast and I had such a great interaction at his castle - we "talked" about my Belle shirt and my hairbow styled after his evening attire and I told him that my absolute favorite picture from my Disney trips is a picture of us dancing in France and he insisted that we dance again. He also told the photopass photographer he wanted copies of our pictures and mimed having his non-existant Magic Band scanned too. Just be genuine with them and have fun... RELAX!

 

[jeepnjudy]

When my DS and I were at Disneyland last summer, Olaf wanted us to dance with him. I told Olaf I don't dance and pointed at my DS and exclaimed "but he does". (Ok, ok, I threw my DS under the bus). Then DS pointed back at me and said "No I don't dance but she does" pointing at me. DS and I went back and forth with Olaf rubbing his head, finally grabbing both of us and making us dance with him. By the time we left Olaf my DS and I were laughing so hard!

 

[brb1006]

If you ever plan on meeting Marie try telling her something very kind to her such as how much you like her or how cute she is. Better yet ask her about Edgar or Pinocchio or how great her bow looks.