How did you 18 month olds react to characters?

[KyraS]

We leave in under 3 weeks with our soon to be 18 month old daughter. I have AP's at Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, and Akershus Princess Breakfast but after looking at the prices I'm wondering if it's going to be worth it. I know I'll keep CM because we always start off our trip there but we aren't huge breakfast eaters (and I'm sure it's to late to get lunch or dinner). I really booked just for the characters and now am second guessing myself.

So how did your 18 month olds react? Did they even care? I know pictures would be great but we can get those elsewhere.

 

[RMulieri]

My daughter at that age freaked with the characters at Sesame place so we didn't even attempt Disney.We took her to Disney this past Sept ( she was 4) She was scared at first, but by trips end was enthralled with all of them

 

[n2mm]

While my grandson was great at that age, my granddaughters are terrified. My 4 yo GD wants nothing to do with anything with a "big head". She loves the princesses, so that is OK. But forget about anything else. As for her nearly 2 yo sister, the same. She wants nothing to do with them. Actually at 1900 PF last August she was 15 mo and did not like the evil stepmother at all, esp. since she yelled at her. After that the baby was ruined for any characters. (The baby was cranky and the evil step mother yelled "no crying allowed". Well that scared the baby pretty good and there was no consoling her after that.) Both the girls are heading down in May and we have the story book dinner reserved. We will not book any other character dining until they are comfortable. Actually I asked the 4 yo last week if she wanted to eat with Minnie/chip/dale (Cape May) and she said no, they are scary. Oh well. BTW -- my 4 yo granddaughter has been to WDW 8 trips now, so this stuff isn't new to her by no means.

 

[friskygal95]

My son was two when we went for the first time and he cried everytime one came near our table. We did Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys. I had to cancel the other TS we had during our trip. he's four now so I hope he will do better when we go at the end of this week.

 

[stampinshauna]

My 16 month old LOVES the characters! If they are in sight she wants to get up close to them. She loves to babble to them and touch the. I can't get her to look at the camera for pictures because she doesn't like to look away from the characters.

 

[PictureJumpr]

Yeah, it really depends on the kid.

Our last trip we had an 18-month-old with us and he had two distinct reactions to characters....

Curious/Content:

Or

Totally Oblivious:

He only interacted with two - He reached out and grabbed Snow White's arm when she visited us at Akershus, and she talked to him and made him laugh; and he walked up to Donald Duck in Mexico/Epcot and jabbered at him and then turned and walked away to hide behind my mom's legs.

 

[ElizabethB]

We were there last fall with my 3-year-old niece. I planned several character meals and she wavered between scared of the characters and indifferent to them. The big face characters like Goofy were scary for her and she hovered in the corner. The normal face characters, like the princesses, were not of much interest to her.

We ate mediocre food for a big price at these character meals. And for what?! Next time, I'm planning no character meals. We'll do all 2TS restaurants and see the characters in the parks, if at all.

 

[katieam1]

My 2 year old and my one year old loved the characters. We were just there in January for their first trip and they LOVED it!! We are going back in August for my DD's 3rd birthday and we are very much looking forward to their reaction again!

 

[arielmomma]

My daughter was 18 months when we went in September and she was absolutely terrified! We had ADR's for several of them b/c my 4 year old at the time loved them. WE found that we had to always place her on the inside with her back to the characters as they approached if it could be arranged. However, my son at the same age didn't like the characters at first, but quickly got used to them without too much difficulty. Still, if you could, I would definitely avoid the characters for another year or two. Its never worth mortifying your child over.

 

[JMD]

My son was terrified. He seemed very excited when the characters were far away, but he would cling to us and cry as soon as one approached him.

We are going next week and cancelled out Character breakfast, because it just isn't worth it for us.

 

[csarenz]

We took DD when she was 17 months. We did a late breakfast at CP. DD loved Pooh and friends. Of course at times she was concerned that they were going to steal her food.
But we had a great time and got some great pics.

 

[Hayloburger]

My 18 month old daughter liked the face characters and kept kissing Aladdin! But, when we took pics with any characters with big heads (mickey, donald, goofy etc) she wouldn't stand by them (no crying, just a little guarded)....if I was holding her, she wanted to be far away from the character............THEN we went back two months later and she couldn't keep her hands off them. She loved every character....especially CHIP and DALE, which she called
"bunnies".

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Our oldest took his first trip at 15 months, our youngest was 18 months. Both of them loved the characters from the get-go. I have amazing pictures of them loving on and playing with the characters at that age. We took our oldest to Crystal Palace on his first trip, and he only cried when the characters left our table -- he didn't want to share them with anyone else! It was a pretty slow time, though, and right at closing (7:00), and Pooh and Tigger and Piglet came back around 2 or 3 times to see him, play peek-a-boo with him, and we were so amazed at the character interaction.

I will say that neither of our kids is fearful or shy, so they "go with the flow" most of the time.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Our first trip our daughter wasn't quite 18mo old- she was 2yrs though (although anyone that looked at her would have thought she was less than 12mo- she was so teensy LOL)
She did GREAT with the face characters- she was all over that (especially princesses) but she was a little wary with the costumed characters- especially if they were a little touchy/feely/invading her space (in her opinion! LOL)
We found she did best for photos and even interacting with them by being held by me (or mostly by daddy really). She was fine if we were holding her and might even look at them, touch them, talk to them (yes she was quite a talker even then. Some of you will not be surprised by that if you know me well enough LOL) and such. She did NOT like just being walked up to by a costume character or even holding her hand to walk up to a character after being in line/etc. Maybe because they look so HUGE to her at that age? That might be scary. Plus she really believed in it all- face characters and all.... and while she loved those characters on tv, having one be so huge and right there in real life- she needed a little "comforting" by being held. All our photos of her at that age- with costumed characters- one of us is holding her. Some she's fine- some you can tell she's leaning (and I mean leaning....) away from them as best she can. LOL

At character meals at that age- with costumed characters- we couldn't have her sitting on the outside of the table. We figured out quick that if she was on the outside she'd spy them coming her way a mile away and start clammoring to get on top of us even if she had to climb over food to do it. LOL But if we put her on the inside with one of us sitting on the outside (ie: us closer to the character when they got there) she was fine- she'd smile, say hi/wave, etc. and then we'd pick her up to hold her for the photo. LOL

Every kid is different though. I know my son at 18mo wouldn't have been scared at all... but alas his first trip he had just turned 5. (and already thought it was lame except for goofy and pluto cause they were funny LOL)

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

My son was terrified. He seemed very excited when the characters were far away, but he would cling to us and cry as soon as one approached him.

We are going next week and cancelled out Character breakfast, because it just isn't worth it for us.

awww

but your post reminded me that our DD was simliar to that- boy she'd be excited to see a costumed character from far away- but once we got close... she wasn't really all that thrilled but she'd let us hold her and if she had time to get "comfortable" around them after a minute or so she would... but not all characters are you able to stand there more than a second for the photo (and for the other kids to get signatures). But yeah- she LOVED seeing them from afar. LOL

 

[dmaz]

Our kids have gone as young as 8 mos old. We've had children at various ages while there. We went when they 8 mos, 9 mos, 18 mos, 20 mos and 2 yrs old(different children - we have 3) and they have all loved the characters. So it really depends on your child.
My middle son was hestitant on our last trip - he was just 3 when Princess Aurora spoke to him. I guess he didn't expect her to speak to him.
I would keep your ADR's, you can alway cancel them when you are there, if your daugther doesn't like the first one.
The characters are a big reason we keep going to Disney. The way they have interacted with our young children have made priceless memories for us and have instilled a love of the characters in our children.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

When we took my first son he was 15 months old and he loved them. Even when we took the rest they were all good with them.

 

[laughinplace199]

It really depends on the kid. I suggest keeping your ADR's. After your first character meal, you'll know if want to do the others or cancel them.

My youngest did fine with the characters at 9 mos, but was absolutely terrified of them at 17 mos. We're going back in April (he'll be 2.5) and have no idea how he will react.

My other son was 15 mos on his first WDW trip. He was weary of the characters at first, but warmed up to them after the first day or two of seeing them in the parks. We did CM at the end of the week, so he was fine by then.

Have a fun trip!

 

[Madzac]

When we went to DL for a day with my oldest who was 16 months at the time, she was absolutley terrified! We couldnt even stand on the curb for the parade she was so scared. There would have been no way we could have done a character meal. When we went last time she had just turned four and started the trip a little scared but warmed up and was hugging them but the third day.

Both of my DSs on the other hand LOVED them!! DS1 went at 15 months and was kissing them and smiling. Our youngest will be 18 months when we go and we saw a character at the mall last weekend and he went nuts, hugging and laughing... I can hardly wait to see him at the character meals!!!!