How did your children do with character dining?

[lile]

Planinng ADR for 3 and 5 year old daughters. It will be our first visit to Disney. Both are shy, would I be better holding of character dining until the end of our trip?

 

[Alexander]

You won't really know until you get there. DS loved the characters until he was about 4, now he is nearly 11 and will still walk on the other side of the street to avoid them. DS (now 3) will chase them down to see them. Completely different reactions from my boys!

I would suggest booking a character meal and see how it goes. The characters don't spend a lot of time at each table and I'm sure if there is some reluctance, they will move on without hesitation. The character meals are a great way to see the characters without having to wait in lines.

 

[brendaziz]

Oh- don't hold back. You'd be surprised sometimes how shy kids can come out of their shells around characters- but also, the characters aren't gonna be trying to spook them or anything. They are all really good w/ leaving kids alone a little bit if thye seem like they're not into it. Also, my oldest son is very shy and doesnt really wanna get too close to the characters, adn doesnt take pics w/ them, but he also enjoys watching them walk around near him- and he'll talk about how cool it was afterwards that they were there.

I'm sure they'll have a great time! and this is the same age as my oldest 2 will be on our next trip it's a GREAT age for disney! (not that there's a bad age....)

 

[clc053103]

Have your kids ever experienced characters before? Like Elmo at a bday party or something? Not all kids like characters- my 3 year old was terrified of all the "furry" characters- eventually he warmed up enough to walk BY Chip and Dale but that was it. However, he was fine with "face" characters like princesses. So definitely schedule a princess dining and a regular character dining, as their reactions could be different. If you make more, be aware that if the reaction isn't right, you may need to change adr's! However, we went to Tusker House and I just motioned to the characters not to approach DS and he was fine- they don't bother him from a distance.

 

[nytimez]

You just never know how a child will react to the characters. When my daughter was 18 months old, she was really shy. She would cringe when approached by anyone she didn't see on a regular basis. So I was floored when she went right up to Mickey and gave him a hug, then asked me where she can see all her other "friends." It was all character greetings and dining after that...

 

[PistonsFan]

My son was very shy, but LOVED the characters when he was 3.

 

[decker96]

I agree it depends on the child. My DS and younger DD both went to Disney at age 2. Neither of them wanted anything to do with the "fuzzy" characters at that time. They were okay with the face characters though (princesses, Alice, etc.). My DD is somewhat shy, but my DS is not by any means.

This last trip my youngest was 4. Our first character meal was the Ohana breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. Lilo was the first character at our table and she was fine with that. Then Stitch came and that was the end of that! She wanted nothing to do with Mickey or Pluto. At MK that day, I have a picture of my kids with Donald. My two older ones are hugging him on either side and my youngest is standing about 3 feet off to the side. That night we went to Crystal Palace (Pooh characters). Tigger was the first to come to our table. She agreed to greet him if I held her. He was VERY good with her and played peek a boo and things like that to make her laugh. Pooh came next and she was magically over her fear and hugged him and after that she was fine with all the other characters we saw that trip. I think sometimes they just take a little bit to warm up.

Like others have said though, the characters are usually very sensitive to the fact that some kids might be afraid and will hang back and wait or just wave or play peek-a-boo with them or something like that. I was very impressed with the other characters at the Ohana breakfast. All of them realized she was scared and did a great job interacting with her from a distance.

 

[GhostLady]

You just never know how a child will react to the characters. When my daughter was 18 months old, she was really shy. She would cringe when approached by anyone she didn't see on a regular basis. So I was floored when she went right up to Mickey and gave him a hug, then asked me where she can see all her other "friends." It was all character greetings and dining after that...

My son(2 at the time) was the same way. He's not overly shy but he tends to hide behind one of us if he's meeting someone new and sometimes it takes him a long time to speak to a new person (if he ever does).

I wasn't sure how he'd react to the characters since he'd never seen any before. I tried to prepare him by showing him pictures and teaching him their names. I also told him many times that we would be eating dinner with Mickey and that Mickey couldn't wait for him to come down for dinner.

I was pleasantly surprised when he ran right to Mickey (and the others) and gave them hugs and kisses. He called Mickey by name and then turned to Minnie and said "you're Mickey's friend". This year we're going to learn that Minnie has a name too.

 

[robandkelly13]

Our DD was 3 last trip and she LOVED all the character dining! She always asked "who are we eating with tonight?" It was so great and a highlight of our trip!

 

[MickeyNicki]

When my niece was 3 I was worried about her with the characters, I thought she was too shy to dine with them...boy was I wrong! As soon as she saw them it was all over, she would hug them and not want to let go!

We took her again this year, she had just turned 6, and we went to alot of character meals and in the parks stood in every character line we could get into...she just loved it! She did ok with the face characters but was more comfy with the costume characters

 

[ROEDISNEY]

Every child is different. Having 5 we didn't make a big deal of them when the approached us and when they did the boys just went with it an all were good.
I think in my opinion it's all the way you approach things. I also have a day care center for 20 yrs. And when Santa came in. I just let him do his thing and when the kids felt comfortable they went to him . Good Luck & have fun.

 

[garanorymom]

Actually, I like my character meals at the beginning of the trip to kind of get the kids adjusted to the characters. If I was you I would start off with the character breakfast at Grand Floridian. This character meal has a mix of the furry characters--Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and the face characters --Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter. Some kids are less intimidated by the face characters that can talk to them. We also really like the Garden Grill. It's a little quieter/less crowded than the other Mickey meals so each character visits your table several times. We've been bringing are kids since they were babies and have not had a problem. I think this has a lot to do with how gently and slowly the characters approach timid children. I wanted to add that both my children have been terrified of Santa, Chuckie Cheese, etc.but are fine with the Disney characters.

 

[StephanieCG]

I wanted to add that both my children have been terrified of Santa, Chuckie Cheese, etc.but are fine with the Disney characters.

That's good to know! My DD wanted nothing to do with Santa (she was 17 months at the time) and was less than wowed by the Easter Bunny. However, she doesn't see those guys on TV and books on a regular basis like she does with her friends - Mickey, Einsteins, Princesses, etc.
I'm also showing her pictures on the computer of other people with the characters. Hope it works, because I think I want the character meals more than she does, she's happy with anything!

 

[1hero2princesses]

My son was always fine with them. My DD 3 at the time turned out to be terrified. Shaking, crying screaming terrified. We had to cancel all our character meals and struggle to find other things during free dining. We are going back this year. She will be 4 1/2. She still doesn't like them. I wasn't going to schedule any till my 5 year old got very upset saying he has not gotten to be at one because of his sister. He is right, it isn't fair two years in a row. By the time we get back again he will be at least 8 so it won't probably mean as much too him. So I scheduled 2 characters meals. My DH said we will eat in shifts if we have to but it isn't fair to the other two kids to avoid them all again. She gets her princess meals so we had to be fair. We will cross our fingers. I would honestly try chuckie cheese or a fest or something with a character and see their reactions if you can. You never know.

 

[cnjmom]

My 3 year old is the type of kid who has never liked Santa or Easter Bunny. He won't go near them.

So, I had no idea how our character meals were going to go. However, since I have two other kids (DD5.5, DS 13months), I didn't want to deprive them of the experience.

He loved them.

We did Akershus dinner first. Unintentionally, I think that worked out well because it's face characters which were probably much less intimidating (and since my DD was really into it, he could hang back and watch without having to get too involved). Two days later we did CP lunch, which was awesome since he loves all the Pooh characters. Then three days later we did CM breakfast, and again, he loved it.

So, even if your kids are shy, you might be surprised. I have a child I know does not love characters that are supposed to be kids' favorites and yet, he did very well at Disney character meals.

ETA: I didn't read all the responses here so I now see that my kid isn't alone in his fear of Santa, EB but love of Disney. It must be that 'ol Disney magic again.

 

[Tinkerbell3014]

When my son was 2 he was terrified of characters. When he was 4, he loved them.

 

[Candy30]

On our first trip I wasn't sure how my then 4 yr DD would react to the characters. Before our trip there was a kidpalooza in the area with characters that she liked. I decided to take her to see how she would react to them. She loved them! It might be a good idea to test them out somewhere local.

On another note, when we were at Disney there was a boy that was clearly afraid of Goofy! When Goofy saw that he just got down on his knees and encouraged the boy to touch his nose. After two times the boy touched and ran to his mother. They are not agressive and will back down if your child is afraid. I saw it both ways where one was afraid and one was super excited!!! It was great how gracefully it was handled.

 

[snookiedoodles]

The characters usually will know if your kids are shy or not. They may just wave at them if they are shy. The "characters" are a good judge of character!!

 

[FrizDiz]

If at all possible go to a Princess meal. When my girls were young they had no problem with the human characters. They did pretty well with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. They absolutely did not like Dopey in person or any small character with a big head. For some reason it freaked them out.