Tip: Kids don't like characters? Skip the Character Meals!

[BuzzLightYear3]

O.K......I don't know if anyone else out there is as slow a learner as me, but I think I finally learned something the hard way......if your kids don't like characters, skip the character meals! We tried a character meal a couple years ago and my middle child, a DD then 3, was so terrified of Pooh and Tigger my husband had to leave the restaurant with her. We did another character meal a year later.....she was still scared and the meal wasn't too enjoyable. This year, I figured she's 5 and she'd be fine.....had Crystal Palace PS', and she freaked out again.....refused to eat, and I had to agree to leave the table with her whenever a character was within 3 tables of us. She also managed to successfully pass her fear along to her 2 year old brother. At that point, I suggested that I might as well cancel the PS' for the Garden Grill the next night since that was also a Character Meal.....my DD assured me that it was only Pooh, Tigger, and Eyeore that she didn't like but that she would like Mickey, Chip, and Dale (and I believed that!) Once we were seated in the Garden Grill though, she decided she didn't like those characters either.....she did do a little better and with some coaxing she even agreed to get into a picture with Mickey and Chip (she declared she likes Chip but not Dale ) After all this though, the 2 year old is scared. I told my husband that if for some reason I suggest a character meal 10 months from now he needs to beat me over the head! They are certainly great experiences for many kids, but I wanted to share this info and perhaps save some other families some money in case others are in denial as much as me!

 

[SandraC]

Great tip! You might want to try Cinderella's Royal Table, FACE characters there ~ Princesses mainly! S

 

[Eeyore1954]

It's easy to forget that very young children can be easily terrified of a seemingly huge creature approaching them. I've even seen older children (as old as 5) become frightened by Goofy -- on TV he looks small and hugable, but at the park, he's a 6-foot tall character.

When our friends take their young children to WDW, we encourage them to talk to them first about the size of the characters they see. If their only experience was TV, they may be overwhelmed when they see them in real life.

 

[crisi]

One of the best tips we got was to schedule your character meal towards the end of your trip - and cancel it if your child still screams around the characters.

My daughter (2) loved the characters. My son (3) was only vaguely interested in touching them by the last day. But he seemed to have an arrangement - don't come too close to me and I won't come too close to you. I have some pictures of him standing as close to Mickey as I could get him, but not touching or looking - and one taken the morning we left of him shaking Pluto's hand. Our character breakfast went fine this way - the characters never pushed him - but they ate up my daughters attention.

 

[sha_lyn]

We have the oppistie experience. Our DD who wouldn't walk any where near a character at 2 1/2 was ok at the meals and then by the end of the trip she loved them.

I also suggest a "face" meal for those who could be more scared
and sitting as far fro mthe area where the characters are.

We did the villian meal whne DD was 3 1/2 and she was ok as long as they weren't too close. They were great at readign her expressions and left her alone but gave DS and DH a hard time (whcih DD loved watching). Too bad that meal is now gone.

 

[goofiesgirlies]

In March while at WDW we had a really cold awful day so we decided to do Chef Mickey's dinner. I was actually dreading it because DD 4 yrs. is scared to death of characters - Chuck E. Cheese, Santa, etc. She was REALLY scared at first, then she got used to the characters coming around and watching the other kids reactions. Although she didn't want to be right next to the characters, the characters were smart and put Dad in the middle and Mickey/Chip/Dale on the other side I have some wonderful pictures of DD with the biggest smile you have ever seen!

By the end of our dinner she was yelling to Chip across the room like they were best buddies. She would happily give the characters 'five' or even honk Dale's nose. We had a great time - the characters know how to read children and do their best to help ease their way in.

On the otherhand, a $60 dinner with a screaming child is not something I recommend either. If you have serious doubts, wait a year it could make a huge difference. Mickey will still be there!

Oh yeah, FYI my daughter had a glass of chocolate milk and never touched her food. Don't be surprised if the kids don't eat a whole lot. They are much too excited to see the characters! It was still worth it IMHO.

 

[SandraC]

To prepare my ds for characters, we did the Chuck E. Cheese thing a few times. Our Disney Store has almost life sized Mickey and Minnie, so that helped. We have the opposite problem. Now ds cries when we leaves the characters! S

 

[mirlow]

We celebrated my dd's 1st bday at WDW in Jan. We went to Breakfastouraus and I didn't really think much about her being afraid because my other 2 were never really afraid of the characters. I went up to go get some food and all of the sudden I hear her screaming She sat on my lap the rest of the meal and she kept look out for the characters getting to close. We did do 1900 PF on her bday and she did much better because of the face characters, but she made sure Pooh and Eyore kept their distance.
On the same trip we had breakfast at CRT ( which was ok for her) and got to be one of the first ones into Fantasyland. We went to go ride Pooh and lo and behold there was Pooh and Tigger They asked if we wanted Tigger to ride with us and my other two kids said yes! I sat in the back seat with dd and she just nursed and peeked out of the corner of her eye. It was one of our highlights of the trip
I hope she will be ok with our CP seating this summer

 

[Lainy67]

5 years ago, my dd (5 at the time) was all ready for a character meal. We went to Garden Grill our first night (walk in) and saw some characters sitting down with anothr family. She freaked. The entire trip, if we sat down to eat, she refused to eat, afraid that a character was going to sit down next to her.

Since she wasn't eating much, we forced her to eat something at lunch the next day, and she proceeded to throw up on the Backlot tour. This after the day before she had done Body Wars, etc... and loved it, so it wasn't the ride. She got a complete new outfit out of it, and continued to refuse to eat if we sat down. Even at the food court. We spent the next few days stuffing her with animal crackers while we waited in line so we wouldn't have a repeat performance. She just picked at the food at CRT. She didn't like the face characters either.

We are going again in a month, and I was a little concerned about my other dd (3). Well we go to a Hometown Buffet on Thursdays sometimes, and they have a lady dressed up as a huge bumble bee. She goes running up to her and hugs her every time. Says it is her bumblebee. So we know there will be no problem with her.

Goes to show you that kids are completely different.

 

[docswkids]

My sons were not scared of the characters, but I have a friend who went to Chef Mickey's with her 7, 4 and 2 yr olds. The 2 and 4 yr olds went into hysterics if the characters came to the table. My friend took a picture of each character as they came by, because she said it was the quickest way to get them to move on to the next table!

 

[SandraC]

Same but different ~ my ds loves Santa, but not to sit on, just to look at. BUT I wanted my annual kids with Santa picture! So off we go, dd just turned 8 and ds was one month shy of 2. dd loves Santa and sat beautifully waiting for the picture to be taken, ds was okay for a while, but didn't want to sit with Santa. I asked the photographer to take a quick pic as I sat ds on Santa's lap even if ds was crying, and she did. It's my favourite picture ever! ds was really okay and it's the best Santa pic yet. All our friends and family adore it too! S!

 

[AllisonG]

At 2 y.o. and having atleast 4 character meals, my eldest DS never had a problem with them. But the year we brought his baby brother who was 1 year old? Baby brother didn't like them at all. He looked like he was almost trapped in the highchair. It seemed he just wanted to get away from them.
Thank goodness DS #2 got over it. He really didn't have choice and he had a great example in his older brother.
But I too have the pictures with the crying kids and the characters!