Too Old For Character Dining?

[Princess Ash]

Hi...I just asked this on the Teen Thread, and I'm wondering your input on this?

I'm 17 years old, and I STILL want to have a character dinner with Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and two mice, at the Cinderella's dinner at the Grand Floridian's 1900 Park Fare Cafe. Am I too old for this? I mean, the actors are basically college kids MY age and a little older at this point. Is this really weird that I still want to have character dinners? Granted, I have a 10 year old little brother, but he's definitely not as into this whole sort of thing as I was when his age. To me, it's just a truly magical Disney feeling...and I love it. One of my favorite parts of Disney is feeling like a little kid again. My parents asked me where I wanted to have my graduation dinner...I said in Cinderella's Castle. (Then we found out that we wouldn't eat any of the food so canned that idea.) But it's the whole atmosphere thing. What do you think?

 

[Robo]

I'm 17 years old, and I STILL want to have a character dinner with Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and two mice, at the Cinderella's dinner at the Grand Floridian's 1900 Park Fare Cafe.

Well, I was about 25 years old when I STARTED to attend character meals.

That was well before you were born.

I still do them.

You do the math.

 

[MickeynMinnie]

At my last trip to Disney we went to a character dinner... it was in the magic kingdom in Liberty square.. not sure of the name. We were all adults going in... I'm 27 my boyfriend 26, and it was my brothers birthday 31 and we had a great time! We took pictures with them as well as some video! My advice to you is go.. Just don't act embarrassed!! I agree... it is disney magic! Call us dorks but we were the adults standing in line to get our pic taken with the characters too!! i never thought i would do this when i was younger... we used to think it was werid that adults wanted to take their pictures with characters... but now i understand!! Go and have fun!!!! Thats what disney magic is all about!!!!

 

[GarrettJD]

Nope... not too old. My GF Nikkie is 31, I'm 29, we have no kids... and yet, we still attend character meals. Nikkie's favorite is Pooh, so we won't go to WDW without a trip to the Crystal Palace.

 

[scoolover]

I am a 30 year old manly man who went to college on an athletic scholarship and works in a prison. If my son (4) gets in my way for any of out three character meals during out October trip he will get trampled. You don't have to tell your friends about it but they will be jealous if you do. Have a great time.
Take care

 

[Peepster]

My traveling buddy and I are REALLY old (yes, I could be your Grandmother) but we always have to have a least one character meal. My friend's favorite birthday memory is from the CP when Pooh danced with her and she had to stand up with all the other kids and tell her age (lets just say she was the only one in double digits)! Tigger even sprinkled her with pixie dust.

That's what great about Disney...we get to follow our hearts!

 

[Princess Ash]

Thank you SO MUCH for all this input! It has helped me a bunch already!

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

I am a 30 year old manly man who went to college on an athletic scholarship and works in a prison. If my son (4) gets in my way for any of out three character meals during out October trip he will get trampled. You don't have to tell your friends about it but they will be jealous if you do. Have a great time.
Take care

Amen to that. Let's give it up for 30 year old manly men who like Disney characters. You're never too old to have fun. Those who complain that you're too old are probably bitter because they feel old and wonder what happened to their youth. It's perfectly acceptable to act childlike and not be childish.

 

[kelleigh1]

My husband is 36. (I am 35.) He was so excited when I told him that we were going to have breakfast with Pooh! He still talks about it and it's something we'll have to do whenever we go back.

 

[KimberlyC]

Walt said Disney was for children of ALL ages so go to your character dinners if that is what you want to do. Its not like they are Santa Claus and you are asking to sit on their lap.

 

[pezpam]

The teen years are just one of those times when insecure people will tell you things are childish - for various silly reasons. When you're 45, do you want to look back on a character meal or always have to wonder if you'd have had fun? Go! Enjoy! I'm a stable adult and mother and I just love the character meals. In fact, while I usually go with DD (now 8), I have a trip this fall where I will have a day or two solo... and I scheduled a charater meal.

Reminds me of my daughter..... As of 2nd and 3rd grade, there were a few girls who suddenly deemed themselves The Popular Kids - for some reason, they also decided that being Popular automatically meant being Mean. One thing they gave the other kids a hard time about was anything with Winnie the Pooh on it. DD asked me about it. I reminded her that *I* had Pooh Tshirts and *how many* grownups did she see at Crystal Palace trying to meet Pooh??? LOL. She got it and is better now about not caring what those girls say. <grin>

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

The teen years are just one of those times when insecure people will tell you things are childish - for various silly reasons. When you're 45, do you want to look back on a character meal or always have to wonder if you'd have had fun? Go! Enjoy! I'm a stable adult and mother and I just love the character meals. In fact, while I usually go with DD (now 8), I have a trip this fall where I will have a day or two solo... and I scheduled a charater meal.

Reminds me of my daughter..... As of 2nd and 3rd grade, there were a few girls who suddenly deemed themselves The Popular Kids - for some reason, they also decided that being Popular automatically meant being Mean. One thing they gave the other kids a hard time about was anything with Winnie the Pooh on it. DD asked me about it. I reminded her that *I* had Pooh Tshirts and *how many* grownups did she see at Crystal Palace trying to meet Pooh??? LOL. She got it and is better now about not caring what those girls say. <grin>

Years from now, those "popular" kids will be spending insane amounts of money trying to recapture their youth or woo a husband, while your DD will be happily taking your grandkids to Disney. Good for you for reminding your daughter that there's nothing wrong with liking Disney.

 

[WaltD4Me]

No worries! You are definitely NOT too old! I went to Disney with just my mom when I was 30, we did both character meals (breakfast and dinner) at the GF Park Fare and we had a wonderful time! The characters were great and we had a very nice conversation with Mary Poppins and Snow White. It was really fun, because since we didn't have kids with us, we had more of an "adult" conversation and got some great pics. Go! You'll love it!

 

[missymagic]

Mys sister and I just went down for a long weekend about three weeks ago, no kids with us and we still did the character meals. We are 33 and 34 look and act like 25. We had a blast!!! It was soooo much fun we took pictures with any characters in the parks that didn't have long lines also. We used the photopass so we could look at the pics when we got home and I ordered the best picture of my sister and I w/ Sourcerer Mickey and got it for our mom. She l.oved it.

NEVER TO OLD TO HAVE FUN WITH CHARACTERS!!!! That is just the beginning

 

[grinningghost]

I'm 41 and my DH is 40 - we attend character meals without any kids - it's great fun and who doesn't love a photo with a Disney character? Age is only a number!

 

[jbdreamer]

No, your not too old. I love the characters.

But here is a word of warning. When I was in the WDWCP a group of me and my friends, all in our early 20's went to the character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. During the entire breakfast we only had 2 characters (Mad Hater & Sleeping Beauty) come to our table! Maybe it was because there were no kids sitting with us, but I remember leaving very disappointed.

 

[PratersloveDW]

I'm with everyone else - go and have fun!! When my DH and I had our honeymoon at Disney we were 22 and 23. We had a great time at many character meals, character meet and greets, etc. Disney is a place to have fun regardless of your age. Besides, most of the college kids working at Disney understand the love of Disney - why else would they want to work there?!

 

[kydeb1346]

Never too old! DH (32) and I (30) have no children we love the characters and love the character meals. Go and have fun! Everyone in WDW is a kid even if it is a grown up kid. Have fun!

 

[jnjusoioa]

Your never too old to do character dining. The characters are the best part of the Disney magic and the other part is that when your in Disney we are all kids. So I say go for it!!!

 

[katied]

My mom and I went together for several years (in my 20's and her in her 40's). We did character meals, including the Castle and the Princess Breakfast. We loved it every time. It was some of the best pictures from the trip. And we never had issues with the characters visiting our table. Overall, the characters are there for the adults as well as the kids. I have pictures from Pooh getting down on one knee and proposing to me, refusing to let me go, etc. I would never skip the character meals.