what unique and meaningful character interactions have you had at character dining?

[TandLMommy28]

When we ate at Akershus, my son was wearing a Buzz Lightyear shirt. But it was the kind that doesn't have a face so the shirt looks like a Buzz costume (if you know what I mean). Well, Ariel just went crazy!

"Oh my, it's BUZZ LIGHTYEAR! I can't believe it! Oh, how lucky am I? I mean, I get to be here talking to BUZZ LIGHTYEAR." My son was GLOWING! It was so cool to have the character making such a fuss over a kid, instead of the other way around. Plus he was a boy at a princess meal and that made it so much more enjoyable for him. She really made our day...

Here's her face when she saw "Buzz Lightyear"

 

[weheartdisney]

I love reading all of these. Keep them coming.

Last year my sons had their Disney silly bands on and Tigger asked my oldest for one of his bands. He took it off and pt it on Tigger's arm and Tigger ran around and showed everyone. He was pointing at his band and bouncing. Too cute.

My boys also had a great interaction with Mary Poppins. I told her she has always been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl. She talked about how well behaved my boys were and asked them lots of questions about themselves. Very sweet.

The first time we took my oldest son he was just 3. We were eating at Chef Mickey's and when Pluto stopped by, he took our son and tried to *give him* to another family. My son still talks about that every time we go.

Another time at Chef Mickey's, Minnie Mouse came by and saw my Dad's sun visor with our favorite college team on it. She made a polite fuss and did her * I heart u* and pointed at the visor. In our autograph book, she wrote "Go _______________". She must have been a student there as well. Pretty cool.

 

[Sgt Tibbs]

At the Liberty Tree Tavern, when they had characters, my wife went to take pictures of our son with Chip n Dale. Wife had left her camera turned on all day in her purse and the batteries were run down. As she hurried to change them, she always carries spares, Chip pointed and laughed and Dale crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot angrily making my wife fumble even more. They stayed a long time and "goofed" on my poor wife as she fumbled and got all flustered.

 

[OhThePain]

My girlfriend and I were eating at Garden Grill 2 years ago. Mickey happened to be the first character that came to our table. He took my girlfriend's hand and gave it a kiss. So I said, "Hey, Mouse. That's my lady." He let go of her hand, put his hands on his hands up like he was going to fight me. Well, luckily my girlfriend was able to get the situation under control before it got out of hand. As Mickey was getting ready to walk away, I said "I'm watching you, Mouse", pointing 2 fingers at my eyes then one finger at him.

For the rest of our time at GG, every time Chip, Dale, Pluto or Mickey walked by our table (which at GG can happen quite a bit), they did the eye pointing gesture to me. At the end of the meal all 4 stopped by our table to take one big picture with us to show there were no hard feelings. It was a lot of fun.

We also had a great experience at 1900 PF breakfast on our trip last May. Nothing that was really an inside joke type thing, like we had at GG, but still a nice experience. We were one of the last few tables to leave for the morning. As the last few tables were just finishing up, Alice and the Madhatter hung around with the last tables. The interaction with eachother and the remaining tables was a lot of fun.

 

[disneywatcher]

I have 2 to share.

First was when we went to Akershus. All 3 of my DD's were dressed up as their favorite princesses, but ODD said she liked Belle's simple town dress better then the big fancy yellow one. So we found someone to make it for her, complete with hair bow. When she walked up to get her picture taken with Belle there was this 2 minute conversation before the pictures were taken. Belle commented that she had seen a lot of dresses like her's that morning but by far ODD's was her favorite and did she enjoy reading books as much as Belle did? She also asked ODD what her favorite book was and when ODD said "Anything by Judy Blume" Belle said "Well I dont know who that author is but I will have the Beast look into getting me some of her works." It was sweet.

Second happened when we were at Rafiki's Planet watch. MDD wad bored and decided to spin around in circles (not that many people were in there at the time) and while she was spinning, Pocohantas came up and started to spin with her! She finally stopped because she was getting dizzy and a short conversation ensued. MDD to this day loves talking about how she got to play with a Princess.

 

[mommy2mrb]

Oct 2002 we were waiting for our table at 1900 Park Fare for breakfast...no one else was in the waiting area, Alice walked up to my DD (2 1/2 at the time) and asked her to come play with her....they colored, sat on the floor and talked, did a little dance together...it was a priceless 15 minutes and I will always cherish that time!

Feb 2008 Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Fare (yes we love this place and go every trip) my DD (now 8) had on a cinderella t-shirt...step-mother came up and asked what was "staining her shirt", when one of the sisters came up, DD told her she liked her the best and was the prettiest of the sisters...well she was yelling across the room to her sister and mom that we thought she was the prettiest, was a fun interaction with the girls!

 

[PixieMama]

The interactions during character meals that I can remember:

lunch @ Akershus - my DDs didn't dress up in Princess costumes, but they were wearing tee shirts with a Princess on it (one had Cinderella and the other had Aurora)... so when those 2 Princesses came to our table they raved about that daughter's shirt, how pretty it was.

breakfast @ Crystal Palace - we've been there twice, and both times my DDs got a kiss from Piglet. This last time (2010) Eeyore gave my oldest DD a huuuuge bear hug.

dinner @ Chef Mickey's - my DH and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary and each had an anniversary pin on. I had ordered a cake as a surprise for DH and Minnie was the one to bring it to our table. She gave DH and myself a hug and kiss and posed for a photo. It was sweet!


But my favorite character interaction was one not during a meal. This was during our 2010 trip and while at the MK we waited in line to see Lady Tremain and her daughters. Again, our trip took place during DH and mine's anniversary and we were wearing our pins. When it came time for our turn, I told DH to get up there with our DDs for the picture. Lady Tremain wanted to know if my husband was a "wealthy land owner" but before he could answer one of the daughters (can't remember which one) noticed his anniversary button and/or wedding ring and wailed, "Oh, Mother! He's not eligible!" Cracked us up!

 

[AndreaDM]

Several years ago we had breakfast at Ohana and my DD who was 4 or 5 at the time was dressed as Lilo down to the flower in her hair. Lilo noticed and made a big fuss. Stitch was super funny too, kept coming up behind me and scaring me so I would jump. Alas, this was the trip our camera was lost/stolen at Epcot so we have NO pictures of that at all.

 

[WillieBearsMom]

My favorite character dining moment was at Akershus this past December. My 3 year old son loves princesses so we decided to try this. They did the walk through (parade) with the characters, so he proudly joined in, but was so sad when it was over. So, of course being three, he cried. Snow White immediately comes over to comfort him and told him when Dopey gets sad, she gives him a kiss. Then she planted one on my son's forehead. It was precious. He proudly wore that bright red lipstick and didn't want it washed off!

 

[eashort]

I only live about an hour and a half away from WDW, and I have been there countless times (my cousin works there), yet I always seem to miss out on meeting my all-time FAVORITE CHARACTER, Winnie the Pooh!

On a trip last year, I finally got to meet him and Tigger just outside of Tony's. When I told Pooh that he's been my favorite character since I was a baby (I was 21 at the time) he gave me a giant hug and kissed me on the cheek during our picture. Then I guess Tiger got jealous, because he moved me away from Pooh for another picture, and then he motioned for the PhotoPass photographer to take another picture with all three of us, where they were both kissing my cheeks and hugging me at the same time!!! Then they both kissed my hand before I left AND I got another hug from Pooh!

If you ever meet Tigger and another character at the same time, try to ignore him...From what I've heard from other people, too, his reaction is almost always hillarious!

 

[disneymath]

We've always had great character interactions when travelling with my 3 nephews, I think that's because the characters are so good at spontaneous interactions.

For example, at 1900 PF, my twin nephews (16 months at the time and in the middle of an independent "I wanna feed myself" streak) were really enjoying their dinner and wearing it all over their faces. Lady Tremaine actually complimented them on their eating habits and encouraged them to make a big mess for Cinderella to clean up. She told the 3yo he had done a good job teaching his brothers all of his tricks. When Cinderella came by, she commented on how the prince was a messy eater too. With the stepsisters, each one found a clean spot on one of the boys foreheads and planned a big lipsticky kiss there. FWIW the boys were a bit intimidated by Lady Tremaine (not scared though), in awe of Cinderella, and amused by the Stepsisters.

Even better was at Chef Mickey during a later dinner seating. One of the twins sneezed just as Mickey was leaning in to give him a hug. Mickey made a big show of surprise and backed away. A few seconds later, he came in closer and my nephew sneezed again. This happened four or five times in a row. Mickey ended up keeled over on the floor laughing. He finally ran off only to come back with a napkin that he dropped onto the twin's head. Mickey actually broke rotation and made a quick stop at our table a few times that night. (The best part was that he made sure my other nephews got some attention too. Donald helped him out by making the other twin giggle and Minnie pretended to have a crush on the 3yo.)

Even the "routine" hugs at Crystal Palace are great though!

 

[Suzanne74]

My DD was turning 3 and we were a day late getting to Disney because of Hurricane Francis closing all of Disney and airports down.

We went to Chef Mickey's that first night and there was 4 FAMILIES in the entire restaurant. My DD played games with the characthers, had a dance off with Donald, played hide n seek with Minnie - she even took my dd into the kitchen with her to hide her from Goofy. We must have stayed for 2 hours to play.

It was the BESTEST and most MAGICAL way to start a child's first vacation in Disney. She has been a Disney freak since.

To let you know how empty it was, the next morning we were going into CRT for her birthday breakfast. I called the exact 90 days out (at the time) to get that ressie. There were accepting walk ups. I told this one family who had no idea they even had to make ressies, how lucky they truly were.

When my DD was 4 she was messing around with Captain Hook outside of Peter Pan's ride and Peter Pan came from behind and thought she was so brave he invited her onto "his" ride. Before we knew it, she was wisked off to the front of the line and jumping onto a ship with Peter Pan. My husband and I were like "did that just happen?"

LOVE Disney.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

The last seating of the evening always seems to bring out some great interaction. At CP one year we got all the regular interaction where they come to the table one at a time to great you. At the end of the evening when there are only a few tables left they gather all the kids together dance with them and take group pictures. Last trip there we had a few great character interactions. One at the animal kingdom. DD had a bag of trail mix she had gotten at the resort gift shop. The logo on the bag said it was from Chip and Dale's Snack Company. Well when she spotted them at AK and wanted her picture taken. All of a sudden Chip notices his picture on the bag and takes it from her. He is pointing to the picture and then himself and showing her. Thinks this is funny. Then shows Dale. Well of course he wanted the bag so he could look for himself. This went on a good 10 to 15 minutes. We laughed so hard that after they left we had to go locate the bathrooms.

The second encounter was at dinner 1900 Park Fare. DSs were 19 and 21 but went for their sister. They had also brought a buddy of theirs on the trip also 19. There were not alot of guys their age there unless with a girlfriend. Most people had little kids. Well when Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters spotted them the theatrics ensued. Lady Tremaine would not let them sit down until she inspected them to make sure that they were good marriagable material. She was quite thourogh. Concluded that they would do as her daughters really could not wait to long for some of the little boys to grow up. The 10 year old at the table next to us mumbled under his breat, or so he thought, that good cause he wasn't interested anyway. She turned around and scolded him for being rude. The stepsisters fawned all over them. Argued over who would get who. When the guys would get up to get some food the sisters would try and escort them to the buffet tables. It was hysterical. They have also been known to shout across the room at each other. This is one of the best shows there. They are never out of character.

The next one I can think of was when there were characters at the Liberty Tree Tavern. They had Minnie, Goffy, Chip and Dale. My oldest DS who was 12 at the time was wearing a goofy hat with the long ears that hang down. When Goofy spotted this he came over and inspedted the hat, thought it was great. Well Chip and Dale came over to see what was going on. The next thing we knew the 3 of them were throwing to each other. DS of course got out of his seat to try and retrieve it. So we were watching the characters play keep away with my sons hat. This was until Minnie caught hold of what was going on. She scolded the others profusley and they walked away with their heads down. Minnie gave the hat back to DS and gave him a kiss on the cheak. There are a few other instances I can think of but this post is getting to long.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Goodness I have so many priceless stories with the characters, but my favorite is when we went to Cape May Breakfast for the first time back in 2009 and my youngest DD who was 5 at the time had on Minnie Mouse from head to toe (she is my DD's favorite character). When Minnie came around to our table she noticed my DD's sweatshirt (which of course had Minnie on it), and then her hair, then her pen, then of course DD had mentioned that she just loved her. The reaction of Minnie was awesome....since we were in a booth, she had my DD move over so she could sit down next to her and started giving her tons of hugs and kisses. I got a really cute picture of the two of them sitting at the booth. My DD still talks about it today and that is one of the reasons why we keep going back to Cape May each trip