What was the strangest interaction you ever had with a character?

[smilie]

When we went last September we saw Gideon and Gepetto as we were exiting. It was only the 4 in our group with them. When we were getting pictures with Gepetto, Gideon pretended to be drunk and stumbled and fell off the curb. He kept tripping and falling down. Dh has it on video. The CM with them kept telling Gideon he's had too much to drink. It was pretty cool.

 

[JPN4265]

When our daughter was only 4, we were waiting in line to see Minnie, some rude little girl jump in front of our daughter with her mothers help. Well the most interesting thing happened, Minnie stopped everyone, stomped her foot and point her finger at the little girl and made her go to the back of the line. She then proceed to interact with our daughter for at least 5 minutes. You gotta love the mouse.

 

[Disney Planner Mama]

Years ago, when they still had the Pooh character breakfast at Artist Point We took my sister and two nephews who were I think about 9 and 12 at the time (DD was about 2 at the time). The 12 year old was just entering that lovely stage where everything is too babyish and was cranky at having to get up early and just sitting at the table being rather sullen. He had pretty much ignored Eeyore and Pooh, but Tigger came around and refused to be ignored. After interacting with the rest of us he went over to the 12 year old, sat on his lap, took off his shoe and sock, proceeded to pretend to be horrified at the smell, and then ran away with both the shoe and the sock. My nephew had to chase him all around the restaurant as Tigger ran waving the shoe and sock in the air (how he didn't smash into a table or person I will never know). Eventually he gave it back and my nephew came back to the table shaking with laughter. We didn't have any sulks for the rest of the trip. Now THAT'S Disney Magic.

 

[jaycns]

Bumping this thread...it's a funny/sweet one and I would love to hear some more stories!

 

[BTown]

I remember once, about 8 years ago or so, I was at Disney with my parents (I was about 16 at the time) and we were at a character breakfast. I cant remember where we were, but we were at one of the resorts.

Anyway, we were eating a late breakfast, and were one of the only families in the resturant. Characters from Winnie the Pooh were wandering around, and the other folks in the resturant were paying a lot of attention to Pooh and Tigger, but no one was paying much attention to Eyore.

So, after a while, Eyore comes by our table, and we dont pay him much attention, cause we are all trying to eat. So, he grabs one of the butter knives from the table, and attempts to cut his wrist. But, of course, it doesnt work. So, he put the knife down and hung his head. At this point, we were all in stitches, so I suppose that gave him cause to keep the gig running. So, he grabbed an empty chair from the table near us, and drug it to the balcony. He put the chair at the edge of the railing, looked back at us, and then climbed on top of the chair and acted like he was trying to throw himself over the edge. Of course, his leg couldnt get over the railing, and he just sat back in the chair defeated.

Honestly, this was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Not sure if it was juat some guy who was getting sick of his job and decided to have a laugh, but i still crack up everytime I think about this.

 

[diz_prncez]

Ok I have 2 stories.

I was at MK with my parents and 2 little brothres. I was 16 years old. My brothers and I waited in line to get pics with Pluto. When our turn came and we walked up to Pluto to pose and take our picture. He hugs my little brothers and they walk back to mom and dad while Pluto is embracing me in a long and strange hug . . . not the same kind of hug he just gave my brothers. Then he pulls me back up against the building behind us, blocking me in and motions telling me to stay there. He turns around to the huge crowd, who are all cracking up, and motions to my family to leave without me. I would try to walk away and he'd turn back to face me holding out his arms to block me. I guess Pluto had a little crush and wanted me to stay there with him. My parents are taking pictures. I am just trying to get away and everybody is just laughing. After a couple more of the long strange hugs he reluctantly let me leave. It was very weird and try to avoid Pluto when I am there now.

My second story was from a different trip. I went when I was 22 with my DBF and 2 other couples. We were on our way to a ride when we noticed Dopey and he only had like 3 people waiting for him, so one of the guys in my group said he wanted to go get a quick pic. He got in the short line and when it was his turn he yells happily "Dopeyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" opens his arms wide and runs (all of four steps) up to Dopey to give him a big hug. He was just trying to be funny. Well I guess Dopey thought he was going to tackle him or something because Dopey got scared and started running away! When Dopey realized my friend meant no harm he stopped and held his arm out to my friend for the pic but not before Dopey's female "buddy" very angerly scolded my friend, telling to approach the characters slowly or be kicked out of the park. My friend apologized and explained that he didn't mean to frighten Dopey or cause any trouble. The "buddy" replied rudely and Dopey and my friend took a very akward picture and we all walked away in shock of what just happened. It was rather upsetting.

 

[pampam]

A hundred years ago, (it seems) we were having a character breakfast on the Empress Lily Riverboat. The announcer would shout "Everybody, here is Minnie!" We would clap. "Everybody here is Donald" More applause. "Everyone, Here is Goofy" By this point we are ignoring her. I guess Pluto noticed, because after he was announced, he made a mad dash over to my husband and nearly knocked him out of his chair as he was eating. He jumped up on him as only a dog can do, licking him and climbing all over him. Totally in character.

 

[erikthewise]

Not so much strange as cute:

-- On our first family trip we had dinner at Garden Grill as our first meal at WDW. Chip and Dale came to visit our table, and we were all trying to remember how to tell them apart. There was of course the noses (Chip black, Dale brown), and then I suggested that Dale had two teeth and Chip only had one. Chip became frantic and went through a complete 60-second charades-style presentation of how he also has TWO teeth, it's just that they are together in the middle instead of separated like Dale's are. Now I'll never forget!

-- One year we arrived at the Festival of the Lion King show in AK more than half an hour early to see if we could say hi to our son's teacher's father who worked there. It turned out he wasn't working that day so we had some time to kill. I spotted Santa Goofy (it was the holiday season) all by himself on one of the character trails, and since neither of our boys would talk to him, I went over to say hi. Somehow he managed to ask (without talking) what I wanted for Christmas. I told him I wanted a Honda Civic Hybrid. He went over to his handler, pulled her car keys out of her pocket, and gave them to me! She didn't know what to do! When I asked, she said it really was a Civic, but not a Hybrid! So I gave the keys back to her.

-- A couple years ago we took the Family Magic Tour at MK, and at the end everyone in the group got to spend some "quality time" with Peter Pan and Wendy. Peter was a real chatterbox and talked almost constantly. I remembered how in the movie Peter says "Girls talk too much", so I suggested to Wendy that she must have waited fifty years to tell Peter that HE talks too much. She just laughed, and without breaking character at all said "Oh, I tell him that every day!"

 

[asmarykay]

The characters always go above and beyond with kids, but these really stand out for us.

When my DS was three we ate at a Character Breakfast in MGM that had the Alladin characters. Jafar came up and took my DS's favorite stuffed animal (Simba) and punched it in the nose. DS was horrified - later Jafar came back and made nice.

We were in line at MK for the Goofy Rollercoaster and suddenly (not really sure where he came from) Goofy himself asked if he could ride with DS. Of course he did and DD was jealous.

Once when we were getting the princess autographs in the Judge's Tent in Toontown it must have been really slow. There was no one in line but me, DD, sister and mom. My sister had really wanted to see Mary Poppins who was there. When we went in they had just changed the princess line up and Mary Poppins wasn't there. We had Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White. We asked the CM and he said he would see if Mary would join us. Well, she did come back along with several other characters. We have the greatest pictures of all of us with the whole group of characters and Dwayne the CM who made it happen!

 

[100AcreWood]

These are great!

We took our dd to Disney for her first trip at age 2 1/2. She loved Pooh (still does) and we made a reservation at the Crystal Palace for lunch. We were the first ones there at 11am and Pooh came to our table right away. I told him he was my dd's favorite character and he proceeded to "steal" my camera and my dd! He took her over to the topiary/plant area in the middle of the restaurant, gave the camera to his "buddy" and they did a photo shoot! He even PICKED her up for the pictures! I heard that is against their rules so what a shocker. A CM asked my dh if he was worried when Pooh took our child and our camera and dh said "nah, it's only Pooh."

We cracked up!

 

[tinkgurl]

My story isn't that strange, it's just rather hilarious! I was around 10 or 11, eating breakfast with my family at Artist Point, I think, and Pocohantas, John Smith, and Meeko were the characters walking around. When John got to our table, he pulled up a chair and just started up a conversation with us in his English accent. He just kept talking faster and faster and faster; pretty soon I was giggling. He then decides he wants to feed me my strawberries; so he picks one up with my fork and has me take a bite. After I swallowed it he decided to just shove more and more strawberries in my mouth WHILE still talking about nonsense. I thought it was the most hilarious thing ever! We even have a picture of him holding a strawberry and I'm covering my mouth to catch all the strawberry juice!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Back when I did my college program I did merch at MGM. My area was awesome so no one ever left, but other areas seemed to have a little more trouble keeping employees so we'd always get sent to cover shifts in those areas that were short since we had so many CMs. One day I had to work the Christmas store in the Muppet area. . .actually it was the cart of Christmas stuff outside the Christmas store. It was very early in the day, park had just opened so there was no one around. One of the Green Army Men came wandering over since apparently no one was hanging around their area either, LOL. For about 15-20 minutes he hung out, but NEVER got out of character so he would not speak. Very awkward at times being the only one doing the talking. . . and he just wouldn't leave, LOL! He kept miming out conversations even though I was the only person there.

Well at one point he goes and sits down on the bench just before some people start walking past. He holds VERY still and the people look at him and point and comment. They really believed he was just a statue. . . until he jerked forward towards them. The woman screamed her head off, I was about on the ground laughing as was her whole family (and eventually her once she realized what happened)

A little while later, the Green Army Man took one of the Christmas Mickey eats and put it on over his helmut. . . another woman walked past and loved it so much she had to get a picture. . . and made me get in the picture too! I was mortified. . . my costume looked like I was wearing an actual Christmas tree skirt, LMAO. To this day I wonder where that picture is of me and that slightly odd Green Army Man.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Oh, and I just remembered another one from my college program days. This was back when they still had the Mulan parade. I was leaving after my shift and walking backstage to get back to costuming and the parade had already started. The last couple floats were still parked backstage waiting for their turn and as I walk past the last float with Mulan and Shang, I can hear everyone laughing and Mulan is yelling down to the handlers that are getting ready to lead the horses to the gate, "I demand a straight Shang! It's in my contract!" and she's pounding her fist on the float.

Another day I was working in one of the stores (Indy Outpost) and it was very quiet - no guests around at all since it was between shows and when those let out is when we were slammed. So this one day a few characters show up and hang out in there BSing with us until it's time for them to go backstage again. It was Aladdin, Shang, and Clopin (jester from Hunchback) The three of us working and Aladdin and Shang were standing around BSing and Clopin is half involved in conversation by yelling across the store and half browsing. . . all of a sudden he finds the small rugs that were for sale and holds in the air waving it and yells, "Aladdin! Aladdin!! I found Carpet!" We were all cracking up.

 

[zipuzee]

A hundred years ago, (it seems) we were having a character breakfast on the Empress Lily Riverboat. The announcer would shout "Everybody, here is Minnie!" We would clap. "Everybody here is Donald" More applause. "Everyone, Here is Goofy" By this point we are ignoring her. I guess Pluto noticed, because after he was announced, he made a mad dash over to my husband and nearly knocked him out of his chair as he was eating. He jumped up on him as only a dog can do, licking him and climbing all over him. Totally in character.

In 1988, my son was 3 and it was his first trip to WDW. We did the character breakfast on the Empress Lily and by the time Pluto came around he was getting restless. Well, Pluto comes over to me and "licks" me and my son freaks out cuz he thinks this huge dog is attacking his mom. Pluto doesn't have a clue, goes over to my son, who now starts screaming at the top of his lungs. My son made up with Pluto four years later on our next trip, but that meal is probably the biggest memory I have of any WDW trip.

 

[Philadisney]

not so much strange as just kinda weird. on our last trip, i have a Disney Visa card so we were able to go to a private visa meet and greet. cardmembers can get a private audience with a handful of characters, no one else in the room (except a photopass photographer). we went twice on our last trip (you can go once a day - it's at epcot) and the second time we got donald, minnie, and goofy. i was wearing an alice in wonderland shirt and after greeting the characters and taking our picture, the photographer was like, "oh, alice! you know sometimes she is at the UK pavilion." i said we hadn't seen her at all this trip, so she said "i can check for you and see when she'll be there - wait a minute" and scampers off. so DBF and i are standing around with the three characters...not really sure what to do. we kinda stood there looking at them for a minute in silence, and they looked at us. maybe we waved. i rummaged through my purse for a bit like i was looking for something. it was so akward! we couldn't really think of anything to say to the poor characters, and of course they couldn't say anything to us. there's only so much miming or waving you can do for five minutes, which is how long it took for the photographer to come back, but it seemed like an eternity. oh well, we got a good picture out of it. next time i'll have to think ahead of time for things to say!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

The last time I was at WDW was four years ago (we leave again in 4 more days!!! ). It was just my DH and me, and the characters truly helped us to feel the magic of Disney and remind us of what it's like to be a kid again. Mind you, we were only in our 20's, but without kids, the characters helped us feel like we were kids! Here are some examples:

- On a EMH night at MK my husband and I were walking on Main Street, near that circular area in front of the castle, where the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey are. Out of nowhere, Chip and Dale come running out and one of them begins chasing my DH around the circle. Then the other would tap my DH's shoulder and the chase would begin in the other direction. Again, out of nowhere, a policeman/guard shows up. I begin wondering if we're in some sort of trouble, because he looked serious. But, when he saw what was happening, and how much my DH and I were laughing, he began doubling over in laughter himself! It was great, and one of the few times I didn't have my camera with me to capture the moment.

- Another time, during the same trip, my DH and I went to stand with Pluto and Goofy for a picture. Well, I guess Pluto was feeling a bit goofy and every time they would try to take a picture, he would tickle me! At first, it was kind of funny. Then, I reached a point when all I wanted was a picture and for him to stop tickling me. I guess it looked like I had, had enough of the tickling, because then he got down on all fours, acting like he was sorry. That really got me laughing, he stood up and the picture was taken.

- Then, there was the time that DH and I were standing in line to get a picture with the Little Mermaid. Well, the line was long and we already had experienced some situations with a couple of different women who didn't understand what two grown adults were doing in a character line and made it clear that these things were for the children. One even told her child to just get in front of us! I was getting annoyed, since I believe that any age should feel comfortable getting pictures with the characters. Then, our turn came to go inside and get our picture. The Little Mermaid character was so nice, and clearly not having seen what had occurred outside, totally made up for the bad experience. She spent a long time with us, talking with us about how we were enjoying our stay and what we had seen and done so far. I felt bad about taking so much time, but she told me, "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere and they can wait a bit longer." My DH and I walked away smiling, and to this day, I wonder if a CM may have noticed what had happened, took pity on us and let the Little Mermaid know.

 

[dreamsofdisney]

When my DS was only 6, we took our first trip to WDW. DS has Autism, and at the time was in the middle of an intense obsession with the Disney Villains. While visiting MGM, we were walking out of the Villains' Store, when Jafar came up and grabbed him by the back of the shirt and picked him up. Some little ones would be terrified by this, but my son just smiled and laughed!

Six years later, we were at MGM again and the characters were in front of the Sorcerer's Hat posing for pictures. We were still a few people back in the line when the CM announced that Jafar would have to go in a few minutes. Thankfully, we made it up to see Jafar right before he had to leave. I took this shot with no adjustments to the camera (or later on after developing.) We saw a number of other characters during that same 1/2 hour and this is the ONLY shot that turned out blue. My DS was sure that Jafar had placed a magical spell on the camera!

 

[inloveindisney]

Ok, this one has gone down in the history books at my house and it took a while for my husband to give forgiveness!!
It was our first time at disney for quite some time and all my husband wanted to do was see his favorite characters: chip and dale. We eventually saw them and waited in line with all of the kids and finally got to the front. Well, we went to get in the picture together and chip and dale pushed my husband away and gathered around me while kissing me on the cheeks! In the picture, you can only see my husband's head sticking out behind dale's! It was hilarious!
the next year, we went back and he got his picture with them by himself! We call it the "makeup" picture.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

The very 1st time my family ever stayed on Walt Disney World property was in May of 1998 at the Contemporary. As we were going into the elevator, Pluto for some reason was in the lobby & he tried to steal my luggage as a joke. Anyway I thought it was very funny at the time & I said to him what do you think your doing? So I thought what a great memory for my very 1st trip staying inside WDW.

 

[va32h]

When we went to WDW for my daughter's 6th birthday, her birthday wish was to be in MK from the minute it opened until the minute it closed.

We were in Toontown for the last 1/2 or so that the park opened - Natalie was about to get on Goofy's Barnstormer, when Pooh came up and decided to get on the ride with her.

That was fun, but the strangest interaction came a few minutes later. As we were heading to Main Street to leave, I felt something tapping on me. I looked over, and Tigger was bouncing along next to me, and his tail was hitting me on the arm. I think that part was an accident. But I was feeling jokey, so I said "I think Tigger is kicking us out. It must be time to go." Tigger heard that, and proceeded to whack me on the behind with his tail, all the way out Main Street.