What Was Your Worst Character Greeting Moment?

[ktlm]

Here is the Peter Pan we loved:

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu249/megl/IMG_7971.jpg

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu249/megl/IMG_9669.jpg

We booked a bounceback on our May trip and just got back from our Christmas trip. DD of course wanted to see Peter Pan again. I was a little leery because we hit a different looking Peter this time, but he was great too. She was running around because she was so excited to see him so he put his arms out and started running around "flying" with her. It was so cute!! I actually saw a couple of pictures that some people had taken of Terrance in Pixie Hollow while we were there (we missed him- we ran into Silvermist and Rosetta instead), and he looked suspiciously like the Peter Pan from our last trips.

 

[Pjimmeyer]

The first time I went to DL in high school, I was told to **** Off by Winnie the Pooh! It was horrible! I was so mad. I hope that never happens to one of my kids. I was 15 and it really ruined my day. Oh well, at least that was a long time ago. I have had better times since then.

 

[Bill3]

Why don't you talk about best character experience- y'all always look for to find fault.

 

[freepixie]

Why don't you talk about best character experience- y'all always look for to find fault.

If you read thru this thread many people have noted that all their character experiences have been fabulous except for one or two times - many have evened out their bad experiences by talking about their good experiences.

 

[loveWDWalways]

This August, I had that SAME questionable Peter. He looked like there were a million other things he'd rather do than entertain his fans in the Most Magical Place on Earth. I understand the "friends" of characters have their bad days (as we all do), but as a face character those bad days show even more plainly. But now I realize it wasn't just a one time thing and all of you have had issues as well! He asked me where I was from, I replied, and he didn't say anything back. I don't expect him to recite my state tree, motto, bird, etc., laughing, but a reply would have been nice! Reading about your experiences makes mine more vivid now, as at the time I only had a nagging feeling about it at the back of my mind. I also had the feeling that all the guests in line were being laughed at/discussed by him and Wendy.

Peter really is my favorite character and we've had some good Peter Pan interactions before, but I'm still waiting for that fantastic Peter Pan M&G.

 

[tlenzendorf]

This August, I had that SAME questionable Peter. He looked like there were a million other things he'd rather do than entertain his fans in the Most Magical Place on Earth. I understand the "friends" of characters have their bad days (as we all do), but as a face character those bad days show even more plainly. But now I realize it wasn't just a one time thing and all of you have had issues as well! He asked me where I was from, I replied, and he didn't say anything back. I don't expect him to recite my state tree, motto, bird, etc., laughing, but a reply would have been nice! Reading about your experiences makes mine more vivid now, as at the time I only had a nagging feeling about it at the back of my mind. I also had the feeling that all the guests in line were being laughed at/discussed by him and Wendy.

Peter really is my favorite character and we've had some good Peter Pan interactions before, but I'm still waiting for that fantastic Peter Pan M&G.

Same thing with us. We just had the feeling he would rather be ANYWHERE other than there. I think on page 5 is the picture of the one we had in August.

 

[bellaDisneydncr]

This wasn't necessarily bad- just an odd experience that had me walking out scratching my head. I went to see the princesses by myself in MK. It's already a weird experience to go by myself as a 20 year old, but I love to meet them and see the different "friends." (If you can't tell already- I want to be a "friend" in the future, so I guess it was a research trip, too lol) I walked up to Belle and we talked a little and then she asked me where I was from. I said "Pittsburgh." And she then said as we went to take the picture, "Oh! That's the land of cream cheese, right?" I just said "No, steel!" And took my picture and said good bye. I guess she got Pittsburgh and Philadelphia mixed up, which for someone not for PA, I guess I can let it slip. But if you're from PA, you know how big of a deal that is lol

But I must say- nearly every character experience I have had has been absolutely phenomenal. I applaud all the characters for their amazing work. I can't wait til the day I get to hang out with some of them, too!

 

[imLissy]

goofy stepped on my foot when I was little. made me cry I don't remember, but the story gets told often.

 

[Pixieflip]

I don't think we have any terrible experiences, but we did have one awkward one. When my son was about 6, we stood in line to meet Ariel for my two daughters who were 2 and 3. So we put each of the girls on her lap and then I wanted a group photo with all three. He wasn't really thrilled, but went up to her anyway. And that's when I noticed...Ariel had some serious cleavage!! That little seashell top was not covering everything and I just stood my 6 year old son very near it all! He was looking at me like get me out of here, girls are gross!

On a side note and a little OT, we visited Worlds of Fun in Kansas City a few years ago and had horrible character greetings. They had the Peanuts gang and my kid were excited. Snoopy was really cute, but outwardly flirting with his handler, who was outwardly flirting with Snoopy. It was more than creepy.

Sometimes when we go somewhere else we more fully appreciate how wonderful we have it at WDW!

 

[Big Daddy Incredible]

Count me and my family as another family that had a creepy interaction with Peter Pan. We visited in August. Peter Pan was acting very disinterested. So much so that at one time, he walked away from my kids for about two full minutes while he started to interact with other guests. It's been a while since I have seen the movie so I don't know if his character is suppose to be care free and aloof or not. Regardless, it left my kids very confused.

When he finally did come back to sign their autograph books, he was asking them questions with a condescending tone and look. Seriously, check out the expression on Peter Pan's face and my oldest daughter's face. I thought he was going to make my kids cry. I was not impressed at all.

Now after telling you all of that, the interesting thing that I find is the Peter Pan that my children met is different than the Peter Pan pictured previously in this thread. The first picture is of my kids during our visit with Peter Pan. The second picture is from a prior posting from another poster from page 5 of this thread.

 

[ktlm]

Count me and my family as another family that had a creepy interaction with Peter Pan.

[/IMG]

Oh- It looks like your Peter is the one we absolutely loved who was so wonderful on both of our trips. Maybe he was just having a bad day when you were there? He was absolutely fantastic with DD. In fact, it was one of our special trip moments. On our May trip she was so impressed and starstruck with him that she got in line to see him twice because she "forgot" to tell him something the first time.


Pixieflip- you now understand why my DH loves to go visit Ariel in her grotto with DD! She is definitely his favorite.

 

[fairestoneofall]

I also wanted to note that the night I went to 1900 Park Fare for dinner, All of the characters where amazing. Cinderella, Prince Charming, Anastasia and Drizella where great. Lady Tremaine looked TOPS 27, it kind of took away from it-she was still great in character, but she could of been the sisters or Cinderella.

we had a VERY young-looking Lady Tremaine November 2008. I was amazed at how young she looked. They should've used make-up to make her look older. But she was GREAT as the character otherwise!

 

[DisneyMom14]

I will have to look to see which Peter Pan we got but although it wasn't a horrible experience, it was "less than magical."

Last Mardi Gras, we went on our first full family trip to Disney. It was my DS3's first trip and he was OBSESSED with Peter Pan. I was determined to get him a meet and greet. On our MK day, he wore his Peter Pan Halloween costume (so cute!) and we found out when Peter would come out. We waited for them about 10 minutes early and were the first to greet him when he came out. I made sure to tell Peter how much DS LOVES him (he is shy and I knew he would just stare in awe). The interaction was minimal at best. My son, I'm sure, was fine but I was dissappointed. After all of the wonderful interactions we had on that trip, the ONE we wanted to be the most magical was a dud. He didn't even mention the costume. Basically he said hi, signed his autograph book, and took the picture.

On the other hand, we had an OUTSTANDING Aladdin!!! He was WAY into character and a pleasure to meet!

 

[DisLaw]

We had a creepy Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who was just a bit to "touchy-feely" with my DD 13. He kept hugging and kissing her and trying to dance with her, until I could see it was making her uncomfortable. I actually told someone at City Hall about it because it really made me feel kind of freaked out and frankly it really spooked my DD. This was our first trip in a while and the first one since she is now more of a "big girl" (and a very pretty one if I may say so). She has even said she is going to forgo autographs and pictures with the characters in the future now.

Now I have no idea if this person really had some kind of bad intent or was just overly friendly and did not "read" how uncomfortable it was making my daughter. I just quickly took her hand, we said goodbye and walked away.

It is just sad because this has taken a bit of the magic out of future trips for her.

 

[loveWDWalways]

Same thing with us. We just had the feeling he would rather be ANYWHERE other than there. I think on page 5 is the picture of the one we had in August.

There was a great Peter I saw during the Pirate & Princess Party in 2007 during the parade. He was very much in character.

On the other hand, we had an OUTSTANDING Aladdin!!! He was WAY into character and a pleasure to meet!

Yes, Aladdin is always phenomenal! When he's doing M&G, or parades, he's always very exuberant and you'd think he'd just stepped out of the movie and into WDW!

 

[mom2rtk]

we had a VERY young-looking Lady Tremaine November 2008. I was amazed at how young she looked. They should've used make-up to make her look older. But she was GREAT as the character otherwise!

I've seen a few of the very young looking Lady T's, and it DOES make it harder to suspend your disbelief.....

My personal pet peeve with characters is when they walk up and say "so... where ya from......" It just really seems uninspired to me....

 

[Tinkh]

In 2003, we had an (at the time horribly embarassing moment) incident with Cruella Deville. This is when they would "herd" the characters into little, for lack of a better word, stalls for meet and greets. Well, we should have been clued in that my son and his two cousins who were all still quite young were a bit fiesty with the villians of their favorite shows. They had alread told Governor Ratliffe that he was bad. WELLL, maybe we should have told them not to react to the characters that way if they did not care for them, BUT a few minutes later Cruella Deville showed up. She tried to snatch my nieces autograph book to sign it (staying in character) and my niece yelled at her and told her she kills dogs! Then my son starts saying "You are a mean lady!" My husband and I tried to get around to stop them and then my one niece tried to kick Cruella! These are mild-mannered great kids. SO blatantly out of character for them lol. I was dying!! We got them to say they were sorry and you could tell Cruella wanted to laugh a bit, and the kids finally did pose for a picture with some coaxing.. but OMGSH it was soooo embarrasing They probably thought our kids were allowed to behave poorly.

Also, this was when they had the all-star parade at MGM. We loved that parade. So many great interactions happened for us. Like seeing R2D2, Luke and Leia etc. Those are etched in my sons memory, but the one that will stand out the most is Hercules and Meg. My son was OBSESSED with "Percules". He even had the Hercules game on computer at the time. Well, Hercules and Meg were near the end of the parade and my son desperately had been wanting to see them. So, we took off running as soon as the CMs let people go behind the parade. My son is yelling "Wait Percules, wait" and running. Well, they stopped and gave the kids all hugs and stood for pictures and signed their books. That was our favorite trip we have ever had.

 

[playswithstars]

I've seen a few of the very young looking Lady T's, and it DOES make it harder to suspend your disbelief.....

My personal pet peeve with characters is when they walk up and say "so... where ya from......" It just really seems uninspired to me....

I had a handler at pixie hollow who was totally into character and would not even give the slightest hint that pixie hollow could be fake. One of the first things he asked while we were waiting for tinkerbell was where we were from.

Tinkerbell also asked this as one of the first things and did the same thing. I thought it was hilarious that they both acted so well with not knowing where anything outside of Pixie Hollow was.

 

[wdw_girl_18]

Mine are just weird!

When we were at disneyland for new years eve last year, we spent the majority of the day in reindeer roundup, hiding from the crowds. My brother comes up with the weirdest questions to ask the characters. Pluto was standing around all bored, so my brother walks up to him and asks if hes neutered Pluto then ran away...so im guessing the answer to that question was no.

At wdw we were taking pictures with a power ranger. I couldn't figure out one of the weird hand poses. He suddenly talks and tells me to make a gun with my hand It scared me cause I was not expecting him to talk!!!!

My friend and I were at the magic kingdom for emh. Plutos ear was stuck on the top of his head so I went to move it and the character handler started screaming at me saying im not supposed to touch the character......

 

[Diznygrl]

My friend and I were at the magic kingdom for emh. Plutos ear was stuck on the top of his head so I went to move it and the character handler started screaming at me saying im not supposed to touch the character......

Haha...I'm willing to bet that the handler in question saw you reach for Pluto's head and was afraid you were going to attempt to pull it off.