Do's, Don'ts, and Tips for Meeting Disney Characters - Confessions of a Theme Park Worker
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2024
- Character meet and greets are returning to the Disney parks. How do you get the most out of them and the best experiences? Follow this list of things you should and shouldn't do, and tips and tricks to have amazing times meeting the Disney characters.
A behind the scenes look at what a former worker at Disney World, Silver Dollar City, and Busch Gardens Florida experienced in his time working at the parks. From driving large safari trucks around live wild animals while cracking one silly joke after another, to spending 5 years as a #PhotoPass photographer at #WaltDisneyWorld and seeing and experiencing all sorts of things, to being a conductor and #trainrobber on the famous Frisco Silver Dollar Line at #SilverDollarCity. With 10 years of working in the parks, there's lots of stories to tell. Here is some of them...
Not only did I work in theme parks for 10 years, I've visited a whole lot of them as well. Here's some stories of great visits, not so great visits, favorites, reviews, and much more.
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My dad said to Genie “is it hot in there muhaha?” in his typical boomer way 🤦 Genie swiftly walked away
Ha ha my hint is bring someone younger with you. Last Disneyland trip I had to ask my daughter who some characters were!! Thanks for the video!
The fact that Sir Willow has to point some of these out makes me wonder just how many people surrounding me at the parks at any given time were raised in a cave with no knowledge of how to act within society:
We typically go on a yearly trip to Disney and one of our most favorite things to do is egg on Donald by asking or talking about Mickey. At a Christmas party one year I made the mistake of saying Donald was #1 while Scrooge was there. Scrooge refused to take a photo with me and and instead of a group photo Donald took me over and we had our own photoshoot away from the group and Scrooge. Of course we finally did an entire group photo, but Scrooge refused to stand next to me. It made all of us laugh and was a great time! Another great meet and greet was on our honeymoon with Donald and Daisy at Tusker House. We asked Daisy's assistant if it was possible to get a photo with her and Donald both, they told us they could not meet together or take a photo together with the 4 of us. When we met Daisy she went crazy over our happily everafter buttons. We told her we asked to get a photo with her and Donald but weren't able to. She suddenly stomps off, disappears for a few minutes, and comes back dragging Donald by the hand ( I guess Daisy had told him what was going on before hand). We took our photo with the both of them and afterward they scoulded their assistant by shaking their fingers at them haha
Thank you for the refresher video! Great tips!
It still surprises me that we have to remind people about basic manners while in the park. Also, make sure your pen works. 😉
I worked as a mascot performer for a while, and I *HATE* with a firey passion when parents would PUSH their terrified children at us. The kids clearly didn't want to be there, but the parents /insisted/ they see us.
We were taught how to handle situations like that, and for the most part it DID work, but it took a LOT of time and a lot of people missed out on meeting us because it was over our time limit for being out....
It got to a point, if the parents wouldnt stop pushing their kids at us, and they clearly weren't going to calm down soon enough, our handlers would say something like; "oh, Verne has to go over HERE now," or "oops! Looks like someone needs Verne at THIS place now".
And we'd kinda just shift our location to our secondary spot. I felt so bad, but if we couldn't calm them down fast enough everyone lost out.
Thankfully it didn't happen TOO often that we couldn't get control of the situation, but still.....
I may be guilty of accidentally stepping, or bumping feets... mostly with my cane. . . I always apologized as soon as I noticed. Usually happened with characters that had longer shoes or feet. . . .
After being the sole caregiver for my bed ridden mom for 3 years (literally the week before the covid lock down she was discharged from the hospital) she passed away Oct. 4th.
My friend has been talking about going to Disneyland (I told her Halloween time is the best time to go for many reasons) and I've been kind of hesitant.
Now knowing hugs are going to be welcomed, there's no guarantee I won't burst into tears if I hug Donald. He was my favorite character (him and Uncle Scrooge) and Maleficent was my mom's.
We leave on Friday to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We haven't been since 2009. We have CRT breakfast on the 18th before the park opens, so hoping to get one of the first hugs!
Another one of my pearls of wisdom for gifts: pins are GREAT for the characters. Especially if it's a pin of them. Side note: some characters, like Rey are hard to find a pin of. However, she loves pins of R2D2 or Chewbacca as they're her allies
Yes! Absolutely! Pins are perfect gifts for them!
Haven’t done character meet and greets in a long time. I can remember the last time interacting with them was when I was a little kid.
Thanks for the video , Great tip. I love getting autographs from the disney characters even when you are an adult
Meet & Greets were on my list of things I wanted to see return to Disney before I booked a trip. There's just a few more things on that list that needs to be done & I'm ready to Hug Mickey & Belle again.
I’ve always gotten my autograph book out before I get to the character 👍🏻
A lot of great tips and specially the one about having a gift for them - Pocahontas remembered my gift when I re meet her severel hours later despite meeting hundreds of guests that day.
One thing I noticed is that some of the atendences/Photographers that used my camera took photos throughout the meeting rather than just the photoshot. It gave me some unexpected photo memories of the great time I had.
Another great tip is to learn the basic of the sign laungage the character and what the different gestures means if you dont know them. It will make you much more confortable around fur characters if you can read them and have a discussion that way. I had a lot of great experiences by simply read what they different characters where saying with theyre signs and gestures and respond with either gestures or words to that. The angry dwarf (forgot his name) was a great experience when he showed how angry he was when I handled him is gift. Ofc it helped that I know that all the dwarfes has different tempers and shows different mods so I could just adjust to that.
And while I understand the "dont be the quiet guy" for most its might be that some are not up for talking either by being to scared or to nervous about meeting theyre favorite character. I had that moment a few times here in Sweden so I know. They could show they are happy in other ways or maybe tell the handler that they are so nervous about meeting the character so theyre probebly not gonna say anything to them. Johan.
So thrilled to see proper character meets return. I’m now more motivated to return to WDW in the near future.
How often do guests exhibit any of those “don’t” behaviors? it particularly common? Or is it extremely rare?
If anyone want to see some excellent character interactions, check out the UA-cam channel Three Generations at Disney. They give gifts to the characters quite frequently!
If I had to put it in percentages, you see it from around 1-2% of the guests. Not very often, but often enough that it's noticeable. So typically a few times a day.
I've seen that channel that you mention as well. They're great! Love how they interact and the gifts they bring.
Fantastic ideas. So happy that characters are returning.
Don’t say Chips ‘n Dip unless it’s Chip ‘n Dale’s Chips ‘n Dip Shop! 😁
I’m about to go to the magic kingdom tomorrow for meet and greets. Mickey, Minnie, Goofyand a couple others are on my list. Hope it goes well!
The hitting on the Princesses, um, guys, you do realize that literally almost all of them are married, right?? Or engaged.
When I was so little that Cypress Gardens was in existence, there was a beautiful southern belle I wanted my dad to be photographed with. When he got his chance, he asked me if this was the pretty one I had in mind. That way he could compliment the Belle without making it weird. I still treasure the picture.
George, I would really like to meet up with Alice. I would tell here that about fifty years ago I was here and met her and she hasn't aged a bit. LOL. Anyhooo, I love you videos and keep up the good work. May God bless you and yours.
I am guilty of not knowing what to say to the characters. I am so anxious to go back to Disney. We have tickets from the March 2020 shutdown so it’s a matter of when we are able to go. We did photo pass last time, and some of the characters I had no idea what to say. I know who all of them are, but I just went brain dead flat lined. I think the only exception was Belle (at the Belle’s Tales attraction, I wore a dress with Beauty and the Beast images on it. A cast member told me to go first to get pictures, and I was dumbfounded! I’m not a kid, let them go first! But I think they knew I loved Belle or wanted her to see my dress. I had a decent interaction with her. Meaning I was able to communicate well with her) and Beast (Beast was at Be Our Guest. I told him he was my favorite, and he was ecstatic).
I really look forward to meeting characters up close by myself soon
I dont do autographs with the characters, it isn't really my thing, but I do have great tips with how to interact with them and what to ask. Some of these I've heard of, some I've actually done myself, including:
Ask Mickey when he's gonna buy Minnie a ring. If you have your SO with you, show them their ring to give Mickey ideas (My fiancee has an absolute SHINER of a ring which Minnie loved)
Ask Pocahontas what her arm band tattoo means
Ask Ariel how her cousin is doing (google who it is youll be surprised!)
Tell Jasmine you tried to find Agrabah on a map and couldn't.
Walk past Stormtroopers and yell RESISTANCE FOREVER!
Give Princess Tiana a copy of your favorite recipe
Wear a Captain America shirt to meet stitch
Ask Timon how "Mr. Pig" is doing or if he's found any new grubs
Recommend a new book to Belle
Tell Jack Sparrow a pirate joke
Walk up to the green army men if they're marching around and start going "left, left, left right left!" they'll march in step with you
I have a lot more if youre stuck. Just comment
awesome
I recently went to Disney and even though the characters greetings were not back to normal yet I still had a fun time with them one of my favorite interaction was one with Elsa I told her about Luigi she asked me what powers he has and I said he has a vacuum that can suck up ghost she then ask if Olaf would like to try that but I warned her that he might get scared of King Boo Elsa was interested in King boo but I told her he is mean and he can only be defeated by getting trapped in a painting one of my favorite recent interactions
What did she say?
I just got back from 12 days at WDW. It is getting to be like it was in the 80s. I won't mention the $5 Cokes or $3.75 for water, but I will mention the trash in my resort waterway, the used Disney face masks in the lake in EPCOT, the weeds growing up in the bushes at my resort, fallen leaves everywhere on the walkways. Once, my Dad mentioned, as we were walking into EPCOT in the 90s, how the trees were too afraid to drop their leaves. A manager walking by overheard him and had a big smile on his face. No more. The food was not good either. Long lines? Unless you buy the Genie, you will spend most of your time in line. We got in line at RnRoller Coaster at 11:45a.m. The sign said 80 minutes. We rode it at 3:00. It did NOT breakdown, but hundreds of Genie Plus people were allowed in. I rode two rides in MGM that day. If I bought Genie Plus it would have been an extra $90 a day for a total of $630. For the privilege of riding two rides. Your ticket is worthless. Sorry, but I have been going to WDW since 1987, they better get their heads out of their politics and start getting back into making WDW what it used to be, a truly great vacation.
Still some good tips!
In a response to the first one, i know almost all of the Disney characters since these characters are the ones who get to know and to those who watched any Disney movie and cartoons where a character is based on, even i can recognise Cinderella in a blue dress (some people may confuse her dress to Aurora's chosen dress, but you may get the point), Sadness, being blue, Joy being happy, Ariel being in its mermaid clothing, (she doesn't have one when she become completely human, but she's still recognisable), Olaf's a snowman, Elsa's a snow queen, etc, even i don't know some of the characters... i will ask the same thing or even i could ask them one character who i recognise but it's a different character by saying ''Hey! are you (characters name)?'' but if its a different character... they might do a ''no'' expression and thank god i didn't confuse Donald Duck to Warner Bros' Daffy Duck, even Daffy hates to be called as Donald cause... these names of these 2 ducks has the letter D at the start! XD
Just push the flash button. Yep took it
It was really embarrassing to walk up to Elena when she was the next princess in the trio and I have to openly admit to her that I didn’t know who she was, and I got so much teasing from Tiana and Rapunzel and especially Flynn, they were all there to see that happen
I should point out she was in my blind spot for much of the time I was standing in line, by the time I realized she was there I was too close to the front end, and Tiana was the first one of the bunch
i feel so bummed cause when i went in 2015 i missed mr and mrs incredible by 5 min but i did love rafiki he signed my lion king cd
I’m going to Disney World in June, my first time in over 10 years. Meeting characters is my favourite thing, not a big coasters fan 😂 I really want to meet Mary Poppins and the big mouse himself, anyone else is a bonus 😁 chip and dale were hysterical when I saw them in DLP a few years ago!
I haven't done this since being a kid. Just feels weird doing it as an adult.
Are there particular candies and box sizes you recommend, especially when it is hot like a Florida summer?
Not chocolates. Hehe we do the small boxes of skittles, sweet tarts, and things like that
Don’t forget Disneyland too can get brutal in the summer for that! I was there once in September and it was 107!
Don’t forget character integrity you should do a whole video on Character integrity it’s so important to talk about
Got ya covered! Though it's from a while back. ua-cam.com/video/6m3n1lW44Gs/v-deo.html
Myrtle went to eat at Cosmic Rays and was never seen again. Lol
Confessions If A Theme Park Worker, have you ever played The Beast from Beauty and The Beast? Beast is my favorite Character in the entire Disney Log of Characters! He’s very handsome, and, I love him so much!
I wasn't a character performer. I was a photographer. :-)
Oh, were you? That’s fascinating! Then did you photograph The Beast at all?
I love launch pad maquack thank g-d I don’t drive my rc cars like he flys the planes for scruge mc duck I would have a pile of parts
Personal experience, when meeting Donald if you have some form of Mickey mouse merch on show DO make sure you also have Donald merch on show 😂
Hi! We're HUGE Star Wars fans, and it seems the Star Wars characters, especially the First Order characters, don't typically follow this formula. Do you have any tips on getting a great, but respectful experience with them? Also, I'm super nervous to talk to/interact with the characters during the "activity" segment, (especially aforementioned First Order characters) because I just don't know what I would say! Do you have any tips for what to say or do? Thanks in advance!
You ask the mascots what their phone numbers are
As a kid, I had a severe phobia of mascots mostly due to my visual impairment (I'm partially sighted)
I've seen Mickey Mouse in local shopping centres and I've had to shout loudly "BLIND MAN!"
Do characters receive training on how do interact with people who are blind/partially sighted?
I don't even plan on going to Disneyland/World (despite how much I want to) and even I have a plan on how to meet the characters. Greet, have a conversation, get an autograph, take a picture, move on. (I wrote this before I got to the GAAP part!)
Great remake. Lots of wonderful new tips.
Awesome do's and don't's list! It's just sad that you have to DO this because certain people apparently don't know how to behave like good-hearted individuals.
I mean I know how to act in polite society, and I'm completely and utterly insane.
When characters receive gifts, do the cast members get to keep them? Any rules on that such as them being given something really expensive?
I mention the value limits for a reason. yes, they do generally get to keep gifts (not cash!!), as long as they aren't expensive. When I was there I think the limit was around $25-30. It may have gone up but I doubt they're allowed to keep anything worth more than about $50.
@@SirWillow what happens with the overly expensive items? Given to charity?
They are supposed to be refused and not accepted. Or given to managers who do who knows what with them- donated, sold at cast store or otherwise. To keep an expensive gift can get a cast member fired.
@@SirWillow what about like handmade gifts? I'm meeting mickey and minnie and was thinking about painting them a wooden M for each of them. Is there a size limit to gifts ?
Those are the most amazingly perfect gifts you can give. And the ones that the characters probably treasure the most. Don't be afraid to bring those. They will love them and they do get to keep them
Tinker and the Princesses even when it is hard to follow what you say they are so beautiful to see and watch but I behaved sweet the first times around this time haven´t the donation Shirt around but hope they will be still as sweet as they were last time even when I am scared the 2019 Girls could be gone not even working there anymore after so much furloughs.
But of course will be happy to meet Mickey, Pooh cosing around with them. Daisy Minnie and so many more will love to show them my Autograph book have the Pictures of them from first trip but like I wrote scared none of those would be around that´s the saddest part of that all.
The Clips you showed was that in WORLD because TINK looked familiar to me hope doesn´t mean she changed to DL if that was from there but since you took older visits I think into those clips she was amazingly astonishing beautiful but already had those nasty box there but at least the box made nice pics anyways a lot even when it was funny to see how I took the donation item.
She talked around mostly to the other Cast Member maybe she thought I was not focused enough I was happy to see her was too dreamy she told about what she do but I can´t remember what she tried to explain to me what she does in those fairy place of hers it was funny to listen but had only eyes for her she is just adorable and think it was the same Tink I got back than so hope this sweet Girl is still around cuz showing those pictures to some other TINK is not the same magical as to having the same one.
Would you suggesting to not even flirting with regular Cast Members around the Parks or would you say that could be kinda okay but not with those Characters of course or would you think not to bother them either even when they are sometimes as beautiful as those character ones and you seeking for some to have something against those lonliness???
The easy interaction will be with fur mask characters since I didn´t know who was behind those masks and furs. But I hope my sweet Princesses will be mostly around cuz it would feel kinda awkward if I show them pics from different ones that were portraying their Characters even when maybe they would find it sweet.
Hated those Furloughns so many lost their Jobs and don´t know how many they would have brought back since those Princesses have a running out of time Problem only few years they are allowed to portray the Princesses.
But maybe I have and will have luck and maybe I will catch even some new ones if they would be around some Mirabel some Moana even when I don´t know how beautiful they would be??? Do you know is Mirabel now officially also considered to be a Princess the newest Member just like Vanellope once was???
Any rumors of Character dining coming back to all restaurants that had them before?
I know it's back at several of them already. I'm sure the few remaining will be coming soon.
Now what if tour going to be by yourself but you want to take a few different posed photos ? Or do they only like doing one nice photo
Generally they will only take a couple posed photos because there are other people waiting to see them as well.
@@SirWillow yeah I was thinking like 3, one nice one, a fun one, and a cute one
What if they have multiple stories? Like Chip and Dale, for example. Are they going to know anything about the Rescue Rangers, or are they just the ones that antagonize Donald?
They know all their stories
@@SirWillow I can imagine an exhausted man in a Donald Duck body costume, head right beside him, reading an enormous stack of Donald Duck comics in a bunch of different languages, you know, just to be on the safe side for any Disney megafans.
Will they sign a hat if you take it off and hand it to them?
Yes
Sir Willow, is okay to show Donald Duck a clip of when he was in the army during ww2? For example, the short Donald Gets Drafted.
Why wouldn't it be? :-)
@@SirWillow True, after all, he did start in that short.
Just because the costume pieces are thick does not mean they won't be hurt at all by childishness. Emotional drain is a thing and I can't imagine being thumped on the back of that large head is good for your neck.
It isn't. Its a good way to undergo slipped discs and severe muscle pulls
I had a feeling, that sounds awful.
@@kaylawhipple7570 I see it every day at work. EMT here. Yeah thumping the characters can seriously hurt them. Those costume heads are heavy and you can seriously sprain a muscle that way
Gross and painful. People really need to grow up.
Forgot Do's, Don'ts, Really Don'ts, and Tips. Really don'ts are those you really don't need to say it, but people have done it and you wish you didn't have to say it because of that.
I think you forgot to say don’t touch the characters in an inappropriate places
I agree. If I may add on to this also, ask for consent to touch them mask and face characters to be specific ( not in the inappropriate places ) and let the attendant know as well so he or she knows that the character and the attendant are comfortable with that. If the character says yes then they know that you asked permission and won’t have a problem. But, If the character answers no or isn’t comfortable with that then there’s nothing you can do just continue the interaction as normal at the same time respecting their boundaries. Hope you understand what I am trying to say.
What if, theoretically speaking, that guests know exactly who Donald Duck really is and they deliberately call him Daffy Duck so he could throw his iconic temper?
That would be the rare instance. It was almost always when they were in line talking about who the duck was that I heard Daffy being used. :-)
@@SirWillow Interesting.
Sadly all indoor meet n greets have a 😬😞box at WDW. They sure know how to lower customer service for the sake of a few dollars.
That's what I've been hearing from a few people now. Very sad. That part won't be anywhere near the same.
Seriously?? Ugh… photographers can really make a character meet that much better!
@@bluegold1026 absolutely!!! They help keeping the character safe and Sometimes help the interaction when the attendant is busy. And sometimes catch some of BAD things Sir Willow talked about.