Subsonic Radio

I know some people don't enjoy that character aspects of the parks, but it is my absolute favourite part of visiting Disney! I have noticed that no one really posts about characters here, so I'm starting a thread! There are so many great stories to tell, I hope everyone has something to share

I can start with the time we met Aladdin in Epcot and told him where we were from and somehow ended up talking about Southport and how the theme park there has a magic carpet ride, so he had visited and knew where it was. We were in Disney World Florida and Southport is a town in North West England..... it was truly bizarre/magical!

My kids loved meeting characters. They had no problems with heroes or villains. They would go up and get pictures. There were two exceptions. My son wanted nothing to do with Cruella De Vil, though my daughter went up and got a picture. Cruella was excellent. Complaining to one parent that she didn't have all day when the parent took a long time to get the picture taken and posing the girls as "pretty princesses" while she scowled.

The other exception was Governor Ratcliffe. Neither kid would go up to him. They had no problems with the Evil Queen, Malificent, the Queen of Hearts, Jarfar, etc. But there was something about the Governor's appearance that scared them - which I found amusing since I consider him the least scary viallain.

I love character meet and greets! When I was younger I would get a new autograph book and fill it up! My mother tells me that when I was a small child I was afraid of every character except for The Beast (I ran right up to him!). lol

Even now that I'm a little older I still take pics with the characters (if the line isn't massive). My favorites are Stitch and Pluto.

sfein- Thats so cute! When do you get to see all the villains? Do they only come out at Halloween because you don't see them all the time? But I imagine Governor Ratcliffe to be really scary in the parks!

Mupsy90- I have loads of autographs too and I still love to meet all the characters! I am planning to just keep 1 autograph book now and hopefully when I get back to the parks I can get the full collection of everyone you can meet!

My two daughters loved seeing jafar as a character. He spent a lot of time kidding with them when the got his autograph. My eldest daughter had a Loonytoons autograph book. He looked at it and gave her a noogie. She will never forget that. It was cute.

My two daughters loved seeing jafar as a character. He spent a lot of time kidding with them when the got his autograph. My eldest daughter had a Loonytoons autograph book. He looked at it and gave her a noogie. She will never forget that. It was cute.

princessinwaiting wrote:sfein- Thats so cute! When do you get to see all the villains? Do they only come out at Halloween because you don't see them all the time? But I imagine Governor Ratcliffe to be really scary in the parks!

This was in 2002. All the villains came out together in Fantasyland. One long line of them. We then were at MGM (before it became Hollywood Studios of course). On one of the streets was Cruella, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. I have a picture with 6 of them (not sure where the 7th was hiding). It seemed in 2002 everywhere you looked there were tons of characters. The best was my daughter loved Aurora and we never saw her. Then one day, out come Snow White, Cinderella, Dopey and Aurora. She was in heaven.

My kids had autograph books in 2000, 2002 and 2005. I like looking through them comparing signatures. It is amazing how consistent they are.

sfein wrote:

princessinwaiting wrote:sfein- Thats so cute! When do you get to see all the villains? Do they only come out at Halloween because you don't see them all the time? But I imagine Governor Ratcliffe to be really scary in the parks!

This was in 2002. All the villains came out together in Fantasyland. One long line of them. We then were at MGM (before it became Hollywood Studios of course). On one of the streets was Cruella, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. I have a picture with 6 of them (not sure where the 7th was hiding). It seemed in 2002 everywhere you looked there were tons of characters. The best was my daughter loved Aurora and we never saw her. Then one day, out come Snow White, Cinderella, Dopey and Aurora. She was in heaven.

My kids had autograph books in 2000, 2002 and 2005. I like looking through them comparing signatures. It is amazing how consistent they are.

There were a lot more characters around at that time. That's when I was a CP and they began to celebrate Walt's 100th bday in late 2001 to 2002. Great time to be there. I even have pics taken with MIlo from Atlantis and Hercules from...well you know!

It's kind of funny this thread exists as I mentioned the changes at Character Spot in EPCOT on the WDW forum. I would agree that character offerings have gone down in terms of variety to just allow mass viewing of the fab five. To me it really has made the characters an attraction, especially with the fastpass to meet characters, rather than letting it just be a cool thing to catch. The special appearance characters like the bus in EPCOT and at Animation Courtyard were among my favorites, but both are now a thing of the past.

it's all about $$$$ Characters CM get paid well, and they only work 20 minutes of the hour. It's a tough job, don't get me wrong, I was a character for kids bdayu partied for 4 years. At least the fastpasses for characters are on a different system than the rides.

But is sure makes the kids happy.

yodiwan1 wrote:it's all about $$$$ Characters CM get paid well, and they only work 20 minutes of the hour. It's a tough job, don't get me wrong, I was a character for kids bdayu partied for 4 years. At least the fastpasses for characters are on a different system than the rides.

I think indoor rotations are 30 on 30 off. For outside characters on hot days it is 20 minutes on and 40 minutes off.

Len90 wrote:

yodiwan1 wrote:it's all about $$$$ Characters CM get paid well, and they only work 20 minutes of the hour. It's a tough job, don't get me wrong, I was a character for kids bdayu partied for 4 years. At least the fastpasses for characters are on a different system than the rides.

I think indoor rotations are 30 on 30 off. For outside characters on hot days it is 20 minutes on and 40 minutes off.

What do they do in their off time? Simply go back inside and cool off?

Amy wrote:

Len90 wrote:I think indoor rotations are 30 on 30 off. For outside characters on hot days it is 20 minutes on and 40 minutes off.

What do they do in their off time? Simply go back inside and cool off?

I'll let you know when I'm a princess, Amy We probably powder our noses or drink tea and eat little cakes! Hehe!

Len90 wrote:It's kind of funny this thread exists as I mentioned the changes at Character Spot in EPCOT on the WDW forum. I would agree that character offerings have gone down in terms of variety to just allow mass viewing of the fab five. To me it really has made the characters an attraction, especially with the fastpass to meet characters, rather than letting it just be a cool thing to catch. The special appearance characters like the bus in EPCOT and at Animation Courtyard were among my favorites, but both are now a thing of the past.

Len I totally agree with you, characters should be something cool to catch and there should be more of them around like there used to be. I'd just die if I met Hercules!!! What was the bus in Epcot? Characters AND a bus??? Yes please

princessinwaiting wrote:

Amy wrote:

Len90 wrote:I think indoor rotations are 30 on 30 off. For outside characters on hot days it is 20 minutes on and 40 minutes off.

What do they do in their off time? Simply go back inside and cool off?

I'll let you know when I'm a princess, Amy We probably powder our noses or drink tea and eat little cakes! Hehe!