Toonfinding
Page 3 of 5
The best way to start is with more of the set location characters. These include Mickey and Minnie back in Toontown, Ariel at the grotto, et cetera. There might be a line but at least it is controlled and less chaotic than the atmosphere characters. And you can be pretty sure to meet them all day long.
Ok, I was very recently informed that not all of the characters are overly happy with you or your kids just thrusting the autograph book at them expecting them to sign it. Take a few seconds and ask them to sign it… it’s the courtesy thing. Plus depending upon what character it is, they might think it is a gift and will "keep" it until you or your child says something.
With that said, now onto actually meeting the characters and how to maximize your experience with them.
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Whether you are meeting Mickey or Donald or even one of the newer characters, it has become pretty common, from what I have seen, that quite a few people have no clue who some of the characters are. For example, Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove has been mistaken for everyone from Tarzan to Hercules to whatever character it is from Road to El Dorado… kind of sad for the character isn’t it? A little research or asking around will turn up a few clues about the characters. Getting their name right is the first thing to help get some sort of reaction out of the characters. I don’t know how many times I’ve been waiting to get a photo of a character and the parents have no clue who they are waiting to be meeting, even some of the kids have no clue… it’s just a character within the Disney parks.
Now for the best part… know something about that character. This actually requires one to watch the movie they are from or read one of the many books Disney puts out related to that movie. A personal experience for myself was with the new Atlantis characters that premiered in June a week prior to the movie’s release. Milady (my Toonfinding partner) and I did quite a bit of research to know who we were dealing with. We bought a few of the books that were available prior to the movie release that were available at Compass Books over in Downtown Disney Anaheim… everything from information about each character to the actual Atlantean language (written only). We studied up on this information and when we first met them we maximized the experience by talking to them about things from the movie even though we didn’t see the movie until sometime in July. Don’t be afraid to have fun… you are at a Disney park after all.
Milo from Atlantis
Next, if you are in a queued area, then there might be a sense of rushing through but this is only done when there is a line that would make the Rocket Rods look like a walk-on ride (bad analogy? Oh well… it’s closed now). The characters are usually the best judges of how long they’ll be able to interact with all the guests during each set (a set is how long that character is out doing a meet-n-greet before they need to go take a quick break and re-hydrate). Not all will be able to see all the characters if there are more than one within a controlled area, but if there are 3 or 4 characters scheduled for a location you are more than likely going to meet at least 2 of them… and if you stick around for about 30 minutes you are sure to see the remaining characters in that line-up. Even within this area though you are most likely to have the best interaction with the characters than with traditional atmosphere characters. Which brings us to our next area…
Atmosphere characters are the ones who unfortunately get the worst abuse out of everyone within the gates of a Disney park. Someone is either getting kicked, grabbed, pulled, groped during the day and not all of these characters have Character Hosts watching over them. If you have ever read any of David Koenig’s Mouse Tales books on Disneyland where he discusses the characters, you know what I mean. No matter how hard I don’t want to believe it, the horror stories that grace my desk are ones of why nothing was ever done. Some of things I hear and read about border on assault and battery… so be kind to the characters ok? I don’t want to have to read that someone had a copy of this article and still caused some serious harm to any of my friends. Anyway, back to trying to maximize your experience with the atmosphere characters.
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