The Future of Disneyland Character Meet And Greets

[DodgerGirl]

As I mentioned in my opening post I wonder why Disneyland doesn't let you get character autographs by mail without having to visit the parks or waiting in line? Because it would be a wonderful idea for Disneyland to do with the meet and greets when they return and kids would recieve a special letter and an autographed picture from the character when you return home. I have been wanting Star Lord's autograph for so long and this idea would be cool to get rare autographs from characters. But I think once character meet and greets return they will also improve the meet and greets at the character breakfasts and dinners as well

 

[DodgerGirl]

I also hope that when character meet and greets return to character dining Disneyland will have a new rule for characters and that rule would be no skipping tables. Because the thing that i've noticed mainly at Goofy's Kitchen is that sometimes when you are meeting a character the hardest part is trying to chase a character down trying to get an autograph because I witnessed this when trying to meet Aladdin and Jasmine at Goofy's Kitchen and when we were eating the other tables in our seating section got Aladdin and Jasmine to visit them but we were ignored and my mom had to ask a cast member to bring them to our table which the cast member couldn't do so we gave up ate and left. If there is one thing I dislike about character meet and greets at Disneyland is being ignored and they should fix this problem when meet and greets resume

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think also when Character Meet And Greets resume at Disneyland and at character breakfasts and dining is they should offer a third option of getting a character photo in a picture frame with the child much like malls do with Easter Bunny photos and Santa photos and also have the chance to sign special encouraging messages to children in their autograph books like if you tell them that your child is going to their first day of school or send a get well message to a sick child the character will gladly write a personal message for them. Wouldn't that be cute?

 

[Karin1984]

I think also when Character Meet And Greets resume at Disneyland and at character breakfasts and dining is they should offer a third option of getting a character photo in a picture frame with the child much like malls do with Easter Bunny photos and Santa photos and also have the chance to sign special encouraging messages to children in their autograph books like if you tell them that your child is going to their first day of school or send a get well message to a sick child the character will gladly write a personal message for them. Wouldn't that be cute?

Doesn't that already exist? All the princess dinners I have done had a princess at the door, which is a picture you can get framed. And the rest of the M&Gs where there is a photopass, you can get framed, not?
Personal messages also already exist, if you tell the character/CM that there is something going on, or it comes up in conversation. But it will be very short, as getting all the actors to have the exact same handwriting in longer messages is hard. To have the signature all the same is one thing, personalized messages is harder.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Dad and I were discussing this topic the other day and what Dad thinks Disneyland will do once meet and greets return is they will charge $50,00 for a meet and greet and to get an autograph from a character will be $55,00. But I think Disneyland will make the character meet and greets by reservation only and you can reserve what character is there at the time and when your name is called you'll be the first one to meet that character without having to wait in long lines. I think when Disneyland stopped full meet and greets due to the pandemic it really hurt the character actors and something that I always wondered is how much did the character actors get paid for no meet and greets during that time? Because I would think Disneyland would've given the character actors a special bonus for that time. But Disneyland needs to bring back full meet and greets pronto because they make people happy and truly are a joy for young children to see characters come to life

 

[DodgerGirl]

I have figured out why Disneyland has not done full meet and greets for a while and it was way before the pandemic started. My mom told me that Disneyland stopped doing character meet and greets with the characters after an incident occurred known as the Gaston Incident and ever since this happened Disneyland started making changes to character meet and greets and one of the rules was no hugging or autographs until further notice. But as I mentioned many times in this post Disneyland should offer character autographs and character photos by mail and it would be so cute for people to get. Or you can do the same thing at home by standing your kids in front of a movie backdrop with a Disney plushie and the character would "sign" the autograph for the kids and the best part about these home meet and greets is that the plush characters the kids can actually hug. But I do hope when Disneyland finally resumes full meet and greets they are improved with more rules

 

[Malcon10t]

I have figured out why Disneyland has not done full meet and greets for a while and it was way before the pandemic started. My mom told me that Disneyland stopped doing character meet and greets with the characters after an incident occurred known as the Gaston Incident and ever since this happened Disneyland started making changes to character meet and greets and one of the rules was no hugging or autographs until further notice. But as I mentioned many times in this post Disneyland should offer character autographs and character photos by mail and it would be so cute for people to get. Or you can do the same thing at home by standing your kids in front of a movie backdrop with a Disney plushie and the character would "sign" the autograph for the kids and the best part about these home meet and greets is that the plush characters the kids can actually hug. But I do hope when Disneyland finally resumes full meet and greets they are improved with more rules

Your mother is incorrect. Currently, it is simply social distancing. I actually like the way they are doing it now.

And the "Gaston Incident" happened in 2015, so if they were going to make a change, it would have happened prior to SARS-CoV-2.

 

[EmJ]

Your mother is incorrect. Currently, it is simply social distancing. I actually like the way they are doing it now.

And the "Gaston Incident" happened in 2015, so if they were going to make a change, it would have happened prior to SARS-CoV-2.

What is the current status of character dining these days? I'm starting to get my toes wet in trip planning again and everything is different. I'm looking specifically at Goofy's Kitchen dinner.

 

[Malcon10t]

What is the current status of character dining these days? I'm starting to get my toes wet in trip planning again and everything is different. I'm looking specifically at Goofy's Kitchen dinner.

I haven't dined at Goofy's, but they way they are handling it at Storytellers is the characters have a "dance" and go thru the restaurant 2x passing all the tables. Then when the song is over, they proceed again thru the restaurant to say hi at each table, they pose quickly at the table, but not with kids, unless you line it up so it is more of a photo bomb pic. The wave and blow kisses at the kids (and adults) but do not stop individually.

 

[EmJ]

I haven't dined at Goofy's, but they way they are handling it at Storytellers is the characters have a "dance" and go thru the restaurant 2x passing all the tables. Then when the song is over, they proceed again thru the restaurant to say hi at each table, they pose quickly at the table, but not with kids, unless you line it up so it is more of a photo bomb pic. The wave and blow kisses at the kids (and adults) but do not stop individually.

Thank you! I’m guessing it is probably similar since both restaurants say that they have a “modified experience”. This will be our first trip to Disney anything, which in some ways is fortunate for us. My son has no conception of what the character dining could/used to be, and will be most pleased just to get a dance and a wave. I appreciate your response

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think when Disneyland stopped character meet and greets during the pandemic I think the character actors felt very saddened and shocked at the news because they were afraid that they were gonna get fired and not gonna recieve any money and I think the loss of full character meet and greets really has hurt Disneyland and until full character meet and greets return Disneyland will make huge money and get lots of guests in the parks again. But as I mentioned I think who really is hurting are the children because if you go to Disneyland now I bet you hear a parents conversation like this:,
Child: Mom why can't I hug Goofy and say hi and get autographs?
Mother: Katie those are the new rules now and you might get sick,
Father: Oh, My gosh now kids can't hug or talk to the characters now? I'm ready to complain and get my money back,
Now why I think Disneyland did this in the first place was not due to the pandemic but to give the character actors less money and time for stuff like parades and shows. I discussed this topic with Dad and he dislikes what Disneyland has done to the character meet and greets and he thinks that this is a new direction they're heading toward. But Disneyland should make meet and greets like they were in the 80's and 90's and that would help a lot

 

[EmJ]

I think when Disneyland stopped character meet and greets during the pandemic I think the character actors felt very saddened and shocked at the news because they were afraid that they were gonna get fired and not gonna recieve any money and I think the loss of full character meet and greets really has hurt Disneyland and until full character meet and greets return Disneyland will make huge money and get lots of guests in the parks again. But as I mentioned I think who really is hurting are the children because if you go to Disneyland now I bet you hear a parents conversation like this:,
Child: Mom why can't I hug Goofy and say hi and get autographs?
Mother: Katie those are the new rules now and you might get sick,
Father: Oh, My gosh now kids can't hug or talk to the characters now? I'm ready to complain and get my money back,
Now why I think Disneyland did this in the first place was not due to the pandemic but to give the character actors less money and time for stuff like parades and shows. I discussed this topic with Dad and he dislikes what Disneyland has done to the character meet and greets and he thinks that this is a new direction they're heading toward. But Disneyland should make meet and greets like they were in the 80's and 90's and that would help a lot

I really, really doubt this was a cost savings coup on Disney’s part. They’re trying to keep the characters out in some capacity and this is what they can do right now. That said, I know people who are used to the old way are probably super disappointed, just as we all are with everything that can‘t go “back to normal” yet. For our part, we will be happy to see them at all, but we’re newbies.

 

[MonocularVision]

My assumption is that the characters are part of Entertainment and that most of the folks in that department are union and they have negotiated safety protocols.

Total speculation on my part.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I think Disneyland needs to do to bring the traditional meet and greets back is to get EVERY single character actor and have a huge meeting and tell them this: "It's time to meet and greet children again and you need to hug and do autographs with children and that what characters are supposed to do and what they are there for in the park because there's unhappy children that are so sad that this special chance has been taken away from them because of health reasons" And I think the meeting would work miracles for the character actors and Disneyland would give them a huge bonus and face character actors would get a double bonus. When this chance was taken away due to the pandemic I think it caused Disneyland to go downhill and I have a feeling that if Disneyland doesn't bring meet and greets back the park will still go downhill . But as I mentioned I hope that they don't have meet and greets where you have a total of three characters to meet before meeting the main character. I cannot figure out at some of these meet and greets like Pixie Hollow where you have meet every fairy before meeting Tinker Bell and the same thing with the princesses. Because I find it shocking that you have to meet Snow White then Tiana then finally Princess Aurora and by the time you get your little girls to meet Aurora they will be tired because they just met two princesses already. I mean you want to meet one princess not be running a marathon with your little girl and Disneyland should give people the option to skip the other princesses and just go meet the main princess because I found these types of meet and greets a huge pain and when meet and greets fully return Disneyland should not have these types of meet and greets anymore

 

[Malcon10t]

What I think Disneyland needs to do to bring the traditional meet and greets back is to get EVERY single character actor and have a huge meeting and tell them this: "It's time to meet and greet children again and you need to hug and do autographs with children and that what characters are supposed to do and what they are there for in the park because there's unhappy children that are so sad that this special chance has been taken away from them because of health reasons" And I think the meeting would work miracles for the character actors and Disneyland would give them a huge bonus and face character actors would get a double bonus. When this chance was taken away due to the pandemic I think it caused Disneyland to go downhill and I have a feeling that if Disneyland doesn't bring meet and greets back the park will still go downhill . But as I mentioned I hope that they don't have meet and greets where you have a total of three characters to meet before meeting the main character. I cannot figure out at some of these meet and greets like Pixie Hollow where you have meet every fairy before meeting Tinker Bell and the same thing with the princesses. Because I find it shocking that you have to meet Snow White then Tiana then finally Princess Aurora and by the time you get your little girls to meet Aurora they will be tired because they just met two princesses already. I mean you want to meet one princess not be running a marathon with your little girl and Disneyland should give people the option to skip the other princesses and just go meet the main princess because I found these types of meet and greets a huge pain and when meet and greets fully return Disneyland should not have these types of meet and greets anymore

With Covid rising, this isn't going to happen anytime soon. We just returned from 10 days at Disneyland and of the 3 of us, 1 is Covid positive. I would not want the characters to be exposed. Neither does their unions. And if a child can't spend 5 mins meeting the fairies before being too tired to meet Tink, they need to head back to thee hotel for a nap.

 

[DodgerGirl]

My dad and I were discussing the future of Disneyland character meet and greets the other day and my dad thinks the main reason why Disneyland stopped doing meet and greets and autographs with characters was not only due to the pandemic but because the characters take up time signing autographs and my dad came up with a solution that might improve meet and greets when Disneyland brings them back fully. My dad's solution would be have sets of characters roaming the park and the first set would be just for photos and interactions and hugs while the other sets of characters would give autographs and interaction and it would work miracles for families who want just the photos and interaction without waiting in line for an autograph. And if kids want autographs the families go to the set of characters that are giving autographs and it would be fun for kids to do. And it would work wonders for Disneyland for character fans alike. Because I think the biggest annoying pain as I mentioned a lot in this thread is having to wait a long time for your turn to meet certain characters and get autographs and this solution would improve it a lot

 

[Malcon10t]

My dad's solution would be have sets of characters roaming the park and the first set would be just for photos and interactions and hugs while the other sets of characters would give autographs and interaction and it would work miracles for families who want just the photos and interaction without waiting in line for an autograph. And if kids want autographs the families go to the set of characters that are giving autographs and it would be fun for kids to do. And it would work wonders for Disneyland for character fans alike.

2 Mickeys???? Remember, Mickey closes his house when he needs to head to the parade.

 

[DodgerGirl]

When I was in school I had a teacher who was a huge fan of Disneyland and would take her nephew there every month and what she told me her favorite part of Disneyland was the meet and greets and character autographs and my teacher would buy at least three autograph books and fill them up with autographs and when my teacher would return to school she would show me what autographs she got at Disneyland and it was so cool and now that the future of Disneyland character meet and greets is uncertain I think what Disneyland will have is digital autograph books that will be an app that you download to your smartphone and it would be like what you do in the Disneyland Adventures Xbox game and for each autograph you get you earn stars and when you earn enough stars you can upgrade to a larger digital autograph book for more autographs and while you wait in line for a character you can play a Candy Crush like game to earn points for prizes too and it would be so cool

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think now that the traditional full meet and greets will soon return to Disneyland I can bet Disneyland will gain it's full audience back and the autograph book prices will be lowered and the old style autograph books will be put on clearance and new autograph books will be made in new styles and I only hope and pray that they don't start making some character meet and greets Genie+ only because that would be a huge surprise to families who's kids want to meet certain characters and they can't because they don't have Genie+. I also think that the Chase Visa meet and greets will return new and improved as well. I always dream and fantasize about meeting Loki and Dr. Strange and even Star Lord to get their autographs someday. Sometimes I even dream about it when i'm sleeping but my mother always tells me that if I ever want my Marvel heroes autographs she can do it with my Marvel plushies by having them "sign" their signature on a big piece of paper and then having it framed on my wall of my room and that would be so great and much better than waiting in line at Disneyland

 

[disneymel79]

so there's still no character photo ops yet? i'll be there at the end of april. my favorite is pooh and part of the fun i always enjoyed was getting character photos. i'm surprised they haven't come back yet after so long and everything else starting up again.