Character Interactions from an adult Solo's perspective

[mechanic]

I really enjoy your posts frank

[Frank Bullitt]

Okay. So I’m back. First was bogged down with woik, then got a cold. Finally I got some extra time to go over my notes and jot down some of my interactions.

So, this was a trip in September, which was the busiest I’ve seen it since the last time I went, almost as busy as May. Crazy. Anyways, on with the show!
First up, on my first full day I had a 1900 park fare ressie at 11:00am. Still had the same butterflies in my stomach, as this was the 1st time I was meeting a character that trip. I wonder if the other character fans still get that nervous excitement waiting on your 1st character interaction.

Couple of quick points before I proceed: it was excruciatingly hot (as is the case in September) and I had bought a new autograph book, since I was getting to the end of my old one (which was bought clear back in September of 2005) I wanted to reserve those last couple of pages for ‘new’ characters.

Also being the pen snob I brought one of my Mont Blanc pens with me
Right, so on with the show!
Finally got my name called and got the same seat I had the last time I was here, one of the two-person tables that butt up to the divider in the main dining area. Alas, no strawberry soup, I miss thee, I hardly knew ye. Another funny note, I ran across a mother with her 3-5 year old daughter who was sitting at a two-person table like me across the isle.
She was understandably a bit harried by all the brouhaha going on, so I had chatted her up a few times in between characters, and she was nice enough to take my pic with Alice. After the character left, she saw me slurping down a bloody mary and said something to the effect of
‘Boy, I could use one of those, but I’d hate to drink one and think what the (cast members/characters) think of me.’
I remarked that she had a refillable mug, so if she wanted to knock back some booze on the down-low she just had to spike her coke with her favorite beverage. She got a laugh out of that, and yes, I’m a terrible person for suggesting such a thing and corrupting a good mother

The only character who I got notes on was Alice, she was the 1st one, and the 1st one to autograph my new book, which she was very excited about. She also liked the pen as well
I got a picture on my Samsung Galaxy S4, like as before as soon as I’ve uploaded them onto photobucket I’ll post them here.

Got a fastpass for the park’s famed Scandinavian duo, which I have to say anyone who invented that deserves a gold star in their next quarterly performance review. The FastPass Standby line (for that shift) was the one closest to the gift shop that was the Brave Little Tailor shop. It was here that I ran a phenomenon that puzzled me until I hit Akershus (which I’ll get to soon enough.)
We were in line waiting for our turn, and again there was a mother with her two daughters in line with me. I should also point out that there was another solo male a couple of persons ahead of us, as well.
Well I chatted up the mom with the usual stuff (hey, I’m a salesman and a naturally chatty person), this was my first ‘real’ interaction with a character in a controlled environment, and also my first with A & E, so I was still a bit nervous. And I tend to hide the nerves of meeting characters by distracting myself through talking to other people. Like chatting up the person next to you in the dentist’s office, only with princesses instead of root canals.
Anyways, I was chatting the mom when she was called up, so I naturally stood back and waited to be called up, and the CM (a nice fellow from Puerto Rico whose name escapes me now) said something to the effect of ‘Come on, dads can go in as well.’ Apparently he mistook me for the dad .
Like I said I found out why this was the case at Akershus, but I’ll get to that later.

First up was Elsa, she was very sweet, loved my pen and wanted to know if I had any chocolate hidden in my satchel. I said no, it would have melted in this heat. Very flirty and wanting lots of pictures. She did something very cool, she autographed the left hand page of my book, leaving the righthand page open for Anna to sign.

Anna was also very sweet, but very energetic. Y’know how in the early parts of Frozen Anna is very hyper and ‘Attention deficit…Oooh shiny!’ mode? Yeah that was Anna, but it was very entertaining. And we did the ‘double jinx’ like in the film so that was a nice touch.

Next up was Mulan, in the China pavilion of Epcot. She had a relatively short line, so I hopped in. She asked how I was doing, and I said I was traveling around the world (hoo-hoo, yes bad pun). She like my ‘Saddle bag’, which I thought was a nice sly nod to ‘Saddleback briefcase’, and asked if I had any weapons stashed in there, I replied ‘Well, I did but the guards confiscated all of them, even my backup. She got a good laugh out of that, and said that her mom confiscated her sword before she came on stage, but she was thinking about bringing a bow and arrow for ‘ceremonial’ purposes. I enjoyed it immensely.

Next up was Belle in the France Pavilion. She was also very sweet, and asked if I had seen Gaston or if he sent me, saying that the brute was trying to marry her. I said now that you mention it, some weasley little guy by the name of Le Fou tried to give me something to give to her. She rolled her eyes, and asked was it a ring? And I replied, didn’t open it, but I bounced it off his head a few times and it rattled (the box, I correct, not his head) and that would be my guess. She got a good laugh out of that, so it was a good interaction.

Taking a pause for the cause, I'll try to post more observations later this evening. Next up will be Akershus, so stay tuned!

[Frank Bullitt]

First of all let me say I'm so, so sorry for this taking so long. Work, life and all sorts of stuff has been getting in the way, and this partial review of Akershus has been sitting in my inbox for gawd-knows howlong, so I figured I'd just post what I had and maybe it will spur me to get more up.

Akershus I made ressies on the 2nd full day that I was there, and it was hot (again). They’ve updated their reservations software to be on tablets, as I observed the two gents from Oslo who checked me in.

Once again the person ahead of me was a mother with a hyperactive son and a daughter, and I chatted her up as is my custom.

A charming elderly female cast member (whom I recall was either from New Jersey or Chicago) was walking up and down the line telling all the kiddos to have their autograph books on the ready. When the cast member got to me she made some remark to insinuate that I was the ‘dad’ with the mom and two kids (Something like 'Dad can get his picture taken with Belle as well'), and I had to politely point out that I was here solo. She did this double take, and I raised an eyebrow in the best Dwayne 'The Rock' manner saying

“Come on, I know I’m not the only adult solo guy who goes to these things, I’ve seen `em!”

She started to say "Well, yes, but you see...er...ah..."

And then something clicked in my mind, and I said

“Ah, right let me guess what I’m missing: about 85 pounds on the gut, Crocs and a fanny pack, right?”

She actually laughed out loud at that and said “Well, you didn’t hear it from me.”

So, mystery of the 'Mistaken for Dad' identity crisis solved: I guess if the cast members see a well-groomed guy in line to see characters he has to be a Dad LOL.

When the CM called me up to get my pic with Belle I quipped “Oh, I come here for the food…” and followed it up with “..and if you believe that I’ve a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, cheap.” She got a laugh out of it.

Belle was very sweet, I don't recall too much about the interactions other than she said I smelled nice (thank you, Armani Code).

My server was a cute girl named Carolina, who was about two weeks away from finishing her college program. We chatted about the climate difference between Florida and Norway (the humidity apparently is a bit of a shock to folks from that neck of the woods) and what she was majoring in (Marketing).

The Koldbord was good as always, but as before I’ve noticed that more mundane items have been encroaching into it, but as long as they have the peppered mackerel I’ll be fine with it.

Now, as before they do some sort of ‘Princesses on Parade’ thingie, which I’ll admit I wasn’t too keen on. Another coping mechanism that I do is bury my nose in my phone, or in this case start scribbling random notes in my moleskin notebook. I actually pulled up a spreadsheet from email on my phone and was transcribing it to my notebook to pass the time. I know, it’s weird, but when you’re nervous about meeting a whole bevvy of gals ya does what ya haz to cope.

First up was Cinderella, she was spot on, and scolded me for working while on vacation, and then asked me what I did for work, and I replied that I sit in an office and boss other people around. She got a laugh out of that and said ‘Oh, you’re like my stepmother make your workers clean and sweep the floors?’

I replied that my minions at the office would probably agree with her statement. I one of the CM’s to get a photo with her, and afterwards she said ‘Now turn that thing off and no more working!’

She then turned to Aurora (who was next) and told her that I wasn’t allowed to open my notebook while I was on vacation.

Well, sorry to end it on a cliffhanger, but that's all I got for now.
I’ll post another update *soon*, soon being anytime between now and doomsday

And at some point I need to get the pics up too.

Thanks again for all your interest!

[wellsm]

Frank, I love your posts.

I wanted to say that I was in Anaheim for a conference and got a couple of conference twilight passes to DL.

On my night in California Adventure, I was just strolling around as the night wound down and saw a fastpass stand out near the "street." I realized this was the fastpass to see the Frozen girls, and the wheels started turning.

You see, I was on business and my 7-year-old has school and couldn't make the trip. AND she knew I was going to Disney.

I talked to the CM at the booth - less than an hour for the return time. I gave him my idea and he said it should be fine. Awesome - I got the pass and got some dinner.

When I returned, I came back and got in line. Maybe a 10 minute wait with lots of moms and their daughters. Not too many strange looks.

Front of the line - I told them "party of 1." The cast members were great at not making you feel like some sort of creepy guy. Another line, and then they sent me in.

I couldn't tell from Anna and Elsa's reaction what they though - seriously girls, I'm not a creeper - so I quickly told them I was on business, and my daughter couldn't make the trip, and would it be possible for them to say hi to her on video.

They loved it! "Oh absolutely - tell us about her. What's her name?" A couple more questions, Anna said to get the camera ready.

I hit record and they gave me about 45 seconds, greeting my daughter by name, saying they were sorry they couldn't see her but hoped to see her soon, talked about what they had been doing, etc. Great stuff.

Stop the video, they had a bit more chit-chat, then I left and they were on to the next group.

They were actually very cordial (and I think they were glad that this guy by himself wasn't a creeper.) - I believe Frank had a similar experience.

If the timing had been different, I would have tried to set up a facetime call to my daughter, but this would have been very late on the east coast.

So, kudos to the characters who will go above and beyond to make some magic!

[dtootsie42]

Love all of the posts! Thanks so very much for sharing!

[Frank Bullitt]

Frank, I love your posts.

I wanted to say that I was in Anaheim for a conference and got a couple of conference twilight passes to DL.

On my night in California Adventure, I was just strolling around as the night wound down and saw a fastpass stand out near the "street." I realized this was the fastpass to see the Frozen girls, and the wheels started turning.

You see, I was on business and my 7-year-old has school and couldn't make the trip. AND she knew I was going to Disney.

I talked to the CM at the booth - less than an hour for the return time. I gave him my idea and he said it should be fine. Awesome - I got the pass and got some dinner.

When I returned, I came back and got in line. Maybe a 10 minute wait with lots of moms and their daughters. Not too many strange looks.

Front of the line - I told them "party of 1." The cast members were great at not making you feel like some sort of creepy guy. Another line, and then they sent me in.

I couldn't tell from Anna and Elsa's reaction what they though - seriously girls, I'm not a creeper - so I quickly told them I was on business, and my daughter couldn't make the trip, and would it be possible for them to say hi to her on video.

They loved it! "Oh absolutely - tell us about her. What's her name?" A couple more questions, Anna said to get the camera ready.

I hit record and they gave me about 45 seconds, greeting my daughter by name, saying they were sorry they couldn't see her but hoped to see her soon, talked about what they had been doing, etc. Great stuff.

Stop the video, they had a bit more chit-chat, then I left and they were on to the next group.

They were actually very cordial (and I think they were glad that this guy by himself wasn't a creeper.) - I believe Frank had a similar experience.

If the timing had been different, I would have tried to set up a facetime call to my daughter, but this would have been very late on the east coast.

So, kudos to the characters who will go above and beyond to make some magic!

Glad you liked it, wellsm. And I'm glad you had a similar experience.
Kudos on having the cool idea of using the video on your phone. I've been thinking about possibly doing something like that myself.
It really is nice to hear other adults enjoying the characters as much as I did. Your post reminded me that I need to finish this at some point, so with a bit of luck I'll have another post up 'soon'.

Love all of the posts! Thanks so very much for sharing!

dtootsie42 I'm glad you liked it, it's really heartwarming to hear from you guys and to hear your own interactions. As previously stated I'll trying and get some more posts done.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

Thank you so much for sharing! My DH and I don't have kids and I have braved the line to see Mickey Mouse but I've never believed that we could check out the Princesses!! You've insprired me!

[Lisaj13]

I've really enjoyed reading about your interaction with the characters. You write well, too.

And, on a side note, you piqued my curiosity so I looked up Saddleback bags. I want one! Seriously, they are beautiful bags and the company seems to have a sense of humour, too.

It's just another case of champagne taste, beer budget.

But I now vow to find a substitute for my fanny pack!

[Frank Bullitt]

Thank you so much for sharing! My DH and I don't have kids and I have braved the line to see Mickey Mouse but I've never believed that we could check out the Princesses!! You've insprired me!

@hauntedmansiongirl thanks, and I'm glad to have inspired. This thread really is just to help adult Disney fans who want to interact with their favorite characters. So I'll tell you what I told the other, g'ahead and take the plunge!

I've really enjoyed reading about your interaction with the characters. You write well, too.

And, on a side note, you piqued my curiosity so I looked up Saddleback bags. I want one! Seriously, they are beautiful bags and the company seems to have a sense of humour, too.

It's just another case of champagne taste, beer budget.

But I now vow to find a substitute for my fanny pack!

@Lisaj13 Thanks
FWIW I lusted after the Saddleback Leather briefcases when they first came out over 10 years ago, I was still broke and finishing college so dropping that kind of coin was out of the question.
I will say that if you ever get enough to buy one they are so, so worth it. You can find them used on certain online auction sites

to everyone else, I'm finishing up interactions with Merida, Tink and Pocahontas and *should* hopefully have them up soon.

Until then!

[mechanic]

Well here I am. Out and about and on a whim I popped in late last night and saw the frozen sisters, and the beast. I have to say it was quite fun . More details and trip report coming soon.
Thanks,for the inspiration Frank.

[Frank Bullitt]

Well here I am. Out and about and on a whim I popped in late last night and saw the frozen sisters, and the beast. I have to say it was quite fun . More details and trip report coming soon.
Thanks,for the inspiration Frank.

I'm glad you decided to take the plunge, you'll have to share it with the rest of us!

And for myself I would like to apologize for falling off the map for the last year, between work, personal life and other writing commitments intercot fell off my radar.

I've dug out my old Word document which had some of my notes on character interactions, regretfully much of the memories are too distant to be of much use, but I did have some detailed information about my interactions with Merida, Pocahontas and Tink. I'll copy and paste what I have a bit later this evening.

Thanks again for sharing, and I'm happy that my little tales have inspired you all.

[Frank Bullitt]

I would like to apologize again to all the fans of this thread for effectively abandoning it, a combo of work, life and other commitments caused me to fall off the map. Regretfully most of the interactions have fallen into the void and vanished forever a la Inside Out, but I did find my old word document with some notes and was able to reconstruct a couple of interactions based off them and what memories I recalled...

Aurora (Akershus)
Another memory from Akershus, WRT Aurora, she actually sat at my table and chatted me up, asking if I was a prince, and I quipped something like ‘Well, depends who you ask LOL’ she went on to talk about how her prince Philip slew a dragon, then asked if I had slain any dragons recently. I said the closest I came was slaying a lizard (little cousin to a dragon) in my hotel bathroom in Costa Rica, which she got a kick out of.
Also that she liked to sleep, that she was going to take a nap after this, that she could sleep 14 hours a day. I told her she was lucky, I had to manage on like 5 hours of sleep LOL. After she got a picture with me she told the CM that I wasn’t to turn on my phone except to get a picture with her friends.

Merida
For the old hats on this forum, Merida’s character greet is over where Storytime with Belle used to be, by the side walkway (the 3 o’clock position on the Spoke in the center of the park). It’s pretty packed, but if you get in early the line wait isn’t too bad.
Basically she is standing in an alcove (which has AC being pumped in at a high speed, very important on a hot muggy FL day!) so I did my standard joking with the CM handler, who happened to be from Chicago. We lamented how the Navy Pier had turned into a tourist trap, and he told me how they now have a McD’s there (Horrors!) but I had to disagree with him on the subject of haggis, he liked it, I said anything involving non meaty bits of the animal were a nogo for me . In fairness Merida sided with me.
Anways, on to her, Merida was very charming and had a lovely Lancashire accent (if her ‘friend’ wasn’t from the UK she was doing an excellent job, I’ve heard on boards from WDW fans that come from the UK complain that some of the characters think Irish and Scottish accents are interchangeable )…So as an icebreaker I complimented her on her bow, and we traded stories on bow hunting (I have done it, but with deer not bear) she asked if I ever hunted bears, and I said no, but if I was I’d rather be armed with something that packed a bigger punch. All in all, a good interaction and a nice break for those who have already met with the Fab Five Princesses.

Pocahontas
For those of you who don’t know, Pocahontas does a meet and greet at the Discovery Island Trails, which is actually kind of brilliant, as it gives the parents a reason to show kids the various animal exhibits. Anyways, I happened to be getting a pint of Tusker Lager at the Tusker House bar and checked the Disney App on my phone, and sure enough, she was due for a meet and greet.
A side rant about the Disney Experience App, although they may have debugged it since, at least back when I was using it back in Sept of 2014 two things were clear upon attempting to navigate it.
One: Someone obviously spent a sack of dinero on this application, which is unsurprising given that WDE released it.
Two: It was obviously not beta-tested with a focus group comprised of potential users. Translation: it was programmed by geeks who thought it worked fine because they programmed it. It’s a pet peeve of mine because in my work I sometimes have to take project lead and whenever I field a complaint from the client to the geeks and tell them “Fix this, because the client can’t navigate X properly” they’re like, “Well, all they have to do is perform this complex workaround that is simple for us but next to impossible to non-tech literate users.” In fairness to WDE I haven’t used it since my last trip, so maybe my rant is unnecessary.
GET ON WITH IT!
*ahem*
Right, so, Pocahontas’ line was nice and short, and recalling a distant memory from the movie that there was some sort of greeting that she gave to John Smith I went ahead and consulted the Oracle…or in this case googled ‘Algonquin/Iroquois greeting’. When that failed I pulled up the video clip on youtube, and eureka! Found it. (Wingapo) = Greeting, friend.
So when it came my turn I did a passable impression of the greeting, which thrilled her to no end. She asked where I was from, and I said ‘Manhattan’, and she said that I must have been very brave to come from such a large place like manhattan. I’m pretty sure I quipped “Talking about brave, try taking a taxi to DFW in an ice storm during rush hour!” Again one of those nice 'easter egg' character spots that is a pleasant break from the usual.

Tinkerbell
For anyone who's been under a rock for the last two years, Town Hall in Main Street hosts a talking Mickey, whose popularity rivals only that of the Scandinavian sisters in Fantasyland, but what you may not know is there is another, shorter line for Pixie Hollow. This was a holdover from the Pixie Hollow at the former Mickey's Toontown Fair. If you time it just right, even standby lines are only about 15-20 minutes long even in the busy time when I went in May.
Tinkerbell was very cute and tiny (I’m no giant, I stand a very average 5’ 9.5” barefoot or 5’ 10” in shoes) and I was practically leaning backwars to be on level with her with the pics. The CM who was her handler was a nice kid from Puerto Rico and we quipped back and forth about vacationing there (pristine white beaches, ‘chicas’ etc etc).

Fun bit, I asked the CM, as I was wearing a pair of designer sneakers (I won’t name the brand, they’re mostly famous for making women’s purses and their initials are LV so I quipped with him saying “I’m going to come back as my right size right? Don’t want these shoes being too big or too small.” He got a good laugh out of that. Also nice touches were the oversized props like the poker card and the teacup (which IIRR was stamped JM Barrie China Company or something)

A bit of heartwarming is that the person ahead of me was a ‘special needs’ kid, and Tink was very very sweet to him and clearly made his day. Makes even hard-hearted capitalists like me get soft and mushy on the inside
We talked mostly about her inventions and I tried unsuccessfully to explain to her how an internal combustion engine worked. As someone who works with engineers all the time it was amusing trying to explain complex concepts like that.
I believe the way I conveyed it was, ‘You know how when you mess up and there’s a big explosion, if you contain the energy from that explosion you can make things move with it!’
She got a kick out of that, and as I said before, I had to practically crouch to let her lean on me. All in all, Tink was an absolute darling and the CM’s were all very helpful, I especially would recommend Tink to anyone who is shy, because 1.) being very short she's less intimidating than the royalty, and 2.) the environment gets you in the mood!

Anyways, that’s all I have, I really appreciate all the kind words you have given, and have been edified to hear that my narcissistic ramblings have inspired the grown up character fans to take the plunge. As I’ve repeated over and over, you don’t need to be super glib or whatever, just throw the characters a ‘hook’ (like bowhunting for Merida or the like), and above all, be polite.

Oh, and for more randomness, I'll be attending a trade show in Long Beach later this month for work, but plan on staying a couple of extra days in Anaheim to check out the original DL. I don’t have any illusions about seeing every character in such a short time, but I plan on at least trying to see a couple, and it will be interesting to see how they stack up vs WDW.

Have a magical evening!

[Lindslou]

I just had a blast reading this thread. Thanks for posting! I was shy during character meet and greets at first too... glad to know I'm not the only one! I agree that it's hogwash for adults to avoid meeting characters. Isn't the motto "kids of all ages"? Coincidentally I just went to DL for the first time this past October. I think you'll be glad you went to the "motherland" but it doesn't hold a candle to WDW.