Meeting the Characters

I had never been to Disneyland with anyone that really cared about meeting the characters. The first time I went to Disneyland was in 8th grade, and it was all about the rides, of course. Even my little sister was a little too old to be completely enchanted by the characters. My kids, however, were young enough to really get the full character-meeting experience.

Several months before our trip to Disneyland Nate and I realized that our kids really hadn't seen that many Disney movies, so we started watching one a week. Our prep work really paid off. I think the kids had a lot more fun because they had knew the movies and recognized the characters.

Peter Pan was probably the boys favorite movie, and Captain Hook was the very first character that we saw. According to Beckett, "He's not scary. He's silly." The Peter Pan ride was a huge hit too. 

Over in Toon Town we met a bunch of the traditional characters.

Felix was so excited about meeting Mickey. It was totally worth the 20 minute wait. I just wish I had a better picture.

When we ask Felix who he was most excited to meet he always says Lightning McQueen. Pretty much only his parents understand that's what he is saying, however.

Felix: "Please, Mommy I see Lightning McQueen. Please, please Mommy." He's too excited to even look away for a moment.

Another really fabulous character experience was meeting Tinkerbell at her house. The kids were really excited to meet Tinkerbell because they love Peter Pan and because she flies over the castle before every Disney movie. Tinkerbell has the perfect pixie voice. She really embodied the character. Jen and her kids went to see Tinkerbell the next day, and they also had rave reviews.

Felix got a lot of attention from Tinkerbell because he was wearing a "it's my birthday button." We took it off after this encounter because Daysha kept telling everyone who wished him happy birthday that his birthday wasn't really until February.

We met Aurora right outside her castle. She was awfully sweet to the boys and told them she knew they were just as brave as Prince Phillip. After these pictures I went and bought Beckett a short-sleeve shirt. We weren't really prepared for how warm it was this day.

Nate and I agreed that Mary Poppins and Bert was our favorite character encounter. Beckett has never seen Mary Poppins, and I don't know about Daysha. Nate and I, however, love that movie, and we got a huge kick out of their conversation with the kids. Mary reminded Daysha that manners matter. When Beckett got really excited about the cars ride Mary said, "My, that sounds supercalafragilisticexpialidocious." When the kids were dawdling at picture time she said, "Spit spot." Really, she was practically perfect in every way.

While the big kids were riding the Radiator Springs Racers, I took Felix to meet Mater. This was surely his second favorite character encounter. And a close second at that. These life-size cars are so cool. We saw Red here too, but we didn't get to meet him.

We got super lucky when it came to meeting Anna and Elsa. It was about 30 minutes to closing when we walked into the building where you could meet Anna and Elsa. We were actually there to do something else, but the Disney worker told us that we could get in line to meet Anna and Elsa without a fastpass because it was almost closing time. I said, "Anna and Elsa are really here? Like the real Anna and Elsa." When he assured me that was the case, I said, "Well, we are definitely doing that."

So we got in line, and it was a bit of a wait. We had our kids, Lila, Hazel, and Nate's mom and dad with us. We were getting really close to the front of the line when Jen texted. She and Savannah and Daysha had just finished riding the California Screamer. So we told her to hustle over to meet Anna and Elsa. We let a few families go in front of us to give Jen and the big girls a chance to make it over. And then we all got to go into Anna and Elsa's castle together. Hazel was completely star struck. It was so fun to watch her meeting a rock star.