So this past weekend the family took a trip to the happiest place on earth – Disney World. We thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate our 2 year old’s birthday. I mean, what kid wouldn’t want to spend the weekend of their birthday there?! We are fortunate enough to only live 3 hours south of Orlando so making a last minute trip there isn’t too difficult.
So we figured this would be a great way for her to enjoy time with her BFF cousin for her special birthday, considering she is beyond obsessed with Mickey Mouse. Everything is Mickey and Minnie. She wakes up, wants to watch “Ickey”. She goes to nap, she needs her Minnie doll. She wakes up and wants more “Ickey”. When we say no, she finds her Disney books and coloring books. You get the picture.
So being the genius mommy that I am, I planned 2 character meals at Disney. Lunch on the first day we got there in Animal Kingdom at Donald’s Dining Safari at Tusker House Restaurant and breakfast the day we left on her actual birthday. We thought this was genious – she will get to meet the characters, hug and kiss them and will be some great photo ops.
So we get to Tusker House and through the windows she could see Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy walking around to tables and she shrieked with excitement. She couldn’t wait to get in and see them. Once we arrived at our table and sat down, Daisy started making her way to the table and this happened:
Full on tears, screaming and hissy fit!
This continued as the 3 other characters came around, including her ultimate fave, Mickey. My husband has the claw marks on his neck to prove her fear.
Total Disney fail.
Some genius I was, huh. So now we are totally regretting booking 2 character meals after seeing 3 of the 4 kids have complete breakdowns when these life-size characters came in eye sight. As the weekend went on, and we saw other characters in the park – from a distance – she was a lot better. Was this our glimmer of hope for a successful birthday breakfast party with characters??!
I think you know the answer to that one:
the horror…
ahhhhhhhh
So a little advice to any parents, grandparents – whoever might want to take a small child to Disney World and dine with some of the characters – It’s a great idea IF:
1. Your child isn’t afraid of life-sized characters. A way to gauge if they are – take them to see Santa, The Easter Bunny or any other accessible familiar TV or Movie character. Ava was petrified of both, and clearly we were too naive to listen to this major sign and a little guilty for wanting to eat with the characters ourselves. Kids at heart people!
2. If you are willing to suffer consequences of a major tantrum including high pitched screams, eye-gouging tiny hands, scratches to the arms, neck, face, the infamous dead weight drop OR the kung-fu grip hug aka the koala, and last but not least the ever loving stares from surrounding guests.
Regardless of all the tantrums and tears, it was such a great experience so I highly recommend doing at least one character meal if you can. Also, if you feel your child is prone to these same tantrums from the sight of life-sized characters, maybe ease them into the experience, get them used to them during your time in the park and then take them to the dining. They have a ton of restaurants that cater to this alone, so be sure to check out the Disney website and make a reservation as far in advance as you can! Some of the popular restaurants, like the Princess Castle one, books up at least 180 days in advanced! The meals can be pricey, but the food is really fantastic considering some are buffets (this is coming from a buffet-germaphobe BTW) but there will be an upcoming post on my reviews of the Disney restaurants we ate and the foods. So stay tuned!
– Amanda
