GAC card and character meet and greets.

jclutton · 7 Feb 17, 10:32 PM

I understand the system with rides, but how does the GAC card work while queuing for autographs with the characters? The majority of them wouldn't be a problem I feel, like the ones spaced out around the parks in the open for example, but the ones inside, like Talking Mickey or princess hall for example, can be a bit of a wait, do the same rules apply?

**caj** · 7 Feb 17, 10:38 PM

Originally Posted by jclutton

I understand the system with rides, but how does the GAC card work while queuing for autographs with the characters? The majority of them wouldn't be a problem I feel, like the ones spaced out around the parks in the open for example, but the ones inside, like Talking Mickey or princess hall for example, can be a bit of a wait, do the same rules apply?

As far as I remember, the ones with the fastpass work in a similar way to the rides.

We found the 'open' ones harder to manage, we found that if we chatted to the CM at the front of the queue, we would have one adult and the other kids in the queue and my asd son and one adult would be loitering closeby, but not in the queue, ready to join at an appropriate point. Not all CM's would accept this, but most were sympathetic.

DisneyBride08 · 10 Feb 17, 07:53 AM

I'm going to take advantage to the FP+ and Character meals as much as possible for my son. When we went in 2012 I don't really think we even had many options for the character meets. When we saw the incredible's they let me queue whilst my son walked up and down some stairs nearby with DH. They were then called over when it was our turn. This couldn't really have been done at the Winnie the Pooh characters as the queue wasn't like that. I remember taking my son on his own to see Mickey and he was jumping all over the place in the queue. That was hard work. I'm really hoping that if my son can see who is he queuing for there won't be much of an issue. I always find the meltdowns come quicker when he doesn't understand the reason for stopping.

**caj** · 10 Feb 17, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by DisneyBride08

I'm going to take advantage to the FP+ and Character meals as much as possible for my son. When we went in 2012 I don't really think we even had many options for the character meets. When we saw the incredible's they let me queue whilst my son walked up and down some stairs nearby with DH. They were then called over when it was our turn. This couldn't really have been done at the Winnie the Pooh characters as the queue wasn't like that. I remember taking my son on his own to see Mickey and he was jumping all over the place in the queue. That was hard work. I'm really hoping that if my son can see who is he queuing for there won't be much of an issue. I always find the meltdowns come quicker when he doesn't understand the reason for stopping.

Does he pin trade ? That became a queue occupation, rearranging the order! I also bought some keeping games that helped. I agree ... the queues they can do are hard work!

We had to wait ages for the winnie the pooh ones. Because unbeknownst to us, it was eyeore he wanted .. and eyeore left and came back as piglet! So we had to wait a character rotation!

DisneyBride08 · 10 Feb 17, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by caj

Does he pin trade ? That became a queue occupation, rearranging the order! I also bought some keeping games that helped. I agree ... the queues they can do are hard work!

We had to wait ages for the winnie the pooh ones. Because unbeknownst to us, it was eyeore he wanted .. and eyeore left and came back as piglet! So we had to wait a character rotation!

I have no idea if he will 'get' or like pin trading. He will be 7 when we go. Was 2 last time. He only really gained words in the summer of 2015, getting a few more in 2016. He can't have conversations really but you never know I could get a starter set and it could turn into his thing. I'm sure his little sister will be happy to lead the way, she will be 3. I was also thinking of showing him the pressed penny's over there too.

**caj** · 10 Feb 17, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by DisneyBride08

I have no idea if he will 'get' or like pin trading. He will be 7 when we go. Was 2 last time. He only really gained words in the summer of 2015, getting a few more in 2016. He can't have conversations really but you never know I could get a starter set and it could turn into his thing. I'm sure his little sister will be happy to lead the way, she will be 3. I was also thinking of showing him the pressed penny's over there too.

I bought a batch before going. I could then use them as a reward if needed, or each time we started to queue he had one, hence the need to rearrange. Most cms have them so each queue he could go and look and trade if he wanted.

We found wdw did wonders for our sons ability to queue. More magic!

Button17 · 12 Feb 17, 08:50 PM

We used DAS for ones that could be FP'd but sadly my DD8 missed out on meeting a lot of characters as they were out in the burning sun and shecan'the stand first long periods dud to her condition. Interested to read that some CM may let her sit out of the queue. Will try that next year. Good luck xx