Being a character.

[Jeremy]

Every year, I dress up as Santa in my local library (I work in a library), I have a few set rules which I,ve got to follow eg.Don,t let children sit on your lap, don,t touch children don,t have photos with children.My questions is this Does the Disney theme parks and other theme parks have set rules concerning the characters?,and what happens if you break the rules?

[Zazu]

Every year, I dress up as Santa in my local library (I work in a library), I have a few set rules which I,ve got to follow eg. Don,t let children sit on your lap, don,t touch children don,t have photos with children. My questions is this Does the Disney theme parks and other theme parks have set rules concerning the characters?,and what happens if you break the rules?

Oh sure, *lots* of rules.

They're different from yours:
* Preserve the magic
* Stay in character
* Never pick up or hold a child (you'd only drop one in a million, but that's too many)
* Don't sign clothing that's being worn
* Don't sign anything that has any logo other than a Disney logo (No Sponge Bob autograph books!)
* Don't act like a naughty Tigger

Corrective actions for failure to follow these and a mess of other rules range from "coaching" to termination, as usual.

[PosthumanRob]

for some reason... the OP creeped me out a little.

maybe it was the wording or the tone.. but it made me feel uncomfortable.

[Klo]

Oh sure, *lots* of rules.

They're different from yours:
* Preserve the magic
* Stay in character
* Never pick up or hold a child (you'd only drop one in a million, but that's too many)
* Don't sign clothing that's being worn
* Don't sign anything that has any logo other than a Disney logo (No Sponge Bob autograph books!)
* Don't act like a naughty Tigger

Corrective actions for failure to follow these and a mess of other rules range from "coaching" to termination, as usual.

[font=Century Gothic]A while ago when my sister was like 1 or 2 months old, we ate at Chef Mickey's Restaurant in the Contemporary.. My mom was holding her and Minnie was notioning to hold my baby sister, and she did.. we got a picture and everything. But I'm just wondering, is this like a new rule or something? To not pick up a child? This incident was about 10 years ago and we were all pretty shocked she wanted to hold her! lol[/font]

[mechurchlady]

I was told that in 1998 when I was in WDW. I remember that rule back when I started pin trading or even before. That was before 9/11 is all I remember.

CMs have rules and sometimes they break them. In the case of a fully costumed character vision can be severely limited and there is the limited mobility. I cannot remember the rules but it has long been in place. No picking up kids.

[ICStupidPeople]

for some reason... the OP creeped me out a little.

maybe it was the wording or the tone.. but it made me feel uncomfortable.

I thought the same exact thing.

I'm tempted to respond to them that it's not ok to dress as tweedle dum and ask children to reach into your pockets for candy if that's what he wants to know.

[vixen101485]

The only thing that puzzled me was the NO pics. What parent doesn't want a pic of their kid with Santa? Why that is just anti- American. :D:

BTW...IC Love the avatar.

[Floridian]

* Don't sign anything that has any logo other than a Disney logo (No Sponge Bob autograph books!)

Oh thats gotta be a fun one in enforce...not. I could never handle being a character attendant.

[SorcererMickey]

When I started working in 1993 the no holding a child rule was on the books. I would cheat in restaurants and in Mickey's dressing room by sitting cross legged on the floor and if the child crawled in my lap...I technically wasn't holding them.

Character host wasn't a bad role if your character knew what they were doing. If your character needed to be drug by the hand to move two feet or if Cinderella couldn't open an autograph book you knew you were in trouble. Back then it was all one department, hosts and characters.

[Shorty82]

I could never handle being a character attendant.

My brother's a CA and enjoys it. He has had to deal with some pretty stupid people before. He's been yelled at, cussed out, threatened, etc. by people upset that it was the character's time to go in and other reasons. He's had to call security a few times and had to threaten to call them even more than that. At least once he's had to have security escort a person out of the park (I believe it was the person threatening him). He's even had an upset guest intentionally bang their head on a post in anger which caused her to have a seizure.

He used to referee and umpire for the Boy's and Girl's Club locally and for intramural sports in college so he knows how to handle upset people.

That said, I don't know if I could handle being a CA. Most other roles I think I could handle but not that one. I'd hate having to be the person to tell Mr. Upset Guest that it is Mickey's time to head in.