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Hi Adrian

Welcome to the forum!

I'm a big Disney fan - we do DisneyWorld every year - looking forward to visiting Star Wars Land (Galaxy's Edge) when it finally opens.

Cool and have you been to Disneyland? if yes which one and did you take a picture with the costume character?

We've not done DisneyLand yet - maybe next year - I'm just concerned at all the driving around LA - the distances between everything is huge - all on grid-locked roads in baking heat.

We've done Disney Florida about 22 times - we always book a few Character Breakfasts - a full all-you-can-eat buffet with characters going around doing photos and autographs - The Crystal Palace in The Magic Kingdom has Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet, Chef Mickey's in The Contemporary Resort has Mickey, Minnie, Pluto & Donald and Tusker's in The Animal Kingdom has Goofy, Daisy etc.   

My favourite Disney character is Dug from Up.    Him and Russel do meet-&-greet in the Animal Kingdom.

We've had our photos done will almost all the characters including Stitch, Anna & Elsa, Olaf, Hiro from Big Hero 6 and all the classics.

My wife also met the Talking Mickey - the 'magic band' system means the people in another room working the voice know who you are as you enter the room - all your details pop up on a screen so they greet you by name and ask you about the weather back in the UK - it's very clever!

We've done Christmas there too - brilliant - their Santas are straight from a greetings card.

Very good! So she must be a good lady then. You see autism back in your time were only described as someone with severe autism so those are High functioning like you won't even regconised so might think someone like other people except they were akward, strange or rude. It's not until today where people with high functioning autism are described as autism. So your wife as an 11 years old must be a good accepting difference then and have a good understanding as back then it would be hard to find someone like your wife. well I think it depends on where you are thought. 

I've known my wife since I was 11 - that's a long time ago!    I think she appreciates that I don't do football, beer & fags - I'm a super-nerd and can do anything.   I don't have any self-imposed limits so I'm game for anything - and I've done a lot of strange things in my life.

I also loves Disney since I was a child until now and it will go on forever. I loves disney charactersevry much especially the disneyland characters as they are so cute that made me want to cuddle them like a teddy bear. 

Okay! Working with the mainstream society can be very hard. And you said you've got married. So tell me how long did you got married for? And where did you first met your wife. I'm sure she must be good at accepting your different.

I'm a Disney child - my generation grew up with The Wonderful World of Disney and the cartoons on tv (all 3 channels)   and the parks in Florida were big news when they opened - lots of advertorial documentaries and adverts for DisneyWorld.    We first went about 25 years ago and found that it delivers what we want from a holiday - things to do whenever we want - so we've been back every year.   

All through my life I've been one of those annoying people who just sees through any problem so can find better solutions than anyone else.    It got me through my career and to early retirement so now I choose what I want to do each day.

So tell me is disney is your special interest? When you were growing up what do you mean by you were a classic professor. were you good at something that other children back in your time wasn't good at ? and what do you mean by "So much easier to not have to bother with the rat race"?

I had just done my leaving cert and just out of secondary school. Leaving cert is like the GCSE but in ireland, we called it leaing cert. So i am still waiting for my exames result and I am hoping to go to the further education either doing applied psychology to understand more about the special need or doing animation courses. but I already got accepted in the animation course. So I am just enjoying my summer and just back from Hong Kong and Tokyo.

I was the classic little professor when growing up - went on to be a Chartered Engineer and retired at 49.   So much easier to not have to bother with the rat race.     What do you do?

And tell me are you out working? if yes what job are you doing at the moment? 

Alright! So what was growing up like for you when you were a child?

Hi - I was diagnosed a decade ago.

so plastic! just want to get to know you abit more, so how long were you diagnosed withautism?

so when you were there, you only line up for 10-15 mins for most characters?

no idea - it's not really timed - there's just the character, the handler and photographer with a line of people waiting their turn - so it's maybe 10-15 mins.

When the queue is long, can the queue be more than one hour or even two hours? or it won't be more than an hour?

No idea - we go for the rides & entertainment - we only catch the characters at the dining or if we happen to spot them as we go around the parks and there's no queue.   We do Frozen in EPCOT so we meet Anna & Elsa every time.

Which characters are usually popular?

Hi as plastic says keep your name to yourself. Maybe add a Disney name you like on here and think of it as a nickname. Sadly its a scarey world, even on an autism forum. Chat on here with everyone but keep personal details secret. All the best

When you book your Disney holiday, you can then book any dining experiences - best to do it sooner rather than later to guarantee getting what you want.   in the month preceding your holiday, you can pre-book all your fast-passes on the Disney App - you'll see what's available and choose accordingly depending on which park you're planning on going to on whichever day.

The Disability Assistance card doesn't exist in Florida - it's all electronic and connected to your magic band.  

Like I've mentioned, the guaranteed way to meet your characters is during the bookable dining experiences - anything else is pot-luck in finding where the character is and the length of any queues that may be there.   Some characters are more popular than others - you need to go online and dig through the Disney website and follow some of the parallel forums to find out the meet & greet locations around the parks - and form a plan to get to see all the ones you want see.

Some live characters are a lot more interactive - look at some youtubes of Gaston - he's hilarious.

and also about the town square theatre meet and greet, do i need to book as well?if yes how can i book there, throught internet or just go to the counter there? And would the DAS card be available since i heard some autistic people did use their DAS card their?

and also about the town square theatre meet and greet, do i need to book as well?if yes how can i book there, throught internet or just go to the counter there? And would the DAS card be available since i heard some autistic people did use their DAS card their?

You just click on the user name and request friendship.

how, I don't know how to do that. i tried but i don't know. how to connect as your friend.

If you click on my profile you can connect as a friend - then we can message without clogging up the board - it's up to you.

what do you mean?

Hi

This thread is getting very long - would it be easier for you to message me?

plastic,

part of your autism do you have other things such as anxiety or ocd etc?

me, I have lots of anxiety, i have ocd and sometime emotional problem and a strange strict routine.

My ocd can cause me to spend abit of time in the bathroom and smetime does something strange. 

I could get angry easily when someone said something about "disney characters is just for younger children" when disney characters are created for all age as when i was young, I got bullied for loving disney and criticised from the adult from loving disney so due to what happen as a child myself, it really traumatizing so i sometime get very angry and may had a meltdown if someone said "disney characters is for children" rather than saying "disney characters is for all age" or when ever i felt i am not welcomed to the disney characters. 

so just want to know part of your autism, do you have some similar problem like that?

We always do character dining - the breakfast in The Crystal Palace is amazing - it's my favourite - and it's where you meet Pooh and his friends.     My wife prefers Tuskers and that's where Goofy, Daisy and friends hang out.      Chip-n-Dale are in The Garden Grill in EPCOT.    We've done Cinderella's Castle a few times where the the princesses hang out with the Fairy Godmother and her animal helpers (7-foot mice!).

There's lots of characters around the parks but the 'human' ones are allowed to speak so you can interact with them - Gaston is hilarious - well worth visiting.    The trooper in the exo-suit in Pandora is funny - the shtick is that it's his first day there and he can't work his suit properly - well worth seeing.

The characters always have their handlers nearby making sure their ok - it's very rare to see them trip over or bits coming off the costumes - although there's lots of youtubes with them falling about. 

and also what is the chance for catching a characters who stumbled around?

So did you tried the characters dining in disneyland? And what character did you took a picture with when you stumble them apart from dug, stitch or buzz lightyear?

and just want to know when you had stumbled them, were the lines always short?

We're quite passive in our character interactions - as I've said - we're there for the environment and the rides/attractions so we tend to only bother with the character meets if we stumble across them and the queue is very short.    We're also traditionalists - we prefer the original characters (Mickey, Pluto, Donald etc.) but there's a few others that are interesting like Baymax, Dug, Stitch, Buzz Lightyear etc.

when you were in disneyland, what characters had you take a pictures with?

Do you know what my friends are into?

the younger children one loves playing with toys and imaginary games which i love.

the other autistic one, it depends, some loves disney characters and dolls like me, some loves fantasy stories and some loves barney. 

you see, in ireland, most autistic people special interest are more concreate figurative. most like enginneering, historical document, science, trains, steam engine, numbers or sport which doesnt interest me at all. so it's hard to find an autistic person to have interest in things similar to me like disney characters and costumed characters etc in ireland. so that's why i joined here, so i can try and find friends who might have a world similar like me.

you see there are 2 types of special interest in autistic people's world, i see it this way, one is concreate figurative which means these autistic people would loves more realistic things like sport, train, transport, video games, science, number or historical document etc. and one is abstract figurative which means these autistic people loves more things imaginary like fairy tale, playing with toys, dolls, teddy, disney characters or a particular imaginary fictional characters.

so i would be more abstract figurative while most autistic people in ireland are concreate figurative.

I don't know what are they, the cosplay or comic con?

my favourite disney characters are winnie the pooh and his friends, alice in wonderland people and peter pan's characters because these characters displays lots of autistic behaviour and i feel like i am related to these characters and these characters are so cute.

I really want to greet alice's characters and peter pan in disneyland but i never greet them before. you see that's the point, when i was in hong kong, they disneyland, they don't have alice in wonderland characters or peter pan's characters except in special occasion. in tokyo they have peter pan and alice in wonderland characters meet and greet but everyday they have different characters but only mickey and his friends are in the park for everyday. so in tokyo, i took a picture with donald, stitch, ariel and duffy. in paris, here a sad day in disneyland, they do have peter pan and alice in wonderland for characters meet and greet but when i was there, i didn't get to take a photo with them as the line was over. because i spent the whole time lining up for photos with rapunzel. in paris as the characters line are very very long, nearly lined up for 2 or 3 hours. in paris, they didn't show the schedule of the characters and the line time so i can't prepare when i was there, so i miss peter pan and alice in wonderland.

Paris was the worst disneyland ever for me as i only get to greet 2 characters in paris due to the timing of the characters were so short and the line was so long as in paris, characters greeting are more for the younger children while most people go on the ride.

in hong kong and tokyo, most people of all age loves the costume characters meet and greet so that's why the time of the characters nearly stayed for the whole day so the line could be much shorter than the one in paris. so in one day, i was abe to greet 7 characters in hong kong or tokyo.

but hopefully i get to meet and greet alice's characters or peter pan and friends in orlando or los angelos disneyland. but I hope the character duration can stay for longer and the line are shorter than the one in paris.

had you take a picture with peter pan or alice in wondrland characters when you were in disneyland orlando? if yes, maybe can you give me some information about how long you lined up when you were there, how long do these characters stay in the park for and where can i greet them please?

I like Dug - but Disney are on a spending spree buying lots of franchises like Star Wars so their character base is growing massively - they're even planning on re-booting Home Alone!

My friends are all nerds too - into software, engineering, transport, modelling etc.

Do you do Cosplay or go to ComicCon?

So what do your friends love?

And also what is your favourite disney characters

Yes, costumed character, puppet, fairy tale, things in the 19th century but more the culture and entertaintment part but it would depends on which countries like i loves 19th century scandinavia, german, dutch,japanese and russian etc. the reason I love culture in the 19th century because most of the disney/fairytale background are set in these countries in 19th century or historical time.

No - we're the only ones into Disney.    What else do you do or do you have any other interests apart from Disney?  

So does your close friends loves disney characters as well like you?

You see as I said in begining, part of my autism, I don't get on well with my peers and I don't want to get along with my peers as my peers world are very complicated. their world doesn't interest me and even make me boring as most of them they play sport and be popular.Just to tell you more that I'm still a teenager. so i either play with children or with other people who has special need of any age. part of my autisitc world, I enjoy playing with my figurines and dolls and most children loves these things so I get along well with them. for other autistic people, I usually get on well with them if their world are similar to my world e.g if those autistic people loves disney characters, costume characters like in disneyland or playing with toys like me, then i can get on well with them. so in my spare time, I go out and play with children around my neighbourhood, I sometimes visit the autistic day centre where I did my voluntary work there 2 years ago, I play with my disney toys and sometime I draw pictures.

Yes - I had a close group of friends - and I suspect they are all undiagnosed aspies.    I still see most of them at our annual Christmas event.     I have a couple of other long-term friends -  one is the guy I go flying with.

Do you have friends or do any social things?