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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.

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?

And also when you were young, did you have any friends?

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

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