Disneyland Paris- random question!!

[Wriggles10]

I have googled this but I haven't been able to find a definite answer- plus it's the opposite of what most people are after!

So, my teenage daughter is off on a school trip next spring to Paris- which includes a day at Disneyland. Unfortunately this is her idea of hell as she has a phobia of mascots. She really wants to go on the trip but she REALLY doesn't want to come across any characters on their day at the park. (I do realise this sounds ridiculous as of course there are going to be a load of characters there!)

What I want to know is : are the characters just randomly dotted around the site or do you have to queue to see them and therefore she'd be able to avoid them more easily??

Thanks so much in advance!

We were there during covid times last year and we had to q up for the few they had. But if i remember correctly, a few years ago they were all over the place. Maybe someone has more current information.

We went before covid and they were randomly dotted/walking around. Plus the parade is full of them.

We stayed in the Seqoia Lodge and came down one morning and there was an unscheduled meet and greet in the lobby - rounded a corner and there they were, nearly walked into them. Similar in a gift shop once, the type where the exit goes through a gift shop - they were in there, there would have been no way to leave the ride without going through the shop and past them.

I don't think there's any way to reliably avoid them op, at all. If she's 'just' very nervous then maybe work on that and she can keep her distance as best she can - but if it's a true phobia then I wouldn't consider at all - maybe try some therapy or hypnosis or something?

Bit of both really. There are scheduled ‘meet and greets’ around the park - times and locations for these are on the Disneyland Paris app and are pretty well stuck to. There are, unfortunately for your daughter, sometimes unscheduled ‘surprise’ character meet and greets that aren’t listed on the app. That’s not often but for example the last few weeks the Cheshire Cat has been popping up. Currently they have one big parade and a smaller show a couple of times a day (I think that’s still right, might be once now) but they are full of characters, on floats and walking. Again times are on the app and parade routes are easy to find, so could avoid those during those times. It’s fairly usual to see characters walking around the park with their staff minders - on the way to and from meet and greet points. The other thing to be aware of and avoid for her is a couple of the restaurants are character dining ones, so have them wandering around to interact with diners.

Is it the physical mascots only or is she likely to also be troubled by pictures? Obviously the shops are jammed with merchandise. No adults dress up - Disney don’t allow that - but plenty of children there will also be in costume.

There are a couple of excellent Facebook groups - I’m not sure if I can link here or not, if that’s allowed? - but along the lines of Disneyland Paris tips sort of thing, people in those are super helpful and if you ask this question there you might come across someone who has had a similar situation and can offer some ideas.

They are about, you have to queue for photos etc, but you’ll also see them walking around.

when we went in 2019 it didn’t feel like they were everywhere, but enough that if you were really afraid of them they would be hard to completely avoid.

You really don’t see that many of them walking about. It’s not like they wander the park, or anything. That would be impossible because they get mobbed, so it would cause chaos.

You will see them now & again when they are walking from their dressing rooms to their Meet & Greet spot (and back again).

These are usually very short walks and they will have their minders (Disney staff) escorting them to help with the crowds that will flock to them.

It is a massive battle to get close to them, so as long as she doesn’t mind the risk of seeing them from a distance (mostly surrounded by crowds of people), she’ll be fine.

Once they get to their spot, there will be a managed (and long!) queue for photos and autographs.

You really don’t get close to them without massive effort.

They do turn up in restaurants, but you’d have to book a table to get in one of these.

They also turn up in hotel receptions, but does not sound as if your daughter is staying in a Disney hotel?

The only other thing is parades. Obviously there are loads of them there, but again you can’t get a good view at a parade without waiting in a spot for a couple of hours beforehand. It would not be hard to avoid. Worst you might get from a distance is a glimpse of some floats over the tops of crowds of heads, with Minnie or whoever riding past waving to the crowd.

Not as many as before, they tend to be in roped off areas with queues so she will see them but they rarely just walk past unless on their way for their shift. It's also very crowded so easy to duck out of the way behind some children for protection.

Mostly you have to intentionally go and see them, but there might be a couple of random ones around. It’s common to have a day without seeing any though. They usually attract a little crowd so she should be able to spot them from a distance, and tell her if she dies see them to look for the people looking after them. There’s always people around the characters to look after them and it might help dd to see that they’re vulnerable really.

She will need to avoid the parades.

Thanks so much everyone, that is all so helpful- such a lot of detail that will really help.

My daughter is fine with just normal fancy dress/pictures of costumes etc, it's just when she can't see someone's face that it's an issue. So things like clowns (which freak me out!) are fine as you can see their faces, but scary old Mickey and Minnie are a big no no!!

We did get counselling for her a few years ago which did seem to help, and we thought she was fine with characters as we just avoided anywhere they'd be but it all seems to have become a problem now she's going to go somewhere where there definitely will be characters.

I'll go through all of the info above with her and we'll figure it out.

Thanks so much again to everyone who took the time to help.

Hopefully she will be ok. Lots to see and do at DLP and hopefully if she is with her class mates she won't worry and will have an amazing time. Our school are also going to France and DLP next year! Amazing. I only got Peebles, in winter!