We first went when my son was five. He hadn’t watched many shows with Disney characters before our trip. We decided to introduce him to a few before we went and watched a few movies, so he knew Pooh and friends, Peter Pan , Mary poppins, Tom Sawyer ( bad call, I know), Mickey and friends, etc.
I think he knew the costumed characters were just that, from Halloween. But one day we went into the England store and there was Pooh, we were thrilled and took some pics.
When walked out back into the courtyard,Mary poppins was right there, alone! He held back, telling me that wasn’t her, that her face was different, but I said hello..
That wonderful woman noticed his hesitation and crouched down to talk to him. She said she thought he noticed she might look a little different ( and she was too far away to have heard him). She asked if he had seen her movie, then explained that an actress had played her in the movie, because she had to take care of the children...but didn’t he think Julie Andrews looked a bit like her?
For quite awhile afterwards he told everyone that he had met the REAL Mary poppins! He was sold.
By our next trip, at eight, he just wanted character meal pics and seeing them spontaneously was a treat, but of course he had figured things out by then.