2.7 year old and character autographs??

[addie]

My son will be 2.7 at the time we are in DW. We are planning a few character meals. Do you think I should buy him an autograph book?

Do you think he will want the characters to sign it? He loves the disney sing a long tapes with the characters and is pretty familiar with them.

Thanks!

 

[nataliesdaddy]

yeah you for sure need to do that - my daughjter was six when we took her for the first time...and during that visit I cynically thought..." why would you take a child younger then 4 or five to disney they will never remember a thing?" ... then I got the pictures of my daughter back... when we got there my daughter was fixated on character meetings... I was stressed thinking..."oh my god christmas is so crowded I had no idea!!! we aren't going to get any rides done!!!" Well as it turns out the character greetings saved the trip because my little girl could have cared less about rides... except the dumbo ride and cinderellas carousel... we spent the better part of that whole vacation getting autographs... literally our first day... we had one character greeting... my little girl saw another little girl getting her book autographed...and suddenly it was a MUST HAVE item... at first I wasn't interested in spoending the money for it... and then I realized..."hey this is her vacation afterall...if she wants an autograph book then by god I will get one" (they are cheap anyway) ...and believ me it was the best purchase I made in DW... saved us a ton of money a a ton of grief trying to get on rides... my Daughter just adored autographs...and I adored taking pictures of it.... and here is my point... it doesn't matter if your kid is 2.7 years...and that they may never even remember eventually... the pictures you will get with your child beeming ear to ear as goofy or pooh sign "your son's autograph book" those pictures will last you and your son forever.

the best picture I have is my daughter in utter and complete awe of goofy as he signed her book.... utterly worth whatever expense to get that picture.

 

[slp87]

We took our daughter when she was a month shy of 3 for her first trip and didn't mess with an autograph book. She didn't notice others with them and it was easier for her to get pictures. She would run up to most and give them a hug and/or kiss and many would put her in their laps and play with her. It was just something we didn't feel we needed on that trip and made seeing the character less cumbersome for a 2 yr old. Now on her trips at 4, 5 & 7, we did have autograph books.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

My son was that age when we went last year. We took advantage of him being onld enough to enjoy things, but young enough to be free! The autograph book was a big hit with him, so I give a definite YES! Our dd was less than a month shy of 5 at the time. There's no way we could have just bought her one and not him.

 

[dmonroe]

We took our ds when he was 2.7 and 3.7 . On our first trip we didn't bother with an autograph book. He didn't really "get it" yet, and it made character lines go a little faster. Last year we got one (mostly because the 5 yo we were traveling with had one! ) and it was a big hit. He still sits down and looks through it and points out who sighed where. If you don't really want to do one this trip, you could probably easily skip it.

 

[beattyfamily]

We waited till our DD was 5. It just didn't see worth it when she was 2 1/2. She didn't seem to care either.

Since we bought her one, she certainly cares and wants to do that every vacation!

 

[cinmell]

We took our daughter when she was 22 months and didn't get the autograph book. We also took here a couple of weeks ago at age 2 and a half. This time we had the autograph book and she loved it. She would ask the characters to "sing for me please" and "take a picture with me please" and she thought it was great. When you open a page, we put a picture of her with the character on one side and the signature of that particular character on the other. It's a great souvenier.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

reading these posts makes me think of something - my daughter was 6 for xmas of 2001 and we did the autographs - now she wants to do it again and I am thinking maybe we should lose the old book because.... the autographs won't look the same again right? I mean she will kind of wonder won't she? so I guess my question is of those of you that have done this sevreal times.... did the kidswonder? did it matter?

 

[nataliesdaddy]

cindy - how cute...sounds precious - and good idea signature on one side and picture on the other ...great idea!!!! will have to do that this time

 

[slp87]

On our last trip we bought one of the polaroid cameras that makes the little sticker pictures, so we could put the picture on each page right then and there.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

We didn't think we needed one. Our daughter was 2, &7months.

By the second day she had warmed up to the characters, and was trying to get them to sign her magna-doodle, and her napkin, and any thing else. It could have been because, she saw the other kids, at the breakfast.

I felt kind of bad, that we didn't think she would want one.

 

[Magic2000]

My oldest daughter was never really into getting the characters autographs - she LOVED having her picture taken with them though. We have some really great pictures too!

My middle daughter never got into autographs when she was younger, but when she was about 10 or 11, she really liked getting the characters autographs, and of course, her picture taken with them too!!

My youngest daughter didn't really ask about the autographs on her visits at age 15 months and around 3 yrs, even though big sister had a book. But since then, - she loves to get her a new autograph book and get the characters to sign! She has about four books that she loves looking through. Most of the character autographs do look just about the same - so she's never questioned it.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

Originally posted by Magic2000
She has about four books that she loves looking through. Most of the character autographs do look just about the same - so she's never questioned it.

that i good to know - thx - I was worried about that

 

[mommystieg]

To help prepare our dd for meeting the characters we have several Disney sing-a-long videos. She was 26 months old when we went last year and by the end of our trip she was going up to the characters on her own with her book and pen. These videos are great because they are filmed at WDW and DL and show the characters interacting with kids of all ages. Since they are filmed in the parks they can help prepare your little one for the kinds of things there are to see and do at WDW. The ones we watched the most are:
Disneyland Fun
Beach Party at Walt Disney World
Campout at Walt Disney World
Flik's Musical Adventure at Animal Kingdom
Our dd also enjoys watching the vacation planning videos. Actually I like watching them too-they're great for a quick Disney fix

 

[briersue]

We took my youngest son to WDW when he was just 14 months.His older brother(who cut his teeth on anything Disney,LOL)was 12 and thank goodness still believes in all the magic.We were eating dinner at LTT and my older son was getting autographs and playing around with the charaters(he still believes that Minnie has a "thing"for him since his b-day trip when he was 6 but thats another story)Anyway I thought our youngest would have no idea what was going on so we hadn't bought him a book.Well...I start crying when I look over and see him trying to push his little book of nursery rhymes over to Pluto for an autograph!Needless to say he has not been without his book ever since.He is not 3.5,been to WDW 4 times and his favorite game at home is to pretend we are waiting in line to get our picture taken and get an autograph!!Dont tell anyone but I have fun playing also!

 

[cashout]

I think it depends on the child. My older daughter was 2.8 when she went for the first time, and was frightened by the characters for the whole trip. We did get some pictures of her close enough to the characters so that the next time we went, she would be more comfortable with them.
My younger daughter was 1.8 when we went last time, and she ran up and hugged almost all of the characters (the Queen of Hearts and Cruella DeVille excluded). She loved getting them to sign her book.
I would say get the autograph book, and try to see a few characters early the first day to see how your child interacts with them. Also, the WDW video that you can get at the Disney site shows some of the charaters. Let your child watch the video, and explain that the characters are BIG, but they are nice, and would love to meet you.

 

[addie]

Thanks for all these great ideas, we will be sure to get one!

Now once I read a thread somewhere about a lady who collected clip art of the characters and cut them out and glued them in her kids book?? Does anyone remember anything like that or know how I could go about doing that?

Thanks again!!!