Advice for Autograph Seekers

[likearose]

My husband and I will be taking my 4 yr old ds for his first visit to DW in a few weeks.

I am a scrapbooker and have heard a number of people talk about getting autographs and the fun books they make for their trips. I've also had a few people tell me that the characters prefer the Disney endorsed autograph book they sell at the park and a really big pen.

I thought I would turn to the experts on this board for some wisdom and advice regarding the best way to collect autographs from the characters.

Thanks!

 

[goofy4tink]

Welcome to the DisBoards!! I have used many different methods of collecting autographs from the characters. I have used the 'official' WDW autograph book several times. I usually X out one page and leave the facing page empty. that way I can do one of two things...1. I can put the photo of the character with my child on the Xed out page, next to their autograph. or 2. tear out each autographed page and put it into a photo album next to the photo. This works very well if you have a spiral type album.

But, since you mentioned scrapbooking that wouldn't really work. Anything with blank pages would work for you since you'll be most likely tearing them out and putting them in a scrapbook.

Another thing I did was to get a small 3 ring binder type thing with index cards in it. I attached a fat pen to it with a shoelace. That way, the pen was always handy. The binder was small enough to fit in my dd's fanny pack.
The one thing you want to be sure of and that's that there is a nice firm base for the autograph. The characters don't have a table to sign on, so the autograph book should have a hard cover.

As far as the best way to get those autographs...try a character meal or two. These are terrific ways to meet and greet the characters, without the long lines in the parks.
And about those lines...each park will have specific areas that you can find characters in during the day. THese are scattered throughout the parks. In MK you can go to ToonTown and get some great shots in Mickey's official tent, or the gift shop there has several different character lines during the day.

As my dd, now 11 /12, gets older, the characters aren't such a big deal. She has gone out to the parks without her autograph stuff and actually run into a character she has never seen....she just grabbed a shop receipt and had the character, Pocahontas, sign that!!!

Good luck and have a great trip. I'm sure you'll get lots of terrific ideas here.

 

[NJDisneymom]

we used the autograph book bought in the parks and brought one of those big pens with the 4 different color inks in it. It is cool to see that Peter Pan signed in green, Minnie in red, etc.

I didn't want to ruin our autograph book so for my scrapbook pages I photocopied the autographs onto vellum paper. It came cute.

 

[Fastcars]

We found the Sharpie CLick pens work really well when getting autographs from costume characters as well as face characters. The large barrel and the disappearing feature of the pen itself is really cool. Wont leave home without one on our up coming trip

 

[likearose]

Thanks for the great ideas!

I'm open to any suggestions. How do you carry your autograph book around? Small enough for a fanny pack? If not, what do you do.

There is so much wonderful information on this board. Thanks for sharing!

 

[daemom]

I was thinking of using a pillowcase for autographs, and was wondering if any of you had any ideas of something hard to put behind it. I was thinking cardboard, but I also want to be able to fold the pillowcase to keep in a backpack while we're in the parks. How much of a "table" do the characters with gloved hands need? I don't want to make it difficult. Thanks!

 

[Princess Wannabe]

Thanks for the great ideas!

I'm open to any suggestions. How do you carry your autograph book around? Small enough for a fanny pack? If not, what do you do.

There is so much wonderful information on this board. Thanks for sharing!

My husband actually carried the autograph book in his backpack; we always kept it 'ziplocked' in a Ziploc bag, so it wouldn't get wet if it rained (which it did rain, of course!) or if we rode water rides.

A suggestion that worked well for us:

I bought some simple small 3-ring books from Target. I then decorated each page with Disney stickers that I bought at our local Disney store.

There was a Pooh page, Peter Pan page, etc... The pages were done in groups - all of the Pooh pages were together, then came the Princess pages, then came Snow White pages, etc.

When we saw a character, my daughter would flip through the book while waiting in line until she found the 'matching' page...and I can't tell you how excited the characters were when they saw that their 'picture' was already on their page!

Some characters had to 'flip' through the rest of the book, to see all of the pages... some characters (during Character meals) would walk away with the book, and excitedly 'point' to their picture to a CM, as if saying, "That's me!"

Prince Charming (at the Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Faire) spent quite a bit of time, looking through the book, and was amazed he had his own page. One of the mice at this dinner (Perla?), took a dinner napkin and wrote, "Where did you get my picture??!" She was SO excited to see her own page!

It was a little bit of work on my part, getting the book ready, and it was a little extra time for my daughter to find the 'right' page for each character (but hey, we had nothing BUT time standing in line!), but the reaction from each of the characters was SO worth it! They LOVED it!!!

 

[tlbwriter]

How much of a "table" do the characters with gloved hands need?

Pluto (at Liberty Tree Tavern) held DD's book on his nose to sign it. That was one of the highlights of her trip!

 

[crisi]

There was a Pooh page, Peter Pan page, etc... The pages were done in groups - all of the Pooh pages were together, then came the Princess pages, then came Snow White pages, etc.

When we saw a character, my daughter would flip through the book while waiting in line until she found the 'matching' page...and I can't tell you how excited the characters were when they saw that their 'picture' was already on their page!

Only two words of wisdom. One - if you do something like this make sure to do what Princess Wannabe's daughter did - flip through the book and have the page ready when its your turn. Its really frustrating to spend ten minutes in line to be the "NEXT IN LINE" to see a character and then having the person in front of you take a year and a day (because they need to get the right page in the book, because the rest of the party needs to get in the picture and they weren't even in line, because the kids weren't taken out of the strollers, whatever you need to do to get ready, do it while the person before you goes). (And I appreciate your daughter's consideration in doing that!)

The other thing is unless you are prepared for a major amount of time autograph hunting, you want to make it clear that you probably won't get an autograph for every page this trip. Make pages to match characters at meals you will go to, but don't expect to run into everyone easily. And be prepared to wait in lines for autographs in the parks.


If you don't want to make autograph collecting a major part of your trip, downplay it now and make sure to distract your child when you see lines for the characters. It isn't uncommon to wait ten or twenty minutes in line to collect autographs.

 

[daemom]

Pluto (at Liberty Tree Tavern) held DD's book on his nose to sign it. That was one of the highlights of her trip!

How cute!

 

[princess lovers mom]

How do you carry your autograph book around? Small enough for a fanny pack? If not, what do you do.

the disney books are approx 4" x 6" and would fit into a fanny pack. You should be able to get it out fast as often we walked up on a character just starting to sign, you don't want to be "digging"for it while you are in line....a large barrel pen that clicks is the best...we used the mutlt pack of different color sharpie pens that clicked recently...kids had fun picking colors to match the characters!

the characters are out in mass and if there is a large line check back as they will be there later! Character meals are the best way to get the favorites quick and garenteed...also get over to toontown one morning as soon as it opens (later than reg park hours) and you can get some princesses/ pooh characters/ mickey and minnie really quick (approx 30 min to move through all the lines and then you are done!)

I sometimes figure it is a waste of time to wait for these sigs when we could be doing the rides !, but it brings out the most genuine smiles of the trip to see the kids with the characters and it is there vacation too! so allow some time to stand in some lines and have the camera ready!