Autograph books or not?

[sarahlovesmickey]

You can find small spiral books at the Dollar Tree or Target. They work great and when you get home, you can incorporate them into a scrapbook with the pics you took of the kids with the characters. =)

 

[nsmith]

My DD is leaving for Disney tonight for her Sr. trip. We have been planning all week. She told me one of her best memories of our first family trip was the day before the trip when we made autograph books.

I had purchased little spiral bound notebooks from the Dollar Store along with Disney stickers. She and he brother spent a morning "making" their books and getting very excited for Disney. They carried their books in fanny packs that they weren't "to cool" to wear way back when.

With 4 kids I love the idea of one book to be signed and a photo with all 4 kids to be mounted next to the signature.

When we went on a Disney cruise we did the pillow case idea, and they used those cases for years. We left the case at guest services on the first day of the cruise with markers and picked it up before we left the ship.

If some of your kids are to old for autographs and some just the right age maybe one parent could stay with the autograph kids and the others get in line for a ride.

 

[Zim]

I actually got the idea from a fellow DISboard member also!! If you check out the creative DISigns forum they sometimes have pics of books ppl made but you have to search for them.

Oh I am definitely doing this. Funny thing, the first time we went to Disney with my DD (6 at the time), she fell in LOVE with meeting the characters. It was so foreign to me because I didn't like them at all as a kid. My thought was they were hot, miserable and hardly interested in me. On the other hand, my daughter will give up time on rides and even going to other parks in order to meet as many characters as possible.

After that first Disney trip (where she met characters but I didn't give her an autograph book), I argued one Christmas about how they sit on a shelf never to be looked at again. My college aged cousin corrected me stating they STILL treasure their autograph books from Disney.

Forward 8 years... and my DD14 STILL will stand in line to meet a character above anything else in the parks. And we always take autograph books. We're planning our next trip in September and she's most excited about the Mad Hatter character meal where she may get to meet Mary Poppins if I've got it right...

 

[katlas&kids]

I saw the coolest thing for autographs on another site, but of course, who knows where!

They had taken 12"x12" pieces of plain material & had the characters sign them. They mixed them with other Disney printed material squares the same size & made a quilt for their child's/children's bed.

 

[HayGan]

In the past we have used the Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Guide for Kids. It has all kinds of great information about WDW as well as several pages for autographs, etc. We like these because the kids can read them before they go as well as read them while they are waiting in line. They aren't very heavy. Either have your kids carry their own sling packs or they can easily fit all in one sling pack/backpack.

Amazon has them for $7.93 and they are eligible for super saver shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Birnbaums-Walt-Disney-World-Kids/dp/1423138635

 

[Perditamarie]

As pp mentioned the basic autograph book is $6.95 tax so that is a decent price...most kids could save that up to buy their own book. I have also made my own books by adding clip art of the charcters I thought we would see and printing it out on cardstock...I then had them bound at Kinkos for about $5. I could customize the books by the favorite characters of each kid. When you consider the ink, paper and binding it would have been cheaper to purchase the basic Disney autograph book --- they have a lot of pages too! Happy planning!

 

[earthfaries]

Walgreens & Wal Mart have autograph books for the fractioni of the price of autograph books at WDW. They are about $3.00 each and they are smaller, spiral bound books. They are very nice and more convenient to carry around. My kids put each of theirs in their backpacks.

You could always purchase 1 book and let the kids have their favorite characters sign it ~ that way they can share and not feel like they are missing out.

The kids enjoyed getting character autographs the first time they went to Disney but it even thought they have multiple autograph books they hardly ever take them anymore because they don't like waiting in the long lines for them.

Good luck with what you decide to do!