Autographs, Passports, Pressed pennies- OH MY!

[MagicPrincess]

OK, this will be our first trip to Disney as a family. DD is 2 years old and who knows when we'll get back to Disney.
SO....
I know we're going to get an autograph book to take to the parks. I just read something earlier about an Epcot Passport book and Pressed Penny book. Is the Epcot Passport worth it? Sounds kinda cute? How do you go about using it?
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[MagicPrincess]

also...
am I better off purchasing these items at the parks or ahead of time online?
Thanks!

 

[cheerdaddy]

you can easily purchase these items at the parks.....the passports at epcot are alot of fun...you go to the different countries and cm's will validate the passport with some sort of native saying or whatever.....Im not sure your daughter will appreciate this at age 2, I guess you'll have to decide this.....im not sure about the pressed penny "book", I know they have pressed penny machines all over disney world that have become popular....you put in 2 quarters and one penny and you get a nice pressed penny.....my daughter collected many, many of these back before the craze began....it's a fun and relatively inexpensive souvenier...

 

[Jillpie]

The passport book would be great fun for you, but would go right over your daughter's head. Its lots of fun talking with the CM's from the different countries. What is frustrating though, is the lack of time in the countries and wanting to get each one stamped. If you don't care if each one is stamped, then it would be less stressful. She may like doing the pennies, but that too might be a little too young for her. My 10 year old son loved this activity, but I would wait till she can really appreciate all the designs on the pennies.

 

[MagicPrincess]

yeah, I don't think she'd be too interested in the pennies. I do think she'll like the autographs, and "maybe" the passport. She loves getting "attention" while we're out and about- so who knows! Maybe she'd like it! I think we'll get one, and give it a whirl. If anything, it will be a nice keepsake for her!

 

[01Sweetpea]

We're going to try the passport. Since I'm pulling my kids (11 & 8)out of school for 6 days, I figure they can bring this back to school and show the teachers. They'll probably have to give a little presentation about what they say, but I think they will enjoy it. We have 1 1/2 days scheduled for Epcot, is that enough time to do all the countries?

 

[tjmw2727]

For a 2yo I think the autograph book is enough.

You can get the stamp in the autograph book at epcot, you don't need the passport. For younger children you can also make a mask at all the countries at WS in Epcot. My girls love this and have not yet become interested in the passport. Also - this is free and done at the kidspot at each country. The child colors and decorates the maks and the CM's at each country add a little something as well as the stamp for that country. This way you can stop and color and play for a while but unlike with the passport you don't have to visit every country.

Likewise I don't think she will find the pennies very interesting. If you start collecting the pennies you could always buy the book later. My girls had quite a few before we picked up the books to store them in.

Have Fun -
TJ

 

[meeko_33785]

I agree that a 2 year old would probably not be interested in the Passports or pressed pennies. She probably wouldn't understand the concept of the passports and the pressed pennies are so small that the child probably wouldn't be able to see what the image pressed onto it is. The autographs are more what a child that age would be interested in. You may also want to also do the KidCot Fun Stops at EPCOT though. Your DD would get a mask to color and them can take it to all the KidCot tables in all the countries and have the CM at each pavillion add something to it. It's a lot of fun for kids and free.

 

[Jillpie]

To 01Sweetpea, that should be plenty of time. What we usually do is take a morning for Future World, take a break and go back in the evening for the countries (first time to do passport). We then pick another day or evening just to do the countries. That could be your second chance to do the passports. Just make sure you carry it with you in the backpack and not forget it back in the room.

 

[Madi100]

For my daughter's first trip when she was four, we did the pressed penny book, the autograph book, and the passport book. At four, she loved the autograph book, she enjoyed the pressed penny book, and she could care less about the passport book. We just took our two year old. Since we did all three of those last trip, we decided to do a trip with none of them. The only thing we did was the pin trading for our six year old. We decided that if they really wanted one, we'd get the autograph book.

The both saw other children with the autograph book and neither of them wanted one. The last time we spent a lot of time getting autographs. Last time when we saw the character, we would walk up with the autograph book and then a picture. This time, they ran up to give the character a hug and then a picture. IMO, it was much more magical to just have that hug and interaction instead of having the autograph book. My two year old would much rather look at the pictures of her hugging and playing with the characters rather than look at the autograph book we have.

I would definitely suggest doing the mask in Epcot. That was fun for both of my kids both times.

 

[HollyJoy]

We will be trying all three when we go this December. My girls will be ages 5 and 7, and I think they'll get a kick out of them. We'll be making our autograph books and personalizing them. The other two I'll buy at the park. You can always give it a try and if she's not interested, go ahead and do it for her and stick it in her babybook or her scrapbook (if you're a scrapbooker!)

 

[KathyPem]

I went with my two middle kids in Sept when they both happened to be two year olds LOL. We did the autographs, they were really wary of the costumed charatcters. Son was scared of all of them, daughter loved teh people characters and a few of her favorites that were costumed.

Their favorite thing was the pressed pennies, the older liked to see what was on them (trains, characters, stuff he was interested in) and they both loved pushing the buttons and putting the coins in to do it.

We went to epcot and opted not to do the passport or the masks they seemed too young to do either so we jsut enjoyed strolling around and going on the boatride.

 

[poohtown]

Passport vs. epcot mask -

My 8 year old did the MASK instead of the passport. At every country there was a table set up with crayons/markers to color. (they give you a cardboard mask at the first stop) Each stop she would add a little more and the cm would stamp the stick holding the mask. Some of them wrote little notes to her on the back of the mask. My daughter loved this and brought it to school for show and tell.

Penny press -

we loved this too but found it can become a very expensive 'inexpensive souvenier'. We limited our daughter to positively only one penny from each machine (they all have 3 choices) and covinced her she did NOT have to fill the book.

Autograph book -

LOVED this. We also took a picture of her with her character. We were going to put the pictures next to the autograph but a couple characters signed on both pages. We did write the date on the front of the book, numbered each entry and wrote who it was and what park we saw them at. Believe me it was a good thing because some of the autographs are hard to distinguish.

have fun !!!!!

 

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

No need to purchase in advance. These items (especially the autograph book & penny book) EVERYWHERE - all gift shops, even at the hotels.

Definitely do the autograph book. She can pick and choose when she wants autographs, if she doesn't want to approach each character.

Pennies were a great distraction for our two year old. When we wanted to move from one spot to another, we'd say, Hey, look over this way there might be a penny machine...and when we foudn one, it was amusing to puch buttons, etc. We bought the book once we collected a bunch of pennies. We didn't need it right away.

We used the passport, not so much for the stamps at each ocuntry, but becuase it comes with a bunch of stickers for each country's page...and two year olds love stickers! It might be over her head, as one poster mentioned, but she will still enjoy the stickers while she's waiting for her food to come at a restuarant. It's worth taking a peek at to consider if your DD might enjoy it.

And, absolutely have her do a mask at Epcot. They're great! There are 11 countries, and kids can add something at each country -- that might be a bit much for a wee one. Stop at a few and see what she's up for.

That's a perfect age for a trip! My first trip as a mom was with my first DD age 18 months (and I was several months pg). My second trip was with my DD 2 1/2 and DD 8 months, and my third trip was with my DD 4, DD 2, and DS 10 months. I can't wait to go again -- oldest DD will be 6, middle DD 4, and DS almost 3 -- and I can't wait to see his 2 year old face react to everything at WDW!!!

Enjoy!