autographs?

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Okay, so I am about to buy an autograph book online (from a store I think I saw mentioned here... maybe somewhere else??) Anyhow, it comes with a pen, but it looks like a ball point pen? I seem to remember reading somewhere that a fine point sharpie is a better option...

We've never done autographs before... any thoughts?

--Lisa

 

[bumbershoot]

We have found the books and pens to be a relatively OK value at the parks, and when we buy a pen there we feel OK about using it, since they know the characters will be using them. Perhaps a bit of justification, but oh well.

About the sharpie...I too thought that was fine (though we are a sharpie-free home, as far as my son knows at least), but recently read two arguments against it:

1. not archival quality. will turn the paper yellow eventually, so if it's going to be kept, sharpie isn't the best idea.

2. sharpie can mark up the characters fur.


We've just used the pen that comes with the books...one was a thicker pen-body ballpoint and the other was a rather thin gel ink pen, and no one complained or seemed to have much of a problem at all!

 

[victorandbellasmom]

We bought a couple of autograph books in the park one trip and the pen that came with it sucked. The castmember escorting the character even asked if we had another pen or sharpie since they've had issues with that pen before. I believe it was a blue inked pen and the other was a gold ink pen (from the 50th celebration). Since then, we've always brought along a sharpie. We've never gotten any complaints when having them use a sharpie. If the character is in full costume, we just have dd or ds hand the pen to the handler who gives it to the character.

 

[LoveThatMouse!]

We have a collection of about 10 almost full autograph books that we've acquired over the years. Believe it or not, our favorite book is one that we had the characters sign in crayola...our children would choose the color that matched the character and voila' .... a virtual rainbow of beloved autographs.

We had a zipper pouch that held the autograph book and about 10 different crayola colors. While standing in line, we would have our children choose the color that matched the character, and we were set. We have also used washable colored markers that ended up being a beautiful book too!

The books that are all sharpie or ball point pen are our least favorite....

Plus, if you use the crayons, no worries about marking the costumes or running out of ink.




.

 

[DangerMouse]

Ball points are the most frustrating it seems for characters. If it doesn't roll right away, they scratch up your page trying to get it to work. Oh, and Cruella will make sure you know how displeased she is for giving her a faulty pen!

We used a sharpie the last two times, and I just warn the characters (non-face ones) that I'm handing them a sharpie so they won't mark up the costumes. I imagine the people in charge of costumes at DLR have every trick in the book for getting all kinds of stains out of those things, including sharpie pen.

Oh and watch out for Stitch, he is notorious for signing on the back side of another page, and upside down as well. Bad Stitch!

 

[mAlien13]

I think the big thing that I have heard and seen to be true, is make sure it is a large enough pen! I agree that the sharpies can be tricky, and not as long lasting. It seems like they would be hard to handle without messing the costumes.

I haven't dealt with autograph books in a few years, and we always made our own so it wasn't an issue of a pen coming with one. We just always bought a really big Disney pen, from the Disney store or the first park we entered our first day.

 

[mommy2kande]

I love the multi colored pen/crayon idea! That is so fun!

Ours from the last trip came with a blue sparkly gel pen. It worked just fine.

 

[KerTggr]

The crayon idea is very cute. Popular over on the scrabooking board is using Tags. That way you can add them easily to a memory or scrapbook after the trip with a picture of your child with the character on the same page.

 

[pixiewings71]

We bought a pen from DL, it was a larger pen with a red body. The characters seem to really like it and the handlers have even thanked us for having that particular one. It's a ball point.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Thanks guys... I am not a scrapbooker and don't plan to start! But I do love the idea of the washable markers, we always have those with us anyway!

--Lisa

 

[OlivesMom]

Do you buy the book when you arrive? If we bring one, what size should it be? Wasn't sure if they write really BIG...

 

[mommy2kande]

We bought one last time, and I think it is 6x6 or 8x8 inches with pockets for photos. I think they will write as big as the book. I know DL sells smaller books too, for just autographs, no photos.

 

[rszdtrvl]

I am bringing a silver scrapbooking pen that is fine tip (on sale/clearance for $1.50 at the grocery store - one of those impulse buys - but we needed it for our trip, LOL!). It guarantees that it won't yellow. And is a sharpie size.

I think it will look really neat in the autograph book we got on ebay (I think it is the 50th anniversary book - it is red in color and has the characters on the outside of it..).

 

[OlivesMom]

Sorry but I have more questions for you.

How difficult is it to get autographs? How many should we realistically be able to get? We are going to do Ariel's so I'm hoping for princess autographs there.

I'm looking on ebay for a book. Some of the books only have 14 pages for autographs, didn't know if that would be enough.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

We went in October, and between the princess dinner, goofy's for breakfast, and the general bump into characters (we didn't wait in line)--if we had a autograph book (we didn't--which is why I want to do it this time) we would have had 20 autographs without trying (6 princesses, 8 from breakfast, and another 6 that we interacted with...)

--Lisa

 

[Jenn1116]

All this autogrpah talk reminds me of how our group of six chased down Alice She was in a hurry so we walked/ran with her while she signed books all the way from between the castle and matterhorn into Tomorrow Land. Getting autographs is usually pretty easy. We always do a character meal and catch the ones we happen to see if the line isn't too long. We can manage 15 or so without trying hard at all. Good luck!

 

[bonita_babe232]

When i was there in october we bought a book outside of disneyland the first night we were there, then when we went in the next day we were so upset because they have VERY nice books in disneyland that you can put the picture you took beside the autograph. We didn't end up buying another book because we didn't even really use the first one ( my son was 3 almost 4 and just wanted to hug them and get the picture) but next time we go when hes a bit older i'm gonna buy one in the park.... they are ALOT more money, but its a good memory to have!