DD4.5 and character autographs

[KelseyLaPerle]

I wasn't planning on getting an autograph book for DD who will be almost 5 at the time of our trip. However, the other day someone said to me "well, you know she's going to see EVERYONE else doing it and then she'll want to, too". What's your experience? Have your kids ever not done autographs? If I change my mind, how much are the autograph books?
thanks!

 

[Goin2Disney2006]

When we went 3 years ago my niece was 4 and my DD was 1. My niece loved it and we got such cute pics of me and DD or my husband and DD getting autographs. She wasn't scared in the least.

This year my oldest is now 4 and my baby will be 1. I can't wait to see my oldest daughter go up for autographs and how the baby will react.

 

[ChristusG]

Last year, when my DD was 4.5, was the first time she showed any interest in autograph books. She asked for one and then she was hooked. She absolutely loved getting everyone's autograph!

 

[smacky1]

We've been bringing out dd since she was 1 and I dreaded the day she asked to get an autograph book. However, my dd is a character nut! She loves them and would rather wait in line to see characters than go on any ride. This year I actually bought her an autograph book as a surprise. At 4 1/2, she didnt even know what they were. My theory was that once she got a characters autograph, I could explain the next time she saw that character that we didnt NEED to wait in line to see them again because we already got their autograph. This worked out great for times when the character lines were really long and I truly didnt feel like waiting 45 minutes to see mickey again. However, we do go to Disney for them so as long at the lines are not too long, I do let her wait to see characters over, and over, and over again. I will actually be very sad when she is over her character obsession.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

we just came back and i had one for my 2 yr old boy and one for my 4 yr old girl. more for the memories than anything. the basic one thats blue with the orginal characters is i think 16.95 or cheaper...and it has the most pages. dd picked the princess one, that has one page for a pic and the opposing for the autograph. half as many pages tho, and that one was 1995. by the end anastasia was signing with tigger.

 

[TwoRoos]

My girls both like getting autographs, so we take the time to do that. My neices (6.5 years old) don't care a thing about the autographs or waiting in much of a line to meet the characters. They do like the ones they meet at character meals, though. So they had the princesses sign their BBB sashes! I thought that was a cute idea.

IMO, if you're going to stand in line and wait to meet the character and take pics, you might as well go ahead and get the autograph, too. The books are inexpensive...maybe $7 or so for the smallest ones (but they have more pages than the larger ones that hold autographs and pics).

 

[bas71873]

I wasn't planning on getting an autograph book for DD who will be almost 5 at the time of our trip. However, the other day someone said to me "well, you know she's going to see EVERYONE else doing it and then she'll want to, too". What's your experience? Have your kids ever not done autographs? If I change my mind, how much are the autograph books?
thanks!

Do it. And see if you can find an autograph book that has a photo sleeve on one side and a blank page opposite for the signature. Then you can put each pic with the autograph. Now, my DD was 4.5 on her first trip too and I will tell you, the ONLY characters we stood in line for were Ariel in her grotto and pirate Mickey at the P&P party. All others signatures we got at character eats. We did one just about every day. I refuse to spend my trip in line for autographs and when DD and I went back a year or so later, she didn't care to wait in line for any additional. If we stumbled upon some (like the Step mother & sisters behind Cindy's castle), then we grabbed an auto.

I think you will be sorry if you don't have a book ready for her (and you can always use it next time if she's not interested).

 

[bas71873]

Oh, and I meant to add that I got my autograph book (pic one side, blank page on the other) from ebay before we even left for our trip (for around $5.00)

 

[marymac123]

We just went in Sept. I had ordered Mickey's Grand Welcome Gift from the Disney florist which had an autograph book in it but they don't set that up until the 2nd day of your stay. She kept seeing all the signing at the character spots & was getting upset that she didn't have one. I was trying to wait till "Mickey" gave her that one w/out trying to spoil the surprise & save some $. Anyway we bought her a 2nd one that she used 1st & filled it up in 2 days with just princesses. I didn't think she'd be that into it either, I thought it was more for ME She loved it & it made her sooo happy. It also gets them more interaction with the characters which was great.

 

[jenseib]

we just came back and i had one for my 2 yr old boy and one for my 4 yr old girl. more for the memories than anything. the basic one thats blue with the orginal characters is i think 16.95 or cheaper...and it has the most pages. dd picked the princess one, that has one page for a pic and the opposing for the autograph. half as many pages tho, and that one was 1995. by the end anastasia was signing with tigger.

They are 6.95.

we didn't get one when she was 2 and she didn't care, or know about them. We didn't see alot of characters either. When she was 3 we did and it was nice becuase when she felt shy it was a little crutch to hand it to them and made her less fearful or shy. This past trip she was 4 and it was a must. She would lokk at it over and over throughout the trip. We got several duplicates and she was ahppy about that too. We filled almost every page too.
Don't get the picture sleeve ones if you plan on getting alot of signatures. It only comes with like 10 or 20 pages. We would've had to buy like 3 or 4 of them and those are really expensive.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

They are 6.95.

i was charged 12.95 for the blue one at asmovies, and 19.95 for the princess one. we bought them september 30th.

 

[jenseib]

i was charged 12.95 for the blue one at asmovies, and 19.95 for the princess one. we bought them september 30th.

Wow! I bought the blue one with Mickey and gang on the front for the last 2 Marches and they were $6.95 each time. If they went up, thats alot to go up!

 

[Vility]

I didn't do the autograph books with my kids.
my almost 5 year old boy asked why we didn't have any books?
my answer to him was, we weren't doing it for our first trip, but if he would like to do it next time then sure he could.
i don't personally get the autograph books, and prefer just the pics.

 

[jenseib]

You are right. They kind of are a waste. Fun for just a few days and thats it for the most part. Claire does look at hers from this year off and on. I was actually going to bring the one from 2008 back to the trip this year, but when I was packing, I found it and found out she had filled in every blank page with her own signature of sorts. LOL! So we bought a new one this year. She has asked if we could just take a Hannah Montanna notebook next trip for them, so we may do that if we ever go again!

 

[tadamom]

We usually do autograph books but this time I decided not to. I know that my kids love to get autographs so they autographs on a pillowcase instead. They love them! I bought cheap pillowcases at Target for $4.99 for 2. They were really cheap feeling so next time I would buy a better one for them.

 

[bdiddy]

We went last year when our DD was 4.5 and I got one and while she liked it she wasn't obsessed with it. She was much more into the rides. If we saw a short line she'd get in it and get the autograph and picture and did it at the character meals of course but she doesn't chase the characters around and HAVE to get them all if you know what I mean.

I would have one just in case and let her take the lead on what she wants to do. I also wouldn't make a big deal about "Oh, looks lets go get so and so's autograph" constantly. Let her initiate it and have the book ready if needed. You might be surprised - she might not care that much.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

Wow! I bought the blue one with Mickey and gang on the front for the last 2 Marches and they were $6.95 each time. If they went up, thats alot to go up!

well disney has been squeaking up the prices gradually lately. so it's either that or ours was mismarked. but i remember it because i said to dh well i dont want hers to be more than his because we try to spend the same on both...but i coulndt twist her arm to get the plain blue that held so many more. oh well. she loved it either way.

 

[AKADrea]

I wasn't going to with DD4.5 this last time, but my mom bought her a book while we were there and she wound up loving it! She likes to pull out her book and look at the names (I still need to print off the pictures of her with the Characters) It was fun and gave her something to do! I just wish we had decided to do it before we had our Princess Lunch at Akershus so we didn't have to go back and meet characters again

 

[gtpoohbear]

My DDs first trip was when she was 4.5 as well, and meeting characters and getting autographs was by far her favorite part of the trip. Given a choice, she would always wait in line for a character over a ride. We bought a cheap autograph book like the ones here http://www.disneyautographbooks.com/ before we went (plain paper inside, no pics or anyhing). She still shows it off to people from time to time.

Personally, I can't imagine going to WDW without and autograph book! I think as kids get older they are less into it, so I would take advantage of their being young and believing in the characters as much as you can!

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

My DDs first trip was when she was 4.5 as well, and meeting characters and getting autographs was by far her favorite part of the trip. Given a choice, she would always wait in line for a character over a ride. We bought a cheap autograph book like the ones here http://www.disneyautographbooks.com/ before we went (plain paper inside, no pics or anyhing). She still shows it off to people from time to time.

Personally, I can't imagine going to WDW without and autograph book! I think as kids get older they are less into it, so I would take advantage of their being young and believing in the characters as much as you can!

thanks for the link...those are really cute, may just order two before our next trip!