Did your kids stop wanting to get Autographs????

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

My kids have been to WDW three times in the last few years- and two of those trips were 10 day long vacations. During that time we met tons of characters and filled many autograph books. They enjoy the characters, but last trip I felt like I was forcing them to meet characters so I could take pictures. It seems that they would rather be spending time doing other things, and I don't want to force them-


Did your kids go through that- not caring about meeting characters anymore? How did you respond?


We are becoming DVC members currently and plan to vacation in WDW at least once or twice every other year- so Im curious as to how we will now spend park time and if as they get older I'll regret not having them get a few pictures and autographs along the way.

 

[ejcraft]

Did your kids go through that- not caring about meeting characters anymore? How did you respond?

you know there is no real answer to this, i have 4 kids, or should I say adults now, the youngest is now 17, I think we have taken an autograph item of some sort every time we ha e gone, one year it was a pillow case, the next it was just basically index cards in case we saw a character we didn't have yet, one year it was a draw string bag, so basically some year we get autographs some times we just get pictures, so my suggestion would be to ask about a month before and see what they want to do, and then always bring the index cards. Like this year even though she is 17 we still will be seeing Anna and Elsa, and we always see ariel. oh and chip and dale.

 

[ErinsMommy]

DD rather race around from ride to ride than stand in line or wait at a table for photos and autographs -- with few exceptions (A&E, Madhatter and Belle). With that said, if the character was right there to 'meet', I'm betting she would be

 

[DrummerDad]

Every time we have been to DL my kids could not have cared less about the characters. If one was there and available great, if not that was great too. My kids are focused on rides, food, and shows.

 

[Poohbug]

My kids have never been a fan of the characters. Any pictures taken with characters are forced (mostly character breakfasts, eat, snap a pic, eat). There would be no line for a character and I would ask them if they would like a picture - nope.

Now my youngest actually likes them. If I ask he will say yes.......if there is not a long line. He loves Frozen but there is no way he would stand in line for an hour to see them.

Never once have any of them been interested in autographs.

I actually consider myself lucky because I can avoid all the crazy lines and rope drop drama. Also no lugging around autograph books and pens.

 

[starsweeper]

Never once have any of them been interested in autographs.

I actually consider myself lucky because I can avoid all the crazy lines and rope drop drama. Also no lugging around autograph books and pens.

I feel the same. I was always glad my kids didn't want to spend hours in line for character autographs. We usually schedule a princess breakfast and Pooh breakfast to see some favorites, then stop to see characters that pop up in park with less than 5-10 min waits. As 7yos at their first MNSSHP last October, I thought they'd want to see some of the rare characters but they were more interested in the parade, fireworks, and rides, rides, rides...

 

[darkwing818]

When our DDs were younger, probably between 4 & 10 they loved getting photos & autographs with the characters. Then in their pre-teen & teen years not so much if at all. Now they're in college & they love getting their pictures taken with the characters, no autographs though. For us, I guess " What Goes Around, Comes Back Around". Go figure

 

[DemonLlama]

First three trips, character autographs and photos were a big part of our focus

After that, both kids had gotten into thrill ride mode and wouldn't ever want to stop for lines for the characters.

Now, quick photos/low waits are still okay, but the autograph books are long retired now!

 

[niffer5150]

DD only cared about autographs her 1st and part of second trip to disneyland when she was 7 and 8. she wasn't raised watching disney movies really so they don't hold the same meaning for her as many kids have. she does still have a fondness for chip and dale and while we no longer carry her autograph book, she is still happy to take a pic with them even though she's almost 15.

 

[HM]

We only did meet and greets for autographs during our first two trips, my kids were 4&6 and then 5&7.
After that, we'd only stop to see one if there wasn't much of a line and was a unique character...and only for a picture. We haven't used their autograph books since 2000.

 

[tsme]

My DD use to want to meet all of the characters. Then last year, she wanted to only meet some of them. This year I asked her if she wanted to get an autograph book to meet the characters & she said no. She's 11 1/2yrs old now. So I guess that's her cut off age. But she might change her mind when she sees them in the parks. As for myself, I'm happy I won't have to wait in long lines to meet the characters.

 

[musicluvr40]

My girls - 11 and 16 - still love getting pictures with the characters. They have their favorites - Stitch and Pluto - and love to look back at themselves with the characters at different ages. My older one has said no autograph book for our upcoming October trip, but my younger one wanted one. I took pictures from our past trips and made a photo book on Shutterfly - a page of her at various ages with each character. I left a few pages blank for any new characters, and the characters will sign right on the photo page. I have done this before, and it is fun to see how the characters react when they see pictures of themselves.

My girls do both enjoy having magic shots done by the PP photographers.

 

[JaimeK]

Honestly, I don't get the autograph thing at all.
A meet and greet, a pic, sure.

 

[GigiDisneyfreak]

My daughters are 16 and 21 now. They both still love to get pictures with the characters. They don't need to stop everytime we see Mickey (or whoever) now but if he is in an outfit they have never seen him in then that is a must. The 16 year old still brings an autograph book and the 21 year old has her own daughter so last year was the first time she didn't carry her own. They both went through a time where they didn't want the autograph book and said they didn't need to see the characters. Both were in their tween years when they felt this way, however they still didn't pass up all characters. If your kids aren't into it I wouldn't force it. They may also change their minds when they get their, I have had that happen too. Even when my kids didn't want to I did and I would make them wait with me and of course they ended up getting in the picture.

 

[Indio]

Nope. We've never done autographs. Never do meet and greets. If we happen to see a character standing there looking lonely, we'll run over and snap a quick picture, but that is a RARE occasion. Most of the time, the boys say NO! And to tell you the truth, I don't get this lining up for hours thing either.

 

[IamJBo]

No kids on my end - but I definitely went through the "too cool for autographs" phase myself.

I do however have a significantly younger sister (8-year gap) and I did notice her going from autographs to no autographs. We also managed to meet our favorites but skipped a bunch of characters throughout the years unless we were able to walk directly to the front.

I would just ask which ones they would like to see if any.

Maybe it'll open up a new type of vacation of your family? Have you done the tours?

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Yup - both of mine have stopped wanting character autographs - started when they reached around 12 years old.

Now we will take one family picture with a character and that's it. If I want to meet a character, I'll break off from the rest of the family to do so.

I did that on our last trip - I got a FP+ for Anna/Elsa so I went off to meet them.

I was happy, the teens were happy. (My husband wasn't with us at that point - he had to go home early.)

 

[LSUfan4444]

Thankfully my daughter got into the desire to want autographs. Instead, she has always wanted to give something to the characters.

She colors pictures pictures and brings crafts she makes at school to give to the characters. It really changes her interactions with the characters. Rather than just the standard experience every other kid gets of the generic hig or high five, book sign the photo the reactions we get are really cool.

Here is a quick video of when when she gave a picture of Buzz she colored to Jessie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoQlKZnPlFs

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I think it really just depends on the kid. I love getting autographs still, but then again I'm also a five year old trapped in a 16 year old's body, so...

 

[sb682]

It just depends on the kid. My son is 4 and there are very few characters he cares about meeting, pretty much just the Fab 5. We saw tons of characters on our first two trips, when he was 3, and did autographs. The last few trips he's preferred to just keep moving to another ride. We were there for a week last month and we went to Character Spot and I had to talk him into seeing the characters at their training meet in World Showcase.