Is getting autographs really that much fun?

[mrsannb]

We've never done this, and I'm thinking the kids wouldn't really think it was that neat, but maybe I'm wrong. Do your kids like it, and if so, is it just because they like the characters anyway, or is there something special about the autographs that they like? My ds7 isn't really into characters that much anyway (dd4 likes the characters that she knows).

 

[scjo68]

It just depends. I know several people whose kids aren't into it at all. I didn't think mine would be, since on our first trip, my dd, then 5, was pretty scared of any character that wasn't a princess. She did want to get princess's autographs, but it was easy since we ate with them at both CRT and Norway. By the end of the trip, she was no longer scared, and was very into getting autographs and pictures of most characters.

The next couple of trips, she was very into it. Now she's 11, and she does still collect autographs from characters at meals and those who she likes but whose autograph we don't have yet (we waited in line for Tink's and the Fairies' autographs this last trip).

I wouldn't bring it up, but if they are really intesersted once they get down there, just go with the flow.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

No. It is a terrific time waster. Unless your kid begs and it willing to give up hours on rides forego it, imo.

 

[cmaee]

My kids love it....well, all but my 2 year old. She was still scared of the characters last time. She liked them from a distance, but not up close. We have always done the TS dining plan, so we scheduled only character meals for a TS meal. It has worked out well, in that we can take a break for a meal and still see the characters....that way we didn't feel the need to wait in line for those characters out in the park. We were multi-tasking....eating, sitting down to rest, and see the characters. I will have to say that it really depends on whether your kid loves characters or not. Our first trip, our oldest two kids were 5 and 4...they wanted every character's autograph that we came across. Last trip, the oldest two were 6 and 5. Our 5 yr old still wanted every autograph, but our 6 yr old only wanted ones that he liked. I always take their picture with the characters, so I will pull out the autograph and put it with their photo in our Disney scrapbook and they enjoy looking back through it. Our kids have stood in line for every autograph that they wanted to and we still rode every ride, muliple times, that they wanted to as well. They like that character interaction as much as they do the rides.

 

[Kies99]

My kids loved it. Had a great time and got some great pictures. In fact some of our favorite pictures come from getting autographs!

And we didn't give up "hours" of our time to get the autographs. Any lines you encounter generally move pretty quick. There are a few character encounters that take some time, but with general characters it's quick.

 

[Gi19]

My DD7 loves getting the autographs and pictures taken, but we don't spend alot of time waiting to do this.

 

[tzolkin]

My kids have never expressed any interest, so we've never bothered. We may say "oh look it's so-and-so", and stop to look at the character, but then we continue on. If they really wanted to meet the character we would certainly let them, but they haven't asked and the few times we've offered they declined.

We do go to the Disney Visa character meet at Epcot (usually about 3 times during our trip). My kids really enjoy that. They run over to the characters and hug them. I don't know why other than that there are not a bunch of people around and that the characters are a surprise, so they're excited when they get into the room. We don't get autographs though-- just hugs and pictures.

We haven't tried the character meals, but my parents had great experiences with them with my niece last month. (They had the deluxe dining plan, so they did at least one character meal per day.)

 

[Julylady]

We have taken assorted nieces and nephews to WDW for 17 years. A total of 9 in all. We have never waited in line for an autograph. Like others have said, its a huge time waster.

We have always had 1-2 character meals per visit and got autographs with pictures at those. Once we got home, no one seemed very interested in the autograph books though. When the kids asked to wait, I just said, "We are going to see Mickey on Friday at Chef Mickeys. Now its other kids' turn."

A funny story. My youngest niece is just five. She visited both Disney World and Disneyland when she was four. Her favorite "game" is to play princess. She puts on her Belle dress and comes to each adult in the room to sign their autograph book (pretend) and pose for a picture (she even does camera sound effects). She will ask us if we are having a good time, what hotel we are staying at, and what is our favorite ride.

 

[bjscheel]

I'm sure it's not everyone's priority, but we like it. DH may say it's a waste, but, he has a good time with the characters too. In their books I put the picture of them with the character across from the autograph, so it's more interesting than a bunch of names.

While waiting our turn we think of what we'll say to the character. Those have been some of our best times, talking to the characters. It's always fun to say something to get a reaction rather than just sign, picture, and thank you. We've learned warrior moves from Mulan, given Flik a rock "pretend it's a seed, okay?", and had to bow to Jafar. It's all part of the fun for us! It's also like a collection, to see how many different ones we can get. This trip's goal will be Marie, Thumper, Silvermist and Fawn!

Now that we're going on our 4th trip, there's a lot of characters we can skip. We'll meet new characters and our favorites. But we've also always managed to do everything else we want, I haven't felt like we wasted time we didn't have.

On the other hand, we don't do pin-trading, so do what you think you'll enjoy.

 

[bjscheel]

A funny story. My youngest niece is just five. She visited both Disney World and Disneyland when she was four. Her favorite "game" is to play princess. She puts on her Belle dress and comes to each adult in the room to sign their autograph book (pretend) and pose for a picture (she even does camera sound effects). She will ask us if we are having a good time, what hotel we are staying at, and what is our favorite ride.

My DD8 does this too

 

[sksjasams]

My DS10 enjoyed getting autographs and posing for pictures with the characters. It allows your child to "collect" something over the course of your trip, for only the initial cost of the book ($6). I think if we were to return soon (before he's too old), he would bring the same book and seek out the autographs he has not collected yet.

 

[disykat]

On our trip when the boys were 6 and 8 I didn't want to commit to it, but wanted it to be an option. I stuck some 3x5 cards in my bag. They did get a few autographs and I put them in the photo album along with the pictures. It worked great.

 

[Jennia]

My dd is 2 and she LOVES it, which really surprised me. She'd see a character and tell me, "book, hurry hurry!" so she could give it to them. This was her favorite part, and I was glad we had this to do with her since she ended up disliking most of the rides.

 

[Tiggs14]

We took our 4 and 5 year old sons down for the first time this year and they were only into the autographs if it was a character they knew/liked. We only waited in a few short lines as we had many character meals booked. We waited longer than I would have liked for the UP characters but it was for all 3of them at once. They waited with no fussing which is why we remained in the line up.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

On our trip when the boys were 6 and 8 I didn't want to commit to it, but wanted it to be an option. I stuck some 3x5 cards in my bag. They did get a few autographs and I put them in the photo album along with the pictures. It worked great.

This was how we started. Another year, though, I had one trip that seemed to be too much waiting for a hug and a sig. Everyone's experience and priorities are different, though.

 

[ixmnrs]

I never did the autograph thing when I was a kid at Disney, but I do recall the pictures with the characters. With my own children, I always felt it was just one of things to do in natural evolution of Disney visits. Pretty much, we did all the autograph hunting, the major character meals and picture taking on a specific trip when the kids were between 5 - 9; both my DD (9) and DS (12) quite enjoyed it at the time. We didn't spend a lot of times in line ups, but then it depends on the time of year that you go; The photo ops were great and a lot of memories for photo albums, scrapbooks, videos, etc. Now, we don't pay much attention to the characters, even at character meals any more; it was pin trading at the last few visits and most recently, the hunt for Hidden Mickeys. My son is going through the ride all the big thrill rides phase now and he's going to conquer his Rock N Roller Coaster fear this coming March Break.

If the opportunity presents, go for it...most kids of a certain age do get a kick out of it. If it is 105 deg out and the lineup is crazy, I wouldn't hesitate to pass on it and head for the nearest indoor ride!

 

[starstruck93]

My DS really enjoyed it. I made him a personalized autograph book and it really was a big success!. Here's a slideshow of all of the autographs he got. The slideshow is missing Buzz Lightyear because it was on my photopass and it came in after I made it. I would recommend collecting autographs! Have fun! April

Slideshow!
http://s196.photobucket.com/player..../TheMagicalautographbook09.flv&fs=1&os=1&ap=1

Here's a few pics of the autograph book I made.

 

[scard192]

Wasn't sure my 3 year grand daughter would "get it" but she did and loved collecting autographs. We did mostly character meals so we were not waiting in line for the autographs. Except for Ariels Grotto which was only a 10 minute wait and the Epcot Character Spot where we waited 45 minutes while her parents did Soarin and it was so hot I was glad to be inside in the A/C for awhile.

 

[mrsannb]

Very cute slideshow!

 

[gregokdisney]

In 2006 my kids were 7 (daughter) and 4 (son) and they were totally into getting autographs and it was the highlight of the trip. It surprised me, and I didn't expect so much interest in it.

This year they were 10 (daughter) and 7 (son) and could not be bothered to get hardly any autographs. Especially if there was any hint of a line to wait for the autograph - forget it!