Where to buy the Autograph Books?

[DJmommy]

First time with our kids and initially wasn't planning on doing the autograph thing until reading some recent posts. With a 6 and 2 year old, I now am thinking it would be a good idea. I have heard others recommending the kind where you sign on the right hand side with the picture sleeve available on the left side.

Where can I buy these? I would love to get a couple before the trip in just 2 weeks away - YIKES I still have so much more to do. Does the Disney store sell them?

Do the resort gift shops sell them? Or do I have to buy them inside the parks? Can you recomment where? We will be going to MK our first day.

Anyone have any idea how much and how big they are???, as I am sure I will be the one lugging around the backpack full of all the items my two kids will need for the day.

Thanks,
J

 

[jcriket]

Not sure on a price, but they sell almost everywhere on disney property. (around $5.00.) Not sure about disney store.

 

[LaLa]

You can only get them at DW, not the Disney Store. They are sold literally everywhere in the parks and also at the Resort gift shops. They used to only have one kind, the little blue one for about $5. This year they have the Happiest Celebration autograph book (yes, it's golden) and the pink Princess autograph book. You can see them in the pics in my siggie. The kids have a death grip on them. I never noticed that before.
These two both have picture sleeves opposite the pages. I think we paid around $10 each for these. The only problem we ran into was that there are not a lot of pages in the golden and pink ones. With 3 character meals plus characters in the parks, we ran out of pages. We had to buy another one for each child. You think that's another Disney ploy to separate us from our money???? I fall for it everytime!

 

[DJmommy]

Thanks for the advice - maybe I should pick up a couple too, since we are also doing 3 character meals too.

Did you have the same character sign the books in different parks and restaurants? Like Mickey at Chef Mickeys and Safari mickey? I would imagine that that would use up a lot of pages. I am sure once my kids get the gist of it they will want the characters to sign even if they have seen them elsewhere.

 

[LaLa]

You know, I don't think we ran into that. We knew we would be getting the main characters at the character meals, so we only stood in line for characters in the park whose signatures we wouldn't be getting at a character meal. For instance, Pluto or Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. or the Country Bears, etc. If we would have stumbled upon Mickey or Minnie or some of the other ones with no line (it CAN happen), we probably would have just let them sign away and not worry about duplicates. You can also just take a pic with them.

Have a blast on your trip.

 

[gt3jay]

A couple of years ago, we picked them up at the WDW store in Ocala. Not sure of the exact name of the store or if it was directly affiliatied with WDW, but it sure seemed like it. It was right off of I-75. They were the blue autograph books. I believe the price was the same as what was in the parks.

 

[Amphigorey]

This year they have the Happiest Celebration autograph book (yes, it's golden) and the pink Princess autograph book.

Just a note on the Happiest Celebration books: They come with a "golden" gel pen, which is cute, but it's the size and shape of a normal ballpoint pen, which makes it hard for the characters to hold. The ink can also be hard to see in certain lights, which means that you may end up with autographs from characters that don't make sense because they couldn't see what they were doing. If you get a 50th book, or any autograph book, I highly recommend bringing a Sharpie. Characters LOVE those.

 

[tjevans]

A couple of years ago, we picked them up at the WDW store in Ocala. Not sure of the exact name of the store or if it was directly affiliatied with WDW, but it sure seemed like it. It was right off of I-75. They were the blue autograph books. I believe the price was the same as what was in the parks.

That was likely the Official WDW welcome center. Sadly, that is no longer in operation, although, as of two weeks ago, its sign can still be seen from the interstate.

 

[freakylick]

When we were down in late October, we could not find the Golden Autograph book anywhere. We even asked about it at several places and were told they were sold out. They may have restocked since then, but I figured that I would warn you that finding them may be difficult.

The blue book is the most popular, but there were some others that were in a few stores that I liked. I know Mousegears in Epcot had a pretty good selection of autograph books.

Regarding multiple sigs from the same characters, we did not get multiple sigs. We did wait in some lines to get pics of the characters in different outfits. For example, we have pics with Mickey in Safari clothes (from AK), one with him in his chef’s hat (Chef Mickeys), and one with him in his sorcerers hat (MGM), and then with him in his tux. We didn’t bother with extra sigs because it would hold up the line and the sigs would be the same, so it would just take up space in the books.

WARNING: Do NOT buy the blue autograph pens that are usually on display near registers next to the blue autograph books. The pens are cheap and constantly dry up. It is a real nuisance for the characters and it doesn’t help the lines any. In fact, one handler (who shall remain anonymous) advised us to take the pen and put it in the back of the souvenir drawer as it is worthless for anything but a memory. They were constantly having problems with this particular pen. Unfortunately we lost a pen mid-day and did not have another, so we just bought the first souvenir pen that we could find. The worst $4.21 that I ever spent.

 

[LaLa]

When we were down in late October, we could not find the Golden Autograph book anywhere. We even asked about it at several places and were told they were sold out. They may have restocked since then, but I figured that I would warn you that finding them may be difficult.

The blue book is the most popular, but there were some others that were in a few stores that I liked. I know Mousegears in Epcot had a pretty good selection of autograph books.

Regarding multiple sigs from the same characters, we did not get multiple sigs. We did wait in some lines to get pics of the characters in different outfits. For example, we have pics with Mickey in Safari clothes (from AK), one with him in his chef’s hat (Chef Mickeys), and one with him in his sorcerers hat (MGM), and then with him in his tux. We didn’t bother with extra sigs because it would hold up the line and the sigs would be the same, so it would just take up space in the books.

WARNING: Do NOT buy the blue autograph pens that are usually on display near registers next to the blue autograph books. The pens are cheap and constantly dry up. It is a real nuisance for the characters and it doesn’t help the lines any. In fact, one handler (who shall remain anonymous) advised us to take the pen and put it in the back of the souvenir drawer as it is worthless for anything but a memory. They were constantly having problems with this particular pen. Unfortunately we lost a pen mid-day and did not have another, so we just bought the first souvenir pen that we could find. The worst $4.21 that I ever spent.

You know, it's funny, but we still have our blue autograph pen that we bought 2 years ago and it is still one of my favorite pens. Is it the one with the mouse ears on top?

 

[freakylick]

Is it the one with the mouse ears on top?

That's the one...you must have gotten lucky and got one of the good ones..or maybe the quality was better back when you bought it.

 

[DJmommy]

Thanks all for the heads up, but I already bought my sharpies, the click ones, so no caps to worry about.

I will try to get the books on Main St the day we arrive so we can get started.

 

[LaLa]

That's the one...you must have gotten lucky and got one of the good ones..or maybe the quality was better back when you bought it.

Maybe so, go figure. They sure are cute though.

DJMommy, sure wish I could be going back too. Have fun and enjoy the magic!

 

[Kelly5538]

That's funny that you both had different experiences with those Big Mickey Pens with the ears on top - the first year we went (2004) we bought one that constantly dried up. The next year we bought another one (yes, glutton for punishment I suppose) but it worked fine and still works now at home!!!

 

[KZE]

I just purchased two autograph books off of ebay and had them within 48 hours. I had did some reading and someone suggested to get one that is wire bound because it's easier to keep a pen stored so you don't have to keep searching for a pen. I also read that it's easier for the characters to sign because they don't have to worry about it keep folding up on them. I paid $8 for both - including shipping and handling.

I have a friend who bought the one that you can put the picture side by side, but she said when they got home and got her pictures developed, she had a difficult time reading and remembering who some of the signatures were. I figure I can tear them out of the autograph book (if my son wants me to) and put them with his pictures in his scrapbook!

 

[lrathslag]

We were at Disney this past October. I purchased the little blue autograph books (they are sold at most stores at the parks) and they were fine. I fit 3 of them in my fanny pack along with the pen that we purchased. I just had my children have the characters sign one page and then we skipped a page so we could put a pic on that page. It worked fine. We were told to buy autograph books before we got there, but they were hard to find and the ones at Disney are just $5.00 and much nicer.

 

[Magic Man]

If you are staying on property, go ahead and get the autograph book at your resort gift shop. If you wait until you get to Main Street USA, you will pass by several characters at the train station and City Hall area. If you have the book and pen already, you just get in line for your first autographs and photo ops.
My kids have done this for 3 years and they still go back periodically just to look at the autographs and relive some wonderful Disney memories.

 

[eeyoreforever]

Regarding the pens not working correctly, if you have a pen that stops working, you can take it to any place in any park that sells them and they will replace it for free. We have had to do this several times and they never question it. They just make sure it doesn't write and give you a new one.