Skipping autographs?

[ANG]

Have you ever just chosen not to get autographs and pictures only?

We've got two autograph books that I haven't looked at since we went 2 years ago! I've heard about having characters sign a mat to frame with a picture.

My kids are too young to care about autographs so I'm thinking of skipping it.

Any other creative autograph ideas?

[buzznwoodysmom]

We have only done autographs when my kids were interested in it. There were the first few trips with them when they were too young so we didn't bother. Now that they are 12 and 10 they aren't interested/exctited about character autographs anymore. I still pack the books for each trip, and I bring them to any character meals we do. My 10 year old still uses his book at meals, but other than that we are done with it, and skip it on most trips. The boys each have two books full so I guess we've "satisfied" our need for character autographs.

My nephew once got a Disney cap on the first day of a trip, then had the characters autograph his hat. It was cute and a much better keepsake than an autograph book.

[AlwaysDisney]

On our first trip to Disney, we bought our girls Disney jackets and had all of the characters sign them. They wore the jackets for 2 years and now we have them put away so they can keep them.(which they both wanted to do) It was a lot of fun wearing the jackets at Disney and then at home with all of their friends asking about the signatures on the jackets. If you do something with fabric for them to sign, bring an embroidery hoop or clipboard to put behind because at each place 3 of us had to stretch the jacket so that the character would have a hard enough surface to sign. It was a little of a pain, but so worth it I think!!

[cer]

Absolutely, you can do pictures only.

[Gator]

Think of all the time you would save standing in line for a photo with a character if every single kid under 8 wasn't getting an autograph. I try to keep the autograph books out of the minds of my children. A photo is what really matters.

[g8rgirl29]

We started getting mini clip boards & 4x6 blank index cards. If they see someone they really want an autograph with, you just grab the clip board & card. They can use the clipboard & pen to doodle & play games with while in line. They fit in a quart sized baggy & the 4x6 card will fit in most photo albums if they get a photo & autograph. Plus you may get some really cute drawings they make of a favorite ride that can go into the album.

[Janmac]

Absolutly you can do photos only. Over the last 25 years we've taken many trips with at least 5 kids and none of them ever wanted an autograph. Photos, yes. Pressed pennies, sure (collect particular characters). But no autographs.

Jan

[Aurora]

We've done photos only on our last few trips, and my little guy hasn't missed the autographs. I do feel bad sometimes when I find the older kids' autograph books and I know he won't have that, but I guess that's the lot of being a younger child.

[Dream'nDisney]

Our kids have several autograph books that were filled with autographs from when they were younger. But now that they are older teenagers, they just have their picture taken with the characters. What I think is so neat is that because we have gone to WDW since they were little, that even as teenagers, they see the characters as characters, and not as a person in a costume. I think if we would not have gone all these years and then taken our teenagers, they would feel awkward posing with a character. It makes my heart melt to see them still hug the characters and not think they are too cool to hug them.

[Disney Doll]

We've always done pictures only. My kids don't care about autographs.

[Lizzie]

Our last few trips to Disneyland we have done one autograph book for the whole family. But it would be interesting to have them sign something that was easy to scan so if you digitally scrapbook you could do some fun stuff with it.

[Mickey's 4Walls]

We get the poster made at Epcot then take a sharpie and get the characters, waiters, our guests, etc. to sign! Then frame it when we get home . It's a great way to remember the trip! 18x20.

[BigRedDad]

You can skip them if they are not interested. All you need to do is have a few creative friends that have very nice handwriting and have them sign what ever you want. As longs as it is different handwriting, the kids won't know.

For me, DD enjoys it. She looks at her books now and then. She remembers meeting the characters more than I do. It is fun to watch her go through it.

It would be nice if Disney sold digital images of the character signatures so you can Photoshop them as you needed for your own development.