Tip Time Tuesday: Character Autographs

A couple of weeks ago I talked about character meals as one of the best ways to get character autographs. Today we are going to talk about the logistics of autograph books and pens. Here are a sampling of the autograph books and pens available for purchase at almost every store, shop and kiosk at Disney World. There is no rule that you have to use one of the Disney autograph books. In fact, many people choose something altogether different. To give you an idea of the different mediums I have seen: I know some mighty crafty individuals who make their own autograph books – complete with die-cut characters, ribbons, and streamers. I have seen people ask for a character to sign a t-shirt or a hat; the rule to know with this is that they will not sign an article of clothing that you are wearing. People bring photo mats, photo albums, notebooks, individual index cards for each character, there are a ton of options. So, if there are all these different options why does my family have a stack of Disney autograph books a mile high? A couple of reasons really – the Disney autograph books fit in my purse. I don’t carry a backpack or diaper bag or push a stroller around the parks so anything we bring in, we have to carry around. (Correction – anything we bring in, dad and I carry around!) The Disney ones are small enough to get tucked into my purse and it is one less thing for me to carry. The second reason is getting my family ready to go on vacation sometimes seems like a Herculean task. We make cute countdown calendars and there are surprises in the car for each of the kids for the long car ride down. I just don’t have enough gas left in my tank to try to make my own autograph books or think of another cute idea. The third reason is I know me! The index card idea is great and it is meant so that you can make your own scrapbook or photo album. I tried my hand at those, and it just isn’t me. So, I would wind up with a stack of crumpled autographed index cards at the bottom of my purse until I threw them out. The moral of the story is, there is no right or wrong. Know yourself and know that your imagination is the limit for what you can do with character autographs.

But what they sign is only half the story – the other half is what they sign with. Yes, I am actually going to talk about pens! In the photo you will notice that all of the pens have a fat barrel to them. As I looked at the photo of the Mickey pens I could easily grab I realized just how many Mickey and Princess pens we have in our house and thought, “Why?” Again, it is a relatively straightforward answer. I never remember to pack the pens! But we all learn and since I keep a running checklist of packing items, I made sure to add Mickey pens to ours! See even an old Disney dog can learn new tricks. Back to the topic at hand, a “fat pen” makes it easier for a character to grip the pen. Think about the size of Mickey’s hands. Now try to imagine that poor mouse gripping your standard size ballpoint pen, it just doesn’t work as well. Another popular choice for pens are Sharpies. These come in so many different colors now that I have seen kids with mounds of Sharpies to color coordinate the signature to the character! While what they sign is up to your imagination, make sure that you have a fat pen or Sharpie for them to sign with!