ok fellow Dis'ers I'm going to share my alternative to the autograph book. Maybe the little tots like the autograph books because they are smallish to handle, and don't break when they get dropped so often.
But I took a suggestion from folks I traveled with on a
Disney Cruise. We took a new white mat from a picture frame onboard and dropped it off at guest services with our cabin #. At the end of the cruise it was returned to us with many, many character signatures. When we returned home, we chose a favorite photo from the cruise, popped it behind the mat and into the frame. It ended up on a prominent shelf instead of some drawer as most autograph books do. Only drawback was not seeing the characters sign nor having a picture of each signing.
So here is the
theme park adaptation. It works best with older kids and adults because someone has to carry it in the backpack or purse. I bought the standard size June graduation autograph photo mat at a local Michaels. These often come with pens, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I got a pack of different colored Sharpie clickable pens. For the character's ease, I clipped the autograph mat to a colorful clipboard and kept it in a plastic bag along with the pens. Only pulled it out while in line, asked each to sign, snapped the photo, and returned it to the bag. Hey - it stayed really clean this way in all the rain in May. The clipboard provides a sturdy surface for the more challenged furry characters.
Got so many 'wow - good idea!' comments from the CMs and handlers. And again, frameable souvie for the mantlepiece.