by Soarin’ Diva

Don’t you just LOVE to get your picture made with the characters at Disney parks, and even better, get those autographs from them?  I don’t care who you are or how old you are, you still feel that thrill of excitement when you get to personally meet and greet with those famous Disney characters.  My first visit to Walt Disney World didn’t take place until 2009 (I’m not telling you how old I actually was) as a wife and mother of two boys, and I’ll never forget how excited I got when I saw Mickey Mouse for the first time.

We bought our boys the standard autograph books and pens that they sell in all Disney Parks gift shops for our first visit.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these books, they are reasonably priced and they are the perfect size to carry along with you as you zoom from ride to ride.  We have actually gone through a few sets of these same books and filled them up with lots of great autographs to remember our awesome family visits by.

If you aren’t into purchasing the standard autograph books from Disney stores, the internet is full of very creative ideas for making your own autograph books, such as Budget Diva’s version here, Pink Diva’s framed matte idea here or Character Diva’s alternatives here.  I’ve looked at several and thought to myself, “Wow, this is great, I should totally do this.”  Then I come back to reality and think to myself, “I don’t have time to make this!”  This year, my husband had a wonderfully AWESOME idea.  He suggested that instead of using the standard Disney autograph book, we purchase an encyclopedia of Disney characters.  Each page tells a short synopsis of one characters from a Disney movie.  It’s perfect, right?  I don’t actually have to spend time making something.  I don’t have to worry about the fact that I’m really very creatively and artistically challenged and even if I did have time to make it, it would probably end up posted on one of those hilarious “Pinterest Fails” sites, probably as front runner for the top “Fail” award.

I checked my trusty and faithful Amazon site, and this is what we came up with.  This is a hard cover encyclopedia.  I will admit, because it’s a larger, hard cover book, it can be a little heavy and cumbersome to carry around all day.  That being said, what happened when we presented this book for autographs was amazing and fun!  The characters had so much fun looking through the book to find their pictures with their stories.  There were a few characters who are not in the book, which is a bummer, but they can still sign one of the blank pages in the front or back of the book.

The most fun we had with the book was at the meet and greet with Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella.  Apparently, they did not appreciate the harsh words written about them in the encyclopedia.  They took a good bit of time during our meet and greet to personally rewrite the stories about themselves so they would be portrayed in a much better light.  As a matter of fact, they refused to autograph their pages until they had rewritten them.  I’m sure the people in line behind us were getting irritated at how much time the Tremaine family spent with us, but at that moment, we were having too much fun to care.  Even my tween and teen sons were all smiles and laughter as we all enjoyed this hilarious meet and greet, and it was all due to this particular book we chose for autographs.

My point of this particular article is to stress that when it comes to something as simple as an autograph book, think outside the box.  You don’t have to be Martha Stewart and have great crafting skills.  You can do something as easy as I did, just order it.  No matter what you decide to use as an autograph book, make sure you take the opportunity to just enjoy every meet and greet you have the pleasure of experiencing.  Do you have an “outside the box” autograph book idea you would like to share?  Feel free to post a picture of your final product, we would love to see them!

Are you ready to start planning your magical vacation and enjoy all that Disney has to offer, but you aren’t sure where to start? Contact our recommended travel agent, Patricia at All Dreams for Travel, and she can do all the work for you. Best of all, all of her services are FREE, all you have to do is click here to request a quote!

***Disclaimer – We at Tips from the Disney Divas and Devos hope you enjoy reading our articles, and encourage you to share any you feel may be of interest to someone else. We do ask, however, if you choose to share the photographs attached to our articles, you give credit to the photographer. Thank you for your cooperation and sharing our love of Disney!

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