Tips about Characters and Magic Kingdom

We have received many compliments on our idea for character autographs and thought we would share our idea with your readers. My daughters are 9 and 14 years old, a little too old for autograph books (their idea), so we purchased canvas backpacks at our local arts and crafts store for a few dollars. We brought along several permanent markers and a stiff piece of cardboard to insert into the backpack so the characters have a nice surface to write on. Paperclips to hold the fabric and cardboard are helpful. We have been told they appreciate this, as it makes signing easier. The girls can carry their packs with them to the parks and add signatures whenever they see a new character. It makes a nice fashion statement to be seen walking around with designer signatures on their backs. - Rubykorner10

We've said this before, but it should be mentioned again: put your name and address on your items when you're touring the parks! On the first day in the parks I bought autograph books for my daughters. When we purchased them, the cast member told me to make sure I put our name and address inside each book, because if it ever got lost, they would mail it back to us. Lo and behold, one of my daughters "misplaced" her book within that first hour. We retraced our steps, but the book was nowhere to be found. Imagine my surprise when we received a package from WDW addressed to my daughter when we got home -- it was the missing book! - Pam Etheridge

ALL PARKS - As you are waiting in line, a great way to spend the time is to play what we call the Disney Alphabet Game. Start with the letter "A" and the first person has to name a Disney character that starts with the letter "A," like Ariel. The next person has to name a character whose name starts with the letter "B," such as Br'er Rabbit, and so on. Once you reach "Z" start over back at "A" but you can't use the same character twice. If you need a hint for "X", there is a Buzz Lightyear character named XR. It's fun for kids and adults. We played while waiting for Fantasmic! and had everyone around us shouting out suggestions within a few minutes. - Chris in Iowa

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

ALL PARKS - I am from Colorado where we are on Mountain Time. In addition to feeling like it is two hours earlier when we are in Florida, we let our kids stay up later on vacation. This works out really well for Extra Magic Evening Hours. We were recently at the Magic Kingdom where the Extra Magic Evening Hours were from 9 p.m. to midnight. For us, it felt like 7 to 10 p.m. During that time, we went on all the kiddie rides with our 3- and 4-year olds with absolutely no lines! We were able to save the hot afternoons for the pool rather than waiting in lines. - Laura Moos

I read about having characters sign the Disney Encyclopedia of Characters in your newsletter. It sounded like a fun idea! We added a twist to it. We printed pictures of our kids with the characters they saw in Disney World onto sticker/label paper and then we stuck each picture to the appropriate character page. If the character didn't have a page (such as Mary Poppins) we stuck her sticker to the back blank pages. Now the girls are staring in their own Disney book and I imagine it will be even more fun for cast members who may (if they're lucky) see themselves in our photos the next time we visit Disney World and use this book as an autograph book. The sticker idea could work with any Disney story book, of course, and I think it would be great combined with the personalized story books from Disney too! Thanks for the great tips! - Laura in Iowa

We visit Walt Disney World a few times a year, so we have quite a collection of autograph books filled with character signatures. In an effort to find a creative way for my daughters to get autographs, we took DVDs to character meals. At Disney's Hollywood Studio's Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine, the Little Einsteins and JoJo were thrilled to sign copies of their DVDs -- just make sure that you take the paper insert out of the sleeve and have them sign that. Now we have autographed copies of my daughters' favorite DVDs! - Stacey Hannan Quinn

On our last trip to WDW we took along Disney's Jr. Encyclopedia of Animated Characters book to get autographs. The characters loved having their own special page to sign and it was easy for the kids to find the pictures since they are in alphabetical order. Now my kids will have a hardback book to keep forever with their wonderful memories -- like when Stitch drew devil horns on Lilo. It was fun to see the reactions of the characters when they saw their pictures in the book or when they saw a "villain." We had lots of laughs. - Patty W.

Purchase Disney's Jr. Encyclopedia of Animated Characters from Amazon.com (and support AllEars®): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078683434X/debsunoffiwaltdi

Before we went to Disney World in May 2007, I got my daughter a princess character plate from Sam's Club with her picture on it as well. The princesses loved it and said they had never seen this before. It even had Jasmine and Mulan on it, so we had the challenge to find them in Epcot to sign. They loved not being left out because you don't see them as often on commercial items. You can also get this picture plate at CVS in the photo area. - Susan Looney

Another idea for character autographs... We found a calendar at a popular store for less than $5 that had pictures of the Disney princesses. Each month featured a different princess. So, while doing the character lunch in Epcot, we had each princess autograph the month with her picture. When you get home, your child can enjoy the autographs each month! We also found a Winnie the Pooh calendar and did the same thing at the Crystal Palace breakfast. After the calendar is used up, you still have a beautiful picture with the autograph that can be used in a photo album or scrapbook! Hope this tip helps! - Carla Starr

Don't take a normal-sized ink pen for the characters to use while signing the kiddos' autograph book. Remember, most of them have thick padded gloves on which makes it hard to hold a small/thin pen. We just purchased (June '07) a HUGE pen from our local office supply store. It is the size of a very large cigar -- I think you could hold it if you were wearing a catcher's mitt! It's a novelty pen of course but it is exactly what Mickey and Minnie need to be able to hold and write. Cost? Less than $3. - John Brock

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more character meet and greet tips, visit: http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm

When my family and I went to Disney World last November we knew we wanted to do something with the character autographs that we could use. Before we left for our trip, my mom cut fabric squares and ironed on fabric paper to make the fabric stiffer. I bought a small clipboard and fabric markers. I also bought grippers to put on the markers because the characters need a fat marker to hold on to. We had each character sign a fabric square. When we got home, my mom made two twin size quilts for my two boys. This is something they will enjoy for many years. - Pollyanna

Magic Kingdom - I found out last year that the Magic Kingdom does a practice run of the July 4 fireworks on July 3. It was spectacular, and this gave us the oppurtunity to watch the fireworks from Epcot on the 4th. We got the best of both worlds, and the finale at Epcot is worth seeing. - Thomas Chambers

Magic Kingdom and Epcot - My family and I just got back from Disney on June 8. We had a great time, but something I found very useful was that when we got to the park (around 11 a.m. -- we let the kids sleep in since we were at the park late the night before) the line for the monorail and ferryboat to Magic Kingdom was backed up to the ticket booths! So instead of wasting 30-45 minutes waiting to get on the monorail, we hopped over to Epcot since there was no line at all. We had 1:00 p.m. reservations at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, but we had enough time to see Turtle Talk with Crush (kids loved it!) and take a family shot in front of Spaceship Earth. This is definitely worth doing instead of standing on line. - Pamela Matzner

Magic Kingdom and Epcot - My family and I just got back from Disney on June 8. We had a great time, but something I found very useful was that when we got to the park (around 11 a.m. -- we let the kids sleep in since we were at the park late the night before) the line for the monorail and ferryboat to Magic Kingdom was backed up to the ticket booths! So instead of wasting 30-45 minutes waiting to get on the monorail, we hopped over to Epcot since there was no line at all. We had 1:00 p.m. reservations at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, but we had enough time to see Turtle Talk with Crush (kids loved it!) and take a family shot in front of Spaceship Earth. This is definitely worth doing instead of standing on line. - Pamela Matzner