***Official Surprise Trips Thread and Planning Tips!***

[MouseEarsForAll]

Yes, it's time for a new one! I got my idea from nannye, so I had to acknowledge her! Now, about the surprise trips....Bring them on! I love these things, they give me fuzzy feelings!

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

My mom suprised us with a trip to DL back in 1997. My siblings and I were told that we were going to visit family in California over spring break. We stopped at a McDonalds somewhere and my mom gave us cards for Easter. When we opened up the cards, we discovered that there were Disney Dollars inside and she told us we were going to DL instead!

It only took me 13 years to get back at her. Last year, my mom, dad, and baby sister went to DL for her 4th birthday. DH and I wanted to go for our anniversary (which is the day before) so we didn't tell them we were going. I called my mom and asked her a random question and tried to come up with small talk to find out their location like "oh, it sounds like you're by Small World" she said,"no, we're in Tomorrowland eating lunch." So we stalked them until they got in line for photos with Buzz. We started calling my sister's name and of course my mom's thinking who's calling my kid and then they looked over and there we were! It was so much fun.

 

[monkee04]

Ours hasn't happened yet, but my sister and I are planning to surprise my parents. We have never been able to afford a family vacation, but have tried many years to get to Disney World. I finally decided that it was time to make this happen, so I am taking our parents in Sept. 2012 for my birthday. After a little number crunching I realized I will be able to pay for my sister to join us. My parents have not seen her in 5 years. They have no idea what we are planning . We are planning for her to be in our room before we get to the resort and "Surprise!"

They are going to kill both of us, but this is our first trip/family vacation and will soo be worth it!

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

Ours hasn't happened yet, but my sister and I are planning to surprise my parents. We have never been able to afford a family vacation, but have tried many years to get to Disney World. I finally decided that it was time to make this happen, so I am taking our parents in Sept. 2012 for my birthday. After a little number crunching I realized I will be able to pay for my sister to join us. My parents have not seen her in 5 years. They have no idea what we are planning . We are planning for her to be in our room before we get to the resort and "Surprise!"

They are going to kill both of us, but this is our first trip/family vacation and will soo be worth it!

 

[nannye]

Fantastic Idea!

 

[MinnieDiva]

We've surprised DD (now 8) a few times both to WDW and DL. The last trip to WDW, we flew out on Veteran's Day. The night before, we drove down to the airport area (we live a solid 2 hour drive from the airport), telling her that we were going to stay overnight so we could do some "tourist things" on her day off from school the next day. She was surprised the next day to realize that we were actually going to the airport to go to Florida! She wasn't as excited as I thought she'd be, but me, I was bouncing off the bed!

I pulled off a DL trip last year by keeping her home from school one day and telling her that we were going to go to CA. My dad lives in the Bay Area, so she assumed that we were going to see him. While we were waiting for the plane to board, she asked me is "please, mommy, can we go to DL for a day?", to which I said, "who said we're not going there for the whole trip?". The grin was HUGE!!

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

Bump.

 

[jwag1579]

we booked a trip for the week after thanksgiving and are going to surprise the kids with it. they think we aren't going back to wdw until dec 2012. just haven't figured out where to tell them we are going when we get in the car to leave.

 

[letthewookiewin]

This is a great idea for a thread!! Our surprise trip is still in the planning process b/c it's not happening until November 2012. Our DSs know we are going on a trip, but they think it's just to Kennedy Space Center and to a few Civil War battlefields. We are going to just drive into Fort Wilderness the day before our oldest DS's 15th bday and not say a word. The plan is to see how long it takes them to figure it out. My parent's did this to my brother and sister when we were little. I just remember them pulling into a parking lot and then telling us where we were at Disney World. They told us that we were "just going to look at it from the parking lot". Even as we walked up to the counter to buy the tickets the three of us were crying, "but we want to go into Disney World, not just look at it from the parking lot". I don't think we stopped crying until we walked into the MK.

 

[Geomom]

We're taking the kids on a secret Disney trip this Wednesday. I don't know how we've kept the secret since March, lol. They DO know about our February trip to Disney with friends.

I just emailed the teachers...so we'll see if the trip stays a secret until Wednesday morning. We have to pull the kids out of school a little early to make our 4:15PM flight Wednesday, so we need to tell them that we're picking them up so that the kids won't be worried that something is wrong when we show up at their schools. Our plan is to put Mickey Halloween Silly Bands out on the table at breakfast Wednesday morning, tell them we're picking them up early from school to go on vacation...and see if they can figure it out from there.

This will be our second 'secret' trip, last 'secret' trip was in October 2009. (We've been to Disney 3 times since.) Our flight was later that trip, so we were able to keep it a secret until they got home from school. As soon as they walked in the door, 'Grab a stuffed animal you want to sleep with...we're going on vacation.' My then 4th grader was all worried about not getting her homework done, and did it in the car on the way to the airport. My youngest was in kindergarten, and she was actually disappointed that we weren't going to Storyland in NH. Both kids got over it quickly the next day when we were enjoying the Food and Wine festival, and enjoying the resort pool!

 

[mom2elle]

We are going in November. So far it is still a suprise trip for the kids, but I think we are going to tell the three oldest kids (15, 13 and 8) in 2 weeks. We are definitely going to suprise our youngest (3, turning 4 while we are there) the day we leave. I will be reading this to get some ideas for how to tell all of the kids! Even though we are telling the older kids a month before we go, we still want to 'suprise' them.

 

[SamJane]

We surprised the kids last week. They knew we were going to Orlando to spend some time with family. They just didn't know it was going to be at WDW.

Here's the video. It's a little slow for about the first minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcZ3l3RWGGs

 

[Cheshire Figment]

A few years ago I helped one of my nephews surprise his seven year old daughter. I sent her a greeting card with no return address, but on the envelope clearly marked "Do No Open Until November 29". Because of the contents he let me know when it arrived. This was driving his daughter crazy; especially when on the 29th her mother said she would have to wait until she was home from school to open it.

Anyway, evening comes along and she finally is allowed to open the envelope. Inside she finds a generic card with Mickey on the front. When she opens it three tickets drop out. The inside of the card says: "Dear Emma, I hope you and your parents will come down to visit me" and was signed by Mickey. (It helps to know some people who have been trained to sign Mickey's name.)

And her parents told her to start reading what was on the card (3rd grade). She starts off where it says "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas" and then sees (and reads) where it also says "Valid Only November 30". She looks at her parents, and says in a very anguished tone: "But that's tomorrow!"

And the next day they flew down.

(Side note - I had recorded the numbers of the tickets in case the envelope got lost as there was no return address.)

 

[tlenzendorf]

My boyfriend is still going to get up and get ready and go to "work". He's going to run whatever last minute errands and whatever while I get the kids ready for school. The older 2 have to be dropped off at 7:25, the younger at 8:15. I'm going to tell them that it's just my day off and that's why I'm not getting ready.

I will tell the older 2 that they have dentist appointments and I'm going to pick them up. When I go to get them Brent will get Ellie. He is going to get home with her first(the school is right across the street) and have her hang out in her room while waiting for us.

When we walk in the door he is going to have the youngest come out. We are going to tell them that we have something serious to talk to them about and to sit on the couch and we will be right back. Backstory: Brent is a huge BS-er with the kids. Half the time they think he is full of it. While they are at school we will load the car and put their back packs with all the stuff we have collected for them in a laundry basket covered up with a sheet in the living room. I am going to get the video camera ready(hidden) and he is going to come out with a sign behind his back and then hold it up that says "We are going to Disneyworld today!" and then rip the sheet off the back packs! I don't know if they will think he is even serious right away but I bet they will freak out when they realize we are serious!

18 days!! Can't wait!!

 

[manitobamickey]

We have been planning our surprise trip since March.. not sure how we have been able to keep it a secret this long. It will be our second suprise trip. When our oldest was 13, we convinced her that we had to get up at 4 am to go to IHOP because of traffic. Being so tired, she believed us. It wasn't until we got into a town car that she began to question our motives. Then our 3 year old told her the truth. It was priceless.

They are now 6 and 16 we are picking them up at lunch and going to go for lunch at the newly opened airport, only we will be having lunch and then going to Disney! Hoping my excitement doesn't let the cat out of the bag!

 

[kt_mom]

We're surprising my niece on the 15th. My parents weren't able to take their trip and so my mom and niece are coming with us next weekend when we go. We decided to keep it a secret from DD and DN.

My mom and my aunt and my niece are going to ride to the airport together to "see us off" while my dad follows with their luggage. At the airport I'm going to play a little trivia game with the girls. Each time they get a question right they will get a present to open. I got some mickey earrings off of Etsy and some other little things.

The next to last gift is going to be personalized autograph books with little bags that will have trading pins on the straps. And the last present is matching T shirts for them and their dolls that have their names and Disney World 2011 on them. Some of the helpful people on the creative Disigns board made me some personalized pictures to put in each gift to help lead up to the surprise. Not sure how far in DN and DD will get the hints.

 

[buckeev]

Well...we still haven't let "the-Mouse-out-of-the-bag"....almost slipped a few times this past weekend.
"The Plan" is to pick them up from school before the Halloween weekend and promptly head to the airport...about 25 minutes away.... I
I think the cover story is Dad has to visit a customer....they'd probably believe that for 3 minutes.
3+ more weeks...I don't know how we're gonna keep it a secret...( especially since we keep talking about the F & W offerings!

 

[may12th]

I am working on a surprise for ours! We are going in December and celebrating DD5's birthday. We are going to rent a minivan for the drive down. It is cheaper than flying and we are looking at buying a new vehicle next year and it will give us a good chance to try one out. Anyway, we are going to drop DD off at preschool and pick up the van and then take it hope and get packed up and decorate the van. They put the kids in the vehicles for school pick-up, so we will pick her up in the van packed and decorated saying that we are going to disney world! I finding things here and there and stashing them away to use to decorate the van. I can't wait!!!


It is a 12 hour trip so we are stopping on the way down. I have thought about waiting and decorating the van for the next morning when we will actually be getting to Disney, but I don't think we will be able to keep it a secret the whole ride on the first day.

 

[flortlebap]

How do you keep it a secret for so long?!?!

I am planning on telling the kids on Christmas day as a sort of extra present... but I sooooo can't keep quiet until then!!!!!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

We have 2 trips planned for WDW next year. Our Dec 2012 trip our oldest kids have known about for almost 3 years...they even had a say in hotel choices...so no suprises there.

Our other trip is planned for Oct 2012. The kids have NO idea about this one. DH and I talked one night and I told him I really wanted to take the kids to MNSSHP over fall break next year (before my older kids "grew" out of trick or treating). He said if we could get a good deal on a hotel, we could do it. So, we originally booked at AoA in a Cars Family Suite about a month ago. Seemed like a great idea...then the reality came that we only have 2 days in the parks (maybe another 1/2 day depending on flights) and we are hoping for MK & MNSSHP one day, and F&W and back to MNSSHP the next day. When I really thought about that it made sense to do a monorail resort...so yesterday I changed our resort to CR. Anyways, the kids will have no idea about this trip until the night before. Not sure how we are going to surprise them, but I know they will be excited