Telling our kids

[jockotaco]

I know their is a debate about telling or surprising kids. We have decided to surprise them but we want to record it. Here are my thoughts but interested in your opinion.

Option 1..
Create an album of sorts to give them on the plane to florida that would help them figure it out.

Option 2:
Give them the luggage tags the morning of to put on their suit cases and see if they figure it out.

Option 3:
We have private transfers to the ship from an airport hotel. Tell them we are moving hotels and point out the ship as the "new hotel" as soon as we can see it.

Option 4:
have T-shirts made for my wife and I that say "I am taking my kids on a disney cruise tomorrow. How long do you think it will take them to read this shirt an figure it out?"

Any other creative ideas or suggestions...T-30 days

 

[junbug]

Awesome post. Planning on surprising our 8 year old daughter too. Thinking about letting Mickey Mouse surprise her with the free phone call from disney the morning of.

 

[English Channel]

We are going to be at Disney World July 4th,5th, and 6th. Going to get up on the 7th(the day of our cruise), and pretend to drive home. But, drive the port instead. And, see how long it take him to catch on.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

I was able to drive up to the Dream without my ds13 knowing. We surprised him this past January. We told him months in advance that we were going on a cruise for his BDay. We just told him it was a Royal Caribbean cruise because there was no way I could get all the way to the port without him knowing something. I even had fake documents. He had been on Disney cruise before (Wonder) and knew where the ship left from. Anyway, we drive to the port and decide to pull up to DCL's drop off area to "check out" the Dream. Anyway, after oohing and aahing, and voicing my disappointment about not being able to cruise on the Dream........We told him that we were actually getting on the Dream. I put the car in park and proceeded to unload our luggage. He literally had his mouth agape for 10 minutes. It was great!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[SensationalMama]

I was able to drive up to the Dream without my ds13 knowing. We surprised him this past January. We told him months in advance that we were going on a cruise for his BDay. We just told him it was a Royal Caribbean cruise because there was no way I could get all the way to the port without him knowing something. I even had fake documents. He had been on Disney cruise before (Wonder) and knew where the ship left from. Anyway, we drive to the port and decide to pull up to DCL's drop off area to "check out" the Dream. Anyway, after oohing and aahing, and voicing my disappointment about not being able to cruise on the Dream........We told him that we were actually getting on the Dream. I put the car in park and proceeded to unload our luggage. He literally had his mouth agape for 10 minutes. It was great!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

These are all great posts! We live in Florida, and our girls are always alert for "something different," especially involving Disney!

 

[sorceressk]

I like the tee shirt idea! So funny!

 

[MAJPLO]

I like the tee shirt idea also but would maybe make ones you could wear throughout. Maybe a picture if the ship with "xyz family Disney cruise" with the dates or something.

Also, on another thread, someone made a movie trailer that was very creative. Not sure if it was going to be used to surprise the people going or not but it could be done that way.
Have fun and enjoy.

 

[MCO mama]

Awesome post. Planning on surprising our 8 year old daughter too. Thinking about letting Mickey Mouse surprise her with the free phone call from disney the morning of.

This is what we did -- SO fun!

 

[jockotaco]

This is what we did -- SO fun!

We have done the disney calls but never the ones tied to a cruise. Are they cruise specific? I looked for a transcript but couldn't find one.

 

[expeditioneverestgrl]

Get pizza from somewhere and secretly write, "you're going on a Disney cruise!" When your kids open it, they will figure out the surprise!! Have fun

 

[vcunning]

We have done the disney calls but never the ones tied to a cruise. Are they cruise specific? I looked for a transcript but couldn't find one.

Yep, they're cruise specific. You pick your cruise destination and character (either Mickey or Goofy). Here is a video of the Goofy one.

 

[kamik86]

Depending on the age and personality of your kids I would go with an option that lets them know while still at home.

I am not good with surprises unless I am expecting a surprise (so christmas presents are great surprises, a random vacation not so much).

So if my parents packed for me and didn't tell me until we were on the way to the airport I would probably have made that first day miserable by complaining about all the stuff I watned to bring that wasn't in my bag.

If I was told the morning of at least I would be able to pack my own things.

To give an example I remember around that age my parents once coming to get me from an activity I did about an hour for the house. I had made plans with a friend to be online to play a game with them about 1 hour after I would normally get home. Generally we had a quick dinner shortly after we got home and this would be enough time My parents instead decide to surprise me that they are taking me out to eat and where do I want to go...

I had no idea where I wanted to go and just wanted to go home. All I could think of is that I had plans and no way of letting my friend know I wasn't going to be there. So after alot of fighting we ended up back home without dinner because my parents didn't want to deal with me. Really they just didn't want to have to cook and didn't know what was for dinner and decided to surprise me and then got mad that I didn't want it.

I'm sure your kids wouldlove that they get to go on a cruise but a few hours of time to get used to it and pack. AS well as call a friend if they had planned to do something special with them and you didn't know about would be good if they tend to be planners and don't take changing plans well.

 

[2prettygirl]

We are planning to tell our girls on Christmas morning. We bought some Disney tshirts, an autograph book, Disney princess costumes (for the BBB) and will have a pic of the ship with a count down to cruise calendar. Should be a great surprise!!

 

[Justacruiser]

have done the notifying of the kid both early and the mroning of the cruise.

I actually like giving a little more notice than pulling up to the boat. There is just something about coming ocross that last bridge driving in from Orlando. I like the idea and have done the phone call from Mickey the night before the cruise. You can now tailor the call a little bit now and have it call at a specific time. Then the kiid(s) can go nuts that night and all the way to the boat. You can actually test the call yourself and then see if that is something you want to do.

I understand the excitement of pulling up at the terminal as the surprise, but IMHO a lot is lost with unloading the vehicle, parking the car and getting everyone ID out, and getting through customs. There is an excitement is wating, but if you do it a little earlier (atrranged) and catch the exciment all the way to the ship. For example, you could video the phone call from Mickey.

 

[old gadget]

I told my son we were going camping in a "cabin" ... He didnt get it until the gate blew the surprise by asking if we were cruising ..

 

[cwnhokie]

Love reading these ideas! We are in the same "boat". The kids know we are going to Disney and know we are switching hotels. But don't know we are going on a cruise in between. Trying to figure out the best time to tell and the best way to catch their reaction. I was planning to drive to port and let them figure it out but it would be impossible to know when to start videoing. I love your shirt idea. Boys are pretty oblivious though, they may never read them, lol.

 

[emilyann415]

I personally LOVE the tshirt idea. We've surprised our kids a few times with trips to WDW and a few cruises. I never regretted it. Their reaction was priceless. Might be hard to video tape their reaction to that not knowing how long it will take for them to notice though....still it's my favorite.

 

[Meg19971]

For Our cruise we are surprising Our parents and my 8 yo daughter who will be 9 by the cruise but my Idea is having t-shirts made saying "blah blah" family vacation with whatever pic we decide on. And we are giving them as xmas presents to surprise them.

 

[kelly2013]

We are going to be at Disney World July 4th,5th, and 6th. Going to get up on the 7th(the day of our cruise), and pretend to drive home. But, drive the port instead. And, see how long it take him to catch on.

This is what we did to our 5 year old. He was so busy playing a new ds game he literally didn't even notice until we got on the shuttle from the budget car rental return. Even though we literally drove past the ship to return the car!

For the op I happen to think option 3 is so cute!

 

[aaklang]

I'm not sure if I can make it till xmas without the kids finding out, but here's what I'm hoping to do. I'm going to choose whatever item I want signed by the characters on board and then wrap it up as an xmas present with a note saying something like "Take this to the Disney Fantasy on X date and ask Mickey and his friends to sign it."

Now I just have to decide what item I want signed!