DD15's 1st Trip. . .How to make it the best ever???

[njdisneyfreak]

Our foster daughter becomes our permanent daughter in less than a week. We are surprising her with a WDW trip for the holidays. My DH and I have gone before, even during the holidays, but never with a teenager. She hasn't had the best childhood, and in many ways, she's still a kid at heart. Any suggestions on how to make this her most magical trip ever?

 

[DizCaptain]

Anytime someone asks what to do for the "best trip ever" I always say two things:
1. Just have fun and enjoy the time together.
2. Don't overdo the rides and attractions. In fact, I find that doing things on a more relaxed note lets me enjoy them more.

Oh, and have a fantastic trip!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Anytime someone asks what to do for the "best trip ever" I always say two things:
1. Just have fun and enjoy the time together.
2. Don't overdo the rides and attractions. In fact, I find that doing things on a more relaxed note lets me enjoy them more.

Oh, and have a fantastic trip!

Very true! Thanks

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Since we will get our DD a 1st trip to WDW button, does anyone know what the CMs typically do when they see guests with this on?

 

[GenGen22]

Has she ever been to a character breakfast? My DD is also 15 and she loves the little Mermaid still!! We are doing a few character breakfasts as we have never done one before to add a little magic to our trip.

Another thing we are doing and I know this will sound silly but we are going to eat mickey shaped foods like mickey waffles etc. We started a Mickey shaped picture series at DL and are going to continue it at our 1st trip to WDW. So, we want pictures of us with Mickey waffles and different mickey shaped things. We already have pics with mickey light up balloons on NYE and mickey pretzels.

The trip is what you make of it. Find something special that you can carry a family tradition going forward if you continue to visit Disney parks. This will make her feel special and a part of your family.

What wonderful parents you are to take your DD to Disney for a surprise. She is lucky to have found such wonderful parents.

 

[mousiemom]

well, it's just AWESOME that she is becoming your permanent daughter now and yall are taking her to the most magical place on earth, i have chills. just be sure and do a character meal(chef mickey, crystal palace) great photo ops with the characters. every park she goes to will be magical cause it will be all new. go to dtd and do some shopping, be sure and ride the boat taxis around and get her some mickey ears with her name on them. surprise her with maybe a pair of disney earrings or necklace in the room. they have some really hip jewerly, i wear it all the time.
have a great trip!

 

[CoffeeCup]

As a high school teacher, I can assure you that most teenagers are little kids at heart. They may act cool and mature, but they love doing kid things. If your new daughter has missed out on some of the "normal" childhood things like going to WDW, it will be even more magical for her now. Teenagers who decide they are too old to go to WDW usually have been many times as children and have gotten tired of it. I suggest you wait until you get there and let her pick our her own surprises....a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, jewelry, whatever she likes. Don't plan too many special activities for her, because WDW is overwhelming the first time. You'll want to make some plans, but leave time in the schedule to do what she decides will be fun and magical.

Have a wonderful family trip and start making memories with your new daughter. You are lucky to have her, and she is lucky to have you for her parents. Enjoy your trip!

 

[mousiemom]

oh, by biggest tip: make sure and do the photopass in the parks. once you get home from your trip, personalize a photo calendar of your memories in disney. you can put captions under each picture and borders. you can get 2 photos per month and a front cover so that's 26 pictures for $25.00. it is the best souvenir and the pictures will last a lifetime. i get one every yr and then i put them in a photo album when the yr is over.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

well, it's just AWESOME that she is becoming your permanent daughter now and yall are taking her to the most magical place on earth, i have chills. just be sure and do a character meal(chef mickey, crystal palace) great photo ops with the characters. every park she goes to will be magical cause it will be all new. go to dtd and do some shopping, be sure and ride the boat taxis around and get her some mickey ears with her name on them. surprise her with maybe a pair of disney earrings or necklace in the room. they have some really hip jewerly, i wear it all the time.
have a great trip!

oh, by biggest tip: make sure and do the photopass in the parks. once you get home from your trip, personalize a photo calendar of your memories in disney. you can put captions under each picture and borders. you can get 2 photos per month and a front cover so that's 26 pictures for $25.00. it is the best souvenir and the pictures will last a lifetime. i get one every yr and then i put them in a photo album when the yr is over.

Mousiemom - Great ideas! I am getting more and more excited for this trip.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Has she ever been to a character breakfast? My DD is also 15 and she loves the little Mermaid still!! We are doing a few character breakfasts as we have never done one before to add a little magic to our trip.

Another thing we are doing and I know this will sound silly but we are going to eat mickey shaped foods like mickey waffles etc. We started a Mickey shaped picture series at DL and are going to continue it at our 1st trip to WDW. So, we want pictures of us with Mickey waffles and different mickey shaped things. We already have pics with mickey light up balloons on NYE and mickey pretzels.

The trip is what you make of it. Find something special that you can carry a family tradition going forward if you continue to visit Disney parks. This will make her feel special and a part of your family.

What wonderful parents you are to take your DD to Disney for a surprise. She is lucky to have found such wonderful parents.

I LOVE the idea of starting a Disney family tradition! This is going to be great.

Thanks for the sweet compliment.

As a high school teacher, I can assure you that most teenagers are little kids at heart. They may act cool and mature, but they love doing kid things. If your new daughter has missed out on some of the "normal" childhood things like going to WDW, it will be even more magical for her now. Teenagers who decide they are too old to go to WDW usually have been many times as children and have gotten tired of it. I suggest you wait until you get there and let her pick our her own surprises....a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, jewelry, whatever she likes. Don't plan too many special activities for her, because WDW is overwhelming the first time. You'll want to make some plans, but leave time in the schedule to do what she decides will be fun and magical.

Have a wonderful family trip and start making memories with your new daughter. You are lucky to have her, and she is lucky to have you for her parents. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks, CoffeeCup! Good ideas.

 

[staceyj2]

Our foster daughter becomes our permanent daughter in less than a week. We are surprising her with a WDW trip for the holidays. My DH and I have gone before, even during the holidays, but never with a teenager. She hasn't had the best childhood, and in many ways, she's still a kid at heart. Any suggestions on how to make this her most magical trip ever?

Congrats! As an adoptive mom I always get teary eyed reading these posts. It is so wonderful when kids find their forever families!

I would book a character meal for sure. If it is in the budget, I highly recommend the Wild Africa Trek. It is by far the coolest thing we have ever done at WDW. We went when it first started so we got the introductory rate. Not sure how much it is now.

Congrats again! We will be in WDW 12/14-22 and I can't wait.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

Take her to DTD Disney Quest and take her to see Cirque Du Soleil La Nouba. My kids LOVED both of those.

Disney Quest is a 5 story arcade with old fashioned video games and new virtual reality games and Cirque is an on stage performance by a French circus with amazing stunts and performers.

 

[CatelynnMarie]

seriously, just go and have a good time, no stress or worries that she might have a bad time. it's my boyfriend's first time in less than a month and for a long time I was worried about how he would react considering how much I love wdw. it's like a home to me. After seeing how excited he's been getting as the trip gets closer, I don't think about it anymore, I'm just thinking about all the memories we will make.
Don't ask her if she's having fun a million times and don't force her to do something. Allow her to explore and find interesting things to do/see.
I really love that your doing this Stuff like this makes me smile.

 

[K&D'smom]

I'm so excited for you and your family. I can't imagine a better way to celebrate your daughter than by taking her to Disney World.

I'm sure the trip will be special in so many ways. Many of which will be those unexpected moments. They always seem to be the most memorable.

One idea, starting a charm bracelet for your daughter would be a nice way to commerate the celebration. Many stores will carry them and one will probably have a charm that says "daughter". This combined with a Mickey, or her favorite character, charm would be a great way to start the bracelet. Plus it's something you can add to as the years and memories go by. I have a charm bracelet and I remember who gave me each charm and the occassion on which I received each of them, some more than 30 years ago.

You are already giving her the greatest present of all, a place to call home. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Have a wonderful time and please check back in and let us know how your trip goes.

 

[disney-akj]

I just posted this on another thread

Every night before I go to bed at the resort I place a small gift on the bathroom vanity for each of my kiddos, so they see it as soon as they wake up. A lot of times it is just a small cheap item (stickers, books, puzzlesor word finds, little stuffed animals, small snow globe, coloring book, disney figurine, t-shirt, etc. The biggest item was beach towels, but I try to keep the items smaller for packing reasons). Then I leave a note on the vanity with the gift that I type before I leave. For example, One day I might leave a mickey puzzle with a note that says "I can't wait to see you today at Chef Mickey's" or Pooh stickers that says "See you later for lunch at Crystal Palace" or Lion King Book with a note that says "See you at Animal Kingdom." I always make the gift/character go with the day's plans. I know it is silly, but it makes it fun for the kids and myself.

I always do a character call before we leave home too. Nothing like a phone call from Mickey Mouse to start your trip!

ETA: Since your DD is a teen, she might like photo albums or scrapbook supplies, etc. My daughters are not quite teenagers yet, but love scrapbooking with me!!

 

[Eljay]

Be sure to see the morning Welcome Show at MK. It's corny and wonderful and it sets the mood for an awesome day!
Arrive at least 15-20 minutes before opening time.

You must see Wishes together, the sentiment of the show really is appropriate for your family.

How about an Enchanted Call?
https://secure.uvoxnetworks.com/disney/

Congratulations and have a Magical visit!

 

[Singinglizzie]

For a teenager, I recommend the Tea at the Grand Floridian. It's quite fun and the Grand Floridian is IMHO so lovely. If this appeals to you, make your ADR's right away, as the Tea can be popular. Someone mentioned a charm bracelot, but at Epcot in the Japan area, there is a "pick a pearl" shop where you can get a real pearl. The settings at Epcot can be pricey, but you can pre-buy a cage setting online, including Ebay. The pearl could be a great keepsake - do a thread search on pick a pearl and you will find lots more information. Besides the parks, my kids really liked eating at the various restaurants. They loved Ohana's and Teppan Edo at Epcot. If you can swing it, try breakfast at Cinderella's Royal table, its not cheap but definately would be a treat. One last thought, make sure to plan "down time". Disney can be quite stimulating, so having a break is important. Enjoy your special time together, and congratulations.

 

[MermaidMommy]

I second the idea for afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian and the pick-a-pearl at Epcot in Japan. (In addition to eBay, topearl.com has gotten a lot of good reviews on the boards, and there's a whole pick-a-pearl thread with information and pictures of the jewelry they sell at Disney.) The charm bracelet is a sweet idea, too. Depending on where you're staying, you could always check into a carriage ride, or see if you can get a sleigh ride at Ft. Wilderness. Ft. Wilderness also has the Chip-and-Dale campfire sing-along and movie for free every night.

You can take her to the barber shop on Main Street and get her hair done with stripes of colored gel and glittery confetti with mickey heads. My DD is almost 12 and won't do Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, but she thinks the barber shop looks neat. (There are great pictures on a thread that someone posted about the barber shop today.)

If you can get a reservation, the Wishes Dessert party could be fun.

Find out if she has favorite characters and try and book one of those meals. She might get a kick out of the 1900 Park Fare dinner if she likes Cinderella -- the stepsisters are a hoot, and they make it a little more grown-up than some other character meals. Watching Disney movies is a fun way to get her familiar with characters without spilling the beans about the trip.

I'm also putting together a little travel bag for DD of Disney things that she wouldn't normally use at home, like a coloring book for the plane with glitter crayons (and, she's not too cool to use them), Disney socks from the $1 aisle at Target, tattoos, etc. She's also going to be pin trading for the first time.

Congratulations to you all, and best wishes for a wonderful trip and holiday!

 

[angierae]

First off, congrats on the adoption!

My DD was 15 the first time she went to WDW, and she was very into "I am going to do all the things that I didn't get to do at Disney when I was a kid, I don't care how old I am." We did character meals, and autographs, and she loved every minute of it. The photo of her wrapped up in a huge hug with Snow White was worth all the stress and planning of the trip.

So I would definitely get her an autograph book and make time for her to meet characters. It was the highlight of my daughter's entire trip.