how did you surprise your kids with a trip to WDW?

[AgentGabs]

It got to the point one summer where my parents couldn't surprise me and my brothers.

It used to be that they would wake us up at 3 in the morning, put us in the car and not say anything.
Of course being little kids we wouldn't question anything and just go back to sleep in the car (usually the day before dad would just tire us out with something)

Then come 6 something in the morning we'd be arriving to the resort and just be confused because we wouldn't remember getting into the car.

Since I'm 8 years older than my brothers I always thought it was hilarious how confused and a little scared my brothers would get.

After that my parents would just pick us up from school on a friday and say something like "i hope you don't have hw this weekend....unless you can do it on space mountain" or whatever ride they would say.

I the end I think we'd end up going to disney at least 7 times a year for a good 8 years until i went off to college.

Each time we kids were never in on the planning of our trips...at least disney world

 

[mrsbagel]

We are surprising my son w/a trip to WDW for his 8th birthday and we are keeping it a surprise. We are going to wake him up and just go! Not sure if we will tell him when we wake him up or if we should just wait until we get to the airport. We are going w/3 other families from our neighborhood and we are all on the same flight, so we may tell him we are going to WDW when we wake him up, but not tell him all his friends are going!!! We leave 11/14!!!

 

[Capt. Barbosa]

Quick backstory, we had told the boys that we were going to visit friends in GA. their DD also thought that we were coming to visit, the night before they told her they were going and got in the car to start driving, the next morning we were flying out so we had my son call them to tell them we were on our way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuQnrmVuwO0

 

[Neko]

We did a treasure hunt for DS6 and DD10 on Sat for our trip in Dec. We started with a card on the mantle, then clues around the house in different rooms, and ended with a big box with mickey and minnie balloons inside.

We decided to tell them now, since DD will want to help make shirts, both kids love dreaming about what rides we should do, plus we need to talk to their teachers about missing school, etc. For us, the fun is sharing in the excitement and expectation of the coming trip as well as the trip itself.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

Quick backstory, we had told the boys that we were going to visit friends in GA. their DD also thought that we were coming to visit, the night before they told her they were going and got in the car to start driving, the next morning we were flying out so we had my son call them to tell them we were on our way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuQnrmVuwO0

that was awesome!

 

[roxiehartseeyore]

We took my cousins (16 &13) earlier this year. We had told them we were going camping for a week and they were pretty excited about that. The girl (13) was concerned about snakes and mice. I told her the mice get pretty big but they seem to be pretty friendly and harmless. We live here in Fl and its about a 6.5 hour drive and we stopped for lunch about 2 hours from WDW. I told my husband in front of the kids to bring me a box out pf the car when we got done eating I needed some tylenol. When he brought in the box we said here happy birthday! In the box were a mickey shirt for each of them, a WDW guide and a set of ears for each. They just went thats nice, and? I finally had to tell them don't you get it? we're going to disney, be there in 2 hours! They totally had no clue, we had to work as a family to keep the secret, it was so hard not to spill. They had never been before and it was great to surprise them.

 

[Grumpytink08]

I found out my Sis & BIL are planning a WDWV next fall (2010) so I am trying to plan my FWDWV with them without them knowing. A teacher at school had a cute idea for her students with Airline tickets. What I ended up doing was made a template of our past WDW airline tickets and then scanned them into my computer so I would have a blank "ticket". I then will type basically the same thing that is on the ticket but will put only what I need (Passenger Receipt, class, destination, name of passenger, flight/date, time etc.). I plan to put a clipart of our favorite character on them as well and perferate them on the side like an actual ticket. Last I am going to put...Here's our tickets, meet you down there or something like that and then mail them to her.
You could also do this to tell your kids that you'll be going to WDW and mail them to them like the airlines would do. Hope this helps. 1 year before we get to leave!

 

[FirstTimeDisneyDad]

We are leaving on Friday for our surprise trip with my Mom, my Dw and our 3 kids (DS8, DD7, DS4). We decided early on to make it a surpirse trip and it has been hard work to keep the conversations to a dull roar!

So, I made a 4 minute video with music, that shows pictures from our trip last year (it will be veiled as a gift from Grandma). At the end I created some picture files that were added in that ask the family if they want to go back...today!

Then it's immediately into the van and off to the airport...with some presents to open (homemade autograph books, Disney books for the flight, PJs...)

We're gonna take the video and hope for a great reaction...fingers crossed. I'll post after if it works out ok!

 

[Nutz4Dizney]

I mentioned before that I know longer surprise my son at home. He is 8 and this will be his 8th trip so he knows we go. LOL

Last year I had baskets made up for my son, my mother and hubby & I.
Betsy goes shopping, makes the baskets and then delivers them to the resort we are staying. My family was so excited to see what "mickey" left them.

I'm doing it again this year.

Here are the baskets for this year
1st basket is for me it contains:
Minnie dressed for Halloween
Mickey dressed for Halloween
Kooky Mickey Pen OR Kooky Minnie Pen

2nd basket if for my son (8 years old)
Mickey black bat squishy black thing (dont' know the exact name LOL)
$25.00 Disney dollars
Sorcerer Mickey Disney Racers
Haunted Mansion Ghost Disney Racers

3rd basket for my mom:
Celebrate Everyday Minnie
''Four Parks One World'' Walt Disney World Resort Scrapbook Album
Lanyard with Wallet

the letter says "Happy Halloween & Welcome to WDW! Hope you have a swell time, & we'll see ya real soon! Your Pals at the Happiest Place on Earth!"

this is last years baskets

 

[bdiddy]

Our kids are 5 and 3 and we are going to tell them about a month out. I just bought 3 things for each kid on sale from the disneyoutlet.com so I thought I would do up a basket. And then my DH is a graphic designer so I thought I would have him make up "tickets" with their favorite characters on them and their names - maybe 5x7 size or a tiny bit smaller. One for going to Disney and one for the plane (my 5 yr old talks constantly about going on an airplane so I think she'll be over the moon about this) and then I would laminate them and put them with the baskets. Both kids absolutely love role playing and dress up so I know they will love the idea of having their own "tickets" to play with before the trip.

My 3yr old son will probably be pretty clueless until we come right out and tell him but I can't wait to see my DD figure it out as she sees the stuff. I know her reaction is just going to be through the roof so I'm thinking about video taping it.

 

[momtobrynncess]

We told dd(4 at the time) the morning we were leaving. We had the videocamera rolling, when she came into our bedroom. We told her Mommy didn't have to go to work that day, and asked her if there was something special she would like to do that day. She said she wanted to go to our local amusement park. I told her that sounded like a pretty good idea, but was there something even more special she would like to do? She thought about it, and came up with another suggestion (a museum), and I said, well that would be a good idea too. Then I said, "How about instead of that, we get on a plane and go to Disney?".....................................

She looks at the video camera, and her jaw just dropped...........

Then she said, "Is it today? Is today the day we're supposed to go? Is the plane all ready to take off? It won't take off without us, will it? We better hurry up and get to the airport!" Then the dogs jumped up on the bed, and everyone went nuts!

And I got it all on videotape!!!

 

[Coach81]

I would like to thank everyone for this post, I have decided to surprise our two boys with our first-ever trip to Disney for Christmas with a scavenger hunt the night before we leave!!! It will include various clues located throughout our house, and facebook clue from a family friend, and a phone call to Paw Paw for another clue.. all adding up to the final clue- a surprise trip to Disney for Christmas.. IN THE MORNING!!!

My wife and I are very excited about it.. I think it will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives!!!

Thanks again for all the wonderful ideas.. I will try to post the outcome or even the video of the scavenger hunt once we get back from Disney...

Inside of three weeks now!!!!

 

[GrayC25]

My parents are taking the entire family to WDW this spring, but my two nieces don't know about it yet. My parents are planning to surprise them with the trip this Christmas. They are planning to hide letters all over the house and have clues on where to find them. The youngest will be in charge of finding the letters and the oldest will be in charge of figuring out what the letters spell, which will be "We are taking you to Disney World."

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We go to Disney a lot *(usually twice a year). Last year we decided to surprise them with a third trip. DH wanted to run the TOT 13K in October and we had never been that time of the year. We decided to make it into a 6 day trip and do MNSSHP and the F&W Festival.

The kids had no idea at all. Early that morning I woke them like I would any other school day. Now I have a crazy habit of laying their uniforms out at the end of their bed in the morning. They were, of course, complaining about getting up (not realizing it was actually 4:30 am, not 6:00!). DH just said - okay forget about school let's just go to Disney. They thought he was teasing them, so more groaning. It wasn't until I said look at the end of your beds, when they realized they had summer clothes not uniforms, did they really believe us.

All the way to the airport they just kept asking questions (did my teacher know, did Mom Mom know, etc.) and saying I can't believe we're going to Disney and not school!

It was such a great surprise we decided to do the same thing again next year. DH is going to run the new 1/2 marathon in the beginning of October!

 

[FinallyDisney]

We're heading to Disney on Christmas day. We intend on doing our normal Christmas Eve routine of 4:00 mass, family party at my brother's and then head home. When we get home at 10:00 or 11:00 at night, we think we'll let them open one gift. Guess which one? The one that let's them know that we're heading to Disney!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure yet what gift to give. Should we give a Disney gift card? Should we give a basket of a new Disney tshirt, a gift card, pictures from old trips, a new autograph book? Still not sure but we're goung to get them good!!!! I'm just a little excited !!!!!

 

[arielmomma]

I love this thread. DH and I are considering a trip the end of Jan/beginning Feb to surprise the kids for their birthdays (Feb 3rd & 7th).

There are so many great ideas here. I love the balloons in a box idea. That would be so magical!

 

[Goofy_Dad_24]

Can we maybe get some updates from those that posted their surprise plans in this thread?

 

[sabrecmc]

My daughter is 3, so surprising her isn't so hard. However, I planned an impromptu trip for MVMCP back in November to surprise her. That morning, when I woke her up, she had "pixie dust" sprinkled in her bed (yes, that was a pain to clean up, but it was worth it) and under her pillow was an invitation from Tinkerbell to come to Disney World for Mickey's Christmas party. On the When line, it said "Now". Of course, I had to read it to her, but it didn't take long for her to catch on. Then it was, "Let's go right now. I want to ride Peter Pan." And she was ready. We had the car loaded, so it was just a matter of getting her dressed and we were off. Sometimes, surprise trips are the best! Love the scavenger hunt idea.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

First time, I told DD there was a theme to her Christmas presents and she needed to figure out what it was. Everything was wrapped in Disney paper, bought her the Magic Kingdom game, some Disney pajamas... can't remember everything but it all tied in. Lastly was a three piece set of luggage, which I had her open piece by piece. Finally, in the last one was the Birnbaum's Guide to Disney for Kids and the tickets. I love my DD. She's a very good student, by OMG she had no clue. Now in her defense, I believe we only had about 3 hours' sleep, but I was about to explode and it just wasn't clicking. Finally, she looked at me and said "Are we going to Disney?" I was so excited I was almost jumping up and down. "Yes, Yes, we are in 3 weeks!" And then my looked at me and said "Oh, okay. I'm really tired. Is it okay for me to go back to bed?" I was so disappointed I sat at the table and cried. My husband reassured me it was just because she was tired, but I was defeated and beaten. When she got up later, she was thrilled but that really took the wind out of my sails earlier.

This time, I'm going to put some helium filled balloons in a box and tie the reservations to the balloon ribbons, just like the "What Will You Celebrate" commercials. She will be extremely upset because she's used to getting many, many presents and this year things will look mighty slim. I owe her for ruining my last surprise.

 

[lugnut33]

When I scheduled a trip to Disneyland recently we receive a free phonecall from a Disney character. So I have it scheduled for Dec. 25th at 9:15 in the morning. Should be funny. I better record it.