How did you surprise your kids?

[angelabrezovsky]

Just trying to get ideas on how to surprise my kids with disney. They are all girls and ages 5, 7, and 9. We are leaving at 2 am on day of our trip! Any ideas are welcome!!

 

[alc571]

Not sure mine will help, but we surprised our DS7 yesterday at the end of his Easter hunt. I made him an advent calendar to countdown to Easter and each day had either a Disney toy or candy along with a "Who am I?" riddle about a Disney character. Easter morning he did his hunt, and the Easter Bunny's basket included one last clue to a basket from mommy and daddy. Our basket had a big Mickey with bunny ears on, an "I'm going to Walt Disney World" tshirt, countdown chain, planning DVD, travel journal, etc.

He was super surprised!

We had talked to him before about his preference as to when he'd like to know. He was pretty adamant that he likes to countdown to the trip, so he didn't want to be surprised the day of or day before. We leave in two weeks, so he has a bit of a countdown for his own excitement.

 

[wide receiver]

We were already in Florida….I told the kids we weren't going to Disney "this trip". Then one day we told them we could go for dinner at Ohana…and what the heck we can stay the night at AKL and then why not stay 6 more days at Wilderness Lodge! They were surprised….so was hubby he didn't know we were staying so long….oops thought I mentioned that!

 

[wide receiver]

I agree with alc517 the kids like to plan with us….I think my children were in shock!

 

[Campbellchristy42]

My kids know we're going - they just don't know when We plan to leave right after school, so I'm thinking maybe picking them up after school with the car all packed, then springing it on them as we're headed out of town. They will be 10, 7, 6, and 4 at the time of the trip. I think I'll send my 4 year old to Grandmas so we can pack without him knowing what's going on. I've debated and debated over how to surprise them. Let us know what you end up doing!

 

[Coconuts]

Told them they had a dentist appt. so I picked them up from school early@1pm. Then said we had to go back to the house to brush their teeth quickly. DH was at the house and put the luggage in the foyer with their Mickey ears on them and he had the video camera on them as they walked in the door. After a few minutes of screaming, hooting, and hollering, we hopped in the car and headed to the airport for a 3pm flight.

 

[chris31997]

The night before they go to bed have a letter from Mickey inviting them to come and visit. You can download Walt letter to type it up.

You could do a clue/scavenger hunt thingy before hand.

We went home to visit family, and one stop was to visit family that happened to work for Disney We just stayed for a week. DD was so mad, happy

This time, depending on how we can work it.........
1. They will be told at Christmas time they are going on a DCL to Alaska
or
2. Might not tell them till we get state side

But they won't know that the whole family will be joining us for DD's graduation cruise

 

[SunshineTK]

For my son's 5th birthday surprise, we needed to leave at 4am. We woke him up 3:30 with camcorder in hand singing the "M-I-C-K-E-Y....see ya REAL soon" song. We handed him his autograph book and lanyard. He asked us if was dreaming and then proceeded to fall out of his bed due to the excitement. He kept rubbing his eyes and asking if he was dreaming on the way to the airport. One of this Mommy's favorite memories!

 

[angelabrezovsky]

For my son's 5th birthday surprise, we needed to leave at 4am. We woke him up 3:30 with camcorder in hand singing the "M-I-C-K-E-Y....see ya REAL soon" song. We handed him his autograph book and lanyard. He asked us if was dreaming and then proceeded to fall out of his bed due to the excitement. He kept rubbing his eyes and asking if he was dreaming on the way to the airport. One of this Mommy's favorite memories!

I love this! That is awesome I might do this!!

 

[angelabrezovsky]

The night before they go to bed have a letter from Mickey inviting them to come and visit. You can download Walt letter to type it up.

You could do a clue/scavenger hunt thingy before hand.

We went home to visit family, and one stop was to visit family that happened to work for Disney We just stayed for a week. DD was so mad, happy

This time, depending on how we can work it.........
1. They will be told at Christmas time they are going on a DCL to Alaska
or
2. Might not tell them till we get state side

But they won't know that the whole family will be joining us for DD's graduation cruise

This is a wonderful idea as well!! I want them to be able to sleep but I might wake them up with a letter :excited:

 

[angelabrezovsky]

Told them they had a dentist appt. so I picked them up from school early@1pm. Then said we had to go back to the house to brush their teeth quickly. DH was at the house and put the luggage in the foyer with their Mickey ears on them and he had the video camera on them as they walked in the door. After a few minutes of screaming, hooting, and hollering, we hopped in the car and headed to the airport for a 3pm flight.

This is a greAt story! Wish we were flying but it's more economical to drive for us

 

[angelabrezovsky]

My kids know we're going - they just don't know when We plan to leave right after school, so I'm thinking maybe picking them up after school with the car all packed, then springing it on them as we're headed out of town. They will be 10, 7, 6, and 4 at the time of the trip. I think I'll send my 4 year old to Grandmas so we can pack without him knowing what's going on. I've debated and debated over how to surprise them. Let us know what you end up doing!

So we have a pretzel container and I told my kids once they filled that container up twice then we could go to disney because disney is expensive. So they are thinking they are not going for a long time. Lol I'm taking my sister who is the 9 year old with me and she has never been to disney so she doesn't even know what to expect! Wait till we actually get there! And last time we went my girls were 2 and 4 the now 5 year old only remember what I have pictures of and only because I have pictures. And my now 6 year old remembers everything or says she does haha :rofl:

 

[marybogue]

I told mine with a scavenger hunt that ended in a big box filled with goodies for the trip and black and red balloons. Enjoy planning the surprise; the reactions are the best!

 

[Christen99]

We didn't do a huge reveal, because one of mine does poorly with large surprises. We planned out most of the trip, and then I said I wanted to watch about WDW. At the end of the video, we told them and they were soooo excited. I had the custom maps, and and we gave a set to each of the boys, along with the Unoficial Guide, and a Hidden Mickey book. Lol, they have been saying they felt so betrayed because we knew all along and didn't tell them.

We told them late yesterday, and it was so much fun.

 

[JenCin78]

I bought them suitcases which we are going to wrap in a large box. I packed the suitcases with their clothes and put a special Disney tee shirt inside. I also wrote a poem for my 7 year old to read out loud since my daughter can't read yet.

"You've worked so hard in school all year and Summertime is finally here! Its time to have fun, laugh and play you see today is a very special day. Your bags are packed we can't be late, we don't want to make Mickey Mouse wait. Let's get in the car and hop on a plane-today we go to Disney World again!!!"

 

[kim75]

These are great ideas. My kids are 5.5, 2.5 and 5 months. There has been a lot of talk about going to WDW lately (my 2 y.o. asks nearly everyday if she can go) but we keep telling the girls we have to wait until their baby brother is older. DH and I recently decided to just go for it, and we are leaving a month from today! I'm tempted to just wait until we get to the airport, I don't really think my 2y.o. will get it until she sees the castle. It's going to be so hard to keep this from my oldest though, I'm dying to tell her!