how to reveal "surprise" disney cruise to tweens while at WdW

[DWjunkie]

arriving at wdw on jan 2 and checking out on Jan 9...what the kids (10 & 12) don't know......we are headed to the port to board the WONDER!

please help me with how to reveal this surprise..

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Why not just surprise them at check out or by taking a drive to the port.

 

[dmccarty]

We surprise the kids as much as we can...

If you are driving to/from WDW, I would not say a word to them when you leave WDW and head to the port. When driving over the bridge and you can see the ship, I would make comments like, "LOOK! There is a Disney ship. I sure would like to go on a cruise one day..." That should get the kids wound up a bit but not too much and then when you pull into the port....

If you are taking a DCL bus to the port, I would point out the buses to the kids and make a similar comment about how much you would love to go on a Disney cruise one day. Say nothing more. On the day it is time to leave WDW, just get on the DCL bus and wait for a reaction from the kids.

Later,
Dan

 

[DWjunkie]

We r driving. I had the thot of heading to port after check out but didnt want the "low" of saying good bye to wdw.
Not to mention.....my ds12 is very perceptive n would realize we were going the wrong direction.

 

[mygr8kdz]

How fun! We just did a reveal on Christmas morning with a scavenger hunt for clues, but that would be harder to do at WDW, I imagine. Maybe you could arrange something with the hotel concierge? A note from Mickey inviting them, delivered to the room?

And I am hoping the date or ship is wrong in your original post ~ Wonder is not sailing on the 9th! Unless you meant you are driving down to Miami on the 9th to board on the 10th??

Have fun!

 

[DWjunkie]

Lol...its thr dream! Wonder was last time

 

[mygr8kdz]

Lol...its thr dream! Wonder was last time

Phew! That would have been a bigger surprise for you than for them!!!

 

[twinmom108]

This was our experience several years ago when we surprised our 3 sons with a cruise following a WDW stay. The twins turned 14 on the cruise & the other was 12. I know our surprise might be a little elaborate for what you want to do, but maybe it could give you a few ideas. Back in 2006 procedures were different. They didn't take photos of guests & I was able to check in my whole family without them being at the check-in desk. Today we wouldn't be able to pull off getting them on the ship thinking they were just touring the ship for the afternoon.

Maybe you can tell them you're going to Cocoa Beach to see the ocean? I love to hear about the "surprise" stories so after you're cruise please let us know how it turned out!!

We booked our first Disney Cruise for Oct 2006 in November 2004. Deciding to surprise our 3 sons, we had to keep our big mouths shut for almost two years. We Booked two SPH rooms on the Magic Western Itinerary cruise.
Months ahead of the cruise I started to set them up. First by asking them if they wanted to do a tour of the Disney Magic ship since it was going to be in port the day we were traveling out to see the Kennedy Space Center - they said yes. A month or so later I said maybe we could do lunch on the ship would they like me to check into it & they said yes.

Closer to cruise time they were wondering what all we were going to do the second week of our vacation. I had to think fast so I said maybe we'll see a Pirate Museum, go to a pirate party & we could have Key Lime pie for the twins birthday. (We were in Key West on their Bday & we did have Key Lime Pie!) I didn't know how far we could take it or how long I could hold out without slipping or showing my excitement. Reading these boards the furtherest I'd seen anyone get was arriving at the port when the surprise was finally revealed.

The night before the cruise Dh & I tagged the luggage after the boys went to bed. Later we tried to load the "tagged" bags into the rental car. There we were standing in the Wilderness Lodge Parking lot in the middle of the night for an hour trying to figure how to get all the bags into the trunk. Finally we decided to put the 2 bags that didn't fit into the back seat upside down so the boys wouldn't see the DCL tags that had our last name & stateroom #'s on them.

The morning of the cruise we did a character breakfast at O'hanas with Lilo & Stitch then set out for the drive to the Port. When we arrived I told the boys that we would have to go through security & since they'd be treating us just like all the other passengers to just go with it. I told the boys to wait for us in the terminal since it was so hot & it was air-conditioned inside. They did peek out once to see what we were doing because they thought maybe we were doing something special for their Bday - LOL I shewed them back inside & got the porters to take the luggage away immediatedly. DH went to return the rental car & I joined the boys inside. Once upstairs I had them take a seat watching the movies while I checked everyone in.

Once boarding started I mentioned to a CM that we were surprising our boys & that they still didn't know they were actually going on this cruise. He was the one that actually took our cards and mentioned to one of our boys that "You know you'll have to get off of the ship in a little while" & my son acknowledged that he knew that. The boys didn't understand when we had to stand their to take the boarding photo & none of them smiled. They thought it was humorous that our Name was announced as we got on the ship. As promised we went up to Topsiders & had lunch - they thought that was so cool. Asked the twins if they wanted to see the teen club & they said.......yes, so we checked it out. The CM at the stack almost gave it away when she asked what their names were & when they started to tell her, she was checking off their names on her clipboard & said "YES". I got her attention, told her we were just "touring the ship" while winking at her and she recovered quite well and told us to look around & enjoy.

At that point the staterooms were ready so I said I was going to check to see if we could see a stateroom. I suggested that they check out the kids area for our other son. I went to our rooms & put up Bday decorations & made sure that the basket I had ordered from Shirley for our twins 14th birthday was in the room. Then I found my DH and DS's and said we could look at a stateroom. They were excited so off we went to 5024.

The twins saw the birthday basket was for them and was surprised that I was able to get that on board without them seeing it, but they still weren't getting the real surprise. Finally I had to yell out "WE'RE NOT GETTING OFF THE SHIP FOR 7 DAYS!!!" They were so shocked and dumfounded that it took them awhile to get excited. Our younger son said "I'm not going to believe it till the ship sails and I'm still on it." To make a longer story short this was the biggest surprise the boys ever had and they are still surprised that we were able to pull it off. Needless to say they had a blast!

As I said before I didn't know how far we could take the surprise. We took it much farther than we thought was possible but we actually made it all the way inside our staterooms before "letting the cat out of the bag".

Have a blast with your surprise - it truly can be magical.

Disney Dreamin'
Sharon

 

[grace&philipsmom]

We did a surprise cruise 3 years ago with our kids. We told them that on this WDW vacation, I wasn't able to get the Polynesian for the entire stay, so we were going to leave WDW and move to another place for the rest of the stay. The kids were disappointed, but they said ok.

When we were almost at port and the kids could almost see the ship, I said "did I mention our next room is on a disney cruise ship?" They were confused for a minute, and in disbelief till a minute later until they could see the ship. Then they completely freaked out!

 

[jodybrun]

We just surprised the kids at Christmas. I got them each a 2014 calendar. I blocked off a week in March and wrote Disney Cruise and decorated it with stickers. The kids looked thru the calendar and saw that. Then I also had Mickey and Minnie call. It was fun!

 

[scootch]

My tweens do not like last minute surprises, tried that last year as did friends of our and their kids too would have preferred a little notice. They feel the anticipation is as great as the trip itself. Any thoughts for maybe surprising them on New Years Eve?? or at the stroke of midnight?? Have fun!