Suggestions for Surprise!

[tjknitz]

We are taking the kids (7 & 4) to Disney in 25 days YAY!
We are driving from MI - the kids have NO IDEA. We are telling the kids that 'Daddy has a work meeting in FL so we are going to go along with him and swim at the hotel while he works'.
I'm trying to think of great ways to surprise them and looking for suggestions. The only idea I can come up with right now is to have them open their magic bands right before we drive under the Walt Disney World sign....but I'd like to do something a little more creative. Any suggestions?????

 

[shnoukys]

Did you come up with anything? Riddles, treasure hunt?

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Do they know what the MagicBands represent? If not, I wouldn't use MagicBands.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

We are taking the kids (7 & 4) to Disney in 25 days YAY!
We are driving from MI - the kids have NO IDEA. We are telling the kids that 'Daddy has a work meeting in FL so we are going to go along with him and swim at the hotel while he works'.
I'm trying to think of great ways to surprise them and looking for suggestions. The only idea I can come up with right now is to have them open their magic bands right before we drive under the Walt Disney World sign....but I'd like to do something a little more creative. Any suggestions?????

Are you checking into your hotel first or going straight to the park? Are you staying on property or offsite? What's the gender of your 7 & 4 year old?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help me suggest some ideas that are appropriate to your situation.

 

[tjknitz]

Oh I'd love some suggestions! We are headed right to POP Century! I do not have any plans to go to the parks that evening. I have a 7 year old daughter and 4 year old son.

Right now my plan is: We are stopping at a grocery store right before heading to the hotel to pick up milk and any other snack items. Once the kids get out of the car I am going to put a present on each seat (my daughter - the 7 year old will have the magic bands wrapped; my son (4) will have the Disney Jr Encyclopedia that I am using for autographs also wrapped) Before they open them I typed out a poem that my daughter will read: "We have a little secret, we are so excited to share! We love you very much and want to show you how much we care. We told a little fib and said, we'd go to a hotel to swim. Daddy would be working; we wouldn't see much of him. But now 's the time to tell you just exactly where we will be. Open up your last gift and soon you will see......."

(we plan on giving them small gifts during the 16 hour drive....mainly to keep them occupied....so this would be their last gift).

My daughter will have the Magic Band box...not sure she will know what they are, so inside the box I printed a sign that reads "We're going to DISNEY WORLD". My son can't read so I didn't put a sign in the autograph book....

If I knew the area well enough then I would try to time it so that I would give them the gifts right before we drive under the Disney World sign, but I'm not sure I could pull that off. I figure that the grocery store will only be about 5-10 minutes away from Disney - so they will be able to handle the short wait.

Any other suggestions? I want to make this special for them since they honestly have NO CLUE that we are going.

 

[Accident]

You can always just wait until they see the welcome to disney and then pull into your hotel

 

[BabyHabs]

We surprised our kids in March. We left that morning and they thought we were taking them to a dentist appointment. The day before, we made a video on our phone and burnt it to a CD. It was a little, guess what we're doing today video. Very cheesy. We waited until we were on the road and they started asking where we were going. I popped the CD in the player and they watched the video and freaked out. It was awesome. So if you have a DVD player in your car, it's a great surprise.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

Oh I'd love some suggestions! We are headed right to POP Century! I do not have any plans to go to the parks that evening. I have a 7 year old daughter and 4 year old son.

Right now my plan is: We are stopping at a grocery store right before heading to the hotel to pick up milk and any other snack items. Once the kids get out of the car I am going to put a present on each seat (my daughter - the 7 year old will have the magic bands wrapped; my son (4) will have the Disney Jr Encyclopedia that I am using for autographs also wrapped) Before they open them I typed out a poem that my daughter will read: "We have a little secret, we are so excited to share! We love you very much and want to show you how much we care. We told a little fib and said, we'd go to a hotel to swim. Daddy would be working; we wouldn't see much of him. But now 's the time to tell you just exactly where we will be. Open up your last gift and soon you will see......."

(we plan on giving them small gifts during the 16 hour drive....mainly to keep them occupied....so this would be their last gift).

My daughter will have the Magic Band box...not sure she will know what they are, so inside the box I printed a sign that reads "We're going to DISNEY WORLD". My son can't read so I didn't put a sign in the autograph book....

If I knew the area well enough then I would try to time it so that I would give them the gifts right before we drive under the Disney World sign, but I'm not sure I could pull that off. I figure that the grocery store will only be about 5-10 minutes away from Disney - so they will be able to handle the short wait.

Any other suggestions? I want to make this special for them since they honestly have NO CLUE that we are going.

Sounds like you have a fantastic plan already!

I was going to suggest giving them a gift to open too. My suggestion is to buy their favorite stuffed Disney characters at your local Walmart and wrap that. That way, you won't have to buy an expensive stuffed Minnie/Mickey in the park AND your DD (and most likely your DS too) will "get it". I've also heard you can have one of the Disney characters write your kids a letter inviting them to Disney. If so, your DD would probably love reading a letter from her favorite Disney character, revealing the surprise. It would also make for a great scrapbook keepsake.

Again, you already have a good plan in mind. So, I'm sure your kids will love it. Have fun!

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

Another gift idea:

A new princess dress for DD to wear to a character meal. If she's into princesses.

 

[keepswimming76]

Another gift idea: We gave our kids Disney Parks maps as a present. They don't to the personalized ones anymore, but you can always print them off.

 

[tjknitz]

Great suggestions! I love the idea of the mickey stuffed animals, princess dress and the dvd (which I have and would love to incorporate that)