Suggestions on how to surprise the family

[Shell1970]

Hello everyone! So excited, booked our first Disney Cruise for Sep 11. We are traveling with my sister and her family. I also bought a cruise for my parents. They do not know. I am planning on telling them at Christmas. This will be their Christmas present from me and my hubby. It has been a hard year for them health wise and I really wanted to do something special for them. Any suggestions on how to tell them or what to give them to lead up to the surprise? We are also taking my niece, who will be surprised as well.

 

[poizenivey]

Hello everyone! So excited, booked our first Disney Cruise for Sep 11. We are traveling with my sister and her family. I also bought a cruise for my parents. They do not know. I am planning on telling them at Christmas. This will be their Christmas present from me and my hubby. It has been a hard year for them health wise and I really wanted to do something special for them. Any suggestions on how to tell them or what to give them to lead up to the surprise? We are also taking my niece, who will be surprised as well.

My cousin made a puzzle that showed a pic and said WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY and had all the kids names on the puzzle...the kids opened the puzzle Christmas morning and they all had to put the puzzle together the figure out their gift!!
It was soooo cute!!

 

[TampaFamily]

I surprised my family for our first cruise on Christmas morning. I used our color printer and copied the picture of the map for our cruise, the dcl logo and a picture of the ship all on one page - then I put the title of we're going on a cruise!

I had these in three envelopes and hid them at the bottom of all the presents. Once most things were opened, I had them each open their envelop at the same time.

Surprise worked well and cruise was great - we've now been on 3.

 

[Minniemouse07]

You could get your parents a PassPorter DCL book so they can read up on all the cruise info!

 

[tjbaggott]

I'm doing the same for my mom and her BF this Christmas. The surprise cruise for 2011 will be on the Dream. It will also be a Christmas surprise for my two boys. Here's what I have planned so far:

-wrap up a yellow rubber duck and a bottle of water (aqua Duck) (someone here on the Dis gave that idea!! )

- Wrap up some sunscreen
-Wrap up a magnet with thier favourite Disney Character and their name on it
- Wrap up a Castaway Club Gift for them (we cruise this fall and will receive our 3rd set, we don't need 3 sets, so this one will be given to my mom)
-they will each receive wrapped, a DCL Beach Towel
- The Final reveal gift will be a puzzle. For my mom, it will be a puzzle made from the Graphic created by Jordak, that is an elgegant invitation/announcement. Once they put the puzzle together, there will be no doubt as to the surprise.

After all that, My mom will unwrap the cruise documents, info and DCL DVD.

 

[Disney-Brat]

The Passporter Book is a great idea

I did a scanvanger hunt with clues for my 2 neices before and they remember that almost more then the trip

 

[Shell1970]

Wow, thanks everyone! These are all great suggestions. I am so excited. My parents are going to be thrilled.

 

[Scotty69]

The Passporter Book is a great idea

I did a scanvanger hunt with clues for my 2 neices before and they remember that almost more then the trip

How do you get the passporter book? I would love to get one but have no idea how to do it

 

[mmouse37]

We surprised our kids with the MV of the Magic when back when for Christmas.....at the time WDW had a DCL preview center so when we were visiting WDW one year I picked up some shirts (only had XL's!) and wrapped them up and put them under the tree. I also printed out "cruise tickets" that something like.....for a once in a lifetime opportunity aboard the Maiden Voyage of the Disney Magic....yada, yada, yada...they were so surprised as I had talked about taking the family on a cruise forever.

Here are the kiddos on Christmas 1997....and then years later aboard the Disney Wonder..their 8th DCL cruise...

MJ

 

[Minniemouse07]

How do you get the passporter book? I would love to get one but have no idea how to do it

I just got a post on my FB page:

Save 33% off PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line 2010 for this weekend only! Use coupon code welove2cruise (all lowercase) in the PassPorter Store during checkout to get 33% off the list price of any 2010 edition of PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line. Offer ends Monday, September 13, 2010 at 11:59 pm ET.

You can order them directly from Passporter's site at passporterstore.com.

(I don't work for them or anything...just love my guidebooks! )

 

[mmouse37]

www.passporter.com

They are very good guidebooks but with DCL always updated and changing things it is impossible to keep them up to date in each edition so they have addendums to add to your book when new things come out.


MJ

 

[Cindi0511]

My mom planned a family reunion cruise for her 7 children and all the grandchildren. She announced it to the adults with this:

Ahoy, Mateys,

This is yer Captain Grammy speakin’. Pack your rags, amass yer offspring, and get yer carcasses to the pier no later than 10 a.m. sharp on (INSERT DATE). Iff'n yer late, ye’ll be a walkin’ the plank, fer sure. Our family reunion voyage will span a week’s time and three islands. Ye'll have much pillaging to do in order to manage all the loot we’ll be a gatherin’ and the good times we’ll be a havin’.

Here be the docket all 35 of us wafarin’ scoundrels will be a followin’. Iff’n ye have any questions, send them via sea by corked bottle to Lake Erie.


Saturday Port Canaveral — 4:00 p.m.
Sunday At Sea — —
Monday At Sea — —
Tuesday St. Maarten 8:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday St. Thomas/St. John 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m.
Thursday At Sea — —
Friday Castaway Cay 9:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
Saturday Port Canaveral 7:35 a.m. —


Be ye mindful, rogues, that the ship waits for no one, so be there on time or be keelhauled. Ye can check out our seaworthy raft (?!?!?) at www.disneycruise.disney.go.com where ye’ll see the grub ye’ll have to choke down, the deplorable conditions ye’ll have to sleep in, and the islands we’ll be a’ plunderin’.

More information will be coming as our Captain deems necessary. Yer on a need-to-know-basis, and rit’ now, that’s all ya need to know.

Argh!

Captain Granny Goldheart


Then, most of the parents kept it secret until she could be in on the telling of it to the kids. She was driving 12 hours to see one of my brothers, and so she'd call the kids every couple of hours and give them a hint. They'd think about that for a while until her next call in which she'd give them another hint. I don't think they guessed what it was, but they were excited beyond words.

 

[mmouse37]

My mom planned a family reunion cruise for her 7 children and all the grandchildren. She announced it to the adults with this:

Ahoy, Mateys,

This is yer Captain Grammy speakin’. Pack your rags, amass yer offspring, and get yer carcasses to the pier no later than 10 a.m. sharp on (INSERT DATE). Iff'n yer late, ye’ll be a walkin’ the plank, fer sure. Our family reunion voyage will span a week’s time and three islands. Ye'll have much pillaging to do in order to manage all the loot we’ll be a gatherin’ and the good times we’ll be a havin’.

Here be the docket all 35 of us wafarin’ scoundrels will be a followin’. Iff’n ye have any questions, send them via sea by corked bottle to Lake Erie.


Saturday Port Canaveral — 4:00 p.m.
Sunday At Sea — —
Monday At Sea — —
Tuesday St. Maarten 8:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday St. Thomas/St. John 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m.
Thursday At Sea — —
Friday Castaway Cay 9:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
Saturday Port Canaveral 7:35 a.m. —


Be ye mindful, rogues, that the ship waits for no one, so be there on time or be keelhauled. Ye can check out our seaworthy raft (?!?!?) at www.disneycruise.disney.go.com where ye’ll see the grub ye’ll have to choke down, the deplorable conditions ye’ll have to sleep in, and the islands we’ll be a’ plunderin’.

More information will be coming as our Captain deems necessary. Yer on a need-to-know-basis, and rit’ now, that’s all ya need to know.

Argh!

Captain Granny Goldheart


Then, most of the parents kept it secret until she could be in on the telling of it to the kids. She was driving 12 hours to see one of my brothers, and so she'd call the kids every couple of hours and give them a hint. They'd think about that for a while until her next call in which she'd give them another hint. I don't think they guessed what it was, but they were excited beyond words.

Adorable!!!!

MJ

 

[disneycruising]

My mom planned a family reunion cruise for her 7 children and all the grandchildren. She announced it to the adults with this:

Ahoy, Mateys,

This is yer Captain Grammy speakin’. Pack your rags, amass yer offspring, and get yer carcasses to the pier no later than 10 a.m. sharp on (INSERT DATE). Iff'n yer late, ye’ll be a walkin’ the plank, fer sure. Our family reunion voyage will span a week’s time and three islands. Ye'll have much pillaging to do in order to manage all the loot we’ll be a gatherin’ and the good times we’ll be a havin’.

Here be the docket all 35 of us wafarin’ scoundrels will be a followin’. Iff’n ye have any questions, send them via sea by corked bottle to Lake Erie.


Saturday Port Canaveral — 4:00 p.m.
Sunday At Sea — —
Monday At Sea — —
Tuesday St. Maarten 8:00 a.m. 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday St. Thomas/St. John 8:00 a.m. 4:30 p.m.
Thursday At Sea — —
Friday Castaway Cay 9:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
Saturday Port Canaveral 7:35 a.m. —


Be ye mindful, rogues, that the ship waits for no one, so be there on time or be keelhauled. Ye can check out our seaworthy raft (?!?!?) at www.disneycruise.disney.go.com where ye’ll see the grub ye’ll have to choke down, the deplorable conditions ye’ll have to sleep in, and the islands we’ll be a’ plunderin’.

More information will be coming as our Captain deems necessary. Yer on a need-to-know-basis, and rit’ now, that’s all ya need to know.

Argh!

Captain Granny Goldheart


Then, most of the parents kept it secret until she could be in on the telling of it to the kids. She was driving 12 hours to see one of my brothers, and so she'd call the kids every couple of hours and give them a hint. They'd think about that for a while until her next call in which she'd give them another hint. I don't think they guessed what it was, but they were excited beyond words.

I love this idea!

 

[magmom]

We surprised our kids with a trip to Disney World last Christmas and we did a scavenger hunt that I found on Dis boards as a cruise surprise. I changed it to meet our needs. Here's the link, http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2034142. (It's #9)

We didn't do a gift to go with each clue, just a gift bag with a "scroll" giving the next clue. I typed each clue on the computer and printed them out on pretty Christmas paper, rolled them, tied up with pretty ribbon and put into gift bags with tissue paper. The clues led the kids back to the Christmas tree where they found a box containing the latest Passporter, a Disnet ornament for the tree, and the tickets to Disney World. My kids are a little older (14, 13and 9 then), but they had a blast running around the house trying to figure it out!

Have fun however you decide to do it!!!

 

[coffman6]

These are great!!