Surprise!!

[Calle&Jakesmom]

Just told my parents that their house is the fake destination for our February vacation. Just told my in-laws that we'll be down their way (FL) for Feb vacation. We've asked them all to keep it a secret- now I'm getting nervous that someone is going to slip and the kids will find out!!
Let's see how long this lasts!!

 

[letthewookiewin]

The more I'm thinking about it the more I'm leaning toward getting the kids in the car for a "trip to Grandma's house." The trip is usually about 3 hours and they usually watch a movie on the DVD player on the way there. The trip to Grandma's will also explain all of the bags etc in the back of the car and the reason we will rush them into the car to get out of here!

Here's my idea: I think we'll have them watch a movie and act like we're on the way to grandma's house. When that movie ends, we'll tell them they can pick another one to start watching because we're not there yet. Instead of putting that movie in I will put in a secret DVD that my husband and i will record before we leave. It will be a DVD of me & my husband telling them about the surprise and saying we're not going to Grandma's- we're going to Disney World!

I like this idea because we'll get 3 hours or so of driving out of the way before they know where we're going (that will make the trip seem shorter to them) and then for the rest of the drive the idea will be so new and exciting the long trip won't feel as long. It will be fun to talk about the trip and all we're going to do.

Now I just have to figure out how to make the DVD! I'd love to add some clips from Disney trips in the past and things they like to see, but I don't know if I can do all that.

I love the idea, but have you seen the video where the kids think their going to Dick's house and are upset when they find out they are going to WDW instead? I hate to be a downer, but kids are strange creatures and I wouldn't use somewhere like Grandma's house as the fake destination. You may get the same reation that is in that video, and they may be upset about not going to Grandma's house.
We are planning on keeping our trip for Decmeber 2010 a secret. If we leave on Friday, and pull them out of school early, we will tell them they have a doctor's appt. When they notice we are not heading to their doctor, we will hand them a card from Mickey inviting them to come to WDW "right now". If we leave on a Saturday we will tell them we are going to take a road trip and to see some cemeteries where they have ancestors. We took a weekend trip with my DH's parents a few months ago to OK to see Arkbuckle Wilderness, Quana Parker's grave, and several other Indian cemeteries. My mil is very into family history and found that she is related to Quana Parker through his mother. By the end of the trip my DS10 was saying, "the next time we go on vacation, please no more Indian cemeteries. They creep me out." Then after we get close to the airport parking, hand them the invite from Mickey.

 

[amy4bruce]

I love these stories too. Here is our plan. On this Saturday, after our DD's big robotic competition we are driving to the airport. She thinks we have to take dad there for a business trip. In the parking lot we are going to tell her dh might not be home for dd's 10th birthday so here is your present now. We have a big box wrapped with a small Stitch in it. He is holding a scroll that reads- Bridget Smith you have spent the last 10 years becoming a wonderful young lady! What are you going to do now?

We then will open the trunk and she will see the magical express tags on the luggage.

We go everyyear and DD just thinks we did not go this year because of the economy. It has been tough keeping the secret but it should be worth it.

 

[INmomto2]

I have been planning my families first trip to WDW for over 400 days , crazy i know. My husband, our families and a few friends were the only ones that knew. I have been packing little things all along and we sent the kids to school this am like normal. We have packed the car and will pick them up in a couple hours to head to the airport. We have to spend the night due to early flight but i think i can disguise this since they just love staying at hotels with pools period! We leave early and I plan to dress them in some disney shirts but don't think they will notice. We basicly hope to hold out till they figure it out for themselves..no matter how long this takes. (Kids are 9 and 6)

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

I love the idea, but have you seen the video where the kids think their going to Dick's house and are upset when they find out they are going to WDW instead? I hate to be a downer, but kids are strange creatures and I wouldn't use somewhere like Grandma's house as the fake destination. You may get the same reation that is in that video, and they may be upset about not going to Grandma's house.

I think it will be okay for a couple of reasons:
1. Grandparents house is about 3 hours away and the kids are lucky enough to go every couple of months. The grandparents also come to our house pretty frequently. It's not like it will be a rare and special event to visit the grandparents... that being said...
2. I think the kids are actually going to be pretty disappointed and upset that we are going to their grandparents for Feb. vacation. Feb. is our traditional time to visit Disney and they have already been asking why we aren't going this year. I think that although they like visiting their grandparents, it's not what they want to do for a "vacation."
3. Our kids love Disney so much that once they hear that is our destination, they will probably completely forget everything else. They will be so excited to be going that no matter where the fake destination is, it will never live up to a trip to Disney.

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

I have been planning my families first trip to WDW for over 400 days , crazy i know. My husband, our families and a few friends were the only ones that knew. I have been packing little things all along and we sent the kids to school this am like normal. We have packed the car and will pick them up in a couple hours to head to the airport. We have to spend the night due to early flight but i think i can disguise this since they just love staying at hotels with pools period! We leave early and I plan to dress them in some disney shirts but don't think they will notice. We basicly hope to hold out till they figure it out for themselves..no matter how long this takes. (Kids are 9 and 6)

Can't wait to hear how it went!

 

[Coach81]

My two boys are going to have a surprise scavenger hunt when I get back from my soccer game on the 18th of next month. It will be 10 clues, in various envelopes placed around the house, it will also involve phone calls to grandparents and friends, even a facebook clue! In the final clue, they will be informed that we will be celebrating Christmas in Disney for the first time.. and we're going to be flying the very next morning!!!

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

I had a great idea a couple of days ago. I am going to go to our mall and ask Santa if I can film him breaking the news to our kids. Address them by name of course and say because they have been so good, he is inviting them to Disney World! I hope he does it. We are surprising them next Friday, the day before we go. I plan to have a big gift for them to open with Mickey balloons inside and things for the trip, but if I could add a video from Santa himself, well that would be epic.

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

I had a great idea a couple of days ago. I am going to go to our mall and ask Santa if I can film him breaking the news to our kids. Address them by name of course and say because they have been so good, he is inviting them to Disney World! I hope he does it. We are surprising them next Friday, the day before we go. I plan to have a big gift for them to open with Mickey balloons inside and things for the trip, but if I could add a video from Santa himself, well that would be epic.

Great idea!! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

 

[GretchenL]

Wow - so many great surprises!!!

I just decided last week to book a trip to WDW for MLK weekend (DD has 2 days off from school) and it is going to be a Christmas present surprise . DD is 10 and DS will be turing 5 while we are there. They will have no idea and aren't expecting it at all (as we haven't even been talking about a trip to WDW). I bought them both Disney t-shirts that I was going to wrap up - but I'm trying to figure out what else to do, so they will know we are going to WDW and is isn't just that they are getting t-shirts.

You guys have done so many cool surprises, I know you will be able to give me some good ideas!!!

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

Any more ideas?

How did the Christmas surprises go?

 

[Poohlove]

I have been looking for some suggestions myself but I think that I may have finally come up with something. We are only right over the bridge from Philly so I think that I am going to tell my kids that we are going to play hookey from school/work and go to the city. (We do go there enough but it is usually on the weekend.) I will have our bags packed in the back where they will not see them and we will just continue on over to the airport where I will tell them surprise - we are going to Disney!!! I have a little pre trip report going where I can talk out loud about our trip. Since it is going to be a complete surprise until the day we leave it is like torture trying to keep quiet about it!

 

[3girls4me05]

Any more ideas?

How did the Christmas surprises go?

Looks like we are going at the same time from the same state (MA). I am also driving (with my in-laws no less). I am not telling them at all. We are playing hooky from school on Friday. We will leave very early in the AM on Friday (like 4am). I plan on waking them and telling them we have to go somewhere and there will be no school today. They can wear their pjs in the car. When they finally wake fully up and start asking I will tell them that we are going to Florida to see their uncle (true). I may have a box of clues instead. They are going to be super excited!
I am going to wrap up a t-shirt for my DD who turns 13 on 2/14. She will open it when we get to Orlando. The shirt will say Samantha's 13th Birthday Celebration on the back and WDW 2/14/2010 on the front. That is how she will figure it out.

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

I think I'm going to stick with our plan to leave Friday right after school to go to "Pops & Grandma's House" in CT. I'll rush them into the car after they get off the bus from school and the car will, of course, be packed with suitcases etc for our trip to CT. They are used to watching a movie on the way so we'll let them do that. Once the movie is over and we are "almost there".. we'll suggest picking another movie. After 20 minutes of fighting over the next movie to watch I will instead put in a DVD that I've already prepared... I've begun work on the DVD that I will pop in that shows Dad & I with photos saying that we're not going to Pops & Grandam's house and that we are driving to FLORIDA! I think I'll have a couple of gifts for them to unwrap- like t-****s or glow-sticks. Hopefully by that time we'll be a couple of hours from our first stop in DE.
I am thinking of other things I can spring on them during our second day of travel to Orlando... any ideas?

 

[aripantaloon]

We haven't told our DD's (almost 3 and almost 6) that we are going to Disney the first week of March. We had been toying with the idea of going in May since that would have been 2 years since our last trip, but I unexpectedly became pregnant and I'm due in May. We told the girls that we definitely wouldn't be going this year b/c of the new baby. Then DH kept saying that he would take the girls without me since he didn't want to disappoint them and it would give me a break. Over my dead body will they go without me! So, we just booked our March trip.

DH wants to tell them on the younger one's birthday on the 19th, but I'd love to wait. We have to pick up the older one early from school the Friday that we leave to get to the airport. I'd like to tell her then that we are going to Disney.

One idea that we got from my SIL's DH's family is similar to one that is already posted. The dad used to go on frequent business trips and the family was in the car to "drop him off at the airport." The dad suddenly says that he doesn't want to go on the trip and the mom suggests that they all go to Disney instead. Bags are in the trunk and they all head to Disney. This would sort of work for us since DH does travel a bit, but I wouldn't pick DD up early to take DH to the airport. I don't know if she would call us out on that one or not.

We'll see how long we can keep the secret. I'd love it if we just got on the plane and waited for her to figure it out, but she has no clue that Disney is in Orlando, FL.

 

[phisigprincess]

Obviously a different situation, but I'm surprising my husband with a trip for his 30th birthday to Star Wars Weekends in May! I got a lot of 40 pins from ebay (he's a casual pin trader, but really enjoys it). I wrapped them up and I'm going to pretend for a while that that's his only gift and then 'forget' to give him his card that details the trip in it. We've both been sad we didn't have a 2010 trip planned, but when I found a fantastic deal on airfare for the weekend, I figured I should go for it! His birthday is on Tuesday, so hopefully he's surprised.

 

[hygienejean]

Ohhh I kept that secret last year from my kids ages 8,6, and 3 at the time.

I didn't say anything for a long while. They were told we couldn't do Disney this year as it wasn't in the budget. They were very disappointed but we told them we would think of something else to do instead.

About 2 months before the trip my DH and I started to talk about "going to Amish country". As you can imagine, that wasn't on the top of the kids 'to do' list! As it got closer, I would get online and look at things to do in amish country. I alsways looked for the most boring (for kids) thing to do. One of my faves is when we talked about how wonderful it would be to go to the quilting museum! I talked about how much fun I was going to have shopping in Lancaster county too. (They HATE shopping with me!) And darn it the hotel we found didn't even have a pool! heh heh

Since they thought they were going somewhere, they didn't think it was strange that the suitcase were packed and the dog went to the doggie hotel. we started off, still talking about our drive to PA. When we got on the turnpike, I said to my DH, You know, I really don't want to go to Amish country today" He went along and said, "Yeah, me either" Then I said "Kids where would you like to go today if we could go anywhere you wanted?" (I KNEW what they would say) of course they all yelled "Disney World!" So then I said, "well, there is the airport, let's go see if they have any tickets left..." DH turns off the pike toward the airport. At this point the kids think we are faking and say,"Stop it stop it...let's just go to PA" DH pulls up to the curb of the airport and we turn and yell, "Surprise!!!! We are going to Disney World today! You will be at the Boardwalk tonight!!!"

All I can say is they were thrilled and we had a wonderful trip. It was a HUGE secret to keep and I don't know if I could ever pull it off again. Of course when the day comes that we really go to Amish country, I'll bet they will think we are going to WDW!

Have fun!

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

Our surprise trip is getting closer! Can't wait. So far we've been able to keep it a secret, but it's getting really hard to keep quiet about it!

Because of a small debacle at Christmas, I am thinking of getting t-shirts (create-your-own from Disney) that say something like "my mom & dad didn't get me anything for Christmas.... Except a surprise trip to Disney World!" I think when we're in the car and ready to spring the surprise on them, these shirts can be wrapped up as gifts and we'll let them guess what is going on.

I don't know... I keep coming up with different ideas and can't decide on how to do this surprise!

 

[Calle&Jakesmom]

bump-
I have the best notebook going...
3 ring binder with a tab for each state we travel through- a "treasure hunt" for each state and "car games." They still have no idea and we're leaving in 7 days!!

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

If you are leaving in the morning and plan on eating before hand you could have a Disney themed breakfast somehow. Or the dinner before you leave could be Disney themed somehow too! Or Mickey could write a letter to the boys? Hmmm...I love coming up with ideas for fun things like this!