any suggestions?

[peterpa]

We are taking our first trip home to SSR August 15 but we haven't told the kids. We are very excited, we have 4 children ages 6,4.5,4.5, and 1.5. We want to surprise them with the trip. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

 

[RLevy29]

Do you want advice on how to surprise them or what you can do once you get to WDW?

 

[peterpa]

Sorry if I was unclear. I would love ideas on how to surprise them!

 

[JimC]

Order the DVC and WDW vacation videos (or DVDs). Then as the trip gets closer have a family double feature night to view them both and discuss how one (DVC) is a program that is going to give you many many wonder opportunities as a family to vacation. Then discuss the other (WDW vacation) as to where your first vacation is going to be and all the things you can do there.

 

[lenshanem]

I read the coolest idea in Family Fun mag. Buy some fortune cookies, take out the fortune with tweezers, then replace them with tweezers with new fortunes you print up. Things like, a large mouse is in your future, etc. The person said she gave them to the woman at a restaurant to bring out. Then after they all read the fortunes, she slipped one on the table that had The Smiths, whatever are going to WDW!

 

[kweaver]

That's a cute idea, Shan!

 

[felway17]

Do not even tell them.....

Tell them they are visiting Grandma.. or Grandpa...

ANd do not tell them until they get to plane...

 

[BostonDisneyKid]

I like felway's idea of not telling them at all.

As a kid (10) my parents did this to me and my brother (12) on our 3rd trip to WDW and didnt tell us anything, just that we were going on a trip.

Upon arrival to the airport we were still clueless and as we approached the terminal and seeing "Destination: Orlando" we figured it out and were hysterical with excitement and joy. It was a great trip and we were so surprised and thrilled. Seeing as your children are much younger it may not have the same effect though.

 

[felway17]

I like my suggestion also..lol..

Last year I went with a group.. where oldest kid was 10...

they had no clue about even that they were going any place..

Then out came the suitcases already packed... and off to the airport they went...

At the airport the 10 year old saw the orlando sign and put it together...

I would be surprised if a 6 year old kid could put it together...

 

[wintergreen]

For one trip that we did to WDW, my DH and I packed suitcases on the sly, picked the kids up from school, and drove straight to the airport. We asked the kids if they could take a trip anywhere that day, where would they want to go? Youngest DD (bless her heart) said "Grandma and Grandpa's!". Older DD figured it out immediately. The trip was that much more fun, b/c they were not expecting it.

 

[SSRex]

We have twice made them try to figure out what they were going to get. The first time they (DS 14, DD, 11, DS-S 14, DS-D 11) were receiving a trampoline, which mom has told them they would never be getting, from my dad. We cut the picture off the box into many smaller pieces and made a puzzle out of it for them to solve. But we also did something like this for their WDW trip.

I sat each of the four of them at 4 different sides of the kitchen table. I gave them each a Scrabble letter holder and a bag of mixed up letters for each of them. The letter in the 4 bags were:

1) Universal

2) Florida

3) Studios

4) Orlando

They had to try to make a word out of their own letters without saying anything or showing the other three. Then I had them pass their word to the next one around the table until someone figured it out. Their DVC Universal Studios trip to Orlando Florida.

 

[peterpa]

OMG, I can hardly contain my excitement!!!You guys are full of great ideas!! The 6 year old may be able to figure things out, he's a smarty pants.

They are all great suggestions. We are driving from Michigan and plan to leave 4am ish. It would be fun to get them to guess when they wake up. Hehe Hmmmm maybe I could give them a clue every hour.

Thanks guys

 

[rocketriter]

You know your kids. But I could not have done this with mine. While my daughter would have handled the surprise well at that age, my son would have been overwhelmed and would have demanded that he be allowed to stay in the room for most of the trip. I've heard a lot of variation about what 5-year-olds can handle and it seems a bit unpredictable.

Look at this another way. If you "surprise" them a few days in advance, you can still enjoy the surprise with them. And would you want to deprive them of the delicious anticipation of those few days while they saw the date coming, helped pack and choose fun things to take on the trip, and so forth?

The danger is that the whole concept of surprising them might be more fun for you than for the kids.

 

[MDonley]

Let's see .... a 20 hour drive from MI .... Leaving at 4am ....
They should be asleep in the car when you arrive. The combination of being groggy and surprised could be too much for them. But good luck anyway!

 

[AnnaS]

I surprised my kids also years ago. We had not been to WDW in years and I will tell you it was hard keeping it from them. They were told we were going to spend a few days in Lancaster, PA (we used to do a yearly quick get-away here) so they could start packing (with my help) a few days before. When they went to bed that night I had placed Animal Kingdom Luggage Tags on all our luggagee - we received from our TA at the time. They were shocked and did not believe we were driving to the airport until we got there. If you can hold out, go for it - it's great to surprise them when they are young.

Now my friend who will be joining us this August did not want to tell her son 9 months ago only because she did not want to hear all year when are we going - she just game him (two weeks) my Communion gift/card to him with Disney Dollars and she asked him how he can use them and he replied the Disney Store and of course my friend told him there was another way and now he knows and just keeps bragging about Jet Blue and Disney.

 

[TW1]

We surprised our kids two years ago.

DS was 4 and DD was 8. We told them we were flying to their grandparents.

DD started putting two and two together at the airport when they were annoucing Orlando and saw other kids with Mickey ears getting on the plane. But we kept up our story.

At MCO they were sound asleep and we just all jumped into the taxi to get to BCV.

At BCV DD woke up and felt she was dreaming. DS was totally confused.

In hindsight I wish I had not done it. While we got a big kick out of it, we missed the excitement of planning the trip with them. DS was too young to be concerned, but our 8-year-old felt disoriented the first day, walking around saying "I can't believe I'm here..." And finally, they love going to see grandma, so they were almost a bit disapointed we didn't go there, (but just a bit.)

I like the surprise idea, but I'd break it to them a few days before. Heck they need the chance to get as excited as we are, don't they?

 

[KristiKelly]

I vote for not telling them. Last year our kids new we were going, but didn't know when. They had spent the night @ my mom's, when we picked them up, we just started driving, they asked where we were going & we just said "Oh, I don't know", after about an hour we told them that we were going to the beach. Then I said to DH, "you know, I'd rather go to WDW, what about y'all?"(looking @ the kids), and they said "yeah", then DH said , "Oh all right, Disney World it is!" Then the kids started screaming - Yea, we're going to Disney World!!! After a couple of hours, DS said, "were we already going to Disney World & y'all were just tricking us?" We just shrugged

 

[KristiKelly]

Oh and another thing, if they don't know where there going, they won't ask "are we almost there" as soon as you hit the 1st stop light.