Anyone else surprising the kids???

[Lokkabear]

DH and I planned on suprising the kids this Christmas with our Jan 22/11 Magic cruise to the Western Caribbean but.... we were both going crazy! It lasted all of 6 weeks though! I think that is the longest I have ever kept my excitement in check! We suprised them the day they got their report cards and had Mickey call each of them. DD was more excited that Mickey called her till she realized what it all meant..lol and she is 11!!! DS picked up on it right away and did so many chores that day I may have to get Mickey to call again! lol. At any rate, they are now helping me with all the planning, holding garage sales to gather spending money for their bank accounts, and keeping chores done up so the allowances keep rolling...lol. This is our very first family vacation out of Canada and I have always wanted to go on a cruise. I am not sure who is more excited though, us or the kids...lol. I hope you have better luck keeping secrets than I do!

 

[grace&philipsmom]

We are planning a trip to WDW this fall for my DS's 4th birthday and MNSSHP. DD7 has been asking to go on a disney cruise for over 2 years. We decided to add a 3 day on the Wonder at the end of our WDW vacation as a surprise. We are going to try to keep it a secret. Hopefully when she thinks we are driving to the airport to go home, we will drive to the port, and she won't know until she sees the ship. I can't wait to see the look on her face!

 

[jdybnsn]

After doing a 7 night Eastern this February, my kids are none the wiser that the "ferry" we are catching from Dover, to Spain, is actually the Disney Magic

Kinda naughty, as my kids were almost in tears leaving our servers for the last time...but they were in on it, and knew that we had requested them for our July cruise.

The first cruise we ever did was also a surprise ...told them we were going down to the coast for a few days from Orlando....even manage to persuade them as we got to port that we should go check out the DCL museum...so the first thing they knew was when I handed DS the "welcome aboard" card to read out !

 

[peachygreen]

I'm planning to surprise DD#1 for Christmas. I'm going to wrap up a countdown calendar and some custom disney clothes for her for a Christmas present and I've scheduled a phone call from Mickey on Christmas morning to tell her about the cruise. She keeps asking when we'll go back to see Mickey and I keep telling her not until her baby sister is 2-1/2 or so but I could wait so this will be a great surprise for her. Now to see if I can keep it a secret until Christmas. I might go crazy between now and then.

 

[BethC1952]

We're surprising our 10 year old granddaughter with a cruise on the 2/6/11 Dream. Our original plan was not to tell her until the day of the cruise, since the whole family would be at WDW the week before.

HOWEVER, our DIL had a little surprise of her own today...they won't be going to Disney World this year. Instead, they will be eagerly awaiting child #4! All of us (including DIL and DS!!) were shocked by that news.

So, our new plan of action is to tell DGD at Christmas time that SHE will get her vacation after all, and that it will include a cruise. She should go absolutely crazy. Her brother and sister will only be two years old, so we're not taking them this time.

We booked this cruise while on board Magic last February, and have kept it from her this far, so I think we can manage the rest of the time, especially with this latest news!

Beth

 

[Curtis McCrea]

We surprised our two daughters with a Spring Break trip on the Wonder last year. I will have to find the video to post it. We didn't tell them until they saw the ship from the car. I did find one video that I thought was hilarious and sad at the same time. The mom sounds so excited and the kids....not so much.


Here is our video, please let me know if it doesn't work.

I cannot believe those kids! How ungrateful.

Curtis

 

[mom2OandE]

We are doing our first cruise in November. DH and I were planning to decorate our tree early and then when the kids woke up have them come down to a lit tree filled with giant boxes (their luggage with their stuff) and some neat decorations explaining what was happening. That plan lasted all of a week and I couldn't hold it in any longer. I told them and we are all excited now. We will proably do a 100 days count down thing.

 

[maria-fan-22]

As a kid I can say..... if you even hint to your kid and they are optimistic like me... never keep it form them if they are guessing. Every cruise my dad hints when we are like 6 mos out and it just killed me until he finally told me. He like to surprise others buts hates surprises himself. It just kills me every cruise trying to guess if we are taking another cruise or not!

 

[SILLYANDI]

As a kid I can say..... if you even hint to your kid and they are optimistic like me... never keep it form them if they are guessing. Every cruise my dad hints when we are like 6 mos out and it just killed me until he finally told me. He like to surprise others buts hates surprises himself. It just kills me every cruise trying to guess if we are taking another cruise or not!

But that is why we have kids...to torture them! When you have kids of your own you will be even better at torturing them because you've been through it!

Really it is such a great feeling to see your kids so happy that it gives us a little bit of happiness everyday thinking of the smiles on your faces so just bear with it, your Dad loves you and that is why he is surprising you!

 

[txsoccermom]

WOW! You all have some great stories/ideas.....I'm really going to try for at least Christmas If I make it till then, maybe Valentine's Day! I could even try for the day before/of the cruise, b/c I think we will drive (1200 miles, ugh!) instead of fly b/c it's cheaper, but don't know yet. Only thing I don't want to deal with is the depression on the way home from the kids (and me!)

The only thing that will really spoil it is if Mickey Mail comes and I don't know about it! Does DCL send a lot of that ahead of time? I know WDW did, everytime I would make a payment.

I looked at a bunch of videos on YouTube and was thinking of trying the Mastercard Priceless thing and having stuff hidden in a treasure chest for them! Would love to do the countdown chain again with them, have them help me pick out/pkg up goodie bags for the FEs, and get excited about it by watching the planning video, but then again, how high on a pedestal would I be placed for surprising them the morning of

Oh well, let's make this a support group for those who are holding out

Good luck to all!

 

[ibouncetoo]

We surprised our two daughters with a Spring Break trip on the Wonder last year. I will have to find the video to post it. We didn't tell them until they saw the ship from the car. I did find one video that I thought was hilarious and sad at the same time. The mom sounds so excited and the kids....not so much.

Gotta make sure your 'cover story' doesn't have more appeal that the surprise! Guess these kids really wanted to go "to Dick's house".

 

[cruisindisney]

I'm trying to hold out until Christmas. It's hard because I've already started working on my FE gifts. There have been questions, but since I love everything Disney, they just think it's their crazy mom making more Disney stuff.

For our first cruise we didn't tell the kids until one week before we left. I put together a letter from Mickey (idea from the boards) telling them they were going on the cruise. We had to tell them so they could wrap up their school year a week early. Their teachers had known for months.

I want to put together a countdown calendar for them and wrap it. Plus do some gift cards they can use at Disneyland before the cruise.

 

[wrconrad]

Our last two trips ('07 and '09) we surprised our children. They didn't know until we drive under the "Welcome to Disney World" sign. '07 we drove form Delaware but our boys were 8 and 10.

In '09 we took the auto train. I had made up a week long bogus itinerary of day trips once we got off the auto train. The kids were intently watching the their DVDs during the drive from the autor train to Disney. We had to tell them to look at where we were once we got in sight of the welcome to Disney sign.

We are still working on how we can pull off keeping the kids in the dark for our next trip.

I guess a lot of people think surprising kids takes something away from the experience for them, but I think it adds to the fun and magic.

 

[DisneyMagicMommy]

We plan on surprising our kids...but I don't know how yet.

We surprised them last year the morning we left for WDW. They had been asking to go back...so we planned it and kept it a secret. The morning we left we got them up at 4:30...got them ready and had them watch a DVD I had made showing pics of their favorite rides, shows, etc. With the background music of When you wish upon a star. At the end of the DVD text came up on it telling them to Make a Wish (of course after seeing all that Disney stuff they wished to go to WDW)....Then it popped up on the screen that their wish had come true!!! They were soooo excited and jumping all over the place : It definetly brought tears to my eyes

 

[tjbaggott]

We plan on surprising our kids...but I don't know how yet.

We surprised them last year the morning we left for WDW. They had been asking to go back...so we planned it and kept it a secret. The morning we left we got them up at 4:30...got them ready and had them watch a DVD I had made showing pics of their favorite rides, shows, etc. With the background music of When you wish upon a star. At the end of the DVD text came up on it telling them to Make a Wish (of course after seeing all that Disney stuff they wished to go to WDW)....Then it popped up on the screen that their wish had come true!!! They were soooo excited and jumping all over the place : It definetly brought tears to my eyes

I think I saw that posted on Youtube, that truly was an awesome way to surprise your kids. My kids wouldn't be that happy that early in the morning!

 

[DisneyMagicMommy]

I think I saw that posted on Youtube, that truly was an awesome way to surprise your kids. My kids wouldn't be that happy that early in the morning!

Ha...actually, I never posted it to youtube. I meant to but never did. But my idea did come from a video I saw on youtube...maybe the same one

 

[tjbaggott]

This is THE PLAN for our boys for our Halloween Cruise:

First off, we are leaving the Sunday before our Cruise, Which will set sail the following Saturday. We are also driving from Canada to Florida and will be taking my mom with us as far as New Jersey to visit with her sister while we go on our Vacation. Our boys will be by this fall, 13 and 7yrs old.

So, the plan is: The boys will get up Sunday Morning and be told there is something Strange in the mailbox that has bold writing on the front with their Names on it and a note that says NOT TO BE OPENED BY PARENTS. Below the mailbox will be two brightly colored shovels. The envelope will contain two pirate bandanas and a special Note telling the boys they are about to embark on a REAL Treasure Hunt, and that once they put on the pirate paraphernailia, then they can open the smaller envelope to find a genuine pirate treasure map. They will also be told to get their metal detector. Once they are ready, they will decipher the map which will lead them to the park at the end of our street. Somewhere in the park they will find by use of the metal detector, a metal tin buried in the sand. Inside the tin will be this Note that I've created:

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It might be worded a bit differently than it currently is, but otherwise, the message is the same, that they are leaving NOW. We'll have a friend video tap the entire surprise and reveal. The van will already have been packed and ready to role. I'm certain the boys will be totally THRILLED and beyond with this surprise. They think they are going in a year and a half from now but often ask if we can't go sooner.

 

[su_kraft]

Yes, I am 8 mos away from sailing and trying to keep this a surprise from the rest of the family (DH, DD and DS)! I'm going bonkers though, trying to do it My 1st goal is to make it to Christmas...might tell them then. If I feel that I can hold out longer, then I'll shoot for Valentine's Day! Don't know if I could go longer than that b/c I'm so excited about it I'm ready to pop I figure that way, I won't have to hear the whining too long about "Are we leaving yet?" and then they can also help me with some of the planning, read up on Hidden Mickey's on the cruise ships, do a countdown calendar, etc.

Wish me luck! Would love to hear stories of how some of you are planning on surprising the kids (or already did).

Thanks in advance

We surprised our kids with a 7 night cruise last September. We kept it a surprise for 9 plus months! It was HARD - and we almost blew it a couple of times, but we did it! Oh - and every time I ad to call DCL I had to make the call from the bathroom or bedroom closet - it was so funny - they would ask if I could speak up and I would ask them to read the comment on the reservation - they would say "Oh a surprise for the kids..."

What we did was tell the kids that we were heading to see the grandparents in lady Lake, FL. so, school let oiut for fall break and away we went. We arrived in Lady Lake late that night and checked into the hotel. The kids were upset that the room was so small so we told them we would fingure it out tomorrow and we left the luggage in the car so we didn't have to haul it to the right room.

We got up in the morning and had breakfast with the grandparents and then told the kids that there was a shuttle launch that morning - and that we were going. Piled back in the car and made the 90 minute or so drive.

Between the movie and the iPod, the kids were into whatever. We headed over the bridge and could see the ship - we were SO excited. Kids were still oblivious! Got to the port - held up a sign "SHHH we are surprising the kids" and they waved us through. stuck sign and paperwork out at the next CM sho shoved it back and waved us on. Kids still oblivious!!! Got to unloading the luggage, and the kids finally looked up... 12 year old DS says "Mom, you got some splaining to do" and my 6 year old DD said 'are we getting on the big boat aain mom?"

when the explanation was we NOT going back to the little hotel room, but getting on the Magic both kids were over joyed!! Warning - if you have a kid that doesn't like people knowing that you kept vacation planning from them - don't brag! We did and ours was a bit miffed - although he got over it pretty fast!!

Good luck!!!

 

[nettii]

We are sailing in feb so my plan "WAS" to get Disney stockings hang them in the basment. Have our regular Christmas morning and when they filter down to play they would see stockings packed with stuff. Yell for us and we would open up our Disney stockings with travel stuff, Googles, sun screen, bathing suit ect ect ect. and a note about the cruise.

The perfect plan was foiled by my 9 yr old DS. He never gets the mail for me, I mean NEVER! I was waiting for a check and I asked him to go grab the mail while I sat on the front porch chatting with my Mom. We heard screaming in the house jumping, yelling. Ya you guessed they sent me a nice confirmation with a beautiful port hole picture welcoming us for our cruise! UGG he opened it and you know the rest.

Secret no more DONT LET THE KIDS GET THE MAIL!

 

[Blanche_Neige]

We are sailing in feb so my plan "WAS" to get Disney stockings hang them in the basment. Have our regular Christmas morning and when they filter down to play they would see stockings packed with stuff. Yell for us and we would open up our Disney stockings with travel stuff, Googles, sun screen, bathing suit ect ect ect. and a note about the cruise.

The perfect plan was foiled by my 9 yr old DS. He never gets the mail for me, I mean NEVER! I was waiting for a check and I asked him to go grab the mail while I sat on the front porch chatting with my Mom. We heard screaming in the house jumping, yelling. Ya you guessed they sent me a nice confirmation with a beautiful port hole picture welcoming us for our cruise! UGG he opened it and you know the rest.

Secret no more DONT LET THE KIDS GET THE MAIL!

I was planning the same thing for nest March. DS did get the mail and same the same one, but I quickly said something along the lines that it was a advertisment and since we requested the DVD Disney keeps sending us promotion, invitation to go on a cruise. It worked!!

Then we found out hubby could take his vacation in March
But that is ok be cause we are going in 74 days instead

We are planing on surprising them as well