Best tips for sectetly prepping a kid to go for the first time?

[agamble]

When we went the first time it was a surprise. My kids stamped their feet and whined because they wanted to go back to the hotel and swim.

Kids are so annoying! LOL

 

[D1sneyfam1ly]

When I was younger my parents were able to get us all the way to the hotel before we realized that we were going to Disneyland. We had been told we were going on another sightseeing type vacation so we thought we were on our way to go hiking and swimming at the hotel. Our whole family still talk about my younger sister looking out the car window and saying "Hey! That's the Matterhorn!" I know it was fun for my parents and we absolutely loved it to.

Since then I have surprised my own kids on a one trip and it was a blast for them and us. We surprised them minutes before getting in the car and driving there. This time, the 10 hour drive was actually exciting for them and my 5 year old just kept saying "I can't believe it!" We prepared them by doing a lot of the things mentioned in the posts above. Watching movies, rides/parades on you tube or videos of a past trip.

My brother recently surprised our parents by secretly taking his own family to surprise them on a trip to Disneyland. They surprised each child by telling them one at a time a few days before and then their youngest got to sneak up on the grandparents while they were sitting down for lunch in California Adventure. They have it on video and it is so fun. The kids loved seeing the confused and surprised looks on their grandparents faces and my parents talk about how fun it was to be the ones that were surprised instead of planning the surprise.

SURPRISES are the best!

 

[pinkprincess30]

Kids are so annoying! LOL

Aren't they though??? LOL!!!

 

[agamble]

My brother recently surprised our parents by secretly taking his own family to surprise them on a trip to Disneyland. They surprised each child by telling them one at a time a few days before and then their youngest got to sneak up on the grandparents while they were sitting down for lunch in California Adventure. They have it on video and it is so fun. The kids loved seeing the confused and surprised looks on their grandparents faces and my parents talk about how fun it was to be the ones that were surprised instead of planning the surprise.

This is amazing.

 

[ehrawn]

Watch rides on YouTube that he can and will be going on!! Mainly things like Splash Mountain. You don't have to tell him you're going soon, just watch some ride throughs with him and see what he thinks of them.

We did this. We watched these videos on our TV in our living room. I sat the kids in my lap and we would pretend to ride the attractions. The kids loved the play: the bouncing, the shaking back and forth. My DD (3 at the time) was so excited to ride Splash for real that she did it three times in a row before she realized she was supposed to be scared of the drop.

 

[javeyloveschelsi]

We are surprising the kids next month also! Well, I should just say the girls (7, turning 8 on the trip and 4) as the baby (10 months) won't know what's going on . They know we are going to Arizona to visit friends (more so adopted in family ). We will go to AZ for 2 1/2 days and hang by the pool and go to the zoo before getting them all up and in the car at 4 a.m. the day we go. We are telling them we are going to go get some donuts at an awesome donut shop (which we will), but on the way, give our oldest her birthday present full of Disney goodies and tell them then. I am not concerned about any upset kids as the girls play vacation all the time and pretend they are going to DL and the beach. I'm the only one who has ever been to DL (and I was 4 or 5), so it's very exciting. In fact, our oldest made a complete business plan for her summer to find a way to make money in hopes of us going to DL next year since we always tell her we will go when we can afford it. She even asked if she needed to go talk to our neighbor (town mayor) about getting permits to start up a summer time lemonade/pet washing business lol...however, in her business plan, I used that as an opportunity for her to "research" DL and the things she would want to see and do to determine how much money she needs to save and make, but it secretly let me know what are her and her sister's top priorities, which was awesome. It gave her an educational and life lesson, plus helped me a ton planning for the trip!

 

[707MickeyGirl]

I expect my older two will pick up on the fact that things are different once they start seeing Palm Trees instead of Evergreens.

momtohms - the pilot will probably let the cat out of the bag for you... every flight I've taken they talk over the loudspeaker about the duration of the flight, etc. and usually mention the destination.

 

[momtohms]

momtohms - the pilot will probably let the cat out of the bag for you... every flight I've taken they talk over the loudspeaker about the duration of the flight, etc. and usually mention the destination.

Oh I know, we fly with our kids often They're all pretty young and easy to distract though. We fill their backpacks with new activities and their favorite snacks and they can't open them until we get in our seats so they are usually totally engrossed in digging through all the surprises during the announcements, and then as soon as we can they have headphones on and a movie playing. If they happen to hear and figure it out, we're totally fine with it though. My husband's one trip request was to see how far we could get them before they realized where we were going. Haha!

 

[Donathius]

My kids are fairly young (DD2 and DS4). My four-year-old is annoying sharp though. We have to keep referring to Anaheim or "The D place" and so far he hasn't picked up on what those are. We're driving from Northern Utah and it's a decent distance (about 8-9 hours). Thankfully my wife's parents live in St George in southern Utah and we go visit them occasionally as it's only a 3-4 hour drive. My son will turn 5 at the end of October and my wife's birthday is a week later. We're going to go to grandma's house for Halloween and then we're going to tell the kids we're going to visit my parents in California (they live near San Francisco but they will be meeting us at the hotel so it's not actually a lie). We're going to leave St George at such a time that the kids will be asleep when we get to Anaheim - we're staying at the Best Western Park Place right at the crosswalk on Harbor. They should be dead asleep. We're going to wake up our then 5-year-old by telling him that we're going to Disneyland that day. I've seen so many friends post videos telling their kids while they're driving that they're going to DL but it's still a 10 hour drive and they won't actually go until tomorrow. I'd rather it be a total "day of" surprise.

That being said my son knows we're going eventually, but he thinks it won't be for another 2 years. We talk about it a lot, and I've shown him ride videos and pictures. I've mostly been prepping him for the big roller coasters as he is now tall enough to go on everything except Indiana Jones, California Screamin', and solo on Autopia. He also wanted to start earning money to "help" pay for the trip so we got him a piggy bank and he does odd jobs around the house to earn money to put in the bank. So the trip itself isn't a secret, but he should have no clue when we're actually on our way there.

 

[tarheelalum]

If you don't want to let the kids know you are going to DL, just tell them you are going to visit their Uncle Walt who lives in California.

 

[pikaboo27]

When I was a kid, my parents and I were driving home from San Diego (we live in Norcal) and I saw the signs for Disneyland and started begging to go and my parents said categorically that we were not going to Disneyland. Nope, no way. We are just getting off at Disneyland Drive to get gas. Well, they had actually booked a couple nights at the Embassy Suites and we went to Disneyland.

Isn't youtube great? My 3 year old (already a disneyland veteran) LOVES to watch the ride videos. He's just at 40 inches, so we have been watching Big Thunder, Splash Mountain and RSR to prep for our trip in August.

 

[justgot2havefun]

Start taking him for long walks in the shoes he'll wear while at the park. So serious about this. You all need to get those shoes worked in and feet ready for all that walking!

This is the most important advise. In a Disney Theme Park, the average guest walks 8 miles per day. Many kids are not used to this, and so the practice will help.
Our family actually pretends we are walking to our favorite attractions, and around the Parks as we go (i.e let's walk to the gate--show the attendant your tickets, Okay now we're on Main Street, smell the candy?, Next we go to Tomorrowland, etc.) It makes the walk go by faster and gets the kids excited to see everything again.