Can we hold the surprise for 6, count 'em 6 months?

[jason4024]

The Who, What, Where, When, and Why...

Who: Myself - Jason, DW - Leslie, DD6 - Kaylee, DS3 - Kory

What: I shouldn't have to tell anyone...

When: 12/7 - 12/13/10

Where: Pop Century

Why: Because we got a PIN!

Leslie and I are going to try and keep this trip a surprise. The kids believe we are not going back until 2012. Our plan is to get Kaylee out of school early the day before and tell her we are going to visit family in another city. This may we might be able to keep it a surprise until we get to the airport in the morning.

Our kids work very hard at everything they try, from soccer, to swimming, to school. We feel they deserve this trip again this year. We have already started getting the "Don't know how you are doing" speeches from my MIL. She had no questions, when we footed the bill for her surprise 70th birthday party, but I digress.

Also on this trip, my DW will turn another year older. She has always wanted to go to the MVMCP, so we are doing it.

AND...

I know, it seems like a lot, but we have both made some huge changes since our last trip. We both worked very hard at losing weight. I had Lap-Band surgery just 2 weeks ago. I am down 16 pounds, post-op. That is on top of the 29, I lost before surgery. Leslie and I changed almost everything about our diets and we want to have a better batch of pictures the next time we go to Disney. So instead of going out to eat, or buying junk food at the grocery store, that money gets put away and used to buy a Disney gift card each month.

UP NEXT - Our Cast of Characters...

 

[jason4024]

So, thanks to the DIS, we found out about FREE DINING being extended. We did a bit of quick researchm, and were able to save some additional money by delaying our trip 3 days. We moved our trip back to start on 12/10 and run through 12/16. We will still be there for DW birthday, the MVMCP, and had no trouble at all re-arranging our ADR's. I am promising another update in the next few days about the cast, and our ADR and EMH plans. Stay tuned...

 

[Magic2000]

I hope you can keep the surprise!!!!!!!! Good luck with your weight loss too! Looks like you're off to a great start!!

I know I'd never be able to keep a surprise that long!!!

Have a great trip - can't wait to read more!!!!!!!!

 

[disneydreamer1970]

Yeah!! I can't wait to hear more. I am suprising my children on December 4th...but the wait will be worth it to see the look on their faces!!

Have fun planning!

Trish

 

[jason4024]

Our Cast of Characters...

Let’s start with me, Jason, DD to 2 Disney phanatics. I am 31 years old, from the coal regions of Pennsylvania. I work for an internet service provider in the technical support department. I am an avid sports fan, which includes the Phillies, Raiders, Sixers, Avalanache and of course Penn state. I am a soccer coach, and a volunteer firefighter. I love how much my kids love Disney. I always enjoyed Disney, but that really took off the first time I took our daughter. Seeing her face light up at her first Magic Kingdom rope drop, DID it. This upcoming trip, will be my 6th time to the World. I was lucky enough to take part in Magic Music Days, which was completely amazing. At that time, I was just a thrill ride seeker and never really took to the whole fascination. Here is my pic with one of the few characters taller than me, that you can find in the parks.

Next up is my loving DW32, Leslie. Leslie is a fan of everything Villians. I think we almost had to pick her up off the ground last year, when she met the Queen. We have been together for 16 years. We recently celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Sounds mushy, but she is my best friend. We have definitely been through many good times, and some bad, but we worked through everything thrown and us, and I believe it made us both stronger. Here is a pic of Leslie from our trip last year.

The third member of the family is DD6, Kaylee. She is all about Princesses, Princeses, and more Princesses. She is also my little soccer nut. She is all about defense. This will be her third trip to Disney, and she has no idea that we are going. It is going to be hard to keep the surprise from her. She is pretty keen about her surroundings most of the time. She is a straight A student, while taking higher education level classes, which gives us no reason to be hesitant to take her out of school for a week. Here is a pic of Kaylee, on her birthday last year, after her BBB appointment.

The final member of our traveling party will be DS3, Kory. This is technically his third trip as well. The first time we went as a family, Leslie was 6.5 months pregnant with Kory. Last September was the first time, he remembers being at the World though, haha. He had an amazing first trip. He is a fan of Cars, Nemo, Phineas and Ferb, and since our trip, BUZZ! He was never interested in Toy Story, until he met Buzz at MK last year. He is not in school yet, so our December trip wont effect him at all. Here is a picture of Kory at Ohana with his buddy Pluto.

UP NEXT - Did we get the ADR's we wanted?

 

[jason4024]

Touring Plans

So, I am able to do a second update today. It is a slow day at work for now, and I remembered to bring in my flash drive, with last years pictures.

We will be flying out of Philadelphia on 12/10/2010. We have an early flight scheduled, and should arrive at MCO by 10AM. Then it will be off to Magic Express and head to our preferred room in the 60's at Pop.

Here is a pic from our last day in 2009. Notice the Phillies shirts, That was not a great idea, when we ended up having a 4 hour layover in Atlanta, due to the weather. Coincidentally, the Phillies were playing the Braves. Even the kids, got heckled in the airport a little bit, but everyone was great.

Once we check in, our plan is tour the resorts and view the Christmas displays. Kaylee loves seeing them on tv, and will definitely enjoy them more up close and personal. Kory will be happy riding his sky-train again. He absolutely loved the monorail.

On this night, we probably end up at DTD, and dinner will be there somewhere. We are going to play this day by ear , because of the possibility of bad weather in Philly in December.

Day 2 - 12/11/10 - DW's Birthday
On day 2, we will be heading to Hollywood Studios. I wanted to let this up to Leslie, because it is her birthday. Her opinion is, wherever has EMH. This is one reason I LOVE her so much. She wants to get the most park time, as we can. DHS has EMH on this day, from 8-9AM. So we are going to hit DHS, with an afternoon break to hit Chef Mickeys for Leslie's birthday. That was her only request for this day. After dinner, we will hopefully get back to DHS for Fantasmic, but I am unable to find a schedule for that yet. Anyone know where to find it?

Day 3 - 12/12/10
We have an ADR for the Crystal Palace at 8:10, nearly an HOUR before the park opens, which is going to be awesome! I will be in line at Space Mtn., first thing at 9, regarless if my kids are done eating or not. I have been on SM , since I was in high school, and will hopefully be small enough to ride it again. Leslie is well aware of this, and is willing to sit with the kids at Crystal Palace. None of the other parks, have EMH this day, so we will be in MK, from open to close.

Day 4 - 12/13/10
Animal Kingdon has early EMH from 8-9am, so guess where we are headed. We have a ADR at Tusker House at 8:20. My plan is to send Leslie and Kaylee in that direction, and run with Kory to hit EE. He takes after dad and is a thrill ride junkie. Hopefully we will grab FP for later in the day also.

Day 5 - 12/14/10
Today is going to our second Magic Kingdom day. We have a very early ADR at Cape May Cafe, 7:35am to be exact. This is probably the only one we are changing, because we are going to have a late night, due to the MVMCP, this night. This will be our first special party to attend and Leslie can not wait. She wanted to do MNSSHP last year, but it wasnt in the plans.

Day 6 - 12/15/10
Our last full day is going to be spent at Epcot. Epcot has EMH at night from 9:30-12:30, and we have a late flight the following day, so why not right? We are planning to hit Akershus for dinner at 5:45pm. One of our must-do's for this trip is going to the Candlelight Processional. Hopefully we will get to see it on this night. We normally do Epcot first, but for some reason, we decided to throw things around this trip. I am sure, that is because we wanted to take advantage of EMH for the first time.

Day 7 - Departure Day
We will be flying out of MCO, after 5PM, so we can spend part of this day shopping DTD, enjoying the hopefully warm weather, and OHANA! We absolutely loved this breakfast the last time we ate there. By far, our favorite on property. We have a 9:50 ADR.

I cant believe I actually got through another chapter. Hopefully everyone is enjopying reading and looking back at some previous pictures. Feel free to comment with ideas or suggestions.

 

[TandLMommy28]

You can keep it a surprise! My parents managed to keep our first--and only--family trip a surprise until we were LEAVING FOR THE AIRPORT. And we were much older than your kids. I was 14, my sister was 10 and my brother was 8. We had no clue at all, they were very very sneaky. There's some info about it in my PTR in my signature but if you want any info on the ways they kept us in the dark, I'd be glad to share!

 

[jason4024]

We hit our 100 day mark. Neither Kaylee nor Kory have any idea about the trip yet. We are having their birthday party and my wife is tossing around the idea of putting Mickey holding a "See Ya' Real Soon" sign, but I am trying to talk her out of it. We did all this work to keep it for this long, I dont want to ruin in yet. Anyone have any opinions?

 

[jason4024]

So we began pricing our airfare this morning, and have found that if we fly on Thursday instead of Friday, we can save over $250. So guess what, we added a day and will be going to Orlando on 12/9/10. I just got off the phone with WDW, and I was able to add a room-only day with my pin code for $80. So with that jump and an extra day on our parks tickets, we still saved $150. I am sure that money will be put to good use on food/souvies when we get there a day earlier.

The only sad part is that we now have to change our surprise plans. We were going to bring the kids home early from school on Thursday, but we now fly out in the middle of the day. It will take a little re-thinking but I am sure we will figure it out.

On a more personal note, Kory is going this Friday for about 3.5 hours of surgery. He has a flouride deficiency and they need to do some serious dental work. Please keep my little guy in your thoughts this week, and just imagine how good it will feel for him to smile for Mickey in just a couple weeks. Thanks!

 

[jason4024]

THE DAY HAS ARRIVED!!!! We have paid off our trip, airfare and made all our to/from airport travel arrangements. Just a few weeks ago, this day felt like it was never going to get here.

I cant believe that it is still a surprise for Kaylee and Kory. We only have 43 days left. I really hope we can make it.

Back to my previous post, Kory did AMAZING with his surgery. He was under sedationf or nearly four hours. He had major dental work done, and it pain free at this point. I am very proud of my little man for being so strong. This is just one more reason for our trip.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Working on a surprise here too. I think by the time we go it will have been 6 months. I was thinking about fall 2011, but started thinking about 2010 instead at the beginning of summer. Found out the dates at the end of August when dates for fall break were announced.

If you get weak about keeping the secret, check out the videos of youtube of parents revealing surprise trips. I laughed and cried and laughed until I cried.

I have a feeling my daughter might be suspicious because of all the times she comes in my room at night after I put her to bed and I'm like "Okay, lay down over there, but turn the other way". She knows I plan to take her someday though. Thinks we're going in 2012 because I told her we needed her brother to be bigger. She always thinks that means 2 years-old.

The toughest part for me has been planning around her being asleep or out of the house. Of course being experienced at this, you know you have to be careful not to leave the mail laying around. It used to be my daughter's job to get it out of the box. Then one day she went to retrieve it and said it was too much for her to carry. Someone was looking out for me that day. When I pulled the mail out, our first piece of Mickey Mail was in there…big envelope with Mickey helping Minnie out of the monorail on the front.

This is our first trip so there's a lot to buy. Thanks heavens for online shopping. Of course that also means the "what's this?" when the packages come. Oddly enough my normally extremely nosy child has taken the "just something I ordered" every time. And when the box came from the Disney store, I had also ordered her a Tiana dress for her costume this month, so that is all she thought was in it.

This has been a lot of fun and I am so looking forward to the big moment. I'm waiting until the day of travel. Hooray for adding a day. I added a day on the beginning too, but only because we had a 7:40am flight and the thought of getting my daughter up at 4:30 had me . Great excuse to add a day I think. Now we have a 1:40pm flight on Sunday, 11/21 which will allow us to proceed with our normal Sunday morning routine until breakfast is over, at which point instead of telling her to get dressed for church, I'll reveal what we are really doing that day.

Have fun. Glad the surgery went well.

 

[jason4024]

dupliacte post - remove

 

[jason4024]

Yesterday, we sent the letter to DD7's school. Her teacher was a classmate of DW, so she already knew about our trip. We did tell her at the meet the teachers earlier this year. She is excited to be involved with our secret. She is going to gte the pack of work together before we go. We are also hoping she lets Kaylee do a similar project to last year. They wanted her to try and meet someone from every state in the US. She got 43, and 17 different countries(thanks in large part to Epcot).

Our DS is in pre-school and day care. They are also aware of our trip. They have been putting in some Disney activities, to try and build him up without him really knowing it.

 

[jason4024]

Our MYW & ME packet has arrived. And both on the same day.

Just a little bit of bad news though, DD7's school also responded to the request. They denied one day of the trip initially. We had to call the school and work it out further with them. All seems to be resolved now, and the trip is a go (like I was gonna change things anyway, haha!!!

 

[Kensgirl519]

We did the same type of thing.... We ended up hiding "clues" around the house and when our kids woke up in the morning we had clues that led them upstairs, downstairs, to brush their teeth, to get dressed, to eat their breakfast, etc..... very simple clues as we had a 9, 7 and 3 year old. On the back of the clues we had "picture" hints or stickers with the final clue leading them to our mini van in the garage that had our luggage in the back. They couldn't believe it..... We also shipped a package down to Pop Century in advance with snacks, autograph books, cameras, treats and went to teh disney store and bought them some t-shirts and stuffed disney character. After checkin, my hubby took the kids to the shop to walk around while i arranged our room with the "surprises" for them..... it really worked out great and we saved a TON of money on the little snacks they would have wanted to buy down there.....

Good luck and congrats on the weight loss! It is so awesome and I know how hard it is myself.... i'm trying to lose about 60 pounds and train for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon....

 

[jason4024]

Good luck and congrats on the weight loss! It is so awesome and I know how hard it is myself.... i'm trying to lose about 60 pounds and train for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon....

Thanks for the kind words. Good luck on your Princess half. I would love to doa half at some point, but that certainly is a few years off...

 

[jason4024]

We held the surprise as long as we could. We became very leary the last few weeks of someone blowing the surprise before we could tell the kids. My daughter is spending a few days over Thanksgiving with some family, and they all know about it. Also my MIL is not very good at keeping her mouth shut about stuff like this.

So here is how we did it. We decided we needed to get a jump on our decorations for the holidays. Saturday night after dinner we decided to put up our tree. My wife had planted the travel docs in the bottom of the ornaments box, earlier in the day. We got the tree up and lit, then Kaylee and Kory began putting the ornaments on the tree. While they did see the paperwork in the box, it did take some coaxing for them to open them, and realize what they were. My daughter realized it and has been talking about it non-stop. My son wasn't feeling well, so it didnt really hit him until Sunday morning. They were very excited and want to know where we are eating, what we are doing, and who we are going to meet. It was definitely worth it.

Here is a link to the video of the reveal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk6j7dZzDJE

BTW, yesterday somebody that didnt know we did the reveal, asked my DD when we were going to Disney. So we revealed it at just the right time.

 

[afwdwfan]

Looks like it will be a fun trip and I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday. I've always wanted to go see the Christmas decorations, but that has yet to happen. I'm glad that you got to let them in on the secret before they found out elsewhere. I'm sure they'll be bouncing off the walls with excitement for the next couple of weeks now.

 

[Sonnyeclipse]

Nice job on the surprise. I wish I had done that with my kids their first time.

 

[dvczerfs]

nice vid jason. i could never keep my mouth closed that long about going to wdw.