Countdown or Surprise?

[graysmommy]

Have seen lots of great ideas for both doing a countdown to Disney with your kids, and doing a big surprise the day of...

What has been your favorite experience and why? How old are/were your kids when you did the countdown or surprise?

Thanks in advance!

 

[LadyMcDow]

My daughter is 6 and we're planning on a June Disney trip. I got her a princess calendar and wrote the #s on each day counting down. I have her mark each day off and say the number...it's a fun way for her to learn her numbers, especially the big ones as we are in the 100s at the moment!

 

[Jeepin Dad]

We have two boys, 7 & 9, and decided to go the countdown route. We felt it would draw out the excitement. They had the initial excitement of when we told them we booked last August plus they have had the excitement of looking at the attractions at the parks and helping plan what they really want to do. They loved watching the Edna E Mode we got in the mail about how to use the FP+. It has been fun counting down to milestone days like 150, 100, and 50. Now we are at 44 days they are looking forward to getting our magic bands in a couple of weeks.

 

[wiigirl]

My daughter is 6 and we're planning on a June Disney trip. I got her a princess calendar and wrote the #s on each day counting down. I have her mark each day off and say the number...it's a fun way for her to learn her numbers, especially the big ones as we are in the 100s at the moment!

Cute!

 

[M23]

We've done both. Surprise was fun (they were 5 and 6) but they were so shocked and didn't believe us that it took a while for it to actually sink in that we were serious. The next time we did a countdown (1,6,7)and it was even better because they helped plan and put a sticker on each day of the calendar until they got to the mickey sticker. We are currently doing another countdown. Someday we may do another surprise but I love how involved they get in the planning and the countdown excitement.

 

[graysmommy]

Thanks everyone!

We have gone twice with kids. Once, just for the day, with ODS when he was 4, then once when he was 5 and baby was 3 months. Both times ODS knew he was going.

We don't know yet if we can go for sure this year, but are hoping for the fall - and hoping for FD!!

 

[stellao]

A little of both I guess. We haven't told them we are going, just been showing them videos of some shows and rides "for the heck of it". I think we will tell them about 2 weeks before we go so that they will get a better idea of what to expect (first trip to Disney for them. 6 and 3 years old) and they wont have to wait FOREVER til we leave. They will still be surprised and be able to countdown for a little bit. Best of both worlds!

 

[littlezar]

First trip - 8, 6 & 2 - surprise trip, told them when they got home from school that we were leaving within the hour. Super excited about going and didn't care that they didn't know until that moment. Planned while DH was deployed and wanted to be sure we were going before telling the kids. Went in October and found out about 45 days prior to the trip that he'd definitely be able to go.

Second trip - Found out about the military discount on 1/5, booked 1/6, arrived in Disney on 1/24! With less than 3 weeks, DH wanted to keep it a secret. Boys were 13, 11, 7 and 2 1/2.

Third trip - Started planning in January for August. DH went to Haiti for earthquake relief and came home in April with the news he was deploying again in July. Moved the trip up to June. Boys knew about the trip and asked why we didn't surprise them, LOL. Boys were 15, almost 13, almost 9 and 4.

Fourth trip - They all knew about the trip. The youngest likes to plan and talk about rides, pin trading, food, etc. The older 3 are laid back and go with the flow and just agreed with whatever I suggested. Boys were 17, 15, 11 and 6.

I loved surprising them when they were younger and I'd love to surprise the youngest one of these days. Just recently I was going through pics and videos on my computer and we were laughing at my now 16yr old on the video when we surprised them on the 2nd trip. He said he sounded like Mickey Mouse! (His voice hadn't changed yet!)

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Never surprised for a trip to the parks. As a single Dad, I wanted to ensure that my daughter could appropriately answer questions posed by any US customs official.

But my next trip is a cruise out of Vancouver. We don't have to pre-clear customs, so I might just tell her when she sees the ship.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

deleted duplicate

 

[MandiC]

We did the countdown...surprised them at Christmas and we left for our trip 1/31. Our girls are 7 and 9 and I liked asking for input on which rides were musts for them when I was planning out our days. Next time I think we will tell them even earlier so I can get input on which meals are musts for them and which parks they want to visit on what days.

 

[SEA333]

1st time - kind of both. We started giving them clues about 3 weeks ahead of time as to the places we would be driving through and had them plot the points on a map (we drove from Chicago to Orlando). Once it was obvious we were heading to Florida, we gave one picture clue a day that revealed the fun things we were going to be doing while we were there: Hilton resort, Gatorland Zip-lining, IFly Indoor Skydiving, Disney Quest/DTD, Magic Kingdom, Cocoa Beach/Space Center, Detroit Tigers Spring Training baseball game). It was SOOOO much fun planning the clues and having them guess each location so they could add another dot/line to the wall map. I still have the map as a souvenier of the trip, and we hadn't even left the house yet!! LOL

They were 6th grade (11 1/2), 2nd (7 1/2), and Kindergarten (just turned 6) for that trip. We went in March of 2012.

The 2nd time was equally as awesome, and maybe even more. It was this past November, so they were 8th, 4th, and 2nd grade (13, 9, and 7). We surprised them the morning we left - our flight time/leaving for the airport time coincided almost perfectly with our normal schoolday routine, so we packed in secret, and woke them up like normal and had them get ready. We arranged for a limo to take us to the airport as part of the surprise, so about 10 minutes before it was due to arrive, we sat them down, said that we have something to tell them, and gave them each a small goody bag. On one side I wrote with Sharpie:

"Who's got it"
"Better than us?"
"NOBODY!!!!"
and on the other side:

"We Are"
"Going to"
"Disneyworld!!!!"

Here were the reactions:

(DS13): "I knew it."
DD9: "Cool!"
DS7: "look! A Crunch Bar!"
DH: "Open your bags!"

Haha....they still didn't get it. I was videotaping, and saw DS13 reading his boarding pass and starting to realize that we were going to be going That Morning, so I told him to share the news with his siblings:

DS13: "Hey guys, we are departing at 9:53am!"
DD9: "You mean we are going today??!!"
DS7: "Where? Where are we going?" (LOL)

THEN they all got it LOL, and all started screaming and yelling and jumped up and hugged DH telling him thank you (Ummmm, *I* planned this whole thing!!! LOL), then they came over to me and did the same.

I told them that they had 10 minutes before we had to leave, all of their stuff was already packed, and they had 10 minutes to find ONE thing that they could fit into their carryon bag to bring before we left.

DH and I watched for the limo to arrive (we kept the curtains closed), and once it did, we videotaped again as we told them the car was out front already and it was time to go. They opened up the curtains to see the car and there was a huge white limo waiting. They freaked out LOL. We have it on video:

DS7: "A LIMO!!!! You got us a LIMO??!!! How did you guys afford that???!!!"

Totally and perfectly the reaction that every parent hopes to catch on video when doing one of these kinds of surprises!

The entire trip to the airport was so fun and exciting...the kids were so happy, and we had so many stories to tell of near slips, how even their teachers knew about the surprise, how many clues we gave that they totally missed or didn't pick up on, etc. They all agreed that they would LOVE for us to surprise them again!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My DS is a very laid back kid and doesn't get overly excited about much of anything. Everything is just "yeah ok that's nice." DD is the complete opposite.

1st trip DS was 3 and didn't care either way. We went down and stayed with family and just went to MK and Epcot a few days.

2nd trip DS was 8 and DD was 2. He knew about it and was happy. DD didn't know much.

3rd trip DS was 9 and DD was 3. DS was again just ok we are going to DisneyWorld but I don't remember him being overly happy until we got there and went into the MK. DD knew about princesses and was very excited. I showed her youtube videos and we watched tons of princess movies.

4th trip DS was 11 and DD was 5. I woke them up at 4 am and surprised them. They jumped, screamed, yelled, hugged eachother, threw themselves on the floor and were just too thrilled.

Next trip I'm debating on what to do. I would like for them to be a help in it all but surprising them was awesome. Next trip they will be 15 and 9.

I'm thinking of waking them up in the morning and again and doing a limo service to take us to the airport. They would faint.

 

[Sephora]

We've gone almost ever year for 3 years. Each time they knew about it ahead of time. This time we are going in May and have chosen to keep it a suprise.

Our flight is not until like 2 pm so we are going to secretly load the car and drive to Park and Fly near airport. Once we unload the bags they are going to wonder what is up....my plan was to tell them we were going to a museum.

I hope to get it all on video. I also started collecting stuff for goodie bags for the plane.

I can't wait to see their faces!!!!!!!! They are 5 and 6 so perfect ages!

 

[momimouse27]

We have done both and I am big on surprising. My son loves Disney, and he gets super excited when we surprise him. It's literally his favorite place in the world.

My daughter is the same, but she is difficult to fool. This time, for her 18th birthday, I'm thinking of doing both... Surprising her out of the blue about two weeks before the trip and letting her plan her own trip, ADRs, where to go, everything. And paying her best friends way. .

 

[QueenQueso]

We did both. We went this past September, so my boys were 7 1/2 and not-quite-2. I kept everything a surprise, let his teacher know, etc, but we would engineer it so that it would come up in 'casual' conversation and we would talk about it when the commercials would come on tv, we were talking about choosing a place to go out to dinner one night and I pointed to his rack of movies and said if you could eat dinner with any of the characters from these movies, who would you choose? (it was Cinderella, btw, so he could go inside her castle) and then three weeks before we left, I hung up a countdown chain in the living room.

I numbered each link on the outside and then wrote the name of a Disney movie on the inside (I wanted to be sure the boys would be at least familiar with the major attractions characters) and the boys watched that movie before bed. I explained to my 7yo that it was a countdown and when we reached the final link on the chain, he would be getting a BIG surprise. My SO thought that I was pushing it too far and he was going to get it but he never did.

We left on a Monday, so we woke him up and had him go through his normal school-morning routine, but there was a MASSIVE wrapped box in the living room. When he was dressed and ready, Grammy and Papaw arrived to see him open his present. He ripped into it and a bunch of balloons burst out and up rose a sign (tied to the balloon strings) that said 'Surprise! You're going to Disney World!'

It took a few minutes for it to sink in, and he is so laid back that we didn't get any jumping and screaming (we weren't expecting any, we didn't even have a video camera out because we knew it wouldn't happen), but he was definitely excited. I think for any future trips (I'd personally love to be able to go every other year but I doubt that will happen.) we will just casually hang up the countdown strip again and see if he gets it.