Creative cruise "reveal" ideas for kids gift?

[NYCMommy]

We are booked on a February Fantasy cruise. It will be our fourth cruise...we have done the Dream, Magic and Wonder in that order. This is our longest cruise at 7 nights and really excited! We plan to tell the kids for their Hanukkah gift on the last night. What are some creative ideas for announcing the trip? One year we gave the Lego dolphin cruiser, one year my husband played songs that had Magic in it. Last year they knew we had booked onboard the previous year. Prefer to not spend any money if possible, but welcome all creative ideas! Thanks!!

 

[LWILDP]

I was wondering the exact same thing!!! We're going in Jan and although hubby would love to tell kids at airport I'm worried it'll be too hard to pack and such. Thus I too was looking for a creative way to tell them at Christmas. I was thinking of a scavenger hunt type thing but also don't want it to be pricey either. Suggestions anyone??

 

[ajo]

We ordered a cruise ship ornament that we had personalized with the year and name of the ship. It will be the last gift opened on Xmas morning. It cost less than $20. And each year when we hang it on our tree it will be a nice reminder of our trip!

 

[jpeka65844]

We are also surprising kids with a Land/Sea vacation. We're making up a story about needing to help Grandma and Grandpa. When we meet them, they will then give the kids shirts that say "We're going to Disney!"

Then, when we are there, wake them up on departure day and say "sorry, we're not going to the parks today" and give them cruise lanyards.

 

[Jennifer777]

We did a scavenger hunt for the kids last Christmas. Each clue led them to another clue and the final one was a printable, personalized Disney ticket like the one here:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/483574078714135634/

The scavenger hunt didn't cost us anything and having the kids running around the house looking for hidden clues really helped build excitement. We usually open gifts in the evening but we did the scavenger hunt in the morning since many of their gifts were related to the cruise (new goggles, swim suits, formal wear, etc.). We also had lots of other little clues that morning that they didn't pick up on. I was wearing Minnie Mouse PJs, I made them Mickey waffles for breakfast, there were some Disney ornaments on the tree. After they found out about the cruise they had a lot of fun finding all the other clues they had missed.

This year, I'm planning short 4 night cruise with the 4 days pre-cruise in the keys so the husband can do some fishing. My 12 year old and I are doing all the planning and are the only ones who know about it. We made a silly little movie trailer on the computer, which we will give DH to open Christmas morning. Aside from the disc it's burned on, this surprise was free too!

 

[bethy]

We did a scavenger hunt, too. It's free and memorable and super exciting! We hid a treasure chest with matching family cruise t-shirts inside (our first ever). But we've also done reveals with a huge box wrapped as a present and inside are mylar balloons that float up when the box is opened. On the end of each balloon was each family member's "ticket" to the trip or cruise. I also love the ornament idea!

 

[LWILDP]

We did a scavenger hunt for the kids last Christmas. Each clue led them to another clue and the final one was a printable, personalized Disney ticket like the one here:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/483574078714135634/

The scavenger hunt didn't cost us anything and having the kids running around the house looking for hidden clues really helped build excitement. We usually open gifts in the evening but we did the scavenger hunt in the morning since many of their gifts were related to the cruise (new goggles, swim suits, formal wear, etc.). We also had lots of other little clues that morning that they didn't pick up on. I was wearing Minnie Mouse PJs, I made them Mickey waffles for breakfast, there were some Disney ornaments on the tree. After they found out about the cruise they had a lot of fun finding all the other clues they had missed.

This year, I'm planning short 4 night cruise with the 4 days pre-cruise in the keys so the husband can do some fishing. My 12 year old and I are doing all the planning and are the only ones who know about it. We made a silly little movie trailer on the computer, which we will give DH to open Christmas morning. Aside from the disc it's burned on, this surprise was free too!

Thanks so much! Was thinking of a scavenger hunt so this gives me some great ideas!! Thanks again!

 

[LWILDP]

We did a scavenger hunt, too. It's free and memorable and super exciting! We hid a treasure chest with matching family cruise t-shirts inside (our first ever). But we've also done reveals with a huge box wrapped as a present and inside are mylar balloons that float up when the box is opened. On the end of each balloon was each family member's "ticket" to the trip or cruise. I also love the ornament idea!

Love the balloon idea with the tickets!

 

[rwjx2kahaj]

We are giving the cruise as our family gift. Because this means very few gifts to open we are using scrabble letter tiles to spell out Disney cruise. The kids will each get a few letter tiles in individual wrapped boxes to open. They'll have to figure out what the tiles spell. Once they have the letters unscrambled we have personalized cabin door magnets and other cruise related stuff for them.

 

[Mel'sMagic]

I'm trying to come up with a way to surprise kids with the "cruise news" at Christmas. I like the idea of unscrambling the letter tiles. I'm going to wrap up binoculars for each kid as our cruise is to Alaska. Somewhere online I found official-looking Disney printable cruise certificates but I can't find the link again to post here.

 

[NYCMommy]

We are giving the cruise as our family gift. Because this means very few gifts to open we are using scrabble letter tiles to spell out Disney cruise. The kids will each get a few letter tiles in individual wrapped boxes to open. They'll have to figure out what the tiles spell. Once they have the letters unscrambled we have personalized cabin door magnets and other cruise related stuff for them.

I love the scrabble letter tiles idea!