Departure day surprise or time for anticipation?

[mcd531]

We leave in 41 days for our first trip to WDW!!! DD8 does not know about the trip. For those of you who have surprised kids, would you wait and surprise her the morning that we leave? Or tell her about a week before so that she has time to think about it?

 

[pad406]

I'm afraid we're really 'mean' parents that surprise the kids for everything The first time going to Disney we told them a few days before. The 2nd, they thought we were in NY for a long weekend and heading home to Ireland, but we went to Orlando instead. The first they knew was when DW 'pretended' to stop at the wrong gate in JFK. This time we have a 3 split stay holiday. We won't tell them at all, only that we're going away somewhere. They'll figure Disney fairly quickly. But when we leave the BW after a week, they will think we're going home, till we arrive in the HRH in Universal. When we leave there 5 days later, again they will think we're going home until we arrive at the BC. Told you we were mean

But, we have 'heard' that they love the surprise holidays, so we know they will be happy. I think DD (12) is getting to an age where she'd like to be involved in the planning, but then again maybe not

 

[imthemamahere]

I think it depends on your daughter's personality.

My son (now 5) really enjoys the anticipation. He likes doing a countdown chain or calendar, marking off the days, daydreaming about the rides he wants to go on (mostly, Dumbo), and generally letting the excitement build bit by bit. Not for TOO long, as he's still small - I wouldn't tell him more than maybe 5/6 weeks in advance. But for him, and for us along with him, the anticipation is part of the fun. If we surprised him with the trip, sure, he'd still have fun once we got there... but the surprise of it would throw him for a bit of a loop at first, and he'd miss the fun of looking forward together.

Your know your kid best. Just consider whether she's a go-with-the-flow sort of kid, or whether the surprise aspect, even of such a happy surprise, is likely to rattle her. If your daughter loves surprises and wouldn't really be into the planning at all, then by all means, go with the surprise. A lot of parents love doing that.

Have fun, either way!

 

[Wfamily4]

The first time we went we waited until the morning we left to tell the kids. They thought they were waking up to a typical Monday school day. They were 3 and 5 at the time.
This time they are 5 and 7 and we will be planning a special way to tell them ahead of time. I am going to tell them about 1 month out so that I can ask their opinions on things and because it is getting really hard to hide the secret from them.

 

[Dragonfly_34]

This will be a complete surprise for our kids - we haven't quite decided when we're going to tell them yet, given their ages. We arrive in the afternoon and won't go to our first park until the next morning but we're going to the "Happily Ever After" dinner at GF the night we arrive. I was thinking of telling them when we arrive in Orlando but might wait until we board the Magical Express.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My ds8 picked disney for next year. We we t to disney in April and he loved it and just wants to go back so we figured we would go again next year

 

[Conquer1]

We're leaving for our first trip next Friday, and our kids have no idea. We have a family member getting married on 10/11 in Florida, but our kids (DD-7, DS-14, DS-17) think the wedding is 10/4.

So, we're spending a week at Disney World BEFORE the wedding, and they are none the wiser.

We can't wait to see their faces when we pull up to Disney. We're staying at Bonnett Creek.

 

[Disneylover99]

I say give them a week to let it all sink in.

We decided to surprise my kids last December with a trip down to Disney for my daughter's 7th birthday. We were packed and ready to go and we told her and her brother (age 10) as we were about to leave to drive to the airport. She threw herself on her bed and cried for a half an hour because she didn't want to go. My son didn't want to go either because he had to miss one day of school.

 

[Conquer1]

I say give them a week to let it all sink in.

We decided to surprise my kids last December with a trip down to Disney for my daughter's 7th birthday. We were packed and ready to go and we told her and her brother (age 10) as we were about to leave to drive to the airport. She threw herself on her bed and cried for a half an hour because she didn't want to go. My son didn't want to go either because he had to miss one day of school.

Wow! Our daughter will turn 7 in November and I couldn't imagine her not wanting to go.

She's probably asked to go to Disney World at least once a month since she was 3. She talks about wanting to go all the time now and is the biggest Disney fan. Can't wait to surprise her.

 

[cag0621]

We're 30 days out and haven't told the kids yet (5 and 3). Too far in advance and my daughter would have been asking every 5 minutes when we were going. I think that the plan is about a week out to tell them that we are going on a trip, but make our destination vague. Then, we'll tell them the morning of where we are going. We have to leave for the airport at 5:30am, so the idea of a trip can't be a complete surprise!

 

[Disneylover99]

Wow! Our daughter will turn 7 in November and I couldn't imagine her not wanting to go.

She's probably asked to go to Disney World at least once a month since she was 3. She talks about wanting to go all the time now and is the biggest Disney fan. Can't wait to surprise her.

As it turned out she did want to go. She was just overwhelmed by the surprise. Now I've learned that surprises just aren't for everyone.

 

[MandiC]

I hate surprises and I know at least one of my kids do too, they give me serious anxiety so we will never surprise the kids day of. Surprising them a month in advance worked out very well for all of us, plus I like their input on things. I didn't tell them about any of our ADRs so those were kind of a surprise for them when we got there.

I will say that there are plenty of things I *want* to do but if caught off guard with a chance to do them, I would be upset. So you never know.

 

[Conquer1]

I hate surprises and I know at least one of my kids do too, they give me serious anxiety so we will never surprise the kids day of. Surprising them a month in advance worked out very well for all of us, plus I like their input on things. I didn't tell them about any of our ADRs so those were kind of a surprise for them when we got there.

I will say that there are plenty of things I *want* to do but if caught off guard with a chance to do them, I would be upset. So you never know.

Interesting.

Well, we're going to record the surprise announcement AND the reaction, so we'll see how it goes. Maybe it will go viral.

I think we'll be fine, though. We've been counting down the days until we leave to go to Florida for the wedding. When I picked the kids up at school today, she still asked if there was some way we could go to WDW, even if it was just for one day.

She's going to love it when she finds out that we'll be there for a week!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We are also planning a surprise trip for our DD (age 9). I went into it planning to wake her up the morning we leave and surprise her, but on further thought, I realized she'd want some time to pick out what she wants to pack (not clothes per se, but her little toys, books and miscellany that she brings in her carry on). So then the plan shifted to telling her after school the day before we leave. But now as we're getting closer and some things have come up on the calendar at home, I think I'll need to back it up a little more to give her time to understand that she'll be missing a couple of things here at home while we're gone (one I think she'll be slightly disappointed about but hey, it's a pretty good trade off!). Plus I need to give advance notice to her teacher and don't want to do so before we've told DD so the beans don't get spilled on us.

I still think it would've been very fun an exciting to wake her up with the surprise but logistically, I think telling her two or three days ahead will work out better. Now if I can hold the secret a little longer - I've almost slipped about 100 times over the past 6 months.

 

[Conquer1]

We are also planning a surprise trip for our DD (age 9). I went into it planning to wake her up the morning we leave and surprise her, but on further thought, I realized she'd want some time to pick out what she wants to pack (not clothes per se, but her little toys, books and miscellany that she brings in her carry on). So then the plan shifted to telling her after school the day before we leave. But now as we're getting closer and some things have come up on the calendar at home, I think I'll need to back it up a little more to give her time to understand that she'll be missing a couple of things here at home while we're gone (one I think she'll be slightly disappointed about but hey, it's a pretty good trade off!). Plus I need to give advance notice to her teacher and don't want to do so before we've told DD so the beans don't get spilled on us.

I still think it would've been very fun an exciting to wake her up with the surprise but logistically, I think telling her two or three days ahead will work out better. Now if I can hold the secret a little longer - I've almost slipped about 100 times over the past 6 months.

I can understand having to plan all of that out. If we had to do that, we'd probably spill the beans before it was time to go, as well.

Luckily our kids are out of school for a week for fall break, so we don't have to fill anybody in on anything and they are already packing for a week in Florida.

They know we're going to a wedding, they just think that the wedding is 10/4, when it's actually 10/11. Everything just worked out for a GREAT surprise!

 

[Fantastic4]

If it's your first time surprising I would do it in advance. We surprised our kids and it was a total let down. They didn't believe us and to top it off we were stuck in the airport for several hours with delay after delay. We should have been in Orlando at noon and didn't get in until midnight. They've since asked us to surprise them a few days before so they have time to let it soak in.

 

[puffkin]

We never tell our kids anything in advance, not just Disney trips. We don't make a big deal of it, just hey get in the car we're heading to XYZ. My kids are very adaptable and used to being on the go all the time between school, sports, vacations, life in general so it doesn't really phase them. We do go to Disney fairly often though (2x year) so they always know we are going sometime, just not when. They still mention things they want to do, places to eat, etc on our next trip and I just try to make a mental note and then fit those in accordingly on the next trip. So they still help with the planning, even though they don't realize it. Our last trip we told my DS8 a few days in advance because he would be missing his last baseball game and we wanted to give him the opportunity to say goodbye to his teammates/coaches that night. He was awful the next few days with anticipation and he even told us he wished he wouldn't have known. So it works for our family not to tell them....but we don't do it to be cutesy or have a big reveal or to see them jumping and screaming around or anything like that (they don't react that way anyway). Its just easier for everyone all around to tell them at the last minute.

 

[lahobbs4]

The first time my kids went, we told them all about it and did a countdown. That was a lot of fun! This time, I wanted to surprise them but not all of a sudden as soon as they woke up. I have cranky, unpredictable kids sometimes and I'm not sure how that would go!

SO, we have told them that we ARE going before Christmas. They just don't know when! So we are able to talk about what we want to do there and the resort but they won't know what day it is until they wake up! Let's see how that goes...

 

[disneyworlddreaming]

The last couple of times we went we told the kids before going, had a countdown and they were so excited. But for us, it draaaggggged on. Lol. It was "why is it taking so long?" and "why can't we leave now?"
This time we are waiting until the day before to tell them. They have been planning on going next year and are excited already and talk about it all the time, so I'm sure once we tell them we are leaving the next afternoon they will flip! On the other hand, I'm the one bursting at the seams to tell them! lol

 

[kimj88]

We surprised our kids (DS9 and DS5 at the time) for their first trip the morning of, to be exact 430am the morning of. It was school day and they thought they were getting up for school. We had it all planned out and I was over the moon excited thinking how they would flip out with joy. Well it was underwhelming and not what you see in those advertising videos However, it wasn't awful either. They didn't believe us at first, then didn't get that we were leaving RIGHT THEN. I am still debating whether to tell in advance or not for next trip. I go back and forth.