DH blows the surprise

[minjo]

I actually made a trip count down board that I can use any year,month,day. This helps me and keeping my excitement down. I made it for our last trip. Each of got to change the day. It is one way help your kids. This year I will get it out when I make our Rez for Dec 2013.

 

[larina]

...I totally agree that including an older child in the planning can be fun. Especially if they've been a few times. Including younger kids usually isn't productive (ie Me: "What would you like to do?" My 5 year old: "I want to ride Dumbo") and they really don't have a sense of time on that far of a scale especially. 16 months is the same as 16 years or 16 days,

I totally agree. I wouldn't worry about including my 4 year old in planning, he would just drive me nuts! I'll never plan a trip without input from my 9 year old again (she's just not the surprise type).

 

[ValpoCory]

We have done both surprises and included them in the planning. We've surprised them a couple of weeks out from a trip, or at the airport in Austin on our way to Disney World ("what do you mean we aren't going to a family reunion?" ). I totally agree that including an older child in the planning can be fun. Especially if they've been a few times. Including younger kids usually isn't productive (ie Me: "What would you like to do?" My 5 year old: "I want to ride Dumbo") and they really don't have a sense of time on that far of a scale especially. 16 months is the same as 16 years or 16 days,

I agree that 16 months is a long time. I just picked that since that is the time before the OP's vacation.

My wife and I usually loosely plan it until I book the DVC point rental ~9-10 months before the trip. We have a DD7 who has been to Disney several times, and she loves to think about all the rides and get excited. We are 5-6 months out now, and my daughter and I play "Guess the Wait Times" on our DLR Lines smartphone app almost every night. We pick one of the parks each night, and she reads the ride name off the app, and if I can guess the wait time within 5 minutes, I get a point. If not, she gets the point. Sometimes it all comes down to getting Winnie the Pooh right. The next night I say the ride name, and if she gets it within 10 minutes, she gets the point, etc. This is fun, and it is setting her wait time expectations accordingly (even though I know the waits will be better in an off-week in January).

We have a DS2 who of course has no clue, except that he likes Disneyland.

 

[WA Kay]

They will be for the next one. For WDW, we'll let them know sooner. For this one, it'll be the surprise scavenger hunt. DD doesn't know but she's already kind of in on the planning as I'm vetting rides through her as to what she will be into and not. DS I'll start the same prepping next year.

Scavenger hunt sounds fun. What a great idea.