Do you surprise your kids?

[EEYOREMAMA]

I don't think I dare tell them because ds will drive me nuts! He will ask every single day how many days left until dl. We're not going until April lol

My kids mark the days off on the calendar. That's why the one surprise time was so cool They couldn't make me feel bad that "today's the day we're going right?" because it was. No having to tell them "not yet", we just boogied.

 

[mydisneykids]

We have always told our 3 about any upcoming trips except for one time. We are DVC members and my DH and I planned a long weekend to WDW for the Saratoga Springs Grand Opening they held for members. My then 11 year old needed to know we were going away a week ahead because of school work, but didn't know where. She didn't tell the other 2. The other two found out the morning we woke them up to go to school and gave them a note we were picking them up early from school, but didn't tell them why.
They finally figured it out and started screaming in the airport when we got to the gate marked Orlando.
I would not do this routinely, because the anticipation is half of the fun, but it was a riot to suprise them.

 

[alohamom]

This is such a great thread! I have friends who always surprise their kids and don't say a word until they are in the car heading to the airport and I always thought this was unique but it seems alot of you guys do this! We always tell them because I could never ever keep it in, I tend to daydream outloud about vacations. Also we keep a count down calendar on our kitchen chalkboard and this is so much fun for us. My kids love to have the special job of changing the number. He said the other day as he changed the countdown from 24 to 23, oh Mom it's getting sooo close and proceeded to dance around the kitchen singing a 23 days till we go song I would love to do a christmas surprise one time though, so that they open their gifts and then off we go. I just don't think I could stop from letting the cat out of the bag!

 

[hlbtimes2]

We over planned the last trip, which is part of the reason to keep this one a surprise. We did it all- ride max, PS for a couple meals, talked about details for months, etc, etc. So, when we got there, and things didn't go as planned we were all stressed. This trip is a surprise. The kids wont have to listen to me plan for 6 months- we dont even have 6 months!

They'll be excited to be there and can just live in the moment. They wont have time to work up excitement and be let down. KWIM?

 

[Princess Tink]

We’ve never kept it a secret before now. We are DVC Members, so DS pretty much knows it’s going to happen every year. However, my DH and I are taking a trip to Cancun for our 10th Anniversary……so, DS hasn’t a clue. We sat down and talked about him staying with grandma & grandpa while mom and dad take ‘a honeymoon’ as he calls it. I did promise him a long weekend trip someplace this year but, he thinks that’s why we’re going to Branson over Easter. Little does he know, Mom is being sneaky. It’s killing me though. He is usually right there with me making our game plan….ressie, parks, rides, everything. I even almost slipped over the weekend. And he caught me on Ridemax last week. I’ll be glad when his birthday gets here (Close to Valentine’s Day).

My plan: We’re having small friends party (4 of his closest friends) at RFC the Wed before his birthday….because he’s rather have a BIG surprise on his birthday as he puts it, so not to interfere with our scheduled plans. I let him think he’s running the show here. So, when he goes to sleep the night before his birthday, we’re going to get into OPERATION BIRTHDAY. I have made up clues (Die Cuts and stuff glues to cardstock) for him to find around the house. Each item will have his next clue leading to the next item. When he reaches the item, he will put the item in a Crossword puzzle. There are 13 clues (ranging from birthday related items to travel items). When the Crossword is complete, he will take a letter from each word (the shaded box will indicate the letter used for his final clue) that will need to be unscrambled. His sentence ”YOU WILL BE TAKING A TRIP TO……………”, his last clue will lead him to his suitcase filled with all things Disney related, including DL & CA maps & PH Passes. We will leave exactly 4 days after his birthday. I am so excited I just can’t stand it……I’ll be glad when his birthday gets here!

 

[Pir8girl]

Operation Birthday sounds like a blast. Your son is gonna flip when he finds out, fun, fun. I have a question: what are ph passes?

 

[Snow Brite]

I just had to add this little bit to my earlier post about surprising my kids. We used to come all the way from Alaska for these trips, the last one was from Oregon and we have since moved to Southern California about 45 minutes from Disneyland due to my job. I still have one last 7 year old to surprise and I thought it would be SO hard here. There are constant commercials on tv, billboards, etc. They have asked a couple of times if we are close to Disneyland and I always say (honestly!) "Yes, its very far....if you walk." So far not a one of them has caught on to this! LOL! Even the almost 12 year old.

 

[DisneyDotty]

We surprised our kids in December with a trip to DL. It was SO hard to keep the secret, but so worth it. On the night before the trip, DH and I told the kids to open some early Christmas gifts. DS7 was eager, but DD11 was pouty and said it would ruin Christmas. So I convinced her to give it a try--she was a total pain--and slowly they unwrapped clues to the trip--glow sticks and Mickey Mouse cookies, matching Disney sweatshirts, even a Birnbaum Disneyland book--and all the kids could say was, "Mom, you've lost it with this Disney stuff." Finally they open the last gift--a personalized stuffed Mickey that was inscribed with "Off to Disneyland!" and they said, "Yea, nice mom." And I said--"Yes, we're off to Disneyland!" "Huh?" "Tomorrow!" DS7 did a major happy dance around the room while DD11 erupted with tears (of joy!).
I loved having both of them say repeatedly the next few days at Disneyland--"I can't believe we're here. This is so cool!"
The surprise was almost as fun as the trip itself!
One question to those of you who have pulled off multiple surprise trips--how did you do it? I think my kids would be on to us if we tried again...

 

[Gopher#1]

My parents actually suprised me and my sisters a few years ago. It was a few days before Christmas and they woke us up around 3 or 4 in the morning. They said our dad was leaving for Vegas, for one reason or another, and they wanted us to open up some gifts before he leaves (it did seem a little odd that I didn't know about my dad leaving, but I was so tired, I didn't really think much of it). So we started opening up presents, getting our usual gifts. Then they had one more present, we opened it up and there was an envelope. We opened that up and there were plane tickets to LA. It took a few moments to register, but then we realized that these tickets were for Disneyland, and the flight was in a few hours. We had just over an hour to pack, then we flew an hour to California, and we were in Disneyland when it opened!!! It was the best Christmas present we have ever received, and will be pretty hard to top (they haven't done it yet). My sisters and I are pretty big Disney fans and we visit Disneyland often (planning months in advance), so this was a trip of a lifetime.

 

[PattiPB]

One question to those of you who have pulled off multiple surprise trips--how did you do it? I think my kids would be on to us if we tried again...

It does get more difficult. We are at the point now where there are more "partial" surprises than total shocks.

For instance, last Dec they knew about WDW, but had no clue about the DCL cruise. On the day of the cruise, we told them we were changing hotels (actually true-ish!), and first Aunt Jill wanted to "go see" Cape Canaveral. Well....she did see it from the highway!

Last month, they knew we were going to DL, but were shocked when their Aunt and Uncle (same people as Dec!) showed up in the hotel room.

 

[Princess Tink]

Operation Birthday sounds like a blast. Your son is gonna flip when he finds out, fun, fun. I have a question: what are ph passes?

Park Hopper Passes

 

[Pir8girl]

Park Hopper Passes

Duh.. Thanks, I was slow on that one
I'm not sure how I'm going to surprise them this time, I'm still working on my plan!

 

[Princess Tink]

Good luck Pir8girl, it only gets harded after the first time....just takes a little more creativity!

 

[denyd]

I don't think I could surprise DS as everytime we are on the 57 Freeway he knows which exits (Ball & Katella) are for Disneyland and whenever I take one of them he starts chanting "Disneyland, Disneyland"

 

[mAlien13]

For our oldest son's 10th b-day we surprised him with a trip to WDW. Hindsight? Know the child you're surprising before taking all the time and effort to plan such a big surprise. He hates to fly, and nearly refused to board in Boston w/o knowing where we were headed. As a double surprise, we had my SiL flying in from PDX and her flight was 4 hours late. We sat with our kids in the Orlando airport giving them lame excuses about no taxi's being available to take us to our hotel. We had worked hard on the plane to convince him we were going to Florida to relax, not to go to theme parks. Sil's plane landed at midnight, we surprised the kids with her and their cousin, rushed to the hotel where my mother was also waiting to surprise him, had cake at 1:00 am and gave him is pass in a card...whew!! It took 3 months of planning the surprise, and in the end, he was so exhausted and overwhelmed I don't think he knew what was happening. However, when we actually got up and to the park the next morning...he was ecstatic!! He says know it was the best surprise ever, but I will plan every trip we take in the furture with my kids. I agree that the anticipation is a great part of the Disney magic.

 

[Pir8girl]

That's so funny. It brings back childhood memories. We could've been anywhere in So. Cal and I never really paid much attention to the freeways or roads we were on, but get close to Disneyland and wow.. I knew we were close. Plus you could really see the Matterhorn back then. Anaheim and the surrounding areas weren't as built up.

 

[bedgraynexl]

Got a surprise trip planned for this summer. Got really good airfare to go see the in-laws in Vegas. DW and I just start shooting ideas around because we of what all we can do that is kid friendly. I mention that LA is only a few (relative) hours away from her dad's house. So as of now we will spend a couple of days in Vegas, and then go to LA for a couple of days to visit Mickey and friends. DS6 and DD4 know we are going to see the grandparents, but have no idea about the second part of the trip. I am hoping we can wait until we are getting to the park.

We made the mistake of telling them about our WDW trip four months early. Talk about bouncing off the walls. This time we will definately wait, especially since DD is just geting down the concepts of time. Especially length of time.

I even think the DGP are going to try and come with us, so that will make it even better for the kiddos.

 

[Freyja]

Personally, I wouldn´t want to surprise my kids with something so big. I might feel different if we lived close to Disney and visited often. However, I feel that the anticipation is such a big part of our trip that I wouldn´t want them to be without it.

 

[diznynut]

We are surprising our son in 2 weeks. We got great airfare from Dallas,so we told him we were going there for his Spring Break. I have been planning this since this past November and it is actually getting hard for me to keep this secret. We have been to WDW every year since he was born. We decided to try DL this year. My husband and I have been one other time for about 8 hours. So it is basically our 1st time also. The hard part is the more planning I do the more I want to share with our son. I know how excited he will be about the new Monster INC. ride. My mom is also joining us, so he will de doubly surprised because he also gets to see grandma.

 

[Laurabearz]

We surprised our kids with a Disney Cruise this past September. I figured if by chance our cruise was cancels (hurricane season and all) That I would be the only one disapointed... they were shocked!

I told the kids we needed to get up early and drop something off before school and that our friend was going to help us. I put all the luggage in the van the night before and covered with a lot of beach towels. When we go to the airport, my oldest (6) said.. Why didnt you tell us we were dropping this stuff off at the airport.... Then when we pull up and I told them all to get out, that we were what we were dropping off... they freaked (well the 6 and 5 yo did, the boy, 2 was clueless)

I also just booked a Disneyland trip for this May, and that will also be a surprise.

Love it... made cute shirts that said Mommy and Daddy surprised us with a Disney Cruise... I loved it!