Do you surprise your kids?

[lilpixie]

Last year was our 1st trip to DL, but I was just too excited, I couldn't wait to tell the kids. This year, I would love to surprise my kids. If you do surprise the kids -- when do you tell them -- a few days before, the night before . . . ? I have 3 princesses 7,4, and 1 I just wondered if I waited until the actual day of the trip (this is still a long way off, but never too early to start planning) if they would be so excited they would freak out lol
I think this year I want to do a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt with clues, and then at the end of the hunt they would find disney related items for the airplane/trip.
Just wondering how all of you have surprised your kiddos

 

[Twinprincesses]

Nope I am horrible at surprises. THe second the airline is booked I spill the info to whoever will listen.

 

[TeacherDad]

No last minute surprise announcements for us. We tell them as soon as we know. Wouldn't want to 'rob' the kids of the pretrip anticipation and excitement. That is also part of the magic. The announcement that "we are going to DL" is, in a sense, a surprise itself. Now we have a few months where the whole family gets to look forward to our special holiday.

 

[hlbtimes2]

We surprised the kids last March. We told them we were going to Long Beach for daddys work (his company is based there). They had NO idea where LB was! We got there, checked in to the hotel, and got a good nights sleep. We told them after they were dressed the first morning. It was so much fun.

We were planning a surprise for this April, but it looks like the trip will be postponed because my mom has cancer. I'm really glad I didnt tell them about the trip because they would be heart broke to cancel.

My daughter gets physically ill when she gets too excited. So, its really best if she doesnt know in advance.

 

[jemilah]

I thought about making this up coming trip a surprise , but i just could not do it. So I put a "golden ticket" in their Christmas cards . It was a surprise that we were going , but I really could bearly hold it in! Plus they would catch me here on the dis, and wonder why I am constanly on line if we are not going!

 

[AskTheChief]

I did last time, but oldest was only four so he didn't really jump up and down with excitement, lol.

This time, I've been talking about it so much that oldest already has the dates memorized and my three year old is walking around saying, "I going to Dinneyland!".

 

[MATTERHORN]

We go so often and my kids know me too well that it would never work. I do usually wait until the day of to tell them though. But they are younger so the 3 and 1 year old wouldn't really "Get it" if I were to do a whole surprise thing! Plus we talk about trips and plans constantly (I mean pretty much daily!) so it would never really be like a surprise. My 6 year old knows exactly how we drive to get there. If we even start going that way, she knows already!

One day I am going to try to surprise them with a trip to WDW though!!!

Good luck with your surprise, I think it's a really cool idea when you can pull it off.


Andrea

 

[AskTheChief]

We go so often and my kids know me too well that it would never work. I do usually wait until the day of to tell them though. But they are younger so the 3 and 1 year old wouldn't really "Get it" if I were to do a whole surprise thing! Plus we talk about trips and plans constantly (I mean pretty much daily!) so it would never really be like a surprise. My 6 year old knows exactly how we drive to get there. If we even start going that way, she knows already!

One day I am going to try to surprise them with a trip to WDW though!!!

Good luck with your surprise, I think it's a really cool idea when you can pull it off.


Andrea

This, too. We'e never driven down South for any other reason besides DL. If we got farther than Stockton, my oldest would know right where we were going. He remembers every little drive we've ever taken and he could probably tell us excatly how to get to Hojo's.

 

[jemilah]

My husband has family in the LA area, I was going to tell the boys we were just going to go visit them..............I could imagine the tears.....................why do we have to go there and not to DL!
I also talk contsantly about our plans, yesturday I made a plan on a napkin of all our meal plans..........wow I would burst if I had to hold it in!

 

[spacemouseneer]

On our last trip we held it all the way until the morning we left. We went into our DD room and gave her a little present. She was so out of it, she didn't realize that it was actually 4 AM. She opened the gift and it was a roll of film. She looked at us, and very politely said thank you. And then we told her that we gave her the film because she needed to take some pictures. Because we were leaving for Disneyland. Right now. Her face was priceless!!!!! We caught the whole thing on video. A great start to a great trip.

 

[nun69]

we told the oldest (13) but are just going to wait until we check into the DLH before DS (6) even has a clue...he will pretty much go for anything we say so we are just going to tell him we are going on a road trip and he will be OK with that...

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I haven't yet because DD's are only 3 and 2 months old. I will when they get older though. How fun will that be. But DD (age 3) will have done the drive so many times I'm sure she will know where we're going.

 

[Chocolate lover]

We did on our last trip Nov 2006. We were as my mother calls it Extremely Mean! I told the kids (11 &6) that we were taking their father to the airport so he could go on a business trip, he would be gone for three weeks, hence the two large suitcases. WEll at the airport I was taking a picture of the kids with their dad, my husband leaned over and said "By the way I am not going on a business trip we are going to Disneyland" The kids were in shock! This continue even after we landed at LAX because after the limo (surprise #2) picked us it drove over to the Alaskan Airlines terminal where it picked up surprise #3 which was my brother and his family were joining us on the trip (they live in a different province and we see them once a year). Our kids were in shock for about 24 hours before they figured out what was going on. I had kept the secret about the trip for over 7 months as did my husband and my folks.

 

[darph nader]

Did it about 10yrs ago. Told my sons and one of their friends we were going fishing. As we were loading up the truck,I gave them D/L tickets.My oldest and his friend 'freaked', my youngest got,how shall I say, "upset",he wanted to go fishing.

 

[Pixieshouse]

We did this with dd when she was 4. She knew we were going on a trip on an airplane but didn't know where. When she fell asleep on the plane I took out a plush Minnie Mouse that I had in my carry on and snuggled it with her. She woke up snuggling Minnie and knew instantly that we were headed for DL. She was so excited and loved having the surprise.

Now it is hard to pull the wool over her eyes, she always guesses DL So now I have surprises that I pack for our hotel room, in the park or something along those lines.

One year we had Easter at DL. I packed little plastic easter eggs and stickers. She decorated the eggs and the Easter bunny came by our hotel room She was so thrilled to find out that the Easter Bunny knew where we were! Mommy has great connections.

 

[abby]

I can't keep a secret from the kid, (DD who is 6 and 1/2) best I have done, was our last trip, I booked 30 days in advance and waited 1 and 1/2 weeks to tell her, it almost killed me. I have told her some kids don't know and get surprised, a few nights ago she saw me on this web site (she know's it's about DL) and made me promise not to "surprise her" as she would rather know. Now I have an excuse not to surprise her, although I think more then 30 days notice and they get too excited too soon.....

 

[Kitsune]

I'm surprising my DS7 (I CAN keep a secret ) with a last minute surprise trip in less than 2 weeks. He's on a school break (it's a year-round multi-track school district) and is currently attending a inter-break program during the day. The plan is to secretly pack/prepare while he's sleeping and get him ready the morning of the trip like it was any other day. He's not going to be told what's going on but will probably figure something's up when we get to the airport and our luggage is brought out from the car. I'll try to capture his realization of where he's going on tape. Can't wait to see his reaction.

 

[AskTheChief]

I'm surprising my DS7 (I CAN keep a secret ) with a last minute surprise trip in less than 2 weeks. He's on a school break (it's a year-round multi-track school district) and is currently attending a inter-break program during the day. The plan is to secretly pack/prepare while he's sleeping and get him ready the morning of the trip like it was any other day. He's not going to be told what's going on but will probably figure something's up when we get to the airport and our luggage is brought out from the car. I'll try to capture his realization of where he's going on tape. Can't wait to see his reaction.

You sigline. I love those Jack Handy quotes.

 

[PattiPB]

We surprise my kids somehow about half of our trips. If they know about the trip, they may not know if Aunt Jill is coming, or they don't know we're doing Blue Bayou.

We've surprised them with WDW, and the very best one of all time was the first DCL cruise. We told them we were just driving down to "see the ship" since Mommy really wanted to take the cruise but we couldn't afford it. After the THIRD PERSON asked us for our cruise documents to park the car, my oldest (DD 9 at the time) finally said "Are we actually going on the cruise!?!?!?!?" They are so thick they didn't even realize my parents were driving right behind us!

 

[seattlebusymom]

I never thought I could pull it off but thanks to a last minute trip planned a month ago my girls have NO idea that they are headed to DL next week with us, my parents and my niece! We are packing them up like they are headed to school (backpacks and all) and as they go to the schoolbus we are going to tell them that we got a call from their grandparents and we need to have a family meeting at their house. Once we are there my dad will dawn the Goofy ears and ask if anyone would like to go to DISNEYLAND!!! Then we are off to the airport!!! I CANNOT wait. I smile ear ro ear with each TV commercial I see!!! YEAH DISNEY!!!