don't keep it a surprise

[Vickie46]

I just wanted to say.. my little girl who will be 5 in January.. is on cloud 9 tonight.. she has been the last couple weeks.. but this week.. she is just gleaming with excitement... she has so much to look forward too... she has made memories for my husband and myself that we will never forget!!! Sometimes the excitement before the trip is priceless too!

 

[ebsbrg]

I say variety is the key. I wouldn't keep the first trip a surprise b/c you need the build up period but I say do at least one surprise trip. Both options are fun!

 

[Kim1964]

We've been keeping the secret for 3 months, but when we tell them (in 10 DAYS, can't wait), there will still be 8 months to wait for the trip. I think we're going to have a wonderful Christmas day in this house, with 2 kids on cloud 9.........and a Mom who can finally talk about the trip !!!

 

[Vickie46]

That is so exciting!!!!! That will be a wonderful Christmas Day!

 

[MissyDVC]

We've done it both ways and both ways were priceless for different reasons. As a matter of fact, DS8 & DD6 have both asked that the next trip be a surprise because they LOVED being surprised. No matter how you choose to do it, it will be magical

 

[tjmw2727]

We have done both ~ it's all good!

We have included them from the beginning when decide to take a trip, so they can help make the plans and that was lots of fun of course. We also did a surprise where they thought we were driving Dad to the aiport for one of his business trips only to get the suitcases out and tell them we are going to Disney- that was a really great trip. All during the trip they would just smile and say "I can't believe we are here"!

This trip is a combo - they will get the trip as a surprise on Christmas morning with some pins for trading and autograph hats with gold & silver glitter sharpies. Since the trip is in April they will also have plenty of time to help plan, anticpate the trip and save some souvie $$.

TJ

 

[DaisyD]

I'm not one for keeping our trips surprises. I like to see the excitement when I tell DD we are going to WDW again. I get to hear her Disney chatter the months before the trip. She's only 7 but she actually loves to help pick out the restaurants and even what parks for what days! She is a pro. I could never keep the fun of planning from her.

 

[NotUrsula]

LOL, the one time we decided to completely surprise DS it was a bust in a lot of ways. No, nothing really bad happened, but it got the trip off to a difficult start.

He was 5 at the time. He had a few days off school, so we planned a surprise trip to start right after school let out on the day before the break. Dad picked him up and told him that there was a surprise waiting for him at home. We had everything packed up and waiting in the kitchen with a big sign that said We are going to WDW -- RIGHT NOW!! He gets home, sees the sign, looks at Dad and says, "Where's the surprise?" In his 5 yo mind, a surprise had to be a thing, and there was no new thing there, so he didn't get it. However, he's game for any trip, so off to the airport we went.

The plane was delayed a bit, but as we landed at about 10 pm, and he heard the pilot say "Welcome to Orlando" - he looked at us and suddenly, the reality hit -- Orlando is in Florida. At that point, he was still a tiny bit suspicious, but when we drove under the arch, he realized that it was all completely true, and suddenly he started bouncing off the walls with excitement. The problem was, at that point it was about 11:30 pm, and both of us were exhausted from the trip after working all day. No amount of coaxing or threats were going to get him to go to sleep. Finally we just locked the doors and put the Disney Channel on low volume, and we went to sleep though he didn't finally conk out until around 3 am. (DH is a light sleeper, and was waking up often.)
The entire first day of the trip we were all zombies.

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

We are going down the first week in January, but the DD's, 4 and 6 months won't find out until X-Mas morning. That only gives me a week to listen to "Are we going to Disney World today?" So I guess it is the best of both worlds, she will be suprised, but will also need to wait for a week, so the excitement can build. Of course, the 18 hour drive may take some of the excitement away. Planning to leave about 3 in the afternoon, drive through the night and get down there about 9am, in time to go to one of the parks. In theory, this will split the time she is sitting in the car and watching dvd's since she will most likely sleep through the night.

 

[Ariel8676]

We have also done it both ways..we go pretty often (3 times this year) so we had to do something a little different this last time..lol

As much as i love telling them that we are going and seeing them so excited and counting down the days..this last trip when we surprised them was awesome!! They didn't know where we were going until we were getting on the Magical express...we turned the video camera on and told them..they were jumping up and down and almost crying they were so excited.
I think whatever way you decide to tell the kids is going to be special..hey its Disney thats a pretty great place to go!!!

 

[LaraK]

We are going with a surprise (as you can see in my signature), but mostly for our own sanity. My DD is a stressful child...not that she give me stress (well, ok she does that too, but that's not what I'm talking about here). She stresses over everything. If I tell her we're going to Disney, she will stress non-stop until we leave. We figure we'll just go and she'll figure it out when we get there.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

I don't know, I might have to disagree. We have done both, now my kids tell me that they want to be surprised for every vacation, not just Disney. We went camping this summer, they knew we were going somewhere, but where????? I love surprises.

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

My dd will turn 5 in January while we are at WDW. We have decided to tell her the day before we leave. I wanted to have it be a total surprise when she woke up the day of our trip, but our van is picking us up at 7am, and that just won't work! So, the day before, we're going to give her a scroll/invitation and a Princess t-shirt to wear on the plane. Then she can obsess about it all that day. I think that will be a good compromise. And she will be dining with Cinderella on her bday - what could make a 5 year old girl happier?!

 

[luvmy2sams]

We've done it both ways, too, and DD7 told us that she now prefers being surprised. It seems that we're always talking about our next trip, but last time around she thought the next trip wouldn't be until 2007. Little did she know she'd be celebrating her birthday in Orlando earlier this year. The look on her face at the reveal was priceless! Granted the excitement and anticipation before a trip is lots of fun, but a big countdown for a little kid seems like a really long and drawn-out thing sometimes.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I couldn't decide what I wanted to do either. So we will be surprising the kids, either on Easter or valentines day. I wanted to do it on easter with baskets full of disney stuff, but I don't think I can wait that long, I love the excitement to, and being able to talk about disney every night. We are leaving April 30, so the more I think about it I want to do it on valentine's, this way we will have a 2 month countdown.

 

[golden1]

I didn't keep this trip a surprise because my kids were so young and since it was their first trip they had no reason to be excited. I am going to make our next trip, whenever that is, a surprise!

 

[jaurban]

We did not keep our trip a surprise from our DD4 - we actually wanted her to process where she would be and showed her photos and pictures of the rides (so she would understand what would be going on) and tell her about the hotel. I suppose a surprise might have worked but I wanted to prepare her for what to expect. So, in the months before she talked about the castle and that she would see Cinderella, and we took her to the state fair for ride practice, as she had never been on one yet. I didn't want to get to WDW only to find out that she was aprehensive about everything. I also introduced most of the characters ahead of time so she would be ready for them, and it worked well.

It probably depends on your kids, and how they handle an "instant" change of plans (in their minds).