Ever Kept It a Secret?

[RweTHEREyet]

Anyone ever booked a cruise and not told family that they were taking a cruise? Don't know if I could pull it off or not, but I would love to try. I am just thinking that the logistics of booking the cruise would be too hard to keep it a secret such as getting the paperwork delivered, etc.

Do I also understand that you now need to have a Passport and cannot use just a birth certificate? That would be a problem since we our passpots have expired.

just wonder if this is doable or not...

 

[Michelle]

No, I would never be able to keep it a secret.

You do NOT need passports at this time. All that is required for adults age 18 and older is a CERTIFIED birth certificate and photo ID. For kids under age 18 the certified birth certificate is all that is required.

 

[pines506]

No way -- I've Got Loose Lips! I booked a cruise last Jan. for a sail date six weeks later as a b-day surprise for DH. I secretly arranged for his time off work, babysitters, everything......Then blew it and told him after 2 weeks cuz I was too excited!

Also our last Disney cruise in '01 I booked a year in advance -- the kids had a great time over that year looking at the video, brochures and websites getting ready for it.

Of course I wouldn't mind if I was the one surprised with a cruise!!!

Diane

 

[jeanie]

We booked for Apr 2004 back in June when the 2004 prices came out and so far the kids don't know! Only 546 days!!
I didn't want to tell them because I may get laid off next year and may have to cancel.... They are dying to go on another cruise!
I might still go if I can get it paid off before the ax falls. I got such a great price for a 7 day cruise...but I would still like to surprise them....!

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

My DW's best friend's husband just surprised his DW with a 7-Day Western cruise. They're taking the family during Thanksgiving week. This was a gift for her 40th birthday. It was a wonderful surprise for her and she was delighted. But I don't really like the idea of keeping the secret <b><i>too</i></b> long. A lot of the fun of the vacation is the anticipation. I think it'd be a shame to deprive your family of that part of the fun.

 

[SweetSpot]

My kids have enjoyed learning about the cruise, they are so excited I wouldn't take that away from them. Also, after getting clothes together for them to wear and having them try everything on I can't imagine doing this without them knowing.

 

[westjones]

We are considering doing this next year for our twin daughters' birthday. They have spent the last 3 birthdays on the cruise, but this year we had problems with 'school' and missing so much (we went on the 7 day cruise).

Next year their birthday is during a 3 day and if we flew we could go with only missing 2 days of school. It is during 'testing' though. So I don't know.

We have enough points to do the 3 day cruise through DVC, and so we would just have to come up with airfare.

But I am still not sure. My DD wants to try out for volleyball too, and this is right during try outs. But still......it IS the Disney Cruise!

I just can't decide what to do. DH is game if I am OK with it. I keep going back and forth. But DH really wants to do it as a surprise (since we told them that we could no longer do the cruise for their birthday since one of the girls is now in school......I should explain, we have always homeschooled and could travel whenever we wanted, now one twin is in school and one is still homeschooling---so we are getting use to this school schedule thing).

Anyway, we had 'hoped' to make this an annual tradition--they spent their 7th, 8th and 9th birthday on the cruise. I really HATE missing the 10th! But I also hate dealing with the school and missing. But 2 days wouldn't be too bad, would it?

Sorry for babbling---this is really bothering me.
Debra

 

[natsmom125]

I've never done an enitre cruise as a surprise...but....I did surprise DD and DH with an upgrade to a veranda!!

However...DH and his business partner and his wife...surprised DD and me last week with a trip to Las Vegas!!! We thought we
were in for a long car ride to Biloxi, MS to gamble...we stopped
to spend the night in Jacksonville and they presented me with a
scrapbook, that had an airline ticket on the front page...plus
other LV stuff inside. DH said I didn't act too surprised...but I
said "surprised"..."I'm in shock". DH and our friends really
pulled it off...they'd had the tickets since JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, it
can be done....

Good luck everyone....
Phyllis

 

[magyar2]

I am surprising my daughters!

Last year we were on the 4-day, and we all loved it so much, and since then, my girls have asked when we will be cruising again. As far as they know, it will be in about 3 years. Ha!

What we are doing is going down a day early to WDW and doing MVMCP, and then the cruise, and my MIL and SIL are joining us. My girls know about the MVMCP, as my MIL spilled the beans on that right away, but so far they think that we will be spending the rest of the vacation on a beach in Florida. They are happy about that, but wait until we cross the bridge into Port Canaveral and they see the Magic!

Hopefully, my girls will start saying how they wish we were cruising, and at that time I plan on videotaping their expressions when I tell my DH that maybe we should just skip the beach and take the cruise instead? While I am having such a hard time keeping the cruise from them at this time, the knowledge that their expressions will be priceless is helping me keep my mouth shut!

Of course, this is all ruined if my girls say they want to go to the beach instead of the cruise!

As to how I approached the passport situation, I have it easy since I am Hungarian and my girls keep hearing me say how nice it would be to go back and see my family again. I got their passports renewed back in August, and told them that you just never know when mom might need to hop on a plane to go see a sick relative. Might not work for the rest of you, but its a thought.

 

[zurgswife]

My first cruise a 4day March 2, 2003....will be a surprise to my kids..I can't wait to keep it a surprise...they think they aren't going any where for spring break this year....

I think I might leave a note for them at school saying Mickey Mouse would like to invite them to join him on a cruise, if they would like to go please wake up at 5 am the next morning....

 

[SuperDisneyDad]

I just "sprung" the news to the family last week on my wife's birthday about our Feb 2003 cruise that I booked last May. I sent her on a "treasure hunt" finding clues all over town. I was in Orlando a few weeks ago on business and made it over to WDW to buy some little Disney things . . . one for each of the final few clues. The last clue was the news that we were going back on Disney Cruise Line. It went over VERY well. It was really hard to keep it a secret for the last 5 months. I almost let the cat out of the bag a few times and had to quickly think of something to cover it up. I found myself saying, ". . . I mean . . um . . . just assuming we were . . . you know . . . doing the Disney cruise . . . again . . . even though we really aren't . . . right?" an awful lot!!

 

[AnnaB]

We are surprising the kids in a couple of weeks and I can't believe they still don't have a clue.. We are actually going to WDW first for Halloween...and they know all about that but they have no idea we are taking the cruise.
They think maybe we will cruise sometime in 2003.
SInce we are driving to WDW we plan on letting them think we are just packing the care to drive home...when infact we will be heading over to Port Canaveral. Can't wait to see their faces when they finally figure it all out.
I am still trying to figure out the best way to break the news to them.....any ideas ?

 

[Tooth Fairy]

We are suprising the kids with a secret porthole room. They think we have an inside room! They have had a blast saving and writing stories about what they think it will be like - but then so have I!!!

 

[Jenn31]

For christmas I am surprising my family of five with a 7 day eastern cruise! I bought luggage for everyone and inside the luggage I have all kinds of travel and cruise gear wrapped up. I also included the Disney cruise travel pamplet and inside that are the docs! It's going to be a great christmas!

They always "talk" about going but they always finish with, "we could never aford it." We live in California and airfare for 5 is quite expensive! But I recieved a HUGE bonus this year and now we're able to go! (13 thousand dollars later! )

We have two cat 6 staterooms and 2 nights booked at animal kingdom lodge.

Ahhh, Can't wait!!!!

 

[westjones]

This thread has got my DH and I talking the last couple days and I think we are going to do this next year! Our twins' birthday is during a 3 day cruise and only a couple days of school would have to be missed! Surely that can't hurt anything!

We aren't 100% yet, but I am getting excited thinking about it. Can we keep a secret for 11 months? This will be SO hard! But it would be fun to see the surprised looks on their faces!

I have really enjoyed this thread. Thanks RweTHEREyet for starting it!
Debra

 

[Hygiene99]

there have been some great post about surprise trip and how people have done it ,,, i remember one post that the woman told us all the details as she planned the trip it helped her to have a place to vent her Happiness and then she posted a trip report and she said it was worth it to see the surprise on her
DH , sand 2 dds faces
i think the woke up the morning of at the rad and could see
the ship from the room ......................... peter

 

[Hygiene99]

there have been some great post about surprise trip and how people have done it ,,, i remember one post that the woman told us all the details as she planned the trip it helped her to have a place to vent her Happiness and then she posted a trip report and she said it was worth it to see the surprise on her
DH , sand 2 dds faces
i think the woke up the morning of at the rad and could see
the ship from the room ......................... peter
and if u go to trip report board Phiklops surprised his Wife
all the way to a/p in fla. where they got the shuttle to the port

 

[Luckymommyx2]

There is no way I could keep a cruise from my husband but we are trying to surprise our children who have never cruised before. We went to Disney World for the first time in May and by the middle of June I booked the Disney Cruise! It has been eight years since we cruised so I'm beyond excited even at this point. We are arriving at MCO the day before and staying at the Hyatt. My children are young enough and love airplanes enough to think that is our vacation!! Won't they be surprised?!

 

[ncligs]

I just booked our 1st cruise ever(Feb 2004) on the Wonder one month ago.I am not telling my wife until her birthday(May 2003).
I booked it through DU so all e-mails come to my address.
I figured it would make a nice"birthday present" for her.

 

[aaronamy]

We are giving a 7 day cruise to our DS8 and DD11 for Christmas. Our friends are also surprising thier DD11 and DD13. We are all going on 01/25/2003 We were going to just wake them up and head to the airport but a good friend of ours who is a TA reminded us that half the fun is the anticipation. So we decided to make it a Christmas present. We have bought summer clothes and snorkle gear, Im going to wrap it all up with a cruise video, cruise documents( hopefully ) and disney dollars. We are not telling them that our friends are going, our yougest daughters are best friends, I can't wait to see how long it takes them to call each other to tell them what Santa brought ! It has been so hard not saying anything. Every once in a while one of the kids say how they want to do a Disney Cruise( we cruised RCL 2 years ago and were next to the Magic) and we just say they are SO expensive. I cant wait less than 100 days till we cruise and less than that til I can spill the beans!