Have any of you ever done a surprise trip to Disney?

[Pea-n-Me]

We surprised our twins on their 8th bday this past Oct with a trip for MNSSHP. We also were bursting at the seams to tell them, so the way we got around it was to look at the pictures from MNSSHP and tell them we were thinking about a trip for next year.

We picked them up from school with the bags all packed in the back of the car. We then handed them a poem written in Disney font that explained what was going on, and videotaped the whole thing. They were high-fiving and giggling, it was adorable.

We went straight to the airport from school. On the plane DD looked up at me sleepily and said "Mom, am I dreaming? Cause I just can't believe we're going to Disney"!!

It was really hard to keep the secret. We enjoy the excitement of planning with the kids, so not sure we'll surprise them again, but you never know...

 

[Tarzan]

We are surprising our children with a trip to WDW in 45 days. We booked it just over 2 months ago and the hard part has passed now. The first few weeks were the hardest, as I booked each part I wanted to tell them. First the flights, then the hotels and finally the ADRs. Now that it is all planned it's easier to not say. We haven't decided how to tell them yet because we have to leave the house at about 1am and I don't think that's an ideal time. We're torn between the night before or when we arrive at the airport and they wake up. They think we are not going back until next year but desperately want to return. We are worried that they will never trust us again!!

 

[Anastasia]

We are surprising our children with a trip to WDW in 45 days. We booked it just over 2 months ago and the hard part has passed now. The first few weeks were the hardest, as I booked each part I wanted to tell them. First the flights, then the hotels and finally the ADRs. Now that it is all planned it's easier to not say. We haven't decided how to tell them yet because we have to leave the house at about 1am and I don't think that's an ideal time. We're torn between the night before or when we arrive at the airport and they wake up. They think we are not going back until next year but desperately want to return. We are worried that they will never trust us again!!

We surprised our kids (6,8 and 10) with the cruise last November. I agree - the beginning was the hardest part. They desperately wanted to go on the cruise, and I told them we might go in 2007. It was so hard not to tell them. Once all of the plans were made though, it became fun to keep the secret.

When they came home from school on the day of departure, we had a "Surprise" banner on the door. They walked in, and we had a bon voyage party set up in the kitchen, with tropical drinks (juice) with umbrellas in them, steel drum music, and Disney stuffed animals. We asked them to figure out what it meant. They figured out pretty quickly that they were going on the Disney Cruise. I asked them if they knew when, and they said no. So I said "let's get in the car!". They were unbelievably excited.

While it was hard to keep the secret in the beginning it was completely worth it! They've told us they want to be surprised next time too!

 

[hightown]

Surprised myself a couple of years ago....

Was sitting at work on 2/26/2004 with vacation beginning and my birthday on the 27th--a big birthday, my 50th. Decided I wanted to watch Wishes for my birthday.

Checked E fares and found a great last minute fare, Fri through Tuesday. Called and got an AP rate for check in the next day. Called my DD and said "I'm going to WDW for my birthday, what are you going to do"? Her answer (tentative) "go with you?" Sure!

So we packed after work and were up bright and early the next day to fly off. Yes, saw wishes for my birthday. Was a great trip! Surprises are great.

 

[firecracker]

...it's an awesome memory so I'll post it again!

Last spring break we told our girls we were taking them to a water park. They assumed it was the new indoor water park in Indy (2 1/2 hours south of us). We got them up at 4am and put them in the car. Our 10 yo was like (we're getting to the water park at 6am???Will they even be open then?) We just told her to go back to sleep...

About 2 hours south of Indy, they woke up and said, did we miss Indianapolis? We told them to watch outside for signs to help us. When our dd8 saw the "Welcome to Kentucky" sign over the Ohio River, she said, Dad! You missed your turn! We'd better turn around--I want to get to the hotel and sleep some more! So, dh says, well, since I missed my turn why don't we just keep driving! They're like--WHAT???? NOOOOOOO!!! So, we said, How about if we drive to Florida and find a hotel there for Spring Break because we're TAKING YOU TO DISNEY WORLD!! They couldn't believe it!! They were speechless, then screaming, then laughing...it was awesome!

All week long, we got to hear things we rarely hear....you guys are the best parents EVER! I can't believe you surprised us with Disney! You guys are AWESOME!

It was priceless and something we'll never forget!

P.S. When we arrived at Typhoon Lagoon that week, we told them--here's the water park we promised you for Spring Break! lol

 

[Webbie]

Thanks for all the great responses! I will definitely have to take pictures of their faces! They are so Disney crazed and desperate for to go. It is so exciting but so excruciating keeping this humongous secret!

You are going to have a great time.
In the 14 trips to Disney over the years,1 trip was a surprise. Yes, seeing the kids faces was great but to be honest we enjoy the planning together a lot more.. It is part of the fun for my family.

Kathy

 

[mamaprincess]

Part of the fun for me is planning with them also but I think that by the time we have discussed it for the hundredth time and planned and planned they are almost satiated by all of that when they get their so this time we are trying it a little different so that the excitement stays with them the whole time. However, I'm sure we will plan with them again but maybe not so far in advance on future trips.

Thanks for all of your great responses!

 

[DebbieinWA]

We surprised our kids with a trip to Disneyland one year. It was great! We packed everything and had it all stashed in our vehicle. We woke them up early on a school day - they thought they had overslept. All four were asking, "What's going on??" They were shocked and ecstatic when we said, "We're going to Disneyland!" This was many years ago, and they still talk about how cool it was to be surprised.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Surprised myself a couple of years ago....

Was sitting at work on 2/26/2004 with vacation beginning and my birthday on the 27th--a big birthday, my 50th. Decided I wanted to watch Wishes for my birthday.

Checked E fares and found a great last minute fare, Fri through Tuesday. Called and got an AP rate for check in the next day. Called my DD and said "I'm going to WDW for my birthday, what are you going to do"? Her answer (tentative) "go with you?" Sure!

So we packed after work and were up bright and early the next day to fly off. Yes, saw wishes for my birthday. Was a great trip! Surprises are great.

Great story, I love it!!

OT Just a question - I thought you had to make ressies quite a bit in advance to get an AP rate, is that not the case? TIA.

 

[bbump]

We decided last year to taken Niece (9) and Nephew (8) with hubby, DD and I on a short trip to Disneyworld.

I typed up a crazy letter titled: "Guess this Place"
Then I listed bullet points such as: "See Pirates in action", "Listen to the same song over and over and over", "Watch fantastic fireworks displays", "Listen to annoying singing birds", "Watch a parade pass by"......

After Niece and Nephew read the letter, they still couldn't guess what the place was.....
The last bullet point said "You will taken an airplane to get there"
(Niece and Nephew have NEVER been on a plane trip before)

They still couldn't guess where it was....
so We gave them each a gift bag and they pulled out a personalized T-shirt with Mickey Mouse on them and the shirt had their names on it and the dates that we were taking the trip.

After that, we watched the "Happiest Celebration on Earth" planning video.

I don't think it sunk in, because they were just staring with blank expressions on thier faces.... but once we watched the video, they started getting excited.

Our trip has been over for 4 months now and sadly, we havn't seen them for a significant amount of time since the trip. (family drama issues) I am hoping they have many happy memories from the vacation.

For Christmas, we surprised DD with a trip to D-world (just the 3 of us this time)... we made a crazy home-made card with a riddle on it, and included 6 pins she could use for pin trading this time..... We will be there in 10 days!!!!
WOO HOOO!!!

Hope you have a great time planning the suprise!!!

 

[ready4mouse]

I know how hard this is!!! I feel like I'm going to burst! We're completely surprising my DS7 with his 1st trip to Disney- we've always told him that we'll go when he's 10 so that his brothers will be old enough to join the fun. He thinks we've picked a "hotel with a cool pool" to go to overnight in FL (that's how we're getting him on the plane without raising suspicion) and he's excited about that although we hear almost every other day that he's the only kids who's never been to Disney! We're going to see how long it will take him to "catch on" once we land. Maybe when we're on the Magical Express on our way to POR? What do you think will be the giveaway?

 

[pandamom]

Good luck on your surprise and have a wonderful trip!!!


We did a surprise trip last October and it was WONDERFUL! We planned a year out and it really was hard to keep it a secret sometimes but they had no idea we were going. The morning of our flight we woke them up early saying we were going out to breakfast (we were -- at the airport ). dd5 and dd7 went out and were ecstatic that we were going to breakfast in a limo (they didn't see the suitcases being loaded) and thought it was a really cool surprise. dd7 started to get suspicious when we got to the airport but still believed we were just going there for breakfast. Then she say's, "Hey, look someone is going to Disney!" as she pointed to our suitcases with the Disney tags. She looked closer and said, "Hey, their named Johnson too!" Looked closer, "Wait a minute they have our address! :::::thinking::::: Are we going to Disney? Are we? ARE WE?!!!" We didn't confirm anything until we were in the air but they were fairly positive once they saw the Orlando sign at boarding. I packed two bags with snacks and disney activities for the flight and gave them to them once we boarded. Each day we were there they got little notes/gifts from mickey and friends telling them what plans were coming up (fireworks cruise, mnsshp, family magic tour, lunch at CRT, grand floridian's pirate cruise, etc.) It really was a MAGICAL vacation and I'd love to do another surprise one day!

 

[anewvance]

Even though we live 3 hours south of Orlando, we still managed a surprise trip for our kids a few years ago. It was just a few days after hurricane frances. We were still without power, we had mold in our house and it was starting to smell really bad. We were tired of warm drinks and not able to find meat. We already had a trip planned, 3 nights BWV rental but that wasn't for another week. But we decided we wanted outta there. So my sister, little sister and 2 nephews and my 3 kids all took off to Disney World. I was able to get PC for $49 a night for 8 nights and finish up with the 3 nights at BWV....definately our longest Disney World trip ever.

Anyway, we told the kids we were driving to find meat and ice and milk. Because we had been without it for days, they totally thought we were serious. We had driven south a few days before to find some without luck. So we drive and get to the Gates of Disney, I thought we had tricked them into not looking at the signs but my oldest looked behind her and she knew when she saw them. So the surprise was out and we told them, "we didn't lie, we are here to get ice and milk and meat... and to have fun too!" It was such a nice get away!

 

[LibertyLover]

I was able to surprise my DD twice, although given she is only 3 that isn't hard. However, she loves Mickey, Cinderella's Castle and the Teacups ride and knows what WDW is. Last May I had a wedding to go to in Melbourne and arranged to take a couple extra days off so that she and I could go to WDW one last time before she turned 3 and I had to pay for her. We left the wedding reception early, went back to our hotel and checked out. I had told people that we were going back to Orlando that evening to stay over and catch an early flight out. DD fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until we hit CR's driveway. She was NOT HAPPY about being awakened but when I held her up and showed her the Castle she quit crying and started to laugh. Back in October I had to go to Ft. Myers on the spur of the moment for a funeral and arranged a quick trip to WDW for the family. DD and I went for the funeral and DH flew down and met us for a 3 night stay at YC. We did EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival for the first time and had a blast. I'm hoping that I can manage a quick trip again this October so we can do it again. Surprise trips are fun, but so are the ones the kid knows about.

 

[bellelinus]

The last day of school before summer break in June of 2003, I packed everything up for my girls while they were at school that morning. When they got home, I had them change without telling them where we were going. They were in a frenzy trying to guess where we were going when we got in the taxi with luggage -- I will never forget how excited they were when they realized we were headed for Disney! I have a habit of trying to surprise them with things, but this was my best one yet. I knew from January on that I had this trip planned and managed to keep it all a secret.

 

[Lorelai]

3 Years Ago We Surprised Our Children (then 7,4,and 4). We Woke Them Up At 5am And Told Them We Were Going To Disney. We Had Evrything Packed And Loaded In Car. We Awoke Them W/ Camcorder In Hand And Nobody Wanted To Wake Up!! I Was So Disapponted In Their Reaction! We Had To Dress Them And It Wasn't Until We Were On The Plane That They Seemed To Finally Get It!

We are about to have our 1st surprise trip in April/May. Actually, it was a surprise to us (the parents) too. My husband was asked to go to a business meeting in Orlando.

But the above experience is why we decided to not wait until wake up time to tell our 4 and 7 year olds. We also have to awaken at 5am, and I just think that they would be totally dazed and confused. So we're telling them the day before. So that way they can have a little anticipation, that's half the fun!

As for our 12 year old, he needs about a week notice to get all of his schoolwork in order, and he's a vault - so I know he'll never spill the beans. But we are very excited. Any suggestions as to how to break the news?

 

[lynninpa]

Just last Saturday, we announced a three-generation-family surprise trip-using fortune cookies! Yup, fortune cookies!
If you are interested, we posted the whole "story" on the FAMILY forum.