How and when to tell dd she is going to WDW

[wideeyes]

Hi well I have booked for WDW for next year and I have not told my dd who at the moment is 4 ( she will be 5 when we go) that we are going. Mainly because its a long time away and she does not understand time yet. Also she had DLP to look forward to at the moment.

Now what I am wondering how is the best way to tell her and when.

Has anyone surprised there kids by not telling them until the day they leave or even not telling them and letting them figure it out themselves.

Any ideas?

TIA

 

[carolfoy]

I've read loads of reports on the other trip report boards of people who have managed to keep their whole trip a secret, some not even telling the kids until they get on the plane! I think this sounds wonderful but I know I'm not capable of keeping a secret like that. If you can do it then you know it'll be fabulous, you could take her to the airport on the premise of 'picking someone up' or just going 'airplane spotting' and then surprise her then.
Other than that I'd definately wait until you've got DLP out of the way so she can thoroughly enjoy that for what it is.

 

[AndRu]

Our kids were older (9, 7 & 6) on the last visit in Feb '05 but we did this:

Bought each of them a Disney Christmas card
Created fake Virgin Atlantic plane tickets
Got them $50 each in cash
Put the money and the plane tickets in the cards with a note from Mickey / Donald / Minnie saying how much they were looking forward to see our children in 6 weeks time.

I remember my DD (the eldest) realising what was going on, grabbing my eldest DS by the shoulders and saying "We - Are - Going - Back - To - Disney - In - Six - Weeks". She said it slowly and deliberately .... as DS and our youngest realised all hell broke loose! They were bouncing off the sofas, jumping up and down and screaming for joy.

It's lovely when you can do that for your children!

 

[Deedee]

We did a little treasure hunt for our DD one time we hid clues all round the house then the last one told her where she was going her face was a picture. a friend of mine did keep it from her daughter they woke her up in the middle of the night and told her they were going out she was almost at the airport before she realised.

 

[Booknut]

That treasure hunt thing sounds fab!!! What a brilliant surprise to give a child!

I was born and raised in Canada and my parents were always very cagey about when we would travel to Europe as we were highly exciteable

Sometimes we wouldn't know exactly when we were leaving as my dad would have taken the suitcases to the car whilst my mother distracted us and we would think we were going shopping or something!

Of course this did backfire on them once as we were just arriving at the airport (we had just been told we were going to Portugal!) when my younger sister (4 at the time) realised she did not have her special blanket with her. She threw the biggest crying fit on earth and my parents had to drive back to get the blanket as they realised it would be cruel to make her go without it for 2 months! We almost didn't make that flight!

 

[angel659]

Hi

I love the card idea. It sounded so cute.

Last year our daughter knew she was going to Disney, as the TA said wow your going to disney nexy year. It was meant to be a secret, but the TA didnt know and we didnt think to tell the TA it was a secret.

In the end we started to tell her it was still far away when time was getting close. When we got Casey up we told her we had to get up early as we needed to get a part for daddy's PC and then she is going to school. We dressed her up as Minnie, and told her it was dressing up day. When we arrived at the airport she saw the planes and asked are we going to disney and we said yes. She was so excited and shocked.

Next time we are booking it all on line, so it will be a bigger surprise.

 

[mandymouse]

One year, when the girls were very young we managed to get them to the Airport hotel the night before without them realising, then we had to wake them early to tell them they were going to WDW that morning ~ that was a real shock for them

Then one time, I made a box of goodies with T-shirts, camera, dollars, sunglasses etc in it, and they sat there bewildered opening this present until the penny dropped

It's great now that they are older because they can enjoy the planning and have an understanding of time ~ whereas it's much more difficult for little ones to have a long time to wait

Have fun planning your surprise

Mandy

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

I must admit I find it very hard to keep things like that a secret from the kids.......I'm usually bouncing off the walls with excitement myself when we book and I can't help but tell them!!

I'd love just once to be able to keep it a secret till the morning we go, but don't think I caould do it!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wideeyes]

some fantastic ideas!

It will be hard to keep it a secert however it sounds great fun to surpise her with it! I have been going excited about it myself today however I am pretendibg its DLP that I am excited about! (which I am)

 

[jns]

The first year we went we done the treasure hunt 2 days before we went
just so they could join in the planning and all our family could enjoy there excitement as well
I have it all on video priceless

I have the cruise booked this year and do not know how I am going to tell DH
let alone the kids


I had a hard time getting the boys to go with me to Tenerife this year as they thought we wouldn't be going to WDW this year
little do they know it is all booked
another surprize

 

[wifey]

I agree it's great to surprise the kids with a trip to DWD we did it a while back, a few weeks before we went we showed DS dvds of old trips, dvds of the characters like Muppets, Bear in the big blue House etc, Photos from previous trips and he sat and took it all in. A couple of days before we flew we bought some games for him to play on his DS and a spare battery so (that kept him busy on the plane) He likes to fly so wasn't bothered about the journey but once we landed he was ecstatic and kept asking "are we in Disney now" we had to remind him 'Disney' was the name of the theme park we were in Florida and would visit the parks over the days we stayed. He loved it !!I think it only hit home when we got off the plane!!

 

[wideeyes]

some fantastic ideas!

It will be hard to keep it a secert however it sounds great fun to surpise her with it! I have been going excited about it myself today however I am pretendibg its DLP that I am excited about! (which I am)

Was I drunk when I wrote this or was it just the excitement?

 

[Cyrano]

We managed to keep Christmas season visit to DLP a secret until morning of flight.
It was hard work but the delight of the troops made the secret all the better.
Let us know what you decide to do

What about a postcard from WDW saying Mickey would love to see your DD