How Can I Keep The Secret?

[Grumpy's Wife]

I recently had to cancel a family trip to WDW we were going to take in February. Of course my children know that we will reschedule. They just don't know when. So my question is to all of you who are able to keep the secret from your kids. I am such a planner. It seems I am always on the DIS or a Disney website searching around. I would love to surprise my kids but I really dont know if I could hold out. So please help me. How do you do it??? Thanks for any advise you can give me.
In case this helps my children are age 5 age 9 and age 13.

 

[meghan74]

My dd is only 5, so it is still fairly easy to keep the secret. We are leaving in 5 days and she still hasn't figured it out!

I am keeping it a secret because it is more fun for me and it keeps her from exploding with excitement before we even get to the airport. Last time we went, she asked me everyday for two months if we were going to WDW today. On departure day, she was jumping up and down with excitement every moment she wasn't buckled into a car or airplane seat. Sounds great, but have you ever tried making it through airport security with a child that is jumping up and down and telling EVERYONE around her that she is going to Disney World? Anyway, she was exhausted by the time we got to Orlando and I vowed that future trips were going to be a surprise! I am planning to tell her that we are going to visit relatives and wait until we are on the Magic Express bus to mention that we are actually visiting relatives at WDW.

My tips:
-pack at night and keep the suitcase(s) out of sight
-all planning is simply "research" for the trip you hope to take "someday" Try telling your kids that you are going about 6 months after the date of your real trip.
-put the suitcases in the car the night before you leave, after the kids are asleep
-try really, really hard not to say anything until you absolutely must. It is such a great moment and so worth the wait.

Good luck!

 

[Marimar]

We struggled w/this...dh and I have decided to torture ourselves and give the trip as a Xmas gift. We realize there will be two very long weeks of "When do we leave?," but I really felt that the anticipation of going was part of the magic...no?

As to methods that have helped keep dd in the dark (she will turn six on our WDW trip! )...do all of the planning while she is at school and I make sure to not let her browse when I am on DIS or doing any research for our trip online. DS (just turned four) has no clue. I have done a couple of ADR w/him in the room...clueless!

As for packing...we also surprised them w/a Thanksgiving holiday beach vacation; South Padre Island...we return home tomorrow . They helped pack....four our Dallas trip . DD did ask, "Have we passed Austin yet?" We just told her we were going a different way. "Oh!," she said, "We must be taking a short cut." DH and I just glanced at each other w/a smurk on our faces! Have to admit...the look on their faces when they saw our familiar stay at the beach was priceless!!!

 

[maciec]

Keeping this trip a surprise was very difficult for me. I had every intention of waiting until the day of to tell my dd (5yoa) that we were going. I just couldn't keep it in any longer and I told her. I even made her a paper ring chain to take help keep track of how many days until we went. Well, this actually worked to my favor. She forgot to take off a couple of days and I refused to tell her when we are going. I did cave in a few times and catch her up. As of 2 nights ago there were 9 days left in the chain. She went to rip one off and ripped off the wrong chain by accent, so now she has absolutely no idea of when we are going except that it is very soon.

It's pretty fun knowing that my surprise that I blew is now back on. I think that we are going to wake her up and tell her that she is going to school early (pre-school) and when we make the wrong turn out of our development and she asks where we are going we will spill the beans.