How did you surprise your kids??

[LisainCalifornia]

We are going in June, staying at the Disneyland Hotel. This time disney.com offered a "character call" for people that book a package through them staying at the hotel---it is where a character of your choice calls your kids to tell them they are coming to Disneyland Resort. It was really fun! I scheduled the call right before bedtime the night I booked the package, and had my daughter answer. We put it on speaker phone, so my other 2 kids could listen in as Mickey and Minnie told them we were going to Disneyland soon and they couldn't wait to see them.

Excitement and jumping followed!

 

[DisneyPhreak]

We've surprised our now 7 YO son twice in the last couple of years.

The first time he was 5 and we made up this story about a trip we were taking that ended up seriously out of control. At the time I had a job working in HVAC and told him that I had a job out of state that I had to go do, but that all of us were going. He said, what state? First thing that I blurted out was Arkansas??? (where did that come from? lol) Somehow the story grew and grew so that I was going to Arkansas to put air conditioning in chicken coups? WTH? How it got to that I'll never know. So the night before we went and spent the night at a friends house who lives near the airport. In the morning when he woke up we told him we had bad news...the airline was out of tickets to Arkansas and we couldnt go there. (He was seriously bummed, wierd kid). So we told him we'd let him pick anywhere else he wanted to go...his choice. We figured he'd blurt out DLand cuz its all he talked about for a year before that. But he kept saying "I dunno?" We're trying to give him hints....anywhere buddy, anywhere. Finally I threw him a shirt and said, really...anywhere. He finally quietly mumbled..how bout Disneyland? Ding ding ding! Finally!


2nd time somehow we kept the secret from him for months, even tho people would accidentally drop hints...but fortunately he never got it. So the day came and we took him out of school early and told him I had a job to go look at in Seattle. When we got down there pulled into a gas station to fill up and first handed him some Mickey Mouse suckers that a friend who had been the week before brought back for him. Then we gave him an envelope that had the Disneyland sign generator (link posted earlier) that said "Garretts going to Dland today". He read it at least 5 times before he "got it". I swear he was gunna bounce thru the roof of the car. Right then we turned into the valet park and headed off to the Happiest Place on Earth.

 

[TwinsRmyLife]

Great stories! thanks for all your responses. We're debating on surprising them the week before we leave on their actual 6th Birthday or waking them up (at 4:00am) and telling them the day we leave, or on the way to the airport or at the airport, or on the plane....agggh, want it to be as memorable surprise as possible. also thought of making some sort of scavanger hunt the night before and having them figure it out themselves. still have a few weeks to come up with something. sooooooooo excited, thanks again for sharing all your wonderful stories!

 

[hlbtimes2]

Our first surprise trip was in March 06 (kids were 4 and 7). We told the kids we were going to Long Beach for daddys work. We are in Seattle and his company is located in Long Beach. We had a direct flight to LB airport, rather then our typical flight through SF. So, the kids had no idea how close we were to DL. We flew in late that evening, so they fell asleep in the car on the way to the hotel. We hid everything in the room that had Disneyland on it. We woke them up the next morning, gave them a bath and got them ready to go. When they were all ready we told them we were really going to DL, not daddys work.

The following year, April 07, we surprised them again. I made a scavanger hunt for them. It had things like "go to the place our princess sleeps and see what you can find!". On my dd's bed we had some pool toys from "Ariel", from there they went to where Buzz and Woody live (my ds's build a bears from DTD), there they found some gift cards. They also found nemo fruit snacks, gathered dvd's for the plane ride, Mickey color books, etc. The last part was to press play on the portable dvd player. It had the disney planning dvd in it. My dd figured it out right away. She said she had guessed about 1/2 through the hunt, but didnt want to guess and be wrong. We also scheduled a call from Mickey, which came in right about when they were finishing up looking for items and watching the dvd. It was soooo much fun! When we got to the airport grandma and grandpa were there waiting to come along too.

They know we are going in May, but dont know what days. I'm trying to come up with a clever way to spring it on them. They want another hunt, but I just dont think it will be as exciting since they'll know what the "prize" is as soon as they start. I think I may do some word search / cross word puzzles for them this time.

 

[MomBoyd]

All of these stories and ideas are great. But I love the idea of surprising your spouse/significant other too, not just the kids. So Huge5's story really gave me a . Too bad Delaware is such a long way from DL and WDW , because I wouldlove to "kidnap" the family and take them to Disney... maybe a trip to Philly would work as cover. OK, now you guys have got me planning another Disney trip before we even take the one in June!

For the trip in June my DS and DH thought we were staying in the BWPPI. I surprised them with an upgrade to the DLH. Their Valentine's Day present (I couldn't wait any longer) was a game of hangman. The answer was we will be staying at the Disneyland Hotel. DH got it about half way through and got a look of wonder on his face. Once DS figured it out I showed them pictures of the DLH and we must have talked about it for an hour! I only wish I could have kept the secret longer.

 

[jemilah]

I have to tell you keeping the secret was sooo hard, I am not sure I would do it again. But it was fun!

 

[avalon451]

All of these stories and ideas are great. But I love the idea of surprising your spouse/significant other too, not just the kids. So Huge5's story really gave me a . Too bad Delaware is such a long way from DL and WDW , because I wouldlove to "kidnap" the family and take them to Disney... maybe a trip to Philly would work as cover. OK, now you guys have got me planning another Disney trip before we even take the one in June!

For the trip in June my DS and DH thought we were staying in the BWPPI. I surprised them with an upgrade to the DLH. Their Valentine's Day present (I couldn't wait any longer) was a game of hangman. The answer was we will be staying at the Disneyland Hotel. DH got it about half way through and got a look of wonder on his face. Once DS figured it out I showed them pictures of the DLH and we must have talked about it for an hour! I only wish I could have kept the secret longer.

The kids knew about our first DL trip. But I decided to pull a couple of surprises on both the kids and DH. I sprang for a limousine ride from SNH to the Grand Californian. It was SO FUN to surprise my normally taciturn, "nothing fazes me" engineer husband!

In the days before we left, he kept asking me if I'd arranged for the airport shuttle, had I confirmed, etc. He looked at me a little funny when we were at baggage check and I was calling a number on my cell phone and saying, "Hi, yeah, we have our bags and we're headed out to the curb."

He flies into SNA for business several times a year, so he's quite familiar with the layout. He stood there at the curb and pointed and said, "We have to cross to get to the shuttles over there." I replied calmly, "No, we're fine here." He got that "Ok, she's crazy but I'll humor her" look but kept quiet for a couple minutes, finally said, "Really, Gail, we have to be OVER THERE to catch the shuttle." I repeated that we were fine. He told me later he thought I'd seriously flipped. Then about a minute later a big black limo pulls up directly in front of us, and I said, "Here's our ride." The look on his face was priceless! And the kids, too! It was also priceless to lean back in the limo and relax with a glass of champagne while the kids sipped Pepsi and waved at people through the smoked windows and pretended to be rock stars.

The other surprise was Fantasmic reserved seating. That was great, too.

I love this thread! You guys are all so imaginative!

 

[jemilah]

Gail that was awsome!

 

[DLovinFam]

The kids knew about our first DL trip. But I decided to pull a couple of surprises on both the kids and DH. I sprang for a limousine ride from SNH to the Grand Californian. It was SO FUN to surprise my normally taciturn, "nothing fazes me" engineer husband!

In the days before we left, he kept asking me if I'd arranged for the airport shuttle, had I confirmed, etc. He looked at me a little funny when we were at baggage check and I was calling a number on my cell phone and saying, "Hi, yeah, we have our bags and we're headed out to the curb."

He flies into SNA for business several times a year, so he's quite familiar with the layout. He stood there at the curb and pointed and said, "We have to cross to get to the shuttles over there." I replied calmly, "No, we're fine here." He got that "Ok, she's crazy but I'll humor her" look but kept quiet for a couple minutes, finally said, "Really, Gail, we have to be OVER THERE to catch the shuttle." I repeated that we were fine. He told me later he thought I'd seriously flipped. Then about a minute later a big black limo pulls up directly in front of us, and I said, "Here's our ride." The look on his face was priceless! And the kids, too! It was also priceless to lean back in the limo and relax with a glass of champagne while the kids sipped Pepsi and waved at people through the smoked windows and pretended to be rock stars.

The other surprise was Fantasmic reserved seating. That was great, too.

I love this thread! You guys are all so imaginative!

I love it!!

I did surprise dh and the kids the last trip with Fantasmic! Balcony seating. I think dh was quite impressed. He didn't even know what Fantasmic was (let alone the balcony seating) before we went.

 

[farmfresh]

We are set to leave next week and my kids have no idea. We leave in the afternoon, after school gets out. I have made them an itinerary, which will be in an envelope when we get home. In it are the instructions - have a shower, get dressed and we're off to the airport.

It has been hard keeping it secret, but it will be worth it. I have thrown out a few red herrings- as it is our school holiday time - like other local destinations we might think of going to, or programmes they might like to do.

I'll pack when they are at school on thursday, and i have lists of everything, so it should be no problem.

 

[Isabel]

Our daughter and son were a little older when we took them to Disney World the first time - just starting middle school and high school. We told them that now that they were starting in new schools, we were going to watch a video from the library and then discuss it afterward. Expecting a lecture on drugs or drinking, both kids rolled their eyes and flopped on the couch. The video started and "YOUR DISNEY VACATION" flashed on the screen. It took a good 10 minutes for the jumping up and down and screaming to stop!

 

[moonbeams4]

Great stories! thanks for all your responses. We're debating on surprising them the week before we leave on their actual 6th Birthday or waking them up (at 4:00am) and telling them the day we leave, or on the way to the airport or at the airport, or on the plane....agggh, want it to be as memorable surprise as possible. also thought of making some sort of scavanger hunt the night before and having them figure it out themselves. still have a few weeks to come up with something. sooooooooo excited, thanks again for sharing all your wonderful stories!

I would tell them ahead of time. We told them on Easter about our trip the 1st week of May. I have had so much fun talking about it with them, and preparing for the trip and telling stories about it. It's really been a lot of fun.

 

[MomBoyd]

BUMP! These stories are giving me great ideas!

 

[Bugsmom73]

Great Ideas. We are telling the kids either Sunday the 20th or the 27th. Still figuring it all out.

 

[MrJT]

This probably won't help, but I just love the story...
Back in 2004, the Air Force sent me to Germany for 4 months. My family was still in New England. At one point, I was trying to arrange a trip to DL Paris with some of my coworkers, but things were not falling into place.
In the middle of my time there, my wife and son were planning to visit me for about a week or so. The three of us were already going to go to Paris for the weekend, but we were only going to visit the city. I'm talking to my wife about a week or two before they fly out, and we decide that we should take the boy to Disneyland while we were in Paris...but of course we needed to keep it a secret.
So I made my reservations, and we got a couple of nights in a hotel outside the city (which was accessible by subway) and very close to Disney.
We drove from Ramstein Village to right outside of Paris. Right before we got to our exit, I start seeing signs for Disneyland...and I'm hoping that my son doesn't catch on. He doesn't even notice the signs. We checked into our hotel, and then we went back to the lobby, on our way to dinner. In the lobby, my son notices a map, and showed how close we were. He said "Wow, we are really close. We should just drive by and look at it". I tell him "that wouldn't be any fun", and I let it go.
The next morning, we hopped into the car, and drove to DL. We popped in the Disney CD, and once we were just aobut there, we played "The Mickey Mouse March". My son (he was 7 at the time) notices the giant sign, and yells "Are we going to Disneyland?!?"
That's how we did the surpirse Disneyland trip.

 

[thesoldtrain]

I know this is technically a WDW story, but it works for DLR, too. When we were going, the kids knew, but for the special things we were doing, we "wrote" a letter from our kids' favorite Disney characters to them. The kids were 6 and 2 then, so really, this was for our 6 year-old. We typed a letter and put it on scrapbook paper themed with that character. The letter told them about a special event they would be doing on the trip (character breakfast, or whatever), and it would be signed by the character. We also included Disney Dollars in each envelope, which ended up being her spending $. We sent 4 within 2 weeks or so (sent meaning we put it into a decorated envelope and stuck it into the mailbox late at night, heehee). She loved getting them...in fact, now she is 9 and a half and the other day she came across those letters when cleaning her room. She came running up to me saying, "MOMMY! LOOK! It is the letters the princesses wrote me!" Love it!

Jeanette