How did you tell your kids you were going?

[Waltworshiper]

My boys 11,10,and7, know they are going, they just don't know when. I am doing everything in my power to drop false hints. Right now they are convinced they are going sometime in January, when we are actually leaving the last week of Aug. We don't plan on telling them until we are at the airport. My husband works at the airport, so we are going to tell them daddy is having car trouble and we need to go get him. DH will have taken the luggage that morning with him, so when we park and get out of the car, they will finally realize that we are leaving then. Plus we have an additional surprise that their stepbrother and his wife are joining us, they won't know that until later that night when we pick them up at the Orlando Airport.

 

[disney minnie]

My children (9 and 3) don't know we are going. We are going on our cruise over Labor Day weekend, so we are going to tell the kids we are just going to get in the car and drive. Our first stop will be Downtown Disney where the boys can go to Disney Quest and play all day. After dinner we will get back in the car and head to Port Canaveral. I think I will have a set of questions that the kids will need to answer and with each correct answer they will receive a clue. After they quess we will put the Disney Cruise dvd in the player and watch it for the remainder of the trip.

I have already been collecting stuff, but I get it out of my car and hide it while the kids are in school. Yeah for school!!!

 

[KayR]

We haven't told ours yet! We are going on 9/12 and my plan is not to tell them until we get to the port. We are going to Kissimmee for a week before hand and they know about that. Perhaps we will just spend a few days at the coast whilst we are there. "Oh look, oh look, there's the Mickey Boat, lets see if we can say Hi to Mickey" or something along those lines. 9/12 is also DD birthday so it will be a doubly fun day.

-Kay

 

[brucechase]

This is what I did a year ago.

I posted this in our meet thread. I kept it a secret for 2 months and it was killing me.

For those that are interested, I thought I would detail how my family found out about our cruise. I booked a while ago and intended on giving it to them for Christmas, but my wife went a little overboard on the gifts (IPod and Wii) and I decided to hold out. I originally was going to give it to her for our anniversary (May 11) but I then decided that it would be too close to the sail date. So the only other time was for her birthday (Jan 28). I decided to combine the gift with a surprise party to really throw her off. I needed some time to set everything up so I sent her and the kids on a treasure hunt, and that would give me enough time to set up the party. Now I really didn’t have any help on this and with work, it made it really difficult to do it all, but I think it turned out great.

I decided to give them clues to the “ultimate treasure” that they would be able to find on the way. There was a total of 6 stops and at each stop, there was something related to the cruise and a clue for the next stop. I even spelled out the word CRUISE in the clues with highlighted letters (but they never got that).

I had a treasure box delivered at noon on Saturday. In it was a letter telling them they were going on the treasure hunt and the clue to the first stop.

At the first stop, they received a bag of tortillas and salsa – to signify Mexico

At the second stop, they received a bag of M&Ms and a coconut – for Mickey Mouse and Konk Koolers.

At the third stop, they received an artist palate – for the restaurant Animator’s Palate

At the fourth stop, they received a key – the first part of Key West

At the fifth stop, they got a lime and a compass pointing to West – this was for Key West

At the sixth stop, they received a bag of cookies (with a pirate on them) and a bottle of barbeque sauce – this is for Cookies Bar-B-Q on Castaway Cay

The hunt took almost 3 hours so I had time to set up the party, cook taquitos and wings, and get a 6 foot sub sandwich. I also had little snacks everywhere and made some Margaritas to finish off the refreshments. I finally packed a box decorated like a treasure chest with a water bottle, the return postcard from Mickey, and the itinerary. The water bottle was just like our last cruise, it had a picture of the Magic and the new dates of our cruise.

About 15 people showed up (I had invited about 40) so there was plenty of food and drinks. After the family arrived back at our house, I had them lay the clues out on the floor and try to solve the puzzle. After about 10 minutes of frustration (and I could see some tears) I gave her the treasure box. That’s when the tears started flowing – but this time it was happiness. I did go through and explain each clue to everyone.

It was a good time. I did get in a little trouble from some of the other men there saying that I made them look bad by going so far overboard. That’s OK, I doubt I will be able to pull something like this off again.

 

[Clare]

We leave in less than a week and our DD's (7 and 5) still don't know! We are keeping it a secret until they spot the ship or until we can't stand it any longer!!!

 

[sara mom]

We leave in less than a week and our DD's (7 and 5) still don't know! We are keeping it a secret until they spot the ship or until we can't stand it any longer!!!

We are doing the same thing! The kids know we are going on a cruise in January (preplanned 8 mos ago), but have no idea that we are also going on the Magic in November. When I had them try on their summer clothes for the cruise, I just told them it was for the January cruise and they were none the wiser. As for getting there...we are driving from NY. My kids are very use to long car rides (we travel often around East Coast), so we are just telling them "Road Trip!". We have some clues for them- Mickey word searches for car and we've been reading and watching lots of Disney books and movies lately.

 

[mjosburn]

We just got home from Disney World last Saturday. For a few months prior to that trip, we had a countdown to Disney plate in the kitchen. I made a big production of putting the plate away a few days ago. We booked a cruise for June 15 of next year. Within the next month or so, I'll sneak the plate back out, write the # of days on it, & see how long it takes the girls (10 & 9) to notice. I really like the idea of these treasure hunts that I read on here though, so I may have to incorporate something like that!

 

[NWmom]

We have pulled off surprise trips to both WDW and DL. We have a special needs son that would have driven me nuts had he known. It would have been incessant questions fixated on just one or two rides on everything from who designed them to how they worked. So we like to keep him in the dark as much as possible too far in advance. Especially when we are trapped in a car with him on the way there.

WDW- we lived in Michigan and drove down to north Florida to visit my sister. We kept our luggage in the van due to space. She sneaked and packed her bags and added them to ours the night before under cover that it was my laundry being packed, the suitcases just made it weasier to keep dry in the rain.

She packed a cooler for a picnic plus had the rest of the groceries in her car (food for the week). We drove south. When we got to Ocala at the old Welcome store we spilled the beans to the kids. Only 2 hours of excitement.

Another time we flew down to Orlando and drove to Miami for a cousins wedding/mom's retirement. We kidnappped mom(Grandma) and met my sister at OKW for a family reunion. Everyone else knew ahead where we were going the day before.

The best one was our trip to Disneyland in 2008.

We planned to go there about 6 months in advance. Kids thought we were going to a National Park and a homeschooling conference. (Which we did as well) I played up that California was a really long state and DL was at the very bottom and too far to go. I also hid the maps so the kids could not find the town the conference was in and compare.

I had told them that DL was just too far away and not this trip. At the end of the second day about 30 minutes from Anaheim I mentioned I was getting hungry and could use a bathroom break before long- (a key to kids to finish their drinks).

As I saw the highway signs indicating Disneyland, ds15 comments, "Mom, we are really close to Disneyland"

I acted very surprised and said, "Well, they have bathrooms and restaurants . . . Do we want to splurge and have our evening meal there and stretch our legs?"

Of course, they did. We pulled up to the Grand Califiornian. The man at the booth asked if we had reservations. I said, "Yes" and gave our name.

Now in the back my son (very literal special needs one) is telling me I can't lie to the Disney employee and arguing at me so he can not hear the man say, "Welcome Home!" (DVC thing that had he heard would have tipped him off)

I drive the car the other 50 yards to the check in/luggage unloading area. Son is still arguing that I lied. I turn to him. Tell him to be quiet for a minute and listen very carefully to his mama and say, "Mama does not lie, SURPRISE!!!!"

He stops talking (huge) and dd 6 shrieks as she realizes WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!.

Disney staff is startled and asks if everything is ok. I tell them the kids just found out they were going to Disneyland! They asked where we were from and how we got there.

I said Washington state and we drove two days to get there.

They were impressed at our sneakiness.

Homeschool conference was 5 days later. We did drive through a National Park on the way there. Mama does not lie, she just doesn't tell you everything!

 

[NWmom]

Current sneakiness. We have a B2B as you can see in our ticker.

DD9 did not want to know any plans as she wanted a surprise like when we went to DL.

She knew about one of the crusies, but not the other. Lately she has been getting a bit nosy and reading my computer over my shoulder a lot. She saw the double ticker and commented on it.

I told her that when you snoop you can ruin your own surprises or cause yourself unnecessary disappointments. Like snooping for Christmas presents.

So this time the surprise is spoiled. I do see her being the one to make the surprises in her future though.

 

[Dramamama]

We will be on the Wonder Nov. 27. DH, DW, DS, DD, Grandma, and grandpa. We told the kids we are going to a wedding in CA. And we have family reunion activities going on, like special dinners, a beach day, pool time. So I can pack everything they need and they don't know it's for the cruise. We hope the don't find out until they see the ship.

 

[mmouse37]

Long time posters will know I have posted these pics before when this topic comes up....we surprised our kids on Christmas morning back in 1997 for the MV of the Magic. I had bought DCL t-shirts at the DCL preview center at WDW in the Emporium that year (they only had size XL) and also made a "certificate" giving them passage on the Magic.

The MV got pushed back from March 11, 1998 to April 30, 1998 and then finally left on July 30, 1998. Talk about juggling schedules that year!!



Then.....1997

And in 2005 on our last family DCL cruise.....

We were actually able to get them all booked on our family Fantasy cruise next June!!! Between kids with jobs on both coasts and grad school it was wasn't easy planning!

MJ

 

[mellojon]

My mom surprised me by pulling out suitcases that were already packed and said we have to fly to Florida tonight because were going on a Disney Cruise.

 

[KaryCam]

Our family is going on our first cruise ever this Christmas.
I have been holding this secret since January - it has been a long year.
We plan on telling DS12 on Thanksgiving Day because that will be exactly 30 days out. The cruise is Dec. 24 - 30.
We decided to wait so that he is not "waiting & waiting" the so many months before. 30 days will give him time to look over lots of info on this message board like menus, navigators, and pictures but it won't be too long until we leave.
I plan on doing a treasure hunt like many have talked about. I have made a special card to give him too.

The hardest part was when he started talking about wanting to go see snow this year for Christmas (we live in Florida). Then also when lots of people we know went on cruises this year.

One funny thing is that he is doing his science fair project on seasickness. We kind of lead him to this along with the fact that we knew so many people going on a cruise. Then when he needs to do the Application part of his report, he can talk about analyzing the data to determine what to use for his cruise. Oh, if anyone wants to add their experience with children and seasickness, please find my thread about the report and enter your data.

I am so looking forward to telling DS.

 

[DreamBound23]

We still haven't told them and we don't plan to either. We are going to wake them up in the morning and tell them to get dressed. Then we're going to drive to the airport and tell them we're going to Florida for the long weekend. When we get to Florida we will stay 2 nights at the hotel before the cruise. When we pack up to take the shuttle to the cruise, we're going to tell them that we're going home, but 1st the Disney cruise ship is really close so we're going to see if we can take a tour. They will obviously figure it out when we take our luggage off the shuttle.

I get emotional just typing this...I cannot wait!!!!!

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

Just told her. That's it that's all.

 

[XMom]

We had a large box and when they opened it 3 balloons came out with notes attached written by Mickey and The Princesses and The Gang(thanks to the DIS Boards) that explained that they need to pack their bags because they were leaving on their Disney Cruise on Sunday!! They couldn't believe it!! In the box we also had t-shirts I made, flip flops and sun glasses.

This next time my DH just wants to get in the car and drive there without telling them. I love the anticipation, but maybe kids don't really need the anticipation. They will be 8, 6 and 4 when we go in March.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Our first cruise is on April 19th. Our kids don't know yet. We don't want to tell them too far in advance, but do want to let them know about it.

I thought last night that it might be fun to tell them on April fools day!

Now I just need some ideas as to how to surprise them!

They are 10 and 7.

How did you tell your kids they were going on a cruise?

Thanks for any ideas!

We like to surprise our kids but they don't always do well with very last minute surprises so this time a few days prior to our flight, I casually said to dh in front of the kids, "The kids are off Thurs & Fri. You feel like doing something next week?" So he said, "Sure! Let's do something really fun!"
"Wouldn't it be great to sail on the Dream?" "That sounds like a great idea See if you can get us a cabin!"
Then we gave them these, made by the Dis-ers on the Disigning Boards:

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We had a large box and when they opened it 3 balloons came out with notes attached written by Mickey and The Princesses and The Gang(thanks to the DIS Boards) that explained that they need to pack their bags because they were leaving on their Disney Cruise on Sunday!! They couldn't believe it!! In the box we also had t-shirts I made, flip flops and sun glasses.

This next time my DH just wants to get in the car and drive there without telling them. I love the anticipation, but maybe kids don't really need the anticipation. They will be 8, 6 and 4 when we go in March.

Oh this is great! Do it while they're little. As they get older they start making their own plans for weekends and not that they're not excited about going but once ds had waited all week to play in the snow but was so busy with homework & karate all week he was so looking forward to Fri evening to play. (Back in the days when we rarely got snow.) We couldn't even get him in the car he put up such a fuss. Finally got to the point we had to be in the car NOW or we'd be late to the airport and had to tell him. He cried, "But there's no snow in Florida!" Yes, Honey, that's the whole point. I didn't say that but sure was thinking it.
Now when we do surprises, we spill the beans a few days ahead. Gives him a little time to transition.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

Thanks for the great ideas! We are going on our first cruise for Christmas, Dream Dec 22. Kids and husband have never been to Disney - ever (and my trip was a few decades ago). We have not told the kids yet (13yo and 5yo) and plan to the morning we fly out. I've already bought a stuffed Minnie and Mickey to sit on their chairs in the morning and they will hold a note for each of them saying we are going on a trip. I love the idea of a box with balloons, though...may have to add that in. We do not plan to tell them of the cruise until the morning we board the bus to the terminal! The only glitch here is that the 13yo might catch on at some point...and she doesn't ask or tell you if she has caught on either until post-event....so I won't be sure....

 

[txsoccermom]

So once again, I am going to surprise the family (DH and kiddos), along with my mom this time! We are sailing on Jun 2, so I thought I would tell all of them on Mother's Day (May 13) b/c that is my mom's 80th bday. How fun would that be?! School would almost be out here, state testing done, and little time to hear the whining of "Is it time to go yet?" Then I started to 2nd guess myself b/c I think my mom will go nuts with that short of time to plan for a 7 day cruise. So, now I have to figure out when in the spring to do it, and how, since she lives in MD and we are in TX - ugh! She will be coming here for DS' 1st communion in the spring, so maybe I can plan that for April and let the cat out of the bag to everyone then. Don't know....

All I do know is that it has to be something/someway fairly quick and easy for them to figure out! I was getting an FE for her room and thought I could put that in a box with some things I have seen the DISers make and a note like "You will need this for our trip in June!" The kids would be going crazy Mom, she would be shell-shocked and probably not happy I planned this behind her back, but oh well! I do like the scrabble clues though, and the note from Captain Mickey on Disney Cruise Line paper. Those are some good ones. Hhhhhhmmmm, I am hoping by bumping this I will get more ideas

TIA!