How did you tell your kids?

[-cheryl-]

I'm looking for some creative, fun and memorable ways to tell the girls we are going to Disney. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[pezpam]

My daughter knows we're going to visit my grandmother - she has no idea we're going to WDW and I am seriously thinking of not telling her, but letting her realize it when we pull up at Pop Century! Should be memorable.

If you want to let them know farther in advance than that, you could do a scavenger hunt. Make the last item a note or maybe even have each find be a letter and once they have all the letters they can unscramble them.

Depending on how you think they'd react in public, you could have a server at a restaurant deliver a special card or note with dessert.

Maybe someone going to WDW could be persuaded to send a postcard to your kids "signed" by Mickey and saying how he's looking forward to meeting them. (or any favorite character)

 

[Rachie0507]

I can't keep a secret. My kids already know and we aren't going until December

My brother in law surprised his kids though. They were 10 and 7 at the time. They didn't do anything creative. They just announced a few days before, 'oh by the way, we are leaving for DisneyWorld on Monday'. Even though it wasn't anything exciting, the kids still went nuts. They didn't have all that time to lose their interest about it (like I am now afraid for my own kids).

 

[mommytutu]

I said "Hey, you wanna go to Disney World?" about a year before we went...real creative I know .

What I did do that ds liked was make a big poster countdown. I printed off numbers in all kids of colors and big fun fonts. I printed off different pics/logos of the things ds specifically said he wanted to do. I cut out and glued the numbers and pics to the posterboard and ds would mark off a day every morning. Our trip was 6 months ago and I just recently took the poster down. I can't keep a secret like that. I always wanted to my ds' opinion on where to eat and stay. His thoughts for planning our family vacation seemed just as important as ours.

But having said all that...a surprise would be very cool! If I could I just wouldn't say anything until we woke up to go to the airport or let them see as we drove up to the resort.

 

[Lynn4Mel]

I was trying to keep our Oct trip a secret for their "Birthday Surprise" but couldn't keep it in. What I was going to do was when we celebrated their birthdays I was going to give them an envelope of Disney Dollars and a note.

 

[disney-princess]

I'm going in Dec. with a friend and we aren't telling her kids. She is packing their stuff and leaving for the airport without telling them were they are going or who they are going with. So they won't find out till we arrive at the airport and they see all of us. Then they will figure it out because they know us too well and how much we all love Disney.

 

[imsayin]

We went a few years ago in January. For Christmas, we had some Blues Clues paw prints with clues leading to a suitcase. I think we had some Disney animals in the suitcase.

 

[eeyoreforever]

I'm going in Dec. with a friend and we aren't telling her kids. She is packing their stuff and leaving for the airport without telling them were they are going or who they are going with. So they won't find out till we arrive at the airport and they see all of us. Then they will figure it out because they know us too well and how much we all love Disney.

We are doing something very similar. My best friend and her family are meeting us at Disney two days after we get there. We aren't telling any of the kids (hers or mine). We will "accidentally" run into them at a prearranged meeting place. I can't wait to see the look on their faces.

As to the original question, I've been planning for a couple of months now and my kids don't know yet. They think we are going next summer. But I've decided that I'm going to give them a Disney card for Easter (if I can find one) and I'm going to put Disney Dollars in the card and tell them they will need those sooner than they think. I thought about not telling them until the day before, but my 12 year old really gets into the planning with me.

 

[experiment626mom]

We packed up "clues" in a large Mickey gift bag for Christmas. Sunglasses, a beach towel, a disney shirt. Didn't take the kids too long to figure out where we were heading. It was fun watching them pull stuff out and the realization dawning on their faces.

Eeyoreforever Walgreens has Disney Easter cards.

 

[Chris]

I'm looking for some creative, fun and memorable ways to tell the girls we are going to Disney. Any ideas? Thanks!

We aren't telling them! They think we are going to either Hershey Park or Busch Gardens VA again, but we'll just keep driving!! I can't wait!!!

 

[Chris]

I should have mentioned dh goes back and forth with wanting to tell them! He also wants to just suprise them but when they say how they'd like to go to disney he gets that look of lets tell them now!!!
However, he knows they'll drive us insane between now and June!

 

[lindaso]

We did a scavenger hunt just last weekend. It was a blast. I made up little rhymes and planted them throughout the house, one clue leading to the next. I had purchased the Disney Scene It game so that was one of the prizes they had to find on the scavenger hunt. The final clue was a DVD that they were instructed to put into the DVD player. We had used the camcorder to record ourselves with the Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals screaming "we're going to Disney World!!".

My 7 year old got it right away and went screaming through the house. My 5 year old didn't quite grasp the fact that we were really going and sat there looking confused. My 2 year old got bored on the 2nd clue and went off to play Putt Putt on the computer!!

We taped the whole scavenger hunt and it's a hoot to watch. I would highly recommend telling them this way!!

 

[DebIreland]

Every couple of years we try to go abroad (being in Ireland, abroad is usually Italy or Spain or the UK) and we had discussed over Christmas going to Salou in Spain this year. We usually stay in a mobile home park. This year I had mentioned to the boys that we could go to Universal Studios in Spain whilst staying in Salou. They were very excited. However, we have always wanted to visit Walt Disney World. So in January I became determined to make this *the* year. I thought we'll probably spend about 4 thousand euro on our Spain holiday so let's go the extra mile (well quite a few extra miles) and get to WDW once and for all. So I booked the flights and started researching and in mid January I said to the boys "sorry boys, looks like we won't be going to Spain". Lots of "awww" and "oh no". Then, "but we *are* going to Disney World in Orlando and Universal Studios, Orlando, will that do instead?". They didn't even react for a minute, they were just stunned, trying to process it and then lots of cheering, smiles and looks of stunned happiness!! lol They're still delirious with excitement, as am I!!

 

[Dead-metal]

I told my kids over the breakfast table this morning. My son (7) was very happy but my daughter (4) cried saying that she would get sick on the airplane.

Kids, don't you just love them!!