How did your little ones find out?

[DadSparrow]

Without the replies of "they over heard us talking" how did you present your little ones with the surprise that they are going to Disney World?

I am taking my son and we are still a couple of months away. Most likely going to have him find out the day before we leave.

Thoughts I have had, on movie night, put in the Vacation Planning DVD instead of a regular movie and when the video (and his lamenting about how he wishes we could go) I tell him.

Finding someone that can do voices well and call him doing Mickey's voice to "invite" him out tomorrow and then I give him his plane ticket and show him the magic bands

Wrap the stuff that Disney sends and the magic bands as a present for finishing school

He is a 7 year old boy and this trip is the culmination of my saving and working on a trip for well over a year, closer to 2. He has not been before. I think just getting in the car with a pre packed suitcase and surprising him that way would be a bit too much for him to handle.

 

[Alesia]

I just told my daughter about 6 months before. Waiting until the last minute would have deprived her of all the excitement of planning. The anticipation is half the fun!

 

[DadSparrow]

Now that the business end is done (finances) that is an option to do too. Not sure if he would drive me nuts though with the "is it time to go yet?" for the next 2.5 months

 

[MommaRN]

Our first trip was last summer with my sister, her family and our parents. My DH and I wanted to surprise our then 8 year old with the news, so we set up a family picture with all of us outside of a restaurant. I had a friend offer to take the "picture" which was actually a video.. and instead of saying "Cheese!" like we were supposed to, the entire family (minus my daughter) said "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!" She was in absolute shock.. and disbelief. She didn't fully 100% believe us until we were walking through the airport several weeks later I purposely told her with enough time for her to do some research and build up some anticipation for trip. I agree that it is half the fun!

 

[xlsm]

If you're worried about him constantly asking when, you could make a little countdown calendar for him, so each day he could cross a day off, or pull a ring off a paper chain or something. I see those pop up all the time on the Disney pinterest boards I follow.

but most importantly....how exciting for him!!! (and you!!!)

Have fun on your trip

 

[dwbrewster]

Depending on the age, I'm in the camp of tell them last minute and we told them the day before we went. Sometimes planning is fun but it would've just added to some of the planning anxiety and made it much easier since we generally know what they would want to do.

We had a video from Santa telling them they were going so it's not applicable to you.

 

[dprincessmom]

Is he a reader? If he is I would purchase one of the kids disney touring books or maybe the hidden mickeys book and tell him you picked him up something at the book store.
That would give him something to read on the trip down.

We surprised my daughter with her birthday trip in route to WDW. She is very observant and noticed the bags, and it was where are we going, how long... She is a great traveler and this isn't like her. I finally told her if she would take a nap, I would tell her when she woke up (we were doing the late night EMH at Epcot that night so I knew she would need the rest). Anyway, she slept to Ocala, and we had a gift bag with Birthday ears and autograph book. This wasn't her first trip so she knew what this meant, but it still took a while to process it.
I don't think I would surprise her again as she likes to help plan. I usually have a surprise something each trip, but now that she can access MDE she is either going to have to have her own account or I am going to have to be extra tricky.

 

[VTGirlinNC]

I think you should tell him at the last minute (day of, or day before). Since he's never been, he won't necessarily be very helpful in the planning phase. Also, I agree that the anticipation is half the fun, but in this case he will not know what to anticipate since he has never been. We've done it both ways…we surprised our son (4.5 at the time) on the day of by saying that we had to drive Daddy to the airport for a business trip. We dropped Dad off at the curb, and he took all the luggage inside the airport. As we were pulling away, DH called me and said, "Oops…I forgot to give DS a little present I bought for him…will you park the car and meet me inside"? DS and I went inside, and we gave him a gift. He opened it, and it was a Mickey t-shirt and a pair of Mickey crocs. He was slightly confused, since he was expecting a toy, and then we told him that Daddy was not going on a business trip, and that we were leaving RIGHT NOW for Disney. He freaked out. It was so much fun.

This past Christmas (DS was 5.5 years old), we wrapped up a Mickey balloon. He opened the box, and the balloon floated out. He looked at us, and said, "Are we going to Disney World!?!?!" We said yes, and he said, "NOW!?!?!". Unfortunately, we weren't leaving for 6 more weeks, so that was kind of a bummer. Next time, we will surprise him the day of again. If we were to tell him the night before, he would literally stay up all night waiting to leave.

Good luck either way…it is so exciting to surprise them!

 

[Pesky]

Totally depends. For our 2013 trip to DLR, we didn't tell them in advance and instead arrived at the hotel (VGC) and asked them if they knew where they were. DS was very practical -- "the hotel!" DD stared around the lobby for a bit and whispered "Are we at Disneyland?" DD had so much fun with the surprise that she wants to be surprised again. DS wants to know but he's a blabbermouth so I have to be careful there. I think your ideas are perfect especially as you know your son will need some time to get used to the idea. For our upcoming trip, DH and I are talking again as DH wants to do his way again and not say anything until we get to the airport and I want to finally get to do a fun scavenger hunt the morning of departure. I've been showing some ride-alongs and getting input along the way so little do they know, they have helped to plan the trip.

 

[DadSparrow]

"DS was very practical -- "the hotel!" "

Hilarious!

 

[CookieRobot]

Our first trip we surprised our girls and I was underwhelmed by their response. Last year we told them when we received their magic bands. This year we told them upfront so they could help pick activities and the hotel. I have really enjoyed all the excitement of planning.

 

[OwlMomx3]

I just told them when I started planning.

 

[feistygalkmc]

We aren't telling our dd until.....wed rive through the gates lol she is 2.5 so even though she knows what disney world is and everything she can't quite grasp yet that we are going on a trip. We are counting down each night before bed by placing a sticker on each day for her 'big surprise'. She loves that, also we watch one of our favorite disney vacation videos on you tube each night before bed. We're hyping up going to disney world every day with her also. She's starting to tell us I wanna go to dis world mama go to dis world daddy go to dis world so she's starting to get the hang of it. She's been telling us oh I want to ride dumbo,teacups etc. also when we watch the YouTube videos. She is going to really be surprised! I have fast passes for the new viewing spot for wishes on the first day we arrive, and right before we are meeting tinker belle. That's her favorite part of wishes, watching tinkerbelle fly. We can't wait to see the look on her face!

 

[SEA333]

Without the replies of "they over heard us talking" how did you present your little ones with the surprise that they are going to Disney World?

I am taking my son and we are still a couple of months away. Most likely going to have him find out the day before we leave.

Thoughts I have had, on movie night, put in the Vacation Planning DVD instead of a regular movie and when the video (and his lamenting about how he wishes we could go) I tell him.

Finding someone that can do voices well and call him doing Mickey's voice to "invite" him out tomorrow and then I give him his plane ticket and show him the magic bands

Wrap the stuff that Disney sends and the magic bands as a present for finishing school

He is a 7 year old boy and this trip is the culmination of my saving and working on a trip for well over a year, closer to 2. He has not been before. I think just getting in the car with a pre packed suitcase and surprising him that way would be a bit too much for him to handle.

Whatever you do, Don't tell him 10 minutes before the limo pulls up in front of the house to take you to the airport when the kids (at the time 13, 9, and 7) thought they were ready to head out the door to school...it'll ruin him for the rest of his life!

Now my kids think that every time I say even the vaguest thing, it's a hidden clue about a surprise trip that we are going on. Poor kids...

Ok...so not so poor and deprived that they were disappointed that they didn't get to help plan and anticipate. They absolutely LOVED the surprise and have asked over and over again if we could do it again.

But, about that surprise trip:

What we did was have everything packed and ready, and made each kid a goody bag for the plane/trip with their magic band, plane ticket, and other essentials. On one side of the bags we wrote:

Who's got it
Better than us?
NOBODY!

On the other side, we wrote:

We are
Going to
DISNEYWORLD!!!!

The flight times/airport arrival coincided almost perfectly with our normal morning routine, so we woke the kids up at their normal time, and they got ready. The only difference was that I gave them specific clothes to wear, but nobody even questioned that. They ate breakfast and the only "off" thing was that I hadn't left for work yet. DS13 asked why I was still home and I said that my manager said it was OK for me to have a different schedule that day (we never, ever lied to them even once about anything! Misled...ehhh, a little. Lied? Never!) They were about to go out to the car and we called them over to the couch. I started to record and DH told them how they have worked hard, blah, blah, etc, and handed them their bags. They read the first side then turned them over and read the backs. All three looked a little confused and a little happy, and DH told them to look into their bags. The younger ones were thrilled with their gum and new toothbrushes, while (and we can see it all unfold in the video) DS13 read his plane ticket and started to put two and two together. He told the younger ones that our plane was leaving at "10:15am - TODAY!" and that is when bedlam broke loose. They had 10 minutes to get an object of their choice to bring with us and everything else was packed and ready to go.

We had kept the curtains closed that morning, so I watched for the limo to pull up, then told the kids our ride to the airport was out front. They about freaked out when they saw the limo. We got it all on film. It was priceless.

But, like I said....now my kids are ruined. Every time I say anything about going anywhere, they think I have something up my sleeve.

I guess telling them 6 months ahead of time so they can have time to "adjust" and see pictures of the hotel is the best way to go after all...NOT!!!!!! I would do the surprise again in a heartbeat! We all still love watching those videos of the trip and limo reveal!

 

[limpy]

For a couple of months before the trip, my husband and I would casually get my daughter, 4.5, to bring up Disney world in conversation (Where does Cinderella/Merida/etc live? Where would you most like to go on vacation?) and show her clips from the parks. I also "randomly" brought up pictures of magic bands on the computer so she would ask about them and we would seek out more information.

One week before our trip, we hid a MB in plain sight in the playroom and steered her toward finding it. She flipped out and we searched the house for more bands (which were hidden under everyone's pillow). It was pretty awesome. Then we made a one-week countdown to Disney day calendar.

I knew her reaction would be underwhelming if we just made a big reveal - she only gets really excited when she has time to deliberate and build something up in her mind.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I took my 7 year old niece and almost 2 year old (at the time ) daughter for the first time back in july. My niece only knew we were going on vacation to florida, but not where exactly. The morning of our first Disney day, I laid out their custom shirts and ear hats and autograph books and sunglasses. Then I woke up my niece. I told her I saw a mouse in our condo and it left a crazy mess. I told her to come and see if she could help me clean the mess. She woke up, went into the dining room, and saw the stuff. There was also a letter addressed to her from Mickey, telling her that we are going to Disney world. It was great.

 

[DadSparrow]

I took my 7 year old niece and almost 2 year old (at the time ) daughter for the first time back in july. My niece only knew we were going on vacation to florida, but not where exactly. The morning of our first Disney day, I laid out their custom shirts and ear hats and autograph books and sunglasses. Then I woke up my niece. I told her I saw a mouse in our condo and it left a crazy mess. I told her to come and see if she could help me clean the mess. She woke up, went into the dining room, and saw the stuff. There was also a letter addressed to her from Mickey, telling her that we are going to Disney world. It was great.

Ok, that is a cute one