how do you surprise your kids that they are going to disney

[pb4ugo]

need some ideas since we are sending our niece and her family to okw for easter week and she hopes to do something special to surprise the kids [dd-15, ds-12, ds-11].

also need some pixie dust for the waitlisted room for the nite of 4/1! what's the deal with no room on a monday. thought it was a bad april fool's joke at first!

 

[rocketriter]

We don't surprise them. To us, the few minutes of "surprise" are empty calories compared to several weeks of planning and anticipation, so we let our kids know ahead of time. That said, there are still surprises you can plan for while you're there: birthday celebrations if that's appropriate, character meals, special events--your choice depends on your kids' ages.

 

[jacesmommy]

Well for my DS's 5th birthday we simply woke him up at 400 and told him he needed to get up because we were going on a trip. He of course asked where and we told hin DISNEY WORLD!! He was like "now, we're going right now??" and was SO excited!!! However, your nieces are quite a bit older so preparing, packing, etc. without them noticing would be much harder.......

 

[gray52]

We don't surprise them. To us, the few minutes of "surprise" are empty calories compared to several weeks of planning and anticipation, so we let our kids know ahead of time. That said, there are still surprises you can plan for while you're there: birthday celebrations if that's appropriate, character meals, special events--your choice depends on your kids' ages.

Completely agree. Part of the excitement for my kids is the built up anticipation. And they get to tell their friends and teachers and grocery clerk and anyone else who will listen that "I'm going to Disney World". Countdown calendars. Pre-planning with park maps... Watching YouTube for all the rides and fun. I say don't limit the excitement to a week when you can stretch it out for a month or more!

 

[pb4ugo]

telling the kids in advance is not a good idea for this family as one son would want to leave as soon as he was told of an upcoming trip to wdw! having to wait to make the trip would make life at home unbearable! having all of those folks know that the home will be vacant for any amount of time is not too wise, either.

waking the kids early sounds like a cute idea - dad can pack the car before they awaken and then just pop them in the car!

telling them the nite before could prob work - the 15 yr old would have time to pack up her make-up!!

their mom is pretty sure she can spirit their clothes out of closets and dressers without too much "mom, where is my_________[fill in the blank]?"

thanx for the help!

 

[moose615]

telling the kids in advance is not a good idea for this family as one son would want to leave as soon as he was told of an upcoming trip to wdw! having to wait to make the trip would make life at home unbearable! having all of those folks know that the home will be vacant for any amount of time is not too wise, either.
!

I completely agree , my DD knew about our oct trip 4 months in advance and I felt like I was torturing the poor girl, so for our march trip we are just showing up at the airport and let her ask questions (we have 2 months so I might jazz it up a bit) and same for our oct DL trip, it's much easier that way, but since she is so young, the planning is mainly made by me anyways

 

[erikawolf2004]

We are planning on Santa bringing a trip to DW for Christmas next year and then we will leave on the Jan 4th. I am planning on filling a big box with Mickey Mouse, red and green balloons, maybe include a Mickey or Minnie stuffed animal with a sign saying we are going to DW. We are going to have a really hard time keeping it a secret, but think it will be alot of fun giving them the surprise.

If you want other ideas look on youtube.

 

[brettcw23]

We did a scavenger hunt in our house. The final clue was a box int he living room. When my DDs lifted up the box, there was a Disney balloon with one of those recordable cards in it. When they opened the card, it was a recording from DW and me saying we were going to WDW. My DW still wants to do a 'real surprise" like a day before but it's so hard for me to contain myself and not talk about it!

 

[hmillerbarilla]

I just did it!

We shocked our kids and told them after school on Dec 21st and left immediately. It went over perfectly.

My kids enjoy the planning and the excitement, but they've been so many times, it was fine to surprise them this time. They were really shocked that they hadn't noticed me packing or planning!

I did a scavenger hunt as we walked in the door from school. Go to the bathroom, find your shoes/coat/gloves, put certian things by the door, and then they found their card I had made them. SUCH FUN!

I think it went over so well because my kids have been often and are comfortable going, and not scared or uncertain of what the trip will bring. It was so much fun!!!!!

 

[thewesterberg]

We've surprised our son on 3 of the trips we've taken. While he loves to talk and plan, he's one of those kids that knowing so far in advance is TORTURE! In fact he knows about our upcoming trip (we leave this Friday!) and he asked us not talk to him about it and not to tell him when we are going because he wants to be able to sleep the night before! Unfortunately we're driving 2.5 hours to the airport and spending the night before at a hotel so it's a little obvious!

For the surprises... we've done the "we're just going to Minneapolis for a fun night at a hotel" route and woke him up in the morning with a phone call from Mickey and we headed to the airport from there. (the funny part - we were video taping him and in his sleepy state he started changing out of his pajamas - had to cut the tape quick!)

For the second time I got him up to go to school and we played a game of hangman and the puzzle answer was "MOM AND SON ARE HEADING TO DISNEY WORLD RIGHT NOW!" He was totally shocked and excited!

The last time we surprised him we loaded him up in the car and said we had to head up to the mall area in our town (the airport is right by there). DH tossed him our boarding passes as we pulled into the airport and said he didn't want to see us for a few days and to have fun.

I think like a PP said - if you've done trips before and they know what to expect (and the kids can adapt to a surprise) a surprise can be lots of fun. BUt there's also the fun of them being a part of the planning process too.

 

[pb4ugo]

thanx for the ideas! i love the scavenger hunts! did something similar to ericawolf2004's once - put lotsa stuff into a box and had the kids pull out one item at a time and they had to guess who it was for - and at the bottom they got to the disney stuff - it was fun for all and lotsa laffs thru that box! love the fact that the westerberg's son dos not want to know in advance because of the torture!

thanx again for the ideas - you guys have helped the surprise planning process a bunch!

 

[amypetecar]

We surprised our 10 and 6 year old at 4am the morning of their flight. My daughter was crazy with excitment, but my son burst into tears because he didnt want to miss his basketball practice scheduled for the next day! You just never know how a kid will react to a surprise!

 

[vandy]

This does not relate to your situation, but we surprise our grown kids by posting our WDW photos on Facebook for them to see where their mom & dad are! Boy do they get cranky!

Otherwise, friends of ours wake their kids up and tell them as they are getting ready.

 

[Jadak]

We told the kids months ago we were going to WDW for spring break, when we actually are leaving this weekend! They are still very excited and have helped do most of the planning, but we still get to surprise them on Saturday.

 

[ban26ana]

We just finished our surprise trip for our 3 and 5 year old daughters. We are completely aware that we will never be able to pull this off again lol. We drove from NJ to SC, stayed the night, and then on to WDW.

We first woke them up at o'dark-thirty and just said we were going for a drive. As they started asking questions, we said we had to deliver something to a friend. (Which was true. We dropped something off in VA.) When we got to SC, we told them "surprise! We know how much you girls like hotels, so we are staying in a hotel for the night." (Remember, they are only 3 and 5.)

The next morning we said we had to go home. The whole ride, we would distract them whenever we passed a sign for FL or WDW. Then as we pulled up to the WDW entrance, we acted like we were lost and asked the kids if they knew where we were. We got it all on tape. It was so cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rWLLaDOy-U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[StormalongKay]

We go every year, but one year we decided to surprise the kids. I packed all the suitcases while they were out of the house and hid them in the trunk the night before. When they woke up, I told them we had to drive Dad to work (they were not old enough to stay home alone) but instead we drove to the airport. When we were close enough to see the planes & the control tower, we told them we were boarding a plane to Disneyworld! They were so excited,they kept saying over & over again they couldn't believe it! To them, it was just an ordinary morning. To this day whenever we all drive together somewhere close to the airport, they relive the memory.

 

[lundve]

I packed for all of us in the guest room- they never go in there. We drove the 12 hours that time - we picked them up early from school and were on the road 90 minutes before my four year old said "It sure is taking a long time to get home." We filmed us telling them and both of them were super excited - although my oldest was asking if it was okay with his teacher that he was missing school. I told him I'd already emailed her and he was really surprised I'd planned this without him knowing.

 

[pb4ugo]

what wonderful experiences! it is making me think that since the family is driving and because the 15 yr old dd is wise beyond her age, perhaps they should 'surprise' her the nite before [to make sure she has everything she will need for the week! ] and then wake the boys early and tell them they are going somewhere like to charlotte, atlanta, a nascar race or wherever south...and then when they hit the florida line they can tell them they lied and they're going to disney! hmmmm....

your ideas are great and very much appreciated. and i get a hoot out of reading each of them! thanx