How To Surprise Kids With Trip????

[stone0990]

Ok, here is the deal. We have been planning a surprise trip to Disney for MONTHS for our children (12,9,4,2 and 6 months) We were not sure we were going to pull it off, so that is why we didn't want to get their hopes up. But now, our plans are set and we are for sure going to make it!

We will take the older ones out of school to miss the last week of school, so they will need SOME warning.

I am looking for some really CREATIVE ideas to tell them!! We have been to Disney as a family twice. Once with just the older two when they were younger, and once as when the younger ones were 10 months and 2. (Which is the trip we came home with our little souvenier..now 6 months old!)

We thought about making Mickey waffles (a gift for Dad @ Christmas), but we do that alot, so probably wouldn't get it!)

Any ideas appreciated! We are about 8 weeks out at this point!

TIA!

 

[twoprincesses]

I was reading a post yesterday about a mom who bought fortune cookies and gave hints about the trip in the notes inside. She ordered Chinese take-out and when everyone was finished she handed them out and everyone read a different note. One said their lucky numbers were the date that they left, etc... I thought it was a great idea. You might want to try it... You'll just have to be careful putting the notes in the cookies with tweezers

 

[mrsmom]

I am surprising my kids in May, I am using the enchanted phone call,You pick a character and they call. It would work really good if you have a speaker phone . Check the site out.
https://secure.uvoxnetworks.com/disney/
Kim

 

[Monalisa916]

We have a 6-yr girl and an 11-yr boy and we are going to create a scavenger hunt. We have a pretty big house and we're going to send them from one end to the other for a while. Then the end will probably be pushing play on the DVD player with it set for CBR...which is where we are staying...that or Magic Kingdom. Then we will have a gift bag/care package with some Disney t-shirts I've been buying on Ebay and a new swimsuit for each of them. We're not going until Halloween but I'm getting anxious.

 

[tcolbert]

I like the Enchanted Phone call idea because you can have Mickey Mouse call, himself. Another idea would be to mail them a package containing a DW related item or a "Ticket" to DW for each person.

 

[zipEDdodah]

I have surprised my DD's (9.8 & 6) four times already with plans for #5 in the near future. The last time we went, I told them they were going with me to visit some old friends of mine. They didn't even realize they would be away overnight. I put them in the car and not until we were in line at the airport did they figure it out. They were overwhelmed with excitement! Of course, this means a lot of work for DW & DH...all the planning, packing, etc are done by YOU. Enjoy the surprise!

 

[MouseEarsJenny]

I am picking my kids up on their last day of school (in 70 days! ) and giving my ds (who will just have 'graduated' from kindy) a photo book. You can buy them at any photo developer. I've made custom images for each page and it tells a story of his year through kindergarten. The second to last page says, "So mommy and daddy picked him up and said..."

And the last page says "We're going to Disney World!"

I'm going to post the whole book here once I finish the images. But the point is, his sister will read him the book, and when they hit that page, they'll be all "Huh? Wow!" or whatever and we'll say "Right NOW! Let's go, get in the car!" and we'll hop in and drive off to Disney!!!!

Good luck with your surprise!!!

 

[Samar]

If you celebrate Easter you can get them some Disney-related items (Disney Dollars and autograph books for the older kids and perhaps a plush Disney character for the little ones) along with a message "from" Mickey (meaning you or DH) inviting them to Disney from __ to __

Edited to add: All this stuff of course would go in an Easter Basket with goodies, too

 

[Karnak]

I can remember one time, during an on-line chat when a mother, upon finding out that my wife and I would be staying at the Pollynesian just a couple of weeks before her planned trip at the same resort, asked me to buy a postcard from the resort (it seems to me like she said that her kids especially liked the pool there), write something like "SEE YOU SOON" and mail it to her home. I explained this to the CM at the guest relations desk, and he produced a large postcard showing the pool, and even paid for the postage, mailing it from the resort.

It worked, and she later said that her kids were really surprised to received a postmarked card from the resort.

Just a thought.

Enjoy.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

We have a 6-yr girl and an 11-yr boy and we are going to create a scavenger hunt. We have a pretty big house and we're going to send them from one end to the other for a while. Then the end will probably be pushing play on the DVD player with it set for CBR...which is where we are staying...that or Magic Kingdom. Then we will have a gift bag/care package with some Disney t-shirts I've been buying on Ebay and a new swimsuit for each of them. We're not going until Halloween but I'm getting anxious.

We plan to also surprise them with a scavenger hunt. At first we thought that we would just get them up and instead of going to the grandmother's house (school vacation week), we would drive to the airport. Then as we thought about it, our flight is at 7:00 am so, we will have to leave our house pretty early. We thoguht that they would be too tired to even know what was going on. We finally decided to do a scavenger hunt the day before we leave. We thought about video taping the whole thing. They are going to be so surprised. I want to tell them so bad.

 

[Reese]

We just surprised our kids (13, 8, 6, 5, 18 months) with a trip in Feb. The grandparents all came over in the morning (they wanted to see the kids reactions) and we had them all sit down and close their eyes. I gave each one of them a disney gift box with a bunch of disney stuff. Included was a photo album/ autograph book with my Disney World trip and put the date on it. I also included their boarding passes for that afternoon. We watched them go through everything and eventually piece together that we were going to Disney World and our flight was leaving in a couple hours.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I love the fortune cookie and scavenger hunt ideas!

We're surprising the kids with a trip in Sept. I'm not sure how we are going to tell them, but I will keep this thread in mind.

I do have to give the kids some warning. They have never flown, and I want to prep them well ahead of time about the airport, security, and plane ride. We are flying Southwest, so there is a chance that we might not sit together. They need to be ready for that possibility, though I hope I find 3 seats together.

I think it will be fun for them to count down the final few weeks before our trip, so we'll tell them in August (their birthday month).

It's so hard for me to keep this secret! I can't even tell my friends, because then their kids will tell my kids.

 

[Iluvpooh&mickey]

I love the fortune cookie and scavenger hunt ideas!

We're surprising the kids with a trip in Sept. I'm not sure how we are going to tell them, but I will keep this thread in mind.

I do have to give the kids some warning. They have never flown, and I want to prep them well ahead of time about the airport, security, and plane ride. We are flying Southwest, so there is a chance that we might not sit together. They need to be ready for that possibility, though I hope I find 3 seats together.

I think it will be fun for them to count down the final few weeks before our trip, so we'll tell them in August (their birthday month).

It's so hard for me to keep this secret! I can't even tell my friends, because then their kids will tell my kids.

That sounds like me. I am bursitng to tell my boys. We are surprising them with a trip in June. I would love to tell them the day of the trip but like you my kids have never flown before and I want to be able to give them time to get used to the idea and ask questions. We are also flying Southwest but probably will get to board early since I have a 1 1/2 y/o who will be in a carseat. We are going to tell them on their 6th birthday which is about 3 weeks before our trip!

 

[The3Mouseketeers]

You can keep it a secret!!!

We surprised our daughter who was almost 5 at the time with a trip to WDW - we told her that we had errands to run (in the same town the airport is located in!) which we did, then proceeded to park at the airport - looking at the airplanes a bit confused, while Daddy pulled the luggage out of the back of the car (which were loaded at midnight the night before and covered with blankets so she wouldn't see!) she finally realized what was going on and when we told her we were going to Disney it was worth the craziness of not telling her before hand! We have all the reaction on film and it brings smiles to our faces everytime we look at that page in our album!

Try really hard.....they would probably be fine with the plane - and Southwest is really good when you are traveling with kids - you all get on together so the chances of you being separated are very slim - if you have a child under the age of 6 they allow you to board first!!!

Good luck!

 

[Pixiedust34]

I think we're going to tell our kids about 2 weeks before the trip.

We go to a pool a lot during the summer. At the end of summer, there is a Family Day at the pool where the kids play games and get a lot of candy. We might slip Hershey bars into their candy bags when we get home, and will tell them to help themselves to some extra candy. If the Hershey bar is there, that's what they'll pick. Believe me, the Hershey Bar will not be overlooked.

We will have slipped a "Fastpass to Walt Disney World" ticket inside the wrapper of the Hershey Bar (like the golden ticket on Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). Once they figure it out, then we can tell them all of the details like where we'll be staying, where we'll be eating, that they'll be riding on an airplane, etc. I can't imagine how excited they will be!

It is so hard for me to not tell them about this trip until then!

 

[KelnRon]

I think I too would hold off until the actual trip! Can you tell the teachers ahead of time that it is a surprise! We are leaving in May and I really wish I would've surprised the kids what a great idea!

 

[ljsmom]

We are leaving in 5 days and my boys still don't know (2,6 & 9). I emailled the older boys teachers and let them know they would be out of school. I have to pack this week while they are in school. They wont know we are going till the car comes to pick us up for the airport on Saturday. I hope we can pull it off.

 

[txtxyeha]

We (DH, DW, DS9 & DD4) are going in late May and will be surprising the kids this Friday (4/21). DW came up with the idea of starting a family conversation about what things we will do this summer (e.g., bowling, a movie, the waterpark, the beach), then we were going to create a mock argument that the bad cop would say last summer was too busy and we are only doing two things. Then we all would write what we wanted to do on slips of paper and put them in a bag. Bag would have a false-bottom (or trap door - not sure of the engineering) so that when our son pulled out a slip of paper it would say "Walt Disney World". We have even odds that he will pee on himself.

Now how to pull off this skit while filming it and not looking too obvious.

 

[adhelove]

We told the kids we were going to see their grandmother who lives toward Florida. About halfway there we woke them up and gave them each a special gift. The gift was a monogrammed disney blanket then we told them we were going to WDW and not ga-ga's house. We also recorded it on our video camera. We have been 9 times and our 10th trip is in Sept.06 and they loved being surprised. We left really early in the morning so they slept most of the way there. Also one year we bought new luggage for them and inside were wdw shirts and a printed coupon with their names and the dates we were leaving inside it.
Adhelove

 

[Disney Family 5]

I love surprise trips!!! We have surprised our kids 2 of our trips! Last time was Dec. of '05. It is a lot of hard work for the moms and dads, but we loved doing it. We always have early flights out in the am, so the night before we get them preoccupied as I finish the laundry. This year, my neighbor let them watch a movie with her kid(their best friend) while I packed our suitcases.

I put them to bed around 9:30- 10:00 and started hauling suitcases to the car.
Since it was Christmas time I had gift bags for each of them with their theme park tickets inside.

Told them we were taking them out for a surprise for breakfast and to give out some Christmas gifts. Had my camcorder filming them and then they opened their bags 1/2 way to the airport.

It was soooooo fun!!

They even asked us not to tell them in advance because it is too hard to wait.Next year I will tell them the night before.

I say keep it a secret as long as you can hold it! It's so much fun that way.