How to surprise kids??

[kellimomo3]

We have friends going on DCL Magic in 3 weeks. We are giving our kids our cruise as a Christmas gift this year (we leave two weeks after xmas). I was thinking it would be nice to have my friends buy something on the ship that I could wrap as a "clue" for their X-mas gift. Any creative ideas out there?? I don't know what they sell on the ship, maybe a t-shirt or toy something. All ideas are welcome. My boys will be 8, 6 & 4. Thanks!!!

 

[Masonpips]

we'll be in a similar boat (heehee) as we're going on the 12/28 NY cruise this year. We want the "big" gift (not sure if it's from us or Santa yet) gift to be the trip.

Some of the ideas I've been kicking around:

Have someone buy the resin ships, wrap them w/the airline tickets and have the kids open together

Borrow the cardboard replica from the Travel Agent and put it under the tree (love this idea, not sure if I can get one to borrow; I've considered borrowing it in the next few months, opening it up, tracing it on cardboard and attempting to make my own)

 

[hydster]

When we gave our kids this upcoming cruise for Christmas we used the thread for the postcards for kids and had a wonderful DIS'er send a postcard to our kids postmarked from CC while they were on their cruise. They either wrote like Mickey or had Mickey write it and I told her what to have it say. She mailed it to my kids in an envelope so that if they saw the mail it wouldnt be obvious!

When Christmas came we let them open all of their presents and we waited until later that afternoon. I'm a person who likes to get my tree down pronto and usually do it at some point on Christmas because I am sick of it. We hid a clue in a small jewelry box and had it wrapped and sitting in the top of the tree. When we started taking the tree down we told them to look we found a present that didnt get opened that morning. It was a treasure hunt that we made up and we had made up riddles and clues and also each place had a piece of the puzzle with it. Finally at the end it told them when they got the puzzle put together to look one more place for a big wrapped box. We wrapped the postcard up in several boxes inside each other and each child got to unwrap one at a time until it was the last box. Then we had the oldest read the postcard outloud and I also had put in the Itinerary for them and a picture of a Limo that we are going to the port in!

They were excited but they still had so long to wait to go on the cruise that it was a little anti-climatic but we wanted them to know why they didnt get as many gifts this Christmas as in the past.

Heidi

 

[Bbgrizzle]

When we surprised our kids last May, we gave them a treasure hunt around the house. It ended in the bathroom. We had a plastic ship floating in the bathtub of water with a note on it that said, "open me". The note was simple, it said: "We are going on a Disney Cruise on May 10!" They were very excited!

 

[mom2tiggers]

They sell slippers in the shape of the ship - depending on the age of the kids, you could always get those & wrap them. Another idea (if you've been on a cruise before) would be to get some Disney frames & wrap up pictures of you all on your past cruise.

We surprised our kids on our last cruise. They thought we were just heading to the beach. On the way from the airport, we commented on seeing the Disney buses & how the ship must be at port We asked if they wanted to stop & see which ship it was & of course they wanted to see. We got outside the car & as the kids commented about how much they want to be on the ship, we pulled out the tickets.

I'm not the best at keeping secrets, but I was glad I did that time!

 

[Goodeguys]

We booked our Easter 2004 cruise just a couple of weeks prior to this past Christmas. We, too, wanted to surprise our kids,
DSs 8 & 10 at the time. We decided to have a scavenger hunt after all the "regular" gifts were open. We printed the words DISNEY CRUISE EASTER 2004 on red and green paper and then cut the letters out in groups of 2. We then placed them around the house. DH made up a riddle, which was incredibly clever and funny, and then had a list of 11 clues directing them to the letters. Once they had collected all the letters, they had to unscramble them and figure out what the hidden message was.
They got it much quicker than we thought they would and though they were pretty excited, DS8 was a little disappointed that all his hard work did not result in another toy he could play with right away!! LOL
Now with just about 2 weeks to go, DS8 is no longer in search of any extra toys, he is bursting with excitement.

Whatever you do, remember to capture on film, it will be a priceless memory!!

Diana

 

[TinkerbellRN]

when i surprised my mom with our disney cruise at christmas, i wrapped up the DCL video i ordered from the website. got the point across nicely!!

and i second the poster who said make sure you have it on film. the look on my mom's face i'll never forget, but it'd have been nice to have photographic proof!!

 

[kellimomo3]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I love the scavenger hunt idea. Do they sell posters or large pictures of the ship on the ship?? That would be a good thing to cut up and have them hunt for then put together!!

 

[jlp651]

some photo shops make puzzles...have your friend get a really good shot of the ship and bring it to the photo shop...have them make a puzzle for you...have them find pieces of the puzzle and then put it together to reveil their surprise!

 

[TammiMcMan]

We're going on the May 27th Wonder and I thought about keeping it a secret from my kids right up until the moment we pulled into the port. I decided instead to tell them at Easter. I'm going to get plastic boats instead of Easter baskets and fill them with sunglasses, sun tan lotion, snorkle sets and a print out of the Navigator from the castaway website. I'm terrible at keeping secrets and my kids are older, 18-14-7. They already know something is up because mommy is on the Dis boards everyday. I think I'm doing a pretty good job steering them in another direction, but I know it can't last much longer. Plus, my oldest DD is finishing up her first year of college, away from home and this will give her something to look forward too and help her get through finals. What we are keeping a secret, is that their Florida cousins are going to be joining us on the cruise and that we're going to spend 2 days at Disney when the cruise is over.

Tammi

 

[cjsmith]

Christmas 02 we surprised the kids with a 4 night on the Wonder on 1/5/03. I wrapped their tickets in 3 different size boxes that I kept in the back of the tree and had them open them all at once. It took them a while to understand what was happening because they just thought it was their tickets for the June 7,03 cruise that they already knew about.
Christmas 03, we surprised them once again with a 7 night on the Magic for 1/4/04. This time around I knew I had to be alittle more cleaver. I did a treasure hunt themed around Pirates of The Carribean which had just been released on DVD. I made maps, downloading things, including the words for a Yo HO, Yo HO, A Pirates Life for Me. I made a treasure map that sent them all around the house and out on our lanai and then finally back into the living room by the tree. At each stop was a clue along with alittle something. ONe of the stops had a beanie baby that was a parrott, another had those chocolate coins wrapped in the gold foil. At the end of the hunt was a DVD of Pirates. Stuffed inside the movie, slighly sticking out was a picture of the Magic that from our last cruise along with the info on our upcoming cruise.
The kids had so much fun doing it this way and so did we. Of course they'll be looking forward to it again this coming Christmas so what's girl to do?!!!!

 

[ericamanda01]

This may sound silly but see if your friends can take an empty baby food jar and fill it with sand from Castaway Cay. And give it to them with some beach toys that are either from disney or have disney stickers on them.

 

[kellimomo3]

I really like the idea of turning a picture of the Magic ship into a jigsaw puzzle. Can I do this with a digital picture from Dave's website or does it have to be a 35mm pic w/negative (which I could have my friends take)? Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[kellimomo3]

Veranda Man,
I seem to recall seeing you post something to this effect. Do you how how to do it?? Does anyone know how to turn a photo into a puzzle??

 

[Verandah Man]

Originally posted by kellimomo3
Veranda Man,
I seem to recall seeing you post something to this effect. Do you how how to do it?? Does anyone know how to turn a photo into a puzzle??

A few years ago I had bought a blank puzzle from the website of my t-shirt maker program http://www.hanes2u.com/store/nexternal_home.htm than printed the photo on to an iron-on transfer and ironed it on the front of the puzzle. It made a cute little gift. I believe the blank puzzles are 7.5" X 9.5" and cost $4.99 on the Hanes website.

 

[Verandah Man]

I just found this place on the net for Personalized Puzzles

 

[kellimomo3]

Thanks Verdanda Man!! I'll check out the websites!!