How to tell kids on Halloween?

[pdnorm]

We are leaving November 1st VERY early in the morning. We were thinking of waking them up and surprising them and video tape the whole moment. The only problem is that we are waking up at about 430 AM! Not sure how that will go over - kids 11,9 and 4. I was trying to think of a creative way to do it on Halloween since that is still the day before. Maybe put airline tickets in their trick or treat bag? I'd love "Mickey" to show up at the door trick or treating, but not sure how I could pull that off.

Any ideas?

One other question. We passed up the Mickey's not so scary Halloween. We are already spending so much I wasn't sure if that would really be worth it. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance.

 

[phoenixleigh]

Are you planning on telling them the night before after they return from trick or treating? Here is an idea: When they get home from trick or treating ask everyone to go change out of their costumes. While they are doing that hide their tickets in the bags of candy (place it in the candy not on top). When they come back in the room. Tell them that you need to go through their candy to make sure it is ok to eat. Have them dump the bag of candy. When they dump their bags and go through the candy they should find the airline tickets. Play dumb at first like "what is a piece of paper doing in your bag of candy?" and/or ask them "What does the paper say?" Hope you have a great time

Sorry never been to MNSSHP. Thinking of doing that next year but we are not sure about the price either.

I tried to surprise my son last May for Star Wars Weekend. My dad spoiled it for my son by accident. My dad came to get my son for a sleepover and I said to my son I need to get your hair cut by Friday. My dad said yeah because it going to be really hot in Orlando. My son goes "Huh?"" Oops!

 

[pdnorm]

Thanks Phoenixleigh. Great idea. We were thinking of maybe getting them disney pajamas and have them open it up the night before as a surprise. We really want to get that screaming jumping up and down reaction!

 

[WSLover]

I like the Disney pajama idea and they can take them on the trip.

My nephew is 17 and we are leaving Nov 1 too. He knows about the trip but I have a few surprises to spring on him right before we leave - two tours - Keys to Kingdom and Around the World Segway.

We are going to the party on Nov 2 - have never been but since it is probably our last trip before he goes off to college I wanted to make it memorable. We are doing MNSSHP and the following week MVMCP and Food & Wine - All first time events for us both.

 

[mking624]

I am really not that creative when it comes to figuring out ways on how to tell someone about a trip, but I will comment on the party.

I have been to MNSSHP a few times now. I absolutely love it, and it is worth the price to me. However, I am not paying for an entire family...just me and DH. Obviously there is a big difference between two people and five people. That said, only you can determine if it is worth it or not. And I am of the mindset that the only real way you can know is to go. There are a ton of threads that are discussing the party, what is involved, experiences, etc. And you will find opinions ranging from positive to negative. Try to look at the information objectively. DH and I love Halloween (that is the day we met), so we absolutely love the party. If you're big fans of the holiday, you will probably enjoy the party. And if you decide to do the party, you could always print the tickets and place those in the trick-or-treat bags. On the flip side, don't feel like you just missed an opportunity of a lifetime if you ultimately decide not to do the party.

 

[katie111]

I have the same problem and my kids are similar ages (5, 9 & 10). We leave on the 3rd and have a 7 am flight. Airport is about 40 minutes away so I need to wake them by 5 at the latest. I can't decide if I should tell them beforehand or not. We've surprised them a couple times before but have never gotten that jumping up & down reaction. My other problem is my DH is not coming with us. He's leaving the day prior for a conference. So it will be up to me to get them up, dressed & surprised all within a very short period of time. But if I tell them the night before I know that no one will get any sleep that night, they will be way too excited. What I'm thinking of doing is having a Christmas present wrapped up. Tell them they have to get up because Daddy left them a present and he said we have to open it at 5am. Hoping for some jumping up & down! I think the pajama idea is good, just don't expect them to get much sleep that night.

As for the halloween party, we went a few years ago & thought it was okay. My two older kids were 5 & 6 at the time and honestly they didn't last much past 9:30. It just seemed really dark to me, unless you really had a plan, we weren't really sure what to do. We like the characters but didn't feel like waiting in long lines to see them. The trick or treating was ok, my kids didn't like most of what they were giving out. The parade was good, but really crowded. My kids really liked dancing at the Tomorrowland dance party, that was probably the highlight for them. I think with older kids it would probably be a lot more fun.

 

[pdnorm]

Thanks for the responses. We are spending waaay too much on this trip. We are definitely going to skip mnsshp.

Our flight is 630 AM. We are thinking of having a scavenger hunt the day before we leave and at each location have a letter (D I S N E Y) in random order then when they are done they have to arrange the letters to spell our destination. We will also have a box full of "stuff" pajamas, airline tix, and other items for the trip. We will probably be exhausted the first day no matter how we decide to tell them. We need to leave the house at about 430 AM!

 

[phoenixleigh]

Hey how did the surprise go?

 

[pdnorm]

Thanks for asking......Great and terrible!

Hurricane Sandy hit real hard on Monday. We lost power for 6 days, no big deal compared to a lot of other people around here who lost everything.

Tuesday we loaded a box with some travel goodies and a few balloons and surprised the kids. They were super excited and we expected that we could fly out on Thursday as planned. We booked a flight from Laguardia and that was the hardest hit airport. We couldn't find another flight out Thursday or Friday so we had to cancel! We did get a full refund, thank you Disney and Jet Blue.

Now we will push the trip off until 2013. Maybe someone could let me know of any deals for a family of 5? We would rather not lose more than 2 school days if possible?

 

[phoenixleigh]

I am sorry you had to cancel I am not good at deals because we use points. But the off season is in January early February so the price might be good then. We were going to take my son at the end of January because there was 2 teacher in service days so he would have only missed three days. I don't know your school calendar so look for those kind of things.