Ideas for telling kids about upcoming Disney trip

btcrane

Today is the best day of my life!
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
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My BF and I are taking his 3 kids (13, 11, and 9) to Disney for the first time, camping at Fort Wilderness (they love camping so that is just part of the adventure). I'm looking for fun ideas to tell them. Their dad did tell them we were going somewhere fun, and we would tell them where this weekend. I've had a lot of fun with my own kids in the past, surprising them with Disney trips. I'm thinking of a scavenger hunt for clues....

Any other ideas? Anyone want to share how they told their own kids about an upcoming trip?
 
We did a scavenger hunt last year - they loved it.

This year we have an early flight so we are waking them up by playing the Junglebook Groove and when they come out of their bedrooms their Buzz suitcases and "We're going to Disneyworld" t-shirts will be outside their doors.
They're normally great at waking up - guaranteed this will be the one day they wake up grumpy! :laughing:
 
One year for Christmas we bought the kids a new piece of luggage and stuffed it with stuff - like the free park customized maps, disney shirts, guide books, etc and let them figure out. To suspend the suspense I individually wrapped each thing in the luggage bag.
 
My BF and I are taking his 3 kids (13, 11, and 9) to Disney for the first time, camping at Fort Wilderness (they love camping so that is just part of the adventure). I'm looking for fun ideas to tell them. Their dad did tell them we were going somewhere fun, and we would tell them where this weekend. I've had a lot of fun with my own kids in the past, surprising them with Disney trips. I'm thinking of a scavenger hunt for clues.... Any other ideas? Anyone want to share how they told their own kids about an upcoming trip?

Love this idea!! I have been toying with the idea of surprising my boys morning of, but am really afraid it will go horribly wrong, DS6 is NOT a morning person and typically wakes grumpy on his own and DS9 is on the spectrum and surprises - even great ones - don't go over too well.
 

Mine are younger than yours, but I’ve done 3 surprise trips, 2 Disney, 1 to Sea World. Planning another surprise now because after having both surprise trips and trips where she was in on the planning from the beginning, my daughter says she prefers to be surprised. I think she prefers it because it means less waiting. And now that my son is older, I believe less waiting is better for him too. They are so much fun.

I have not done a scavenger hunt because my daughter loves to watch the Disney surprise youtube videos and there are so many scavenger hunts on there I know the moment I say Scavenger Hunt, she will know what’s up. I would suggest if you have a chance without them knowing to check out the youtube videos. They are great.

My little buggers are probably already wondering if we are going back this summer. I think I'm going to tell them the day before, fake like we are going to make a countdown banner and then when it is time to put in the number for the number of days left until the trip, give my son an envelope with a big "1" on it.
 
Love this idea!! I have been toying with the idea of surprising my boys morning of, but am really afraid it will go horribly wrong, DS6 is NOT a morning person and typically wakes grumpy on his own and DS9 is on the spectrum and surprises - even great ones - don't go over too well.

Hello, my daughter isn’t on the spectrum but has ADHD and low-level anxiety. She’s also not a morning person and often has trouble adjusting to certain things. Last year we drove instead of flying to Disney, which because I am the only adult meant we’d be on the road for 2 days instead of in the air for just under 2 hours. I felt she needed some time to wrap her head around it and decide what she wanted to take with her so I revealed the surprise 3 days ahead of time.

I told her I needed her and her brother to help me with some things and I was printing out a list for her to get off the printer. At the top of the paper it said, “Disney 2013 Packing List” in bright red letters. She was thrilled. We all helped with the packing and she got to add some things to the suitcase she wanted. Then we went out for some last minute odds and ends and talked about our trip.

I also gave her a trip binder I made with coloring pages and journal pages, but also a lay-out of our trip. It showed her when we’d leave, when we’d stop to eat, pictures of the hotels we’d be stopping at, coloring pages on states we had to drive through and it had pages on each of our vacation days showing which park we’d be going to and such. It was really fun to make just pulling in images from Google.
 
We just booked our "holy cow we got an amazing deal!" trip last night for the first week of April. So excited to share with DD6! Love the scavenger hunt idea because she has just gotten into these with her Grammy. My girl is smart so I'll have to really think hard so she doesn't have it figured out by the second clue. I love the idea of watching some on youtube! DD and I have done this...need to go get busy watching! ;)
 
If you do a scavenger hunt or gift to reveal the surprise, I highly recommend doing some type of Disney Countdown as part of the gift - I've seen paper chains, chalkboards, etc. I made one for my DD6 when we did her Disney reveal for her Christmas present - mine was a painted Mickey head with PostIts to pull off each day to countdown - and I feel like it has been a lifesaver for my sanity. She doesn't bug me every day with "how much longer til Disney," she just takes of her PostIt and comes and tells me how many days left every morning :)
 
My husband and I just started talking about the trip in front of them over dinner.. A couple of hours later my oldest ran out of her room "Mommmmy we are going to Disney aren't we". Yes, my children are slow at times :rotfl2: I was wondering how long it was going to take them to figure it out.
 
My DH came up with a cool idea - paint or tape the message on Duplo blocks and then give them an instruction sheet for building something( castle or a wall with Mickey ears) and when they are finished have them turn the design vote to read the message! We leave Mother's Day so we haven't done it yet and still haven't decided when the reveal will be yet.
 
We did the scavenger hunt and they loved it! :cool1:

It was my birthday party that day and we were expecting the family to come over. The kids found out all the members of the family were kidnapped by pirates and received a treasure map to find them! pirate:
At every checkpoint they received a picture of the next place to search for. Last one was our front door.
When they came in everything was decorated Mickey style with a big present on the table. They thought it was for me because of my birthday. I read them the card out loud and told them it was not for me, but for them: a personal invitation from Mickey himself to come over.

I'm telling you the story because you will not understand a word we're saying in the video (we speak Flemish). But the kid's faces tell it all!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVJFK4hxQ4

Have a wonderful time!!!
 
These are great! DD is still quite young and so the only thing we've been doing is watching playhouse disney (which she loves) and reading some mickey books. She has no idea we're going to actually SEE Minnie in September. ;) Hopefully she likes it! :goodvibes:
 





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