Ideas of how to surprize 5 year old

[Rubygoose]

Hi, I'm new to these forums...

We booked a trip to Disneyland for Sept. 22-26th but we haven't told the kids yet. We took them last year at this same time of year, and weren't thinking of going again, but then saw the kids fly free deal with Westjet and my little one turns 3 in October, so he won't need a park pass.
I can't decide how to surprize the kids with the news of the trip. My daughter turns 5 next weekend, so I wanted to tell her on her birthday. But my husband doesn't want her to find out on her birthday because he thinks that sets the bar way too high for future birthdays, and the trip isn't just a birthday present for her, it's for the whole family.

So, does anyone have some fun ideas of how to tell the kids? I was thinking of making something that looks like a ticket with princesses and donald duck on it, but other than that, I have no idea!

 

[MICKEYFIL]

We have a similar situation but ours is for our three year old daughter and our nearly two year old son. Our son has no clue and doesn't need to be surprised but for our daughter we have a number of options.

I bought my daughter a piggy bank a while ago and told her that once it is full we will go to Disneyland. My plan is for the piggy bank to be bursting the morning we are leaving and then placing the last few coins in it to put it over the top.

Our neighbours took their kids in the car and just pretended they were going to pick someone up until they got the airport and took out their luggage and told them then.

 

[ctl]

When you decide to tell the kids, you could have a Disney character call them. The script is pretty limited, but if you go to the Disney Movie rewards page you can find Disneys enchanted Call for $2.95 per call. They have congratulations, happy birthday, going on a trip all available. You can see a preview and then book a time and the call comes in to your home and you have 40 seconds to press the number 1 and hand the phone to your daughter and her favorite character will wish her luck on her trip and then you can tell her the rest. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[Stitch35]

I've surprised my kids several times. Once we picked my oldest up from basketball and told him he was having a mommy and me day and his dad and brother were having a daddy and me day. We drove to the airport and told him his brother and dad were going to watch airplanes. When we got in, that's when we told him he was going to DL with just mommy

Another time we did a scavenger hunt. At the end was a couple little things for the park, strips to make a countdown chain and their Mickey ears.

Another time I burst into their room at 4am, said get up! We have to go! Handed them new shirts and said put these on! They were so shocked when they asked why, I said "we are going to Disneyland right now!" my oldest kept asking if I was joking and my youngest kept calling me a tricker" lol

This time we are doing a big trip. We start at the redwoods, then Santa Cruz and ending at DLR. They know about the first two, but not DLR. After Santa Cruz we are telling them we are driving home. They will wake up from nap about the time we get to DLR and we will just ask them where we are!

 

[T0rrent]

Can always do something like this. Wife sent me this youtube video last year about a mother surprising her daughter with a trip to Disneyland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOpOhlGiRTM

 

[tffnyjean]

My mom and I are surprising my 2 nieces they are are 6 with a girls trip on August 4. I made a little DVD in imovie(mac software), it's about 4 minutes long that we will surprise them with the night before we leave, it's been so hard to keep the secret!

 

[Pesky]

There are a lot of ideas on the family board in the WDW section. Some ideas I saw there:

* go to the Disney Store. The new ones can do a surprise thing in about 5 minutes and it will appear on the main screen that X is going to DisneyLand!

* tell them you have a special dessert and bring out a cake with a pic of DLR or items related to DLR and tell them then

* treasure or scavenger hunt with little clues along the way

* Just tell her you are going to take a trip and have a little famly vacation and let her realize it when she gets to the entrance to the park

* have a fairy visit and leave behind some items she will use at the park with a note of where she is going

 

[D1sneyfam1ly]

My parents surprised us when we were kids a few times. The best was when we were told we were going to have a trip somewhere else. We drove there and they said that the condo we were staying at wasn't ready yet so we were going to do some site seeing while we waitied. We drove little more, then they said we had gotten lost so we had to just go back to the condo when really we were quite close to Disneyland. We eventually made it to Disneyland when my sister recognized the Matterhorn. We checked into our hotel and went to Disneyland right away.

 

[Rubygoose]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I like the scavenger hunt idea, and my daughter is really into fairies and Tinkerbell, so maybe I'll set up her little fairy figures with some clues (pictures because she can't read yet) and lead they to their suitcases. They love playing "treasure hunt" so they'd like that kind of game. I don't know how far ahead of time to tell them, though. I love the idea of just telling them when we leave, but we're coming from Victoria and we have to get up before 6am, take a ferry, then a bus, then the airplane. I don't think they'll be very excited to be woken up at 5:30am and not know where they're going!

I like the phone call idea. Do they do a video message, too, or an e-mail. Too bad we don't have a Disney store in our town.

Thanks for the great suggestions!

 

[Rubygoose]

How to I get the characters to make a phone call?

 

[aluckyduck]

From a friend:

Last trip (in 09) we didn't tell the girls until we were getting ready to go to the airport.

I wrote a poem (it was from the Princesses) that told them where they were going that day. They didn't get it. I had to say, "We're going to Disneyworld!" And they said, "Oh, next year?" And I kept saying, "No, we're getting in the car and going to the airport. We're going to Disney World TODAY!"

They sulked for 3 hours on the way to the airport because they wanted to go to the Great Wolf Lodge

Sarah made us promise to not do that to her again. She's like me and wants to be part of the planning process.

 

[larina]

My 9 year old, then 8, didn't appreciate the surprise at all either. As a matter of fact, I think the whole thing may have made her sick. Last May we surprised her with her first trip telling her moments before leaving. She spent the next three days in the bathroom or in bed, while we rotated who went in the park with the other kids and who stayed back with her. It was horrible! She got to plan most of th December trip because of that.

 

[lalasmama]

I wrote a poem (it was from the Princesses) that told them where they were going that day. They didn't get it. I had to say, "We're going to Disneyworld!" And they said, "Oh, next year?" And I kept saying, "No, we're getting in the car and going to the airport. We're going to Disney World TODAY!"

We got a similar reaction from my 7-turning-8-year-old... It took probably 15 minutes to get her to believe we were really heading out to DLR in the morning.... "You're tricking me." "Yesterday you said we didn't have enough money to go." "No, we're not. You're just being silly." It took me, my dad, my aunt, my uncle, AND the adult neighbors to convince her that we were really going in the morning!

That being said, I'm not sure I would tell a 5yo the night before, only because of the sleep issues we had that night, LOL! She was too excited to sleep (and so was I, really).

 

[katejc]

We always do a "Tink present" (just little things and maybe a t-shirt, with a message from Tink), which "magically" appears on the pillow when we arrive at the hotel, but something like that might work before you go, too.

 

[Rubygoose]

Wow, I hadn't thought about them being mad about being surprised, but I can see my daughter being upset about not being told earlier. Also, I think she would like to have time to get excited about the trip. Maybe we'll surprise them with a treasure hunt 20 days before and do a countdown chart. I don't want them to know too far ahead of time, though, because my 2 year old (almost 3) will demand we go right now. (we have tickets to see Sesame street live this weekend and we told him way too early, and every morning he wants to wear his Elmo shirt and get going to the show.)

 

[DisneyMommy403]

I have 2 girls - one will be 5 in Sept (my Step daughter) and the other turned 4 last April; I also have a 1 year old son. Their first trip will be in November and I have been racking my brain, watching youtube videos, asking for suggestions, blah, blah, blah... but something I concluded was that no one knows your kids better than you do. What does your little 5 year old like? Start there.

You mentioned she loves the princesses, Tinkerbell, and treasure hunts. Sounds exactly like mine! My girls love Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and since they sort of tie in with Tink and treasure hunts, I'm sending my girls on a treasure hunt. I am going to make them a map to find doubloons! The doubloons will be puzzle pieces (they have cute small disney themed puzzles at Target) and Daddy will assist them on the search for doubloons (which will have obstacles & cognitive puzzles to get them) while I video of course. After the puzzle is assembled (I grabbed a Mickey Mouse puzzle, but maybe you could get a Princess one?) I will have my phone ready with their character call from the Mouse himself! I have also been buying the girls things I see here and there, like outfits for the plane ride, and activities for the flight that will be packed in their bags and part of the whole surprise.

The thought of the surprise going bad scares me But we intend on doing the treasure hunt the day before. Or else, they'll ask about going every day until we leave. I thought of a countdown calendar too, but I thought, "nah my kids will probably just destroy it in hopes that would mean we're leaving sooner." Like I said, no one knows your princess better than you do. Your surprise can be big, or subtle, elaborate, or simple... Either way, i'm sure she'll love the end result, I mean... what kid doesn't want to hear "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!"

Good luck!

 

[TwistGrl101]

We are surprising DD6, DD4, and DS2 this trip. I am waking them up that morning with a box for each of them to open. I would like a Mickey balloon to fly out of each box; each kid will receive a shirt that I bought from the Disney website that says "I'm going to the Walt Disney World Resort."
They each will have new Disney bathing suits and flip flops. The girls' boxes will also have autograph books, lanyards, and pins. I can't wait to record their reactions!!

 

[Rubygoose]

Ok, finally figured out how to tell the kids about the trip. We're going to wait until 20 days before our trip. Enough time to get excited but nit too much time to wait, and a few days before school starts.

I'm going to take pictures of all of the Disney toys, DVD's and everything Disney in our house (even the Pooh Bear Toothbrushes!) to make a scavenger hunt. When they find the item in the picture, they will collect a Mickey Mouse paint chip (from home depit. My kids call these "red/blue/green Toodles) with a number on it, along with the next pcture clue. This will lead them to their suitcases and a countdown chart to attach their Toodles cards to, and show them how many days until our trip.