Ideas on Surprising Children?

[diddldonna]

We are off to Disney paris end of November, my children don't know anything about it we have told them we are going away for a few days then to see family in kent. Has anyone else surprised their children? how and when did you do it? We planned on seeing how far we get before they find out where we are going, lol. My son is 14 and daughter 10, they have been to disneyworld 3 times and its our first time to Paris, we are hooked on disney as a family.

Donna

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Im taking my DD in January as a suprise christmas present. I was going to tell her Christmas day but ive decided not to say anything, i know that as soon as she sees the disney cut outs at Ashford international she will know where she is going.

 

[cap'njack.]

We are off to Disney paris end of November, my children don't know anything about it we have told them we are going away for a few days then to see family in kent. Has anyone else surprised their children? how and when did you do it? We planned on seeing how far we get before they find out where we are going, lol. My son is 14 and daughter 10, they have been to disneyworld 3 times and its our first time to Paris, we are hooked on disney as a family.

Donna

I tried to not tell my little man that he was going, however that lasted exactly 7 hours from when I booked it to when I told him

The only good thing is that he is only 16 months old so he probably doesn't remember and doesn't even know what DLRP is

 

[Tillybud]

my sister did this with her kids, they were 7, 9 and 11 at the time and she just told them they were going away for a few days and it wasn't until they were in the car and en route that her and hubby told them where they were off to ... she said the looks on their faces was priceless ! would love to surprise my kids but I don't think I could contain myself.

 

[Pinkradleygirl]

We did this on our trip in October 2006- DD was only 5. We told her we were going on holiday to Blackpool for a few days (she's never had a holiday in the Uk bless her!).

When we got to Dover we told her where we were actually going and she burst out crying saying she didn't want to go to Disney but wanted Blackpool instead!!
Kids!

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

We did this on our trip in October 2006- DD was only 5. We told her we were going on holiday to Blackpool for a few days (she's never had a holiday in the Uk bless her!).

When we got to Dover we told her where we were actually going and she burst out crying saying she didn't want to go to Disney but wanted Blackpool instead!!
Kids!

Awww bless her!

 

[A Small World]

We kept it a secret from DD about our trip last Christmas - we told her Christmas day and we were setting off on boxing day.
We had bought her a new Cinderella suitcase and secretly packed it on Christmas Eve, then put a Christmas Minnie in it and a letter that 'Belle' had sent her saying she was going the following day.
Santa wrapped it up in Christmas paper and put it with all her other presents.
It took her a while to click that she was going the following day but when she did her face was a picture. She couldnt believe we'd kept it secret from her for several months.

I had thought about making up some kind of quiz/ puzzle to let her guess where she was going but decided she may not be interested in it on Christmas day so it would have fallen flat however you could do something like this to give your children to do in the car- a treasure hunt to look for things from the car window which first letters relate to something Disney - a favourite character or ride or a word search/quiz to do in the car or you could just keep quiet and see how long it is before they register. Even if they spot signs and point it out you could just say "oh yes I didnt know it was so near to where we were going...."

Let us know what you decide

 

[J Marley]

The last time we went in Jan 07 the boys did not know until Christmas day when Santa left them the trip....they received lovely letters from Santa expertly done on the computer.

They will be getting the same for Christmas this year ....It's hard not to tell them but the look their faces on Christmas morning will be worth it

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

The last time we went in Jan 07 the boys did not know until Christmas day when Santa left them the trip....they received lovely letters from Santa expertly done on the computer.

They will be getting the same for Christmas this year ....It's hard not to tell them but the look their faces on Christmas morning will be worth it

How old are your boys Tracy?

 

[J Marley]

Emma they are 8 and 5 .....and a pair of monkeys

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Emma they are 8 and 5 .....and a pair of monkeys

They will get along with Kyra she is a proper cheeky monkey aswell. She thinks she is some sort of comedien

I was thinking of giving Kyra a card or letter saying she is going Disneyland but i dont think she will understand that it means going in 10 days, so im just going to hope she susses where we are going when we get to the train station.

 

[J Marley]

Emma

I also made the boys countdown calendars to help them understand that we also had a few days to wait before we went.At the end of everyday they scored off that day so they could see how long we had to wait

Something like that may help Kyra with the concept

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Emma

I also made the boys countdown calendars to help them understand that we also had a few days to wait before we went.At the end of everyday they scored off that day so they could see how long we had to wait

Something like that may help Kyra with the concept

I think i'll be the one getting impatient me and countdowns don't go down to well.

 

[cookie334]

I couldn't possibly keep it from my kids I just get waaaaaaay to excited. I was going to keep our next trip as a surprise till christmas and tell them on christmas day as their main prezzy, but they know already and I haven't even booked it yet I can't keep anything a secret though, I am honestly the biggest blab on the planet.

 

[kevankiki]

I also surprised my DD (then 15!) last Christmas, though don't ask me how I pulled it off, as she never misses a trick!

What I did was to print off confirmations for the Eurostar and HI, then placed them inside her old Disney Tigger hat, and wrapped it up. I did the same with my own Disney Pooh hat. We had told her she wasn't getting much, and on Christmas Day itself DS (19) woke up to piles of present, DD had a much smaller pile, but still she didn't question it!

During the unwrapping ceremony DH gave DD and I our presents to open at the same time, she still didn't twig, and tried to hand me the pieces of paper she found inside her hat!

I told her she needed to read them, she read "26th December... Oh, that's tomorrow!" Needless to say, the tears followed soon after, when she realised she was going the next day She then went off and produced some clothes she needed to take, first time I ever had to wash on Christmas Day!

I don't think she really believed it was happening until we were on the train the next day.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I also surprised my DD (then 15!) last Christmas, though don't ask me how I pulled it off, as she never misses a trick!

What I did was to print off confirmations for the Eurostar and HI, then placed them inside her old Disney Tigger hat, and wrapped it up. I did the same with my own Disney Pooh hat. We had told her she wasn't getting much, and on Christmas Day itself DS (19) woke up to piles of present, DD had a much smaller pile, but still she didn't question it!

During the unwrapping ceremony DH gave DD and I our presents to open at the same time, she still didn't twig, and tried to hand me the pieces of paper she found inside her hat!

I told her she needed to read them, she read "26th December... Oh, that's tomorrow!" Needless to say, the tears followed soon after, when she realised she was going the next day She then went off and produced some clothes she needed to take, first time I ever had to wash on Christmas Day!

I don't think she really believed it was happening until we were on the train the next day.

Thats a great story!

 

[kevankiki]

Thats a great story!

Thanks, I couldn't pull it off again this year though, much as it was lovely to surprise her, it was horrid not being able to chat about it in the run up. I remember tormenting the DISers here instead

 

[minnie1972]

We booked a trip to Walt Disney World two years ago when my son was five,told him he was going to Turkey.Didn't think for one minute we would get very far before he realised however because he was so busy playing his nintendo we got all the way to Florida none the wiser! It wasn't until we got to the sign that says Welcome to Walt Disney World and he happened to glance out of the window, he dropped his nintendo and said "omg they have a Disney in Turkey" I felt then I should tell him we were actually in Florida.He looked at me and said "you lied" then burst into tears. He soon got over it as we pulled up at Pop Century

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

We booked a trip to Walt Disney World two years ago when my son was five,told him he was going to Turkey.Didn't think for one minute we would get very far before he realised however because he was so busy playing his nintendo we got all the way to Florida none the wiser! It wasn't until we got to the sign that says Welcome to Walt Disney World and he happened to glance out of the window, he dropped his nintendo and said "omg they have a Disney in Turkey" I felt then I should tell him we were actually in Florida.He looked at me and said "you lied" then burst into tears. He soon got over it as we pulled up at Pop Century

Disney world in Turkey...classic bless him.

 

[sherette7769]

I have kept my own secret now for over two months! We are going to take our DD and DS at the end of the month for DDs 8th B-day. It's not been easy, and I'm sure as soon at we arrive to CDG she'll know what's going on!

She knows we're going away, I just told her it was to a hotel with a pool (which she loves).

It's killing me so much to keep quite that I had to plan a trip to Legoland (here in Germany) next week so I wouldn't spoil the surprise!