If you sursprised your kids with a trip, did any of them not like being surprised?

[BensWife]

We had originally planned a March 2015 trip, but we have moved it up to Sept 2014. The kids knew we were planning a March of 2015 trip for Spring Break to WDW, but they don't know about moving the date up and changing it to DLR. DH wants to surprise the kids, but I'm not sure they will like it. I think they will want to help us with some planning (they are 7 & 4) and will want to pack their own bags for the plane ride, etc. Did you ever regret surprising the kids or have your kids be disappointed?

 

[1buckeyegirl]

We surprised our kids last year they were 3 and 8. I had everything ready to go and woke them up to go to the airport really early. I told them at 5:00 am to get up and get dressed because we were going to Disney once they woke up and figured out what was going on they were freaking out. I got it all on video it was awesome! My four yr old ask me every now and again when I'm going to wake her up and take her to Disney again. I have another trip planned for May and I'm going to surprise them again! Can't wait!! The only part I didn't like was having them help plan but it was totally worth it!

 

[Disneylover99]

I will never surprise my kids again.

We decided to take my seven year old daughter to DW to eat in Cinderella's castle on her actual birthday in December. We were flying down for four nights so the kids had to miss two days of school.

We had the car packed with our luggage when they returned home from school. All they had to do was get in the car. We had planned this eight months in advance and were so excited that we were able to keep it a secret.

My daughter (upon hearing the great news) flung herself on to her bed and cried for a half hour because she didn't want to go. My 10 year old son was stressed about missing school. .

We ended up having a great time once we finally left. But we got off to a rough start which could have been alleviated if we just told them in the first place.

Lesson learned.

 

[WantToGoNow]

My dd reaction was not what we thought when we surprised them - dd was 7 and ds was 10. They thought we were going somewhere else just for the day. We woke them up at 4, they were too sleepy to notice that we all had brand new Disney themed shirts. We got in the car for the 10 min drive to the airport. As we were entering the airport, ds notices and asks where we were going. We gave them each the bags we had made with stuff for the plane, autograph books, and pins. Ds was very excited. Dd thought we were playing some kind of sick joke and started crying. She cried all through the airport, the entire flight, Magical Express and check in. She figured we weren't lying but then was upset because she didn't get to tell her friends, teacher, etc goodbye and that she would miss her Halloween party at school. She was cranky for the first three days of the trip. We will never surprise her with anything ever again.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I don't have kids but it have seen my fair share of Disney surprise trip fail videos. It seems the biggest reason some kids get upset is because they had other plans (I.e. Party at school, play date with friends, school or even another trip). One video showed a kid upset because the parents said we are going to Disney world, not six flags (or another smaller amusement park). The kid was excited to go to Disney but then got upset that it meant he couldn't go to six flags.

It's certainly rare, but it does happen.

 

[pad406]

We surprised the kids for both our trips. The first time we let them know about a week before we were going, enough time for them to get really excited but not drive us demented for months on end. They were 8 and 6 at the time. The 2nd time we went, they thought we were just going to NYC for a long weekend. When we were leaving to fly home, DW waited at the Orlando gate, I sent the kids to her and we just waited for them to figure it out. I have it all on video and it's a great pick me up. This time we will tell them a week or so before we leave that we're going to Universal for a week, but will mention nothing about Disney till we drive in.

Whether or not your kids will like it, you and DH will know best. You can get the best of both worlds though, by letting them know a bit ahead, I think

 

[mks18412]

We had originally planned a March 2015 trip, but we have moved it up to Sept 2014. The kids knew we were planning a March of 2015 trip for Spring Break to WDW, but they don't know about moving the date up and changing it to DLR. DH wants to surprise the kids, but I'm not sure they will like it. I think they will want to help us with some planning (they are 7 & 4) and will want to pack their own bags for the plane ride, etc. Did you ever regret surprising the kids or have your kids be disappointed?

We are surprising dd10 & ds3 with a week long family trip coming up in a couple of weeks. We will tell them when we get there. I'm pretty sure they will be sooo surprised. We are going to video their reactions.

 

[Hannathy]

Personally I think the anticipation of a coming trip is the sweetest part!

I would never deprive my kids or anyone else of that feeling. Just like leading up to Christmas is often more fun than the morning.

I also like to get everyone's input on what they want to do or stay or eat. It is to expensive of a trip to not let everyone have a say. I wouldn't like being surprised like that and I respect my kids to not do it to them. And true they should be able to plan things around it or let people know.

Isn't the surprise of getting to go to Disney and being told you are planning a trip enough of a surprise?

 

[MandiC]

I think you know your kids best. We 'surprised' our kids with the trip at Christmas so they knew a month in advance. I know my kids and surprising them the day of would turn out horribly. My kids like planning and feeling involved. They loved the countdown chain we made and the anticipation was fun. I knew I'd need time to prepare them for the flight, which was their first. I also knew that a lot of people around us needed to know we were going (we had to arrange for people to care for our younger two children and our pets, I had to let the school/teachers know well in advance as well as their extracurricular activities, we needed to turn down a good friend's birthday party also) and I wanted to be the one to tell them, not have someone slip up and that is how they find out (and we were *close* on that one, one of my aunts mentioned it at Thanksgiving but luckily the kids weren't paying attention).

 

[FLSarah]

I surprised my son for our first ever trip. It did not turn out how I hoped. We got into an argument on the way to the hotel the night before the big surprise. The morning of, I woke him pretty early and it took a while for it to actually sink it. Wasn't what I was expecting at all.

 

[PHXscuba]

I think if you have switched their WDW trip for a DLR trip (which is awesome too!) it would be nice to give them a little notice to ask the right questions and prepare them. If it was simply moving up a planned trip, it might be fun to surprise them.

And you never know what reaction a surprise will get ... I have two kids who would LOVE a surprise like this, and two that could possibly react very oddly if they weren't given time to process and ask questions.

I have always felt like a little anticipation (within reason) is part of learning delayed gratification and patience.

PHXscuba

 

[Toffeewoffy]

I, too, could never keep a trip a secret until the last minute. For one thing, I'd be so bursting with excitement about the trip that I wouldn't be able to help myself. Secondly, I think your kids have the right to know what's going to happen.

As I've posted previously, the only time a surprise went wrong was when we took DD (aged 5) to France for the day and she was disappointed thinking we were going shopping.

I have watched several people's reveal videos and while they say how excited the kids were, all I got from watching was a sense of embarrassment as the kids either blanked their parents or said 'I don't want to go' etc. Tbh, if I got that sort of response, I wouldn't post the video on a public forum: embarrassing for me - and embarrassing for the kids, too!

 

[Haarke]

We are surprising our kids 3 and 5. All my 5 y/o dtr talks about is when we will take her to Disney. She was also just asking me the other day when I will wake her up in the middle of the night to take her to see her cousins, we like to travel at night. I have been reading stories about flying and asking her what she would like to do at Disney if we ever get to go. We also have watched many you tube videos about Disney and the meet and greets so my son knows what to expect. We have also been watching some movies that they recommend to see before going to Disney. In short my kids know what to expect but don't really even know it's coming! We will surprise them the morning of, I think I will also give them a couple minutes to check out there bag for the flight and grab anything else they want. I hope it all goes smoothly.

 

[laughinplace199]

I think if you have switched their WDW trip for a DLR trip (which is awesome too!) it would be nice to give them a little notice to ask the right questions and prepare them. If it was simply moving up a planned trip, it might be fun to surprise them.

And you never know what reaction a surprise will get ... I have two kids who would LOVE a surprise like this, and two that could possibly react very oddly if they weren't given time to process and ask questions.

I have always felt like a little anticipation (within reason) is part of learning delayed gratification and patience.

PHXscuba

I agree. OP, you may want to tell the kids that the WDW has been cancelled for now. Then you could say something along the lines of "maybe we'll get to go on a different trip sometime soon" or "maybe we can go to DLR sometime instead." Then you could plan a surprise since the seed has already been planted.

We surprised our kids (14, 12, & 6) this past August and it went really well. We went to Vero Beach for 3 nights, which they knew about. We got the kids up early on check-out day and told them we had to get to MCO because we had an early flight home. On the "supposed" ride to the airport, I pretended to get a text from the airline that our flight was delayed until early evening. DH & I were thinking out loud..."What could we do to kill that many hours? What's there to do in the Orlando area that would fill a day? I know, how about Animal Kingdom?!"

The kids went crazy and DH & I did a good job (I think) of acting, we kept saying "This is so crazy. I can't believe we're actually doing this!"

When we got to AK, we told them the rest of the story. There had been no delayed flight. We were spending 2 nights and 3 days at WDW and then going home. They were so excited!

However, we had just been to WDW for a week in March, so I think that's why they were ok with not being in on the planning.

Here's a pic of them once we told them the good news:

It's the only pic we have of all 3 smiling and looking in the same direction!

 

[luvmy2babies]

Just have to consider a few factors like how they feel about surprises in general. I wouldn't wait until the day of the trip. They might need time to wrap their heads around it and if you have a child that stresses about missing school definitely give them a few days at least. It will still be a surprise if you tell them say 1 or 2 weeks or a month before.

My two love surprises but last time we drove instead of flying so I told them a few days ahead of time so my daughter could get used to that reality and so she could gather what she wanted for the trip. I have done both surprise trips and a trip where she was in on the planning. I am surprising them again in May as she has told me she prefers that to being in on the planning from the beginning (because it means less waiting) but it will be at least a day or two before so she can go through and make sure the clothes she wants to take are packed. We're leaving Sunday May 25th. Her Elementary school graduation is the Wednesday before that, so I plan to tell them either Thursday or Friday.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I don't have kids but it have seen my fair share of Disney surprise trip fail videos. It seems the biggest reason some kids get upset is because they had other plans (I.e. Party at school, play date with friends, school or even another trip). One video showed a kid upset because the parents said we are going to Disney world, not six flags (or another smaller amusement park). The kid was excited to go to Disney but then got upset that it meant he couldn't go to six flags.

It's certainly rare, but it does happen.

I've seen more of these than I can count. Saying you're going to "a" when you're really going to "b" bombs at least as often as it is met with excitement.

 

[4xmom]

We surprised our kids for our last trip. It involved a huge long process of stopping for fireworks in SC (what they thought was the reason for the trip), driving through the night to FL, telling the kids we were lost, bribing them to take a nap in the car the next day, ect. We woke them up as we got to the Welcome sign. DS 12 was so angry to hear we were "lost" again that he wasn't even looking around. DD 8 caught on fast and was screaming. After reassuring them that their teachers knew about the trip and missing school for a week was fine and that we did indeed have clothes to wear, they were very excited. I was worried about DD9. But later as we stood on our balcony watching the animals, she leaned over and said full of awe, "I just can't believe that we are really at Disney World." That made all my secret planning worth it. This coming trip they know about it. I may try to surprise them again at some point.

 

[Lita]

We surprised our kids for our last trip. It involved a huge long process of stopping for fireworks in SC (what they thought was the reason for the trip), driving through the night to FL, telling the kids we were lost, bribing them to take a nap in the car the next day, ect. We woke them up as we got to the Welcome sign. DS 12 was so angry to hear we were "lost" again that he wasn't even looking around. DD 8 caught on fast and was screaming. After reassuring them that their teachers knew about the trip and missing school for a week was fine and that we did indeed have clothes to wear, they were very excited. I was worried about DD9. But later as we stood on our balcony watching the animals, she leaned over and said full of awe, "I just can't believe that we are really at Disney World." That made all my secret planning worth it. This coming trip they know about it. I may try to surprise them again at some point.

I love this!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I think it all depends on the child. I know personally I would never want to be surprised. I need time to process what's going on and plan. I can't just be told something like that and be excited-I need to sort out what's going on.

My friend's family surprised her younger sister with a trip to Disneyland just a few months ago. My friend knew about the trip and helped plan it, but her sister was kept completely in the dark. Since she was four years old, the thought it would be fun for her. When they told her about it, she cried. And she didn't stop crying. Their trip had a lot of bad moments because she was upset they never told her. So, it's a lot to consider.

 

[pigletgirl]

I'm not sure I would want to surprise my kids. I think the idea is fun, but if they were to miss school I would want them to know ahead of time. I don't like the idea of keeping secrets from my kids, IMO. But, it can be really fun too! I just don't think its for our family.