I've never back so excited and happy about cancelling a trip!

[RumpleMom]

What a wonderful thing for a family to do together!

One of the things I love about Disney is having something for everyone to enjoy. We have traveled with 3 generations too.

Please consider taking some time to look into DVC. It has made our once every 3 years trip possible for us to go every year. We were staying at All-Stars or moderates before DVC. We would never pay the money for a deluxe hotel.

Run the numbers and compare, you just might be pleasantly surprised, even if you only use your points every third year.

It has made a big difference in the quality of our trip. We love having a kitchen, in room washer/dryer and a large space for the family to gather. It makes for a very relaxing vacation.

 

[jimandami]

Here is another idea....sort-of similar to some already suggested. We bought my 17 year-old stepson a trip to NYC for his birthday this year. We wrapped up three smaller presents, each of which was New York related. First, we gave him an outfit, which had a Ralph Lauren t-shirt that said something about NYC, then we gave him 2 DVDs that were set in NYC (King-Kong and World Trade Center), then we gave him a really cool rolling suitcase/duffel bag. He actually really like those 3 gifts and had no idea there was another one. Then we gave him a box that my DH had lined with pictures of the New York skyline and Times Square. In the middle, he had made glued a piece of paper that said something like this: Three cokes at the Indianapolis airport $12, Cab fare from Newark Airport to Embassy Suites NYC $65, Three tickets to the Lion King on Broadway $475, Sharing the big apple with your son...priceless. It was really a great experience to see a normally very calm, unemotional teenager open that box and read the message.......he was genuinely suprised and excited. I know it would be a little different for you since you have the whole family, but you could do small disney related gifts such as PJs, toys, movies, etc...and then the big gift with the trip.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Thank you all for your great ideas. I'm so excited I can't wait until Christmas Eve! Any more suggestions would be welcome.

 

[njbeachbum]

Thank you all for your great ideas. I'm so excited I can't wait until Christmas Eve! Any more suggestions would be welcome.

So in other words none of our ideas were good enough??? KIDDING! This sounds like so much fun!

 

[Xiarra]

Oooooo .... I LOVE surprises ..... I would set the stage now though.....
start dropping hints that Christmas is going to be tight this year and that presents will be very light....

You want this type of thing the furthest from their mind.... ... they would never expect something like this after you setting the stage....

You should draaaaaaaggggggg this out all day (at least that is what I would do).

I would give them all just a small little present to unwrap (NOTHING DISNEY). Continue on with Christmas Day like that was it.... those were the presents.

I like the Idea that another poster had about the video/slide show of previous trips.

As the day continues on, you could pull the family together and sit and watch the video. You could set up chairs for everyone to sit and underneath the chairs you could tape envelopes.... in the evelope you could make up invitations to Disney... The whole time they are watching the video they will probably be thinking " what is going on " .... Then at the end of the video you could put a message "Everyone Please Look Under Your Seat".... they will find the invite and SURPRISE!!!!!

Okay... so that was long... and I could probably come up with more, this was just off the cuff.... but it might give you some ideas !!!!!

 

[DisneyMomx7]

I was thinking along the idea of the personal invitations - taping them under the chair is a great idea! I don't know if I can drag it on all day I'm dying to tell them asap!!!!

 

[TripTime]

Wad two trips planned this year. DH has been running the marathon the past few years so we were booked at the Poly for 5 nights for the marathon, and then we had our annual summer trip and we were booked 10 nights at GF and 5 nights at the Poly.

Well DH has decided that its finally time to take the great big, everyone's included, everything's paid for Family Trip! Between all our children, their spouses and grandchildren there will be 15 of us!

We are cancelling the January trip and changing the July trip around. Since we are paying for 4 rooms, MYW package with dining, airfare and spending money for everyone we had to give up the GF in favor of the Poly. We are having everyone (all 15) for one week and then when they go home DH, me and the three small ones will probably stay for another 5-7 days to enjoy some alone time and rest up.

Even though we are giving up the January trip I'm so excited to be able to do this for the older kids and our grandchildren. They are not in a position to be able to do this on their own right now so that makes it even more special.

It is a big secret which we plan to let out on Christmas Eve. DH and I are racking our brains trying to find the most special way to pull this off. We are thinking of having printed invitations made on DIsney stationery and doing a grab bag with Disney guidebooks and other Disney related items. Any suggestions?

Grandma? Is that you????

 

[LegoMom3]

I have no suggestions for you but I want to be a fly on your wall that day just to see everyone's faces!!! I'm all excited and I'm not even involved!! That is just SO cool!

 

[triplefigs]

Robyn,

Do you want to adopt 5 more? I hope you have a wonderful trip. I know y'all are going to have so much fun.

 

[simonkodousek]

What a wonderful gift idea! 15 days in Disney World...

 

[lucincia]

Any of you kind grandparents adopting .... ?

 

[bytheblood]

What you are doing is wonderful. You will all have a great time.

What I would do, if it were me, is present it on Christmas Eve as a toast. Have the oldest male read it to everybody on a piece of paper. He gets the surprise at the same time as everybody else. Then you and your husband get the treat of watching all of their faces.

 

[mandy200587]

What about getting maybe some disney inspired items and wrapping them. We surprised my nephew at Christmas this year. We had been giving him clues up till then. We then got the Disney kids book and put the information in it of where we are staying, when, and whose going. We also had Mickey Mouse Call.

 

[Cindie-rella]

It is a big secret which we plan to let out on Christmas Eve. DH and I are racking our brains trying to find the most special way to pull this off. We are thinking of having printed invitations made on DIsney stationery and doing a grab bag with Disney guidebooks and other Disney related items. Any suggestions?

I had given my husband an all expense paid trip to WDW on Christmas 2004 for an April trip of 2005. It was our 25th anniversary year in 05 so I combined it as a Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary gift. I had purchased everything from plane tickets to an entire 10 night WDW stay including spending money. It was my only way of finally getting him there. I packed everything in one of the pieces of new luggage I purchased for the trip. Inside, it included our Annual Passes, plane tickets, an itinerary which incl. some character meals & Cirque tickets along with some new clothes, Disney Tee's and bathing suits. When he opened the suitcase a stuffed Tigger on top of everything was holding the plane tix. It was quite a surprise that at 1st he was so shocked that he couldn't quite understand what was going on, I actually had to explain it to him. It was so funny and exciting. He actually never knew a thing about me planning this trip! I have no idea how I pulled this off. But it worked and we had a great time!
I have an idea on what you can do to surprise the whole family at once. Find a Costume store or somewhere on the internet where you can rent or purchase a Mickey Mouse costume. Have a friend dress in the costume and while you're all together on Christmas Eve have Mickey deliver an invitation in "person". If you find it impossible to find a Mickey Costume, have Santa himself deliver the invite. Maybe have Mickey/Santa (whichever one you get) hand out the guides and vacation DVD's and other Disney stuff all wrapped up. Give the Adults the invitations and planning video's and give the kids Christmas Disney stuffed characters so they can keep them to remember this special Christmas gift forever.
However you decide to do this I'm sure will be so wonderful! Your children are so lucky to have such wonderful parents !
Have fun planning, it's almost the best part.

 

[Pakey]

We did the Christmas surprise for our 3 grown DS and spouses for the first time in 2003. What I did was I made fake Disney money--put a picture of Mickey onto the bills instead of the presidents--and put them into cards. They thought they were getting the generic cash Christmas gift at first--took them awhile to figure it out.

At the airport in January, waiting to leave for Orlando, I gave them another card. It contained the information regarding the parasailing and spa appointments I had booked for them and their real spending money. When we got into Orlando, I had a huge stretch limo for everyone (which I think they were more excited about than the parasailing/spa!!!!). On the last night there, we took them to Victoria and Alberts for dinner to celebrate the end of the most fantastic week we'd all had and to thank them for being our "kids". I love every Disney related trip but there are moments from that trip that will be in my heart forever.

I'm a 1 year cancer survivor so congrats on that too. It makes me love all things Disney even more than I did before.

 

[Quinn222]

See if you can find the thread about the fortune cookies that was referred to earlier, it was the best surprise I ever read about. They invited the family over for Chinese food and had snuck the news into the fortune cookies.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Robyn,

Do you want to adopt 5 more? I hope you have a wonderful trip. I know y'all are going to have so much fun.

After this trip I probably won't be able to afford the ones I have! LOL. I am so excited I'm ready to bust. This is definitely going to be a Once in a Lifetime Trip for us that's why we really wanted to do it up right. Since none of our grandchildren had ever been we thought about doing a value or a moderate but figured who knows when they'll be able to get back, and of course the transportation for 15 tipped the boat, so Poly here we come. DH would have liked GF but the $45 per night per room extra charge was money we figured we could better spend elsewhere.

I'm dying to tell them, but I keep imagining their faces on Christmas Eve.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We did the Christmas surprise for our 3 grown DS and spouses for the first time in 2003. What I did was I made fake Disney money--put a picture of Mickey onto the bills instead of the presidents--and put them into cards. They thought they were getting the generic cash Christmas gift at first--took them awhile to figure it out.

At the airport in January, waiting to leave for Orlando, I gave them another card. It contained the information regarding the parasailing and spa appointments I had booked for them and their real spending money. When we got into Orlando, I had a huge stretch limo for everyone (which I think they were more excited about than the parasailing/spa!!!!). On the last night there, we took them to Victoria and Alberts for dinner to celebrate the end of the most fantastic week we'd all had and to thank them for being our "kids". I love every Disney related trip but there are moments from that trip that will be in my heart forever.

I'm a 1 year cancer survivor so congrats on that too. It makes me love all things Disney even more than I did before.

Wow that must have been a great surprise. I may "steal" some of your ideas.
Congratulations on being cancer free! I'm going on 12 years and my ds (23) will celebrate being cancer free 20 years this November. After all that you know that making memories is definitely a priority!

 

[sjlupin]

How AWESOME!!!

How about making some family tshirts with designs from the folks over at Creative DISigns? There are some really fun designs for family trips.

Can't wait to hear about your Christmas Eve!!!!!

 

[moviegirl11]

Wow, that is such an amazing gift!!!

I love the grab-bag idea. Or you could buy some Disney-related thing for everyone and distribute those gifts to everyone at the same time and see how long it takes for someone to figure out that you're taking them to Disney World.