Just had to share...

[swillis]

So while I was sitting here last night browsing the Disboards, my DD11 was sitting on the couch watching tv with me (I had some minor surgery yesterday, so I think she was feeling bad for me)

Anyway...I have a surprise trip planned for June for the kids, and we will be staying at FW for the first time...so...I brought up the FW pic of the day thread, and DD was ALL OVER IT!! "Please can we go there" "Camping and Disney together? How cool!"

I was doing the happy dance inside They are just going to be sooo excited! I have them convinced that it will be next year at least until we could go.

 

[DisneyFanatik]

That is so cool! I would love to wake my kids up one day and tell them that they had to get up so that we could go to WDW! They would love it! The only problem is that I get so excited when I plan a trip I am like a little kid myself. I could never keep that secret!

 

[magicforever]

I love it. I bet your heart is jumping for joy!!!

 

[kmccain]

So while I was sitting here last night browsing the Disboards, my DD11 was sitting on the couch watching tv with me (I had some minor surgery yesterday, so I think she was feeling bad for me)

Anyway...I have a surprise trip planned for June for the kids, and we will be staying at FW for the first time...so...I brought up the FW pic of the day thread, and DD was ALL OVER IT!! "Please can we go there" "Camping and Disney together? How cool!"

I was doing the happy dance inside They are just going to be sooo excited! I have them convinced that it will be next year at least until we could go.

That is really neat! I don't know how you do it though! I badger my kids every day about our trip. They pretend to not be interested but sometimes the slip and they are getting as excited as I am

Have a great trip and don't ever forget the looks on thier faced when you tell them!

 

[glavine47]

With my "surprise trips" ,the longest I have keep the secret was a week. I CANNOT KEEP A SECRET ABOUT DISNEY.

 

[kc5grw]

DW and myself managed to keep our Dec 2003 trip a secret from the time I reserved the site in April until the night before we left. It's was made more difficult by the fact that I had to work with by then 15 yo son's teachers to get a couple of end of term tests rescheduled. We still managed to do it. If it wasn't for the fact that my mother was joining us on the trip and had to stay with us the night before our departure we probably wouldn't have said anything until we were out of Texas. I just couldn't come up with a believable reason why she was there and trailer was being hooked up for a trip.

 

[swillis]

It's been very hard to keep the secret, but I haven't done a stellar job of hiding all my Disney research. My kids just think I am completely Disney obsessed, especially since they have no idea that there is an actual trip being planned

My best friend is coming with us, so that gives me someone to plan with, and talk about where to book ADR's. I still haven't come up with the final way to reveal the surprise...so I'm still trying to tweak that.

 

[Andrea_loves_Disney]

Wow that is great!l!!! Yours kids will be SO excited. I don't know how you do it though!!!! We talk about our trip just about every day - I think I would bust if I had to keep it a secret!!!!! Let us know what their reaction is when you tell them!!!!

 

[rangebob]

I did the same thing one with my son. I planned a trip to Disneyland and didn't say a word other than we were going somewhere. He was always asking where. The day of the departure we went to the airport and went to the gate for Las Angelos (sp) and sat down, he asked were we were going there. I just said to LA. When we finally got off the ground and about to cruising altitude that is when I finally told him the complete story, since I had to get his imput for the extra day that I had planned. He chose Universal over visiting the area and going to the pacific ocean. He still says that we should have went to the ocean and asks when we are going back.

 

[marybrat]

I could never keep it a secret. I'm worse than the kids when it comes to counting down the days to anything.

 

[PrincessMom98]

We took a 5 week camping trip last summer and we managed to keep the Disney part a secret until we drove through the Disney World welcome arch!
My kids (7,3 and 9mo at the time) knew about all of our other stops just not Disney. We were afraid they wouldn't enjoy the places on the way like Smoky Mtns if they knew Disney was part of our route. It worked out well, there was not the endless questioning about how long till Disney and they were really surprised when we got there. The only problem was my DD8 kept telling me that she wished she knew so she could have packed a few things like her autograph book, but I did remember their pins!
Good luck keeping the secret but you might want to ask them what they will want to pack when they do go so you don't make my mistake.

 

[Shannone1]

So while I was sitting here last night browsing the Disboards, my DD11 was sitting on the couch watching tv with me (I had some minor surgery yesterday, so I think she was feeling bad for me)

Anyway...I have a surprise trip planned for June for the kids, and we will be staying at FW for the first time...so...I brought up the FW pic of the day thread, and DD was ALL OVER IT!! "Please can we go there" "Camping and Disney together? How cool!"

I was doing the happy dance inside They are just going to be sooo excited! I have them convinced that it will be next year at least until we could go.

Very cool !! My kids don't know yet that we are going either.

 

[Kellbell3079]

I booked our vacation for June in January and as soon as I was off the phone I was screaming "We're going to Disney World". I think my 3 & 7 year old was looking at me like I lost my mind. It will be my first time and Im 33. So lets just say Im a little excited I could never keep a secret like that. Birthdays and Christmas is hard for me!

Kelley

 

[swillis]

We took a 5 week camping trip last summer and we managed to keep the Disney part a secret until we drove through the Disney World welcome arch!
My kids (7,3 and 9mo at the time) knew about all of our other stops just not Disney. We were afraid they wouldn't enjoy the places on the way like Smoky Mtns if they knew Disney was part of our route. It worked out well, there was not the endless questioning about how long till Disney and they were really surprised when we got there. The only problem was my DD8 kept telling me that she wished she knew so she could have packed a few things like her autograph book, but I did remember their pins!
Good luck keeping the secret but you might want to ask them what they will want to pack when they do go so you don't make my mistake.

I agree...the packing thing is going to be tricky, especially since we are dealing with a 12 and 11 year old. I just figured that since I need to buy new summer clothes for them anyway, we can just pick out the new stuff together, but when we get the outfits home I will be "putting them away" until summer comes, but really I will secretly pack them. I know they will want to bring their pins/lanyards, but the autograph books kind of fell flat on our first trip. They loved to get their pics taken with the characters, but thought the autographs were silly.

 

[Shannone1]

the autograph books kind of fell flat on our first trip. They loved to get their pics taken with the characters, but thought the autographs were silly.

I didn't like the autograph books AT ALL !! All the other kids had them so of course mine wanted them too. The girls were 7 and 9 at the time. We spend HOURS over 4 days waiting to get those silly autographs. Looking back now the girls say they wish they had used that time to do more rides !! They brought the books home, put them in their memory boxes and haven't looked at them since.

 

[PrincessMom98]

I have to admit that I didn't miss the autograph book! I figured that my DD8 already had just about everyone's autograph from previous trips and my boys were to young to care. When my DD was about 3 we used a hat for autographs. I think we will do that again on our next trip, one or 2 character meals and its fairly full.

 

[sandshaker]

We had planned for almost a year to go to WDW last year over Fall Break (first week of Oct). In March, we learned that DH would not be able to go due to the opening of his new restaurant. So spur of the moment, we changed all of our plans to go over Spring Break. The day before we left we broke the news to the kids that we would not be able to go for Fall Break. All three burst into tears. I felt horrible. Then we told them that we were leaving the next day!! They were so excited!!

They nearly drove me bonkers over that next 24 hours but it was fun to see them get so excited and be able to tell all of their friends where we were going.

We had such a great time that trip, we ended up going 3 more times over the rest of the year.

 

[glavine47]

I didn't like the autograph books AT ALL !! All the other kids had them so of course mine wanted them too. The girls were 7 and 9 at the time. We spend HOURS over 4 days waiting to get those silly autographs. Looking back now the girls say they wish they had used that time to do more rides !! They brought the books home, put them in their memory boxes and haven't looked at them since.

This is why I do the charecter meals; they come to you. I was told by a cast member it takes a family 1 hour to eat and by the time you are done, every charecter has came by your table. This is how it has worked for us.

 

[swillis]

We had planned for almost a year to go to WDW last year over Fall Break (first week of Oct). In March, we learned that DH would not be able to go due to the opening of his new restaurant. So spur of the moment, we changed all of our plans to go over Spring Break. The day before we left we broke the news to the kids that we would not be able to go for Fall Break. All three burst into tears. I felt horrible. Then we told them that we were leaving the next day!! They were so excited!!

They nearly drove me bonkers over that next 24 hours but it was fun to see them get so excited and be able to tell all of their friends where we were going.

We had such a great time that trip, we ended up going 3 more times over the rest of the year.

That is excellent! Just the shock and awe that I will be hoping for!