My husband wants to "surprise" our kids...

[cathicool]

We did the surprise method this past september. our kids were 4,6, and 8 at the time. we did a 3-night cruise, followed by 8 days in wdw. every step was a surprise. hubby and i woke the kids up the morning we were flying to orlando for the cruise. then we surprised them again by going to wdw instead of going home. we stayed at bcv for 4 nights, then akv for 3 nights. so they were surprised by the akv, too (the animals outside the balcony were awesome!). and to top it all off, we had friends of ours- who never, ever go on vacation- meet us at wdw! it was actually a coincidence they planned thier trip to wdw and we planned ours seperately from each other...but for the same dates! so that was fun too!

however.....the one thing i did miss with all the surprising was the anticipation and the excitement before the trip. and it was very hard to keep everyone quiet--teachers, relatives, friends, etc. so it was cool to surprise them, but i think i like the standard way a bit better.

just my 2 cents!

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Best bit about the trip is looking forward to it, my dn just loves to plan.

 

[dursin]

I'm with the previous few posters. I always thought that the anticipation was a big part of the fun. The kids really enjoy looking forward to their cruise, telling their friends and teachers that they are going, planning what they're going to do, etc... A surprise is nice in one respect, but in the other it deprives them of all that 'anticipation' in exchange for a few seconds of 'surprise'. Sorta like waking up in the morning and being told it's Christmas day without ever knowing it was coming....

 

[sullybro5]

We did the surprise "thing" last April. My DS8 was very excited, my DD10 cried. She was so concerned that she had told everyone she was going to FL to visit relatives that they would think she lied to them etc.... It took her 2 whole days to get into the vacation! We are going back in February (two weeks!) She is helping me plan, enjoying it, and saying she wishes she could have done this last year. I don't think she will ever let her dad and I live this down!

I will never do the surprise trip again!

Nancy