Need good idea to surprise kids in car

[HayGan]

Here is the story -

We (me, DH, my dad and my 2 boys 6 & 8) are headed to WDW in August for a week. The boys have absolutely NO idea. They think we are not going back to WDW until next June. The plan right now is for us to pick the kids up from my MIL's Friday evening (who watches them on Fridays and lives near my dad) and then head straight to WDW. Our plan is to drive straight thru to Orlando (not a problem with our sleep schedules and number of drivers.) We are planning on telling them that we are just taking a trip to visit some of Grandpap's friends who live far away. I was thinking of not telling them that we are actually going to WDW until we get there but DH thinks that we should think of some great way to tell them on the way.

Anyone have any fun suggestions on how to tell them on the way to WDW? One thought I had was to make them t-shirts (I usually do a few designs each trip) and give them those shirts to put on in the morning when we stop to change. That just doesn't seem to have the WOW factor I think we are looking for (not that a surprise trip to WDW isn't enough of a WOW )

 

[monorailsilver]

How fun!

How about making up a few games to play along the way.

If you know your route you are going to take do some letter games.

Say at Exit 34 in DC put the 2nd letter of the city off that exit on dash #7.

When we cross over the line from NC to SC what is the first major city we will drive thru (or near) & put the 5th letter of that city on dash #5.

But don't give them too many clues ahead of time.

OK I am clueless & I am sure there are better games that smart people can come up with.

 

[kellig]

I would do a goodie bag full of Disney stuff that you give to them along the way and tell them it contains clues about where you are going.

I always do bags of "goodies" for all the kids on our car trips. For our recent Disney trip, I made bags up that included all kinds of Disney related items from Dollar Tree and the dollar bins at Target. Some of the items were: coloring books, markers, notebooks, silly putty, travel games, travel art sets. Our Dollar Tree also has lots of Disney toys - jump ropes, paddle balls, etc that would be good for stops.

Good luck and have tons of fun with your surprise trip!

 

[mjkacmom]

We surprised our kids the morning of our flight, with tshirts, but they were 1/2 asleep. The better surprise was when we told them our vacation was over, and we were headed to the airport - "mommy, why is the Disney ship here?" It was so cool having them find out about the cruise at the port! I'd wait until you arive.

 

[tzolkin]

why don't you just wait until they see the sign for FL and figure it out?

my kids knew all about our trip-- it was our first and we had been planning for months. DH got home from work early and was excited to get on the road so we decided to leave a day early but not tell the kids. we had packed the van in advance, so our oldest wasn't suspicious when we picked her up from school with all the luggage. DH told the kids we were going out to a special dinner in celebration of leaving for our trip the next day. we drove 4 hours before stopping to eat and then told them they could just go to sleep when it got dark because we had 4 hours to go to get home. the kids woke up in GA, but DH told them we just got lost and would be almost home. they saw the "Welcome to FL" sign and started screaming.

we enjoy the fact that we can tease our oldest (9) that we made it all the way to FL before she figured it out. i'm sure they'll be too suspicious to fall for it again.

 

[trennr]

Sounds like you will be driving through the night...so if they are anything like my kids they will go to sleep on a long drive.

So why not find a sound bite for their wake up call.

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/photos/wakeup.wav

Play it over and over until they wake up.

 

[proteus]

What I did was compile sound files from the internet then made my own CD.
It started off with the standard Monorail announcement "please stay clear of the doors" then segued into the next station being the MK. My "official" voice interrupted after that to spill the beans "Hello, this is your pilot speaking, ETA for arrival in WDW is 9:30 p.m., please open your Disney packet and prepare yourself for entry", then I flipped on rows of blinking LED lights which had been taped to the ceiling and part of the music from Spaceship Earth played. The LED's were to recreate the effect in the tunnel
in SE, not perfect but fun anyhow.

Another time I did a large map showing the route to WDW with a "you are here" pin.

Having kids is so much and a great excuse for doing silly stuff.

 

[HayGan]

Thanks for all the suggestions! We did a surprise trip for DS#1's 7th b-day last year and that was easy because I made him a up a book that led up to us saying where we were going. This is a bit tougher since we will be in the car for a looooong time. The plan is to have them sleep a good bit of the way. I'm sure my youngest will start to figure it out once we hit FL. I think we will just wait till we actually arrive at SSR. Maybe we can keep up the story that we are just going to visit friends of Grandpap till the very end. It is going to be hard enough to pack up everything without them wondering what is going on

 

[kellig]

We have some friends who did a surprise trip for their DD8. They told her they were going to Florida. DD assumed it was the beach. She realized where they were when she started seeing all the billboards and signs for WDW. She was screaming with excitement by the time she saw the "Welcome to WDW" sign!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We took my nieces on a surprise trip by car like this--said we were going to visit somebody. After we had been in the car a while, we handed them an activity book or something to occupy them in the car and we had stuck the park tickets in the book. A few minutes of confusion, but they figured it out!

 

[saratogadreamin09]

close friends of my family just surprised their dd9 with a trip in june. they left on the last day of school and when she got off the bus in the afternoon they just simply said "we're going to disney!!!!" they said her reaction was priceless!!!!!! I think the best way to tell them is to just tell them. then there aren't any delayed reactions, or with guessing games one might figure it out and not tell the other

 

[Wendybird55]

Why not tell them you're going to FL, but not to Disney. It is a long drive and sometime they may get suspicious as to why your'e driving so long to visit grandpa's friend.

Tell them one of Grandpa's friends moved to FL and invited them to visit. Tell them it's a retirement community in some "boring" FL city and they should bring video games and whatever to occupy them.

If they ask if you can stop at Disney tell them it's too far away and they don't have the time. This way when you reach FL they still won't know..until they start seeing the signs.

 

[HayGan]

Why not tell them you're going to FL, but not to Disney. It is a long drive and sometime they may get suspicious as to why your'e driving so long to visit grandpa's friend.

Tell them one of Grandpa's friends moved to FL and invited them to visit. Tell them it's a retirement community in some "boring" FL city and they should bring video games and whatever to occupy them.

If they ask if you can stop at Disney tell them it's too far away and they don't have the time. This way when you reach FL they still won't know..until they start seeing the signs.

I was actually thinking along those same lines. My 6 year old is an excellent reader and will read every sign along the 950 mile drive. I've got to think of excuses/stories to throw him off or he will figure it out pretty quickly.

 

[iheartdisney]

How about ordering the cusomized maps from wdw.com? If they sleep through the night in the car, first rest stop of the morning, or at breakfast if you stop, have them "check the map" to see how much further it is. Put the customized maps in the road atlas.
I'l planning on giving my kids the maps when we get to the airport as their suprise.

 

[saratogadreamin09]

How about ordering the cusomized maps from wdw.com? If they sleep through the night in the car, first rest stop of the morning, or at breakfast if you stop, have them "check the map" to see how much further it is. Put the customized maps in the road atlas.
I'l planning on giving my kids the maps when we get to the airport as their suprise.

This seems like a pretty cool idea to me.

 

[Natalie_89]

u could when u get near it point it out and say look there WDW dont u wish we was goin there..when the ysay yeah just say ok then lol and drive to it they will be shocked!!