Need Help Lying to my Children!! :)

[McGreezy]

If you have family not in your town or state, you could wake them telling them theres an emergency, a family member needs their help. Reveal at the airport that by "family member" you meant Walt Disney himself. Pack the car the night before after they go to bed and let them stay in the PJ's. They may sleep on the way to the airport at that hour in the morning; therefore, you may want to wait until the plane to reveal when they aren't groggy.

Yes!!! This sounds great!! I figured the best plan was to let them finish sleeping in the car, change or hide the clocks so they don't really know how early it is, and then just pull over to a rest stop or to a McDonalds to grab breakfast, go to the bathroom, take a stretching break and then once they're awake from that to break the news to them. that way we are very close to the airport, and they're awake.

 

[McGreezy]

My 10 and 13 year olds would have huge anxiety about missing school if I tried to surprise them. They love the planning and anticipating. I would never take that away from them. I, personally, hate surprises and I guess I passed that on.

Awww that's really too bad you hate surprises and so do your kids. I feel like they make childhood so much more magical. Its good they get excited about the planning with you at least

 

[pinkprincess30]

Oh I see. Yah, I could see my daughter being that way when she gets to that age but for now I feel pretty safe in surprising them. I am the laundry-doer and neither will notice at all if a handful of their clothes are missing the night before. Very excited for this surprise! I'm just mostly worried about it getting spoiled by letting too many people in on it :/

That is the hard part! We are one week out and I think everyone knows but the kids, for one reason or another! I'm super paranoid someone will blow it!
Coming from a fellow budget tripper, for the expense you're going to and because this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I think the cost of an inexpensive motel room the night before near the airport is something you would not regret! You could surprise them at home and give them the evening to process it all (then melatonin before bed!). Then you wouldn't have to try to figure out the 2am thing. If you're set on the wake-up-and leave surprise, I think the fumigating story could work, or I have also heard of people saying you all had to drive mom or dad to the airport for a work thing or to visit a relative and everyone has to go and then surprise them at the airport.
Also, we have done it both ways... A scavenger hunt two months before the trip and now this time we're surprising them the day of. I have to say the anticipation was more fun. Countdown chain, talking about the trip, saving for souvenirs, planning details, etc....it extends the fun and as a budget tripper, it makes me feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck!
Honestly, if you want to surprise them I wouldn't worry about whether they like the clothes you've packed or whether they'll like the surprise... THEY'RE GOING TO DISNEY!
Good luck!

 

[mom2grace]

I TOTALLY agree with PinkPrincess about getting a hotel room the night before. If you get up at 2:30 you are going to be exhausted before you even hit the ground, and Disney is exhausting. At some point the adrenaline will wear off. It would be WELL worth the $$. Find the cheapest hotel you can. Also, some hotels offer fly & park so that might help too.

We got helium balloons and put them in a packing box. Labeled it and the kids opened it & the balloons floated up. One kid took it well, one didn't. But, we made the mistake of saying we were going somewhere else during the school break. So, take that for what it's worth. We are going again in early October, the kids don't know (at least the 11 year old, my 13 year old is suspicious, she saw some windows open on my computer). We are moving in June and my son wants a "hidden mickey" house so I am somehow going to surprise them after we close and visit for the first time. He's only been twice and loves hidden mickeys.

I've made scratch off tickets, Michaels has special paint if you want to do it yourself.

Be sure to plan downtime at your resort for pool time & to stop & smell the roses. Also, be flexible with your plans. You will pretty quickly figure out if they are ride kids or show kids. I work with kids with special needs, so I'm assuming your son will not be a show kid. My kids are ride kids!

My kids love Downtown Disney, I think it's a money pit.

We buy each child a Disney gift card for their souvenirs, we don't spend a lot, maybe $50 which does not go far there. We also allow them to bring their own money.

 

[McGreezy]

I TOTALLY agree with PinkPrincess about getting a hotel room the night before. If you get up at 2:30 you are going to be exhausted before you even hit the ground, and Disney is exhausting. At some point the adrenaline will wear off. It would be WELL worth the $$. Find the cheapest hotel you can. Also, some hotels offer fly & park so that might help too.

We got helium balloons and put them in a packing box. Labeled it and the kids opened it & the balloons floated up. One kid took it well, one didn't. But, we made the mistake of saying we were going somewhere else during the school break. So, take that for what it's worth. We are going again in early October, the kids don't know (at least the 11 year old, my 13 year old is suspicious, she saw some windows open on my computer). We are moving in June and my son wants a "hidden mickey" house so I am somehow going to surprise them after we close and visit for the first time. He's only been twice and loves hidden mickeys.

I've made scratch off tickets, Michaels has special paint if you want to do it yourself.

Be sure to plan downtime at your resort for pool time & to stop & smell the roses. Also, be flexible with your plans. You will pretty quickly figure out if they are ride kids or show kids. I work with kids with special needs, so I'm assuming your son will not be a show kid. My kids are ride kids!

My kids love Downtown Disney, I think it's a money pit.

We buy each child a Disney gift card for their souvenirs, we don't spend a lot, maybe $50 which does not go far there. We also allow them to bring their own money.

I was planning on doing Disney gift cards for them as well. I think that is such a great idea! Plus the balloon idea is fantastic!

I'm going to think on the hotel room, it does make a lot of sense.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Our first trip was a surprise for our kids, though they knew that we were going somewhere. They just didn't know where. There was no lying or trying to mislead them...simply "We're going on a trip on October XX" (our first trip was also in October) "but we're not telling you where we're going." That way they were prepared for something, but we didn't get their expectations up about another location.

 

[McGreezy]

Our first trip was a surprise for our kids, though they knew that we were going somewhere. They just didn't know where. There was no lying or trying to mislead them...simply "We're going on a trip on October XX" (our first trip was also in October) "but we're not telling you where we're going." That way they were prepared for something, but we didn't get their expectations up about another location.

I really go back and forth with telling them a little early vs surprising them last minute. I guess it will all depend on the situation as we get closer

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Ok it isn't letting me quote posts for some reason. First of all, I LOVE the title of your thread. LOL!!!!!

This may have been mentioned, because I did not read the whole thread. We use stay, park and fly hotels near the airport for our night prior stay. It barely costs more than parking at the airport costs. They shuttle you to and from the airport. That way you could surprise them in the hotel room the morning of rather than in the car. Better videoing opp.

 

[McGreezy]

Ok it isn't letting me quote posts for some reason. First of all, I LOVE the title of your thread. LOL!!!!!

This may have been mentioned, because I did not read the whole thread. We use stay, park and fly hotels near the airport for our night prior stay. It barely costs more than parking at the airport costs. They shuttle you to and from the airport. That way you could surprise them in the hotel room the morning of rather than in the car. Better videoing opp.

Oh I've never heard of that?? So you leave your car at the hotel all week??

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I surprised DD when she was 10. I told her we were going on a trip for her birthday weekend, but I wouldn't tell her where. She was able to pack and prepare to miss a couple of days of school, and I didn't have to sneak around. I didn't have a particular surprise planned - I was just going to see how long it took her to figure it out. She didn't guess Disney because we had another tripped planned shortly after that.

Our flight was late landing in Atlanta, and we were going to have to run across the airport, so when I stopped to talk to the gate agent about our next gate, she heard me say Orlando. She squealed, and we all took off for the connecting flight.

I thought that was lots of fun. I have a picture of her holding our luggage with the Magical Express tag (Mickey clearly visible) while she was still trying to guess.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Oh I've never heard of that?? So you leave your car at the hotel all week??

EXACTLY!!! We do it every trip! You could go with the fumigation excuse and tell the kids they are starting bright and early in the morning, so you are going to make a fun night of it and stay at a hotel.

 

[xipetotec]

Okay! We have our first EVER family trip anywhere...and it happens to be to Disney World...this October!! This will be a total surprise for them. Our flight is completely crazy early (Didn't think before I grabbed the deal -- we have to be at the airport at 5am as our flight leaves at 7am, and the airport is 1.5 hours away! That means up by 2:30am, out by 3:30am )

I need a way to surprise them. I don't want to do it the night before or they will never get to sleep (they are 14 and 8), and was considering telling them that we have something to do that day (a Sunday) somewhere so they can understand why we have to be out so early, then pulling off the highway to surprise them before we finally arrive at the airport to give them bags full of Disney goodies.

My 14 year old is getting pretty savvy though, so I need an idea of how to spring this on them and what to say we are doing that we need to get up that crazy early??? I tried looking at a calendar of events for Rhode Island for the weekend we are leaving (October 25th, Sunday) but the only thing going on is the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular. Why would we need to get up so early to go there? And ideally I was hoping to say we were doing something somewhat UNfun so when we spring Disney on them at the last minute its even more awesome because they thought they were going to do something boring and yucky.

It's the first and only time we can afford to do this while they're still kids. I want to make it amazing for them right from the start. Help!

Not Disney but when my youngest son was 10, he wanted to see Hollywood. Nobody in our group was particularly interested ( but we WERE interested in California and DisneyLAND ). We played that up. Then he knew that we always do a trip for March break. We basically played it up that we were doing a road trip this year. And that was PARTIALLY true as we decided to drive down to Burlington, VT from Montreal to grab a cheap flight from there ( but that's a whole other story ).

Anyway, during lunch that day, we're all joking around that it's SO snowy outside, it would be so much better if we did just hop on a plane to California, my son laughed like "yeah right, wouldn't it?". At which we answered, "Alright, let's do it then", took him to the airport and flew out to LA, completely blindsiding him!

 

[familymemories]

On our very first trip for our kids to Disneyland in 2006, we told them when we were packing 2 days before. You should have seen there faces. They just about died.

 

[Minnesota!]

We have done countless trip surprises for my kids. Never an issue with being upset, being lied to, etc.

You know your kids best...do what YOU know they will love. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people...ugh.

I would just say "family fun day! Get up - we are going to do some fun stuff today!". And keep them guessing till you get to the airport

 

[McGreezy]

EXACTLY!!! We do it every trip! You could go with the fumigation excuse and tell the kids they are starting bright and early in the morning, so you are going to make a fun night of it and stay at a hotel.

That is an AMAZING tip, thank you! I shared it with my hubby and doing it that way with the added parking is insanely helpful. We are going to do it and tell the kids we are going to spend the afternoon with some imaginary family member - Uncle WALTer -- on Sunday and he lives out in Providence so we are just gonna stay the night before. Then once we actually get to the hotel room we will tell them Uncle Walt is really Walt Disney and we are going there first thing in the morning!! Fantastic!!

 

[McGreezy]

Not Disney but when my youngest son was 10, he wanted to see Hollywood. Nobody in our group was particularly interested ( but we WERE interested in California and DisneyLAND ). We played that up. Then he knew that we always do a trip for March break. We basically played it up that we were doing a road trip this year. And that was PARTIALLY true as we decided to drive down to Burlington, VT from Montreal to grab a cheap flight from there ( but that's a whole other story ).

Anyway, during lunch that day, we're all joking around that it's SO snowy outside, it would be so much better if we did just hop on a plane to California, my son laughed like "yeah right, wouldn't it?". At which we answered, "Alright, let's do it then", took him to the airport and flew out to LA, completely blindsiding him!

Haha haha that's awesome!!!

 

[McGreezy]

On our very first trip for our kids to Disneyland in 2006, we told them when we were packing 2 days before. You should have seen there faces. They just about died.

I'll bet!

 

[McGreezy]

We have done countless trip surprises for my kids. Never an issue with being upset, being lied to, etc.

You know your kids best...do what YOU know they will love. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some people...ugh.

I would just say "family fun day! Get up - we are going to do some fun stuff today!". And keep them guessing till you get to the airport

Thank you!!! I'm so antsy, waiting for October to get here is terrible!!

 

[taymaesmom]

I surprised mine when they were 15 and 10 and they loved it! We did tell them the day before because it was a Christmas gift and we were leaving the next day. My older dd still says its the best thing we ever did and wishes we could surprise them again, unfortunately she's 20 and has to ask off work etc now or I would! I don't think it would be hard to pack for them, I see what they wear everyday and know what's their favorites, I could pull it off!

 

[McGreezy]

I surprised mine when they were 15 and 10 and they loved it! We did tell them the day before because it was a Christmas gift and we were leaving the next day. My older dd still says its the best thing we ever did and wishes we could surprise them again, unfortunately she's 20 and has to ask off work etc now or I would! I don't think it would be hard to pack for them, I see what they wear everyday and know what's their favorites, I could pull it off!

I agree! My son wears pajamas to school and home, so that won't be too difficult to duplicate. HAHA.

We have settled on doing the surprise, but doing it the night before