SUPRISING THE KIDS (need suggestions)

[kaykels]

I'm leaving for my cruise in 17 days and my kids don't know yet. 2 years ago I took them on a suprise trip to Disney World and it was one of the most magical moments of our lives. We pretended we were going to the Jersey shore and had a contest on "who can see the bridge first". Then my husband pointed out that I must be going the wrong way because I'm enterting Delaware, not New Jersey. "Oh well, let's go to Disney instead".... and so on and so forth. My then 8 year old was CRYING tears of joy and kept it up until we hit South Carolina!!!!
Anyway.....
We are flying this time. I thought about telling them that we are going to see an Eagles game becauase the stadium is on the way to the airport. We could "miss the exit"...... BUT we will be leaving on Saturday (not Sunday) and it will be about 8:00 am. Hardly a good kickoff time. Any ideas? It will be hard to top the last one!

 

[RobinMarie]

You MUST fly to Florida to review retirement property for: (fill in name). It will be NO fun but must be done. MAYBE you'll have time to go to the beach before you return but probably not.

 

[CurtS]

Since its a Saturday, perhaps you or your DH won tickets to a college game in the office raffle.

 

[Grumbo]

With all the crap we pack I somehow don't think my kids would have bought the "Going to watch a football game" while the back of the vehicle is packed to the gunnels with luggage and the stuff we take for a cruise.
Good luck.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[Rence]

My sister surprised her husband with a trip to Disney a fear years ago.

The premise was that friends were coming in from out of town so he needed to take the week of to spend time with them. Went they went to the airport to "pick them up" he found out that instead they were heading to Florida.

Could you say that Aunt Martha is coming to town and the family needs to go pick her up? Just make it a relative or distant fiend of the family that the kids are more indifferent about or make one up such as an old college friend who the kids have never met is coming.

This way you can spring it on them at the airport

 

[ohiominnie]

Who is taking you to the airport?
What we did is told our kids we needed to drive Grandma and Grandpa to the aiport because THEY were going on a Disney Cruise. Well, on the way we broke it to them that actually we were ALLLLLL going!!!!!!!! The kids were hysterical, not knowing whether to believe us. We had to produce airline tickets to prove it!

It's good we ended up going b/c then 9 yr old dd was a bit peeved at Gma and Gpa for going on a Disney cruise without at least asking us if we wanted to go!!

Have fun! You're right, these type of things do create such magical memories!!

 

[Tonyspad]

We are taking a surprise trip to WDW at the end of Sept. We are planning to wake up the kids like a normal school day and ask them if they would like to go to WDW instead of school that day?
I wish I could come up with something to get them all the way to the airport then spring it on them?? Any more ideas??

 

[mmouse37]

We surprised our kids with a cruise on the Maiden Voyage of the Magic back in 1998....

The Christmas before I had them open presents and there were DCL t-shirts (WDW had a DCL preview center at the time) and I made certificates....they were overjoyed as mom is a huge Disney nut and had them all worked up over how great it would be if we go on the Maiden Voyage of a new Disney cruise ship...though I made it sound like it would never happen....

I know it doesn't help your situation now...but just wanted to share!!!

Here are links to the t-shirts and certificates...

http://community.webshots.com/photo/50699182/81339325qpOPEO

http://community.webshots.com/photo/81339801/81339801xEEMMA

As you can see on the certificate one of the Original Maiden Voyage sail dates was in April of 1998....it got pushed back twice and finally sailed on July 30, 1998.

Here are the little darlings on one of our more recent DCL cruises...

http://community.webshots.com/photo/48196942/48732623ZxIcQm

MJ

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

I would make something up, like "We have to fly to Florida to attend a convention for our jobs", or something like that. That way, packing lots of clothes and bathing suits won't be a surprise.

We're going on the 9/25 Magic, and we're not telling our 4 year old. Our plan is to tell her that we're going to a new mall (we live in Florida, so it's only a 30-45 minute drive). She was on the Wonder 2 years ago, so when she sees the port, she'll know what's going on. I expect hysterics of joy, and can't wait for the video footage.

 

[fortierv]

On our first trip we kept the secret all the way until we came over the bridge and saw the ship. Told the kids we were taking friends to the airport, then we got out and said we were flying to Vegas for the weekend. Got to Vegas and made a wrong turn, missed baggage claim and found a trip to Orlando instead. At that time we told them we were going to Disney World. After landing in Orlando they didn't realize we were going the wrong way. As we were getting close to the Ship I challenged them to find Mickey Ears. My wife had the video camera out and the reaction when they saw the ship was priceless.

 

[WVMD]

At the very least you could tell them that you're going to Disney... and then either - "get on the wrong bus" - if you're using Disney Transportation - or make a wrong turn out of the parking lot and end up at the Port.

When DD was little ( 3-4)- we made it all the way to the Contemporary Resort without her knowing where we were going - she knew that we were going to a conference for Daddy - but nothing else.... It was Magical - her statement - look - that hotel has a train going through it - just like at Disney World - makes all of the planning worthwhile....

Have a great trip!

Virgil

 

[hydster]

We did a treasure hunt for our kids and surprised them with a key that opened a treasure box FULL of cruise stuff and an invite asking them to please join Minnie and Mickey for a longer cruise this time! It was really funny watching them put it all together and then start yanking stuff out they'd need for the cruise like sandals and such.

I have no idea if you want to do it that day sorry.

Some of the ideas here are really cute.

Heidi

 

[woody64]

We are going to WDW in Jan and are planning on surprising the kids. Sat. when we fly out we will wake up and ask them what they want to do today. Then we will tell them we are going to WDW. Hope it works with help from teachers, etc.

 

[kaykels]

So many good ideas I don't know where to start. We are driving ourselves to the airport and I have a van so I figured I could thow a blanket over the stuff. THey'll think it's the baby coach. I'm toying with the idea of taking them to the Camden Aquarium and then get an emergency phone call from Uncle Matt that he needs a ride home from the airport (he travels for business often.)
BUT.... I like the treasure chest idea. That might be fun the night before.
Any other ideas? This is as much fun as planning the cruise!

 

[ivanova]

How 'bout telling them you're going to FL, so you don't have to hide luggage ... but tell them you're going to the Kennedy Space Center ... and then when you get to Orlando Airport you can do the "aw what the heck, let's get on this Disney bus instead" (assuming you are using Disney transfers) .. if you're driving yourself to the port then you can hold off on telling them until you actually see the ship.

 

[tecdavidt]

This is how we plan to surprise our daughter, age 12. On Christmas morning she will only have two gifts from Santa. The first package she opens will be her homework from the two days she will be missing from our New Years Eve cruise. I can already picture her face and I know she will ask just why was her homework for Jan. 3 & 4th wrapped up. The second package she opens will be the cruise documents. The last few years just the two of us have cruised over New Years and she had to stay behind so we are expecting total shock and joy from her on Christmas Day.

Maybe you could tell your children you won a contest that you entered a long time ago and you forgot all about it. The prize is that you get to stay at a new resort in Florida for week. The suitcases and going to Florida won't be questioned and even the direction you drive won't be questioned. When you turn towards the port you could even say, "this resort is suppose to have a great view of the cruise ships." Then when you pull up you could add, "did we forget to mention the resort was a ship, the Disney ship?" Have fun, Kathy

 

[ohiominnie]

I'll add this, because it may work for you.

For our surprise trip to WDW, we planned scavenger hunts.

Every month each summer we had a scavenger hunt and that would let them know what fun thing we were doing that day. We'd give the kids a cryptic clue and it would lead them to the next clue, and so on and so on. On the clue papers there would be certain letters circled. At the end they had to unscramble those letters and it would say what the surprise was. One month it spelled out "Columbus Zoo." Another month it was "Udders and Putters" (a local putt putt place) Etc.....The last scavenger hunt of the summer spelled "Walt Disney World."

My daughter didn't believe it "my head says it's not possible, but my heart tells me it's true." My son was 3 and he was pretty mad it didn't spell out "Funland" (the local indoor play place)

Of course, we got questioned about luggage and all that, but we had packed in secret the night before.

When it finally both hit them that this was the truth it was screaming and crying and hysterics.

Good luck!

 

[8 Ears]

Hello, DS 10 had a great idea last night. He has a friend over today whose B-day is today so we put "Happy Birthday Tyler" on the screen saver.

You put something like, "Good morning, we are going to WDW...today!".

I think that would get their attention in a hurry.

 

[pattiteach]

Could you make up a story about having to pick someone who you don't necessary need to talk to the week before? and then say , oh we have to pick-up so and so and I heard she (he) has a great gift for you?! We too are surprising our kids with a disney cruise this weekend and they are not going to know until we wake them up at 3;00 am with a camcorder telling them where we are going, and I have a limo waiting for us outside.

 

[232271]

these are great ideas. we are thinking of surprising our kids
next summer. we are flying in 2 days early and they think we are going to the beach before disneyworld. then we will get up
the day we are to drive to disney and say oh, we thought we
would go to a "museum" first, and hopefully they will catch
on when we drive up to the ship!! then we can say daddy
is taking us on boat ride. never having cruised they still may not realize what is really going on!

good luck!! and let us know how it turns out.

p.s. although it is hard not to tell them because we cant show themthe cool travel channel show, so we may give in just before the trip and tell them....

decisions, decisions.