Surprise Birthday Trip For My Son-please help me with ideas

[Minnie404]

We are surprising our kids with a trip to Disney in Feb. We will actually be leaving the day before my sons 8th birthday. I've been researching all the different sites on how to surprise the kids. I can't figure out what I want to do so any ideas would be great. Both kids have birthdays in Feb my daughter turns 5 a couple of weeks before we go. We will be down there though on my sons birthday. They have both been to Disney before and love it. I've thought about getting shirts and putting something along the lines I get to spend my 8th birthday with Mickey & Minnie. We leave on a sat morning and our flight is around 1030am so I want to have them get up and tell them before we leave for the airport. We won't have a lot of time though since we will probably need to leave our house by 730/8am the latest. Does anyone have any great ideas for the big reveal as well as something cute for his shirt? Thanks so much for any help. I'm so excited to take them on this surprise trip.

 

[Skywise]

I presume 7:30 isn't their usual get up time on Saturdays?

Getting them up early will arouse their suspicions right there. You could tell them the night before but then they probably wouldn't sleep all night...

What I'd do is make up some other story that would have to get them up early and into the car that morning. Something mundane and boring for kids like house hunting or maybe having to pick up a friend from the airport. Then either spring it on them while they're moping about eating breakfast or when they're in the car. (Actually if you're going to get them shirts about the birthday in DisneyWorld maybe you spring it on them by making them put those particular shirts on to see your friend at the airport... Then when they see the "I had my 8th birthday at Disney World" shirt, tell them your "friend" is Mickey Mouse and that's who they're going to meet).

(Also if you can swing it, I'd recommend the Mickey Birthday in room celebration at your resort.)

 

[Canooknic]

Last year we did a scavenger hunt straight after breakfast.

Our boys were only 4 and basic readers so we used pictures instead of words but led them to various places around the house and ended with them in my closet finding their Buzz suitcases, plush Mickeys and Tshirts saying 'I'm going to DisneyWorld today"

Next month we will wake them up early and either :-
1/ tell them that DHs car is broken and we need to drive him to the airport for work and then surprise them with their cases in the trunk
2/ Wake them up with our Disney songs CD and party poppers etc (this is what DH wants to do, I'm not keen because I'd be mad if I woke up to lots of noise!!)
3/ Tell them we're taking them to the Lego store to spend their Christmas money and just drive to the airport instead

It all depends how you think your kids will react. My friend surprised her daughters last minute and they freaked out because they were missing school and didn't get a chance to say goodbye to their friends etc - it was a total nightmare!!!

Maybe you could wrap tshirts in birthday paper and say they arrived in the mail (late gift for her/early for him) and give the to them straight after breakfast??

 

[shanejoseph]

We did a surprise trip for our daughter once that worked great! Do you have any relatives that live out of state?
My daughter's step grandmother lives in Indiana, and we were already planning a trip there, with a Disney trip about half a year later. Well plans didn't come together in time for the Indiana trip in time, so we swapped vacations, excluding only our daughter from the plans. We kept her occupied during boarding announcements etc., and she was totally duped until we landed, and the pilot announced the Orlando information. The puzzled look on her face! I told her we must have gotten on the wrong plane. Her first reaction was, "How Grandma Shirley was going to be upset!" I told her it was too late, we might as well figure out something to do in ORLANDO, FLORIDA. The jig was up then! 'Til this day we almost tear up about it!
Long story short, too late, come up with a fake destination, and see how long you can keep it going!