Surprise Suprise

[jklmw]

Need help

We are surprising our 12 year old son with Oasis of the Seas cruise in March 2017
He has never been on a cruise and this will be a dream come true. Pretty much at the top of his bucket list Since it's for his 13th birthday which happens after the cruise, we want to tell him at the first of the year since it has nothing to do with a Christmas present
Trying to figure out how to surprise him. I tried to find a toy boat of the boat but the only thing could find is a refridgerator magnet.

My DH thought a scavenger clue hunt but I am not sure we can pull that off. He is such a great kid, we want to make this really special. We aare also bringing our DD soon to be 11 and our other DS soon to be 4

We were thinking they would find out the same time as our birthday boy. Any ideas, tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[suzismini]

We have done the treasure hunt idea twice. Our kids love it. They are 15, 13, and 10. This last Christmas they had convinced themselves that the surprise would be a Disney cruise, so they were befuddled to find out it would be a week at WDW and a week at the beach. We didn't get the reaction we expected, but it's really fun. We just came up with 8 spots in the house to hide clues and wrote clues to lead them. We actually had a small wrapped gift for each of them hidden with the clues. (Lanyards, pins, luggage tags)
Have a fantastic time!!

 

[jklmw]

Thank you!!! sounds so exciting! We have surprised our kids with trips to WDW, and of course we didn't get the reaction we expected, my husband tells me to stop surprising, but part of the fun is all the planning

 

[bumbershoot]

part of the fun is all the planning.

Can I just comment on this? I assume you mean the fun of planning the surprise?

But planning the trip is fun, too, and by keeping the secret for over a month from now you aren't letting the kids join in the fun of planning the cruise.

If this would be the birthday boy's dream, it's possible he would love to be involved at the ground level, not just once it's done. I know my son prefers to have input rather than be surprised.

We did a surprise cruise once, partially because ds thought he wanted a surprise and also for some other reasons, and while he was cool with it he asked that we not do it again. He would rather have someday in his vacation.

 

[alliecat523]

I've done the treasure hunt too and it's a lot of fun.