Surprise the kids or tell them?!

[DisFanEY]

Hi All,

For those of you who have surprised your children with your trip to Disney, I was curious if that was more fun for them than the excitement in getting to countdown...
My DH and I have planned an impromptu trip in May, and I'm debating keeping it a surprise for my DD's. (ages 4 and 6)

Also, if you did surprise them, any neat ideas other than just bringing them to the airport and saying "We're going to Disney World!"?

Thanks for any suggestions!!!

 

[stopher1]

Have they been there before? That might help determine your decision to surprise or not.

I planned a surprise F/S weekend a few years ago with my sons - and tried not to say anything. Even arriving at the airport I was able to keep them guessing until we arrived at the gate and they saw the sign for ORLANDO and heard the announcements over the PA. At that point I had to reveal it. But the weeks leading up to it were fun listening to them guess what kind of an experience they might have with "just dad!"

 

[DisFanEY]

This will be girls' 3rd trip, and both are BIG fans of DW.
They're going to flip no matter how we tell them, but I thought
a surprise might be fun and different this time...

 

[MNdisneymom]

I surprised my DS 5 with our trip when he was 3.5, woke him up in the morning and said, "get dressed quick, we're going to the airport to go to Disney World!" He was okay, but not really excited. He had a great time once we got there.

I wouldn't do it to him if we took a trip now--he's older, and has grown to love looking at park maps and books (just for fun) so I think he would really miss out on all of the planning.

 

[3mickeymom]

I have never surprised my kids with a disney trip. We have always known for at least a month that we are going. My kids have always loved the anticipation and planning that going to Disney involves. We watch movies, sing the Disney songs, plan what we are going to wear, eat, ride,see and do. We go online to different websites. We watch our Disney planning DVD, we watch Disney Travel on demand. My youngest wants to make Disney tshirts. Anyway, what I am saying is that planning is so much fun. But no matter what you decide to do, once you get there, you know you will have so much FUN!!

 

[dmbdisneymom]

My DH and I are planning a pretty elaborate scavenger hunt for our 3 kids DDs 4 & 6, DS 7. We will be taking them all over town to find the clues until they get to the final one that my mom will have. My family lives close to us, so they will be in on it and DH is getting some store managers in on it as well so we can take them more places. Some of the clues involve Cinderella's slipper, Nana from Peter Pan, and Cars. Even though we don't leave until Aug 1, we have started planning it and will be doing the hunt 2 weeks before the trip so they have more time to get excited...and we can use it as a tool to make them behave We may still be more excited than they are and will have to help with some of the clues, but if we play some Disney games and movies to brush up on what we are using for the clues, we think they'll have fun with it.

 

[my2princessgirls]

Hi All,

For those of you who have surprised your children with your trip to Disney, I was curious if that was more fun for them than the excitement in getting to countdown...
My DH and I have planned an impromptu trip in May, and I'm debating keeping it a surprise for my DD's. (ages 4 and 6)

Also, if you did surprise them, any neat ideas other than just bringing them to the airport and saying "We're going to Disney World!"?

Thanks for any suggestions!!!

We are gong to surprise our girls in December. They will be the same age as your's when we go, and the oldest will be in half-day Kindergarten, while the youngest will be in half-day preshcool. Our plan is to pick them up from school, and have a DVD ready to go in the van that tells them we are going (Dh is going to make the video). We will be driving 3 hours that day to stay at hotel at the airport, so we will have lots of new, fun Disney activities for the car ride.

They think that we won't be going back until next spring. I know our girls and I know that they will LOVE the surprise! They have said several times that they would like for us to wake them up one day and say it's time to go to WDW, but that just won't work because of traveling to the airport.

If you have another trip planned after the surprise trip, then they can still enjoy the "planning". I am going to ask all sorts of questions after our trip next month to find out what their favorite things were (they seem to change each trip!). I can't wait to see their reaction when they find out!

 

[DisneyAprilFool]

We enjoyed letting the kids know for their first trip- we have older kids and they spent hours upon hours scouring the Disney books in our home (Guides and whatnot) and by the time we reached WDW, they knew almost as much as me and DH combined! I loved it- you could feel the anticipation throughout the whole household the months leading up to our trip (we had to plan six months in advance because it's awful expensive from Nevada to Florida with six people!).

Maybe next time, we'll surprise them- but then again, I really liked them knowing. Smaller trips- trips we take more often, like DisneyLAND, we've been known to surprise them (on Christmas morning, once- there was NOTHING in their stockings or under the tree! *GASP* BUT there was a bulky envelope in DAD'S stocking- tickets to DisneyLand! And when we got into the car- there were stockings! And when we got to the hotel after the parks, we had Grandma, Great Grandma, and the whole crew with a Christmas tree and LIGHTS and PRESENTS in our hotel room! It was a lot of fun!)

 

[reneempayne]

My son who is 6 knows that we are going in Aug since it was a gift from my parents. He has never been before and isn't the type to keep asking when when when are we going? That might drive me crazy. My aunt can not tell her kids until right before they leave for that reason. My other aunt did a great surprise. She packed their suitcase and woke them up really early in the am. She had a big sign hanging above the fireplace (which she still has packed away!) Her kids were both able to read. They were so excited. She rented a limo that was waiting to take them to the airport. My cousins are now 15 & 18 and still talk about how cool it was. They had been before and have been since and this was the coolest time for them for that reason. If my son doesn't keep asking when it is, I may try to pull something like this off. The only thing is I don't think that I could pack without him knowing, plus I might be too excited myself!

 

[reneempayne]

we watch Disney Travel on demand.

I didn't know there was such a thing! I wonder if my cable has it. OH NO, something else Disney to obsess over! I think my DH will divirce me before we get to Disney!

 

[eaj1228]

When I was younger my parents tried to keep our trip to Disneyland a surprise. I ended up figuring it out because I saw my parents planning it on the computer but we kept it a secret from my younger brother. We didn't tell him about the trip until about a half an hour before we left for the airport. I remember my brother being upset about it. He wanted to tell his friends about it and he loved the anticipation of the trip. Of course he ended up getting over it.

 

[otisandmaggie]

We chose to tell them for several reasons:
(1) I was too excited to keep it a secret - I wanted to talk about it.
(2) We went in September and knew we would be doing a LOT of walking (we tend to be turbo tourists on vacation!) We used the summer to take "Disney training walks" The kids were excited about our family walks each evening because they were getting ready for the trip.
(3) One of our kids is REALLY cautious - not an adventurous soul at all. I needed some time to get him psyched up to try some of the rides (he was a trooper and ended up agreeing to TRY what ever I asked him to ride and if he didn't like it he didn't have to ride it again - but it took some time to get him there)
(4) It was fun to get input from the kids about what rides they thought they would like and which ones they didn't think they would enjoy. They also had some input in deciding what restaurants we selected.
(5) In addition to our training walks, we spent lots of time talking about what the parks would be like (adults had been before - first trip for kids) We also talked a lot about the fact that we might walk past a ride that looked fun to get to a ride that would have a longer line later. They knew that we would come back to the ride we were bypassing at the moment later in the day. That completely eliminated any fussing about temporarily passing a ride. Because we spent so much time in preparing the kids and getting them ready - we had a nice trip with very few disagreements and fussing!

 

[hoosiergirl7]

I wish we had kept it a secret from our DS 4. We went back and forth over it. I think it would've been better had we waited until the night before we left to tell him as he has been asking on a regular basis if we're going to the airport today. Next time we'll keep quiet so that we don't have to try and explain. We leave 3 weeks from today and were able to get a countdown chain which has helped but he still asks every once in awhile.

Plus, I think it would be fun to say the night before, "We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow..." and not tell them until the morning that we're going on a trip. I also liked what a PP said that her kids didn't find out until they were at the terminal and saw the sign for Orlando. That's pretty neat.

 

[mnasmom3]

We kept our last trip a secret until we parked at the airport and had to get suitcases out of the car. Until then, we never told them we were going anywhere and when we driving to the airport, we told them we were dropping dad off for a business trip. I had these grand notions about how excited they'd be. I pictured lots of "hooray"s and jumping up and down. It was so anticlimactic that I wish we'd have told them and let them share in the anticipation. Basically, it went like this.....My oldest said "why are you taking all of our luggage to Spain with you?" "I'm not going to Spain. We're going on vacation instead" "we are? Where?" "WDW" "really?" (their faces light up for a second...ok, maybe a minute) "cool! We're riding on a plane there?" "yep, we're all going to WDW on a plane" "cool". And that was that. I was majorly disappointed in their lack of excitement.

 

[DisFanEY]

I think mnasmom3's experience is what I was most afraid of....
My girls and I (DH, too, but not like us!) have had such fun counting down and getting excited and making our plans for previous trips that I don't think I can take that away from them. Perhaps if I had gotten resounding replies that those who surprised their kids thought it was a great idea I'd have done it. DD6 checks the maps and plans our routes, and makes a list for what to see first... she's a little me!!! I think DH and I will spill the beans and share the fun!

I thank everyone for getting back to me...I knew I'd get the help I was looking for! http://www.wdwinfo.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

[BeckityBobbidyBoo!]

The anticipation of the trip is a huge part of the whole experience for our family.

 

[fortheluvofpooh]

we surprised our kiddos with last years trip. I had a blast with it, but again, the kids were excited but not over the moon excited. This year they are helping plan (sort of), they are planning the days at the parks but think we are renting a house. They still don't know we joined the DVC which they definitely will be over the moon excited cause when we did the tour they wanted to stay "home" at SSR. I say go with your gut. Either way HAVE FUN!!!!!

 

[Kimberly Hill]

My DD is OCD and would go nuts between now and the trip so we're keeping it a surprise. Mama does have to work for the next three weeks, LOL!

 

[Keara'sMom]

We surprised my dd11 this Jan. and it was GREAT fun! We were in NYC for the weekend, and my dh woke up my dd by saying that we had good news and bad news. The bad news was that we weren't going home. The good news was that we were going to WDW! She really didn't believe him at first, but when she realized we were serious, she FLIPPED! It was really fun!

 

[danx2plus3more]

well my kids are helping me plan our next trip...they think its going to be spring break of 09..when in fact we are going this sept. we are taking them to the airport saying daddys going on one of his long trips (military)..thier luggage will already be at the airport and waiting.they are going to miss 6 days of school..they can make it up...they will be shocked..they will be expecting to drop off dad and go to school , but were going to wdw instead..i think its a nice surprise..10 days ans 9 nights with mickey..i cant wait