Surprise trip for my boys!

[momtokendantom]

We have decided to surpirse the boys with a trip to US & IOA in January. I would like to surprise them on Christmas morning with an assortment of "Florida" themed items they can open up Christmas morning. Does anyone have any ideas on planning this? We will not be going to Disney since the boys are huge US/IOA fans.

Thanks in advance!
Michelle in MA

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Two years ago we did the same thing for our son. We had received our theme park tickets in advance and wrapped them up and put one in each of our stockings.

This past summer for our return trip I found Popeye and Hulk t-shirts at our local Wal*Mart. I put these right into the suitcase so my son would have some new themed items to wear on the trip (and I paid only $7-9 per shirt at Wal*Mart!) Depending on the age of your sons, you may also want to buy some Hulk and Spiderman action figures and other items. I am sure you can also find Shrek items as well as Jimmy Neutron and other cartoon characters. You may want to get them DVD/videos of some Universal movies--Jaws, Back to the Future, etc. You could do the old fashioned thing and put oranges in their stockings. You If you are flying to FL, you could get them small airplanes or model airplanes. I you are driving, you can get them the types of things that they like to amuse them during the drive.

It may be fun to have an air of mystique surround these gifts and see if they can guess what you are up to before finally opening the tickets.

HAVE FUN with this "project".

 

[highlander447]

The Hulk will also be out to buy by then I think being in uk I know it will be out earlier in the states a nice stocking filler also y not get some travel agent Brochures advertising universal etc

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

We will surprise my two in May this year too - It will be kind of a birthday surprise since my oldest will be 9 in May. I am thinking though, that we may just wake them up and say - "Hey, do you guys want to go ride Spiderman today?"

My son is a bit high strung though, so I am thinking I may need to give him a few days to prepare. I really would like to just wake them up and take them though!

 

[Flyfly_Eclipse]

TigerLilly's Mom - lol we did something like that before...only it was for a waterpark.

We had a Spanish exchange student staying with us and she was celebrating her 15th birthday here. Well, she kept hinting that her birthday was the next day, but we pretended to not have a clue (ie - a friend of hers called late that night. She told us it was because it's already the next day over there....((her birthday))). Well, the next morning I went into her room and told her she needed to get up because my mom wanted to talk to her (or something?).

She had no idea what was going on until she say some birthday decorations and then we drove her and another spanish exchange student to the waterpark.

I, too, like the whole idea of being told the morning of. Once, I was at school and my mom came to pick me up extra early because we were going to Disney for the day! She had gotten free passes from her boss that expired that day, so she had no time to let me know in advance. That was a great surprise.



Anyway, have fun with your trip planning, momtokendantom!! You picked a great time of year to go to...I love it in January.

What my mom did before when she bought my dad Outback Bowl tickets...since the Florida Gators were playing, she wrapped up the tickets in a new Gators shirt and placed the shirt in a giftbox.

When my mom surprised me with Annual Passes in the Christmas of 2001, she had just given me a bunch of brochues before I laid hands on the actual tickets.

 

[Kimberlyfamilyfv]

when i went to the store yesterday they had t-shirts for the cat in the hat. displaying thing1 and thing2 as well as the fish from the movie. the store i went to was gordman's but i am sure you can find them many different places.

 

[Muffy]

What a great idea! Your boys will be so happy. Why not try to get some park maps? Those are always fun to explore!

 

[SpideyHulk24]

If you go on ebay, there is all types of stuff when you type in Universal. You can get posters, spiderman, hulk, x-men and anything else.

Have fun and let us know how the surprise goes.

 

[momtokendantom]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I think I will definetely get some movies (ET, Twister, Back to the Future) for their Christmas stocking.

I have ordered some bruchures from the HRH and plan to make each child a booklet about our vacation. My MIL will give them their US/ IOA tickets on Christmas morning.

This is such FUN planning

Michelle in MA

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Let us know how it goes. Their reaction is going to be priceless. Take pictures!

 

[essmom]

I just saw in the Walmart flyer alot of cat in the hat shirts and accessories. They will be carrying the official movie merchandise.