Surprise trip how did you reveal?

[nmcclellan]

I gave my daughter a gift bag that had Minnie ears, a water bottle fan, and a map of Magic Kingdom in it....she pieced it together real quick! Lol

 

[nmcclellan]

I love reading/hearing about people surprising their kids, but I'll never get to do it because my kids are the exact opposite!! My one is very much a "tell me exactly what we're doing along with plans B, C, & D" kind of kid, because he gets nervous easily. And my other is very much a "the journey is more than the destination" kind of kid. He takes everything as it comes and doesn't get nervous at all, but he loves the anticipation of anything. We often try to really slow special things down and really focus on them for him because he's the type to later say "Waiting for XYZ was more fun than the actual XYZ." We often do very spontaneous small things with them, so that the one can have fun without stressing over the unknown and the other can have fun without any journey to overshadow it.

I do, however, like to try to at least have some surprise for them during the trip....booking something special, or having a little something extra for them to use on the trip, etc. That gives me a tiny bit of fun planning a "surprise" despite not having surprise loving offspring, LOL!

My daughter is the same way....she likes to know EXACTLY what's going to happen lol

 

[Meglen]

My DH and DS are so much alike. They like when I take charge and just tell them where and when to be places. So I don't think he will wanna pack his own stuff. I think if he had the choice he would forget 90% of usefull things and just pack his switch and a stuffed animal haha.

 

[Orionreplay]

I wanted my two kids (10 and 12) to be involved in 2019, so I told them when the window opened for ADRs. They were happy, but quickly saddened because they had no surprise in store anymore. I treated it too matter of fact for them. Had we gone that same day, then yes, big surprise. But instead they suddenly knew we had to wait 6 more -long- months.

Skip back to our previous trip with them in 2015 and we told them the very day we left for the airport. It was terribly difficult planning around them and whispering plans to my wife, etc. We even took the dog to the vet-provided boarding and the kids thought he just needed some Doctor time, not a week of boarding.

At this 2015 trip we gave them Disney related gifts that morning. We had packed the van the night before. The gifts were filled with things to do on the airplane. The final pull was a t-shirt for both of them that I had made with a printed iron-on. It read something like, "I'm going to Walt Disney World".

Last year, having told them so early, those 6 months were a drag. After the initial excitement and we rolled into July and August and September and October...it was like they didn't care anymore? As strange as that sounds. They stopped buzzing about the trip. Meanwhile I was still planning and watching YouTube videos. I was free to do this openly, which was nice for me.

So I caution about telling them too early. Try to keep it as long as you can!

 

[tguz]

We didn't do anything too elaborate but we went out for pizza and let my son open the box with the Magic Bands in it that came in the mail. He had no idea and we had not talked of a Disney vacation. He was very excited but it did take him a minute to figure out what the Magic Bands really were.

 

[rideswithchrist]

The last two trips, we did a countdown from the 12 month mark LOL.
THIS time, I asked the kids if they wanted to countdown, or be surprised. They voted for the surprise!
We are staying at the Fort and camp often enough that we hope they will just think we are going for a camping trip. I don't think we will tell them at all- just see if they figure it out when we hit Louisiana

We still have 14 months left which is soooooooo long to wait!

 

[Calee]

We told the kids we were joining dad on a business trip in Georgia (so a reason to be packing, but not something they would be sad to not do). In the car after a stop I said, "this is something we need for the rest of our trip" handed my son the magic band box. He opened it and looked at me shocked. My youngest said, "theres a Disney World in Georgia!?" Lol. It was fun.

 

[kirstyfly]

We are going for my little girl's 5th Birthday in October she will celebrate it over there in Disneyland. It is our first family trip and we are coming from New Zealand.

She does not know we are going. She wants to go to Disneyland to meet Mickey and Minnie and see all the Princesses and ride the rides ( I have just started to show her you tube clips of rides/parades so she knows what to expect) .

She knows it costs A LOT Of money to go to Disneyland and maybe one day if we have enough money saved in her money boxes we can go, she is busy saving her money and any that I give her to put into her money boxes. I told her maybe when her money box is full we can go to Disneyland. (The plan is that the money she has saved will be her own spending money).

Nearer the time/much nearer the time (maybe start of October) we will open her money box and see all her money then I will 'book the tickets' to Disney and print out a Disney ticket for her.

I have also bought a Disney book for Autographs so maybe I will wrap that up with the disney ticket and she can unwrap them.

 

[mdsouth]

don't laugh. My DD turns 30 this year. We wanted to do something special. So we talked to her hubby and we were all set to go to Jamaica. We sat her down and said "we want to take you on a fun, special trip for your birthday". She stood up, jumping and clapping screaming "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY!!!" yep. Change of plans.... So here we go taking our baby DD (LOL) on her dream trip!

Love it! And I love that you changed your plans when you found out her reaction!

I spliced together Tom Hanks voice from different movies and interviews over a few hacked together Toy Story scenes to say that we're going to Walt Disney World. We did the reveal on Friday.

It was funny, but I don't think the kids really got it. They were more excited to watch Zombies 2.

All that planning and time, we Disers understand what it takes to think of something like that and get it together. Kids are funny creatures!

I love reading/hearing about people surprising their kids, but I'll never get to do it because my kids are the exact opposite!! My one is very much a "tell me exactly what we're doing along with plans B, C, & D" kind of kid, because he gets nervous easily. And my other is very much a "the journey is more than the destination" kind of kid. He takes everything as it comes and doesn't get nervous at all, but he loves the anticipation of anything. We often try to really slow special things down and really focus on them for him because he's the type to later say "Waiting for XYZ was more fun than the actual XYZ." We often do very spontaneous small things with them, so that the one can have fun without stressing over the unknown and the other can have fun without any journey to overshadow it.

I do, however, like to try to at least have some surprise for them during the trip....booking something special, or having a little something extra for them to use on the trip, etc. That gives me a tiny bit of fun planning a "surprise" despite not having surprise loving offspring, LOL!

This sounds like my son. He needs time to digest things and needs to be on the planning of something big. I like how you accommodate your kids' needs with a little bit of surprise while you are there. I did something similar with my kids. We used to watch Amazing Race, so I made my own version of the Amazing Race with clues for the different countries in EPCOT. We bought them each an EPCOT passport and they would get their passport stamped and had to get a picture of themselves in each of the countries as part of the scavenger hunt. They LOVED IT!

I also on another trip, surprised my kids with a reveal through a scavenger hunt around our house. With each clue they figured out, there would be a small gift (swim googles, sunscreen, Mickey stickers, etc. It was fun too. I did it a few months before we went so they had time to help plan minor details and talk about the trip. For us, we all enjoy talking about the trip and what we hope we get to do in anticipation of the trip. So, I am one of those that needs to surprise my kids ahead of time with the trip.