Surprise Trip...How did you surprise your kids?

[Disneymommy2006]

Everyone on the Creative DISigns boards is so CREATIVE and I need your help!!!! We have planned an unexpected SURPRISE trip for August to Disney...we got a great deal with free dining right before schools starts back! We want to surprise our boys (this will be so hard for me- I am a major planner- made tons of stuff last trip- t-shirts, journals, etc...) The boys are 8 and 4, I was wondering if anyone could share how they surprised their children with a trip to Disney!! I am hoping to get a good idea so that this surprise trip will be the highlight of our summer vacation. I want to create a magical Disney memory for our boys!!! Thanks for your help with this!

 

[noahdove]

Wow!!! We will be there in August too Last year I took my granddaughter and my sister's grandson. For the granddaughter, I gave her a sweatshirt for Christmas that had Mickey flying a plane and it said, " Surprise, you are going to Disney World and it had the date. For my little nephew, I wrote a letter and I had clues in a bag and as he read the letter, he was told to open a certain little gift..I had all the gifts numbered so as he opened and read, I thought he would get the surprise before too many little gifts were opened...well, he didn't and at one point after opening 3-4 he said "oh, I know what these are for" well, I didn't have my camera ready and so I hurried and then asked him, what...well...it wasn't what I thought He thought they were for him after gym class....yep, he opened shower wash, deo... well, when he finally got to the end of the bag, he opened a little Mickey can and I wrote " Disney spending money" well....his face was priceless.....I must say, he never thought he would be going to Disney in the first place so...that was an awesome surprise.. By the way, he had that smile on his face from the time we got to the plane until well, a few weeks later...I am taking his sister this year..I gave her a tee shirt with a surprise, come along with me saying..I gave it to her when she had her tonsils out...and she couldn't believe it as I told her last August we couldn't go until she was 9. So this was a big surprise also...better for me now that we get free dining Good luck with your surprise for your sons. McKenna will not know about the shirts until we get there, along with the invites for breakfast and dinner I just love planning vacations....

 

[Disneymommy2006]

Thanks for your ideas! I love planning too!...anyone else????

 

[Disneymommy2006]

bump

 

[grumpjes24]

The first time I surprised my daughter, she was 12. I made a scrapbook using photos of her with different characters from our last trip to Disney World, which had been when she was 7!

A scrapbook of the scrapbooking pictures

This time, I made countdown calendars for my daughter, who is now 16 and my nieces, who are 16, 12 and 9. This was the front page on the calendar! Btw, I made this design so if you would like it personalized for you, please let me know.

I have an entire countdown, 1 page per day...you can check the rest of the designs out here:
Grumpjes24's DISigns

I know my that even my young niece likes to flip the pages on the calendar every day! Another thing that I think could be cool, depending on your boy's personalities, is having a scanvenger hunt.

Jes






Jes

 

[Disneymommy2006]

I love the coutdown idea!!! Could you do the cover for me? The names of my kids are Geordy, Will, Mom and Dad....the dates are August 16-August 22....thanks for sharing your ideas. I may actually make this countdown cover into a t-shirt and do the scavenger hunt idea with the t-shirt being the last item to find on the hunt!!!

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

Lisa, when we went last august, it was a complete surprise, including when we were in the air about to land!! you can find some of my links and on my trip report, which i didnt complete....you'll see how we told them before we landed!

 

[grumpjes24]

I love the coutdown idea!!! Could you do the cover for me? The names of my kids are Geordy, Will, Mom and Dad....the dates are August 16-August 22....thanks for sharing your ideas. I may actually make this countdown cover into a t-shirt and do the scavenger hunt idea with the t-shirt being the last item to find on the hunt!!!

No problem - I will have it posted tomorrow.

Jes

 

[grumpjes24]

I love the coutdown idea!!! Could you do the cover for me? The names of my kids are Geordy, Will, Mom and Dad....the dates are August 16-August 22....thanks for sharing your ideas. I may actually make this countdown cover into a t-shirt and do the scavenger hunt idea with the t-shirt being the last item to find on the hunt!!!

This is the countdown calendar size

and this is tee shirt size...

Enjoy!

Jes

 

[Disneymommy2006]

This is the countdown calendar size

and this is tee shirt size...

Enjoy!

Jes

Thank you so much!!! That looks so great!

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

Lisa, I think your scavenger hunt idea is great!!

 

[Disneymommy2006]

Lisa, I think your scavenger hunt idea is great!!

Thanks! I'll let you know how it works out...I need to come up with some cute clues and a way to pull it all together...I'll keep you posted!

 

[MissAndrea]

Lisa, when we went last august, it was a complete surprise, including when we were in the air about to land!! you can find some of my links and on my trip report, which i didnt complete....you'll see how we told them before we landed!

I read your story last week and loved it!!! You've inspired me to keep it a secret next time for my daughter. We are leaving in 3 weeks and there are a lot of things she doesn't know about (things I've made from everyones wonderful disigns, character meals, etc) but I want to do something like you did next time! Thanks for sharing your story!!!

 

[floridascgirl]

I posted this same question in a couple of different spots and have gotten many good ideas. We are surprising our DS11 with a trip Dec. 4-7 and I wanted to let him in on the news in a memorable way this time. My favorite ideas so far are: inserting the news in a fortune cookie that he will open after dinner. Maybe saying something like "A magical journey awaits you" or "What will you celebrate?" with the Lucky #'s on the back being the travel dates. Another idea was unwrapping a large box that would release a helium foil balloon that would float up with the tickets or maybe reservation confirm. I will probably do a combo of both in the end. The tricky part is keeping my mouth shut till around Oct. or Nov!!!

 

[Disneymommy2006]

I posted this same question in a couple of different spots and have gotten many good ideas. We are surprising our DS11 with a trip Dec. 4-7 and I wanted to let him in on the news in a memorable way this time. My favorite ideas so far are: inserting the news in a fortune cookie that he will open after dinner. Maybe saying something like "A magical journey awaits you" or "What will you celebrate?" with the Lucky #'s on the back being the travel dates. Another idea was unwrapping a large box that would release a helium foil balloon that would float up with the tickets or maybe reservation confirm. I will probably do a combo of both in the end. The tricky part is keeping my mouth shut till around Oct. or Nov!!!

I love the helium balloon in the box with tickets...maybe that should be at the end of my scavenger hunt!!!!

 

[nettii]

We are going in Aug too! It will also be a surprise for my two boys 8 & 14 we will be driving for the first time and my parents are joining us. I am going to pack the car with out them knowing and put an antenna topper on it and have Nanna and Poppy drive up with T-shirts on saying Surprise were going to Disney! I am going to do an itinerary for them to look at on our way with maps and the new planning dvd. Good luck with your surprise here's hoping Aug is a good one!

 

[bear74]

I just got a pin code in the mail and am thinking of using it to take my 2 girls, my mom and nephew this summer. Oldest DD thinks we are going next year. I surprised her last year and told her the morning we woke up to to the airport. I want to surprise them if we do go. my girls are 6 and 1 nephew is 4.

 

[adctd2WDW]

I am planning my 1st surprise trip for next month. I made the ressies just 2 weeks ago. I know I could not keep it a surprise any longer than this. It will be just myself and my middle DD (13). She did not go on a trip last year, so this will be just for me and her. I did this very spur of the moment when I found cheap airfare. Our next trip is for Christmas 2010. That is just too far away for any sane person to wait. Hannah (DD that is going) lives with her father so keeping it a secret isn't too difficult. (I do see her a few times a week.)
I have been planning on waking her the morning we leave (she will spend the night with me the night before) and asking her to get dressed. I will then hand her a Surprise shirt to put on. Now this seems rather boring. I think I need to spice it up. I have considered not telling her until we arrive at WDW, but I think she will figure it out as soon as we get to the airport. All 3 of my kids ask why I always want to go to WDW. But, they always love it while there. We have never flown anywhere but WDW, and I won't lie to her to keep the surprise going. But, saying we must fly to make our dinner ressies...that is a good idea!
This is sounding more and more fun.
Oh, and she found one of the shirts I had made for this trip and I acted all upset for putting the wrong year on the back! She thought that was obviously a silly mistake I would make.....
Isn't surprising a child wonderful??!!?