Surprise Trips

[joanchris]

My daughter loves Disney and would be really, really, upset if I surprised her and didn't let her in on it. She got a trip to Disney for her Graduation just last month, and we did surprise her with a special event for the trip (was supposed to be dolphins in depth, but they closed that so we did another special tour), but told her that part at Christmas.
I would not be able to keep a surprise like a Disney trip, there's too much planning.
Could you let her in on it, and then so some other thing while there, like a celebration cake, a special tour (Marceline to the MK is inexpensive and very good), or something like that?

 

[Jfsag123]

We are on a surprise trip right now - our reveal was yesterday. It was sooooo hard to keep the secret and I almost slipped a couple of times, but we made it and it was worth it. I got my planning discussion fix by frequenting the Dis and talking to my husband. I would not do a surprise again, but I'm glad we did it this one time.

 

[Luvamouse]

Well, my experience was slightly different and didn't get the reaction I'd hoped for, but I can see your DD knows she's going away.

When booking flights for my niece's HS Graduation last June, I was surprised to find that the cheapest flight went from St. Louis to RI via MCO. Mentioned it to DH since it was so odd to me to go so far out and save money, and said maybe we'll go that route and be able to say we went to MCO since we always drive. Then DH said, "Why don't you take the girls to WDW for a few days." Well you don't have to ask me twice. I about died trying to keep the secret for 4 months. Just 2 days before the trip, DD- 21 came to me with a conflict on the SW app on her phone. It showed the flight home on the wrong day. Darn those kids for inheriting my techie genes. Well, it turned out great for me because she thought to pack all the odds and ends she and DD-15 needed for WDW and stopped me from looking crazy doing laundry to fly home. I gave DD-15 the box of Magic Bands to open at the airport in St. Louis as her early birthday present. Aaaaannnndddd.... she totally shut down. I hadn't considered she missed her dad since we'd been gone 5 days already and we always travel as a family. And she also is an all Honors Student who had already missed 3 days of school to go to the graduation (with her teachers' blessings). I felt awful. In hindsight, even though they'd always begged to be surprised, the trip in February that we surprised them with on Christmas Eve years ago was better. ** Editing to add that we had a wonderful trip. It was just 2 nights and 2 park days, so it didn't kill her at school and the teachers thought our surprise was really cool. Lucky for us. But the initial shock was rough on me.

Long reply, but my thought is to give her at least a week or two to get her wits about her, plan around school if needed, and as one PP said,

I am the planner but I also LOVE a surprise! That being said, I think I would feel a little conflicted if my DH had asked me to research and plan a place I would like to go for my birthday, and then surprised me with a different trip. Yes, I know "but it's DISNEY!" and that's true, but I still would have invested time and energy (and anticipation) in a trip that ISN'T going to happen.

I of course have no idea how much your daughter is throwing herself into the planning of her birthday weekend and how that is playing out... but just something to keep in mind.

No matter what, I hope she is wonderfully surprised and that it's a magical 16th birthday!

I agree that WDW should trump any other vacation, but I still think at this age a bit of time, even small, is best. We moved my DD's June 13 B-day trip to August due to an unexpected surgery, but we will still be celebrating her 16th there as well! Have a wonderful time!

 

[Pesky]

I'm sort of in the same boat. DH really doesn't want to talk about it. Zero interest. I forced some input out of him when I told him that didn't give him a right to complain regarding what ADRs I made or didn't make. I surprised my 2 with DLR when they were 4 and 6. It wasn't an overwhelming response -- DS was oblivious still and DD gasped and gazed around but the next day at the parks they really got into it. I wasn't sure it was worth it but then DD insisted on being surprised again because she loved the surprise so much. So we are. I have to say this will definitely be the last time. I just can't keep things a secret and could really use some more direct input. Plus I want them to see how much hard work this is!

 

[mjkacmom]

We surprised our kids when they were little, and it was great. That said, I took dd15 out of HS for two trips this year, 5 days each time (Ireland and Scotland), and there was a lot of communication needed between her and her teachers before, during, and after the trips. The Ireland trip was in October, and it seemed to fall on the worst week at school, major exams, term papers, etc. She got some head starts, knew what to bring with her, and it took a dollar d 2 weeks to catch up each time (A student, all honors classes).

 

[BusyP76]

I am the planner but I also LOVE a surprise! That being said, I think I would feel a little conflicted if my DH had asked me to research and plan a place I would like to go for my birthday, and then surprised me with a different trip. Yes, I know "but it's DISNEY!" and that's true, but I still would have invested time and energy (and anticipation) in a trip that ISN'T going to happen.

I of course have no idea how much your daughter is throwing herself into the planning of her birthday weekend and how that is playing out... but just something to keep in mind.

No matter what, I hope she is wonderfully surprised and that it's a magical 16th birthday!

Yeah, pretty much it's been "mom...can't you do it? You're the planner." So I think a week at her favorite place is going to trump a weekend somewhere else where she's wanting me to plan it anyways! Lol

 

[MommaBerd]

Yeah, pretty much it's been "mom...can't you do it? You're the planner." So I think a week at her favorite place is going to trump a weekend somewhere else where she's wanting me to plan it anyways! Lol

Well that's great to hear!

 

[Elliemay2]

We are going with friends and are not telling any of our kids. (6 of them between us). Ages 6-13. They have all been before, but not together with their friends. This time we are going to leave straight from school. We will be sending them all cryptic gifts to school that day and when we pick them up and they put them together, they will have to figure it out while we secretly video their reactions. Keeping this a secret until Dec is SO hard.

 

[bjscheel]

The way I managed was not deciding to do it until 5 weeks out, and telling them at 10 days out. So only 3.5 weeks of keeping a secret. They were in 3rd and 5th grade at the time and even at that age I wanted them to have some time to prepare for missing 2.5 days of school. The girls said 10 days was perfect. They got to make a countdown, decorate new autograph books, pack for themselves, and be mentally prepared.

For a teen, I would do AT LEAST 10 days, and be sure she is on board with missing school. DD17 would have freaked out to miss school in 8th grade. In 9th grade she would have been all for it (an easy and boring year for her). 10th and 11th she may or may not have been okay with it.

Also, kids that age make plans of their own and can have lots of activities and commitments... so watch out for that too.

 

[Madzac]

We are doing a cruise this summer which our four kids know about but we decided to fly down two days before, stay at AOA and do MK for one day which I've kept as a surprise. DH is also not a planner so it's been tough to not tell the kids. I did fastpasses and everything on my own. I've almost slipped up several times but my hope is to not tell them until the airport. I keep waiting for them to ask why we are going down two days before the ship leaves but so far no one has asked!
Now I could never keep a full trip a secret! This has been torture and it's one day!!!!

 

[SgtTibbs]

We didn't tell DD, then 5, where we were going. Not a word through 6 months of planning, we even kept quiet about where the flight was going (she didn't know Orlando from Chicago). She figured it out when we were walking to DME.

I'm thinking your avatar is strangely appropriate for this post.

 

[cheshiregirl]

I have been planning our next family trip to WDW since February and I am keeping it secret from our 8yo DS, and it's killing me!

I am keeping it a secret for now to protect the sanity of the people around us. My son has a tendency to fixate and obsess about things, so 8 months notice of a vacation would be too much for him to handle--he would literally talk about it every single day. We are going at the end of October when he typically gets a few days off school, so we often travel at that time. He desperately wants to go to Universal and because we live in the Western US, there are relentless and constant ads for the new Harry Potter expansion at Universal Hollywood. My plan is to tell him on his birthday in early September that we are going to Universal over the October school break, and I will just let him assume that we are going to Universal Hollywood. We have a early evening flight booked that will require picking him up an hour early from school. At that point the plan is to let him know that we are flying, not driving and that we are headed to Florida rather than California, and that we are spending 5 days at WDW before spending the next 3.5 at Universal.

This trip is celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary along with DS's 9th birthday, so DH and I have enjoyed doing the planning together. Luckily DS is a big YouTube fan and watches a ton of travel videos, and we tend to talk about Disney a lot at our house, so I am feeling like I am able to incorporate all the things he wants the most into the trip without directly consulting him. We are going to the MNSSHP, eating at BOG (twice), and have an early evening reservation at Sanaa (hoping for window seats) that are all on his wish list, in addition to all the things I know he wants to do at Universal--where we are staying on site to get the Express Pass in order to maximize our time.

Hopefully this will all be a pleasant surprise and it won't backfire on me! The biggest challenge (beyond keeping such a huge secret) will be getting him to go to bed that first night since we won't be arriving at our hotel until around 1:30 am EST.

 

[camille4750]

My daughter's favorite ride is Soarin'. We went in January as a family and it was closed. It opens on her 17th birthday--June 17th! I could not resist planning a surprise trip for her birthday. I plan to wrap the Magic Bands and give them to her about 2 hours before we need to leave to the airport. So she can pack her own things. I am super excited! I'm not sure I would surprise her like this during the school year, but since it's summer and she has nothing much going on, it should be great! 9 more days!

 

[NikkiC0509]

I love surprise trips! We always surprise our kids with any trip we take... Even daily lol. For our upcoming dis trip, our kids ages 11, 9, 8 and 10mo, know we are going but don't know exactly when. We have a countdown at home that says less than 100 says and they help plan and even picked out their magic bands. My plan is to put them all to bed the night we leave, as we normally would on a school night, since the trip is during the school year. Maybe with a few hidden Disney things, like a Disney bedtime story of Disney snacks for their lunches. Then after they are in bed, blare the Disneyworld CD and get them up and tell them we are leaving right now! I plan to have trip journals for the drive, along with a goodie bag for each of them of all the Disney stuff I have been hoarding, like towels, swim suits, flip flops, etc. I love doing it this way bc they still get to be excited now and they'll be super excited once we finally surprise them with leaving.

 

[manakin]

I'm going to surprise my mum with our next Disneyworld holiday

It will be a big holiday for her (first time in America) and I had so many surprises for her! She think we will stay in a Value resort, but We will actually stay at the Beach club. I cannot wait to see here face when will be here! Also, She doesn't know that I found a super early reservation for our first breakfast at CRT in magic kingdom and lot more!
The wait is really killing me and I hope to keep the secret xD It's too hard to close my mouth and not saying anything...

 

[Momto2minniemice]

Love this thread. I am hoping to get some surprise ideas for my 2 girls 12 and 5. DH said we could plan a girls trip but then another trip came up for my oldest and me to go to a 3rd world country to do some humanitarian work for those in need. With that my DD thinks she gave up Disney to go to the other country to work! What she does not know is my DH and I talked and agreed both were equally important in different ways so Disney is still on but she had no idea! DD will miss 4 days of 7th grade in Sept I plan on talking to her teachers ahead of time to get work ahead of time. She is a great student so not too worried about grades.
My problem is I have no idea how to surprise her and her sister. The things I know are I will have pick both girls up early from school to make a 6pm flight and we are doing an 8 night stay at a value resort with 4 day tickets/hopper and MNSSHP. The girls basically had the trip planned before we found out about the other trip came up so I knew what places they wanted to eat at. Any advise would be great!

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

Well, my experience was slightly different and didn't get the reaction I'd hoped for, but I can see your DD knows she's going away.

When booking flights for my niece's HS Graduation last June, I was surprised to find that the cheapest flight went from St. Louis to RI via MCO. Mentioned it to DH since it was so odd to me to go so far out and save money, and said maybe we'll go that route and be able to say we went to MCO since we always drive. Then DH said, "Why don't you take the girls to WDW for a few days." Well you don't have to ask me twice. I about died trying to keep the secret for 4 months. Just 2 days before the trip, DD- 21 came to me with a conflict on the SW app on her phone. It showed the flight home on the wrong day. Darn those kids for inheriting my techie genes. Well, it turned out great for me because she thought to pack all the odds and ends she and DD-15 needed for WDW and stopped me from looking crazy doing laundry to fly home. I gave DD-15 the box of Magic Bands to open at the airport in St. Louis as her early birthday present. Aaaaannnndddd.... she totally shut down. I hadn't considered she missed her dad since we'd been gone 5 days already and we always travel as a family. And she also is an all Honors Student who had already missed 3 days of school to go to the graduation (with her teachers' blessings). I felt awful. In hindsight, even though they'd always begged to be surprised, the trip in February that we surprised them with on Christmas Eve years ago was better. ** Editing to add that we had a wonderful trip. It was just 2 nights and 2 park days, so it didn't kill her at school and the teachers thought our surprise was really cool. Lucky for us. But the initial shock was rough on me.

I'm sorry you learned the lesson the hard way, but I've often found that surprises are usually more for the people getting the surprise than the person on the receiving end. I get very anxious when my plans are changed drastically, so I do not appreciate surprises one bit, yet the person who surprises me gets all the anticipation and joy of imagining the surprise.

I get the feeling the OP has decided for some reason that this just MUST be a surprise and in reality no harm will come of her spilling the beans other than her "dreaming of the reveal" and some good can come of it in that her daughter who is supposed to be the recipient of the gift will get to share anticipation with her mom.

 

[julieFitz]

We told our kids the day before by making Mickey pancakes for breakfast and asking them what that made them think of. Only downside was my youngest was soooo excited that he hardly slept. It was definitely hard to keep it a secret, I wanted to ask them so many times for input but it all worked out. They loved it!!!

 

[Robertfam08]

Dh and I had been planning an adult's only trip for a while which our kids knew about. At sort of the last minute (about 2 months out) we decided to add the kids onto our package and not let them know they were going, too. So while we were all talking about Disney and I was packing their bags, they just assumed it was for a week at grandma and grandpa's. The morning that we left we had a big display of Disney plushes and two wrapped boxes on the kitchen table that had our magic bands in them. They were so excited to find out that they were coming along! It was a great trip.

 

[Karin1984]

Besides school, don't 16 year olds have a life of their own nowadays? The daughter thinks they will go away for a weekend, which will turn into a 6-day Disney vacation. What if the day(s) after the weekend the daughter has plans to meet with friends. Plans the OP doesn't know about. If she has to cancel that last minute, it might not be appreciated by her friends. Teenagers are not always the most understanding people.

I agree with the idea that surprises are more for the people giving the surprise than about the person receiving it.