Surprise!!!

[bucket o' butter]

Background for this trip:

This Disney trip has been in the planning for over five years, although I have only known about is for two years. My brother-in-law decided to plan a surprise Disney trip for his wife Julie (my dh's sister) for their 25th wedding anniversary. He started planning five years ago, but kept it pretty much a secret from everyone so no one would spill the beans. Being a military officer, it was pretty easy keeping the secret from Julie. Bringing everyone else in the family into his secret was a completely different subject. We didn't have that military training, so it was a challenge to keep our big mouths shut!!!

Two years ago he approached us and the rest of the family about his plans. He was going to go all out and have a vow renewal ceremony at the GF Wedding Chapel. He booked their room in the Poly Hawaii building because this is where Julie and my husband had stayed when they were children when they travelled to Disney. It had always been a dream of hers to stay in the same room they stayed in on their trip in 1983. At that time, it had been a regular building, but now it is the concierge building. My dh wanted to stay in that building also because of childhood memories. (I am the penny pincher of the family, but decided to go all out for this trip. Previous trips had been made with a strict budget, but what the heck, let's go for it). It was so hard not to say anything about Disney when Julie was around and with three children (ages, 14, 12 and 8), the task going to prove to be difficult. Thankfully she lives in another town so we only see her every few months. Everytime we knew we would be around her, we would coach the kids not to mention Disney around Julie. Guess what? They did great and never let on to her about the trip. It was the adults who almost messed it up several times, but Julie never caught on. It is amazing how difficult it is to keep a secret like that. By the time the vacation was near, it was so stressful and we were all walking on pins and needles, but we made it. We were off to Disney and Julie was clueless!!

I will post more tomorrow and add some pictures. I don't want this to get too long and rambling. Tune in later!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Oooohhh, sounds like fun! I could not keep my mouth shut that long...too much happiness and planning to be done!

I cannot wait to see how it all turns out!

 

[bucket o' butter]

I have a little time before dinner, so I thought I'd do one more post for the day about our suprise trip to Disney.

In the past we have always driven to Florida, flying was just too expensive for five people. But since we were already doing all out by staying at the Poly concierge, why not try to fly. We are a family who does not use credit cards (due to bad spending habits in the past!), so everything was paid for with cash on hand. How is the world would we come up with over $1000 to fly? Early last summer, I was shopping at CVS and noticed the Southwest Gift Cards. I could buy gift cards one at a time, kind of like putting out plane tickets in layaway. I started buying them in $50 and $100 increments whenever I had extra money. I was not telling anyone in my family about it. I thought this could be my surprise. Around Thanksgiving, my dh started browsing the internet for cheap flights. He started looking seriously at American Airlines. I had to tell him now. My plan was to put the gift cards in a Christmas present, but that plan was falling through. I just decided to give him the cards. I had $550 in cards so we were more than halfway there. He couldn't believe that I actually kept a secret from him. I do have a big mouth, but when it is important, I can keep it shut! After discussing it, we decided not to tell the kids that we were flying. Our plan was to not tell them until the day we left. Could we do it? Now I had two secrets to keep!!! Yikes!

 

[bucket o' butter]

Well, thankfully we found some great rates on Southwest. Each ticket was $208 round trip. I didn't think that was too bad. We decided to leave as early as possible on day one and return home as late as possible on the last day to maximize our Disney time. We were scheduled to leave at 9:45 A.M. to go to Florida and 6:45 P.M. to return. We figured that would give us several hours on the first and last day to spend at a park.

We are leaving for Disney in a few days and the kids still don't know anything about flying. They are already fighting about who will sit in the back seat first, whose movie they will watch first, etc. Typical sibling arguments. My dh and I went right along with it and let them argue it out. We even had them draw straws to figure out seating and movies.

My in-laws were traveling with us to Florida, but we had them leave for the airport a few minutes after us. Due to expensive gas and a brand new car, they were taking their truck to the airport. The kids would know something was up there because they had just got a new car and who would drive a small truck all the way to Florida? My father in law wasn't too keen on his new car sitting in an open parking lot at the airport for a week also. The kids had also asked if they could take turns riding with them. We all decided that once we reached Kentucky (we live in Indiana), they could take turns riding with grandma and grandpa. That got us past the airport in Indy and by that time, the kids would realize we weren't driving!I tell you, I have lied to so many people about this trip, I am beginning to feel guilty. Oh well, it will be worth it. So, we are off to Florida!!

 

[ktmetke]

I'm hooked already! Can't wait to read more on your surprise trip!!

Karen in Illinois

 

[ama4889]

This is adorable Such a long time to keep secrets! I can barely keep birthday and holiday presents secret!

 

[amytheobald]

I m in we're doing a surprise trip in Sept! So I want all the details

 

[bucket o' butter]

We left for the airport at 5:00 A.M. It is a family tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast anytime we go on vacation. So, we had to keep up the tradition and stopped at the Cracker Barrel right outside of the Indianapolis Airport. We met up with grandma and grandpa at the restaurant, ate and then left for what the kids thought was going to be a 20+ hour drive to Florida!

The airport was only a few minutes down the road, so I took out the video camera and started recording. When we got near the airport, I said outloud to my dh "I wish we could fly". I got the kids involved and they all agreed we could fly, but at the same time were ignoring me, listening to ipods and watching movies. They had no idea that they were going to fly and they just thought their mom was crazy.

When we got to the exit at the airport, dh turned off the interstate. DD12 asked where we were going. I told her that her dad was going to trick them about flying and got in the wrong lane and now had to drive all the way through the airport terminal in order to get back on the highway. I acted completely exasperated that he would go that far to trick his kids! Ha! Ha! When we got to the terminal, he pulled the van over and told the kids to get out of the car because we were flying. Of course, they didn't believe us and told him to keep going. This wasn't a funny joke anymore! It took us a few minutes to convince them that we weren't joking and we were really going to fly. Of course, they were all excited then, even ds14 who shows as little emotion as possible! We waited inside the airport while dh parked the van. In walks Grandma and announces to the kids that they are flying too! That really made ds8 excited. The final surprise of the day was seeing my sister who lives in Colorado. She had been visiting us the previous week and her flight was due to take off an hour earlier than ours. She had arrived at the airport shortly before us and was able to walk with us to the gate and say good-bye to the kids again. That was really exciting! That's all for now. I don't want these posts to get too long and I tend to ramble on and on. I am getting excited typing all this in and it is hard to stop. But, for now, good night!!!

 

[bucket o' butter]

I m in we're doing a surprise trip in Sept! So I want all the details

It was so much fun keeping the surprise going. It is so worth it! Of course, now my kids are going to think we are flying everytime and they are going to be sorely disappointed!:

 

[tyandskyesmom]

This is adorable Such a long time to keep secrets! I can barely keep birthday and holiday presents secret!

Ya, me too! I am surprized Tyler (now 9) still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny! I can't keep good things from them!

 

[bucket o' butter]

We had a pretty normal flight. Two of the three kids had never flown before so that was exciting. Dd12 was very nervous about taking off and was hanging on to me for dear life, but she settled down as soon as the plane leveled off. I, too, am a little apprehensive about flying, so it was calming for me to have someone to give comfort to. When we were getting ready to land and were a few hundred feet off the ground, dd began to get nervous again. She asked me, "Where is the runway?". I replied, "hopefully, right underneath us.". She didn't see the humor in that answer, but I thought it was funny.

We landed around noon and soon hopped aboard the Magical Express Bus. The driver got us all excited about Disney and soon we were dropped off at the Poly. I think the Poly has a lot to improve upon in their check-in procedures. Because we had booked a concierge level room, we were told we would be welcomed at the front door and taken to the Hawaii building in a golf cart. That never happened and the lady at the front desk could not have been more rude!! I stepped up to the desk when the previous people in line had left. She kept entering things into the computer. In the meantime, the family behind us was helped by another cast member and finally our lady looked up at me and said "if you would step back, maybe people wouldn't cut in front of you." That torked dh off and he found someone else to help us. To make a long story short, we were escorted back to the Hawaii building and the concierge desk took over. They were wonderful and got us everything we needed. But when you are paying what the Poly charges for a room, concierge or not, you should never receive the type of treatment we did in the beginning. My brother in law had the same type of experience when he checked in later in the day, so I know it wasn't just us. Maybe the Red Roof Inn, but not the Polynesian!!! Ha! Ha!

We had requested a room as far away from my sister-in-law as possible since we still had to avoid her for another day. They were staying in 1505 so we requested 1517. Guess what? Our room was 1503, two doors down. This was going to be fun!

We had a little time to kill since she was at the GF spa. Right in the middle of the check-in procedure, we get a text message from her son that said Julie is trying to check into the Poly right now. Panic sat in and everyone, including the concierge staff, sped things up and got us to our room. It turns out she was still at the GF, but wanted to go to the Poly. We panicked for no reason.

We decided to get the heck of the Poly as soon as possible, because Julie was on her way. We went to the MK for a few hours. She and her dh were supposed to leave for Epcot between 5:00 and 5:30 and wouldn't return to the Poly until 10:00. We returned to the Poly at 5:00 and dh went ahead of us to the room. We figured if we had to make a run for it, it would be easier for one person instead of four. (DS14 had stayed in the room while the rest of us went to MK). DH called us and said he thought the coast was clear and to come on down to the room. As soon as I approached the door to the Hawaii building, Julie was standing in the lobby. Thankfully she had her back turned to us and the kids and I took off running to the other end of the building. We had to look ridiculous! I am not a tiny person and seeing the this mom with her two kids running away from the building had to get us some really funny looks. We entered the Hawaii building at the other end and thought we could go up, around and down to our room. I should have known it wouldn't be so easy. DH stood guard at the door looking through the peep hold. Julie returned to her room three times. In the meantime, I was trapped on the third floor hallway with the two kids and I had to use the potty room in a bad way! Finally, after deciding she wasn't going to leave her room, we went down and completely around the building and entered from the patio door. Why I didn't think of that 45 minutes ago, I have no idea. We made it and I didn't pee my pants!!!! It is now 5:45 and they still haven't left their room What the heck? They were supposed to leave a half and hour ago. My husband even made a prank phone call to their room to see if they were in their. Her DH answered, so my DH, in a very feminine voice, said "Is Linda there?" They ended up not leaving the room until 6:30 and went to Disney Studios instead of Epcot. That first day was a nightmare, but we survived! I felt like an idiot everytime I left the room having to look around corners to see if they were in sight, but it made for good memories!

The secret would be over in the morning. Will anyone blow it before then? Check in later to find out!

 

[amytheobald]

This is getting GOOD~!

 

[bucket o' butter]

One thing I did forget to put in the first post, is my ridiculous user name. Bucket O' Butter!!! Where did that come from, you ask? Normally, my user names are some variation of my name, which is Melanie. But, since Julie (sister-in-law) is an avid board reader, I couldn't have anything that linked my user name to me. My kids have a nickname for our dog, bucket o' butter. At one point he was standing by my feet when I was cooking dinner, like all dogs do, and got some melted butter dropped on him. The kids started calling him bucket o'butter. Julie would never figure that one out, so there it was, my new DISboards user name! Just thought you would like to know where such a crazy name came from!

 

[bucket o' butter]

Ya, me too! I am surprized Tyler (now 9) still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny! I can't keep good things from them!

My ds(almost 9) has discovered that Santa Claus doesn't put presents under the tree. I think a friend told him, but I was not about to give it up. He asked and asked all year and I just lied and lied. He is my youngest and by golly, I wanted at least one more Christmas with Santa. But, it just wasn't going to happen. He just looked me right in the eye last week and said "Mom, I know there really isn't a Santa. It is you and dad". I had to tell him that he was right. It broke my heart though. I told him that Santa would always bring him gifts though. My mom still wrote Santa on her gifts to me until her very last Christmas last year. Now, i can't wait for grandkids to start the Santa tradition again. But I hope I have at least ten years before that happens! Ha!

 

[nurtz]

Thought I might hijack Mel's trip report...I am Julie, the "victim" of this elaborate scheme and thought I would add my 2 cents.

Being a military officer, it was pretty easy keeping the secret from Julie. Bringing everyone else in the family into his secret was a completely different subject.

It is scary how well he keeps secrets!

Everytime we knew we would be around her, we would coach the kids not to mention Disney around Julie. Guess what? They did great and never let on to her about the trip. It was the adults who almost messed it up several times, but Julie never caught on. It is amazing how difficult it is to keep a secret like that. By the time the vacation was near, it was so stressful and we were all walking on pins and needles, but we made it. We were off to Disney and Julie was clueless!!

Yes, I was totally clueless and I still can't believe they all managed to keep this a secret. My coworkers all knew, too. I know these people...how they kept their mouths shut is beyond me!

We had a little time to kill since she was at the GF spa. Right in the middle of the check-in procedure, we get a text message from her son that said Julie is trying to check into the Poly right now. Panic sat in and everyone, including the concierge staff, sped things up and got us to our room. It turns out she was still at the GF, but wanted to go to the Poly. We panicked for no reason

I kept wondering why Brian wouldn't let me go with him to check in. We had arrived in Orlando on the 17th and stayed offsite. The plan was to go to Poly on the 20th by 8am check in and go to AK for the morning. He just wanted to drop the luggage and go without checking in! I just went along with it. I didn't know he had requested and was able to get room 1505 which my family had stayed in on a trip in 1976. I also was blissfully unaware that my family was all arriving and checking in that day! He had scheduled a spa treatment and massage for me (supposedly a mother's day gift from my sons) so he could get everyone checked in at Poly and SOG.

 

[nurtz]

A little background on what I, the clueless one, thought was going on. My husband had told me way back last winter that he had planned a trip for our 25th anniversary and he was not going to tell me where we were going. Our anniversary is August 6 and he told me the trip was from August 4-15. Sometime in the spring, he told me a coworker was planning to get married at Disney World on July 21st and asked me if I wanted to go. Um...yeah! So we planned to fly down on the 17th and come home the
23rd. I am thinking how great it is...2 trips! I should have been slightly suspicious that my not- so- Disney- loving hubby suggested a trip to WDW but I was so tickled to be going, I brushed it off. I knew we were staying at the Poly (I thought for 3 nights) and off site the other 3 using his points from all his travel. His friend even sent out a fake email invite to his "wedding" that Brian forwarded to me. This man is sneaky! Scary sneaky!

As soon as I approached the door to the Hawaii building, Julie was standing in the lobby. Thankfully she had her back turned to us and the kids and I took off running to the other end of the building. We had to look ridiculous! I am not a tiny person and seeing the this mom with her two kids running away from the building had to get us some really funny looks. We entered the Hawaii building at the other end and thought we could go up, around and down to our room. I should have known it wouldn't be so easy. DH stood guard at the door looking through the peep hold. Julie returned to her room three times. In the meantime, I was trapped on the third floor hallway with the two kids and I had to use the potty room in a bad way

I am sorry I missed all this...it had to be comical. My mom said my dad was freaking out thinking after all this time, they were going to ruin the surprise one day before it was to happen!

It is now 5:45 and they still haven't left their room What the heck? They were supposed to leave a half and hour ago.

Evidently, I was not cooperating in this scheme. I was so happy to be at the Poly and in the room I so wanted to stay in, I didn't want to leave. Plus, we had already had 2 full days in the parks and I was exhausted! And, we ate the pulled pork in the concierge lounge, so I decided we didn't need to keep our ADR at EPCOT. That really messed things up, I guess. We ended up going to DHS instead (Brian's idea because I guess he knew no one I knew would be there).

 

[bucket o' butter]

Thanks Julie for your input! It is funny to read your comments.

Well, it the next day now. Only an hour to go and the cat will be out of the bag. Thank God! Who knew what stress this would cause! It really wasn't too bad until we got to Disney. I kept thinking that if I, or one of my family members, ruined it at this point, Brian would never forgive us.

We were to surprise Julie in the lobby of the Poly at 7:30 A.M. Since we were so close to their room, we decided to leave at 7:00 so we wouldn't be discovered. I slowly opened the door, stuck my head out of the door and looked to the left and then to the right. No sign of Julie! "Let's go", I said to my family and we made a mad dash to the side door of the Poly. Again, I would have loved to see a video of all of our actions on day one and day two. We had to look ridiculous!

We made it to the lobby and hadn't been discovered. Yeah!!! I think we are going to pull this off! I am not sure on the number of people that traveled to Disney, but it had to be around 25. The lobby was packed. We had about 20 minutes to go until Julie and Brian were to arrive so we just hung around and chatted with everyone. One of her boys kept a look out to make sure they didn't come early. Brian was to text someone when they left the room. But, we all know how Julie can change plans so we certainly didn't want to ruin it at this point.

Okay, the text has arrived. They are on their way! Julie thought that she and Brian were going to eat at the Kona Cafe. So, as soon as they walked in the door, they should have turned to the left and headed up the stairs. But, Brian went to the front of the lobby. Julie immediately asked where he was going. I am not sure what his story was. Julie will have to fill you in on that one. As they turned the corner, she saw everyone standing there. Was she surprised? Here is one of the pictures that we took as soon as she saw us.

This is my first picture I have posted, so I hope there is a picture about this and not a bunch of gobbily gook!

To say the least, she was shocked. She said she knew Brian was up to something, but had no idea it was on this kind of scale. After a few minutes of chatting, we headed up to Kona Cafe for breakfast.

 

[bucket o' butter]

Wow, the pictures of giant! Well, at least I was able to get them from Photobucket to DISboards. I will work on making them smaller.

 

[cajunfan]

What a FUN trip report! Please - keep the updates coming...I need to read about my happy place!!!

Lynn

 

[nurtz]

ulie thought that she and Brian were going to eat at the Kona Cafe. So, as soon as they walked in the door, they should have turned to the left and headed up the stairs. But, Brian went to the front of the lobby. Julie immediately asked where he was going. I am not sure what his story was.

You know, I thought I had trained him better. He knew (I thought) that we had to use the stairs to go to Kona and I was itching for Tonga Toast! He kept guiding me to the front where the registration desk is and he said it has been 25 years and asked me if I would do it all again. I think I said something like I guess, but we are going the wrong way to Kona. As we rounded the corner I saw what seemed like a hundred people all with leis around their necks and they looked vaguely familiar. I lost it. Our 3 sons, my parents, his parents, his 2 sisters and one niece, his brother's wife, my brother and Mel and their 3 kids, my grandma and her husband, and some friends were all there! He then told me there was no wedding, but we were renewing our vows. We all went to Kona to eat and a lei for each of us and a headpiece for me were delivered to our table. I think I was pretty stunned throughout breakfast but it great to have so many loved ones with me at my happy place!