Surprise!

[kxmeeh]

I have been planning this trip for months, and I have a pretty decent gap between my children. Two daughters, 23 and 19, who have been a part of the planning since day 1. There is also my 7 year old son who has no idea where we are going (he thinks Missouri). I am truly hoping to keep this a secret until we land...maybe even get to the hotel if I am really lucky. We are staying offsite to enjoy Disney and Universal. Any suggestions on how to keep him so occupied that he does not notice the airport. We do not do video games, but I thought at least headphones and some Netflix will help.

 

[Marthasor]

Movies and headphones may help. Just be prepared that most gates have signage stating where the aircraft is flying and they also typically announce the destination once you board the flight. You may want to be prepared to spring the news sooner than you'd like.

 

[CheshKAT]

Awesome. Tell him you are going to an amusement park like "arcade". As you get closer and if he starts asking questions, tell him that the park is close toDisney. This way if he sees anything Disney, he won't catch on right away. We did this with our then 11and 12 yr olds. We stayed overnight in Buffalo NY and didn't tell them until the AM when we were flying out. (we're Canadians) They had no idea.

 

[Kelly014]

We surprised our kids with our last trip, ages 9 and 4. The 4 year old was oblivious. We told our 9 year old we were flying from Kansas City MO to St Louis MO (we sometimes do weekend trips there), BUT we had a layover in Orlando. She totally bought it, and didn’t realize where we were going until we were in the line for magical express and had to scan our magic bands. I will seriously never forget walking through MCI and her seeing the Disney store and saying “this is where we go to get to Disney isn’t it? I wish we could go!” The “layover in Orlando” trick worked so well for us and she was so excited when she realized there was no layover!

 

[sponica]

Is he the type of kid who reads road signs or looks at his surroundings? I was one of those kids. It didn't matter how many distractions there were, I needed to know where I was.

I'm not saying distractions won't work....but some kids aren't easily surprised (and/or hate surprises)

 

[Tink9721]

Just be prepared that most gates have signage stating where the aircraft is flying and they also typically announce the destination once you board the flight.

Yup, this happened to my mom when she was trying to surprise me when I was 9 She told me we were going to Charlotte (which we were, but not until after we left WDW) but I noticed that the signs at the gate said Orlando and I figured it out before we got on the plane

 

[racerkk]

Is he the type of kid who reads road signs or looks at his surroundings? I was one of those kids. It didn't matter how many distractions there were, I needed to know where I was.

I'm not saying distractions won't work....but some kids aren't easily surprised (and/or hate surprises)

I personally agree with both of these points. You for sure know your kiddo best, though!! I am offering the next paragraph in the event you do want to consider having the surprise at home a few days before you leave as that could also be a fun way to build up some excitement and energy around the trip. If you are not interested in this idea, then please ignore!!

I love to surprise, however our 12 yo does not do well with surprises, so over the years I have found different ways to "surprise" trips ahead of time and not in the moment. One really fun way I have done this is with a puzzle (you can custom order a puzzle with one or several photos from shutterfly, for example). It will come in a pretty box with a picture of the puzzle on it, but I just put all the pieces in a ziploc bag and set it out somewhere in the house, waiting for him to find it and decide to put it together at some point. When he got closer to completion, I set my phone camera out (you can get big pieces or little pieces) and captured video while he worked. He was maybe 10-ish and I had small pieces when I did this (I also had 6 separate vacation-related photos to make it a little less clear what was happening) so it wasn't like 2 seconds and done. When he finished the puzzle and read the last section (it said the date we were leaving, what we were doing, and where we were going), he was SOOOOO excited!!! He was able to process the excitement in his own space, on his own time-- I was able to record it without a camera in his face-- and then we were able to plan a little bit and look forward to the trip together (which was really soon) and that built even more excitement.

 

[kxmeeh]

We decided to keep it a surprise and are now 24 days away. We have started packing as summer clothes in Pennsylvania are absolutely not needed anymore. He knows we have a layover in Charlotte before going to Branson Missouri. Iḿ fairly certain we can keep up the charade until at least Charlotte. When we land in Orlando is when we will break the news. There are generally some empty-ish terminals throughout an airport. We are going from the airport to Epcot, as the hotel has a check in at 3 pm and we are not waiting.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We decided to keep it a surprise and are now 24 days away. We have started packing as summer clothes in Pennsylvania are absolutely not needed anymore. He knows we have a layover in Charlotte before going to Branson Missouri. Iḿ fairly certain we can keep up the charade until at least Charlotte. When we land in Orlando is when we will break the news. There are generally some empty-ish terminals throughout an airport. We are going from the airport to Epcot, as the hotel has a check in at 3 pm and we are not waiting.

My kids asked why the plane was going to orlando.. it got a little harder. My DH orginally told them that's where the plane is going after the stops because we had to do something there were so many kids on the flight. We ended up just telling them mid flight. Thanks so much for the update please let us know the rest goes