Surprising ideas?

[kohlby]

Our trip is coming up and originally was to be a suprise Disney-only trip. However, I can't stay away so I found a way to add in a day at IOA. I have three Harry Potter fanatics, ages 2.5, 5, and 8. I want a simple idea. It has to be something I can do while on vacation. We're not going to tell them until our IOA day, which is a few days into our Disney trip). Any ideas? My original idea was just not to tell them until we drove up to the park. Then I was thinking of getting them t-shirts, since they said they wanted Harry Potter t-shirts for Christmas and giving them out that morning. But I couldn't find a huge selection so I was hoping to get shirts in the park instead. (Plus, time is running out. We leave in a little over 2 weeks).


Any ideas? They love all things Harry Potter. The 5 year old is convinced that she's going to Hogwarts when she turns 11 and argues with her brother when he says it's pretend. The 2 year old has been singing the theme song from HP before he could even say mama correctly. And the 8 year old has read the first 6 books, some several times.

 

[zack123]

Make up a letter that is from Hogwarts, hide it in your suitcase and give it to them that day. I wrote some of my ideas in the "sshh... Christmas surprise ideas for kids" thread yesterday.

Rolling them up and tying them to a stuffed owl's foot is cute, but it might be hard to hide three of them in a suitcase for that long. Perhaps you could arrange with the hotel staff to come in the middle of the night and slide them under the door while they are sleeping? Then they'll find them when they wake up that morning.

I'm not sure how observant they'll be, but there are quite a few road signs announcing directions to "Universal Studios" on the way there, and it is in a different area of town than Disney, that may ruin the surprise for the ones who can read if you don't plan to tell them until you get to the park.

 

[kohlby]

I'll go look up that thread Zach. I'd rather not do the owls - I don't want to buy three stuffed animals. Shirts, sure. But stuffed animals have a way of multiplying and one of my kids has allergies so he can't keep stuffed animals in his room.

I hadn't thought of them reading the signs. My oldest is rather oblivious normally. But if he doesn't know where we're going, then he'll be reading signs. I'm not sure if he knows that WWoHP is in IOA. He does know it's not Disney however and they both know which parks are Disney parks. The 5 year old can read if she wants to, meaning she's not going to be reading signs since Universal is a long word.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

I'll go look up that thread Zach. I'd rather not do the owls - I don't want to buy three stuffed animals. Shirts, sure. But stuffed animals have a way of multiplying and one of my kids has allergies so he can't keep stuffed animals in his room.

I hadn't thought of them reading the signs. My oldest is rather oblivious normally. But if he doesn't know where we're going, then he'll be reading signs. I'm not sure if he knows that WWoHP is in IOA. He does know it's not Disney however and they both know which parks are Disney parks. The 5 year old can read if she wants to, meaning she's not going to be reading signs since Universal is a long word.

Some of the signs on I-4 headed toward Universal from Disney are giant billboards that have Harry Potter and a giant 3D light-up wand... very eye catching, especially for Potter fans!

Are you flying into Orlando? If so, there's a Universal store at the airport. You could possibly sneak into the store and pick up some small Harry Potter items (they sell a surprising amount of HP merchandise in that store!) Can't remember exactly what they had, but I'm sure they have keychains/pins and lanyards

 

[kohlby]

My kids know WWoHP is near Disney. In the past, we've done all the parks on our trips. We had planned just to do Disney this time and just IOA/US/SW next time and told them that. So, WWoHP billboards might not blow it. However, I'd like to see their expressions, which is hard in a car. And the older two make everything a competition so I'd rather not have the who figured it out first battle. So I'm thinking we should tell them right before we get in the car from our hotel. We're driving down but IOA is in the middle of our trip. I want to wait until the day of to tell them we're going. (Actually, the Disney trip is also a surprise. They think we're planning on going to Disney in about a year - since that was our original plan until we got that good 40% PIN code for a resort. We're letting them in on that secret right before we get in the car for the drive down since there's no way they can handle the drive unless they know).

 

[zack123]

I know what you mean about the stuffed animals, I was one of those kids . . . my parents probably still have bags of mine in their attic.

So if you decide you do want to do a letter, perhaps you can hand it off to a hotel staff member to slip under your door the night before, after they go to bed, or in the morning while you are eating breakfast? (unless you stop for breakfast on the way, then maybe one of the adults can sneak off for a minute and hand it to the waiter to bring it to your table).

If you can find a Hogwarts crest image online to print on it, it would be really fun to see the look on their face when they get a mysterious letter from Hogwarts. Plus, then you'll know exactly when they're going to find out, and you can have the camera ready.

 

[UndercoverMama]

I like the letter idea. I would probably either put it in a small envelope and make a wax seal on it, trying to make it look like an owl post, or write it out on a piece of paper bag or baked paper to give it an old look and then roll it up like a scroll.