Surprising my kids for the first time... suggestions!

[robndani]

Hi! We are going to Disney in September and want to surprise my kids who will be almost 5 at the time. They have already been to Disney, but they've always known about it (I'm always too excited to keep the secret).

I thought it would be a fun twist to surprise them with 2 things. First, the trip itself, and second, the fact that my parents are coming too!

I know that I'm just going to wait until we get to the airport and see my parents for that part of the surprise, but I'm not sure about the first part.

I'm not sure if I should tell them the night before, that morning, or just wait until we get there! Thoughts?

 

[KulaMauiMouse]

Are you thinking about doing it beforehand? Or when you get there? We've done both and they're both fun.

A few years ago we went to Disnyland without telling the kids anything at all. They didn't know we were going until we drove up, they actually thought we were on the way to the airport to go home! This was fun, but I actually like telling them a little beforehand more-then we can plan together and enjoy the build up as a family.

Once we gave the kids a bunch of clues, disney stuff, a calendar with a date circled, and asked than to figure out the mystery, though five might be a little young for that.

What's their favorite Disney movie/character? You could base it off that.

 

[robndani]

I'm not sure when I want to tell them, I'm thinking that it might be fun to wait until we're there!

 

[MickeyChix]

Another idea might be to surprise them a bit in advance with them going to Disney buy purchasing a Guide to the Magic kids planning book! We did this with our daughter about a month out and she loved it. It has stickers they can put on the pages of the rides they want to do, pages where they can write down their memories and pages for autographs. Then surprise them at the airport with the Grandparents!!!

 

[Kristina4109]

ORRRR...you could reverse it, and say "We're going to see Grandma and Grandpa!" And then when you land and they meet you at the airport, don't tell them where you're going until you actually arrive at WDW!

 

[KulaMauiMouse]

Are you staying on property?

 

[Happyjen27]

I have one child that does not like change in routine, so, what I did was tell them that we were picking them up early from school to go to the dentist.

Then, when we picked them up, we put on their Mickey ears/ Pluto hat and asked if those were dentist hats, and made them figure out where we wear those hats.

Then we went directly to the airport. The reason I did this was it gave them a 25 minute car ride to digest what we were saying and get used to the idea a bit. I was so glad to give them some space and time to adjust so when we got to the airport, they were fine with hopping on the plan and excited to go back to Disney!

I didn't want to do it the night before, because I wanted them to be able to sleep. I didn't tell them that morning because I wanted them to be able to concentrate at school. But, if they didn't have school, we probably would have told them that morning so they could have packed their own things.

 

[robndani]

We are staying on property at BCV. My parents live in the next town, but I would like the reverse idea if they didn't!

I like all of your ideas!

 

[momandkids]

We are surprising our kids 9 and 11 this year too. We surprised them in the past by waking them up 4 in the morning and telling them we are on our way to disney. They did not believe us. I think that was the most fun every to surprise them by waking them up.

We have also surprised them 2 years ago with Universal by not telling them where we were going until we got there. I liked the other way better though. THe kids were so excited that morning and were able to pick out the disney characters they wanted to decorate their room with.

This year, I am not sure if we will surprise or not, as i think it would be fun to have them help plan, although i am leaning on surprising.

 

[Pesky]

I think a lot of the surprise should depend on your kids. As was mentioned, there are some kids who don't respond well to surprises. We did something similar when we visited DLR for the first time last December. We flew into LA under the guise of mommy getting her hair cut (I did) and seeing where we lived before driving out to IL's for Christmas. Well, we drove to DLR and ILs met us there. Kids were asleep or absorbed and didn't notice where we were. We didn't tell them where we were until in the hotel. Question for you is if your kids will notice when they see the airport, hear the flight attendants announce arrival in Orlando, see the Orlando airport, etc. I'd just plan for either that to be your surprise then or plan a way to tell them before those points. You could always give them something they "need" for vacation and each gets a piece of the puzzle -- maybe one gets the word "Walt" and the other the word "World" and they have to figure out what goes in the middle or if the put the 2 pieces of the paper together in the right order, a mickey head forms.