Surprising the kids with our first Disney trip!

[Autumnslight]

Hi all! I'm brand new here, and have been soaking up all of the info I can find on Disney World trips, in preparation for our first family trip. It's kind of overwhelming, but very exciting!

I'm sure this has been discussed a million times, but my husband and I are planning to surprise our kids with a trip to Disney World in September. Our daughter is three, and our son will celebrate his seventh birthday while we're there. A close friend and her son (who is six, and best friends with our son) are also going along. All of us adults have been to Disney World once or twice before, but not in at least several years. This will be the first trip for all three kids (our son was actually there when he was an infant, but I'm not counting that).

We considered the pros and cons of telling them ahead of time versus surprising them (we saw the failed surprise videos on YouTube!), and we've decided that a surprise is the right choice for us and our kids. The reveal is a little more complicated since our friend and her son are also going, but we think we've come up with a tentative plan! Here it is:

The night before we leave, after all kids are in bed, I'll go get my friend's luggage from her house and put it in our car.

The morning we leave, we'll send our two kids to school at 8am. We'll tell them that I'm picking them in a couple of hours to go to the dentist. While they're gone, we'll finish packing up the car with our luggage.

Our friend will not be sending her son to school, and she'll tell him that they're going to meet up with us to do something as a surprise for our son's birthday.

Around 10am, we'll pick up our friend and her son, and drive to our kids' school. I'll get them from school, and come back our to the car, where my husband, our friend, and her son will be waiting. At that point, we'll tell all three kids that we're going to Disney World, right now!!!

After we tell them, we'll present them with packed carry-on backpacks, containing new Mickey Crocs, custom t-shirts, lanyards & trading pins, and stuff to keep them occupied on the plane. We'll have them put on the Crocs and t-shirts right away, so they'll be wearing them in the airport. Then, we'll drive to the airport, and away we go!

Since the kids haven't been to Disney before, we were afraid that they wouldn't understand the magnitude of the surprise. In preparation, we've started to talk about Disney a little bit, framing it in the context of "Someday, hopefully we can go."

All of the kids like various Disney shows and movies, so we're taking the opportunity to work in some trip stuff. For example, when they show the little clips of Disney World on Disney Junior, we'll look up a YouTube video of a particular ride that was shown (and inevitably end up watching more ride videos). Or, while watching a movie like Lilo and Stitch, we'll say something like "I heard that you can have breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at Disney World."

We plan to continue this sort of casual conversation over the next several weeks, so that when we finally tell them, they'll REALLY be excited and surprised. They've already started to talk about what they'd like to do "someday", "if" we get to go to Disney World.

So, what do you all think of the plan? Any additional ideas or suggestions? We're already having a tough time keeping the surprise ourselves, but hopefully we can hold out!

 

[Jerzetta]

Aww love it and so well thought out. Have fun!!!

 

[markj2911]

OMG...lots of content to read.. But I like to read your experience.
This is a right platform for your amazing experience.

 

[ChitownFamily]

Hi all! I'm brand new here, and have been soaking up all of the info I can find on Disney World trips, in preparation for our first family trip. It's kind of overwhelming, but very exciting!

I'm sure this has been discussed a million times, but my husband and I are planning to surprise our kids with a trip to Disney World in September. Our daughter is three, and our son will celebrate his seventh birthday while we're there. A close friend and her son (who is six, and best friends with our son) are also going along. All of us adults have been to Disney World once or twice before, but not in at least several years. This will be the first trip for all three kids (our son was actually there when he was an infant, but I'm not counting that).

We considered the pros and cons of telling them ahead of time versus surprising them (we saw the failed surprise videos on YouTube!), and we've decided that a surprise is the right choice for us and our kids. The reveal is a little more complicated since our friend and her son are also going, but we think we've come up with a tentative plan! Here it is:

The night before we leave, after all kids are in bed, I'll go get my friend's luggage from her house and put it in our car.

The morning we leave, we'll send our two kids to school at 8am. We'll tell them that I'm picking them in a couple of hours to go to the dentist. While they're gone, we'll finish packing up the car with our luggage.

Our friend will not be sending her son to school, and she'll tell him that they're going to meet up with us to do something as a surprise for our son's birthday.

Around 10am, we'll pick up our friend and her son, and drive to our kids' school. I'll get them from school, and come back our to the car, where my husband, our friend, and her son will be waiting. At that point, we'll tell all three kids that we're going to Disney World, right now!!!

After we tell them, we'll present them with packed carry-on backpacks, containing new Mickey Crocs, custom t-shirts, lanyards & trading pins, and stuff to keep them occupied on the plane. We'll have them put on the Crocs and t-shirts right away, so they'll be wearing them in the airport. Then, we'll drive to the airport, and away we go!

Since the kids haven't been to Disney before, we were afraid that they wouldn't understand the magnitude of the surprise. In preparation, we've started to talk about Disney a little bit, framing it in the context of "Someday, hopefully we can go."

All of the kids like various Disney shows and movies, so we're taking the opportunity to work in some trip stuff. For example, when they show the little clips of Disney World on Disney Junior, we'll look up a YouTube video of a particular ride that was shown (and inevitably end up watching more ride videos). Or, while watching a movie like Lilo and Stitch, we'll say something like "I heard that you can have breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at Disney World."

We plan to continue this sort of casual conversation over the next several weeks, so that when we finally tell them, they'll REALLY be excited and surprised. They've already started to talk about what they'd like to do "someday", "if" we get to go to Disney World.

So, what do you all think of the plan? Any additional ideas or suggestions? We're already having a tough time keeping the surprise ourselves, but hopefully we can hold out!

I'm not big on surprising kids the day, especially if family vacations are an unknown entity. Some things to consider to help ease the surprise: these are more rhetorical questions that might help you anticipate issues/emotions- Do you travel frequently with other families? Will they known what to expect from traveling? How do the kids handle schedule changes or unknown schedules plans. I prefer to surprise a couple days in advance, at least. Kids need time to process the info. With that said, I also feel first time kids- the surprise is for the enjoyment of the parents. Do they at least known there will be a surprise or that school will be missed?

in another thread, someone suggested if you insist upon the surprise the day of. you could do a countdown to the surprise vacation. at least they will mentally prepare for being away from home, out of school, traveling with another family. you could have fun with them guessing. i would highly recommend, if you are telling them & then leaving- letting them watch some videos in the car. Showing them the hotel, the rides, there's a kids guide book with pictures.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

in another thread, someone suggested if you insist upon the surprise the day of. you could do a countdown to the surprise vacation. at least they will mentally prepare for being away from home, out of school, traveling with another family. you could have fun with them guessing. i would highly recommend, if you are telling them & then leaving- letting them watch some videos in the car. Showing them the hotel, the rides, there's a kids guide book with pictures.

Yes this. Perhaps consider a countdown to a surprise trip. September is awfully close to the beginning of school, and who knows what the teacher will have planned that your son and son's friend would be sorry to miss. It would be terrible for you and them if you surprise them and his reaction is to be upset because next Tuesday they were going to be making green playdoh in class. If he knows he has a surprise trip coming up, he will already be mentally prepared to miss everything the following week.

Everything else about your plan sounds great.

Also, I'm from the Buffalo area too! Welcome to the DIS!

 

[SEA333]

I'm not big on surprising kids the day, especially if family vacations are an unknown entity. Some things to consider to help ease the surprise: these are more rhetorical questions that might help you anticipate issues/emotions- Do you travel frequently with other families? Will they known what to expect from traveling? How do the kids handle schedule changes or unknown schedules plans. I prefer to surprise a couple days in advance, at least. Kids need time to process the info. With that said, I also feel first time kids- the surprise is for the enjoyment of the parents. Do they at least known there will be a surprise or that school will be missed?

in another thread, someone suggested if you insist upon the surprise the day of. you could do a countdown to the surprise vacation. at least they will mentally prepare for being away from home, out of school, traveling with another family. you could have fun with them guessing. i would highly recommend, if you are telling them & then leaving- letting them watch some videos in the car. Showing them the hotel, the rides, there's a kids guide book with pictures.

Goodness! Maybe it's because my kids are older or roll with things better, but they would be thrilled to be taken out of school just to even really *go* the the dentist LOL. (as a matter of fact, my DS13 goes to the orthodontist alone for tightenings since it's within walking distance to his middle school and made his own appt for next month during school hours so he could miss....ummmm, nice try buddy! LOL) If we took them out under the pretense of a dentist appointment and took them to Disney World instead, we would probably be voted the World's Most Awesome Parents EVER!

OP - your plan sounds fantastic! We are surprising our three (ages 13, 9, and 7 1/2) the morning we leave in November. They will wake up to an "early" Christmas present - Santa will be bringing them stockings early with everything they need for the trip - plane ticket, DW pass, sunscreen, flip-flops, a new bathing suit/trunks, and a $50 Disney gift card each. Notes in the top of the stockings will clue the kids into the fact that they are not going to school that day, but as soon as they get ready, we will leave for the airport!!!

Although they have been to Magic Kingdom once for a day as part of a larger Florida trip, we have never done the full-out Disney Experience. This will be a first for them, so I've also been trying to kind of talk up the rest of Disney - Epcot, DHS for the boys, and AK for DD (DH is taking her to AK on one of the days while I take the boys to DHS since we only have 3-day tickets)

Good luck!!

 

[ChitownFamily]

Goodness! Maybe it's because my kids are older or roll with things better, but they would be thrilled to be taken out of school just to even really *go* the the dentist LOL. (as a matter of fact, my DS13 goes to the orthodontist alone for tightenings since it's within walking distance to his middle school and made his own appt for next month during school hours so he could miss....ummmm, nice try buddy! LOL) If we took them out under the pretense of a dentist appointment and took them to Disney World instead, we would probably be voted the World's Most Awesome Parents EVER!

OP - your plan sounds fantastic! We are surprising our three (ages 13, 9, and 7 1/2) the morning we leave in November. They will wake up to an "early" Christmas present - Santa will be bringing them stockings early with everything they need for the trip - plane ticket, DW pass, sunscreen, flip-flops, a new bathing suit/trunks, and a $50 Disney gift card each. Notes in the top of the stockings will clue the kids into the fact that they are not going to school that day, but as soon as they get ready, we will leave for the airport!!!

Although they have been to Magic Kingdom once for a day as part of a larger Florida trip, we have never done the full-out Disney Experience. This will be a first for them, so I've also been trying to kind of talk up the rest of Disney - Epcot, DHS for the boys, and AK for DD (DH is taking her to AK on one of the days while I take the boys to DHS since we only have 3-day tickets)

Good luck!!

your kiddos sound like a fun bunch! I love that he tried to sneak an ortho appt during school. Some kids transition easier than others. It's not a judgement on either kind of kid. As someone with a background of working with kids from ages infant to teen, i have a different perspective. Sometimes as parents we forget what it's like to be a kid, where nothing is in your control & routine/structure is your life.

 

[Shea&Van]

OP - sounds like an AMAZING plan. The kids will be enchanted and SO very excited.

We've done this before with our kids and it was awesome.

We're doing it again this year on Thanksgiving morning. Our kids will be getting a note from Alvin - our elf on the shelf. He will tell them that Mom and Dad have been keeping a big secret from them for months. Ha Ha.

LOVE the surprise aspect of these vacations.

Have a fantastic time and welcome to the Dis!!!!

 

[Autumnslight]

We definitely tried to consider the personalities of each kid in deciding whether to surprise them. Both of the boys (our son and our friend's son) are the type that are VERY hard to surprise. If they even have an inkling that there's something coming, they'll usually figure out exactly what it is. If we were to tell them that we were going somewhere, they'd know almost immediately that it was Disney World.

All of the kids are pretty good in terms of schedule changes and such, and can just go with the flow. That being said, we didn't want to just totally throw a first time Disney trip at them with no preparation whatsoever. That's why we decided to start preparing them for a trip "someday", by talking about it, watching videos of rides, talking about meeting characters, discussing what they'd like to do "if" we went to Disney World, etc. We've basically told them that we'd like to go, and hopefully we will go at some point in the future - we just haven't totally committed to going, or given them a clue that it could be so soon.

The surprise should actually work to our advantage, because our friend's son in particular is a little stickler for details. If he knew for sure that we were going, he'd try to plan out the whole trip, down to the littlest detail, in his own (not always possible or practical) kid way. Of course, it would never happen exactly how he planned, and then he'd be disappointed. The way we're planning it, we'll likely give the kids a little itinerary of sorts in their carry-on. Nothing huge, but just a general run down - this park on this day, with a couple of particular events noted, like the Halloween party, a dining reservation, fireworks show, etc. My kids won't really care about that, but our friend's son will. That way they have an idea of what to expect, and then we can talk about more specifics of what they'd like to do in each park.

In terms of taking them out of school, we did try to consider what they might miss. The plan is to talk to the teachers at the beginning of school, and find out if there's anything specific that might be disappointing to miss. Academically, it's not a concern for any of them. We also know there aren't any field trips or special events planned while we'll be away. If there's anything else that we think they might be disappointed about missing, we'll find out about it and figure out a plan to address it and make up for it. Honestly though, for our kids specifically, knowing how they are, I think there's almost nothing that could possibly trump this trip. There's always a chance that we might be wrong, and they might not react the way we expect - but we think that's a very slim chance.

I hope we've considered most of the issues we might run into with a surprise like this, but I'd love to hear more input or suggestions! We'll definitely keep an eye on things in the next few weeks, especially once school starts. If something develops where we think it would be better to give them some advance notice, then we certainly can change our plans and do that. After all, if they're not happy on the trip, then none of us will be!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Perhaps if your son comes home all excited about something that will go on the week he will be gone you can just start making up other doctors appointments and things that would require him to miss the exciting activity. That way he won't know about the trip, but will still know ahead of time he can't do whatever it may be he gets excited about. Sounds like you know your kids well, I hope the surprise is awesome for everyone involved.

Sent from my phone using DISBoards Ap, please excuse any typos and autocorrect mistakes.

 

[traumaqueen]

I got chills reading your post- will you adopt me?

We are surprising our 4 year old with our trip in January at Christmas. My brother lives in Florida and has APs so he is going to go film some face carachters saying "Merry Christmas, you are going to Disneyland!"

As far as getting them ready, we have been watching the free planning DVD they send you. You Tube is also great- my daughter spends hours watching parades and shows from land and world (she is pre-gaming and doesn't even know it!) It is rubbing off because my daycare lady told me she has been asking her friends if they want to go to Disney World with her, lol.

Have fun- it is going to be an amazing surprise, even if it doesn't go exactly as planned, your kids will still remember it forever.