teen to school age

[laurcolmeg]

My family of 5 is going to Disney 12/31-1/9 for the first time....yahoo! I am looking for your expert advice on balancing interests of a 14 yr old girl, 12 yr old boy and a 9 yr old girl....They don't know we are going as it is a Christmas gift for them...we will only have 5 days to discuss sight seeing strategies together as a family before we go so I would love some suggestions prior to sitting down with them to set our itinerary.
Wish me luck on keeping this SECRET!!! I am dying to tell them and fearful of slipping...
Shirley
P.S. any suggestions on the presentation under the Christmas tree? There will be much less presents under the tree this year but I still want to make it a fun present opening experience...I am trying to come up with a treasure hunt type of thing...any suggestions?

 

[TNT21]

I can't give you much advice on planning strategies, but as far as Christmas gifts.....

What about: Disney Dollars, Disney themed t-shirts ( if they aren't "too old" for that!) , autograph books, glow necklaces to wear at night or during the fireworks, princess tattoos for the girls, journal and cool pens to write in during the trip....

These are some of the things I took with for my 9 yr old (girl)
on our first trip earlier this month.
Have fun!!

 

[DiaDeGuadalupe]

The treasure hunt is such a neat idea, and I've seen a couple of threads floating around regarding this topic.

If you don't want your kids to know right away that it's a Disney trip, have the first couple of gifts be filled with "travel essentials" like travel sized toothpaste, shampoo, etc. Then you can move on to sunglasses, sunscreen..... then Disney Dollars, t-shirts, maybe a copy of the travel itinerary? The kids will be thrilled no matter what you decide

Were' surprising the kids with a trip before Christmas, so all we're going to say is that we'rew packing to go "somewhere", and the older one will know once we get to the airport. The little one will have no clue until we get to the World. We're doing a 3 night cruise, too, and for that, neither of the kids will know until we get to the Port!

 

[AmoDolphin]

One thing (as far as presents) you could do is find a Disney brocure (with faces), cut out the faces, put pictures of their face in it, and frame it. Then you could put the tickets in the back. I mean, I know that you have 3 kids, but it might work for one.
Edit: this is the way that my mom told me that I was going to Discovery Cove. Also, my mom suprised our family by saying that we were going to Christmas Village.

 

[golfgal]

I don't have any suggestions as to what to do, this will be our first trip with kids, too, but what we are doing for Christmas is giving each of the 3 kids a suitcase (which they will need for the trip), a toy airplane of somesort and something Disney, all wrapped separatly, and then see how long it takes them to figure out what is going on. We are giving the trip to them for Christmas, but won't be going until the end of May.

 

[zurgswife]

My kids are dd13, ds12, ds11, dd7.....the older kids all love the thrill rides, Millionare, and some of the shows...