Telling Kids About Disney

[snarlingcoyote]

This is just a question, but why don't parents tell their kids about Disney until right before they go? I get that it's a surprise, but as a kid, I would've been absolutely devastated to find out that my parents had known and been planning the trip for months only to tell me on the way to the airport.

I have always gotten a lot of joy out of planning a vacation. When I was a child, I would count and recount the money I'd saved to spend on vacation. I checked books out of the library and read encyclopdia articles on where we were going. I followed the map marking the route our car would drive and then read up on all the places we would be seeing along the way. I used to read the hotel catalogues and daydream about what our hotel rooms would look like!

My DH says I'm just weird (now about 70% of my fun is in the planning) and that most kids wouldn't care, and I know most kids wouldn't obsessively plan, and that many kids today don't have to earn their own money and save it up for vacations, penny by penny. But still. My own dear relations who are that age would be crushed if they were just sent on a trip with no previous months for the joys of anticipation. . .

Not a slam, honestly! I just do not understand this!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Devastated? Never! I would be thrilled that I was going. It is fun to surprise the kids. There are so few true surprises in life.

 

[Angelhalo]

Some people like giving surprises, some people like getting surprised. Some people don't want to heartheir kids badger them about vacation related things for months on end. Everyone is different.

Granted, we only lived 3 hours from the mouse when we were growing up, but it was still a HUGE thrill when mom would randomly pop into our rooms at like 5am on an out of the blue Saturday and say "I don't know about you guys, but dad and I are going to Disney World! Anyone who wants to join should get up and get moving!" We'd scream with excitement. We knew that even though we lived close, that mom had still put lots of planning into it that we hadn't known about but it sure as heck didn't matter to us. All that mattered was that we were going to Disney World!!!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

This is just a question, but why don't parents tell their kids about Disney until right before they go? I get that it's a surprise, but as a kid, I would've been absolutely devastated to find out that my parents had known and been planning the trip for months only to tell me on the way to the airport.

I have always gotten a lot of joy out of planning a vacation. When I was a child, I would count and recount the money I'd saved to spend on vacation. I checked books out of the library and read encyclopdia articles on where we were going. I followed the map marking the route our car would drive and then read up on all the places we would be seeing along the way. I used to read the hotel catalogues and daydream about what our hotel rooms would look like!

My DH says I'm just weird (now about 70% of my fun is in the planning) and that most kids wouldn't care, and I know most kids wouldn't obsessively plan, and that many kids today don't have to earn their own money and save it up for vacations, penny by penny. But still. My own dear relations who are that age would be crushed if they were just sent on a trip with no previous months for the joys of anticipation. . .

Not a slam, honestly! I just do not understand this!

Well first you have to understand that not everyone likes to plan. Then you have to understand that some people hate it, actually.

Right now for example, my dh and I are so worn down that we would not plan a thing.

I would want to wake up and decide what I want to do at that moment.

Heck it is our 20th anniversary today and we still don't know what we are doing. We are exahusted mentally and we are going to wing it today.

Probably will plan something for the weekend though.

 

[mjkacmom]

My kids loved being surprised the morning we went to WDW. However, they were in the same room when I booked a cruise 10 months out, and never seemed excited - some were actually bummed that they knew so in advance.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids are not into the planning of trips at all. The surprise, for them, was more fun. I can't imagine a child being devastated about a trip to Disney no matter when they were told .

 

[LuvOrlando]

I think it would be fun to surprise my kids if I could manage it. I couldn't do it though. I get so excited that the energy fills the room like a perfume, even my resting state is perky so when I am upset the absence of that 'happy' is just as noticeable and suppression is something I've never mastered I think my children would enjoy it but there is no way I could keep it as a secret... my kids can read me like a book

 

[lovesmurfs]

OP, I totally understand. I learned it in college one time when I told my parents I wasn't coming home for Thanksgiving, and then surprised them by showing up on their doorstep. While the look on my mother's face was priceless (I went to school 12 hours away), she said afterward that the anticipation and preparation for my homecoming is part of the fun of the visit.

We didn't surprise the kids for either of our trips, but for the first one, I found out it was nearly the same price for a limousine as it was for a cab to the airport, so they woke up to find a huge limo in the driveway, stocked with chocolate milk (DD) and energy drinks (DS)! They still talk about it.

 

[design_mom]

My family took a surprise trip to WDW when I was 5, and we took several other trips that I knew about in advance. Our kids have been to WDW several times, but we've never surprised them.

To me -- and I think to my kids -- the anticipation of the trip is part of the fun. They enjoy planning what they want to do, where they want to eat, etc. (DS in particular is not a big fan of surprises, either.)

I would love to surprise them sometime, but it would be "for me," not for them. I would love to see the look on their faces. On the other hand, I'd feel like I was robbing them of part of their fun.

I do understand the draw of a surprise trip -- however, I agree with the OP, that the anticipation is part of the fun for our family.

 

[PollyannaMom]

OP - The surprise thing isn't for me either. Anticipation is definitely part of the fun in our house!

DS would of course still be happy to go, but secretly he would also miss something special he would have packed that I didn't, or worry about hurting his friends feelings by not showing up for some plans he'd made with them, etc.

I also, though I love the initial planning, tend to get a little stressed right before we leave on a trip. DS not knowing why, and "catching" my mood, would make it worse.

 

[blana]

I think it depends on the age of the kids as well. If DC were older, I would have included them in the planning, but at 5 & 2, they don't really get the concept of time yet. So, since they know Christmas is coming, I have to deal with daily questions of WHY it isn't here yet. For our trip, I didn't purposefully surprise them, I just didn't say much about it in front of them. So, the day before they finally figured it out. And were excited enough.

 

[Darcy03231]

When I took my youngest niece (she was 4, almost 5 at the time) we didn't tell her until a week before the trip. It had been booked for about 7 months and we knew she'd drive us all crazy if we told her that far in advance.

When I took her older sister, we didn't tell her until we were on the way to the airport, just so she couldn't lord it over the younger one when having a sibling spat.

 

[lovetoscrap]

We surprised out kids once. But part of the reason we didn't tell them in advance was because we weren't actually sure if we were going to go through on going. We had booked it months in advance but there was some financial/job insecurity and we were afraid we might not go right up until about a week or two before the trip. At that point we figured it would be fun to surprise them. They still talk about "remember when you told us we were going to grandma's and then took us to WDW instead?"

Our first few trips they were really into the planning and anticipation. Now, not so much! This last trip it was like pulling teeth to get them to even talk about what they might want to do, they weren't even that excited about going. Then about 2 weeks before they got excited and started asking to see the maps and picking rides to go on, and we had a great time.

 

[Julylady]

We are taking my two nieces to Disneyland in June. At the request of their parents, we decided not to tell them until a couple of days before the trip. They will be doing Vacation Bible School the week before and their parents don't want them spending that week wishing the time would go faster so that they can go to Disney. They want them to enjoy VBS for what it is.

They have both been to Disneyland before and we just spent a week at Disney World with them last August.

We have never tried to surprise them before so I don't know how it will go. We plan to tell them on Friday night and then leave on Sunday. That will allow Saturday for them to decide what to "pack" and for us to have our pre-trip manicures/pedicures (a tradition for our family). The other surprise is that a favorite cousin will be joining us. He is older though and can keep a secret (I hope!).

I have mixed feelings about keeping it secret. I personally would HATE to be surprised like this. I am also worried about taking a six year old away from her parents for a week with so little notice. But her parents think it will be fine. Time will tell!

 

[HOGFAN]

never surprised the kids but got tired of them asking 'how many days?'over and over especially by the little one who couldnt read. I had the idea of making a paper chain equal to the number of days left. hung it up and each child took turns cutting off a link. that way they got an idea how many days were left and were thrilled as the chain got shorter and shorter.