We aren't telling the kids

[kitntrip]

Tell them you're going to Dick's house!! Of course, they may really want to go to dick's house and would not want to go to Disney. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Watch this youtube video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW9OvrSKRdM

seriously, my heart would break if my kids reacted like that lol

 

[CrazyDuck]

Tell them you're going to Dick's house!! Of course, they may really want to go to dick's house and would not want to go to Disney. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Watch this youtube video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW9OvrSKRdM

seriously, my heart would break if my kids reacted like that lol

I saw that video before! Hilaroius! Although, Now I kinda wanna go to Dick's house too!

 

[MrsPinup]

On the last trip when we surprised our son's (7 and 6) we waited till we were in the car. Since we leave around midnight-1am to make the drive from Nor Cal to DL (in time for opening!) the kids are pretty much asleep for the first half of the drive. When they woke up we had a present for each of them sitting at their feet. This last trip the present had a new Disney shirt, a memory book to record details about their trip, and a scavenger hunt book to do while we were at the park. It had things they had to find and then glue to the pages, or draw, or people/characters to find and get their autographs, etc. Our son's were super excited!

 

[purplecrush]

I surprised my two kids DS13 and DD11 last summer. We told them we were going to San Francisco and they were Ok about it. Well, I made these cute pop up books that when you open them, Mickey Mouse's head popped out and it said "Surprise, were going to Disneyland"...I also made pockets, where I put a Disney giftcard , and two Maps, one of each park ( that my friend brought from DL the week before). We left our house at 6pm so we can drive all night. We got to San Fran around 2pm and checked in to our hotel and slept for 5 hours lol...I had originally planned to tell them the next morning when we left at 7 am to drive to DL, but I couldnt contain my excitment! I woke up around 7pm and made alot of noise to wake them up..with no luck! I was getting upset lol..so finally I woke them up and gave them their books! I started jumping up and down, and they just sat there..........speechless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My son didnt know what to say, and my daughter started crying!!!!!!

I will never forget the look on their faces!!! I love surprising them!!

This year, we arent surprising them...its TOO hard to not blow it lol

 

[erikamj]

These are some great ideas! Before we get to Disney we are going to visit a friend of ours in Phoenix for the weekend. The kids are going to be missing one week of school as well and we have told their teachers about this trip and they are keeping it quiet as well. Part of this trip is we are going down to Legoland after doing disney. My daughters teacher was in Lego land during Christmas and she brought back some admission coupons for us. She gave them to my daughter and told her to pass them to us, my daughter handed them to us without even asking why we might be interested in them.

 

[davidsprincess]

We are surprising the kids in our group with a video. I did up a video with music and pictures from our last couple of trips. We will ask the kids to watch this video that I did up and let me know what they think of it and what changes I could do to it.
After the fireworks portion it mentions the kid's names and says "Let the memories begin, May 12-19 2011. Now go get ready, we leave in an hour, love your parents".

The kids are going to be shocked. We have them convinced that we are going to go in 3 years!! It will be a first visit for 3 of the kids, so I expect some screaming to happen when they realise what is going on.

 

[disneymama83]

We are surprising the kids in our group with a video. I did up a video with music and pictures from our last couple of trips. We will ask the kids to watch this video that I did up and let me know what they think of it and what changes I could do to it.
After the fireworks portion it mentions the kid's names and says "Let the memories begin, May 12-19 2011. Now go get ready, we leave in an hour, love your parents".

The kids are going to be shocked. We have them convinced that we are going to go in 3 years!! It will be a first visit for 3 of the kids, so I expect some screaming to happen when they realise what is going on.

This is really cool. Be sure to let us know how it went

 

[Sweet Melissa]

My parents surprised me when I was five. They told me we were going to visit a relative in San Diego. I napped in the car and had no clue where we were going until I woke up in the Disneyland parking lot. I'll never forget how thrilled I was.

 

[baby_blu]

We leave Feb 3rd for a 5 day visit (but it takes a travel day there and back from where we are). Our daughter, 4, has never been to DL before (I was there 20 years ago, so may as well be MY first visit!). We're telling her we're going to Seattle for our holiday on a big boat. lol. We are flying out of SEA and we're hoping that we don't have to tell her where we're going until the very last minute possible, with the hopes that we don't have to say anything until we get to the HoJo, since she'll pretty much figure it out when we get to the hotel. Only thing is, she's a typical 4 yo smartie pants and knows that you have to take a plane to get to DL, so we may end up having to surprise her at the airport, but we'll see...

I have an envelope with an "invitation" from Mickey Mouse and Dumbo (those are the characters that phone her at home apparently lol) with some Disney stickers inside. We're hoping to wait until that last minute to give her the invite.

Three more sleeps to go!!! Can't wait and the suspense of telling her is killing me! haha.

 

[vew-tori]

We surprised DD (then 12) last year with a trip to WDW for spring break. DH had been ill and off work for over a month. He knew he was going to be released to travel the day she got out of school. We planned the trip in about a week. She thought we were going bowling until she saw the bags in the car. She guessed FL (her grandparents were there) and WDW right away.

She was actually a little mad that we surprised her. Don't get me wrong she was excited but she explained that part of the fun was all the anticipation and planning. I really get that . This trip we are planning together. She has never been to CA.

I'm thinking of surprising her and DH with Walk in Walt's footsteps tour. Gotta love a surprise .

 

[clairabell29]

We suprised my DS (then 4) with a trip to DL last year. We told him the week before that after his basketball game on Saturday, we were going to have a Mommy/son day and his little brother was spending the day with daddy. He was really excited to have time with just mom.

After his basketball practice I told him he and I were going to the zoo, but we had to drop daddy and his little brother off first. We drove to the airport and told him that daddy and DS2 were going to spend the day watching airplanes take off and land.

He had to go potty so I took him in the airport. As we were walking back, daddy had the video camera running. I knelt down and said, "I have something to tell you. We're not going to the zoo, and daddy and your brother aren't here to watch airplanes." He looked really confused. "How would you like to go to Disneyland with mommy for 5 days, right now?" His first reaction was, "Do we have to?" Then I said, "Well, only if you want to." Then it started to kick in and it was a rambling of "Really?! I'm going to DL! Thank you mommy thank you!" Then "Wait what about my clothes?" That's when I opened the trunk and showed him we had everything packed and ready, along with suprise Mickey Ears for both of us.

It was a fun suprise and one he's never forgot!

Oh, when we got back, he asked his dad if they had fun watching the airplanes all those days we were gone!

 

[BELLEDOZER]

Well we suprised the kids yesterday, and they were more upset about not going to the Gulf Islands, and it took us until we were at the border before they realized that we were serious, and slowly warmed up to the idea of going to DL. We are currently in Medford Or, and are heading down to Santa Nella tomorrow, on our way to visit the mouse. My older son understood why I did it, but he was still pretty annoyed with me over it.

 

[brookies_mommy]

Reading all of these makes me really sad I didn't get to surprise DD like I wanted

 

[misty7260]

We are going the first part of May. We are going to drive, from Idaho, so we decided to go through Ut and NV. I told the girls we are going to Las Vegas, they picked our hotel already, we are staying at the Excalibur, then we are going to get up on Sat. and drive to DL. We have decided to tell them we are going to DL, when we get to the hotel, we are staying at DLH, so it should be fun. It will be dd's birthday so we are planning lots of fun stuff for that including gift baskets at the hotel and a birthday party from Mickey in our room. I can't hardly wait, and not telling them is about killing me.

 

[tkitty]

We are leaving this Weds. from the Phoenix area for a quick DL trip, DGM(me), GDP, DD, and the grandkids 4 & 9. This time we wanted to surprise them. We told the 9 year old that we are going to take his gandpa to Ca. to pick up a truck for someone (he drives truck), and grandma didn't want to drive home alone. On Fri., SIL told DGS's school that he would be missing 2 days and happened to tell school it was for a trip to DL. (didn't want to lie to school) DGS, who was in the nurses office at the time heard this, so mom and dad told him that they had to tell the school something... and why would we be going to DL again, when we had gone twice last year!!!
Now we are thinking of ways to tell them:
Down the road a ways we can tell some jokes, "Knock knock", "who's there?" "We're going to...", "We're going to... who?" "WE"RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND"!l
Maybe make some homemade fortune cookies with one that says "We're going to Disneyland"
Also was trying to use a treasure map to map our route and just put an X for DL.
DH just says to let them figure it out for themselves when we pull into HOJO's Which they've been to for DL.
DGS9 may not like to be surprised, he likes to have everything planned out, but he may guess before we suprise him after hearing the "spill" at school.
I hope to get it on video!
Always wanted to surprise them, we'll see how it goes.

 

[AlexJanessa]

Well we suprised the kids yesterday, and they were more upset about not going to the Gulf Islands, and it took us until we were at the border before they realized that we were serious, and slowly warmed up to the idea of going to DL. We are currently in Medford Or, and are heading down to Santa Nella tomorrow, on our way to visit the mouse. My older son understood why I did it, but he was still pretty annoyed with me over it.

Oh dear... that's definitely not how you wanted them to react is it?! Well, I hope the excitement keeps building as you go along. Gulf Islands vs Disneyland...? I just can't imagine them being disappointed! I guess they had gotten excited over that and they need the time to adjust to the new plans.

I hope you have a wonderful time!!

 

[chrissiecutie]

We leave Feb 3rd for a 5 day visit (but it takes a travel day there and back from where we are). Our daughter, 4, has never been to DL before (I was there 20 years ago, so may as well be MY first visit!). We're telling her we're going to Seattle for our holiday on a big boat. lol. We are flying out of SEA and we're hoping that we don't have to tell her where we're going until the very last minute possible, with the hopes that we don't have to say anything until we get to the HoJo, since she'll pretty much figure it out when we get to the hotel. Only thing is, she's a typical 4 yo smartie pants and knows that you have to take a plane to get to DL, so we may end up having to surprise her at the airport, but we'll see...

I have an envelope with an "invitation" from Mickey Mouse and Dumbo (those are the characters that phone her at home apparently lol) with some Disney stickers inside. We're hoping to wait until that last minute to give her the invite.

Three more sleeps to go!!! Can't wait and the suspense of telling her is killing me! haha.

I did this too! For DS's 1st visit a few years ago, I had a special invitation that I had made for him. It had a picture of Mickey outside his house in Toontown and it said, "Welcome to Disneyland". Mickey also sent DS a special t-shirt to wear for his 1st day that said, "My 1st visit".

At the end of our trip, when we got back to the hotel there was also a special Mickey Mouse stuffed animal and a nice "thank you for visiting" card from Mickey and the Gang.

And I ALWAYS mail DS a postcard on our last day. Of course it's from Mickey and Friends and tells DS how much they enjoyed his visit and "gosh, they hope to see him again real soon!".