What do you do to build excitement for an upcoming trip?

[marypoppins18]

We leave for our next trip Sept 18. In the upcoming months, on the 18th, I'd like to do something special to help countdown the months, build excitement/anticipation, etc. I was thinking of special meals, activities, little toys. Do you all have any ideas? I have a 19 year old son (whose been there several times) and a 6 year old daughter whose last time there was when she turned 3, and a boyfriend who has never been there. I think I'm the most excited though. What kinds of fun things do you all do?

 

[CarrieAP]

Given the age of my girls- now 5 and 8- I more need to rein in the excitement. We become way too Disney obsessed for months before our trips. The little one has little concept of time and just can't understand why we don't leave tomorrow! I would think your 6-year old would feel similarly. Teenage sons though are tough to figure out and so much of their mood is influenced by what is going on in their life. My sister and her 3 teens are joining us for half our trip and it is hard to get them fixated on the trip yet. Her oldest is 19 (as of today in fact) and he is really psyched about the trip as it marks the end of his first year away at college. He will be ready for some fun and relaxation as he states college has sucked the life right out of him.

Sounds like you may need to hit these boards a lot and share your excitement with those of us who can really relate!

 

[lenshanem]

We make countdown paper chains. I cut the strips out and have my 6 and 3 year old decorate them with Disney stickers, crayons and markers. I also have my 6 year old write the numbers on the links. (It helps her with her numbers.) We do this a couple weeks before otherwise the chain is too long and it loses their interest.

We have also gone to Disney online and made calenders from there. We taped them to the fridge and put stickers on the days as we were counting them down. You can pick fav characters to use for your calender before you print it out.

 

[vmkids]

I buy little Dinsey stuff to keep me in the mood and store it away for surprise bags each day we are there. Then we also like to take down food (we stay in kitchen suites type hotels) so I buy food in Dinsey packages. My kids love to see the Duisney goodies they are going to get to eat on vacation. (do not buy such things as fruit snacks, juices, candy etc normally) MY kids are 16, 15 and 13 and they love the whole Disney excitement. You can get Dinsey information books (buy or from the library) leave them out for them to look through while they eat etc and before you know it they are soooo impressed about what they know! Makes it more exciting for everybody.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

I tend to get very Disney obsessed in the months before a trip!! My kids are young, 6, 3, and 7 months. To help build the excitement and also give them a sense of how long until the trip, I made a countdown calendar similar to those chocolate Advent calendars you see at Christmas time. I drew a map of The Magic Kingdom. Then, I printed off pictures of some of their favorite attractions and characters and glued them in the correct places around the map. Then, I taped a piece of wrapped candy on top of each and wrote a # on the wrapper. Each night, we would count down by finding the next numbered candy and finding the picture underneath and talking about it. The kids absolutely loved this idea, and I had so much fun making it!! Plus, the kids got yummy treats each night.

 

[dsnycrzy]

Funny this would be a thread.
I am making count down calendars now. Just took a break and decided to visit you guys. My clan is older, the youngest (who knows what's going on) is 8, so the waiting is something we have learned how to deal with. Her what I did. Must mention it is time consuming but I love it anyway. I went to the dollar store and bought some disney stickers, 6 poster boards, glitter, glue and big clear tape.

since we have about 100 days (90 starting on the 2nd), i made the poster board a giant calendar for may june and july. They know we are going in august but They don't know the day. . I copied some disney dollars (1, 5 and a 10) our old park tickets, our train tickets (blacked out the dates on the copies), our hotel cover, a picture of an amtrak train, our US tickets and downloaded some clips off of a disney clip art site and I was ready to go. I used the big tape to laminate whatever i had hanging off the poster. but everything else I taped in different places all over the calendar. I used some contruction paper to make a pouch to hold the stickers and they put one on every day. It's really cute and fun. The kids help cut out things and glittering stuff. I can't wait until that calendar in full myself.

 

[DisKim]

I am planning to start having Disney movie nights every Friday night until we leave. It will be fun to revisit all of the classic movies we love.

 

[AspiringCindy]

We start playing the movie Sing-A-Longs that have live characters like: Camping out at WDW, Beach Party(BB,TL &River Country), Animal Kingdom! Also, I make Mickey waffles every Sunday with my MM Waffle maker! Another thing we do is take out the few Mickey Soaps/shampoo from our last visit, and the kids use that the last week or two before our trip!

 

[MickeyMoller]

When my sister and I took her two children (ages 7 and 9) last year I sent them letters from the Disney Characters. I started about three weeks before we left and sent one every other day. For instance, we were able to book Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast, so I sent them a letter in "fancy" font type that was written by Cinderella inviting them to meet her friends at breakfast. We stayed at the Toy Story building, so they got letters from Buzz and Woody saying they had heard they were coming and were excited to meet them, done in a western and space type fonts. It was a kick to write them, and my sister said that since the kids don't usually get a lot of mail, they were thrilled. It really made them excited for the trip. My niece thanked Cinderella for the letter and invitation to breakfast when we saw her. Cinderella was excellent and played right along by saying she was so glad that my niece had been able to attend. It was wonderful.

Shari

 

[marypoppins18]

All excellent ideas! Thank you. I plan on doing some type of countdown chain or calendar. My daughter loves that kind of thing. I also have the Mickey waffle iron so will probably use that too. I can't wait to go. I'm so excited!!!!

 

[HollyJoy]

Wow! Lot's of great ideas here! I thought about having them make hand-decorated Tshirts to wear there... Disney Theme, of course. A friend of mine had her kids do this, and they got comment after comment from CM's and characters! Made the kids day! You could start playing Disney songs around the house. I know there are several really good ones out there!

Holly

 

[Stitch Inside]

These are some great ideas. We've been playing the sing along videos and such. But my DS (5) broke my heart the other day. I asked him if was getting excited (cause I've been that way for 2 months now) and he answered, "No, he's already been there (done that)."

 

[lenshanem]

But my DS (5) broke my heart the other day. I asked him if was getting excited (cause I've been that way for 2 months now) and he answered, "No, he's already been there (done that)."

Oh, yes. I can relate. My 6 year old has told me that, too. Actually, we just bought into DVC last year so she doesn't have much of a choice now. We already have numerous trips planned with our AP - June, July with my parents, brother and girls, then again next spring break. My husband and I are going in February for our anniversary without them. I'll be curious to see if they act upset.
After that I think we'll take a long break. I think we will have sufficiently worked our AP to it's full advantage. Go to VB, HH, bank our points, whatever. But I think I'm totally burning them out.

For the two summers trips I have planned lots of new things - Wonderland Tea Party, Family Tour, Luau, Fireworks Cruise. Trying to add some new things in for them. I think we'll spend more time back at the pool, too.

 

[dislady]

My son is 4 y.o. and has no concept of time. We created a large calendar out of 4 pieces of contruction paper, cut out colored squares, and placed disney stickers on the top. Every day he puts a white sticker (paper reinforcer) on a square. We started with 100 days and now we are down to eight. I get just as excited, especially when we miss a couple of days and have to put a couple on. This has been a wonderful countdown for us

Jen

 

[sweet maxine]

Hey everyone!

I would love to know where you found a Mickey Mouse waffle maker! My grandson would love to be able to have Mickey waffles in the morning (or anytime!). I forgot to check at Target the last time I was there, and since it is about 2 hours away I just have to wait until next time. I have checked Wal Mart here with no luck. Did you maybe find this somewhere in WDW? Thanks for any help in directing me where to look.

Raining again here in Mississippi.

 

[Karalea]

One of the main things I have been doing to build excitement for our September trip is watch Disney movies. I get them for free at our local library. Since I don't have any children, some of them I haven't seen since I was a child-25 years ago.

I also make more trips to the local Disney Store. I've been picking up little toys & clothes for myself and my nephews to have on the trip.

 

[Amirah95]

My husband and I have decided to keep our next Disney trip a secret from our 8 year old daughter. We're giving her a suprise since she is doing so well in school. The excitment for us has started and we both want to tell her so bad but we are building it up until the day we leave...wish us luck to keep our mouths shut! LOL

 

[lenshanem]

http://disney.go.com/magicartist/calendars/index.html

I had mentioned this earlier in the post. We've made these in the past along with the countdown chains.

Today we made calendars. They turned out great! Better than I remember form our last trip cause if you choose one of the classic characters there is Mickey head clipart you can cut and paste into your calendar for your trip dates!

I printed them on cardstock and used a sharpie to count the days backwards. We have star stickers to put on it each day. I'm getting excited! Got it taped up on one of the kitchen cabinets!