What do you do to get your kids excited?

[shoppie]

What do you do to get your kids pumped up for Disney??

We are under 80 days.....

 

[kmb584]

"We're going to Disney!" works well for DD.

 

[JosieMouse]

I include them in the planning. We watch Ride videos all the time.

 

[bweagle]

Booking the trip pretty much does it in this house. But they've been there before. We also like to watch one of our older planning videos that the kids really like, the disneyland sing-along video and lots of disney movies leading up (but honestly we'd watch all those things even if we didn't have a trip coming up....hahaha )

 

[minnie mum]

Your kids aren't excited about going to WDW? I must admit that we never had that problem. Just telling them that we were going was enough to have mine practically bouncing off the walls.

I also have to say that I wouldn't try to force the issue, if they don't seem overjoyed at the prospect. In my experience with relatives who weren't the rabid Disney fans that we are, you can't "make" someone excited. Trying too hard to sell it can have the opposite effect and turn them right off.

 

[kla]

Last time, we stayed at AS Movies, so we tried to watch every Disney movie that was represented there. Also had a Disney/Pixar family movie countdown (2 each week until we launched!) so my younger son would be familiar with characters he was likely to encounter.

We also love watching ride vids on YouTube like JosieMouse. This time I'm keeping the new Fantasyland rides a secret

 

[MommaBerd]

We make a countdown chain. Also, Disney makes science videos on topics like motion, energy, and several others I can't think of right now. They always highlight one or two rides to demonstrate the scientific concept. My kids LOVE these! (Call us nerds!) check and see if your library has them. I just looked them up on Google and the videos are called "the science of Disney Imagineering". They seem to have some clips on YouTube, as well.

Also, I don't know if you have been before, but we like to start talking about our favorite rides, memories, or whatever from the last time we were there. If your kids haven't been there, you could just talk about what it was like for you to go as a child. You could make a "Disney question of the day" for dinner time, and ask things like: Who is your favorite Disney character? Or even better, whoat Disney character is your brother/sister/mother/father most like? If you could ride one ride all day long, which one would you pick? What is one thing you are looking forward to most on our trip? Etc. It doesn't have to dominate your conversation all the time, just enough to get the happy thoughts flowing!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[jm106]

We know all kids(big and small) are really excited but its fun to add to the anticipation.

We do movie nights.
I did a count down chain and had a Disney fact, trivia on each link. Started at 100, some were simple some we all learned something cool.
Look through past trip photos- I did a slide show on our TV and a mini video collection. I did a few side by side pics of ids on same ride a few years apart. I had yds on Carousel at 11 months then at 3 years old.
Made mickey Tshirts with spray bottle and bleach
Ride videos and blogs about the parks, planning meals.
Plan which characters they want to meet.
I tell the kids our plans as if I am telling a story, they love it.

 

[stamot]

We do movie night once a week. We pick Classic Disney movie from our collection. We play Disney trivia board game. Also we watched a lot of youtube videos.

 

[SEA333]

We surprise our kids the morning we leave. They get pretty excited about the fact that we are going anywhere, usually...so announcing we are going to Disney in 15 minutes pretty much puts them over the moon.

 

[smola09's mom]

Our kids are teenagers. We had a fast pass planning party with their 2 friends going with us on vacation. Everyone got a Mickey shirt in a goody bag, we used Mickey plates, tablecloth, etc. and covered the dining room in Disney plushes. I even played the Aladdin soundtrack. Everyone really had fun and now all four of them have countdowns on their phones.