When and how to tell our 5 year old

[sponica]

I don't have the mentality to pull off a surprise.

But they are also impossible to pull off when we have a dog to board and missing a day of school. Pretty sure a dead giveaway that something is up would be the dog not coming home from daycare and then a car service pulling in the next AM.

 

[JoyfulHeart]

You would be surprised at what they don't pick up on. We surprised my 2 girls at the time 3 & 5. They knew we were going on vacation just not to Disney. We drove and left early stopped an stayed at a hotel an then left in the morning for the last 5 hours. We told them it was Disney once the billboards started. They did guess places along the way. If they had known it was Disney they wouldn't have slept. As in case when we went last year ( girls now 7 & 9) and knew we were going and we left at *shutter* 4am and they never went back to sleep and we drove till we got to Disney. So the next morning was a tiny bit rough. If I could, I would not tell them we were going to Disney, but they heard DH on the phone for our trip in June, so I doubt we will sleep again....YAY!

 

[CamillaF]

Our soon to be 9 year old twins are going for Halloween. We are giving them choices of wear to trick or treat with the last one being Disney World!!!! Bags will be packed and we will be leaving for the airport.

 

[lostprincess_danie]

A friend recently took her young children. She told them it was a trip to the beach. They drove and stopped one night at the beach on the way to Orlando. Before leaving home she snuck a "First Disney Trip" shirt unto each of their bags. When they opened their bags at their one night stay at the beach they saw the shirts.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

We surprised both our girls who were 5 and 7 at the time (they turned 6 and 8 while we were at Disney) and it was SO HARD to keep it a secret, but it was worth it. We woke them up early pretending like it was just a normal school day but said we had to go do something before school started, which was why we were waking up so early.

Then we recorded their reactions:

 

[PollyannaMom]

We surprised both our girls who were 5 and 7 at the time (they turned 6 and 8 while we were at Disney) and it was SO HARD to keep it a secret, but it was worth it. We woke them up early pretending like it was just a normal school day but said we had to go do something before school started, which was why we were waking up so early.

Then we recorded their reactions:

That is precious!!!

I love the difference in their reactions, too - how the 5-year-old just went with it immediately, but the 7-year-old was more suspicious, and then it slowly dawned on her that it was actually real.

 

[CamillaF]

That is precious!!!

I love the difference in their reactions, too - how the 5-year-old just went with it immediately, but the 7-year-old was more suspicious, and then it slowly dawned on her that it was actually real.

That is fantastic!

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

The 7 year old was still in shock when we landed in Florida

 

[AliceNDinah]

So ever since we left last June, I've been hankering to get back to that beautiful area. I booked a trip for August, just me and my "little" boy (he turns 10 in May, so he is actually a Disney adult, which I can't wrap my head around). Anyway, he has NO idea this trip is happening. I wanted to do a mother/son trip before he turns into a teenager who won't want to do anything with me Can anyone help me plot out how to surprise him? I can totally keep the secret until then (August 14th, can't wait!!!), and thought about taking it all the way up until we get to the airport that day. My sister is a flight attendant for Delta, and I thought to maybe say that she needs a ride home from the airport or something might do.....my husband will be dropping us off. I would welcome any kind of suggestions! My son knew about all our planning and whatnot last summer, but this year I would love to surprise him. Thank you!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I booked a trip for August, just me and my "little" boy (he turns 10 in May, so he is actually a Disney adult, which I can't wrap my head around)...I wanted to do a mother/son trip before he turns into a teenager who won't want to do anything with me Can anyone help me plot out how to surprise him?...

I love that!!!

I would kind of play the summer by ear. If he seems to be making a lot of plans with friends, you might want to arrange the actual surprise to be a little ahead of the trip itself. (I've heard of kids getting upset about missing things they'd planned, or feeling guilty about not having tome to explain. - But you know your kid, and when a text might be just fine! )

If you determine that it will not be a problem to do it spur-of-the-moment, I think your idea about "picking up your sister" will work great, as long as you can sneak the luggage into the car without him realizing it. Once you get there, you can just say: "You know, since we're here, how'd you like to take a trip?" and then maybe pull a Mickey T-shirt out of your purse and toss it to him or something?

 

[Darcy03231]

I took my niece when she was 4, almost 5. We told her a week before. It was enough time for her to get really excited and have a "countdown," but not so long that she drove us all nuts.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Just saw Disney Parks Blog post this:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1520794935166914561

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...on-gift-bundle/?CMP=SOC-DPFY22Q3wo0428220031A

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We've done a trip for every 5th birthday in our family, so our youngest has known there would be a trip all along. And yes - she has asked every day for nearly a year when we are going to her 'birthday party' (which is what she calls our trip). While I would have liked to manage some surprise here, it has also been super fun watching her get excited and help with some planning. I do have a few surprises up my sleeves, but she has loved helping pick what rides she wants to go on.

 

[CherishL]

Thank y’all so much for the responses! I am thinking about surprising her for her birthday in Aug. she loves surprises! I appreciate all of your input!

 

[tinkerjo]

I love surprises but we are a planning kinda family and I think when my kids were little they would have been disappointed to have been kept out of the planning stages. Even at a young age, they would watch the Disney planning DVDs and talk about what they wanted to do when they got there. I would at least give her a couple weeks to mentally prepare. While the video above is absolutely precious, I have also read posts that their kids just didn’t handle it the way they thought they would.

 

[Jacq7414]

I never kept it a surprise. We just told her. I liked how she was so excited to go and counted down

 

[Wayland10]

When we took my then 4 and 7 year olds we had a whole elaborate scenario- we were visiting my parents a few weeks before Christmas, and I secretly had Disney backpacks ready to go. We were going to visit my sister “to help decorate her tree” and then when we arrived she was going to say “I’ve decided it’s too early for a tree- how about Disney World instead?” And then off to the airport! My mom was SO excited.

On the way out of my parents’ house my dad called back to me to be sure not to forget the Disney World tickets. Oops.

Still an awesome trip.