When Did You Tell Your Kids and How?

[Frozen2014]

We are coming Oct 19th and are still haven't told our kids yet (otherwise, they'll be constantly asking 'how many days?'...esp our little one). It does make FP selection challenging, since I cannot just show them the ride and ask 'do you think you'll want to go on this'? Never the less, am thinking we'll tell them end of the summer. They are going crazy!

We're thinking of either saying we have a DVD to watch after dinner, and popping in the Disney planning DVD. Or as another optoin...my son already has a daily calendar, but I'd like to get my 5 year old a calendar anyways so she can cross off a day each morning and see how many more days until our trip. So am thinking we could get my son to help her fill out the calendar, entering for example 'First day of school', xx's birthday, etc. And low and behold, when they get to Oct 19th, he'll see "DISNEY!" written.

When did you tell your kids, and how?

 

[ErinsMommy]

I can barely hold myself together for Christmas to see DD's excitement , so when we book Disney we've told her right away.

 

[KB'sMom]

We've taken the kids twice. The first year we told them on DD's birthday which was 2 days before we left. The second time we told them when we woke them at 4 am to leave for the airport. Went into DD's room (she was 6 at the time) and asked quietly if she wanted to get up and go to Disneyworld - I've never seen a kid wake up so quickly and thoroughly - it was awesome!

 

[mamalocke]

We arrive 09/15. We haven't told the kids (dd7 & ds5) yet, and won't until about a week or two out.

We plan on telling them by having them open a "parcel that just arrived" with their Mickey and Minnie ears in them, t-shirts, autograph books, helium Disney balloons and a sign that says "Surprise! We are going to Disney!"

It has been hard to keep it a secret though!

 

[starsweeper]

We had taken our two 7yos when they were 2yo and 3yo. For those trips, we just old them we were going a few weeks out.

Our trip last October was our first in 4 years and with our two toddlers. I decided to make it a surprise. DH has family in FL and they knew we would be visiting them for fall break. The older kids asked about Disney since they knew we'd be driving through Orlando, but I said we couldn't visit Disney after going to the Outer Banks in June. With each billboard on the way over to Orlando, they wished they could go to Disney. About 20 minutes before reaching our hotel, I handed a bag to each kid with a custom pumpkin Mickey shirt, glow sticks, Disney stickers, etc. and announced we were spending the next 4 days at Disney. They were shocked--so fun!

 

[rdearth]

In the past, we just told our daughter immediately (she would have been 3 to 6 at that time). Even though she had been before, she really wasn't one to keep bugging us about when we would go. She's a super bright kid, but at that age, the exact "when" just didn't totally register with her. She just knew it was sometime in the future and was cool with it.

This year, we have kept it a secret. We've told her we're going on a vacation in Southern Georgia that doesn't have a lot of stuff for kids to do. We plan on picking her up from school at 2:15 and having her younger brother (4) tell her when she gets in the car.

We're about 16 hours away, so this will ideally give her a full day of excitement and might make the long drive more enjoyable for her.

My son has no concept of any of it even if we told him.

 

[abmitch01]

our first trip, I told them by putting putting a word scramble in a Disney box and wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree. They had to unscramble the words "we are going to Disney". My son read it as "we are going to Denny's" and was jumping up and down. When I corrected him and said try again and they figured out Disney, then they were really jumping up and down.

 

[Aurora0427]

We are taking DD3 for the third time this December. She was two on her first trip. We told her when we booked it, but she didn't really get it until we arrived. Second trip she was 2.5. We told her a few weeks before we left just casually- She was excited!

This trip we are not telling her where we are going until we arrive at MCO. She's going to FREAK, because even now she asks me about once a week "When can we go back to Disney World?" In fact, yesterday she asked me if we could go on Sunday. LOL

I think the most exciting part for me is going to be telling her where we are going at the airport. It makes me grin just thinking about it!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

On our first trip, we bummed rushed our daughter's room in the morning, grabbed a Cinderella shirt and told her she needed to wear it that day because WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY.

Yeah. That kinda flopped. LOL. She was pretty shocked at first, but then got excited later after it kicked in. Our son wasn't even two at the time, so he had no clue what was going on...he just got excited because she got excited.

For our subsequent trips, we didn't surprise them and instead planned the trips as a family. Except for the super secret surprise trip we have planned for later this month. They have no idea we're going. Our plan is to tell them the night before, so they can have some input into packing and such. This will be trip number 4 (for my son) and 5 (for my daughter) so they're Disney vets at this point and they both have their own ideas about what needs to be taken and worn.

Anyway, because we're going for the Frozen stuff, I made up an "invitation" from Elsa that I'm planning to have my daughter find stuck in the door when we got home that afternoon. Hopefully this goes over differently than our last surprise reveal. LOL.

 

[litlemermaid183]

We also arrive for the first day at the parks on Oct. 19th which also happens to be my younger sisters 14th birthday. She'll be in Florida visiting her grandma - while we're also in Florida, so on the 18th we'll be coming to visit them also and she doesn't know it yet but we'll be taking her with us to Disney World for two days! I'm trying to keep it a secret until the day we take her as a nice big birthday surprise, but it's so hard!

 

[mmbrad02]

My little girl will be almost four when we go, but when we booked, she was 3.5 and we were struggling with potty training. So we told her we were going to see Mickey but he didn't allow pull ups so she had to be able to wear her panties all day.

It worked! She doesn't really have a sense of time yet (a day verses a week verses 4 months) but she was eager to see Mickey and everyone else. Like some others, I am so excited myself that I couldn't keep it a secret in our house, but I do think keeping it a secret sounds like a lot of fun!

We are going to make a 30 day count down to get our little girl excited again

 

[kitkat4622]

I am taking my grandson on "our" first trip to Disney on October 8th. He thinks we are going to Georgia so here is my plan for October 7th....
A package arrives for him and inside is some gifts I bought:

Photo album
Photo frame
pajama pants
t' shirt....

Under the gifts will be a balloon the will rise out of the box with a sign that says "Your Meme is taking you to Disneyworld tomorrow"

my camera will be recording the whole thing....I have contained my excitement since March when I booked the trip....it's been so hard...but will so be worth the look on his face.

 

[jhoannam]

We haven't told our girls (3 & 6). Well, I tell them about once a week that we are going and immediately followed by "just kidding".
DH wants to wait until the morning of but I want to tell them on the 30 day mark.

 

[markmcalear]

Our first Disney trip was Xmas 2012.

We had told the kids we were going to Mexico and that we were just gonna lay on a beach all day every day. They were not too keen on that.

The evening before we left from UK we told them that we couldnt go to Mexico now and that we had decided to go to Disney World.

They completely freaked out. It was a great moment

 

[Frozen2014]

We haven't told our girls (3 & 6). Well, I tell them about once a week that we are going and immediately followed by "just kidding".
DH wants to wait until the morning of but I want to tell them on the 30 day mark.

My DH too...but for me, I like the excitement of knowing the trip is coming. And want them to have time to be excited.

Sounds like a lot of you wait late.

 

[pixiepowered5]

We have not told our DD 5 and DS 6 anything...nada. They would have driven us CRAZY with the "how much longer". We are driving from GA to WDW on 9/14. When we wake them early that morning we are saying we are going to the beach (we are staying at BC). When we pull into WDW that is when they will know.

 

[TNS_Tinkerbell]

We took our DD in Dec. 2012, and told her in the morning at 10:30am, that she had 30 minutes because we were leaving for DL.

At first our DD, who was 6 at the time, didn't believe us at all. She thought DW was going on a business trip, and it wasn't until we boarded the Canada Line train, to take Skytrain to the air port that she believed us, that yes, we were going.

This trip, we told her at the 6 month mark, and know were are going but doesn't know we are leaving the earlier then she knows.

We are driving the day before down and staying in Seattle, so that will be a surprise for her.

What ever op you do, I have learned every child reaction to a surprise is different.

Some scream, some cry and some do not believe it until you finally get there.


Have fun.

 

[southpaw1031]

We are going to WDW at the end of Oct. Our seven yo has been several times and has always known leading up to it. This time we are waiting until the day of and sending him to school. We will then pick him up on the way to the airport and reveal what we are doing. Can't wait! So hard to not say anything.

 

[KB'sMom]

My DH too...but for me, I like the excitement of knowing the trip is coming. And want them to have time to be excited.

Sounds like a lot of you wait late.

We are planning a January trip, but the kids don't know yet. I'd like to wait until the day of again, but DH wants to tell them a few weeks out. The kids keep asking when we are going again and we always say someday. I've asked them if they want to know ahead of time the next time we go, or if they want to be surprised the day of and they both would rather be surprised the day of. This coming trip we will be leaving on DD's 9th b'day so I'd really love to make it a day of surprise.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

We waited till 30 days out, then turned on the YouTube video of Disney Sing Along from 1990. He had never seen anything MK before or any characters so this was all mind blowing to him. Right after the final note of "When you wish upon a star" my 3yo looked at us and said "I want to go see Mickey" to his absolute shock we replied "Good idea, lets do that" and revealed his countdown chart.