When to tell the kids??

[AndreAggie]

So we're not actually cruising until March 2016. Our son is 5 (he'll be 2 weeks shy of turning 6 when we cruise) and will ask a bazillion questions once he finds out we're going on a Disney cruise. Let's face it, if you watched anything on any Disney channel, you've seen advertisements for Disney vacations.

I'm pondering ideas of how to break the good news. I'm tempted to wait until we actually get to Miami (we live in Texas) and just casually asking if he wants to go on a cruise that morning. On the other hand, has anyone done the character call? How did it go?

We took him to Disneyland earlier this year and told him at Christmas. He didn't have the reaction I was expecting, but was still looking forward to the trip. And had a BLAST once we went. He's been on a cruise before, just not Disney, so I'm not worried about needing to get him prepared for this type of trip.

So give me your ideas of how you told your kiddos!

 

[kswright02]

We booked in August for this past March cruise...we wanted to wait until we were at the port too but realized it probably wouldn't work how we were picturing it. We had talked up the Disney cruise and how we had to save our $$ so we could go on. My coworker came back from a 3day in Jan and we talked it up even more!

Long story short we told them the beginning of March when we had about 26 days left. It was prefect because we could openly talk about packing certain things and show videos and pictures online of the Wonder (we also watched the planning DVD plenty of times) and they were suuuuuuper excited to run on that ship!!
Have fun!

Oh kids are 6,6,4.5 and while I don't think my 4yo completely understood she was just as excited and as for ideas we wrote out "you are going on a Disney cruise in 26 days" and then cut each word to its own card and numbered it. We had kids draw cards and put in order then the 6yo read the sentence

 

[jetskigrl]

For our first cruise, we surprised the kids at Christmas. The cruise was on January 21st. It was perfect because it gave them time to watch the planning DVD and think about what to bring, etc. But not so long that they felt like they were waiting forever. But my kids were a bit older (7 and 12).

 

[ksucats]

We have done it both ways. But the funnest was our third one that we took out of Galveston. We just told the kids we were going to Galveston for spring break. After two nights at our hotel, my wife and I started making up reasons we didn't like the hotel and I acted like I was searching online for a better one. I said that I found a better place, so we packed up and went to the better hotel. It just happened to be the Disney Magic. My kids were in disbelief until I pulled out the Disney luggage tags from my bag and placed the on the suitcases.

 

[jwdisney14]

We told our DS5 and DS3 about a month and a half out. We were going to surprise them the day that we departed for the airport, but ultimately decided against it. We have flown into MCO several times for trips to Disney World, and we didn't want the kids to be disappointed we weren't heading to Disney World after all and instead were heading to Port Canaveral. It has worked out great so far. Our oldest asks for coloring sheets every few days that relate to the "Disney Boat" and beaches, and we created a countdown to the cruise with one of his coloring sheets so he can place stickers on it until we leave. They are both very much looking forward to cruising!

 

[crgraham32]

Changed post

 

[jtba]

we'll be going to alaska this summer, and i'm not planning on telling them until the day before, when i'll arrange for mickey to call on the phone and do the big reveal.

otherwise i'll be hearing "when are we going???" all day long for months on end.

but more importantly, i don't want them to ask me at inappropriate places and times. for safety reasons i prefer as little people to know about this trip as possible beforehand. we live in a safe area, but there have been a number of break-ins in the neighborhood. so i just prefer to keep things to ourselves for the time being. no announcements on social media either.

 

[Claireywalsh]

We didn't tell our daughter until we arrived at the port for our dream cruise, she thought we were on our way home and en route to the airport after a fortnight in the world.
She really didn't process it until we were on board. She was 6 at the time.
We booked for Alaska for August and we told her from the off.
I want to be able to enjoy the planning with her this time and talk about all the things we can do so I can get a feel for what she will like.
I think it was all too much for her to find out on the day.

 

[KYDad]

We are going in December, and we have a 15, 14, and 10 year old. We are not planning on telling them until we get to the airport. It will be a total surprise.

We are going to tell them the day or two before that we are going to a local indoor waterpark and helping them pack for that while Mom will be making sure they have everything they need for the cruise. When we suddenly drive up to the airport, then we will reveal the surprise!

Of course all that depends on us keeping the secret until then, and it's already not easy!

 

[JackieB10]

For our first cruise, we surprised the kids at Christmas. The cruise was on January 21st. It was perfect because it gave them time to watch the planning DVD and think about what to bring, etc. But not so long that they felt like they were waiting forever. But my kids were a bit older (7 and 12).

I would love to hear how you told your kids at Christmas. We are booked on the Magic, January 15, 2016 and I am not telling my kids (DD 17 and DS 10) until Christmas. It's so hard to keep it a secret when I am sooo excited!

 

[Mrs Green]

For our trip to wdw, it was my dd 6th birthday. We drove from Texas to Wdw and since she clearly has no geography skills we told her we were going to stay in a hotel in louisiana. We didn't tell her what was going on until we were pulling into mk the first day (her birthday). She was completely confused and surprised...it was hilarious! For our disney cruise to alaska in 2016 I think we will do something similar (it will be her 8th birthday the day we board). I love the surprise element of it for many reasons, especially that it isn't a constant question of when we are going.

 

[jetskigrl]

I would love to hear how you told your kids at Christmas. We are booked on the Magic, January 15, 2016 and I am not telling my kids (DD 17 and DS 10) until Christmas. It's so hard to keep it a secret when I am sooo excited!

We had one of the DISigners here on the boards make up the graphics for us. The graphic had a picture of the ship with Mickey and said "Pack your bags (insert kids names here), your going on a Disney Cruise" Then at the bottom it had the cruise dates. We printed two copies, framed and wrapped them. Then we gave one to each kid along with a Castaway Cay Vinylmation (they collect them so I bought two on eBay to add to the surprise). We waited until all the other presents were done that morning and things had settled down. Then we brought them out as "overlooked" presents

We really confused them though because we had one cruise booked on the Wonder for January and then had a B2B booked on the Dream for April. So the kids had different cruise dates on their graphics. So it was a double surprise.

It was so fun watching their faces as the read them. It took a bit for it to sink in, but after that they were jumping up and down

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

The first time our DS knew we were going, we had Goofy call him , he was 5. He knew Goofy and all the characters as he's been to WDW but had no idea what a cruise was. He loved the cruise so much and wanted to go back so bad, we decided to keep it a secret the 2nd time. We told him we are going to Florida to stay at a hotel for a few days... When we arrived at MCO he thought we were getting on the Magical Xpress but we reminded him...no it's not Disney World honey..OK, fine we got to our hotel and he was disappointed because it was too cold to swim (it was maybe 14 Celsius, 55 Fahrenheit but it was January). He said to us "it better get warmer tomorrow!"... Of course the next day we were heading to the Port, and so I was trying to figure out how to keep him from knowing where we're going with a shuttle full of other cruisers who were obviously going to talk about it... I gave him the ipad and head phones to use on the bus and luckily that preoccupied him and he didn't even look up until we were at the Port. When he finally saw the ship he looked puzzled... we said we were just dropping some people off as the first stop was for Carnival and weren't getting off. Finally we got off the bus and the luggage guys asked us what ship we were on and when we said the Fantasy the look on DS' face was absolutely priceless. He said "are we getting on the Fantasy today?" and started jumping up and down and just couldn't believe it. Some of the other passengers just loved his candid reaction, you had to see it
For us telling DS as late as possible is the best way to go because otherwise he will also ask a million questions every day for months, then he won't be able to sleep the few days before... and we just loved surprising him.

 

[lisamarie12]

We were not planning on telling our DD who was 4, about the cruise until we got to Florida (we are flying in the day before). But mommy has a big mouth. LOL. I made her watch the video and look at pictures of it before I booked, because I wanted to see if it was something she would like. Then I told her that you had to be 5 to go, so we would go next year and that we were going to Florida this year in an airplane. I had to prepare her for the plane ride because she is at the question stage. Then DH and I decided that since I cannot stop talking about the cruise (ever), we would tell her that even though you have to be 5 years old, if Mickey calls and personally invites you, then we can go. Of course since we did not have a "Mickey phone," she did not see how that was going to happen. A week or so later we arranged a character call from Mickey and Minnie to "invite" us to go. She was so excited. We did that about 2 months before our cruise. She periodically asks are we going on a cruise tomorrow, but then does not think much of it. She really does not have a concept of time. I really would have preferred my original plan, which was we are going to Florida and then have Mickey call her and invite her then, but as I said, I have a big mouth and want to talk about this cruise and the plans all the time. Man I feel sorry for DH but I am sure I am not the only one.

 

[Drusilla99]

I would love to hear how you told your kids at Christmas. We are booked on the Magic, January 15, 2016 and I am not telling my kids (DD 17 and DS 10) until Christmas. It's so hard to keep it a secret when I am sooo excited!

We told our kids one year at Christmas and gave them each a replica of the ship we were going to be sailing on, they are older so they instantly understood and started crying. You can't get the ship replicas anymore online, but maybe eBay?

 

[lollidrop]

I think some of the fun is the countdown and anticipation. So to me, telling them earlier is better.

 

[JackieB10]

I love hearing all these stories!! Thankfully I have a little while before Christmas to decide how I am going to reveal! I am thinking I want to do a few gifts to give hints before they actually find out it is a Disney cruise. They love WDW and have wanted to go on DCL for a while now!

 

[TravelinCyn]

We did not tell our son about his first trip to WDW until he got to the airport... in Orlando. (I had a conference in Orlando, and we told him he'd 'see Mommy on Friday'. The night before, my husband told him they were going to go to the airport the next day to see Mommy. Of course, on the plane, the flight attendants were asking him if he was excited. Yes! he replied, gonna see mom! They thought my husband was the meanest ever. Kid figured it out when he saw the Disney express. It was epic.)

We told him about our first cruise (he had just turned 8) the night before we flew... but we didn't tell him everything. We told him we were flying to Vancouver for vacation (he had been on a campaign to go to Washington, Oregon, or Canada. Because he wanted to eat salmon. It's a long story). Second morning in the hotel he rolled over in bed, looked out the window... and saw the Wonder. Surprise! Similarly, we told him about his third trip to WDW the day before- we'd made plans with Grams to 'go to a zoo'. At 9 pm the night before we cheerfully informed him the 'zoo' was Animal Kingdom.

Now he is of an age that we involve him... but we still keep a few tricks up our sleeve. He knows we're going on a cruise soon, knows where it's to and it's on the Wonder, but does not know some of the special things we have planned for vacation time before the cruise departs. We are planning a major vacation next year and he is heavily involved in that. They're studying that region and history in social studies this year, so he is a very active participant in planning where we go and what we do; as a family we're reading some books and watching some non-fiction programming about the places we're going to.

 

[Sunshine2U]

I vote for 4-6 weeks out. My DS was the type who needed time to absorb change. If we tried to spring the first cruise on him he would have been anxious. Better to let them see the videos of the kids clubs and anticipate the fun they will have there than worry about being left in a strange place. My DD took (and still takes) great delight in being a subject matter expert so knowing in advance added to her experience, too. If there's a Disney Cruise special on the Travel Channel between now and then, record it. Even if it is not the same ship your DS will not know the difference (except slides and you can point that out). We took our 5 yr old nephew with us last time and he started watching videos before he knew we were going. We watched videos with him, talked about how much fun it would be, and imagined what we would do on a Disney cruise.

 

[Four Swampers]

We told our daughters, 11 and 9 at the time, that we were going to drive around Florida and see the beaches and sights. Spent a night at brother-in-law's house, then got up early and went to Kennedy Space Center. Saw some rockets, took a tour, then left around 12:30, claiming I wanted to try lunch at a restaurant just south of there. When we could see the ship, I suggested we go take a look at it, but they weren't too interested in a closer look. I insisted, so we pulled up to the ship. A porter asked if we were there for the cruise; my older daughter said, "No, we're just looking" as I said "Yes, where do we park?" The girls got very excited very fast.