Who else is surprising the kids???!!!

[hockeymomoftwo]

This thread is so funny for me b/c I'm in the same boat. Sadly my son and I have never been on a vacation and he is 6. He will drive me crazzy everyday asking when we r going till he drives me crazzy. It is so hard for me not to tell him. But since he is so little he has no ideas. I booked my trip about a month ago. We will be at pop sept 18-24, I have all my adr's and got my airline tickets too. Just gonna wake him up early that morning and tell him where we are going. I think that way he will be so excited and maybe the plane ride wont be so bad. Anyway good luck with everyone else. Have fun. Hard not to tell but I'm working hard at it.

Goofytraci we'll be at all stars the same time as you. We have kept ours a surprise also. Some days it just kills me. Especially right now because ds1 is really sick and I'd love to tell him to make him feel better. I hanging tough though.

I love to keep hearing everyones plans.

Our plan is to pick up ds1 from school and tell him and his brother at their grandparents before we head to the airport. At least that is it right now.

 

[artsya3]

We enjoyed Disney so much last year,

That because the days we went wasnt' enough to see everything
We are going back.

My son knew that I was planning for us to go, I then decided to book a cruise on Disney LInes first and then go to the parks,.

My travel agent AAA, whom I was telling not to shout out Cruise because I was suprizing my son!! She kept doing that.... He wanted to hang out with me both times I visited AAA , or I would have went solo... She let the cat out the bag right in front of him when he came over, and then was like oops and put her hand over her mouth said just kidding and then winked at him my son age 10 and there is another son of mine going age 2, he doesnt know yet .

I should get a free upgrade grr,

We;ll have fun anyway but would have been nice to see his reaction on the day of it.

I told him pretty much right when I was thinking to go..
The Cruise is another story

 

[artsya3]

Oh, Forgot to say my son's reaction of finding out..

Well a few day before he said I never been on a boat ride.

Then At the place he smirk smiled and said "Really>?"

The lady said, :"NO, no not really, (mumbled something else and Winked! )

My son said,"Oh", and later on said "I knew already, I overheard you two talking!"


(Lady with the Big MOUTh, ( ) That's usually me!)

So Ak knows, :crying: :cry:

arty:

 

[OUR 1ST DISNEY TRIP]

I am taking my son to disney world for his birthday which is Sept 27. We leave on the 26. I planned the vacation in January. I have been debating on when to tell him. I like the idea of telling him the morning of that he has to go to the doctors (he goes to a clinic in pittsburg near the airport periodically). but i would like my mom to see his reaction and she wont ride with us that far. I then decided to get one of those enchanted phone calls to tell him at his birthday party with the family. if that dont work i will just give him a present with pics of disney and a stuffed mickey. He is only 5 so he cant read any hints yet. my only question is when to do the birthday party? sept 17th (1 week 2 days in advance) or the 24th (2 days in advance)? I am definatly keeping the resort a secret(all star movies) and also the secret that his little girl friend and her family will be at disney (same resort) the first 2 days of our trip as they will be finishing up theirs.

 

[artsya3]

I would have it the 24th closer to the trip,,and closer to his birthday as well!!

If your son feels like it he can ask you when are we going, and many many questions repeated over and over till the week is up,

And would be more of a big block of good things, Birthday, Disney, ?? What else usually comes in three's ,
Then you have 2 days to finish packing , clean, and all the odds and ends and be overjoyed,

A week 2d fine too, either or YOUR GOING!!

 

[tinker-belle]

We just did a surprise trip for my sons, ages 9 & 5, back in January.
It was a BLAST.

They did not know about it at all.

They thought they were going to school that day (we took 'em out of school two days before winter vacation started).
We packed the car when they were sleeping.
I pretended I got a phone call the night before of friends of ours who live in BAltimore having a party for their newborn baby.

So I told my sons looks like we're going to baltimore tomorrow.

(while in fact, we were driving to the auto train which is right near baltimore)

I wrapped up two Pal Mickeys in baby wrapping paper & wrote, "congratulations" on it, so my boys thought it was in fact a party for the baby.

As we are in line to check in for the auto train, my 9 year old said, "hey isn't this the train that took us to disney."
And I said, "looks like we are driving right by it."
He said, "as long as we are here, can we stop so I can go to the bathroom?"
We said, "sure"

The amtrak people tell us to take things out of our car & my 9 year old says, "why are you taking things out of the car?"
I said, "security."
He says, "are you sure they won't take our car accidentally?"
I said, "just go to the bathroom."

OF course they take our car & when he comes out of the bathroom, he freaks, "I told you they'd take it, what are we going to do?"

My husband, in the meantime is in line to check in at the train & I said, "don't worry, daddy is doing the paper work to get our car out."

I said, "as long as we're here, let's hang out & take some pictures."

My kids were looking at all the people by the station & saying, "they are so lucky, they are going to disney!"

i said, "as long as we are here, let's see if they let us on the train to look around."

Of course we get on the train since we have tickets.

My 9 year old starts to freak out a bit, "we're not supposed to be here, what if the train starts to move, we'll get in so much trouble!"

Finally, we take mercy on them, since he's getting so nervous- we pull out the video camera & say, "guess what- we are going to disney for 10 days."

Their reaction, "WE DONT BELIEVE YOU!"

It took a few minutes of convincing and pulling out the train ticket & disney tickets to convince them.
It was a blast!!!!
I definitely recommend the 'surprise route'

(another year, I made a puzzle on poster board, I drew many disney characters on it & in the center in block letters wrote "we are going to disneyworld". I cut the puzzle in several pieces & gave the kids a piece or two each day of Hanukkah, I started with the harder pieces, but until they put the whole thing together on the last day, they didn't know what it would be)

 

[Carolc]

Great story, Tinker-Belle.

 

[dementia412]

Well I don't know how long I would be able to keep it a secret, but I would try hard. There is no way I'm gonna let them get even a sniff about it untill I've paid and know for a fact we are going, because that would be just the worst disappointment in the world if something kept us from going after letting them know!

 

[hockeymomoftwo]

We just did a surprise trip for my sons, ages 9 & 5, back in January.
It was a BLAST.

They did not know about it at all.

They thought they were going to school that day (we took 'em out of school two days before winter vacation started).
We packed the car when they were sleeping.
I pretended I got a phone call the night before of friends of ours who live in BAltimore having a party for their newborn baby.

So I told my sons looks like we're going to baltimore tomorrow.

(while in fact, we were driving to the auto train which is right near baltimore)

I wrapped up two Pal Mickeys in baby wrapping paper & wrote, "congratulations" on it, so my boys thought it was in fact a party for the baby.

As we are in line to check in for the auto train, my 9 year old said, "hey isn't this the train that took us to disney."
And I said, "looks like we are driving right by it."
He said, "as long as we are here, can we stop so I can go to the bathroom?"
We said, "sure"

The amtrak people tell us to take things out of our car & my 9 year old says, "why are you taking things out of the car?"
I said, "security."
He says, "are you sure they won't take our car accidentally?"
I said, "just go to the bathroom."

OF course they take our car & when he comes out of the bathroom, he freaks, "I told you they'd take it, what are we going to do?"

My husband, in the meantime is in line to check in at the train & I said, "don't worry, daddy is doing the paper work to get our car out."

I said, "as long as we're here, let's hang out & take some pictures."

My kids were looking at all the people by the station & saying, "they are so lucky, they are going to disney!"

i said, "as long as we are here, let's see if they let us on the train to look around."

Of course we get on the train since we have tickets.

My 9 year old starts to freak out a bit, "we're not supposed to be here, what if the train starts to move, we'll get in so much trouble!"

Finally, we take mercy on them, since he's getting so nervous- we pull out the video camera & say, "guess what- we are going to disney for 10 days."

Their reaction, "WE DONT BELIEVE YOU!"

It took a few minutes of convincing and pulling out the train ticket & disney tickets to convince them.
It was a blast!!!!
I definitely recommend the 'surprise route'

(another year, I made a puzzle on poster board, I drew many disney characters on it & in the center in block letters wrote "we are going to disneyworld". I cut the puzzle in several pieces & gave the kids a piece or two each day of Hanukkah, I started with the harder pieces, but until they put the whole thing together on the last day, they didn't know what it would be)

Loved the story.

 

[lynninpa]

We used fortune cookies to surprise my kids, their spouses and our grandkids with an all-expense-paid trip to Disney!
We will have 3 rooms at the POP August 27 thru Sept. 02.
If you are interested, you can click on the link in my signature to read all about the surprise.

 

[miche61]

We have surprised our kids before. We've gotten them up at 4:30 a.m. and told them we were going to Disney. We've also gotten them out of school with a note and telling them we were leaving that afternoon for disney.

This time is different. I am surprising my DH, DD13, DD10 and DS9! DH, DD10 and DS9 all have b-days with in a few weeks of each other, and it'll be at their b-day party that I surprise them which will be a few weeks before we leave- so DH can take off work, etc. I have been planning this since..... get this.......May 2005 I made our ressies for our trip...... Nov.30-Dec.4th of 2006!!! It's so much fun to keep it quiet! I can tell my sister though, she's in on it too.
Their gifts - all four of them will get gifts- will be travel related- cards, gum, magazines, games, glow necklaces, new socks.. and I figure for one final big gift, I'll have a box filled with helium balloons that when opened, will pop up and say something clever about going to WDW in so many days. I have a while to plan it all. I can hardly wait to see everyone's faces. I plan on inviting the grandparents and aunts and uncles too.

 

[dementia412]

lynninpa please adopt me

miche61, how do you do it? I don't go a day without mentioning some aspect of the possible trip to my husband. I'd go mad trying to keep it secret!

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

We are going in January, and my dd will turn 5 while we are there. We plan to surprise her, but I don't know if we can keep it a secret for the next 6 months! I want to have Jasmine give her an enchanted call to tell her about the trip the morning we are going to leave. We have booked 6 character meals, and I plan to take her to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on her birthday. She is going to be the happiest little princess!

 

[lynninpa]

lynninpa please adopt me ...

 

[miche61]

dementia412,
It is hard to not tell DH, but then I get all giggly inside when I think of what I'm doing. It's so exciting! Sometimes, like when I booked the airfare, it is SUPER tough! I booked it, and felt nauseous (sp). I have never done any huge purchase like that with out him. But, it will be a great surprise!

 

[Tara]

- how far in advance did you book the trip?
My husband is going to Australia for a geology conference, and I finally decided that we just can't go with him because the airfare is so high ($2200 for 1 ticket!) and we can't go for very long due to his commitments prior to the conference and the fact that DS starts kindergarten the next week.

So, last Thursday I opened the morning Ding! message and there was a $49 fare from here to Orlando. Immediately my mind started working and I called DH to ask if he would mind if we went without him. Of course, he didn't, so I started looking into rooms and found the $70 off deluxe resorts code and within 15 minutes I'd booked our air and a room at BC! We are going 24-29 August.

- how old is your child(ren)?
DS will be 5 in October.

- how far in advance will/did you tell them?
The morning of the trip.

- how will/did you tell them?
Since DH is going to Australia, DS won't think anything is out of the ordinary when we go to the airport that morning, although what he won't know is that DH's flight doesn't leave until later in the day. (DS loves going to the airport and flying places -- I sometimes avoid the highway that goes by the airport because he begs to go get on a plane!) When we get inside, he will no doubt be asking to go somewhere, so I'll probably say something like, "that's a great idea -- why don't we go see Mickey Mouse?" This way DH will get to see his reaction.

- did you almost blow the surprise (like me, a few times)?
It's been hard, and I've almost slipped up a couple of times already. In fact, before I decided to make it a surprise, I was going to tell him by writing "Mickey Mouse" on my calendar and asking him to read what it said. But when I got the pen out, he decided he needed to write and got totally distracted. Then the surprise idea came to me and I clammed up.

On Monday I asked my sister to join us, telling her I'd buy her admission and get her a ticket with my miles if she'd pay for her food and incidentals. She's totally psyched, too, since she figured it would be years before she could afford to go back! (And I'm glad, too, since now I'll be able to ride Everest and do kid swap!)

 

[dementia412]

I was actually thinking of buying the tickets way early (end of Aug when I got some money coming). My husband won't notice, he has no clue about how much money goes in and out of the house. (hope he doesn't look in on this board... mmmm, anyway) It would be nice to have one of the large expenses paid for, so next year when he's thinking SUPER BUDGET, I can suprise him. It would certainly help ease the pain of paying for the whole thing at once.

 

[DisneyVetMom]

We are surprising my husbands kids (7 and 10) we are thinking of doing a scavenger hunt that will spell out Disney World. Doing the letters out of order and then they have to unscramble the letters to spell it out. Like one of the clues would be "This is something cold that you eat in summer" then they have to figure out where the next clue would be (freezer) then find the word ICECREAM in the freezer so that would be the I in Disney world. I also have shirts that say Disney so that if they cant get the clues together we can give them the boxes with the shirts and say...Here this will help tell you where we are going.

I cant wait!!!!

 

[ZachnElli]

Our kids don't know about our upcoming trip in just over 2 weeks! Kind of last minute planning. We were going to do it, then we weren't, now we are again! I had vouchers for the airfare, so it really depended on if I could get a flight with that airline and I did! Dh is starting a new business in Sept. so this could be our last chance to go for a long while, so we decided to just go for it! We aren't telling the kids (11, 7, 16 months) until that morning when we wake them up! They have only one day to recoup when we get back and then it's back to school!

 

[Pixiedust34]

We are! I've had a trip planned since the end of March and the kids have no idea that we're going to WDW in Sept. We are telling them on Monday! I am so excited to tell them. Here's how we're doing it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1179431