Why Can't I Stop Thinking About....(shhh, its a secret!)

[HappieMommie]

...our first trip to Disneyland!??!

The hardest part is, its a secret!!!! I can't tell my kids, and its so tough to remain calm, cool and collected. My husband and I both wanted to be surprised with Disney trips as kids - but never were. So we thought we would surprise our own kids! I can hardly keep my mouth shut!!

Does anyone have any good surprise tips? I was thinking getting them little Disney plushies with a "letter from Mickey and Minnie" saying, "see ya real soon!", but my husband wants to wake em up early, head to the airport and just get on a plane and let them piece it all together. They're only 2 and almost-6, so it may take some time.

 

[spidey_99]

I just surprised my two (4 and 6) with an overnight Friday trip. It was tough keeping it a secret but not so hard once I reminded myself that the secret trip was for them, not me. Granted, I LOVED giving it and going on the trip...it was sheer joy! BUT I knew that the memories of the surprise for them would be as big of a gift- if not more- and so that was motivation enough to keep quiet ...

For us, DL is only a 50 min drive so I piled them both into the car, packed school lunches, told them to hurry cause we could not be late for school,etc...the whole normal 'morning routine'. I even pulled up to my oldest daughter's school and went thru the drop off line, really wanting her to have NO idea. And then once we got up to the place I had to drop her off, I blasted SMALL WORLD on my ipod and left the school parking lot, hit the freeway. It was around that point they got it

And we had a FANTASTIC TIME! I'm sure you guys will as well! Isn't it great we can do such things for our families?

Spidey

 

[HappieMommie]

Oh my gosh, THAT is awesome!!!!!!! I love the whole ipod idea!!! Maybe we will do the pretend drop off thing, too. GREAT ideas!!!!!

 

[ballarinamom]

We're surprising DD with our Nov 18-23rd trip. We have been playing a game with her of' if you had a million dollars where would you go?" "If a cab pulled up to your house and could take you anywhere...." She always says Disneyland. Our flight leaves at 1:30pm and the airport is about 10 minuites from her school. DH is going to drop me off at the school to get her bag and then I am going to get her from class. When we walk out, DH will be in a town car. When we get in we will tell her the nice man will take her wherever she wants to go. I know she will say Disney. I also have some Mickey glitter confetti. When we get out of the cab, I will tell her she needs pixie dust to get there. And through it in the air......
To make sure we don't let it slip, we have told her that my good friend is going in one month. That way of she sees me on the DIS or with planners she will think it's for my friend!


Have a great time!!!

 

[Brancaneve]

Ballerinamom wins the award! Wow! Another idea is to have Mickey or any other character make a call to your home before leaving. You can request them to say that they have heard you are going on a special trip, and even request a specific time. I can't recall the webiste, but google, "Disney enchanted calls" it's easy to do!

Have fun!

 

[jacs1234]

We're surprising our kids too but we're coming all the way from Australia. We're leaving lunch time on a Friday and we're going to pick up grandma early and then there will be a package waiting which will be a big box full of helium balloons with a letter inside. I'm soooooooooo excited and it's nearly impossible to keep it from them.

 

[pixiewings71]

We surprised the girls twice, the first time I packed their bags and DBF and I loaded the van, we got in the morning we were leaving and drove towards daycare just like any other normal day, except DBF was with us. At that time we were having our home rebuilt after our fire so we told the girls we had to "drive by the house" to explain why DBF was with us. Well, we drove past the sitter's and they said "Mom, we just passed Miss Julie's" and I said "Oops, we will drive by the house first", so we did drive by the house but we didn't stop, we just kept driving.....they asked where we were going and we said it was just a drive...and it was, 6 hrs later and many "where are we going?"s later we arrived on Harbor, got to the hotel to check in and went to our room, that was where we showed them our WDTC packet and they finally figured it out! LOL Now we can't do that, they know the way too well! LOL But that was fun to do! The next year the surprise was the same thing but they did a scavenger hunt around the house to find the packet.

HappieMommie, it's great that you are surprising them, have fun and feel to come here to sqeeeeeee all you want! LOL

Ballerinamom, that's so much fun!!!! I bet DD loves it!

 

[drag n' fly]

I always duck for fear of being shot every time I say this but we love DL so much more than WDW. We just returned last night from free dining surprise trip to WDW for our Ds6. The older 2 stayed with Grandma this trip.

We got a BIG Buzz helium balloon from the dollar store. I had someone in the DIS-igns forum make this beautiful invitation for me. I went to Michaels and got some Halloween stickers etc and made and invitation from Buzz. When he got home from school on Monday Oct 5 this was waiting on the steps for him attached to the helium balloon

You could go to the DISign board for some great ideas or requests to surprise your kids!

 

[wannabimagineer]

We took our kids to their first trip to Disneyland last year, it was a complete surprise. They were 3, 6 and 7 at the time. We decided not to tell them what we were doing and wanted them to figure out on their own. They didn't realize what was going on until we basically pulled up to the hotel. It was fantastic to see their reaction and it's one of my favorite memories.

 

[DumboFan]

For my DD's 10th bday, we surprised her with a trip to WDW with the entire family - both sets of grandparents, my brother, his girlfriend (now wife) & her 2 kids. We left on Thanksgiving night so it was no big deal to have everyone at our house for dinner. We had a limo bus pick us all up to go to the airport. When the driver rang the doorbell, DD answered the door & he asked if she was Kate. When she said yes, he handed her an envelope (I had dropped it off at their office the week before). When she opened it & read what it said, I think the whole neighborhood heard her screams!!

I used one of the designer on the DISign forum for the front of the card & inside it read "Your bags are packed so let's go to Disney to celebrate your double digit birthday!"

She couldn't believe we were able to keep it a secret from her! To top it off, my brother proposed to his girlfriend in front of the castle so she got an aunt for her birthday, too!

 

[2luvmickey]

When my two older sons were little, my (late) DB who lived near WDW sent them Mickey ears with their names on the back. He also sent a stuffed fish (looked like Flounder) and some napkins from WDW to use before our trip.

My boys are nearly grown, and it's been 8 years since my brother's untimely passing, but we still have those ears Uncle John had lovingly made and sent to his nephews....

 

[PDuckX]

We are leaving Tuesday evening and the girls (6 & 9) have no idea we are even leaving. We are going to try to keep it a secret as long as possible. When we get on the plane we will just let them know we are going to a hotel in Anahiem and leave it at that. The parks will be closed when we arrive and are staying at the CGH. It isn't overly decorated in the Disney theme, so we might be able to keep it going for awhile.The coloring books on the plane may give it away though.

 

[farmfresh]

We too have done the surprise trip - go to addletter.com and you can make a version of the disney sign with their names on it. I used this to help make a kids itinerary package - which included our plans for the days we would be there, (eg Goofys kitchen for dinner one night, fireworks another etc etc) details and pics of the hotel - all helped to add excitement and set expectations. they were packed in plain white envelopes with their names on them - when they got in from school, I said they had some strange mail...

It also included instructions for what they needed to do once they had finished reading the thing - like "jump in the shower, then grab your favorite toy and we'll go to the airport"

I notice they have kept them as souvenirs! Have a good trip

 

[Capt. Swan]

We are surprising my DD5 next week too. I am absolutely awful at keeping fun secrets, and have to constantly be reminded via significant looks from my husband.

DD constantly asks "can we go to Disneyland again" and I always say "later, we will go later in the year." Now that we are so close, I just have to say "mmm, we'll see."

so now, how do I pack her clothes and load up the car in secret? Plan is to pick her up from school, then pick up DH, and then just start driving in the direction of the airport and see when she figures it out.

 

[ballarinamom]

We are surprising my DD5 next week too. I am absolutely awful at keeping fun secrets, and have to constantly be reminded via significant looks from my husband.

DD constantly asks "can we go to Disneyland again" and I always say "later, we will go later in the year." Now that we are so close, I just have to say "mmm, we'll see."

so now, how do I pack her clothes and load up the car in secret? Plan is to pick her up from school, then pick up DH, and then just start driving in the direction of the airport and see when she figures it out.

We will be packing when DD goes to sleep

 

[HappieMommie]

These ideas are making me even MORE excited! How I am going to last??!!

Me and DH loved the idea of asking "where in the whole world do you want to go, more than ANYWHERE else?" and you wanna know the answer we got?

"Dairy Queen".

REALLY?? I know, she's only 2 - but still. She can't surely mean DQ?!?!

 

[Kayla's Mom]

Me and DH loved the idea of asking "where in the whole world do you want to go, more than ANYWHERE else?" and you wanna know the answer we got?

"Dairy Queen".

That is so cute!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I love surprising the kids!!

We've done it twice. The first time we stayed the night at my grandparent's and had an early Christmas dinner with them. The next morning we started driving and my oldest knew we were going the wrong direction to get home. Once we got the airport she kept asking where we were going and I said I didn't know and that Daddy must have something planned. We kept the entire trip a secret for months until our final decent in John Wayne when the flight attendant walked over and pointed out to our girls that you could see Disneyland out the window. I get it...she didn't know the kids didn't know. But what if we were flying in there and didn't have plans to go to Disney??

The second time was this past summer. We went to Vegas during the week and surprised them with the weekend on the way back. Our oldest was the first to figure out but not until we were on Harbor and she saw some Chip & Dale signs. We pulled into the hotel....and I swear her next words were: "do we actually get to go to Disneyland or are we just stopping so Daddy can take a nap?" She must think we're the meanest parents ever if she thought we'd do that to her. Heck, it would just as much torture to me!

Have a blast & I hope the surprise goes perfectly!

 

[HappieMommie]

OK. I haven't spilled the beans yet. Looks like we're headed to the airport and letting them figure it out. Eeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't take it anymore!!!!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

OK. I haven't spilled the beans yet. Looks like we're headed to the airport and letting them figure it out. Eeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't take it anymore!!!!

Soo much fun!!!! I want to do the same thing when we take the kids to WDW in 2 years!