Would love to hear how you surprised your kids!

[princess&her4princes]

Hi Everyone!

We have booked a January 15-21st trip to the World. We would love to hear how you surprised your kids! This will be the boys 4th trip, we surprised them the 1st time, and it was the BEST! But they were 4, 2 and 12 weeks old, it was easy to pull off! Now that they will be 9,7, and 4 not sure how to do it and get away with it. Any thoughts/ideas would be great! Thanks in advance!

 

[gojoe]

8 years ago my wife and I were married. We had just a few friends and family and a ceremony by a lighthouse and diner nearby. My granddaughter and stepdaughter both 8 years old were disappointed we didn't have a limo. We went on a family honeymoon to Disney (later we had our own). We decided to surprise the girls with a limo at the Earport. We came down the escalator to claim our luggage with the girls in the lead. They spotted the driver with our name on his sign. Well they could not contain themselves. I have video of my granddaughter doing a little limo dance. That alone was priceless.

I don't think they get many guest arriving at the Pop in a limo. We turned a few heads. I mean value resort and a white stretch limo is bit out of the norm.

 

[princess&her4princes]

8 years ago my wife and I were married. We had just a few friends and family and a ceremony by a lighthouse and diner nearby. My granddaughter and stepdaughter both 8 years old were disappointed we didn't have a limo. We went on a family honeymoon to Disney (later we had our own). We decided to surprise the girls with a limo at the Earport. We came down the escalator to claim our luggage with the girls in the lead. They spotted the driver with our name on his sign. Well they could not contain themselves. I have video of my granddaughter doing a little limo dance. That alone was priceless.

I don't think they get many guest arriving at the Pop in a limo. We turned a few heads. I mean value resort and a white stretch limo is bit out of the norm.

Love it, thanks for sharing!!

 

[Feckless]

We haven't done a Disney surprise, but we surprised the kids with our Cuba trip this May. I'm not gonna lie - it was rough and stressful! I put their suitcases in my closet and slowly started filling them. DH and I had hushed vacation conversations late at night. I made housesitting arrangements and spoke to teachers by email. I was on pins and needles trying to make sure they didn't find out. Unfortunately, DS is as hard to surprise as I am, and he knew ( teacher made a slip and he noticed he wasn't down for school lunch. Sigh!). He still wasn't sure so he was still excited. We woke them at 3 am to go to the airport. They are begging me to do it again but I say no waaaaaay am I putting myself through it all!

That all said it was awesome. For them.

 

[Snappy in OK]

Our kids were 2 & 4 on our last trip. We got them up in the morning and told them they weren't going to daycare that day - we were taking a trip to the beach. At the end of our beach stay, I told them we had to head back to Orlando so we could go home - and then I said something like "unless you think we should find something else to do and go home later". Of course, they wanted to find something else. We just kept "hunting" for something that looked like fun. They were so excited when they saw the "welcome" arch, and DS (4 at the time) asked if we could go to Disney World. We said we would see if they have a room we can stay in - and of course they did!

We have not told them about the trip this October yet, but we are going to tell them in early October. I found something in the Disigners section of the DIS that looks like an airline boarding pass that says something like "guess who's going to Disney" that I am going to customize for each of us. Then I will stick them in an envelope and then in the mailbox - and send DS out to get the mail. He will be able to read the announcement to his sister - and we can watch them take it all in!!

I would love to surprise them again, but like a PP said - it is a lot of work. I will need to coordinate with teachers this year, and I am getting tired of hiding the stuff I have been making & gathering for our trip.

 

[smidgy]

well, first off, my advice doesn't apply to really little kids, like ages 2 or 4, etc.

my opinion (and just that, my opinion) is it's ok to surprise kids with a trip as a "present", as in.. "merry Christmas, we are going to disneyworld in may!!! yay!"

but to surprise kids, say, 5 and older with "we are going to Disneyworld.. NOW!!!" or something to that effect... cheats them out of half the fun.. the excitement of LOOKING FORWARD to the trip.
having something fun to look forward to is a great thing. I would never cheat my kids or grandkids out of that.

 

[Karabee]

I just saw this thread and had to respond. My sister and I were surprised when we were little with a Disney trip (ages 5 & 7)- and we still talk about it. They told our teachers, who made sure not to give us the homework we would miss, but gave it to our Mom, they had no suitcases anywhere, and they made sure to talk to a neighbor about the weekend activities in front of us (as if we would be around that weekend). I still remember them coming into my room that morning when it was still dark out and asking - not telling - "Do you want to go to Disney World?" I'm not a morning person - but I was that morning! My sister jumped out of bed and ran to brush her teeth so fast we still laugh about it.
Surprise them, and throw them off if they start to suspect - it's not only worth the memories for the parents, but even for the kids.

 

[darthmoon]

I'm a bit torn here, like smidgy said, I think the anticipation and excitement of knowing you're going is a lot of fun for kids. But I also know my dd8 would love to be surprised with it the morning we're going.

We made last minute plans last week to go for a week on 8/13 and my wife thinks we should wait until the morning we're leaving to tell her. We're planning on driving and she wants to just put her in the van in her PJ's, tell her we're going to pick up her older sister (who is not going) and wait until she starts asking then tell her as we're driving.

I prefer to tell her this week in a fun way (maybe a scavenger hunt with clues) then let her look forward to it for a while.

I'm really starting to think the last minute surprise is more for the parents than the kids. Kids will be surprised no matter when or how you tell them and still get the same excitement from it.

 

[Celidh]

well, first off, my advice doesn't apply to really little kids, like ages 2 or 4, etc.

my opinion (and just that, my opinion) is it's ok to surprise kids with a trip as a "present", as in.. "merry Christmas, we are going to disneyworld in may!!! yay!"

but to surprise kids, say, 5 and older with "we are going to Disneyworld.. NOW!!!" or something to that effect... cheats them out of half the fun.. the excitement of LOOKING FORWARD to the trip.
having something fun to look forward to is a great thing. I would never cheat my kids or grandkids out of that.

I agree, as much as it would be fun to spring it on my kids the day of, I think that at 14, 11 and 8, they deserve to help plan, have some bragging rights and to be able to enjoy the anticipation. This way they have been able to do extra chores to save their spending money. I don't know how I could have pulled it off anyway. They do have one surprise left, my mom is going but they don't know that yet.

We did surprise them though when we did tell them. We did somewhat of a scavenger hunt. We gave the first one of them a note with a clue on it which led to say, sunscreen. Then at the sunscreen was another envelope with another child's name on it leading somewhere else, eg. camera. I think there were a total of 6 clues, two each. We chose to label the envelopes with specific names so that there was no body left out who didn't get to find a clue. The last clue was with the suitcases (there were new ones for them) and in there was a note that led them to our room. In our room was a huge gift bag with 3 helium balloons stuffed inside of it and a towel over it holding them in (one for each child). When they took the towel off, there was a note tied to the balloons from Mickey inviting them to Disney. There was also a backpack for each child in their with a fake ME ticket, fake Disney dollars, a disposable camera for each of them and some other stuff.

I had to laugh at my oldest son because they knew I wanted to take them but always said the only way I could afford it is if I won the lottery, but if I won the lottery I would probably have a heart attack and die. He said, "I don't get it, how did you get the money, you aren't dead so you didn't win the lottery?" He wondered how I got the money. Well, it was about 2 years of saving, that's how. Of course then he said he knew anyway. WHATEVER!!! He may have suspected something was up for the amount of time I spent looking at Disney stuff but I doubt he truly thought we would ever get to go.

 

[smidgy]

celidh.. you did it PERFECTLY!!

this is what I meant. It's great for the trip to be a surprise, just not a surprise that day, or next week. you kids are lucky to have such great parents!!! they got the THRILL of the surprise, yet got to LOOK FORWARD to it, with excitement, and help plan, etc.

 

[smidgy]

I'm a bit torn here, like smidgy said, I think the anticipation and excitement of knowing you're going is a lot of fun for kids. But I also know my dd8 would love to be surprised with it the morning we're going.

We made last minute plans last week to go for a week on 8/13 and my wife thinks we should wait until the morning we're leaving to tell her. We're planning on driving and she wants to just put her in the van in her PJ's, tell her we're going to pick up her older sister (who is not going) and wait until she starts asking then tell her as we're driving.

I prefer to tell her this week in a fun way (maybe a scavenger hunt with clues) then let her look forward to it for a while.

I'm really starting to think the last minute surprise is more for the parents than the kids. Kids will be surprised no matter when or how you tell them and still get the same excitement from it.

you couldn't have said it better. and this involves anyone of any age, and most surprises. the person plannign the surprise is.. OH! SO excited!.. the "surprisee" had NO time to prepare, didn't get to share in the fun of looking forward to it, anything.
surprises are GREAT, as long as you are doing FOR the surprisee, not yourself. the scavenger hunt thing is a great idea. surprised them with a great surprise trip!!! then give them time to llok forward to it and get more and more excited as it approaches.

 

[Celidh]

celidh.. you did it PERFECTLY!!

this is what I meant. It's great for the trip to be a surprise, just not a surprise that day, or next week. you kids are lucky to have such great parents!!! they got the THRILL of the surprise, yet got to LOOK FORWARD to it, with excitement, and help plan, etc.

Thanks, my partner and I had fun planning it and watching their faces. We got it on video too. Ideally, I would have liked to do it about a month out, but since we had to get passport pics we did it 3 months ahead of time. I'm glad they haven't driven us nuts with the waiting. DS 11 has said a few times he wished we would have waited a bit longer to tell him but he is doing good. Also, this gave them the chance to tell their friends before school is over and time to save spending $

I think my partner is most excited. She is fun to watch. Although, I'm not too far behind her. I think we are both more excited than the kids. They just don't get worked up like we do about it. They like the countdown chain I made for them. 25 days to go!!

 

[tjmj9801]

Our last trip and our upcoming trip are a surprise for the sake of my sanity.

I can't tell my kids we're going out to eat more than a few hours in advance without hearing nothing BUT that until we leave. They're not at an age where they can contribute to our plans. Now, don't take that the wrong way. We're mostly commando depending on what they want to do, except that I plan what parks and when based on hours of operation and EMH. It works for us.

DD4's 5th birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year. We wanted to book with FD for that week but couldn't do a trip long enough to include the FD check in date and her BD. We booked the week after instead. I plan to tell her on her birthday that we're leaving Saturday night. (We live about 8 hours away and always drive at night.)

 

[Muddypaws]

We surprised our kids (DS 11, DD 10 at the time) ahead of time. When the trip was all booked and in place I got a couple of metal, unopenable piggy banks (can they still be called piggy if they aren't piggy shaped?) and labeled them with "Disney World." We placed them in their rooms and waited for them to notice. I will always remember my DD's face when she noticed first and came out to us with her bank in hand, mouth open and eyes wide. Then DS ran and got his and did a little happy dance.

For the trip I just booked my DD is having just as much fun as I am with helping me plan the trip. And DS (who is high functioning autistic, so surprises really don't work well anyway) is reading every book on Disney he can get his hands on.

It's all good no matter how you do it.

 

[MareSINY]

I've surprised two of my nieces with trips, both last year. First was my oldest nieces 10th birthday, on her birthday I had her sit with my laptop and a PowerPoint presentation showing pictures of herself at Disney through the years. At the end I had a slide asking her if she wanted to go. We booked the trip that night and went the following month.

My middle niece who was 7 at the time was upset that she wasn't going. I felt guilty and started working on a trip for her, but didn't say a thing. We talked about going for Christmas but then I told her I couldn't afford it and we'd have to wait until the following year. The day before we left I took off from work to set up for the surprise. I had a bunch of boxes gift wrapped with different clues which were very vague. A picture of a splash of water over a mountain, things like that. The last clue was behind the closet door. When she opened the closet she found a GIANT Mickey Mouse balloon with a sign attached to it that said, "SURPRISE! Pack your bags! We're going to Disney World TOMORROW!" and a tshirt that said, "I'm going to Walt Disney World Resort!" She was in total shock, it was a lot of fun and we had a great time on our trip.

 

[MylilTink]

There's a debate between DH and I about when to tell our daughter, who will be turning 5 during our trip, that we're taking her to WDW for her birthday.

DH wants to surprise DD the morning we fly out, I want to tell her for Christmas (our trip is from 1/8 to 1/13).

I read to DH what some have said, specifically about the surprise being more for the parents than the child, and he agreed eek but he still wants to wait until the morning of...

At least we have 150 days (give or take) to figure it out.