Surprise Disney Trip

[foxfamily238]

We just recently surprised our 7 yr old DD by letting her know we're doing a Disney/Universal trip in April. We did a Scavenger hunt type thing, she had to find clues, etc. She even found a new suitcase we had bought for her for the trip. We recorded part of it. When she figured it all out, she was jumping all around, squealing, etc. So excited.

Before we surprised her, we heard of some not so magical reactions to the "Surprise we're going to Disney" things some parents had tried. We even heard that one boy cried when his parents told him, and said "I wanted to go to Chuck e Cheese" lol.

Have you surprised your child/children with a Disney trip? If so, how did you do it, and what was the reaction? Did it go as planned or was there an unexpected reaction? We would love to hear your stories!

 

[mcurtiss]

we gave our DD a Disney Princess puzzle that we wrote "We're Going to Disney!!" on. She had to solve it to see the secret message.

 

[Gabe1]

That must have been so much fun for you all!

We never surprised our kids. We always had booked our family trips way out when they were your DDs age, they loved the count down. Our only memory of them being blindsided was when my DH & I went to Disney without them because the kids were going to San Diego with my Mom and Sister for Spring Break. DD didn't care, she was going to Cali, DS was like Not Fair. Ooops.

 

[lilclerk]

It's terrible, but this cracks me up.



Here's the Chuck E Cheese one. "What are we gonna ride on, nothing?"

 

[foxfamily238]

That must have been so much fun for you all!

We never surprised our kids. We always had booked our family trips way out when they were your DDs age, they loved the count down. Our only memory of them being blindsided was when my DH & I went to Disney without them because the kids were going to San Diego with my Mom and Sister for Spring Break. DD didn't care, she was going to Cali, DS was like Not Fair. Ooops.

We actually planned this trip quite a while ago also, but just recently surprised her. When we surprised her we also gave her disney princess calendar pages so she could do a countdown as well. Every day she colors in the square for that day until we go. We also put stickers on them for the days we'll be gone, so she can see how close we're getting.

 

[Gabe1]

So excited for her. Perfect time of year to go.

 

[mcurtiss]

we did our puzzle trick a less than a month out just because I knew anything over 2 weeks or so would torture her! plus she loves to plan outfits and stuff, so it made her feel a part of the vacation planning.

 

[foxfamily238]

Lol! Those videos cracked us up too! The reaction of the oldest boy on the first one was funny, no excitement, straight face, not saying anything, etc.

The two kids on the second one were way cute. It was cute how the sister was trying to convince him they'd have fun.

So excited for her. Perfect time of year to go.

Thanks!

we did our puzzle trick a less than a month out just because I knew anything over 2 weeks or so would torture her! plus she loves to plan outfits and stuff, so it made her feel a part of the vacation planning.

The puzzle trick is a good idea as well. We thought about doing that also, before we came up with the scavenger hunt. Yeah we wanted our DD to feel like she was part of the planning process also.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I've surprised my kids 3 times.

The first time we surprised them...we drove from TX to FL...spent nt 1 in Mobile, AL...spent nt 2 just three miles away from the maingate...and managed to reveal the surprise just as we were driving through the maingate. My older one says "again" several times because we'd just been there 8 months prior to this trip. Still...I love that we were able to pull this off...especially considering we'd had a minor car accident earlier that week that was still being handled.



Surprise 2 involved a scavenger string hunt through our house. It eventually led to a big box in front of the tv- inside of it were mouse ear balloons. When the balloons popped out, I started to play the video below and yelled "surprise we're going to Disney World." It was a great trip, but the surprise fell flat because nobody else involved in the reveal were really into it. I deleted the video with the surprise because it was just so awful- made me cringe every time I heard my voice echo through the house with 0 help and 0 reply.



Our third surprise was this past September. About 2 weeks before the trip, I surprised the girls by telling them we were going to FL for grandma's bday. They even "surprised" her via Skype the following week with the news. The night before the trip, I let them sleep in our guest bedroom so I could finish packing and I also let them set out the clothes they thought they were going to wear to grandma's. Before they woke up, I swapped out those outfits with Disney clothes and carryon bags (plus some other goodies). I woke them up with the Boo To You music since we were going to the Halloween party. The video is really dark and the girls are super sleepy, but they were totally surprised and it went over really well. Sadly, we were in a really bad car accident on the way to the airport. We still managed to get to WDW, but it put a damper on things.

 

[disney4life2008]

It's terrible, but this cracks me up.



Here's the Chuck E Cheese one. "What are we gonna ride on, nothing?"

This is the reason I want children one day. They will be spoiled rotten but alas...

 

[foxfamily238]

I've surprised my kids 3 times.

The first time we surprised them...we drove from TX to FL...spent nt 1 in Mobile, AL...spent nt 2 just three miles away from the maingate...and managed to reveal the surprise just as we were driving through the maingate. My older one says "again" several times because we'd just been there 8 months prior to this trip. Still...I love that we were able to pull this off...especially considering we'd had a minor car accident earlier that week that was still being handled.



Surprise 2 involved a scavenger string hunt through our house. It eventually led to a big box in front of the tv- inside of it were mouse ear balloons. When the balloons popped out, I started to play the video below and yelled "surprise we're going to Disney World." It was a great trip, but the surprise fell flat because nobody else involved in the reveal were really into it. I deleted the video with the surprise because it was just so awful- made me cringe every time I heard my voice echo through the house with 0 help and 0 reply.



Our third surprise was this past September. About 2 weeks before the trip, I surprised the girls by telling them we were going to FL for grandma's bday. They even "surprised" her via Skype the following week with the news. The night before the trip, I let them sleep in our guest bedroom so I could finish packing and I also let them set out the clothes they thought they were going to wear to grandma's. Before they woke up, I swapped out those outfits with Disney clothes and carryon bags (plus some other goodies). I woke them up with the Boo To You music since we were going to the Halloween party. The video is really dark and the girls are super sleepy, but they were totally surprised and it went over really well. Sadly, we were in a really bad car accident on the way to the airport. We still managed to get to WDW, but it put a damper on things.

Sorry to hear about you car accidents. Was everyone alright?

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Sorry to hear about you car accidents. Was everyone alright?

Thank you. For the most part...we had several months of chiro care, but very lucky to have just walked away from this.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We had a "magical" delivery show up on our doorstep. When the kids opened the box, two helium-filled Mickey balloons floated up (our travel agent's idea -- she sent us the balloons and I had a devil of a time trying to find a local store that would fill them for me!), with a postcard attached from Mickey Mouse, telling the kids he'd be seeing them soon.

The kids loved it and were excited, although they didn't know just what they were excited for yet. All they knew about WDW was what they'd seen on commercials, so although they both said, "Yay, cool!" and "I've always wanted to go there!" there was no jumping-up-and-down level of joy. Our "box announcement" occurred about a month ahead of time, and then we used a countdown calendar I'd made in our kitchen. Each day the kids would remove a tag, revealing the number of days left until our departure. On the back of the tag was a picture of an attraction, a description of what it was and where it was located. So as the days went on and the kids learned more about specific attractions, they got more and more excited for our trip. (Nowadays I can just show them the vacation planning DVD, but the "old" version with its lighting-fast cuts from shot to shot wasn't really suitable for showing a first-timer what WDW has to offer.)

I was glad we told the kids a few weeks ahead of time -- had we done it at the last minute, there wouldn't have been time for the anticipation to build (and we wouldn't have had time to "educate" them about WDW, read books about the characters they'd meet, tell them about flying on an airplane, etc.) Had we done it too far ahead, they might have gotten weary of waiting. A month was perfect, and now that they've been to WDW once, I have to say, the "announcements" are much more exciting, because now they know just what they're in for!

 

[MickeyisMyBestFriend]

My parents surprised me and my brother telling us in a graduation card for my brother. We were very excited.

 

[rsheley]

We have 3 kids (11,8,6) that we want to surprise with the WDW vacation. Any ideas?

 

[Tinkerfan4ever]

We are going on our annual trip in Oct. (DD6, DD12, DH and myself). I have convinced my sister and her family (Sister, BIL, Nephew 5, Niece 4) to come along with us! We can't wait. Here's where it has become tricky...aka fun. My sister is not telling her kids until the night before! (which means I am not telling my kids that they are coming with us until the night before either).

Here is her plan on how she is going to tell her kids.

Both of her kids have piggy banks. She has told them the banks must be full before they can talk about going to Disney. They have been working really hard to earn money for their piggy banks. Well the night before we leave, she is going to take the kids to the bank (where my DH just happens to work) and cash in the money to see if they have enough. She is going to create a card of some sort that says 'Pack your bags we are going to Disney' and have my DH give it to the kids when they find out how much money they have earned. And all the money they earned... that is going to be the kids 'you can spend this on whatever you want at Disney' money.

The hard part... planning this trip with my family but not telling my kids that their cousins are coming with!

 

[Weather_Lady]

We are going on our annual trip in Oct. (DD6, DD12, DH and myself). I have convinced my sister and her family (Sister, BIL, Nephew 5, Niece 4) to come along with us! We can't wait. Here's where it has become tricky...aka fun. My sister is not telling her kids until the night before! (which means I am not telling my kids that they are coming with us until the night before either).

Here is her plan on how she is going to tell her kids.

Both of her kids have piggy banks. She has told them the banks must be full before they can talk about going to Disney. They have been working really hard to earn money for their piggy banks. Well the night before we leave, she is going to take the kids to the bank (where my DH just happens to work) and cash in the money to see if they have enough. She is going to create a card of some sort that says 'Pack your bags we are going to Disney' and have my DH give it to the kids when they find out how much money they have earned. And all the money they earned... that is going to be the kids 'you can spend this on whatever you want at Disney' money.

The hard part... planning this trip with my family but not telling my kids that their cousins are coming with!

Aw, what a wonderful surprise that will be -- for all of the kids!

 

[rnese]

I just tell my kids that they're due for their shots and we have to travel to a special doctor far, far away because he has the special, BIG needles!

 

[foxfamily238]

We have 3 kids (11,8,6) that we want to surprise with the WDW vacation. Any ideas?

The scavenger hunt thing worked really well for us. We were also glad that we let our DD find out about the trip enough in advance to build anticipation, and help with planning, etc, but not so far in advance that she has to wait for what seems like forever.

We have also seen videos of people writing a message inside a pizza box. We also like the idea of having them do a puzzle with the message on it.

The box with the Mickey Mouse helium filled balloons sounds like a cool idea also.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

I still think one of the coolest ideas was spelling WDW in pepperoni on a large pizza and having the kids open the box.