Help with a Surprise

[afavro24]

Hello everyone!! For my parents 50th birthday and 29th anniversary, my brother, sister and myself have decided to book a 6 day stay at WDW. They have been going of an on for the past 25 years and have never been with just the two of them.

The problem is, my mother keep wanting to book this vacation and surprise my dad. We already have the reservations made.

Any ideas on how to keep them from booking another trip or putting it off???

They are going in August, but we are throwing them a big birthday party/anniversary party on July 4 and we are going to tell them then.

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[WDW2010]

Ugh, I HATE stuff like that isn't it so annoying? For Christmas my dad told me he wanted trimmer line for Christmas (weird I know we're landscapers) so, my dad is a pain and said no no I don't want it it's a waste of money. Of course I still went out and bought it without him knowing.

Every darn time we went to the shops he would look at the trimmer lines and say "I'm going to buy this one" and I would have to keep saying no no its junk its junk. Until he almost bought a spool and had his money out and I had to yell NO ITS JUNK! lol It's really hard on what you can do.

Its really hard to think of something to make them stop booking for something like a birthday/anniversary. I'm out of ideas at the moment but I will think of something or at least try to and give you some ideas.

 

[bmarkelon]

Hello everyone!! For my parents 50th birthday and 29th anniversary, my brother, sister and myself have decided to book a 6 day stay at WDW. They have been going of an on for the past 25 years and have never been with just the two of them.

The problem is, my mother keep wanting to book this vacation and surprise my dad. We already have the reservations made.

Any ideas on how to keep them from booking another trip or putting it off???

They are going in August, but we are throwing them a big birthday party/anniversary party on July 4 and we are going to tell them then.

Thanks for the help!!!

Hmm, this is definitely tricky. Because once someone decides they want to book the trip there's almost no turning back!! I wonder if you could have a "pretend" serious talk with your mom convincing her that you guys are going to book the trip for them for like December or something; to make it more special to enjoy the holiday decorations? Or tell her that you already had a special event booked for them closer to home? I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

 

[WDW2010]

Hmm, this is definitely tricky. Because once someone decides they want to book the trip there's almost no turning back!! I wonder if you could have a "pretend" serious talk with your mom convincing her that you guys are going to book the trip for them for like December or something; to make it more special to enjoy the holiday decorations? Or tell her that you already had a special event booked for them closer to home? I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

That sounds like a good idea, its just so tough when its parents/the occasion hes dealing with. My parents when they want something or want to do something, usually it happens.

 

[bmarkelon]

That sounds like a good idea, its just so tough when its parents/the occasion hes dealing with. My parents when they want something or want to do something, usually it happens.

Yeah, I know...this is definitely a tricky situation to pull off. You may not be able hold out for July 4th for the reveal. How about Easter? You could put together a Disney themed Easter basket for them.

 

[Thorpyness]

The only thing I can think of is to suggest you have heard that due to the economy they are expecting to discount heavily for late bookings..so hold off.

I guess it depends on the financial circumstances as to whether this would have any appeal, you could invent some sort of local plague to scare them off, but that might work too well. The fact that there's 3 of you to reinforce the message, plus whoever else you can rope in, might mean it can be pulled off.

 

[Thorpyness]

Just thought of another, you could spoil it for mum by telling dad in front of her that she was going to surprise him, but you all think it's a poor idea. If all 3 kids agree and are basically down on the idea, she will go away sad, but accept it's not hapenning, even though she wants it. The only issue would be if dad is up for it, you need to keep them from booking alone...

The reveal will recover the sadness and more when she realises you already booked what she wanted.

 

[afavro24]

I LOVE the discount idea. I might roll with that one. It is a very tough situation because mom wants to surprise dad and we want to surprise them all. I will tell her to wait. HAHAHA GREAT idea !!!!! Thanks!

 

[bmarkelon]

I LOVE the discount idea. I might roll with that one. It is a very tough situation because mom wants to surprise dad and we want to surprise them all. I will tell her to wait. HAHAHA GREAT idea !!!!! Thanks!

The discount idea is a good one. We actually extended our August trip because of a discount that just opened up a couple weeks ago. You can use that too, hold off on the booking for a discount so that you could maybe book longer? Also just thought of using your own vacation time from work as an excuse. One of you guys, depending on whose job this works best for, could act like you are not sure exactly which time period in August you can get off. The trickiest part is the fact that you want to reveal your suprise July 4, the month before. I totally understand why, very dramatic effect and tons of fun. But if your mother really has her heart set out on booking it as her surprise to your dad it's going to be so hard to get her to hold off that long!