How did you surprise your kids?

[Aerodyne78]

I have family in South Florida. In 2016 we surprised our DD by saying we were going to visit her grandparents. They met us at T-Rex in Disney Springs (she was 6 at the time & had no clue we weren't in South Florida). We had a gift that I said was for them. It was really an Elsa Build-a-Bear for her that contained a pre-recorded message from DH & I saying something along the lines of "Surprise! You're going to Disney World TODAY!"

We're going again in September & it'll be a similar storyline, but true this time. We're spending the first half of the week with her grandparents in SoFla, and then we're "stopping for lunch" at Disney Springs. After lunch, we'll head over to CSR.

 

[aliciamakino]

Well, we haven't done it yet, but this is what we plan to do in a few weeks...

Every month I print off a calendar from a Word document on my computer with symbols for what each day's main activity will be. I started this when DD was about 4 years old to help her know what days she went to day care vs. pre-school and which days she had swim class or dance class. Now that's she's older I also put in birthday parties, holidays (like Christmas and Easter) or any other thing we're doing that I have advance notice of. She really likes knowing what is going on ahead of time, she doesn't roll with things or play things by ear too well. She is 6 now and at the end of the month really looks forward to the new calendar so she knows if there are any days off from school or other special activities planned. You probably know where this is going...

We have a trip (her first trip actually) planned for the last week of April, so probably on March 30 I'll give her April's calendar...with symbols for the trip! The day we fly I have an airplane, then our first park day I have clip art of Cindy's castle, the next day Epcot, and so on. The day we fly home I have another airplane. Not only will she know we're going but she has a built in way to count down for the trip and will know what we'll be doing each day of the trip and how long we'll be there. I want to tell her a few weeks before we go so she can enjoy looking forward to it but not so far in advance that she's asking every 10 minutes when we are going. I mean she'll ask anyway but this way I can just tell her to look at her calendar!

that's cute! I will be there that week too!

 

[motherof5]

I want to surprise my kids this August. We just went in Dec & Feb (have AP) so going again in Aug. Hoping they won't figure it out til we get to the airport. A friend of theirs is going and telling them that we are bringing her to the airport and she is borrowing their luggage. Figured they would figure it out when we leave our car at the airport so going to tell them then. Wish me luck that they don't figure it out in advance. Really want to surprise them, since we never have, but my 9 year old is smart and might guess in advance.

 

[Minnesota!]

We are surprising our kids again, for the 5th time, in June. So, just noodling around for ideas. We are going for my son's birthday/graduation from 8th grade. Going to combine the surprise with something to do with those...

 

[Footnotegirl]

We surprised our daughter for our trip to Disneyland when she was 4. Or we at least made the attempt. We'd been visiting DH's family in San Diego, and then did 3 days at DisneyLand. On our last day with family, we packed up the car and told kiddo we were driving to the airport to go home. She fell asleep in the car, and we woke her up as we pulled up to the hotel. Unfortunately, 4 year olds aren't super impressed with ANYTHING when they just want to go back to sleep, so the response to the Big Surprise was "Oh, that's nice." and then a soft "Yay Disney." and then she fell back asleep.
She WAS excited after her nap when she woke up in the room, looked out the window, and saw the park.

 

[poohfriend77]

My kids are very quiet and laid back most of the time. We did gift boxes with Disney gear and countdown chains a few times. They get excited, but not the big screaming/crying emotional reaction to the news. It was a little disappointing to me, which I knew was silly... I can’t expect my kids to change their personalities so I can get a good “reveal” video, lol.

My favorite reveal was unplanned. We wanted to tell them soon but hadn’t decided how. We got Chinese takeout for dinner one night, and all of our fortunes had something to do with surprises or happy news or travel. My daughter even said “our fortunes are telling us to go to Disney World!” So DH said, “ sounds good to me, what do you think?” And I said, “ok, let’s leave the last day of school!”

It took a while to convince them we were serious, but it was the best reaction we had gotten. DD kept asking how I made those fortune cookies. I’m not creative enough to come up with something that perfect!

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

My kids are very quiet and laid back most of the time. We did gift boxes with Disney gear and countdown chains a few times. They get excited, but not the big screaming/crying emotional reaction to the news. It was a little disappointing to me, which I knew was silly... I can’t expect my kids to change their personalities so I can get a good “reveal” video, lol.

My favorite reveal was unplanned. We wanted to tell them soon but hadn’t decided how. We got Chinese takeout for dinner one night, and all of our fortunes had something to do with surprises or happy news or travel. My daughter even said “our fortunes are telling us to go to Disney World!” So DH said, “ sounds good to me, what do you think?” And I said, “ok, let’s leave the last day of school!”

It took a while to convince them we were serious, but it was the best reaction we had gotten. DD kept asking how I made those fortune cookies. I’m not creative enough to come up with something that perfect!

That's awesome that the fortunes tied so well into it all!

This wasn't Disney reveal related, but I announced my last pregnancy to family with fortune cookies. It actually wasn't too hard. I came up with my own fortunes for each person, then typed up their respective relation to the baby in Chinese along with the English translation and used the due date for the lucky numbers. Just wrap the fortune cookies (one at a time) in a wet paper towel and put them in the microwave for a few seconds. The cookie will soften up and you can CAREFULLY pull apart the opening just enough to use tweezers to pull out the fortune. Quickly, put the new fortune in, push the opening back closed and let it harden back up.

Would probably be a cute idea for a planned Disney reveal.

 

[lookame]

with 100 days before our trip my husband and I decided it was time to surprise the kids. This way my 12 year old can help choose fastpasses and such. So we had a cookout like we did almost every Sun this summer. We had Mickey shaped burgers and chips and Mickey and Minnie cookies. We also played Disney music. I made up a trivia game and all the questions were Disney related. Ever 5 points they got to choose an advantage or a prize hint. My daughter oved the prize hints. At the end we counted points then I said...the points don't matter, you both get the prize and handed out the last few hints then handed them bookbags and finally large wrapped boxes with their suitcases full of clothes. Finally I bought out a calandar and said were going to Disney.

My daughter jumped for joy and my son was so excited her cried tears of joy and almost passed out from excitment

 

[dakotix]

We did this with our toddler. It was cute but to be honest keeping that kind of secret is torture for me. I MUST go over every little planning milestone with the family because I enjoy Disney planning so much. Yes this drives them crazy but they have learned to deal with it lol.

This time around I've shared our plans with our now 4 yo and he's very excited and loves to watch videos of all the fun things he'll be able to do now that he is taller.

 

[AimeeAurora]

We're going on trip #3 with our 5 year old, leaving on 10/27! He has NO idea. We will have to wake him up at like 330am, so he will NOT be happy. But, we're going to tell him the night before that we're going on an adventure, which is what we say when we are doing something fun, like going to his auntie's house, or going to a new place. Hoping that cushions the blow. We're just going to run with it and see how far we get before he figures it out. I am hoping no one at the airport says anything, as people like to do when you are flying to Orlando with a kid. He's been on a plane before outside of Disney, so I'm hoping he'll last until we get on the Magical Express. Eeeek!

 

[amberpi]

We went twice in about 7 weeks due to a terrible trip that was mostly comped and our custody schedule which allowed us to. The second trip we said we were going to see Emory (one of daddy's alma maters) and then going to stay in a nice hotel...DH bought giant halloween mickey/minnies and with the help of bell services; and a stop at the bar to allow time, when the kids walked i, they were invited to mickey's party had the new mickeys, and a costume for the party.

The girl child? She asked when we could order fancy deserts from room service...lordy. They were really excited when they finally figured out mickey had invited them (!) to his party. I hate surprises like this and won't do it again. They would have been a lot better behaved on the drive if they had known they were getting to go back to the ghost party (kids have a thing for the HM).

 

[bigeyedfish]

I will be surprising the kids on Christmas Day as the trip will largely be their gifts. I am planning on wrapping a large box and filling it with balloons/Mylar Disney balloons, a countdown chain (32 chains), a 2019 Disney calendar with the date circled, and matching/coordinating t-shirts for all x2. Still working on ideas!

 

[MinnieMommyof2]

Omg I am so so so excited. We’ve (let’s be real, I’VE lol) been planning our first WDW trip since January. We’re leaving 11/10 with DD2 and DD5 (bday while we’re there). I’m telling them tomorrow morning. I can’t hold it any longer. I was going to wait until the night before but I really think my older daughter will love helping pack her bag and choose books for the plane etc.
I am planning on making breakfast at home and then asking her if she wants to Talk about her birthday party. At some point I’m going to bring out the “letter from Mickey” That I got from artsy, along with a new Disney suitcase filled with a new swimsuit, frozen headphones, some sticker books and mouse ears for her and her sister) and ask her if it would be ok if we went to Disney world for a week for her birthday. I’m so anxious and just cannot wait to make this memory for them (and me).
She understands that it’s really far away and you have to fly and mommy and daddy would have to take time off work bc she’s asked about it before. I think that will help make it exciting bc she hates when we go to work. As most kids do at this age.

 

[FabFive24]

Our first trip, I wove yellow yarn ("strings of gold like Rapunzel's hair") all over the house and outside and the kiddo had to follow it to clues ("follow the clues to see what you find there")... there was random "pixie dust" in various places and it all led outside to a big box with some trip necessities and balloons inside. We had a note on the outside of the box with "who and when" and at the very bottom of the box was the "where".. Disney World. Yes, it was a very involved surprise but so much fun. I'm pretty sure I still have the clue prompts saved too.

 

[Ss77]

We are a very disney family and my son is finally old enough to enjoy it all along with me! We went this past August for our 6th trip but this was the 1st time we were going to surprise our son, he was 4 at the time. Talking about Disney is normal in our house but it was still so hard to keep it a secret! It was driving me nuts packing in secret and hiding everything. But it acoall worked out and was totally worth it! We told our son that we had to drive to drive daddy to the airport to a business trip. Which wasn’t unusual for him to go away. I told my son we were going to do something special while he was away so he wasn’t phased. We left our house at 7:00 am. We had our Mickey T-shirts under our sweatshirts and I had a change of clothes for my son. We headed to the airport and pulled into the parking place which my son completely recognized.. I told him to get out if the car and say good bye to his dad and of course help him Ruth his luggage
The trunk opened and out came his Star Wars suit case and usual plans back pack!! He looked at us and smiled and stsrted yelling!! Mickey I’m coming!!! He started crying and laughing at the same time. It was the best surprise! On the way to the gate he said he didn’t want to know a thing! And each moment after we landed lead to 1 surprise after another. Let’s see how the December surprise goes