Official (not really, but we'll pretend) KOTS club signup

[ksloane]

I'm an official KOTS for the second time. Can't put it in my signature though as my daughter sometimes browses the boards.

My first KOTS trip was December 2007 with my daughters (then 7 and 16). It was great. When we checked the mail (post office) after school, there was a note from the Elves to go straight home. When we got home, our suitcases were all piled in the middle of the living room with a new note. This one from Mrs. Claus telling us to not open the bags. Just to load them up and head to a family friend's house (she lived 3 hours away, near the airport). We called to tell her we didn't know why, but we were coming and she assured us she'd go clean the guest room, and she didn't know how it got there, but when she got home from work there was a package for us under her tree. When we got there and opened the present, it was filled with guide books, autograph books, and a note from Santa himself with plane tickets, reservation numbers, etc and Surprise tshirts. We left that next morning and spend our entire Christmas break at Disney. It was great!!! My daughter was soooooo surprised.

This time I'm planning a trip with just my youngest, she's 10 now. My oldest says she will stay home and take summer courses and let my youngest have a trip where it's all about her. We are going May 30. This year, I bought some of the Mickey shaped balloons, and I'll buy one of the small party helium tanks right before the trip. The plan is to blow up the balloons and attach them to note cards saying Surprise or something. She'll wake up the morning of the 30th to find a big wrapped box in the living room for her. She'll probably have to wake me up and then we'll open it, and the balloons will float up and so on. Suitcases will be packed and loaded and all she'll need to do is pack her carryon bag with whatever entertainment she is taking for the car ride/plane ride.

I can't wait!! I've almost finished her autograph book, and then I plan to at least make her a travel activity book as well. Then I'll start on the tshirts for each day.

 

[perpetualplanner]

DH and I are KOTS for Spring Break. We told the boys(15 and 11) part of their Christmas present was going on another Disney Cruise for Spring Break but they DON'T know it's a back-2-back cruise. We're planning on asking them if they've enjoyed themselves at breakfast the last day and if they'd like to do this again sometime....then saying OK lets just stay for the next cruise too. They are excited about the cruise for Spring Break....can't wait to see their faces when we let them in on the secret!

 

[ksloane]

DH and I are KOTS for Spring Break. We told the boys(15 and 11) part of their Christmas present was going on another Disney Cruise for Spring Break but they DON'T know it's a back-2-back cruise. We're planning on asking them if they've enjoyed themselves at breakfast the last day and if they'd like to do this again sometime....then saying OK lets just stay for the next cruise too. They are excited about the cruise for Spring Break....can't wait to see their faces when we let them in on the secret!

That's such a neat idea...I need to do it one day!

 

[ksloane]

Oh golly what a lovely thread

Yes 1st time secret keeper

we will check the boys out of schooll the thursday before school lets out for Christmas

No idea what we will do yet... looking for ideas. we leave on the 23rd and head to grandmas for Christmas day

I already picked up disney PJs for the kids

We missed the Friday before Christmas in 2007 and I surrised my daughter. It was a GREAT Christmas!

 

[preschoolmom]

Bumping up this old thread! Anyone in process of KOTS?

DH and I JUST decided to take the kids back for spring break - and we're going to surprise them. I've been Googling, watching videos on YouTube, and reading old threads to figure out exactly how we're going to pull it off.

I'd love to hear from any of you that KOTS for a trip, How did it go? Do you have video or pictures to share? Are you glad you surprised them?

I'm leaning toward decorating our van on the last day of school before break, and letting the kids come home and see it in the driveway.

Or, I might do something inside the house (for more privacy).

 

[Get me to Disney!]

I love watching the videos on YouTube too - they usually make me cry. We told our kids we were going to a wedding in GA. At first, we started to downplay the wedding but thought that would raise a flag so we started talking about the stuff we could do in GA and even looked up stuff to do. We had a fake wedding invitation sent to us in the mail - the whiole nine yards.....and they didn't have a clue. We got to the airport to fly out and we gave them each a letter that would be appropriate for their age. Starting with the oldest, they read their letters which would eventually lead them to the final letter and tell them that we were NOT going to a wedding but instead to Walt Disney World. It was one of the greatest parenting moves we ever made. How can you ever forget that your parents did that for you??? However you do it, it will be fantastic, I'm sure. I did learn of a family that made their own fortune cookies, put slips of paper that said that they were all going to Disney on them. They ordered in chinese one night and the surprisors told the surprisees to open their cookies all at the same time (kind of a game) and so they did. Imagine their suprise when they read that they were going to Disney!! Good luck to you - it's priceless. I recorded my video on a camera that doesn't upload but it was priceless!!

 

[preschoolmom]

I love watching the videos on YouTube too - they usually make me cry. We told our kids we were going to a wedding in GA. At first, we started to downplay the wedding but thought that would raise a flag so we started talking about the stuff we could do in GA and even looked up stuff to do. We had a fake wedding invitation sent to us in the mail - the whiole nine yards.....and they didn't have a clue. We got to the airport to fly out and we gave them each a letter that would be appropriate for their age. Starting with the oldest, they read their letters which would eventually lead them to the final letter and tell them that we were NOT going to a wedding but instead to Walt Disney World. It was one of the greatest parenting moves we ever made. How can you ever forget that your parents did that for you??? However you do it, it will be fantastic, I'm sure. I did learn of a family that made their own fortune cookies, put slips of paper that said that they were all going to Disney on them. They ordered in chinese one night and the surprisors told the surprisees to open their cookies all at the same time (kind of a game) and so they did. Imagine their suprise when they read that they were going to Disney!! Good luck to you - it's priceless. I recorded my video on a camera that doesn't upload but it was priceless!!

I can cry just thinking about surprising them! I'm narrowing down my ideas of how to do it - Maybe a treasure hunt through the house, ending with their backpacks loaded for the car with Disney Stuff. Maybe decorating the van. Maybe fortune cookies. I haven't decided for certain. I do know we'll surprise them on Friday night, and leave early Saturday morning - so they have a few hours to get used to the idea, and grab any last minute must haves.

 

[Minnesota!]

We are surprising our boys in 24 days!

Not quite sure how we are going to do it, yet. DH wants to do it the night before with a treasure hunt. I worry that they won't sleep that night and they will be bears.
Our flight is at 8am, so we will need to leave our house around 545. So not much time to do something fun, either.

Ideas?

 

[poohbear8]

It's funny this thread got bumped up today. I am waiting for the second part of my surprise to work for DD (14) today and the wait is killing me!!

Here's the frist part of the story:

DD hasn't been feeling well and I needed her to know she had to stay on top of her school work since I will be taking her out of school for 2 days for our trip. She knows I am taking her a friend next year to celebrate her early 16th birthday and the friend's 18th, but a trip this year was not planned since she is a freshman in high school.

I got the 2012 Unofficial Guide book and told her I had some reading material for her. She was on the computer, but turned around to look at me. She smiled when she saw the new book, thanked me, then typical teenager, returned to the computer. I started to tease her that she should start planning now, since it takes time to plan a Disney trip. I still wasn't getting too much response, so I asked her how long did she think she would need to plan a trip...her response, "I don't know mom, I'm busy now."

One final try: I asked her if she could plan her trip in less than 50 days? Her chair spun around and she asked, "WHAT, did you say?!". She very quickly put it all together and asked if we were going in 2011. When I told her yes, in November, she jumped up and started crying as she hugged me and thanked me.

I have surprised her before and it never gets old. (though was the hardest to make happen or so I thought)

So part two of the surprise arrived today from a friend. She typed up a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts for DD. I left it on the table with other mail she received today. She completely skipped over the letter! I finally decided to sort the mail and leave her letter right on top of her magazines. It's been there for over an hour now and she still hasn't noticed it.

As I was typing this, DD appeared and asked me to take her to a friend's house. As I was getting something in my bedroom I heard, "MOM!!!!!!!" I told her I'd be right there. : When I walked out, she was looking at the wax seal saying "I think it's Hogwarts". Once she figured out how to open the letter she was all smiles. Of course, she had to take it with her to show her friend. Another priceless moment with my DD!!

 

[AmandaRG]

We are surprising our girls with a 4-night cruise on the Dream, followed by 3 nights at WDW. They know that we have future trips planned, but they have been BEGGING to go on the Dream since we watched the christening. Well, we will be on the Dream for Halloween, and for 8 months we have kept the secret. Now we are trying to figure out exactly how to tell them.

We will arrive in PC the night before and have dinner at Rusty's at the port and watch the Magic sail away the day before. We will be staying in the same hotel, and will probably run into friends from the DIS either at dinner or the hotel.

I don't know exactly how to tell them that we are cruising now. They still wouldn't have a clue about the WDW trip.

 

[krd315]

new kots here...surprising our granddaughters in Jan for their 1st trip. We plan to pick them up from school, packed and ready to go to the airport...

 

[Graciesmom77]

This is such a great thread!!!!

The movies about surprising you're kids that are on Youtube should be outlawed! I am now officially addicted to them. So now on top of being obsessed about reading the disboards, and planning the trip, I have to find time to watch those amazing videos. Oh...... what a hard life I have......

We are surprising our girls on Dec. 14th, the night before we leave for our longest trip yet; 7 nights and 8 days. I can't wait and not telling them is killing me. My 10 year old is my Disney obsessed buddy and I can't believe I can't talk to her about this. Now I have to make my dh listen to all my plans and he politely smiles and nods, but he just doesn't get it. Gotta love him for trying.....

 

[poohbear8]

My 10 year old is my Disney obsessed buddy and I can't believe I can't talk to her about this. Now I have to make my dh listen to all my plans and he politely smiles and nods, but he just doesn't get it. Gotta love him for trying.....

This IS me also when I am KOTS. DD (14) and I now have an annual trip and DH doesn't get it, nor does he want to. He has "done" Disney with the family (when I knew very little about HOW to do Disney) and that was enough for him. DD on the hand can talk Disney with me non-stop. Our second trip was a total surprise and I had to keep that secret for exactly a year, until I picked her up from school and showed her a tshirt I had made that said, "Been there, Done That, and I'm going back!" She couldn't believe how many people knew she was going and no one had told her or let it slip!

 

[preschoolmom]

I don't know, I've been watching a ton of videos of Disney Surprises, and a lot of them don't seem to go very well

I'm still trying to decide the best way to surprise my kids... I booked our trip today!

 

[angela71401]

I am surprising my 4 year old and 7 year old, they will be 5 and 8 when we go. We will be leaving 4 days after Christmas, so I'm not sure how I will tell them yet. I don't know if we should tell them Christmas morning, since most of the presents are Disney related, or tell them the morning we leave and bring out a big box and tell them it was a forgotten gift and have their disney world bags with their autograph books, water bottles, snacks, activities to keep them busy in the car, and their "I'm going to Disney World" shirts in it. They know that we are eventually going back to Disney, so I think I can play off all the Disney related items they are going to be getting for Christmas.

 

[munchkinsmomma24]

Ahhh, I am so excited to go through all of this thread and see how everyone did their surprises.

We have a training conference in October in Orlando. We have one free weekend, and my mom decided to fly down, meet us, and take us to Magic Kingdom! My kids do NOT handle anticipation well. They end up practically in tears over waiting for Christmas and birthdays every year. Something like this would kill them. Plus I really want them to enjoy the first week of our conference without freaking out about the approaching weekend.

I'm not sure yet whether we will see my mom Friday night. If we do, the kids will be spending the night with her at All Star (at least the oldest 2). I am thinking about sending a package so she can decorate the room with balloons, Mickey confetti, and some little treats and "Welcome notes" from the characters. I have no idea if they will sleep that night! lol I am also thinking about getting my mom a Fairy Godmother shirt. I've already started telling them that the only way we could go to Disney is if we had a fairy godmother And either she will meet us at our conference with the shirt on and tell the kids/give them something to announce it, or we will arrive at All Star to drop them off, and her open the door in the shirt, and then see the room

We may not be going over to the hotel until Saturday morning, in which case we will probably do the reveal once we get to hotel, and I will just bring their dresses/Mickey shirts there and let them change before we head to MK. I am SO excited. I have a feeling my 8yr dd may say, "I knew it!" whether she really did or not, because she often says that when surprised. lol But my middle two will be completely shocked and overwhelmed.

I'm just hoping they won't figure out that Orlando is where Disney is, because they may get more suspicious!