Shhhh...It's a surprise!!!

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

We are a Disney family.
DS has a birthday coming up and we are suprising him with....You guessed it...A trip to Disney!!!
We aren't telling him until December on his birthday... This is harder than I thought Nothing to see here...Just making ADRs Nothing to see here. DH just made scuba reservations Nothing to see here...Go clean your room....

So Dear Wise Dis-Ers...
What are some of your best reveals?
Stories, pictures, and video welcome!

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

We surprised my kids on my DD's 7th bday (well, the surprise was mostly for DD as DS was 20 months and didn't really know what was going on). It was both of the kids' as well as DH's first trip. I had gone out and bought her several gifts that I had hoped would be clues that we were going to Disney, as well as be useful things for the trip. I found an American Tourister suitcase that had a fireworks design on it that said on the tag "Official Luggage of Walt Disney World." Inside, I had wrapped Disney themed gifts like a character bathing suit, sunglasses, Disney World shirt, photo album and frame, autograph book, Disney guidebook/ journal for kids, old school Disney World Barbie, planning DVD, map, and calendar with our dates circled. Other relatives gave her Disney gift cards. She liked it all but was pretty oblivious.

Meanwhile, we had snuck a present onto the porch and had someone knock on the door. She went out and found a card with Minnie on it saying "Happy Birthday! See ya real soon! Love, Mickey, Minnie, and the gang." There was also a small plush vanilla-scented cupcake with a mini tsumtsum attached to it. She thought it was neat that the characters had sent her a present, but still didn't really understand. Finally, I gave her a postcard that a lovely lady here on the boards had sent her from Disney from Mickey and the gang. It said, "We can't wait to meet you on your first trip to Disney World! Love, Mickey, Minnie (& the rest)" She read it, looked confused, read it again, then almost whispered, "We're going to Disney World?" Then yelled, "Oh my gosh, we're going to Disney World!" It was great! When we went to Disney, she even thanked Mickey for his gift and the bday card and postcard. He of course went right along with it, putting his hand over his heart like he was touched she remembered and giving her a huge hug. It totally helped to reinforce that magic for her.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

LongLive Rafiki...I love this and was thinking something similar. He has the luggage from our last cruise but I've already started pulling together some of the other items...The autograph book is a great idea.
What journal did you get?

Thank you!

 

[Michelle James]

We have a Disney cruise booked for January and it's a Christmas gift for DS6. We have a character call from Mickey scheduled for about 10:00 Christmas morning! Sure wish that they did those for the resort trips too.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

LongLive Rafiki...I love this and was thinking something similar. He has the luggage from our last cruise but I've already started pulling together some of the other items...The autograph book is a great idea.
What journal did you get?

Thank you!

It was Tim Foster's Guide to the Magic for kids. I believe I bought it on Amazon. It has fun facts, pics, and info about all off the rides and attractions, spots to rate and make notes about each one, pages for stamps from the WS countries, signatures, stickers, etc, as well as several pages of journal questions to write about your trip. DD really enjoyed looking through it before the trip as well as spending a few mins each night of the trip writing in it.

 

[Wayland10]

We told the kids we were going to my sister's to decorate her Christmas tree. New sparkly backpacks and grown-up suitcases were hidden in the trunk. When we were done with the tree, the Uber my sister had secretly called pulled up at the door and my mother said, "You know, I don't feel like going home yet. How about if we just go to Disney World?" Me, my kids, my sister and my parents all piled on and headed to the airport! Once we got my kids to stop running in circles and screaming!

 

[lookame]

As much as I want to keep a secret until the day we leave...I can't. Next month we're going to surprise our kids. We've been cooking out with my brother and sister in law this summer and doing game night. So the next time we cook out it'll be disney themed foods and my husband and I are making a disney themed trivia game. At the end will be a prize which is the trip (along with a packed bookbag and luggage...or maybe that could be the surprise the day day before we leave...)

 

[Pamlico]

We are going on our first Disney trip this October. Somehow I’ve managed to keep it a surprise from my DD 7 and DS 4. My husband makes scavenger hunts for the kids with clues leading them to the next clue sometimes to keep them occupied on rainy days so we are going to one of these for them with the end prize being some shirts that say “I can’t keep calm I’m going to Disney”. We just don’t know if we’re going to do it the night before we leave or give the. Some lead up time with a countdown calendar.
I love reading all these reveals. I can’t wait!

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

Wow! These are some great ideas! This is for DS's birthday. So, we plan on giving it to him on his birthday which is a month before we leave on the trip. Gives him a little prep time.

I have pajamas and am considering other small Disney things (autograph book, pins for his lanyard, etc--although I don't know what the etc is yet)

I thought about putting red, black, and yellow balloons in a box, wrapping the box, and at the end of the balloons have "We're going to Disney World!"

Pamlico, I love the t-shirt idea...where did you find those????

 

[Pamlico]

Pamlico, I love the t-shirt idea...where did you find those????

There are some good ones on Etsy. I found some by the seller PixieDustDesignCo that I decided to go with (I love Mickey with sunglasses lol).

 

[ame6405]

We are surprising our kids with a Halloween trip. It IS so much harder than I thought. My husband is dead set on getting them to the AIRPORT before we tell them, but I am not sure we will make it that far. We have 64 days to go, so I am gathering and organizing and planning. They know I am working on a "project," but we'll see how much longer that lasts. They are 12, 10, and 5. The 12yo will figure it out, but will also not admit he's figured it out (Santa and the Tooth Fairy still visit him). I am not sure about our 10yo and I think we can pull it off for the 5yo. Our biggest hurdle is the Halloween costumes! We are always last minute homemade costume people and they were really suspicious when we bought costumes and were all set for Halloween by mid August. I told them they sell out like winter coats at LLBean . Good luck with your secret keeping!!

 

[adamak]

I surprised my 7 yr old last year TWICE! Aulani and WDW in a year. DH and I planned the Hawaii trip for over a year and didn't say 1 word to DS. The Northeaster storm almost destroyed our plan. Woke DS up at 4 am and told him we're heading to chess camp (spring break). He didn't suspect anything (we took subway to airport). Once at the airport, we surprised him saying we're going to chess camp in Atlanta (layover). He totally believed it. When in Atlanta, I asked him where he would rather be. He actually said Hawaii (we've been there 3 years ago). So we pretend to look at the monitor and head to the gate 'to wave at the Hawaiian plane'. And then I showed him the boarding pass. He flipped out.

And later in the year, we had a 5 day weekend and decided to do a last min WDW trip. Had to pack secretly at night after he went to bed. Sneak out the Mickey T-shirt from his drawer...etc. Took him to the airport and he thought we were going to Hawaii again. I told him we're 'only' going to Orlando (he didn't know WDW is in Orlando). When we landed, he was like, why is there a Magic Express bus lane...wait a minute...

I think I'm done lying to my child. It's really fun though.

 

[dhardawa]

We surprised my kids on my DD's 7th bday (well, the surprise was mostly for DD as DS was 20 months and didn't really know what was going on). It was both of the kids' as well as DH's first trip. I had gone out and bought her several gifts that I had hoped would be clues that we were going to Disney, as well as be useful things for the trip. I found an American Tourister suitcase that had a fireworks design on it that said on the tag "Official Luggage of Walt Disney World." Inside, I had wrapped Disney themed gifts like a character bathing suit, sunglasses, Disney World shirt, photo album and frame, autograph book, Disney guidebook/ journal for kids, old school Disney World Barbie, planning DVD, map, and calendar with our dates circled. Other relatives gave her Disney gift cards. She liked it all but was pretty oblivious.

Meanwhile, we had snuck a present onto the porch and had someone knock on the door. She went out and found a card with Minnie on it saying "Happy Birthday! See ya real soon! Love, Mickey, Minnie, and the gang." There was also a small plush vanilla-scented cupcake with a mini tsumtsum attached to it. She thought it was neat that the characters had sent her a present, but still didn't really understand. Finally, I gave her a postcard that a lovely lady here on the boards had sent her from Disney from Mickey and the gang. It said, "We can't wait to meet you on your first trip to Disney World! Love, Mickey, Minnie (& the rest)" She read it, looked confused, read it again, then almost whispered, "We're going to Disney World?" Then yelled, "Oh my gosh, we're going to Disney World!" It was great! When we went to Disney, she even thanked Mickey for his gift and the bday card and postcard. He of course went right along with it, putting his hand over his heart like he was touched she remembered and giving her a huge hug. It totally helped to reinforce that magic for her.

This seriously brought tears to my eyes.

 

[Momtastic]

We are also planning our first trip to WDW in October and we are trying to keep it secret from the kiddos (boy/girl twins age 6 and dd age 4). That is not an easy task! (Mom, why are you looking at Mickey Mouse on your computer? Mom, that place you are looking at looks fun, can we go there?? ). Nothing, mommy’s just looking at some boring stuff that you wouldn’t be interested in at all....

I’ll admit, we are keeping it a secret more for our own sanity than for any special reaction from the kids. Our kids tend to get a little over-excited about upcoming trips and will talk and obsess over it daily if we tell them more than a day or two in advance.

We were just planning on telling them the morning we leave, but some of these ideas are so cute, I may have to reconsider! My husband also likes to make treasure hunts for the kids. We could make a treasure hunt the night before leading up to their packed luggage with a note from Mickey and Minnie telling them that they can’t wait to see them tomorrow.

Thanks for the ideas!!

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

These are great. I'm thinking about a big box with yellow, black, and red balloons coming out of it. Who knows, that could change. I just need him to have something to open on his birthday.

Luckily, everything is pretty much planned-meals, hotel, etc. Just need to take care of fast passes next.

When do our magic bands get here? Oh the planning!

 

[gulliesmom]

We are surprising our 13 and 11 year-olds with a trip for Thanksgiving. This is a very special trip, as it coincides with the one year anniversary of their grandpa's (my dad's) passing. I really wanted us to be away and enjoying being together, rather than home and feeling sad. I went back and forth about telling them vs. surprising, and in the end, I have decided to wait until the night before we leave. We are flying out Tuesday 11/20 and have to be up around 4 am so I figured I would tell them the night before. I am trying to figure out the best way to surprise them. Both have birthdays end of October/early November and this will also be a birthday gift. My son is also celebrating his Bar Mitzvah on November 10th , so I figured I would just tell them that we are not celebrating birthdays this year due to the big Bar Mitzvah celebration. I am thinking the night before we leave, I will wrap the magic bands and tell them that I have one birthday gift for both of them that arrived late, and have them open it. I am pretty sure they will be SHOCKED since they would not expect us to go away right after the Bar Mitzvah like that. Hoping it goes over well. The tricky part is keeping it a secret from the rest of the family when we see everyone two weeks before at the Bar Mitzvah celebration.

 

[CourtneyKaro]

We are surprising the kids with a Christmas trip from Santa this year. We plan to visit Santa someplace will have prearranged for Santa to slip the kids an envelope to be opened in the car (didn’t want other kids in line to overhear or see anything and feel bad because they wouldn’t be getting anything) the envelope will contain an address and tell us to go their and talk to the person inside for a big surprise, it will lead us to a hotel near the airport where the front desk person will direct my kids to the room we have reserved, where dad will have already checked in and placed the final surprises, some wrapped present (luggage, clothes, autograph books etc) after opening the presents they will open one final envelope which will contain our itinerary for our trip and our magic bands etc. It is killling us to keep it all a secret!! My DD will have just turned 14 and my DS is 8 by the way.

 

[MinnieMyers]

We are also on the surprise train. We wanted input from our kids (10,6,6,5) so we told them we would be going in June, when actually it is Jan!

 

[gulliesmom]

We are also on the surprise train. We wanted input from our kids (10,6,6,5) so we told them we would be going in June, when actually it is Jan!

Ooh I like that. It's funny b/c my 12 year-old randomly mentioned the other day "If we every go back to Disney I really want to stay at The Polynesian". We are staying at Grand Floridian. I am sure he will get over his "disappointment" quickly, LOL.

 

[DisneynBison]

I had a hard time getting my daughter to believe me when her Mom and I surprised her with a trip with me: