Suggestions for Surprise Upgrade

[Skiiiii]

I will be staying at Disney's AKL this August with my DGF. She is under the impression that we will be staying at PoP Century but I decided to pay the difference and surprise her with an upgrade. I want to be able to maintain the surprise as long as I can and know this may be a problem when we are putting on our magical express tags ( which I can put off til the day of).

Last time we stayed at CSR and I did the same thing and it worked out great b/c CSR and POP were on the same Magical Express bus line, so I made up a story saying the tag says "CSR" because that is the name of the bus line. Needless to say she was very surprised when I said "this is our stop" at CSR.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do this time to keep the surprise??

Thanks a lot!

[BelleKP]

I tried to do the same thing when I traveled to the world with my best friend. She thought we were staying at Pop and I had upgraded us to PoFQ. Everything was going well until the guy at the ticket counter asked us where we were staying. She answered Pop and I was unsure or not whether they needed a specific place so I blurted out "Actually we're staying at the French Quarter!" Wasn't exactly how I planned on telling her, but it was still a fun surprise.
Sooo, as a suggestion, instead of waiting until you get there, why don't you surprise her with the upgrade at the airport. When you go to the check in line, give her a card with the luggage tags inside . . .
Whatever you decide to do, she's a very lucky girl!!
Have a great time!

[TammiMcMan]

You could always say that you are heading to the AKL before checking into the Pop because you booked a dining reservation there and won't have time to check in first.

Sometimes the power of suggestion just takes over. We surprised or kids one year and they were 8 and 13 at the time. We told them we were going to Pennsylvania to see their sister at college. We actually got them through the airport and onto the plane, without them realizing we were headed to Florida. My 8 year old panicked when the pilot came on and announced the flight time to Orlando, she thought we had gotten on the wrong plane .

[Patricia]

I agree you may need to surprise her before or at the airport. It seems the airlines are all now asking for an address at the other end of your flight. You may want to call ahead and find this out before hand.

If they won't be asking for that information, tell her the Magical Express (ME) tags didn't arrive. You can skip using the tags and pick up the luggage off the belt yourself. Now, you have all your bags.. find a bench by the ME area and have her sit with all those bags while you go stand in line for ME. This way she doesn't overhear where your going at the counter.

If you have to tell her before or at the airport, maybe buy a little zebra (or any animal they have at AKL. Toys R Us will have a good selection if your not offended by plastic) figurine and tell her it's a little gift to remember her upcoming trip by (see if she can guess) or play 20 questions in the car ... or a scavenger hunt with paper clues to help her guess where she is staying. You can do this in the car too, hiding clues in the glove box, cup holders, visors or even her own purse.

Make it fun and she'll be surprised.

[MW1218]

First off, great job! This will be a wonderful surprise whenever you decide to spring it on them. Last February I surprised my fiancee with an upgrade from Pop Century to the Animal Kingdom Lodge club level for her birthday. I actually gave her the surprise ahead of time...by sending her a letter from Mickey!

[DizneyRox]

The ME bus lines are pretty clearly marked when you get on. If it were me, I'd spring for a limo to the resort, you would be able to keep the secret a lot longer. You can do a one-way to the resort and do ME on the way back, or both ways if you wanted.

We prefer limo over ME any day of the week, twice on Sundays!

[wdw538884]

Did something very similiar awhile back with a surprise visit to The Contemporary. I put a trivia question in an envelope every day starting 14 days before our arrival date. The last trivia envelope asked the question where would we be staying and the correct answer was Contemporary. She then had the plane ride to read up on the information and pictures of the contemporary that I had put in the envelope Went over wvery well