Telling the kids

[momtoaacm]

We have 3 children DS12 DS11 and DD2. What is a creative way to tell them we are going? I want that to be part of the excitement for the older kids.

[faline]

Others have reported doing scavenger hunts, creating videos, and telling them they were going to a destination other than Disney World while waiting for them to discover the "real" destination.

[Soph and Han's Mom]

i can't remember if i got this idea from intercot or not, but my husband and i did it a few years ago and my girls still talk about it.

i got 4 chineese take out type boxes from michael's and put clues about each park in a different box. for example...i put a golf ball in the 'epcot box', a pair of star shaped sunglasses in the 'mgm box', plastic animals in the 'animal kingdom box' etc...they had to lay them all on the table and figure out what they all had in common. it took them about 10 minutes, but they finally figured it out! it was really fun!

last year we surprised them by waking them up out of a dead sleep at 5am to the recording of the monorail spiel (you can find it online) and told them to hurry up so we could catch the monorail. that was fun too!

as you can tell, we like to surprise the girls with disney trips...so much so that they don't believe me when i say we're not going this year! they say 'sure mom...that's what we always hear'! just booked our trip for this summer last week...may actually let them in on it this time so they can help plan!

good luck!

[javamama]

Our kids don't know either that their going this year, I have no idea how to tell them at 6 1/2 and 3 3/4's. I love the take out boxes, mine are still too little for that. I came up with one idea having the pilot help me out once we're in the air/or even on the ground here in Chicago. I figure they help with proposals, so maybe they'll help two little kids too. I'll have to ask my pilot friends/or even flt attendants. Other than that one I'm clueless still.

[faline]

i got 4 chineese take out type boxes from michael's and put clues about each park in a different box. for example...i put a golf ball in the 'epcot box', a pair of star shaped sunglasses in the 'mgm box', plastic animals in the 'animal kingdom box' etc...they had to lay them all on the table and figure out what they all had in common. it took them about 10 minutes, but they finally figured it out! it was really fun!

I hadn't heard of this one before! Very cool!

[PETE FROM NYC]

A few years back, my brother and his wife brought their daughter to WDW for her first trip at age 4. When they planned their next trip a year later, they did not tell the rug rat anything until the morning they left. They simply woke her up, told her to get dressed in a hurry so they would not miss their flight.
WDW has since been an annual event.

[Brooklynos]

We are surprising our little sister (15) and brother (12) in two weeks. They think we are going to Alabama for a week but we are going to stop at a rest stop that has a help desk, give the woman/man working the desk a bag with their Mickey ears, touring book and park maps, have the kids go ask for some information and then have them open the bag with us video taping it.... It's going to be awesome!!!!

[Wishmaker]

My DH and I did a scavager hunt with DD one year. With each clue on the back was a letter. Once she found all the clues she had to unscramble all the letters to find where it is that we were going. It was very fun.

[Dsnygirl]

We also did a scavenger hunt... each clue was a rhyme & sent them room to room and even out of the house, the final clue bringing them back to our Magic Kingdom board game. Inside, was a gift for each of them (a WDW kid's book) and a word search. When they finished the word search, there were letters left, and when put together, they spelled out "we're going to Disneyworld!!" They loved it, and I couldn't belive they didn't get it right away, when they got the books!! (This surprise was about a month away, we told them early b/c of school events they were going to miss, and we thought they'd want to know that ahead of time)

Our next trip, we aren't telling them until the night before... we will most likely fly out of an airport about an hour away, as their prices have been WAY cheaper... so we'll spend the night at a hotel nearby, as our flight would probably leave VERY early the next morning. I'm thinking we'll tell them we're staying there on our way to visit Grandma, and of having a Disney cookie bouquet delivered to the room.... and have the surprise in the cookies.

(My DH wondered about the whole packing thing... I told him I'd let them pack their own clothes, as they'll be 9 and 12... and then I'll re-pack their suitcases the day before with Florida clothes, and put them in my car so they can't get to them w/o me knowing about it. )

Have fun surprising them... I can't wait!

[eandrsmom]

We aren't telling our kids either. We're going to check them out of school early on a Friday, to go to the "dentist". I'm then going to say that I need to go home to let the dog out before we go to the "dentist". I'll tell them that we have some errands to run afterwards, so they should change out of their school clothes. I'll have shorts and Disney shirts ready for them to change into. Hopefully they'll put two and two together and figure it out pretty quickly.

[eandrsmom]

We aren't telling our kids either. We're going to check them out of school early on a Friday, to go to the "dentist". I'm then going to say that I need to go home to let the dog out before we go to the "dentist". I'll tell them that we have some errands to run afterwards, so they should change out of their school clothes. I'll have shorts and Disney shirts ready for them to change into. Hopefully they'll put two and two together and figure it out pretty quickly.

[mom2morgan]

Great thread! I was coming here to ask exactly this - only I want to surprise both my daughter AND my husband!! Ironically my 17 year old already knows- I had to make sure that I mesh it with an international trip she's taking with a friend's family - so the two of us are excited about surprising the others :-)

[joonyer]

We always drive to WDW and one year we just told the boys we were going "camping" (which we did a lot of anyway) in Florida, and had the car already loaded when we picked them up from school. They didn't figure it out (although they were suspicious, until we got onto WDW property. Boy, were they excited and surprised when we "camped" at Wilderness Lodge.

[disneyworld55925592]

We were never surprised the morning of but close to the trip when I was a bit younger my parents went into my sisters room and mine, they changed the screensavers on our computers to "what did the quarterback say after he won the superbowl?" When we got home from school we both went to our rooms and saw the screensavers. We yelled "Im going to disney world!"