We surprised the kids last Easter which was a little less than two weeks from when we were set to go. We gave them each a new Minnie hat, sunglasses and a new swimsuit and asked them where they thought we were going. They didn’t guess. They were excited when we told them, but not falling all over themselves or anything. I think, like someone else said, they didn’t really know what going to WDW meant. I told them two weeks out so my youngest (just turned 3 at the time) could get used to the idea of going on a plane etc. (the plane ride there was still a moderate disaster. Haha!).
We have another trip planned for this April and I’m going to tell them around 2 weeks out again. I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic this year because they ask all the time about going back to Disney. I’m not sure either of my kids would do well with a day-of surprise right now. DD6 is a real planner and DD3 needs time to warm up to things.
My wife and I surprised our two boys once. They knew we were going, but didn’t know when. Picked them up from school one day and said we needed to head to hotel for the night because our flight for WDW leaves early in the morning. Our youngest was in Kindergarten at the time and cried because his show and tell was the next day and now he was going to miss it. He got over it though and they were excited.
Our last trip we surprised them with where we were staying. Originally we had booked at POFQ, but a deal came along for AKL and we jumped at the chance. We made it all the way to the room, into the room without them knowing and when they found out we were staying there and could see the giraffes and other animals, it was a great moment.
We are going in may half term in UK 2018. We have to explain to kids why they have a rubbish Xmas present lol …and then doing a treasure hunt around the house finding the words we… are …going …to …Disney world in 6 months time. They have seen my planning books and see my head in them mist days… but I have told them we hope to go in 2 or 3 years time
Been saving for 3 years for this 2 week holiday but have come across a hurdle after reading trip advisor basically booking flight tickets via a untrustworthy 3rd party. …they change ticket dates… sometimes don’t send e tickets…my worst nightmare. Sometimes tickets are cheap on a promotion deal we got them in July but sometimes they are cheap for another reason! Tickets supposedly arriving November but I am not expecting it but want them for Xmas so I know I can reveal the secret I have kept since I booked our villa in Jan 2017 lol.
We surprised our two sons (then ages 10 and 9) the morning we left. We has stayed at a hotel near the airport and had told the boys were were driving cross state to the nearest Six Flags. The morning our flight left, we broke the news we were going to Disneyworld. I had expected them to jump and yell for joy, but I was treated to stunned silence. After a few minutes of disbelief, we showed them the tickets and also told them we were flying out (It was their first plane ride) and that we would be there in a matter of hours. It was then that the laughter and shouting began!
I considered surprising them, but to me the anticipation is half the fun. The kids had hours of fun You Tubing rides and googling hotels, etc. They helped pick restaurants, too, and looked through pictures of past trips.
In our case, my daughter was 4.5 and didn’t know the place existed. She knew we were going to Florida but that was it. We arrived on Main St. and she was happy with the Move It Shake It parade but had NO clue where we were. Then, once the parade passed we stood in the middle of the street and pointed towards the castle. She FREAKED out and thankfully we have it on video. She kept asking, is that Cinderella’s castle? Are we in her country? Are we going to see her? She was trembling, it was awesome
We go back for our second trip in three week but no surprise for her little brother since he knows about it. I thought about keeping the trip a surprise but it takes so much to plan etc that I figured I’d let them in on a little bit of it this go round.
My wife and I bought a Mickey stuffed animal, stickers, hats, etc. We told them we were going and we filmed it. They said ok. We looked at each other and then tried to explain it to them. They said ok, can we watch TV. My wife said, no you have to pack we are leaving tomorrow for Disney. When they saw us packaging, they got excited and finally believed we were actually going. Full disclosure, I told my kids I wanted to go hiking so we prepared to walk…I did not tell them that we will be hiking through MK.
Now a friend at work hired a guy on Fiverr to call with a Mickey impression to announce they were going and he said the kids were elated.
I’ve also heard of people just going and the kids notice once they pass the Disney World sign.
We are planning to surprise our kids (5 and 7) for the 1st time next week. We have done the countdowns the past 2x so we thought this would be something different. They have no idea whatsoever! The kids have a coffee can that they call the “Disney Fund”, that they are constantly putting loose change in. Last week it was filled up so they asked if we could go now, little do they know we have been planning this suprise trip for over 10 mos.!! We plan on waking them up very early in the morning and telling them then that we are leaving for the airport to go to Disney!
I’m going on June 10, 2020. That’s my twins 10th birthday. We are going to tell them I am coming home from work early on the 9th and we are going to take a long weekend at grandmama and granddaddy’s house. Before we leave, we will tell them they can open 1 present each for their birthday. It will be something Mickey or Minnie and probably have a Magic Band. We will point that out to them and ask when they want to go and make it seem like a spur of the moment deal where we say well let’s just go right now.
Here’s hoping it goes over well. I imagine their excitement and it makes me so get chills.
There are quite a few threads on this board, (search for the term “surpris” with no e to account for variations) and suggestions all over the web. There are formatted announcement letters in “disney” fonts, there are sites that will call your kids with character voices.
We just carved our pumpkins, this year, so that reminded me of this:
I just booked our next trip today! We are taking our 2 youngest kiddos (9 and 3) at the end of February! We plan on keeping it a complete surprise. I am sure that once we get to the airport and check in for a flight to Orlando the oldest of the 2 will surely figure it out! Very exciting. Last trip was hubby and I earlier this year. The last time the kiddos went was Spring Break 2016.
We are going in two weeks (EEEEK!!!) and haven’t told our kids (DS7, DD4 - infant is staying home with grandparents!). I plan to pick them up at school/daycare and head to the airport - telling them we are meeting Daddy for dinner. Hoping they don’t ask too many questions! Haha. Daddy will be heading to the airport straight from work and will meet us there. The plan is to hand them homemade “tickets” that say we are going to Disney and hope for the best.
The airport is 1 hour from our house. We told our granddaughter (10yrs old) that we had to pick up my sister at the airport. (Which we have done before) We asked her if she would like to come with us and afterwards we would go out for lunch.
We knew she would say yes. We had all our luggage hidden in the back of the truck.
Once at the airport, my wife and her started walking to the airport while I got the video camera going. I called the back to the truck and told her that my sister was not coming. Her face had a very confused look on it. Then we said “instead we are going to WDW” Of course she did not believe us until we opened the back of the truck to expose all of luggage.
To use a cliché ‘Her expression was priceless’
It was well worth the months of secrecy and planning. I still get emotional thinking about it.
I think surprises are a lot better than months of anticipation.
We stayed at paradise pier with the concierge. It was fun and worth it since there was 5 of us in 5 the room. Let me know if you have any questions. I just got back from a quick weekend and we are going back for a longer trip In January.
We’ve started a tradition of going to WDW each year around the holidays…so we don’t try to surprise them lol…plus they LOVE the countdown and taking part in planning.
BUT we did pull off a total surprise with an end-of-summer trip to Disneyland! We’d never gone there and they had NO idea…we happened upon a ridiculously cheap JetBlue flash fare…and that w/ my TA discount at Disneyland Hotel made it impossible to pass up. We told them daddy had to go to Phoenix for work…and we were going to be able to tag along. We just told them about 2 days prior…just so we’d have an explanation for waking them up early for the flight. We waited till we got to the airport and parked, then they had a surprise in their bags (lanyards w/ a Disney GC and printed park ticket…). They were super excited!
We are doing it in two weeks. Originally told them we were going but then after they had a rough week of not listening and whining about their chores, we told them we cancelled the trip (but… I didn’t just in case). Two months later they have been angelic and we leave next Friday. We will pick them up from school and then start driving while they think we are headed to a soccer tournament for my older son…going to see how far we can get before they realize. It’s our first time driving instead of flying and we’ve got ten hours in the car! Hope we can make it at least 4-5 and then somehow TBD we will tell them.
I did buy the disney trivia game and thought I might start reading questions and see how long it takes them to figure it out. Maybe get them into a rhythm and then make a ‘question’ “Where are we REALLY headed?”
Surprised the kids 3 times:
1st time just with my oldest when he was 5. He thought we were just going to watch planes at the airport (gullible). I slipped the ticket agent our tickets and asked her questions about affording a flight to Orlando. She winked and said there was room on a plane leaving shortly. I asked him if he wanted to go to Disney right then and he went nuts!
2nd time, oldest was in on it but 5 year old twins thought they were taking me to the airport for business trip. At the airport I said I didnt want to go to FL without them and wanted to take them with me right then to Disney. 5:30am so all i got were blank stares:slight_smile:
3rd time: just took the twins (10y/o) since oldest was at college. They opened rather boring Christmas presents but said they understood $$ was tight that year. Then I wheeled out 3 new suitcases and handed them out. They had to open them to see what was inside to show them where were going. Oldest got trip to NYC. Twins opened numbered presents to reveal a trip to warm weather, then Universal then Disney. But wouldnt tell them WHEN we were going. I packed their suitcases and hid them. Then a day in Feb, while kids were home for snow day, had them help me pull suitcases out of the attic and told them to get showered and ready to head to the airport. Lots of excitement on that day!
They were excited when we told them, but not falling all over themselves or anything. I think, like someone else said, they didn’t really know what going to WDW meant. I told them two weeks out so my youngest (just turned 3 at the time) could get used to the idea of going on a plane etc. (the plane ride there was still a moderate disaster. Haha!).