So proud of you!!! All of your hard work, prayers, and constant checking paid off!!!
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Settling in with my fuzzy blanket & cup of hot chocolate and following along. Love your story telling style!
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I see you’ll be visiting the delightful Fort Wilderness! (That’s my favorite!) If you find that the kids need some time to run around like wild things and blow off some steam after the Laugh Floor but before your Hoop Dee Doo ADR, there is a playground located by the marina at Ft Wilderness. There is also the Tri Circle D Farm (non-petting zoo) & the horse barns where the parade, carriage & trolley horses are kept. This is located just past Hoop Dee Doo/Pioneer Hall.
Part 5: Not All Surprises are Good
Did you know that some kids cry when their parents tell them they’re going to Disney? And not tears of joy.
“I wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese."
“I wanted to go to Pennsylvania, not Florida!”
“But I’m supposed to go to school today."
Actual things said by actual children when their parents told them they were taking them to Disney.
We wanted to surprise our kids with this big trip, but until I saw these videos, I hadn’t thought clearly through how do it well so that I didn’t end up becoming the parent yelling at his kids in Burger King: “BE GRATEFUL. WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY!"
Step 1: Create awareness.
Before this year, our kids weren’t even aware that there was a place of wonder and magic on this planet called Walt Disney World.
As we were watching a Disney movie together one day and Cinderella’s castle popped on the screen at the very beginning, I innocently asked, “Would you like to go there one day?"
They were totally non-plussed. “Where? The castle? You can’t go to the castle.”
I knew we had a problem.
I also realized that our youngest, not yet 3, didn’t even know who the older Disney characters and princesses were. For literally half of her life Frozen has been on near constant rotation in our house, so unless you’re from Arendelle, she couldn’t care less about you.
We started systematically going through all of our Disney and Pixar films for family movie nights. We soon discovered that a few of the more recent Blu-rays - Cinderella, The Little Mermaid - have bonus features on New Fantasyland at a couple of different stages in its development.
I would innocently let these play after the family film finished up. The girls were fascinated.
At one point in one of these features, Jodi Benson’s daughter is describing her favorite part of the new Under the Sea attraction. DD6 looked on with awe and whispered: “That would be my favorite part, too."
Win.
Step 2: Build Anticipation.
One of the really special things about holidays and special trips that’s lost when you make a Disney trip a surprise is the sense of anticipation that builds as you count down the days.
I knew that I had to figure out another way to build expectation and get the kids looking forward to the trip. Besides, they were going to wonder what the deal was when we started packing.
The one key thing I learned from the Disney surprises gone wrong, however, is that if you’re going to surprise your children with a Disney trip…
Step 3: Don’t Tell a Lie.
A lot of kids need need time to process and don’t do well with spontaneity. They often get excited about the thing promised and can’t switch from that expectation, even when the reality (a trip to freakin’ DISNEY WORLD) is better than thing you told them you were going to do (Chuck E. Cheese… meh).
I needed to figure out a way to build anticipation and not tell a lie in the process.
The Set Up
We decided that since our family was helping us with this trip as a Christmas gift, they needed to be involved in the big reveal. Both my and my wife’s parents live an hour or so from us, thankfully on the way to Orlando from Memphis, so it was an easy decision: the big reveal happens at the grandparents.
Till then, however, the girls have been getting anonymous letters in the mail.
I went to a local crafts shop and bought a cheap calligraphy pen and parchment along with some gold letter-sealing wax. Letter one arrived a couple of weeks ago, in my mind written from the Princesses at Akershus (the big dinner we have planned our first night in WDW.)
Well, DD8 was all over it. She loves “mysteries” and immediately started trying to decipher the handwriting and calling family members to interrogate them. DD6, however, was less interested. And both of them just assumed that they were having dinner in Tupelo (their grandparents’ home). The letter was a little too vague.
So I had to send another a week or so later that was much clearer. In similar writing, it said explicitly “Pack your bags, you’re going on a trip!” and “Hint: your final destination is NOT Tupelo."
So now they look at both letters almost everyday, trying to figure out who could’ve sent the letters and where we could possibly be going.
“The lettering. The wax seal. That’s the way kings and queens write. It looks like royalty,” I said, but they still think we’re going to an aunt’s house or something.
Anyway, there will be a scavenger hunt Sunday afternoon at their grandparents house with autograph books, mouse ears and finally magic bands to unwrap.
One week left. One week. I know which kid in our family is having the most fun with this trip so far…
Me. DH37.
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My DS6 is not a napper, and he is an early riser no matter how late he stays up. However, we managed to wear him out well enough that by our 5th day which was to be MNNSHP (with a late night planned) I was able to get him to lie down with me and he actually welcomed it. And slept like a log for about 2 hours! So there is hope for the anti-nap warriors. There is tired, and then there is Disney tired!
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That is great to know @catdrj. Gives me hope that my kids will sleep on our long long day. Thanks.
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The other thing I’ll say- you have a good amount of character dining planned, which I think helps to decrease the need for kids to stop at every meet & greet they run across. Getting autograph books filled while you eat instead of waiting in the lines…that’s priceless!
And BTW, the food at Chef Mickey’s I find to be decent. Nothing spectacular, but good enough, and the character interaction is what you’re really paying for. The kids love it because we don’t do a lot of buffets at home and they have fun picking what they want and going back for more of what they like.
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this is ADORABLE!
and I’m the one having the most fun so far too. 
I was so excited, there was no lead up, no build up, just me blurting out, WE"RE GOING TO DISNEY!! then skipping around the house doing the vacation dance, fists pumping in the air, whilst the girls looked at each other with the ‘mum’s gone crazy again’ look that they often get.
Looking forward to the next installment.
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Two words: Awe. Some.!!!
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This gave me chills! What a great idea - you are truly gifted in this! Your girls are going to be over the MOON! Congrats DH37 
- you nailed this whole thing so far and I just know it is going to be a memory making trip that your whole family is going to cherish!! I’m SO EXCITED for you all! 
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Definitely the most important thing. Most of the “Disney reveal fail” videos involve a child who thnks they were going one place and cannot cope with the change in plans. Even if, as you said, the change is going to WDW instead of Chuckie Cheese…
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I love the idea of a scavenger hunt. Do your girls understand then significance of the magic bands? My 5 yr old who has been part of the planning process for her first trip since I started planning in August, has no idea what a magic band is or represents. She would think it was just a pretty bracelet. Would the mouse ears be more representative of a trip to Disney to your daughters than the magic bands? Do you have physical tickets to Disney or just the confirmation numbers linked to MDE? If you have the cards, they would be a great addition to your scavenger hunt.
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Great report! I’m enjoying them very much.
Between massive clickety-clicking ADRs and the avoiding of surprises and mystery letters, I think you and I have been on parallel Disneyfication and plannification paths.
We just returned from our 2nd family trip, not expecting to afford another after last year’s Lawrence of Arabia-like trek to the Kingdom (“Akershus, from the land!”) but decided to use the help of Disney Visa’s 6 month reprieve.
I have been hoping to string enough time together to get my own trip report going, but I think for now I’ll just keep reading yours.
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This is brilliant! I never would have thought about anything like this. Your girls are lucky to have such an amazing daddy!
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Here’s a surprise-gone-wrong story for you (well, not THAT wrong, but still funny.) DD and I had been to WDW two times when she was 5 and 6, and she said that she wanted the next trip to be a surprise. She’s usually not so good with surprises, and MUCH happier with knowing things ahead of time, seeing images so she knows what to expect, being involved in the planning, etc. But she asked for a surprise, so I prepared one.
It was a Friday. She was in first grade. I picked her up early, she came out of school, I said – surprise, we’re going to Disney World, like right now! Let’s hop in the car and go! Her first reaction was to jump in the air and squeal. Then, all of five seconds later, her second reaction was to start sobbing. They were watching the Wizard of Oz in class, it was the first time she had ever seen it, and I had interrupted her in the middle of the movie. Sigh. After about ten minutes she calmed down, settled into her seat and watched her surprise movie in the car – Lilo and Stitch, with a new little Stitch stuffy (followed a few days later by our very first character meal – Ohana with Lilo and Stitch.) 
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I am seriously loving your report already and you haven’t even started the trip yet! I thoroughly enjoy “The Plan”!!! Cannot wait to hear more!!!
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No, probably not. We may make the ears the last gift… along with a Birnbaum’s guide for Kids for DD8. I will actually need to write one more letter that goes with the last gift that is super clear.
“There is a place where you can dine in the Beast’s castle and go under the sea with Ariel. It’s called New Fantasyland. You’re going there. You can have dinner with the princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall. You’re going to Walt Disney World… right now.”
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This made me smile… love it: the movie + the Stitch stuffy + Ohana? Awesome.
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