We are taking a Disney Cruise with my parents this coming June and have added on a couple days at WDW while staying at AKL. We will be telling the kids about the cruise at Christmas, as it is their joint Christmas gift from us and our parents.
So, do we tell them about WDW then, too, or wait? Kids are DD7, DD4, and DS2 by time of trip. This will be their first trip all together to WDW—DD7 went when she was 11mo but obviously doesn’t remember that.
If we surprise them, the kids will know we are taking a plane for the cruise and we will tell them that we are staying in Orlando for a few days before leaving for the cruise. The kids have seen footage of the parks before, watched AK on Disney, and I’ve let them see planning videos by DFB and All Ears, etc (they play in the background on my phone sometimes). So they wouldn’t be unfamiliar with the idea of the parks or different attractions that would interest them, and they would know to expect a plane ride. DD7 likes to know what to expect and what the plan is, but I also think she may figure it out almost as soon as we get on the plane.
Another option would be to tell them about WDW but keep the hotel a secret—DD7 wants to be an elephant keeper at AK when she grows up.
Personally? I think the idea of the surprise puts a lot of pressure on the surprise itself…but letting them know ahead of time let’s them get excited about it.
I’ve always hated surprises. But some people love them. So ultimately it comes down whether your kids would prefer the surprise, or prefer knowing.
I like the idea of saving the hotel as the surprise.
You could also just let your DD7 in on the WDW part of the trip and surprise your younger two the day of. Since they are still small they likely won’t want to be involved with a ton of planning but your oldest could feel really special getting to be in on the secret and helping with the planning and helping reveal the news to her brother and sister.
My only concern is her accidentally telling her sister! But, she could have fun with this too, so I’ll definitely consider it.
If we go through with the surprise, I won’t lie to them (tell them we are going to one destination when we’re going to WDW). I’d likely set it up so we’re going to Orlando and spending time at a “surprise/mystery location” and drop clues to them. DD7 does love puzzles like this.
I’d give her a generic schedule of the days so she would still know “we’re waking up early this day, eating lunch around here, taking a break here,” etc. Then I’d have a touring plan printed for her to give to her after the reveal.
I’d also likely involve her in planning by letting her watch planning videos with me and saying “if we ever go to Disney would you want to do this or that?” And so on.
Definitely not an “out of the blue” surprise (that would backfire a lot) and they’d already be expecting the Disney cruise!
I agree with @ryan1 (). Surprises can be fun for some people but stressful for others. And it may not be as exciting for them as you’re expecting. So it’s a risk.
But a small surprise like which hotel you’re staying at seems like it would be safe.
Oh, that brings back memories of DD then 8. My brother and I picked the kids up afterschool with the van packed for the drive to Disneyland for a long weekend. They were surprised their uncle was in the car. We told them guess where we were going. DS, then 6, was excited to guess Disneyland! DD cried so hard, we pulled over 10 miles into the trip and talked with her. We gave her the choice to stay at home with Daddy and go to her normal weekend activities. Eventually, she dried up her tears and said she’ll go to Disneyland. We never did such a surprise again!
I have done surprises twice with my kids. Once I did a scavenger hunt clue finding thing about a month before we left. They loved the hunt but then were kind of meh on the waiting part (I think they were like 2, 4, 6 and 8) and then I did a pick them up from school and go straight to the airport surprise when they were 10, 8, 6 and 4. That was really fun! The only thing that stunk was that DH wasn’t able to miss work so they were sad their daddy wasn’t joining but otherwise I’d pick the last minute surprise over the 30 days out surprise.
Now that they are mostly in the pre teen and teen years they are just in a general state of meh and we have to be like “we’re going on a family trip dang it. Be excited!”
I’ve done the surprise thing once and my kids loved it. They didn’t believe me at first when I was telling them, but once they knew I was serious, they were all in. It was our second trip to WDW. They have since asked me to surprise them like that again. The were all about it. I haven’t surprised them with a whole trip since then, but I have done activities on the trips that I’ve surprised them with.
At the end of the day, kids are all different though.
Personally, I hate surprises and for me anticipation is half of the fun but you know your kids best and how they like/handle surprises. Making the hotel a surprise is a good compromise. Even I could handle that. You could also make a meal or some other event a surprise.
Great problem to have. We told our kids the first time so we could have fun with the planning, right down to which fast passes for rides each day. It really built up the excitement for the trip. The second time we brought them, we had planned not to tell them, and were going to pick them up at school and tell them we are going to Disney. Would’ve been an awesome surprise, but Covid surprised us instead. Either way, congrats and enjoy!
I have done the surprise thing with DS when he was in middle school. While it wasn’t as dramatic as some of the stories above, it was not the excitement I was hoping for. He was just kind of confused and then went along for the ride. We had fun, but certainly didn’t get anywhere near the reaction I was hoping for. (As a side note, I figured DS was just incapable of an excited response to anything - but we got him a used car for his 16th birthday and that reaction was fabulous….so that wasn’t it).
). Surprises can be fun for some people but stressful for others. And it may not be as exciting for them as you’re expecting. So it’s a risk.
