I’m in the process of planning a surprise trip. I’m very excited about it. I plan to tell the kids the day of by having grandma show up with their new Disney themed suitcases in the morning. It will be filled with shirts, ears, autograph books, and other trip essentials. The shirt on top will be one that says “Disney Bound” with an airplane that looks like Mickey/Minnie. That’s the second surprise. My 7 year old hasn’t flown since he was 2 so he really doesn’t remember. My 4 and 2 year old have never flown.
I’m still able to involve them in the planning because they know I want to go for my 40th birthday (April 2021). So anytime I need/want their input, I frame it around that trip. I also just randomly ask them things about our last trip. My plan is to tell them that I got so excited planning my birthday that I just couldn’t wait and we have to go now!!!
Although I don’t think I would automatically try to book CRT for a 5th birthday dinner but my friend’s son was very clear that was where he HAD to eat on his birthday “in Cinderella’s Castle”. I would have hated to plan a surprise and then not have booked the one thing he has always dreamed about.
I’ve seen it go well and I’ve seen it not go as well as expected.
You have to know your audience.
When my big kids were little my oldest son once asked me if I would take them on a surprise trip sometime. Apparently he had heard about that from my friend. Not long after that we were invited to join friends on a beach vacation. So we woke them up at a crazy early hour and wait in the car for such a vacation. It was hard to keep a room trip quiet because I was accumulating things in my closet.
Another time we quietly packed the van before they got up and after church we “ran an errand.” After about half an hour they clued in and we surprise took them to sesame place. They’d been many times before and they were very excited. I’d tried to anticipate what they’d want with them and do pretty well but I missed a few items.
Two years ago I woke up (then) DD11 and DD13 and surprised them with a road trip to Prince Edward Island. DD13 was very stressed. She did. It adjust to the shock the entire trip and even now - even though we had fun - she still doesn’t gush about it. She remembers the shock more than anything. I totally messed up.
Same DD (now almost 15) is the one who asked me about going to WDW at Christmas time and she’s the reason we are going in November. She knows. My other three DD (13, 9, 6) will be given a Christmas gift in September. I’m going to pull out a small tree and wrap homemade shirts and other items and have Christmas in September to tell them. I feel like being excited for WDW is just as fun as actually being there. I don’t want them to miss the anticipation.
True. I had a solution for that though. I asked him what his favorite things were about Disney. He said “meeting the princesses” So I made a very last minute ADR for Akershus for our first dinner and it made his day!
So much this! When I am planning our trips my family could careless about the planning and would rather me plan it without them. This last trip, not only did I plan it without them, I went without them!
For my sons’ first trip to Disney, we surprised them. About two weeks before the trip, we had a big scavenger hunt and they had to solve clues to figure out what the surprise was. They were so thrilled. So excited they were jumping up and down, screaming and leaping on us for hugs.
We had been watching Disney movies for weeks, but they hadn’t realized why. There was enough time for them to read the kids books about what there is to do at Disney and get excited. My older son even read about PPO Crystal Palace and asked if we could do that. So, I had to keep checking, but I got one!
Two weeks was plenty of time for them to be excited and help pick what they wanted to do, but not too long for them to have to wait for months to get to go. It was definitely the best way to do it for us. They still talk about how awesome it was.
Tell ya what, someone surprise me with a Disney trip and we’ll see how it goes. Deal?
No? Ugh, fine.
When we went as kids, my parents let us know because we had to “save for it”…but god were those ”months”(? I honestly don’t remember how long it was) torture. If we coulda skipped out on that and gone right to “travel” I would’ve been delighted.
My brother and I didn’t help with the planning, mostly because I believe my parents were afraid we would get our hopes up about something and then be super disappointed if we didn’t end up doing it. I know my parents were disappointed when the Nautilus was down for refurb when we went.
We did a surprise Disney Trip with our now DD13 and DS11 when they were 3 and newly 5. We had been to Disney before when they were 3 and 1 so they had picture but not really memories. They were young enough to really know or have ideas of what they wanted to do. I had been packing for awhile (when they were at preschool) and hide suitcases is a bathtub we never used covered with towels. I dropped them off for a play date, went home and pack the van, picked my DH up from work at lunch and then we went to get the kids. They were so excited to have a surprise trip and we let them guess for awhile on where we were going. It really worked then. They were young enough to not have activities they needed to miss and they didn’t really know what to plan. I am not sure if I would want to surprise them now at their current ages.
We did a sort of surprise trip to Universal this past January. We had a Disney cruise booked which the DC knew about. We went to Universal for 3 days before the cruise. We did not tell the DC until they opened Hogwarts robes (huge Harry Potter fandom) On Christmas morning. That gave them the surprise but also one month of anticipation before the trip. I think that was the right amount of time for them at their ages. It also helped that they knew about the cruise for about a year ahead of time.
Gosh, I think when we were kids (I think we’re about the same age), very little actual planning was needed. No FPP, no MNSSHP, no MVMCP, no EMM or DAH, only 2 parks (until '89 when MGM Studios opened). I don’t even remember needing dining reservations. It was a different experience for sure!
I want a surprise trip planned for me! If someone spent the amount of time I have spent on this vacation on anything for me I would be so grateful
But seriously, I thought my 12 and 14 year old would get into planning, but they did not at all. They are annoyed when I ask them anything. I go shirts for us to tye-dye and ears for us to customize, you would think I was asking them to do chores.
I think I would have been better off surprising them.
I did think they would like having “summer plans” to tell their friends with, but I know DD12 friends said, “isn’t WDW for babies” so there went that.
I also should have surprised my parents, who we are taking with us. Because now it has been months of fighting about us treating them and why they shouldn’t pay.
DD22 has always hated surprises, good or bad. Nevertheless, we tried to do a surprise trip anyway when she was 7. Told he that we were going to Florida to be with her grandmother who was visiting “old friends”. We told her that it might be boring being around all these old people, but we expected her to be on her best behavior.
So, we arrive at MCO, and are waiting for her to start bitching when she saw all the signs about WDW. Not a peep. We drive past all the exit signs for WDW - no reaction. We drive under “The Sign” - not a peep. We finally say “We are going to Disney World to see Grandma!” - she gives a blase “ok” and falls asleep. Leave it to her to spoil our attempt to torment her…
We surprised my daughter on her 5th birthday but it was a two months early. And I’m so happy she had those two months to be involved and get excited. Because she was more excited abd every other present haha. When we asked her she said—“ I don’t know what to be excited about, I’ve never been.” So wise. The movies and planning got her really excited.
Clearly we - Liners - are exceptional planners. And I often say that at least half the joy of the trip is the planning and anticipation. I also don’t get the surprise trips becoming so commonplace.
I’d say making the trip a surprise is 95% about the parent making him- or herself feel like a big deal and about 5% about making the children happy. The Youtubes have made performative narcissism a mass-market commodity.
For this year’s surprise trip (meaning two months notice vs six months) is essentially because they won’t be getting Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. So I’m trying to get it as close to Christmas as we can while still leaving room for enthusiasm. Also, I don’t want it to overshadow our family cruise in late August. (Only girls are coming to WDW. Boys can’t join us.)
We were going to wait to tell our kids until a week or two before our trip in September and were trying to come up with cool ways to tell them.
We ended up telling them a couple of weeks ago because I was tired of not sharing it. We just showed them our reservation so we didn’t do anything special.
I’m actually glad we told them and didn’t make a big thing. Now they’re excited and have something to look forward to. They’re also watching DFB videos with me and helping me plan. It’s actually nice to have their input on where they want to eat and what’s most important when it comes to rides.
I would love if DD and DH surprised me with a trip. But they wouldn’t do it because they would think I needed to plan everything. What they don"t realize is I will pick up trip planning at any point in the trip. Impromptu trip to Disney? Yes please! Nothing planned and getting on the plane? Challenge accepted.
On the other hand my daughter has blatantly told me she does not like surprises. I take her at her word.
So I made a very last minute ADR for Akershus for our first dinner and it made his day!