How did you tell the kids? Update: I FINALLY did my reveal!!

[skit72]

Reading this with interest. I booked last September for our very first Disney cruise on the Magic, in August. I have resisted telling my DD 9 but it's getting harder.

 

[tmarie]

I have been reading all of your replies and you have me SO excited to tell my girls about the cruise!! We booked our cruise in January but we are not cruising until December of this year. We were going to tell our girls (ages 10 & 7) on the last day of school (which is next week) but since that is still a loooooooonnnnnnggggg six months away, we have changed our minds. Right now the plan is to tell them right before school starts - it will give the girls something to look forward too and it will also allow them to help with the planning. We will have to get passports as well so we really can't wait too much longer than that to tell them. I definitely want telling them to be a fun and exciting event. I really like the scavenger hunt idea - if anyone can elaborate and tell about their scavenger hunt, I would love to hear how their kids reacted.

 

[CanadaFunMom]

We booked our trip last October and aren't sailing until August. We are planning on surprising our kids at the port the morning of the cruise. It has been super difficult to keep a secret!! Our oldest is 14 so I've had to make sure to constantly clear the history on any of the computers I use.

 

[samser]

Loving hear all these stories.....

 

[Castillo Mom]

We booked our upcoming cruise in October last year in February. It hasn't been easy but my sister and I were able to keep the secret from my niece and nephew who are 4 and 6.

Two weeks ago we decided to let them in on the secret so we made a Mickey countdown chain since they're so young. We figured having the visual of seeing the chain get shorter and shorter would help.

We did the reveal this past Sunday and they were so excited! Auntie (me) went out and bought chocolate cupcakes at a local bakery and put mini oreos on top and turned them into Mickey cupcakes and we had those as a celebratory treat. We videotaped the reveal for posterity and my sister and I have watched it multiple times since then.

This is their first ever cruise and I can't wait to see their faces when we get on the ship!

 

[k14tweety]

Omg did this get me excited....we r yearly wdw travelers but first time dcl. N we get to go with 4 other families, all relatives, including my mom. Im so excited we go 1/14/15 so Christmas will be our big reveal. Of coarse santa will bring some gifts, but mom n dad will have the show stopper for once. I love the scavenger hunt idea. We r getting shirts made, fe, and magnets. Great hunt items. I cant wait. Thx for the idea

 

[mrslfc]

We are cruising on the Magic around the Med in Aug and are arriving in Barcelona the night before. We have told DS4 that we are going to Barcelona on holiday and he wont find out about the cruise until we get to the port

 

[Keyser]

We've been fortunate enough to have two of them. The first was Spring Break last year, and we told them nothing until the day of (this was Galveston, so we could drive there). The older daughter (11) was in shock and then got very excited. The younger one (4) got excited when she heard Disney (she didn't really know what a cruise was), and then got very excited when the older one did.

For our trip this summer, we wanted to get passports, and figured we had to tell them first. I wanted something that they'd figure out together, so I put together a pretty intricate puzzle/code, where each of them had to answer some questions (simple answers/spelling for the younger one, and more math-oriented for the older one), then combine their answers to figure out the message. It actually worked out pretty well, and made them cooperate to figure it out.

 

[CheshireCat87]

We are going for our boy/girl twins 5th birthday. I plan to have them a small birthday party on the Saturday before. Their last present will be something telling them were going on the DCL. Then head to the airport shortly after. I haven't worked out the specifics of the reveal yet but I'm extremely excited! We're going on April 26 for 5 nights in the Western Caribbean and their actual birthday is April 28.

 

[laceltris3]

We are planning a secret cruise on the 12/18/15 sailing of the Wonder out of Galveston and my IT'S are coming too. The day we leave is their last day of school before Christmas vacation (they are dismissed by 10:30 or so after their Christmas program so all we have to do is drive down to the port 45 minutes away). We are planning on having their Elf on a Shelf, Vixen, bring the surprise that morning.

Then I get to sneak that stupid Elf in our luggage and hide him every night in a different location in our room without waking the kids and in a spot out of reach so that my youngest can't touch him and make him lose his magic... maybe I should rethink this.

 

[tmarie]

Last night we finally told our girls about the cruise and all I can say is it was AWESOME!!! I had created a scavenger hunt around the house - with the main idea being that they had to work together as a team to find all of the clues. The last clue led the girls back to the living room where there were three gifts waiting for them. I had cute little poems written about each gift with instructions on when they could open them. Each gift was something that would be taken on the cruise but they didn't figure that out until after the big reveal. (Gift #1 was a swimsuit, Gift #2 was a new outfit with the shirt saying Bon Voyage and Gift #3 was a chunky beaded necklace that had Minnie beads in it) After they opened all of the gifts the girls were so excited and thankful - little did they know that we weren't done yet! They sat back down and read one final poem out loud that said " The scavenger hunt is done and the presents are too, so there is only one thing left to do. We have something important that we want to say and we wanted to do it in a very special way. We are telling you now without delay that in 128 days you'll be on the.........DISNEY FANTASY!!! Of course the last page of the poem had a picture of the boat and Disney characters. Their reaction was PRICELESS. They screamed and cried, hugged us, cried some more. And then we told them the cruise would be going to Castaway Cay and I thought they just might fall over. Twenty minutes later, my oldest daughter was still crying. I'm so glad that we were able to capture all of it on video as it was an incredible moment for all of us.....and the BEST is yet to come!!!

 

[Castillo Mom]

My niece and nephew are 6 and 4 so my sister and I couldn't decide whether to tell then in advance or not. Well, neither of us are great at keeping secrets! We decided to let them in on it since planning and anticipation is part of the fun.

We didn't do anything that spectacular but we still had a blast. My son and I made a Mickey countdown chain. We then planned a little get together at my sister's house where we videotaped the reveal. We simply told them that we were taking them on the Mickey boat and they were super excited! We celebrated by putting up the countdown chain for them and explained that each day they could take turns removing a link and that the chain would get shorter and shorter as the day gets closer. I made Mickey cupcakes for us and Conk Coolers for the grown ups!

We're really glad we told them because we've been able to include them in the planning. The countdown chain has been great and eliminates them asking how many more days we have to go!

 

[davidmolliesmum]

Last night we finally told our girls about the cruise and all I can say is it was AWESOME!!! I had created a scavenger hunt around the house - with the main idea being that they had to work together as a team to find all of the clues. The last clue led the girls back to the living room where there were three gifts waiting for them. I had cute little poems written about each gift with instructions on when they could open them. Each gift was something that would be taken on the cruise but they didn't figure that out until after the big reveal. (Gift #1 was a swimsuit, Gift #2 was a new outfit with the shirt saying Bon Voyage and Gift #3 was a chunky beaded necklace that had Minnie beads in it) After they opened all of the gifts the girls were so excited and thankful - little did they know that we weren't done yet! They sat back down and read one final poem out loud that said " The scavenger hunt is done and the presents are too, so there is only one thing left to do. We have something important that we want to say and we wanted to do it in a very special way. We are telling you now without delay that in 128 days you'll be on the.........DISNEY FANTASY!!! Of course the last page of the poem had a picture of the boat and Disney characters. Their reaction was PRICELESS. They screamed and cried, hugged us, cried some more. And then we told them the cruise would be going to Castaway Cay and I thought they just might fall over. Twenty minutes later, my oldest daughter was still crying. I'm so glad that we were able to capture all of it on video as it was an incredible moment for all of us.....and the BEST is yet to come!!!

amazing!!!!!!

 

[tmarie]

davidmolliesmum - Thank you SO much!! Your trip is coming up fast........Have a Wonderful Time!!!

 

[davidmolliesmum]

davidmolliesmum - Thank you SO much!! Your trip is coming up fast........Have a Wonderful Time!!!

thank you! so excited.... our kids will find out in a few weeks... i'm having someone make cupcakes; with anchors, cruiseships, mickey & minnies along with a lovely letter made up by a fellow DISer over on the creative boards.... as our 'reveal' to the children...

 

[tmarie]

Ohhhhhhhhhh...........that is going to be Awesome!!! It's so hard to keep the secret, right?? I bet you just can't wait to see their little faces when you reveal the great surprise!

 

[YOLOSOGO]

I'l never forget our first Disney Cruise. We told our two boys we were going to DisneyWorld, where they'd been before. Then as we're approaching the port, we point out the ship & say something like,
"Did you know that Disney has a cruise ship too? Look, you can see it right there! Man, can you believe those lucky people...that would be really cool...maybe we should try that sometime?"
Then listen to their comments...then say,
"Well prepare to freak out because you're the lucky ones this time & that boat is waiting for us!!"
Then they freaked & screamed and laughed & it was awesome! Best vacation ever, and we've been 5 more times, but the first was just so exciting and since they were young, it was easier to keep the secret and seeing their reaction was priceless!!

 

[BGHindman]

I had the cruise booked for 15 months. We were on the 8th sailing of the Fantasy. We scheduled our character call for the morning that we boarded the ship, so Mickey got to break the very exciting news. It was a perfectly magical moment for us all!

 

[wrighter]

We will be revealing our 4/2015 cruise to our kids (11 and 9) at Christmas. There is no way I can hide it from them in those last few months! As it is I can't believe I will have kept the secret for almost a year. And they're old enough that we'd love to let them help plan.

We've done big WDW surprise trips and I am really looking forward to building up some excitement for our first cruise. They've been asking to go on one for years, and I can't believe we finally caved!

As of this moment I think we'll definitely do a scavenger hunt, but with no clues about the end result along the way. I want them to be totally confused until the last moment. Can't wait to see that moment of recognition!

Good luck to all of us who have a "reveal" of some sort coming up!

 

[PhillyCruiser]

We've talked about a Disney cruise for a while. We even have a "Mickey Bucket", a huge plastic jug that we toss loose change into so we can "save" for our cruise as a family! We finally booked one (DREAM, 4/2015). DS8 & DD6 have no idea. The "reveal": We'll pick them up from school early and surprise them in a "secret message" they'll have to decode together...while we're en route to the airport!