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

[MommyAJof2Girls]

I told my girls (ages 10 & 13) that we were going to start planning for a vacation and started to get their "input". The Disney cruise was one of the ideas, but I shook it off as it being too expensive.

I booked the Dream cruise for Dec 2015, so we have some time. I took money out of our 2014 Christmas fund for our deposit and we are "cutting back" on birthday celebrations next year. I am still figuring out how I want to tell them we are going - they will be 11 & 14.

Any suggestions??

AJ

 

[MommyAJof2Girls]

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!

Love this idea! Thanks for sharing.

 

[PhillyCruiser]

Love this idea! Thanks for sharing.

Shop Etsy for personalized "secret message" cards. I got mine from Crankbunny. Message up to 25 letters. Mine reads: "Going on Disney Cruise Today". Card arrived last week; excellent quality. Kids are gonna love it! DH thinks it's brilliant!

Mom ROCKS!

 

[bcwife76]

We aren't great with secret keeping LOL When we took our girls (who were 2 1/2 and just turned 5) to Disneyland for their first trip (we drove down) we told them right away - we only booked it about 6 weeks out so it wasn't a long wait.

This time our cruise on the Wonder is still 9 months out; we told the girls already, but I think it's just in the back of their minds at the moment. They have no idea what to expect as they have never cruised before (neither have we) so as far as they are concerned, a cruise ship is just like a ferry LOL They know it's Disney etc so that has them excited.

However, two days after booking the cruise (which docks in San Diego) we then decided to take Amtrak up Anaheim and extend the trip by a couple of days with a short trip to Disneyland and then fly home from there. The girls do NOT know this so hopefully we can keep our mouths shut for the next 9 months! The plan is to get off the boat, tell them we are taking the train to the 'airport' and then sort of let it unfold from there....we'll wing it ;-)

 

[ElsasMom]

Our cruise is weeks away, but we still haven't told the kids. I gave them new bathing suits, flip flops, water bottles and towels for Christmas, but DH said if we told them during the holidays it would be white noise and we should wait for things to calm down.

I'm making a Disney Cruise countdown so we can we reveal that when we're ready. I know we'll tell them soon. I'll post pictures/video.

 

[pontikes67]

I'll let the video tell my story...http://youtu.be/EZBcWXEcvs0

 

[aposey]

My DH and I wrapped up a box that held their passports, a silver envelope and then a longer envelope inside and layered. The passports were wrapped up with tissue paper and inside the silver envelope I had a card that on one side read, "you may need this where we are going....". On the back of the card, i cut out a cruise ship with my cricut and affixed it to the card for a clue. By now they are excited and smiling and open their passports that have never been used and then they open the long envelope. Inside contained a beautiful Disney Cruise Line faux ticket that I found on Pinterest. It must have been something DCL used in the past and someone scanned it and pinned it. It is beautiful with pretty Caribbean colors and a place for you to write in the sailing date, ports, etc. I printed it on card stock and they were beyond excited.

We sail on the Dream on February 13, 2015!

 

[ElsasMom]

I'll let the video tell my story...http://youtu.be/EZBcWXEcvs0

Thanks for sharing! I love it. Those confetti blasters are awesome.

So after the reveal did both kids climb into that giant box?

 

[ElsasMom]

My DH and I wrapped up a box that held their passports, a silver envelope and then a longer envelope inside and layered. The passports were wrapped up with tissue paper and inside the silver envelope I had a card that on one side read, "you may need this where we are going....". On the back of the card, i cut out a cruise ship with my cricut and affixed it to the card for a clue. By now they are excited and smiling and open their passports that have never been used and then they open the long envelope. Inside contained a beautiful Disney Cruise Line faux ticket that I found on Pinterest. It must have been something DCL used in the past and someone scanned it and pinned it. It is beautiful with pretty Caribbean colors and a place for you to write in the sailing date, ports, etc. I printed it on card stock and they were beyond excited.

We sail on the Dream on February 13, 2015!

Can you post the link to the pin or a picture of the tickets?

 

[ElsasMom]

So....We FINALLY told the kids!!

I made this Disney countdown (From WDW's Pinterest): http://www.pinterest.com/waltdisneyworld/disney-countdown/
Aren't the numbers adorable?

I didn't have a cork board so I just used a cardboard box. I really wanted to make mine re-usable so I painted it solid colors and just added a Disney Cruise picture to the bottom (I also used some ribbon to hang it).



I love it.

Ok, so we sat everyone down for dinner and when they were done eating I said "I made something today. I want to show you guys."

So, I hung it up & DD says "Oh, Mom! you MADE this? It's beautiful I love it" Obviously she had no idea what it was.

I pointed to the 3 (which is a Tikki Bird) & said "What number is this?" She didn't know so DS joined us for a closer look. He identified the 3 & she identified the 0 (Cinderella's Castle) & it was established that we were doing something in 30 days.

Then I pointed to the picture at the bottom and said "What are we doing in 30 days?"

DS started jumping up and down and screaming "Oh man! We're going on a cruise!!"

"Not just a cruise, a Disney cruise!" I told them.

DS was stoked for about 2mins and then he disappeared into his room (sigh 12yr olds). DD was excited about 5 seconds before she looked at me with deep concern & said "Are we going to sail way out to sea?!?"

I assured her it was perfectly safe and not really that far out to sea, but she really got pumped up when I told her there was a Pirate Night

She just happened to be wearing this the night of the reveal:



Ha! What are the odds?!?

I did take a video, but I forgot I was in it...so yeah won't be posting that.

The best part is every day we take a number off...

 

[PhillyCruiser]

Elsasmom, Loved it!!! I smiled from ear to ear as I read about your "reveal"!! Fantastic!! Thanks so much for sharing!!! BON VOYAGE!!!

 

[ROYALCRUISER]

This year is my 60th so I am taking my son, daughter, her husband and 3 Grankids on a Our first disney cruise! Going to Miami day before and just going to watch the little one's face as they realize what is happening as we walk onto the ship the next day! Of course the adults already know. Cannot wait! Dec 4th cannot come soon enough! The kids are 4-7-7 and keep asking MomMom can we go on a Disney a Cruise? Yes My Babies we can!

 

[ElsasMom]

Elsasmom, Loved it!!! I smiled from ear to ear as I read about your "reveal"!! Fantastic!! Thanks so much for sharing!!! BON VOYAGE!!!

Thanks! I'm so excited!

 

[tlc1680]

We just did the Disney character call, but the kids had no clue. Had to show them some videos on YouTube before they got excited about it. Except now we have two months of them asking when we are going on the Mickey boat

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

When we went on the Magic last year we did the character call, DS was excited but didn't really know what it meant as it was our first cruise. This year we kept it a surprise until he saw the ship Fantasy. He looked at us wide-eyes and kept repeating "we are going on the Fantasy? We are really going? The look on his face was priceless....

 

[ElsasMom]

We just did the Disney character call, but the kids had no clue. Had to show them some videos on YouTube before they got excited about it. Except now we have two months of them asking when we are going on the Mickey boat

DD got her character call over the weekend! She was screaming it's Mickey & Minnie so loud she missed what were saying in the beginning! LOL, DS showed her you tube video after that and they both got even more excited.