Surprising child ideas

monica9

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 3, 2011
we've been to Disney 5 times in the past 8 years. Dd9 has been through so much this past year so we decided since she loves surprises that we will surprise her this year. We haven't been since she was 7.
It's me, dh, dd9 and dd13 months. Keep telling my dd9 that I can't wait to plan a trip once the baby is at least 3 just to throw her off.
Trying to think of ways to tell her.
Our trip starts on a Wednesday during the school week. Leaving for the airport at 6:30. She normally gets on the bus at 7:45.
Thinking of having a Disney shirt on myself and the baby. Telling her that morning that myself and her dad have to go somewhere in the morning and she has to come and we will drop her off at school after that. We will have her pack her backpack and everything and then head for the highway and see how long until she asks where we are going.
Or
Get in the car and say to my husband," what do you want to do today? We can go look for the dresser we wanted to, go get the oil changed in the car, go to Disney, go grocery shopping...". And then have my husband say "I don't know. Disney sounds good". And then see if she catches on. (She's a smart kid but a lot goes over her head. She's in her own little world).
Or
Tell her the night before that we booked for next year and make a count down for her but when she wakes up in the morning the countdown is all the way down to "0 days until Disney".

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
 
I like the combination of 1 and 2. Wake her up in the morning and maybe wear a Disney shirt. Tell her that you have something to do first. Start driving, then after a bit, bring up the whole "well, we could change the oil, go to Disney" bit. You could also have her backpack already packed, but with stuff to occupy her on the plane (snacks, books, whatever stuff she usually likes to do- possibly some Disney themed activity books or something) and she could use it as her carry on. If she's used to packing her own stuff in the morning, just tell her you packed it for her since you had to be up early and already have it in the car waiting.

You know her best, but I would think the 3rd idea you listed might be a bit overwhelming for some kids. To go from the night prior thinking you're going next year to having it sprung on you really early first thing the next morning just seems like a little much. Your other ideas allow her to wake up a little bit first.
 
I like the combination of 1 and 2. Wake her up in the morning and maybe wear a Disney shirt. Tell her that you have something to do first. Start driving, then after a bit, bring up the whole "well, we could change the oil, go to Disney" bit. You could also have her backpack already packed, but with stuff to occupy her on the plane (snacks, books, whatever stuff she usually likes to do- possibly some Disney themed activity books or something) and she could use it as her carry on. If she's used to packing her own stuff in the morning, just tell her you packed it for her since you had to be up early and already have it in the car waiting.

You know her best, but I would think the 3rd idea you listed might be a bit overwhelming for some kids. To go from the night prior thinking you're going next year to having it sprung on you really early first thing the next morning just seems like a little much. Your other ideas allow her to wake up a little bit first.
Yea I'm thinking driving and seeing what she says. I'm curious if she's going to even question the fact that we are in the car for over an hour lol. And when she starts to question it is when I think dh and I will start the convo on what we are doing that day.
 
For DD's 10th birthday, we did the "let's see how far we can get" thing. We were flying - we got all the way to Atlanta when we changed planes for Orlando before she clued in. It was a lot of fun - I have pictures of her leaning on the luggage with the bright DME Mickey head tag right under her hand. Like you, we had been talking about a Disney trip further away (to get her input on what we should do), so she was not expecting Disney at the time.
 
For DD's 10th birthday, we did the "let's see how far we can get" thing. We were flying - we got all the way to Atlanta when we changed planes for Orlando before she clued in. It was a lot of fun - I have pictures of her leaning on the luggage with the bright DME Mickey head tag right under her hand. Like you, we had been talking about a Disney trip further away (to get her input on what we should do), so she was not expecting Disney at the time.
Lol. She never questioned why you were on a plane??
So funny!
 
For DD's 10th birthday, we did the "let's see how far we can get" thing. We were flying - we got all the way to Atlanta when we changed planes for Orlando before she clued in. It was a lot of fun - I have pictures of her leaning on the luggage with the bright DME Mickey head tag right under her hand. Like you, we had been talking about a Disney trip further away (to get her input on what we should do), so she was not expecting Disney at the time.
I've literally been on the phone with Disney talking to cm's about the trip. But in her defense she did ask me one day while I was on the phone why I was calling Disney for the 100th time and I told her I'm doing a favor for a friend and booking their vacation. Guess she believed me even though I was giving the cm my last name over the phone.
I can't wait to find out if she actually knew but didn't want to say anything or if she was seriously in her own beautiful innocent own world of hers.
 


We did a wake up time surprise once. When our kids went to bed, everything was set out for school, but when they woke up...all of those school clothes had been swapped out for Disney gear and backpacks had been replaced with Disney carry on bags filled with trip goodies. It was a Halloween trip, so I also used the Boo to You music in my wake up (vs just turning on the radio, like I normally would for wake up time).
 
We did a wake up time surprise once. When our kids went to bed, everything was set out for school, but when they woke up...all of those school clothes had been swapped out for Disney gear and backpacks had been replaced with Disney carry on bags filled with trip goodies. It was a Halloween trip, so I also used the Boo to You music in my wake up (vs just turning on the radio, like I normally would for wake up time).
Ooh I like that idea too. And to have the music on in the background. We are staying st AKL and we have an animal kingdom cd.
We also have a Disney song a long video she still loves to watch. I should have us all have a Disney shirt on and hers out on her bed with the animal kingdom cd on low and then the sing a long on tv and make Mickey waffles for breakfast. Maybe I'll put her pin trading necklace on the coat rack where her backpack goes.
But I still love the idea of casually talking about what we are doing today while in the car. Except we DO have a jeep so she will see all of the luggage in the car so we might have to tell her before we leave.
Any other ideas???
 
We are surprising our 6 year old next week- we are picking her up early from school to go to the dentist and heading to the airport instead- we are just going to see how long until she notices but she'll probably catch on quick, she pays attention to which exits we take etc.

When I was a kid we had a Disney trip planned for a long time that was not a surprise - my brother was 5 and we were packed up and in the car driving for like 4 hours and he goes "are we going to the mall?" I guess he forgot lol, it was so funny
 
We are surprising our 6 year old next week- we are picking her up early from school to go to the dentist and heading to the airport instead- we are just going to see how long until she notices but she'll probably catch on quick, she pays attention to which exits we take etc.

When I was a kid we had a Disney trip planned for a long time that was not a surprise - my brother was 5 and we were packed up and in the car driving for like 4 hours and he goes "are we going to the mall?" I guess he forgot lol, it was so funny
How did your 6 year old react to the surprise? Hope you had a good time
 
We’ve decided to tell her two days before. It’s just too much for us to try to sneak around a 9 year old and pack. We are doing a scavenger hunt and I’m telling her I put it together just for fun. Each clue leads to the next. Then after a bunch of clues one clue says “I think you’re doing really great and daddy thinks the same, so let’s take a break from finding clues and play a quick board game”. We love to play board games so she will not think anything if it. We are playing ticket to ride which is a game where you have to get from one state to another based and there are cards that tell you which states you have to get to. I taped paper on the back of one of the cards that says Connecticut to Orlando and a Mickey sticker is on it. On the bottom it says the final clue which is “the final clue is to find something blue where I like to hide candy on daddy.” There’s a place I’ve hid candy a couple times so my husband does t eat it in one day lol. So she will go there and her blue magic band will be there with a note telling her we are going to Disney World.
Can’t wait to see her reaction!!!
I just want to so badly wait until the night before but I’m not sure if she will want to go to school one day and tell her friends and just get the excitement out enough to get a good nights sleep the night before.

18 more days until our trip and only 16 days until we tell her!!
 
I like the "surprise on the way to the airport" idea. We did something similar with our kids our second trip. We packed them into the car after school and told them we were going to a quilt show in Kentucky (there's a quilt museum in Paducah that we pass billboards for on our way down). They were thrilled. (can you hear the sarcasm?) When we stopped for dinner, we did a hangman game with "we're going to Disney World" as the answer and I said "yes we are" when they got the answer right. It was hilarious watching it sink in. Of course, my DD (6 at the time) pouted for an hour afterwards that we had lied to her....

Our second surprise attempt didn't work out because I had to tell them we were going somewhere since DS (11 at the time) was in middle school at the time and I wanted to get his work ahead of time. They were under the impression we were going to a family reunion in MI (I never actually *said* that though, didn't want the "you lied to me" pout again - so I just said "we're going on a trip" and "we've got family in MI you've never met" which were both true). My son, however, thought pretty much nothing would be worth missing a week of school and attempted to get himself grounded so he wouldn't have to go. I think he felt pretty stupid when I finally broke down the day before and told him what was actually happening.
 
I packed in secret for the seven of us, for a ten day trip! Our trip was early November, so I pretended to be packing up the summer clothes for the attic, in hefty bags. The night before, I just had to transfer everything into suitcases, and we surprised the five of them the next morning. They thought they were skipping school to go to an 80th birthday luncheon at a nursing home for a great aunt they never met.
 
I packed in secret for the seven of us, for a ten day trip! Our trip was early November, so I pretended to be packing up the summer clothes for the attic, in hefty bags. The night before, I just had to transfer everything into suitcases, and we surprised the five of them the next morning. They thought they were skipping school to go to an 80th birthday luncheon at a nursing home for a great aunt they never met.
So funny! I decided in the scavenger hunt vs just getting in the car. My daughter loves excitement and I feel like a hint that lasts 20 minutes leading up to it will get her over the moon. I decided we will do it the Monday night (leaving Wednesday morning) because I need a day to really pack without sneaking around but if you can do it for 3 kids then maybe I can try to pack and do it the night before on Tuesday which I really want to do.
 
Since we drive to WDW (7 hrs) we usually have to do something before getting into our van, since we pack it full:) We have done a scavenger hunt, a jigsaw puzzle, Disney helium balloons in a box, a fake letter in the mail box and we have even picked them up after school with a few balloons tied to the roof rack and on the big back side window I wrote "We are going to Disney today". Now they like to help plan the trips.
 
Since we drive to WDW (7 hrs) we usually have to do something before getting into our van, since we pack it full:) We have done a scavenger hunt, a jigsaw puzzle, Disney helium balloons in a box, a fake letter in the mail box and we have even picked them up after school with a few balloons tied to the roof rack and on the big back side window I wrote "We are going to Disney today". Now they like to help plan the trips.
So you’ve surprised them more than once? I have a friend that rolled her eyes at me because I’m suprising my daughter but kind of did 2 years ago too. It wasn’t really a suprise though. We planned on our trip a year out and when we had 4 months or so left SHE’s the one that said she wanted to be suprised on the exact day. She was only 6 so didn’t really know “time” at that point. She knew we were going in the fall but wanted to be suprised about the exact day.
She she obviously loves suprised and will be excited that we suprised her instead of telling her.
 
So funny! I decided in the scavenger hunt vs just getting in the car. My daughter loves excitement and I feel like a hint that lasts 20 minutes leading up to it will get her over the moon. I decided we will do it the Monday night (leaving Wednesday morning) because I need a day to really pack without sneaking around but if you can do it for 3 kids then maybe I can try to pack and do it the night before on Tuesday which I really want to do.
Five kids (plus DH). I think giving her a day of excitement sounds great, and definitely better than the night before (because who could sleep).
 

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