We surprised our kids a few years back (5 year old twins at the time). It was a January cruise and we were going to surprise them at Christmas but there was so much going on at that point that we decided to push it off. Then it got to the point where we were going to see how long we could go before we had to tell them.
We made it to the morning we were flying out and only told them we were going to Florida. We did the character call to wake them up and it said have a great trip. One of them was excited while the other was like, Shoot I wanted to go somewhere else. We flew in a day before the cruise and stayed at the Nick hotel. They were very excited to see it and play there for the day.
The next morning we checked out and they assumed we were flying home (from Boston to Orlando for 1 night??).
They never questioned that the ride back to the airport was twice as long as the day before. As we were going over the bridges to PC, they saw the ship (code named Mickey boat from a previous cruise). We said, no way, lets get a closer look. I got all the way to pulling into the line for drop-off passengers when they figured it out. Good thing we knew the process because I couldnt hear the man giving the instructions because they were very excited (yelling) in the back seat. They had a great time and it was an excellent surprise.
After the cruise, we were doing 4 nights at WDW, staying at the Boardwalk, again we didnt tell them. This time we got pretty close until they saw the Epcot ball and figured it out. Again, very excited and ready to hit the parks.
Let me tell you that they didnt really believe we were actually going home when we checked out of the Boardwalk.
Overall, it was a lot of fun to keep it a secret and see them react to the news. It was almost a test of how much we could get away with and how self-involved they are. Given their age at the time, we were doing all the planning so didnt really need their input. Given our trip was pretty soon after Christmas, they had all that excitement from the holidays that they would have forgot about the cruise anyways.
Since then weve been back twice and not kept it a secret. The thinking now is that they are getting older now and we want to let them have a say in what we are doing.
We made it to the morning we were flying out and only told them we were going to Florida. We did the character call to wake them up and it said have a great trip. One of them was excited while the other was like, Shoot I wanted to go somewhere else. We flew in a day before the cruise and stayed at the Nick hotel. They were very excited to see it and play there for the day.
The next morning we checked out and they assumed we were flying home (from Boston to Orlando for 1 night??).
They never questioned that the ride back to the airport was twice as long as the day before. As we were going over the bridges to PC, they saw the ship (code named Mickey boat from a previous cruise). We said, no way, lets get a closer look. I got all the way to pulling into the line for drop-off passengers when they figured it out. Good thing we knew the process because I couldnt hear the man giving the instructions because they were very excited (yelling) in the back seat. They had a great time and it was an excellent surprise.
After the cruise, we were doing 4 nights at WDW, staying at the Boardwalk, again we didnt tell them. This time we got pretty close until they saw the Epcot ball and figured it out. Again, very excited and ready to hit the parks.
Let me tell you that they didnt really believe we were actually going home when we checked out of the Boardwalk.
Overall, it was a lot of fun to keep it a secret and see them react to the news. It was almost a test of how much we could get away with and how self-involved they are. Given their age at the time, we were doing all the planning so didnt really need their input. Given our trip was pretty soon after Christmas, they had all that excitement from the holidays that they would have forgot about the cruise anyways.
Since then weve been back twice and not kept it a secret. The thinking now is that they are getting older now and we want to let them have a say in what we are doing.