Official (not really, but we'll pretend) KOTS club signup

[ophelia2002]

DH and I are surprising our girls, 6 and 3, with a trip to WDW in May. It's less than 3 weeks away now! Wow.

We got the girls personalized shirts from Disneystore.com and are going to give them to them at the airport and then tell them where we are going.

 

[Get me to Disney!]

I love, love, love the fact that I am "The Keeper Of The Secret". I really do. But now as it gets closer, I am struggling on how to spring it on them. We go in August and I have decided that I will tell them we are going to see my DH's cousin get married and make a week long vacation out of it. I just don't know how to spring it on them. Once we get to MCO and hit the line for the Magical Express, they will figure it out....so, I am considering some things:


1) Airplane overhead writing at our beach vacation in July (DH's idea)

2) Asking some random person or worker at the airport to bring my four kids a 'gift' that will hold each of their own lanyards and pins

3) Asking the flight attendants to announce it during the plane ride

ugggghhh, I wish I could figure this all out!!!

 

[AJRitz]

I love, love, love the fact that I am "The Keeper Of The Secret". I really do. But now as it gets closer, I am struggling on how to spring it on them. We go in August and I have decided that I will tell them we are going to see my DH's cousin get married and make a week long vacation out of it. I just don't know how to spring it on them. Once we get to MCO and hit the line for the Magical Express, they will figure it out....so, I am considering some things:


1) Airplane overhead writing at our beach vacation in July (DH's idea)

2) Asking some random person or worker at the airport to bring my four kids a 'gift' that will hold each of their own lanyards and pins

3) Asking the flight attendants to announce it during the plane ride

ugggghhh, I wish I could figure this all out!!!

Just my opinion, but I think the reveal means more when it comes from you, rather than an outside source.

 

[thewesterberg]

Last weekend I found cheap, cheap, cheap airfare ($86 r/t) from our hometown airport and my DH bought 2 tickets for me and DS7 (an early bday present for me). The clincher? We'd leave on Wednesday, only 4 days after getting the tickets!!! We'd stay 3 nights on a Mom/Son trip, something I'd been hoping to do someday!

We didn't tell DS7 until Wednesday morning, a half hour before a friend would pick us up and bring us to the airport. We played hangman while he was eating breakfast. He figured out the puzzle and the answer was "MOM AND DS ARE LEAVING FOR DISNEY WORLD NOW!" He thought we were fooling him. When I showed him our packed suitcases (which were hid under a blanket), he said "Excuse me for one moment." He walked into the living room, laid down on the couch, pulled the blanket over his head, and yelled "YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

It was an awesome trip, full of great memories!! Wasn't a KOTS for very long, but it was great getting to surprise him like that!

 

[poohbear8]

I am a KOTS both last year and this year. Two years ago I took DD on a mom and me trip for 8 days. While she was in the shower I booked a bounceback for the same time last year.

Somehow, both DH and DS were able to stay quiet about the 2nd trip. The day before we were scheduled to leave, (DD then 12) had to have some blood work done. I almost had to bribe her with the truth, since she is scared of needles and was refusing to leave the truck. Thankfully, she agreed when I told her I had "an appointment" the next day I couldn't miss.

The next morning, once she was on the bus, I sent her a text that I would be taking her out of school to my "appointment" at 1:30. When I went to pick her up, I had a t-shirt on with a DISign that said, "Life is Good! I'm going back to Disney!". I had a hoodie zipped all the way up when I signed her out of school. Once we got outside, she was talking a mile a minute about why she had to go and there better not be more bloodwork for her or a flu shot. I complained about it being hot and did a very dramatic unzipping of the hoodie to show her the shirt. She stopped dead in her tracks.

She looked at me confused and asked "when"? I told her NOW! She still was confused and asked "How?" I told her by plane at 4:00pm and DH was at home waiting to take us to the airport.

DD started crying she was so happy! Then the screaming started. (all while in the school parking lot ) When she got the the truck, I had on her seat a DISigned t-shirt for her that had the characters on it and said, "Been There, Done That, and I'm Going Back!" It was then she knew for sure we were going. I had her packed and ready to go. We talked the whole way to Orlando about all of the plans I had made and how many people knew she was going. That is what shocked her the most.

While we were there, we decided we would add a friend and her 2 kids to the bounceback offer. Recently, we weren't sure if she would have the money, but her mom is helping her pay for it, so I just booked her airfare, so she is set to go. Her kids (5 and 13) don't think they are going. They knew she was planning it, but she just didn't have the money, so she told them it would have to wait.

So now, I am a KOTS again. I made my friend promise not to tell them and let me tell them. I'm still not sure how. They have only been 1 time, but it was 2 parks in one day and the 5 year old was a baby and with no planning they didn't really get to do much. I'm thinking of sending them a slide show of our pictures to watch, with a slide a the end that says, "Come join us". Or I might make them some Tshirts that say they are going to WDW. I have a little bit of time.....well, no not really, Sept is coming quick. It's all I can think about now!

 

[Get me to Disney!]

Since we just went in September 09, the kids think it will be five years until we go back. They understand that it is due to the expense. I have not worked since I started having them so money is of course never free flowing and six people is a lot to pay for. So, being a KOTS for me is so wonderful but also so hard to do. We are going back in August 10....My oldest who is DD, 13, asked me if we could go sooner than our five year mark if each child helped to pay for it. I said, "No, I can't ask you to do that - we just need to be patient and five years will go by as quick as you can blink." DH and I constantly say, "How old will you be when we go back to Disney?" and the kids state their age now plus five. I honestly believe none of them have a CLUE Still working on the reveal though Want it to be perfect!!!!

 

[gumby013]

No longer a lurker...

The ruse is in motion for the December 4-11 WDW trip I will be surprising my Australian girlfriend with.

She will be coming with me from New Jersey to "Gainesville" for the "opening of my company's new distribution center." Luckily for me, her Aussie upbringing has taught her little about US geography. It shouldn't be a problem to explain away why we are flying to Orlando instead of Gainesville...something like, "Gainesville doesn't have enough flights in and out, so we will have to rent a car and drive."

I am hoping I can keep the secret going all the way to the Yacht Club where we are staying.

I have already begin planting the seeds of deception, letting her know all about the new distribution center and how I will have to make a trip down there to oversee the opening. And of course, "I will see if I can take her with...it is Florida after all and maybe we can find something to do in the evenings."

 

[Get me to Disney!]

So, we get to WDW soon enough and kids still have no clue I wrote four letters and will have each child read their letter out loud to their siblings. The third letter will end with 'Why don't you come see me instead' and the last child's 'letter' will simply be a printed picture of all of the characters that I found online. I am so excited to see their expressions and share in their joy. Hope I am making a memory to last a lifetime

 

[carrie6466]

I'm the KOTS for the third time now. I don't know how I'm going to reveal it this time. First time we just asked her if she wanted to try a new restaurant at the airport for dinner. Second time I just picked her up from school early and we told her in the car on the way to the airport. This time, she isn't the only one who doesn't know, so it should be interesting

 

[jonmar]

We took our 4 year old daughter in March she counted the 'sleeps'. We leave Saturday for a surprise visit and she is clueless. She believes she is helping me on some covert op to surprise for my wife since it's our anniversary. My daughter hates potatoes, more specifically, sweet potatoes. I told her I was going to take mom to the 'sweet potato farm' for our anniversary, and swore her to secrecy. I told her it would sooo cool cause they'll teach us how to grow potatoes, peel them, cook with them etc. I asked her what she thought, and she said 'mom will have so much fun, but I'm going to gramma and grampa's'.

Anyhow, I told her if she keeps the secret till we leave, she'll get a surprise too. My wife has been pestering her to tell the secret, even though she is in on it. So far, our little cutie pie has kept quiet. Her and I have been practicing how we are going to tell mom the 'surprise' whenever my wife leaves the room. We are going to count to three and scream 'we're going to the sweet potato farm' except I'm going to scream '...disney world' instead and then toss her her mouse ears from the last visit.

 

[Oceana]

Oh golly what a lovely thread

Yes 1st time secret keeper

we will check the boys out of schooll the thursday before school lets out for Christmas

No idea what we will do yet... looking for ideas. we leave on the 23rd and head to grandmas for Christmas day

I already picked up disney PJs for the kids

 

[burnurcomputer]

My older kids first trip was a complete suprise for them. As in, they didn't have any clue and didn't even sleep at our house the night before we left (so we could pack and they wouldn't know!). I had to submit a paper to the school to get permission for the absence and I wrote in huge caps at the top that it was a secret mission. Every teacher kept it a secret!

My kids found out that they we were going *somewhere* that morning after we picked them up from my ex's parents. We stopped at my moms house so she could kiss them goodbye. Well, she gave them 3 guesses at things that they would be doing and my youngest said in a really perplexed voice "Are we going to Disney?" When we shouted YES! They hooted and hollared and asked "When?" and we said ......NOW!!!!! MY DH excused himself to the restroom and we turned around and ...no kids?!?!?! My Mom and I were calling their names when a funny expression crossed her face. "Are they out in the car?" she asked. "No, way" I said. But we wnet to the window and, sure enough, they left the house in a hurry and were buckeled in the back seats

My DH was like "Where did the kids go?". And when we showed him, he was tickled pink

They were so cute that they were afraid that the school and their teachers didn't know, but when we told them they were like "Everyone knew but us?". The youngest was a bit perturbed for a minute about that but he cheered up. Until, we told them that we had their homework packed

They were so excitied and it was soooo worth it

 

[Donaldswife]

Well, I am now an official member of the club. We have our big vacation coming up in October, but just last week I booked airfare and a package at Pop Century for just DD8 and myself. I am so excited I am about to burst! She has no idea. I asked her if maybe we should do a Mother/Daughter trip to Chicago or to Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati and she was excited about that, but said she really wanted to go to Disney. My DH said go for it, much to my amazement.

We are not telling her anything, we will pick her up from After School Care at normal time on Friday September 3rd, go grab a quick dinner, then start driving to the airport. We are not even going to tell her we are going to the airport, just drive. I can't wait to see the look on her face when park and pull the luggage out the trunk.

 

[sug78]

Just joining the club. We have been keeping the secret for 6 months from our 6 and 3 year old. Going the first of March. Just trying to figure out how to spill the beans!!!

 

[roscoepc1]

I can finally sign up!!!! My secret is for dh though, not the kids! It's in my siggie below!

He is so stressed and over-worked, and doesn't think we can "swing" a holiday this spring...little does he know!!!

One of the fantastic DISigners (Rustmanfan) here on the boards made me a t-shirt design to "spill the beans" with. I HOPE his work doesn't mess it up (had to book his holidays, without him knowing, of course!) I plan to lay the shirt out on our bed the day we're leaving, and act like I forgot to bring down something important for something else....then ask him if he would PLEASE do me a favour and run up and get the "thing" lying on the bed!

 

[ma2nojo]

My dh and I will be surprising our ds8 and dd6 in early June. We are driving so the plan is to secretly pack everything up into our car and tell the kids we are going to a location that is distant but not so distant- a day trip. Then, we will just keep on driving! After I can't take the, "when are we going to get there?" and "Where are we going?" I will say, "okay, we were going to surprise you but we are going to (Branson?/Chicago?). Both of these places will take 4 hours or more so it would be possible to fake this for at least that long. That's all I have so far....

I'm pretty sure they are going to figure it out so I think I might do something cute like wrap up small Disney somethings and let them open them in the car. My son's birthday will be our first day at Disney so we will be leaving a few days before that to get there.

Not sure but I'm soooo excited that I am just hoping that I won't let it slip. I won't though.... this is going to be so fantastic for my children.

KOTS

 

[sug78]

I can finally sign up!!!! My secret is for dh though, not the kids! It's in my siggie below!

He is so stressed and over-worked, and doesn't think we can "swing" a holiday this spring...little does he know!!!

One of the fantastic DISigners (Rustmanfan) here on the boards made me a t-shirt design to "spill the beans" with. I HOPE his work doesn't mess it up (had to book his holidays, without him knowing, of course!) I plan to lay the shirt out on our bed the day we're leaving, and act like I forgot to bring down something important for something else....then ask him if he would PLEASE do me a favour and run up and get the "thing" lying on the bed!

That's so cool! A few years ago I surprised my husband with a trip to Maui. He took time off work to watch our kids while my mom and I went to "Las Vegas"......So he takes us to the airport to drop us off and my mom proceeds to the drivers side and tells us bye. My DH was so confused
I had packed all of his clothes in her luggage ( I actually had to open the bags up and show him so that he would believe me) And it wasn't till we were at our gate did I tell him that we were on our way to Hawaii and not Vegas. Yep, he cried!

 

[roscoepc1]

That's so cool! A few years ago I surprised my husband with a trip to Maui. He took time off work to watch our kids while my mom and I went to "Las Vegas"......So he takes us to the airport to drop us off and my mom proceeds to the drivers side and tells us bye. My DH was so confused
I had packed all of his clothes in her luggage ( I actually had to open the bags up and show him so that he would believe me) And it wasn't till we were at our gate did I tell him that we were on our way to Hawaii and not Vegas. Yep, he cried!

That's cool also!!!

I had to think fast yesterday...he started looking at vacations in Cuba while I was at Bible Study, and had justifications and arguments ready for how we could "swing it" when I walked in the door!

I had to sound really discouraging, and pretend I was still a bit mad over a tiff we'd had that morning to talk him out of it! Told him his car needed major repairs (which it does, but his plan hinged on using tax refund money to go to Cuba, and my secret trip doesn't) and we needed the tax refund for the repairs...

This is fun!!!

 

[kstgelais4]

I'm back to join again! The last time I joined this thread, I was in the begining works of planning our trip. I was planning on surprising the kids. Well on Christmas day DH surprised us all! So I never got to do the whole planning and KOTS thing.
We are now planning a trip for the week following Thanksgiving, and I really want to surprise them! We are thinking that we will tell them we are going to visit my brother (we drive to wdw) who lives in VA which is about 10 hours from us. When they wake up and start to question when we
will get there, we will stop for breakfast and give them "an early christmas gift" which will be the mickey balloon in the box. I am hoping for screams And ftr, we will be stopping by my brothers so they won't be dissapointed about that.
Hopefully we can pull it off!

 

[jshal8]

So, My DH and I are KOTS for our 4 year old daughter's first trip to Disney. We leave May 27th. She doesn't do well with finding out about things the day before or the morning of. However, she has recently gotten into countdowns. So, we came up with the idea of giving her a "Special Calendar" from Mickey with the countdown to the trip that she can mark off as part of her Easter basket.

Please give me your thoughts or other ideas.