This! I’ve actually never understood the secretive Disney planning. Obviously Every kid is different, but my daughter has always enjoyed being a part of the planning! I’d feel kind of bad to leave her out. I also think she wouldn’t handle the impulsiveness of telling her last minute very well. I guess she herself is a planner by nature.
I say to enjoy the anticipation with your kids now that the cat is out of the bag. It could be even more exciting now that they know there’s something fun to look forward to! Like others have said, it’s super fun to say things like “this time next week, we’ll be at Magic Kingdom!”
Uh, my son looks at the calendar every couple of days and says, "Ema (that's Hebrew for mother), we're going to Disney on June 9th?". I'm like, "Yep! Yep!" He thanks me often for taking him and says he's looking forward to doing better on the rides.
When we went when he was in 1st grade, and 7 years old, we weren't very successful on a lot of rides. Winnie the Pooh scared him because it was too dark
and Buzz Lightyear caused a crying fit till he and my husband got off the ride and I stayed on because I was so upset.
I think back on it now and realize, that's just who my son was then. He was really into the character greets and Test Track surprisingly. Loved the snot out of both!!
Now we've discussed rides, I've showed him YouTube videos and he even wants to give Haunted Mansion a try!
Says he'll even do Soarin with me knowing my fear of heights. Come to find out, you're not really that high off the ground a friend told me, but my son says he wants to give it a try!
SO glad he knows now and we're looking at things together. I wonder if I would have told him back in 2015 we were going and done what I'm doing now, would the trip have been more successful?
Eh.... he's 3 years older now and I think that's the major difference!