This question comes from my reader Miranda…
For a first trip to Disney let the kids know in advance or surprise them when you are on your way to Disney?
Ask the readers: Did or will you surprise your kids for their first Disney trip?
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I have four kids on the autism spectrum, so last minute surprises don’t work well with them. Those Disney commercials where they surprise the kids make me tear up and I wanted to capture that magic in a way I thought my kids might handle the surprise well. This led to us surprising the kids with a trip, but it wasn’t last minute–we actually told them a month or two in advance. It was the best of both worlds for us.
Their reactions were quite varied, so it was a really good thing we gave them as much warning for it to sink in too. Not to mention it was a great motivator to get everyone out and walking to “train” for our vacation. (My kids are not terribly active without some prodding).
I wrote about how I “surprised” them in the link below. Maybe my ideas will work for other families. They are very visual hands-on kind of kids, so we did a scavenger hunt.
http://momtomygroupofmunchkins.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-safely-surprise-kids-on-autism.html
I appreciate you sharing this article post. Awesome.
We are taking our daughter and son (ages 7 &6) the week before Chirstmas. We want it to be a surprise early Christmas present from Santa b/c DD asked for a roller coaster for Christmas this year. I would like to start giving them clues to where we are going the night before we leave and keep giving more clues (in the form of letters from Santa) on the drive down. I would love to hear some suggestions on how to give appropriate clues to a 6 & 7 year old.
We surprised our girls for their first trip back in 2008. We filled Easter eggs w/words that spelled out “WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!” They had to search for them Easter Sunday in an egg hunt. They loved it!! But this time, we thought we would tell them a little earlier. This way, our oldest daughter was able to share w/her friends where she would be going over summer vaca. (It’s always fun to talk about that stuff w/your friends) Good thing we did too. We found out that one of her bestfriends will be there at the same time as us! How cool is that!! So we will be meeting up w/them for the day at WDW. Whatever you decide, the kids are going to love it!!
We’re taking our boys, ages 7 & 4, in November 2011 & definitely plan on surprising them…just haven’t figured out the best way to do it yet. I’d love to just surprise them when we’re driving under the “Disney World” sign but the 7 year old knows how to read and will probably figure it out before then, so we have to be more creative. Would love to hear any suggestions :)
I chose not to surprise our daughter and let her be involved in the entire process of the planning for our trip. She knows that Disney World takes “a lot of money” so she is eager to help us save. Plus she was able to make a daisy chain when we were about a month out to tear off a day from every night until it was the day to leave. I’m not sure I would surprise her now or not because she really enjoyed helping us plan and save and she learned just how much Disney costs so she doesn’t take one second of the fun for granted! She also made a huge point to thank her Daddy and I for her trip and was very appreciative of every thing we did- after all it took her almost a year of saving change and birthday money to make it down there- she really learned to appreciate the value of money AND learned some patience! :)
We surprised our then 5 year old daughter in Dec 2010. She knew that we were going on a special vacation before Daddy went to Afghanistan. We drove 13 hours there and she had no clue. We arrived at 11pm checked into our condo and I ran upstairs to set up the reveal. It was a gift bag from Mickey and a card that said “Welcome to Disney World”. She came up with my husband and I recorded her opening the card and reading it. It’s 15 of the happiest minutes of my life followed by 7 amazing days at Disney.
I had a little gift bag for each day that we went to the Parks. One was from the Toy Story gang, on from the princesses, one from Tinkerbell, and one miscelaneous that included a Isabella t-shirt (from Etsy) that I had made for her. It was so magical. She thought that each bag was actually FROM the Disney characters and they visited our condo each day. I put a lot of thought into our trip and I would do it all over again. It was our best vacation ever.
Now that Disney has extended their Salute to the Military program, we are going back in March 2012!!! I’m already planning!! Although, I don’t think I’ll be able to pull off another surprise.
~Kelly
I wish we had kids to suprise. Right now it is just hubby and me. I am thinking about suprising him the day we got though. I thought about calling his boss and requesting the days off for him and then tell him that morning that he doesn’t have to go to work because we are going to DW.
Us girls in the family (sister,me and Mom) are taking our kids to DW July 10th. It is the first time for all of us. I am so excited. The kids know we are going but I don’t really know when. I thought about waiting until that morning to tell them it’s time. I can’t wait.
I did not surprise my two boys last December for their first trip, but am going to surprise them for our upcoming trip in Sept. They are 5 and 3 and ask everyday when we can go back. I keep telling them we have to wait until they are 6 and 4. ;) I think a week before we leave, I am going to send them a box with all Disney stuff inside like new autograph books and shirts with a note telling them we are heading back to DW. I can’t wait to see their faces!
When we took the kids for the first time my oldest was 2.5 and youngest was five months. We told them, and my oldest started to get it when we got on Magical Express and MM was on the outside of the bus and on the video. When we got to the resort and he saw the monorail (we stayed at Bay Lake Towers so you check in at the Contemporary) he started to get a little more excited because he had seen those on the vacation planning video. He didn’t see Cindy’s Castle until we got into the room and we looked out the window. He started freaking out because he was so excited! He didn’t know what Disney World was yet, but he knew that castle meant Mickey was nearby. He’s four now, and my youngest is almost two, and we’re going back again in October for their third trip! There isn’t a day that goes by that my oldest doesn’t ask when we’re going back. Thanks to sites like this, we can save for the kids’ college and our retirement, pay down the house and still go to Disney every year! :)
We are planning a surprise trip for our daughter in February as a 5th birthday present. Haven’t figured out exactly how we’re going to do it yet, but I’ve got a little time. Love reading about what everyone else did to reveal the surprise. We’ve got a loooong drive from NH, so we can’t tell her too soon into the trip or else we’ll be listening to “are we there yet?” for 2 days. LOL
My kids have been going since they were little so it wasn’t a surprise to them then but we did surprise them later on. We told them we were going to dinner, so we got about an hour away and had dinner. On the way “home”, we passed the Florida sign and DS said “Pop, you’re going the wrong way!” We told them we were going to a car show the next day, they protested because they had no clothes (which were already packed in the trunk), and I told them it would all be ok. We’d take care of clothes later :) We got to a hotel outside of WDW and spent the night, got up the next morning and showed them the place the car show was to be (we had been down there to one before, but not this time) and went to McDonald’s for breakfast. After breakfast, they loaded up ready to go, and DH said, ok that’s enough… I’m not driving anywhere until you tell them. Finally, I said, “well, we have to tell you something. The only cars you will see today are in the Disney World parking lot!” At that point, my car was bouncing up and down on all four wheels!! We were only about 2 miles from the gates then so they didn’t have long to wait. It was awesome!
Since my son is autistic having him involved in the planing is a huge thing. But planing it together is part of the fun! Suprises are usualy not dealt well with him so we tell him once we know for sure we are going and we go over and over the information we find. He even made his own guidebook the last trip with his special ed teaher which was his lesson plans for awhile and it turned out awesome! (he has an AWESOME special ed teacher and aide)
We are starting to plan our next trip to orlando however it may be a disneyless one becuase we are going to be going to Universal for 2 days, Bush Gardens, Legoland, Sea WOrld and are going to do the swimming with the dolphins at Discover Cove. If we have an extra day or two(depending how many days I get off from work) we may use a couple of our unexpired tickets that we have (we have about 5 single days and 2 5day passes) that we still have. My dad (my parents go on vacation with us to help us becuase we have 4 kids which works out great one kid per adult) says he cannot believe that we are going to be that close and not visit Disney!
I am no good at suprises anyway..lol Although I may suprise my parents by paying for thier vaction. They have always helped us out by paying for hotels and giving us tickets for Christmas and stuff. So since I got a good paying job now I can afford to treat them!
Total surprise to the kids. We were going to Southern California for a college football game. Went early and didn’t tell the kids. It was also their first airplane trip. They didn’t know until we drove our rental car under the Disneyland arch. It was fabulous!
I WOULD LOVE SOME SUGGESTIONS: I have a 14 yr. old girl, 10 yr. old girl and a 9 yr. old son, whom I will be surprising for their first trip to Disney World on Christmas Morning. We have plans to leave the day after Christmas and stay through New Years. This will be the biggest family vacation we have ever taken. I was wondering if you could help me with SOME IDEAS FOR A SCAVENGER HUNT OR MAJOR WOW FACTOR SURPRISE TIPS! I want them all, even the 14 yr old, to be surprised!
No our one son has autism, so springing a trip on him would not do at all. In fact as a reader tip for other parents of kids out there with autism or difficult transitioning, to help him prepare for our next trip we are watching a lot of the shows on youtube. The last time we went down, any unexpected thing during a show had us heading for the exit. Our first trip we had him on he was 9 months old, the next time we had him and his baby brother 1 1/2 and 5 months. Then at 2 1/2 and 1 1/2. We missed a few years (cause we were busy having more babies!) and last time we went we had him 4, his two brothers (ages 3 and 1) and his baby sister ( 2 months). Our trip this year they will be 6,5,2 (almost 3)and 2. Being a bit of a Disney vet (I think this will be my 22nd trip to WDW?) I don’t think it takes anything away from the experience knowing or not knowing. There is so much magic to be had, however you get there will be a blast!
If you haven’ read it yet I worte an article about taking children with autism to Disney. IF you have any extra tips I am always ready to learn!! My son has been there twice and Disneyland once. I found out that Universal gives a 15% discount. And both of them (as well as Sea World, and Bush Gardens) offer guest assistance passes. GOod luck my son has always had a huge breakthroughs there!!
We surprised our daugter. First her best friend who lives 8 hours away was coming and then with the fact that we were going to Disney. We stayed in a Disney hotel for the weekend. She had her best friend in the whole wide world and they both got to experience it for the first time together. We know she will never forget that!!!
I don’t have any kids yet, and won’t for a while, but for me, the surprise reveal has always been the most exciting. This year for Christmas my mom gave me enough Disney Vacation Club points to go for 6 days, and that surprise was perfect.
We are surprising our kids (daughter, 8 and son, 2) in October. We are gonna wake them up early and then have them do a scavenger hunt that ends at backpacks full of Disney stuff for the airplane ride and their autographs pictures from the Disney characters ( I am gonna have my kids write letters to their favorite characters for formal letter writing practice***) will be framed with a note that says they are leaving for Disneyland right then.
***Thanks for the tip and address for Disney character letters, it will add the extra excitement to the scavenger hunt surprise.
I know there is a website ( I cannot think of it right now. search wdw discussion forums) I found one that I gave my address to someone who was visiting there a couple weeks before and she sent my kids a postacrd signd by mickey with a special message from him. The kids thought it was soo cool to get a card from Mickey saying he couldn’t wait for us to visit him.
We are going in September and plan on surprising my two kids who are 7 and 3. I almost blew it when I left my planner out on the table and my 7 year old who can read very well saw it and all of a sudden I heard “Were going to Disney World in September!!” I ran into the dining room and grabbed the book and had to come up with a fast white lie ;( I told him it was my friends book. I’m not sure how we are going to surprise them yet, but I am so excited to see their faces.
We didn’t surprise the kids for their first visit…we did it on their third trip. We told them we were visiting a friend of Daddy’s who lives in Georgia. We drove to GA, met my husband’s college buddy, and spent the night. The next day, the kids had no idea we weren’t headed home until we got to the rest stop at the Florida state line. My oldest (then almost 6) said that he saw palm trees just like the ones he sees when we drive to Disney World. It took him another minute to ask “Are we going to Disney World?” and when we said yes, the look on his face was priceless. It is one of my favorite memories, and I would do it all over again:)
Definitely going to surprise my daughter! She’s only 10 months old, so I have years to plan :)
If I had kids, I’d do it a TOTAL surprise!! :D
We surprised our girls(age 9 and 5) with their first trip to DW as a Christmas present. We tied up a little scroll with the DW map and hid it in the tree and gave them a clue to find it. I would have loved to wait until our trip in March, but there was no way I could have kept it a secret that long. I had a hard enough time waiting till Christmas! It mad a great Christmas present :) Plus, the excitement got to build and they got to help do a little bit of the planning as well. I can’t wait to go back!!
We drove from Chicago on our last trip and fibbed,a little, saying we were going swimming at a hotel. At the time only my oldest, then 7, could read so I thought she would read a sign about what states we were in , but didn’t. So we made it all the way to those magical Disney World gates before the 4 kids found out. It was wonderful! Now I need to figure out how to trick them next time.
We have taken our Goddaughter to Disney when she was 2 but she is 7 now and does not remember. This September we are taking her again. Waking her up the morning we leave we are going to ask her when she wants to do today and then suggest Disney…She will be SO excited. I can’t wait!!!!!
We are going in February and will be surprising my kids as a Christmas gift. This is their second time to go but my youngest was 2 last time and will be 6 this time. They ask EVERYDAY when we are returning, so hopefully this Christmas will be one for the books!!! The time from Christmas until we go, may be a challenge though! ;-)
I’m sure when she’s old enough, we’ll give the surprise a try. My parents did it to us when I was young. We had been visitng my aunt in SC and they told us we were going home. We slept for most of the trip, and suddenly my dad says, “Disney World? Why are there signs for Disney World? We must have gone the wrong way!” Then we all started yelling at him that it was ok and that we should stay. lol
LOL! That’s kinda what my husband wants to do when we go.
No we didn’t. We took them April 2009 with my ILs. We are going again in 2012. Just not sure if it is Spring Break or Thanksgiving. We stay at my ILs place (Marriott Grand Vista).
Our kids have been going to Disney since They were too young to remember. We surprised them on our weekend trip last month, and it was wonderful. I’ll definitely do it again.
We kept it a secret from our then 8 year-old and 3 year old until about 3 weeks before we left. We wanted them to be able to look forward to it, and I knew my 8 year-old would want to feel like he got to do a little planning. We gave him the guide and looked online with him so that he could tell us what rides he was really interested in. I’m glad we didn’t wait to tell them the first time — the anticipation was a lot of fun for them!
We are going on July 31st and it will be the first time for our two children, my husband’s first time since he was 5 years old, and our first family vacation with the four of us together! We are determined to make it extra special and we aren’t telling the kids a thing! I think we are going to surprise them at the airport. I’m still trying to think of something easy, creative, and portable to whip out when we reveal the surprise. Any suggestions are welcome!!! :)
I surprised my kids and would do it all over again! I had everything planned for about 6 months (made all my Disney dining reservations and reserved a make over at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for my daughter). It was mine and my husbands first time going to Disney as well, so I was super excited and it was so hard to keep it a secret. My husband recorded every second of their surprise. We woke them up early and told them we were leaving for a special trip. I had a Mickey shirt and Mickey crocs for my son to wear and a Minnie shirt and Minnie crocs for my daughter to wear. We woke them up at 4am, but that was the ONLY time they ever got up that early with such enthusiasm and excitement. I will never forget the excitement and look of shock on their face when they were told of the special surprise. The moment was priceless and so was our first time. I’m hoping to go back again next year and maybe surprising them again :)
We are going for the first time in november 2011. Not only is this my kids first time (4,3,2) this is my frist time to go.
i am probably more excited then they are. LOL. so it is hard to keep it a secret.
its so cute to see them talk about going to disney. I am letting them pick there character meals.
That’s so exciting! :)