My mother is treating our family to our Disney vacation in December, and it'll be the first time for the kids (ages 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 9). The only kid that knows about the trip so far is my oldest, and that was only because he'll be junior in High School, and we had to plan around schooling needs. We'd originally thought of going in the fall, but he was very concerned about missing too much time off of school, so we decided on winter break instead.
I'd thought about surprising the other kids instead of telling them. I was going to wait until the very last day, have everything packed, let them think they had to get ready for school, then just drive to the airport instead. The logistics of that seem daunting (packing for 5 kids on the sly, letting schools and teachers know they'd be absent without them spilling the beans, etc).
My mother thinks that part of the fun of a trip like this is the anticipation and planning, and the kids would miss out on a special part of the memories by only knowing at the last minute.
We're starting to think about telling them at Thanksgiving when she'll be here visiting. I was thinking about getting Disney gift cards for all the kids, putting them in envelopes, sitting them all down and having grandma tell them she's got important news, and that she's not very good at it, so they'll have to open their envelopes and read the news. In the meantime, I'll pull out a Disney count-down chain, so when they realize what the GC are for, they can count the number of days on the chain to see how soon we'll be going.
We'll be staying at ASMo and I'll be getting the movies Mighty Ducks and Love Bug for them to watch on Thanksgiving too (we don't know yet where we''ll be, but do know they are standard rooms, not preferred)
Does this sound like an okay plan? I'd love to hear input from families who either waited until the last minute to surprise their kids or prepared them in advance, and how they made the announcement special.
I'd thought about surprising the other kids instead of telling them. I was going to wait until the very last day, have everything packed, let them think they had to get ready for school, then just drive to the airport instead. The logistics of that seem daunting (packing for 5 kids on the sly, letting schools and teachers know they'd be absent without them spilling the beans, etc).
My mother thinks that part of the fun of a trip like this is the anticipation and planning, and the kids would miss out on a special part of the memories by only knowing at the last minute.
We're starting to think about telling them at Thanksgiving when she'll be here visiting. I was thinking about getting Disney gift cards for all the kids, putting them in envelopes, sitting them all down and having grandma tell them she's got important news, and that she's not very good at it, so they'll have to open their envelopes and read the news. In the meantime, I'll pull out a Disney count-down chain, so when they realize what the GC are for, they can count the number of days on the chain to see how soon we'll be going.
We'll be staying at ASMo and I'll be getting the movies Mighty Ducks and Love Bug for them to watch on Thanksgiving too (we don't know yet where we''ll be, but do know they are standard rooms, not preferred)
Does this sound like an okay plan? I'd love to hear input from families who either waited until the last minute to surprise their kids or prepared them in advance, and how they made the announcement special.
