Trying something new...

[TamiTaylor]

So we leave for Disney in 12 days! Every trip prior we have told J when we booked but this time we decided to surprise him. I cannot wait to tell him. But now I am not sure when to do it. Should we do it the morning of or the night before? I am leaning towards the morning of. We could just pack and tell him we are going to the beach house for the week, which is believable. However we have a flight at 7am and will need to wake up and leave by 4 am to get to the airport and get through security so maybe the night before is better. I know I am majorly overthinking this.

[curbsideprophet]

I would potentially wait as long as possible. However I realize that may not be realistic.

[wesleycrusher]

If it were my kids- I would do morning of but let them think we were going somewhere else for packing purposes. I know they like to help pack their own stuff (like pick out what stuffed animal they want to bring, what sunglasses, etc)

[nicolewi]

I would say morning of, b/c if you tell him the night before I think you will have a lot of trouble getting him to sleep!

[atexan]

Morning of. Maybe in the car on the way to the airport!

[luckyno7]

I agree with morning off. Night before and you may have a difficult time getting him to sleep. I’d even try to wait until you are at the gate!! Ha ha! I love surprising my kids!!

[mainelyfoolish]

We surprised our kids one time by telling them we were going to Kansas City for my cousin’s wedding. (I really do have a single cousin in KC, so it was believable.) As we were sitting at the gate at the airport, my daughter said, “Why does it say this flight is going to Orlando?” At that point we told the kids we were on our way to Disney World. Their reaction was happy but fairly subdued; they did not act nearly as excited as I thought they might!

[mccallister84]

Jun 12, 2019 7:22:34 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

We surprised our kids one time by telling them we were going to Kansas City for my cousin’s wedding. (I really do have a single cousin in KC, so it was believable.) As we were sitting at the gate at the airport, my daughter said, “Why does it say this flight is going to Orlando?” At that point we told the kids we were on our way to Disney World. Their reaction was happy but fairly subdued; they did not act nearly as excited as I thought they might!

Yes. Just prepare yourself that you might not get the reaction who were hoping for. My sister surprised her kids and their lackluster reaction really bummed her out - she said it put a damper on the very beginning of the trip because they didn’t have this big over the top reaction she had been anticipating. They had an amazing trip and she got over it quickly but she said she’ll never surprised them again since it just led to her being disappointed.

[stephm0188]

We surprised our kiddo the morning of once. His reaction was completely lackluster.
"We're going to Disney World today!"
"Okay."
"Right now."
"Okay."
"Get your shoes! We're leaving right now."
"Okay."

He was excited in the car once he processed it all, but the initial reaction was pretty much a non-reaction. He was more excited when we surprised him when we went to pick out a puppy.

[nsl]

This is reminding me of our first trip to Disney with DS 1. He was four, and started crying when we told him where we were going because he wanted us to take him to the Dollar Spot at Target.

[TBM]

The worst Disneyland day we ever had was when we're surprised or kids. They were upset for a good part of the day, but it is something that they remember 25 yrs later.

They loved Disneyland, but really didn't care for being surprised. They were more excited when they knew we were going and had something to look forward to, but taking away that aspect of it kind of ruined it for them. They kept saying '...but we weren't expecting it.'

It turns out that none if us likes the kind of surprises that other people seem to, like surprise parties or a surprise trip. I think it is a weird combination of feeling like everyone knew about it but you, (so you feel stupid or lied to), and a lack of control thing.

[undecidedowl]

I agree with others that we surprised our kids last time (while at the airport) and they were happy but pretty subdued. They were more excited about discovering that my parents were travelling with us. I don't regret surprising them though, because then I didn't get a million questions until the day of lol.

We had a very early flight so we got the kids dressed in the dark while they were half asleep. We put them in new matching mickey shirts then put a zip-up over them. When we got to the airport, we met up with my parents (surprise 1) then had them unzip their sweatshirt to figure out where we were going (surprise 2). I took a video, which is a fun memory, but like I said they were way more interested in my parents being there.