Disney Question-telling the Kids

A friend of mine wrapped a huge box filled with a few Mickey and Minnie mylar balloons. When her kids opened the box the balloons floated out! She also had each of them a Disney themed stuffed animal and a letter from Mickey saying he was so excited that they would be coming to visit him at Disney World. It was really cute! Have fun!!

Disney did a commercial where the kids opened a pizza box and the pizza was in the shape of Mickey's face...and went crazy. It would be easy enough to make.

We live near Disneyland so the question gets asked a lot, and we'll be going next month, but we've never done the BIG announcement, might be fun :)

I like the mouse ear pancakes...cute! But we can't tell our kids anything like this more than a week or so before we leave or we would NEVER hear the end of it...how many more days?...what are we going to do?...how long will we be there?...etc. But you should know if your kids are like this or not, that's what I would consider...2 months out is still a LONG time. Good luck!

Mouse-ear pancakes?

I wonder if you could order the mouse ear hats online.... that would be fun. Put them at their tables at breakfast on a weekend morning (no sense in letting the teachers cope with all that joy and excitement) and have at it.

Oh, here it is:
http://www.disneystore.com/accessories/ear-hats-mickey-mi...

We are going in September and are not telling our girls (7 and 3) about the trip for several reasons.

#1 - Our soon to be 7 y/o will drive us all nuts from now until then with a barrage of questions every five minutes.

#2 - It's a long drive from Maryland to Florida...Can you imagine 15 hours of "are we there yet's?" it will be bad enough without them knowing the destination...lol.

#3 - This is their first trip to Disney and we really want to bask in the surprise when we get there.

#4 - The most important reason is that with my disease, anything could happen at any time and we may have to post pone the trip. I couldn't bare disappointing them :(

I am putting together backpacks for in the car. All items in the back packs are going to be Disney related right down to their reusable princess and mickey water bottles. I have various Disney coloring books, story books, look and finds, video games and movies for the ride.

I'm going to bake mickey shaped brownies. I'll use my cookie cutters to make Disney shaped sandwiches and watermelon slices for snacks in the car. (I often pack shaped lunches for them so it shouldn't tip them off.)

I'm also ordering the personalized Minnie ears from Disney.com along with Disney world t-shirts, autograph books, lanyards and starter pins. I will have those items in smaller Disney back packs hidden in the back of the SUV. If the girls haven't figured it out by the signs once we're there, I plan to give them the back packs to open while we record their reactions.

I have already booked the bippity bobbity boutique, a different character meal every day and the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I'm packing their Disney princess costumes to wear to the character meals and Halloween Party.

Hubs and I are really having a blast planning all the details. Our girls are obsessed with the Disney characters so we know they are going to be over the moon excited.

If you do plan on telling them this early, perhaps you could make a Mickey themed weekend lunch. Ask them what all of the items on the table have in common.

Enjoy your vacation!!!

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

How about having them earn money so that maybe you can get to Disney while there. Pay them to do some chores inside and out. They will appreciate it much more.

We gave my little one a shirt with Minnie on it and included a note that said "Can't wait to meet you. See you soon".

Thanks for asking this question, we are going in June (kids 10 and 8) and we have not told them at all.
They only know mommy is taking a week off of work to spend with them. We are going to tell them at airport.
Have fun

If they would like to collect autographs from the characters, I'd order each an autograph book from the Disney store online. Wrap it up and tell them that they will need this in Florida. We were in Disney for 4 days and my daughters (7 &5) almost filled 2 books each. Just about every kid I saw collected autographs. It's an inexpensive souvenir and it's fun to meet the characters. Have fun.

I'm sure you'll get many creative ideas but we just told our kids where we were going and they were totally stoked!

Give them special end of the year gifts or just because we love you gift that has something in it that shows where you are going. Maybe a jar each so they can save (fake or real money) that they can use for a special something while th4ey are there.

I like your style. Parenting has memorable moments. This will be one!

When we were growing up, our parents surprised us with a trip to Disney. They didn't tell us until we pulled up. It was SO awesome to be in the car, see the Disney signs, and know we were going that exact moment. Plus with 5 of us, I'm sure my parents didn't want to hear the constant "when are we going" questions :).

This past Christmas, we gave our kids a cruise for their big gift. We booked last February and didn't tell them until Christmas morning. We bought three new ornaments for the tree (all Santa on a beach, palm tree related) and they got new luggage. They saw the new suitcases and thought they were cool, but got their surprise when they opened it. They all had new formal wear, new bathing suits, new flip flops, etc. At the bottom (underneath all of the stuff) we made them passports/itineraries. There was a big picture of the cruise ship with pictures of our different ports and airplanes for our flight to and from. It was PRICELESS!!!!

We only had to wait 9 days from Christmas until we left, so it wasn't too bad. I don't think I could do 2 months of it!

So for you, I'd not tell them until you are pulling up to the gates. They will be insanely excited!!