Telling the children?
 

When do you tell your children? I usually like the girls to have a bit of time to look forward to a Disney holiday, so we’ve always told them a few weeks / months in advance of a DLP holiday (with some kind of fun reveal.)

I do have a bit of reveal-regret that we told them about staying in the DLH about an hour before we arrived, when we stopped at an Aire on the way. (They knew about the holiday, but I always wish I’d kept the DLH bit a secret right up until the end, and just let them figure it out as we drove up.)

I think that’s now colouring my opinion on whether to wait to surprise them with our first WDW holiday, or tell them in advance. (They know we are planning to go, just not when, so they’re still involved in the planning and anticipation.)

How soon (and how) do you tell your children?

How old are the children?

I’ve done two reveals- not to Disney world but other holidays and both were really well received but my children like surprises. Some people have done reveals and it’s fallen really flat and been a bit of an anti-climax!
I’d reveal a few weeks before so they have chance to get excited- maybe a month and you could then do a daily countdown? That way it’s not too long to wait.
I did a letter from Santa for our skiiing holiday at Christmas. That went down well. People do treasure hunts, scratch cards, jigsaw puzzles, just turning up at the airport.
Hope that helps a bit and happy planning!

On our first trip... we told our boys we were going to Spain, so they were fine with seeing the suitcases out for a while... we “posted” a letter, which was on the floor one morning, it had instructions to search the house for clues, these clues lead to little balls with jigsaw pieces in them, when they finally collected them all they put the jigsaw together. They looked at me when they finished it and said we’ve done...😂 I said read what it says... and it surprised them with “names... your off to Walt Disney world, they asked when and I said in 1 week... they were so excited.

I filmed it all and it’s an amazing memory to look back on.

We go next week and my eldest, now 9, still doesn’t want to know the exact day we are going so it’s a little surprise when we wake him early... Even though he knows we are going... 🙄😂

They’re 7 and 11, so I’m not sure if we’d even get away with just turning up at the airport (they’d go to my parents for a sleepover the day before while we pack the car etc, but they could still easily find something out earlier than planned.) It does help that they know we are planning WDW, just not the date, so that explains away most things they might notice.

We’ve always done treasure hunts / countdowns / mystery picture clues etc a few weeks before, and their reactions have been priceless. I love watching our first DLP reveal video - the excitement was pure Disney magic.

I would really love to just turn up at the airport, but maybe we should save that last-minute reveal for our next DLP trip. We have done a last-minute reveal for a U.K. holiday that they thought was just a day out, until we arrived and they spotted the cases in the boot!

Your reveal sounds amazing, they must have loved that!

I did wonder about telling them we’ve booked August 2020, not 2021, but keeping the exact date secret. It won’t work for us though, as we’re going the last two weeks of the holidays, so by the time we get to our departure date, they’ll have worked out that it’s got to be then or never. (Plus they’ll have spent 4 weeks being disappointed!)

Still don’t know what to do!

Our DD who is 7 doesn't know we're going back in August yet. We told her maybe when she was 9 we could go again, we last went when she was 4. Really excited about reveal but also a bit unsure whether to do it the day we drive down to Gatwick (staying overnight) or a day or two before- leaning towards the latter so she can help with packing her suitcase (She chose her own in the Tripp sale earlier this year 😂). Decisions, decisions! Whatever you decide it will be fab 😊

I think I’m starting to lean towards telling ours a little in advance too. I can always save the last minute reveal for a future DLP trip :)

We did a reveal for DS on the day of travel when he was 7 but he had already been twice before that.
He loves the planning, working through the countdown calendar. He will be 16 when he and I go as a twosome next year and is already engrossed in YouTubers reports from the parks and CSR.
I wouldn’t do a last minute reveal if it is the first trip - maybe give them a few months notice so they have time to get involved in the planning?

We didn’t tell our kids the first time we went to DLP, we drove from Eurotunnel to DLP, checked in at DCR and drive round to the parking area of the parks before our eldest noticed :pgig:

He saw space mountain from the car park and shout we’re at DLP! I asked how he knew and he pointed to SM and said I saw that on the book in the shop last week. He flicked through the DLP brochure while we were in the TA getting euros:d:

Second and third times we did a Xmas day reveal with treasure hunt, but it was only a few weeks to go.

They knew and were involved in our WDW planning, but for 2020 we’ve chosen not to tell them.

Largely because the last 2 trips (2018 & 2019) have had to be cancelled (2018 because I was unwell in hospital with a bleed on the brain & this years, we were leaving on 21 May, because my dad had a stroke and my mum is disabled so we are needed to provide more support) and telling them was awful.

They know we’re planning 2021 and have a countdown up for that so if they hear H and I talking about Florida they assume it’s that.

We’ve decided it will be fun to see how long it takes them to realise :pgig:

We fly out from Manchester (live in Scotland) on Father’s Day so I’m going to tell the kids we’re taking H to Manchester to do an Old Trafford tour for his father’s day gift.

xx

Maybe when they break up from school for the summer would be a nice idea? I always wish I could have done this with my son but have always told him as soon as we have booked it. We are taking my niece to dlp between Xmas and new year and my sister And I originally said we would tell her on Xmas day... we lasted 24 hours before we spilled the beans 🤣