Surprise!!!

[riwehr]

How have you "surprised" someone with a cruise??

 

We are planning to take my grandparents on a cruise for their 50th anniversary. Any suggestions on a creative way to give this as a gift? We will be celebrating their 50th in May and won't be taking the Cruise until November. This would be a gift from the entire family....

 

Thanks, Can't wait to hear your stories/suggestions!

[Room Service!]

THAT is a NICE gift! I don't think I could keep that a secret for too long.

I'm sure others will have some great suggestions.

Are you telling them of the cruise in May, or keeping the secret until Nov.?

[Philly Steve]

Once gave DW a birthday cruise. I took her out to dinner and gave her a Jimmy Buffett CD that contained our cruise itinerary.

 

I waited a month before the cruise to spring the surprise as I wanted to give her time to prepare. :)

[gail811]

What a great idea! If you have cruised before and saved DOD cups or other souvenirs, perhaps you could wrap "clues" in boxes for the party. I know others have planned similar surprised and hopefully they will pop in a share what worked for them. What a wonderful gift! Please keep us posted!

[ifuonlyknewme]

My Husband Surprised me on my 40th Birthday with a cruise. Two weeks before we were leaving he handed me the travel docs with all the information. Blow my mind because I'm the one that does all the planning when we go away.

[AdoptAtty]

My family knew about the cruise, but didn't know I changed our booking from two balcony cabins to a NCL Garden Villa. Meet a friend here who was in the cabin before me, and I send them a large banner which was hung up by the staff. The Butler told my family their cabins weren't ready yet and he was giving them a tour. It took a few moments for it to sink in when they saw the banner!

[pe4all]

DH surprised me with a cruise for one Mother's Day. Since he knew the week I could cruise (President's Week) but didn't know what ship I would like (I also do all the planning!) he bought me Funship Dollars for the deposit. He put a big bow on the envelope, with the certificate inside. That was a great Mother's Day for me!:)

[riwehr]

THAT is a NICE gift! I don't think I could keep that a secret for too long.

I'm sure others will have some great suggestions.

Are you telling them of the cruise in May, or keeping the secret until Nov.?

 

 

Yes, that was the idea- they live in WA and we in TX, so the secret shouldnt be too hard to keep until we come and visit! PLUS, I know how much I love to count down the cruise and plan the ports of call, so I want them to have that expierince as well :)

[riwehr]

What a great idea! If you have cruised before and saved DOD cups or other souvenirs, perhaps you could wrap "clues" in boxes for the party. I know others have planned similar surprised and hopefully they will pop in a share what worked for them. What a wonderful gift! Please keep us posted!

 

 

great idea! We have a whale tail and monkey head cup, I could use!

[deepbluesea29]

We surprised my dad for his birthday/Father's Day one year. We gave him a bunch of bad gifts that kind of related to cruising (1/2 used travel toiletries, an over the door organizer, etc). In the bottom of the box with all this stuff was a clue and basically he went on a hunt around the house to figure out his real gift. The best part was for months we had been asking him what he wanted for Father's Day/his birthday and he kept saying he wanted to go to Florida. Every time he said that we would laugh at him and be like "yeah right Dad, that will happen....in your dreams."

 

The next year his birthday we gave him a scrapbook from our cruise the year before. He thought there was a chance we might be taking him to Washington D.C. so the last page had a picture of the Carnival Imagination and told him that we would be sailing that in August for his birthday and he was shocked. The great part was the scrapbook was free because I got an email offer from one of the picture printing websites...can't remember which one though.

[Stacy1436]

What a great gift!

When I surprised my mother and sister with a birthday cruise for their 70th and 50th birthdays, I scanned in a picture of my husband and I from a prior cruise embarkation and replaced our faces with their faces and printed it out. It looked goofy, but that was the point! . I put it in a birthday card and when they opened it, I said"surprise" and gave them the cruise docs. The best part was I went too and made it a girls trip!

Your grandparents are going to love it however you give it to them!!

[cruzingramma]

three yrs ago i surprised my husband on his 60th birthday with a cruise. i planned a surprise party and when he opened gifts mine was a scrapbook made with various items from his life, starting with his birth certificate, baby pix,prom pix,army papers, pix of kids, retirement pix etc..... then there were pages with our past cruise items, luggage tags,pix, etc.....then the last page was copies of flight boarding passes and our upcoming cruise boarding pass. i booked the mexican riviera....... we had a great time and he was totally surprised!

[gryffynsgirl]

It was for MIL's 50th b-day. After quite some time and debate as to what to get her for this occasion, hubby FINALLY decided that he wanted to get her a cruise (we hadn't even been on one before). Her b-day is in July so he said he wanted to make it for later in the year, when it wasn't so hot. HE said "like October". Well, our anniversary is in Oct, and I had been looking so I said "I happen to know there are some nice cruises in Oct". He said "well, do you want to go too?". Oh come on. Twist my arm!

So, we booked two cabins for 2 ppl each (she got to choose who she wanted to take w/her). It was when there were still paper cruise docs that got mailed to you, so we gave her the envelope full of everything at her b-day dinner. She still says it was the best birthday present ever! (except she took the wrong guy, but we didn't let that bother us. we just left him behind).:)

[ibcnusoon]

We plan on surprising DD for her 16th birthday next year, to be able to take a friend on our Spring Break NCL cruise. She didn't want to have a big party, and what better way to celebrate than to go on a cruise? :p

[michelle1836]

a friend surprised her boyfriend with a cruise for his birthday. all our gifts were cruise related for him to figure it out.

[grgsgrl]

My DH turns 50 in Sept of 2013. If it all works out like I hope. I will tell him to get in the car to visit family, have everything packed and ready to go, drive to the airport and get on a plane for San Juan. He will figure it out after we hit the airport but his face is going to be priceless when we hit the airport

[Room Service!]

What a great gift!

When I surprised my mother and sister with a birthday cruise for their 70th and 50th birthdays, I scanned in a picture of my husband and I from a prior cruise embarkation and replaced our faces with their faces and printed it out. It looked goofy, but that was the point! . I put it in a birthday card and when they opened it, I said"surprise" and gave them the cruise docs. The best part was I went too and made it a girls trip!

Your grandparents are going to love it however you give it to them!!

 

Love that "goofy" idea. OP are you listening? Even if you don't have a picture of youurselves to do this with I'm sure if you look around (magazine, web) you could find a suitable one.

[usafchick1980]

What a great idea! If you have cruised before and saved DOD cups or other souvenirs, perhaps you could wrap "clues" in boxes for the party. I know others have planned similar surprised and hopefully they will pop in a share what worked for them. What a wonderful gift! Please keep us posted!

 

I really like this idea since it is so far out.

 

A few years ago I surprised my mom with Parasailing in St Thomas. I took a file folder and cut off the tabs..on one side I put a picture of St Thomas..and on the other I put a parasailer. Maybe you could do something similar.

[M&MGirl1]

I surprised my parents with a cruise as their Christmas gift this year. I rolled the booking confirmation up really tight and put several rubber bands around it so it wouldn't come unrolled, then I stuck it in an empty wine bottle. I filled the bottle up with glitter, confetti, little paper drink umbrellas and Mardi Gras beads (the cruise leaves out of NOLA). They had to get all the stuff out of the bottle to find the "message in the bottle". Took forever and made an unholy mess, but it was fun (I'd stick with glitter and confetti though, the other stuff tended to get stuck pretty bad and for awhile Dad was afraid he'd have to break the bottle to get to the message in it).

 

I think Mom woke half her friends up on Christmas morning calling and telling them what her daughter got her for Christmas.........and Dad's STILL trying to figure out how to knock the Captain out and get to drive the ship! With more than 60 days left until we leave, who knows, he may still figure it out :-)

[Jimd66]

I booked a cruise for my wife’s birthday in November I made a puzzle with the Ecstasy, ports, and the date. I will give it to her on Thanksgiving and we have to leave the next day to go to my dad’s in Florida then the next morning drive to port Canaveral.:rolleyes:

[welldone60]

Just surprised the DW. Booked us on the Splendor for our 45th wedding annv. Posted it on our cruise group facebook page, got a text the next day asking if someone had hacked my facebook acct...I said no, why?, she said..are we really booked on the splendor? ...I said yep...one very happy wife.

[Room Service!]

welldone60 - That was good. ;)

[Cobra1365]

If you have a 50th Anniversary Party/dinner for them before hand;

 

Assemble a photo slide show of their lives together. Try to insert an occasional picture of them at a beach or on a boat...then for the last photo, take a picture of the some Cruise Documents and type their names into them.

[meggie711]

I've gotta do this oneday!! :) Great ideas!

[Jimd66]

http://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q562/jimd661/IMG_0400.jpg