Suprise my 6 year old or let her know ahead of time????

[LamenLaur]

My sister in law surprised my 7 year old nephew with a trip to Disney and they went right from school to the airport. He absolutely loved the surprise.

[Jimnbigd]

Either way really. If you have other family and/or friends sharing Christmas, you might want to give it then. Here are some youtube videos to give you a better idea.

Day of cruise:

Day of cruise:

Christmas gift:

(I like the sunscreen gift first.)

Of course, 5 weeks is still a long time to hear "Is it time to go yet?"

I would not tell her until at least final payment date, in case for some reason you decide to cancel.

[CamaCama]

Another reason I like the idea of a surprise that day before or day of is b/c if for some reason it didn't work out, someone got sick, work got in the way, etc and you couldn't go she would be devastated!

[minnesotamamafish]

If you do give this as a Christmas or New Year's gift, I would suggest a paper

chain with numbers on each. She could rip one off each day. It would give her

a visual of how close or far away it is, and she would get excited as it gets shorter.

 

Enjoy!

[mzloolue]

For my kids first cruise, we did a scavenger hunt with clues about the cruise...sunscreen, bathing suits, etc. The last clue was a boat floating in the bathtub. It was a lot of fun to see them try to figure it out!

 

That is cute.

 

I would let the 6 year old know, but not too far in advance.

Just in case something comes up and the trip does not happen, you know?

 

A week or ten days ahead would be good.

Kids don't quite get time and how long away something is anyway.

And sometimes they get too wound up with the waiting.

I am a former first grade teacher and by the time that Christmas was actually close the kids were bonkers with all the waiting.

[summer_girl]

I myself like to tell my son (age 11) and then use it as currency...lol

 

"If you want to be able to go on that cruise you better do good in school, etc..." LOL :D

[debster11]

NOTHING like the look of surprise when they find out they are going on a cruise. I would wait until you pull up to the port. If you are flying you could just say you are going on vacation but not tell her the exact destination. That way you have the best of both. Just my opinion. I will never forget the look on my kids faces when we did this.

[MissyMac13]

We took our 10 year old daughter on a cruise for her birthday in April and it was surprise. We told her that we were taking her to see the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which wasn't a lie because the Queen Mary is right next to where the Carnival ships leave from, and she DID see it - LOL. She was out of school that month so there was no need to cover that, and I had packed everything the night before and put it in the trunk of the car, so she had no idea. We pulled into the cruise parking lot, which is next to the Queen Mary parking lot. She asked why we were there and we finally told her what we were doing. I've attached a photo that my husband took when she finally realized that we were going on Inspiration and not the Queen Mary!

We also had our room decorated for her birthday by Carnival and had a "Funship Freddy" stuffed animal in the room as a gift. Carnival made things very special as she got a birthday cake on her birthday, as well as birthday cards from Camp Carnival and the Captain.

If you can keep it a secret, I would do it. I will never forgot her reaction when she realized what we were doing, and the whole trip was a joy for her and us.

[jenjens1023]

Surprise her. That way she won't drive you crazy with questions.

 

When my daughter was four we went to Disneyworld for or the first time. The night before we told her we were going to Florida where it is warm, and we would do a lot of fun things. Somehow we got through the Orlando airport without her noticing all the Disney stuff. At the hotel that night I said "Do you know what is in this city?" "What?" "Disney!" "Can we go?" it was too cute and I wouldn't miss that moment (17years ago) for anything.

[Ramrac]

We are taking our 6 year old on his first cruise in October. I wanted it to be a surprise but then I wanted him to be excited and help plan for it so we told him. We have had a countdown since last November and every couple of days he will ask, "how many days left?" and then get really excited, especially now that we are on 40some days away. I am glad we told him because now I have someone to be excited with, but I think a surprise is also a good idea.

 

I know that doesn't help you much, but just wanted to let you know what we are doing.

[Ramrac]

We surprised our 7 year old on her birthday with a trip to Disneyland (the entire family was going 9 of us total and everyone was able to keep a secret for like 6 months :eek: ). We had a party for her 2 days before we left, wrapped a big bunch of balloons in a box and tied a note to the end that said .... Happy Birthday Disneyland Here We Come. It took a few second for it to set in, then the fireworks started lol. She was so excited, had one day at school to tell everyone before we left for the airport.

 

Wow, what a great idea!

[pyroguy]

We just surprised our kids (DS 10, DD 8, DS4) about 30 minutes before we left for the terminal.

 

 

We did take video - it's here (note, the surprise moment is a couple minutes into the video)

 

My son (10) didn't have much of a reaction until he saw the ship. My daughter finally got it. I didn't get the WOW moments on video I was hoping for, but it was still good.

 

I asked them later if they would rather be surprised or have been told earlier. I got a mix of answers...but I think they liked the surprise better.

[Mommy2landonmason]

We are leaving at the end of Sept. and have been booked since March..I have kept it a secret from the kids all this time!! (I don't want to here "is it time' every day LOL) Mine are 8,6,2 1/2, and 1, they will think we are just going to Galveston for the weekend, and then we will pull up to the ship the next morning and let them know.. The oldest 2 have been begging for a couple years to go, so I can't wait to see their reaction!!!

[LHP]

This reminds me of what we did one time to surprise the boys....

 

we booked a cruise...never said a word....

 

told the boys we were headed to a reunion on the coast (where hubby is from)....

 

that morning...we just drove to the ship...

 

they were shocked...and very very happy!!

[arpie05]

I surprised my son with a cruise for Christmas a couple years back. We were leaving in a few days.

 

I had bought on ebay one of those inflatable ships that they sell in the gift shop. You might see if someone you know is going and they could pick one up for you. There's also carnival beanies, and I got some boats and beach ball, pail shovel from $1 store.

 

All the stuff was wrapped in a box with a case of soda :rolleyes: which we took since we drove.

[suza12]

100% surprise!!! We did this when we took my step daughter on her first cruise. She was 11 at the time. We told her that we were going on a family vacation to the beach. (which wasn't actually a lie cuz we didn't say which beach). She packed everything except a formal outfit (I put hers in my suitcase) just like she was going to the beach an hour away. After she left for school, I put the luggage tags on and packed the car. On the way to the "beach" I asked my husband to take a ride past the ship so that she could see it since it was in port. We pulled into the parking garage and all got out of the car. She still didn't know until we opened the trunk to get the luggage out. It was a classic surprise that she still talks about two years later.

[atinys]

I would definitely surprise her.... I like the idea of spring it on her at Christmas. Counting down the remaining weeks should be fun for all of you.