Surprise cruise suggestions

[Fins33]

DH and I booked our next cruise (Southern Caribbean) in March. We will be taking our DS and 2 DDs and are looking to surprise them with the cruise. Looking for some creative/fun way to tell them at Christmas rather than just telling them…any suggestions?

[dot73]

Wow, what a great surprise. Do you know anyone who is going on a Princess cruise before Christmas? If you do, you could get them to buy them each a Princess lanyard or a Christmas decoration as a stocking stuffer. Or you can prepare on the computer a cruise themed invitation asking them to join you on the cruise, putting in the itinerary, etc. You could also include an onboard credit for them instead of buying a gift.

[notentirelynormal]

I make up a booklet that I give my kids at Christmas. Now my kids are grown so it's a little different but I take a page with the plane on it - next page a picture of the hotel, ship, our cabin, the pools, the kids area etc. Wrap it up and put it in a wrapped box. Each one of those things cost money and I want them to appreciate them. Oh, and shore excursions too.

[duchess nan]

My husband placed cruise documents (this was only one week before sailing) inside a Fodor's Guide to Caribbean Ports and wrapped it as an anniversary gift for me for our very first cruise and I still remember the excitement seeing that when I opened the box. What a wonderful and generous gift! Hope you all have a great cruise.

[skynight]

DH and I booked our next cruise (Southern Caribbean) in March. We will be taking our DS and 2 DDs and are looking to surprise them with the cruise. Looking for some creative/fun way to tell them at Christmas rather than just telling them…any suggestions?

 

Hope they are no so surprised that they don't have passports.

[SMerritt]

I make up a booklet that I give my kids at Christmas. Now my kids are grown so it's a little different but I take a page with the plane on it - next page a picture of the hotel, ship, our cabin, the pools, the kids area etc. Wrap it up and put it in a wrapped box. Each one of those things cost money and I want them to appreciate them. Oh, and shore excursions too.

 

 

Place the above or a printout of the cruise ticket in the bottom of a box holding a few items they might use on the cruise - silly but maybe useful things.

 

I think opening a box with travel goodies might get some blank looks, trite thank yous, and other priceless photo moments before they get to the bottom of the box and the tickets and trip info.

 

Very nice gift and a fun family vacation I am sure!

[mali06]

You could have family T shirts made up for the cruise and wrap them up! :)

[beachbum53]

DH and I booked our next cruise (Southern Caribbean) in March. We will be taking our DS and 2 DDs and are looking to surprise them with the cruise. Looking for some creative/fun way to tell them at Christmas rather than just telling them…any suggestions?

 

Maybe you could get each of them a backpack or small carry-on bag and put in things that they might need, such as sunglasses, sunblock, flip-flops, a new swim suit, etc. Along with that, see if you can find a brochure or postcard with a picture of something representative of the Southern Caribbean and attach a note that says "Guess where we're going for vacation."

[Keith1010]

I would give them something for the cruise that they could open up. And then you could tell them why you bought it.

 

Keith

[Krazy Kruizers]

Maybe you could get each of them a backpack or small carry-on bag and put in things that they might need, such as sunglasses, sunblock, flip-flops, a new swim suit, etc. Along with that, see if you can find a brochure or postcard with a picture of something representative of the Southern Caribbean and attach a note that says "Guess where we're going for vacation."

 

I like your ideas!!

[johneeo]

I like your ideas!!

 

Check out some of the videos on utube .... especially for the ship you will be on.

 

Put the videos on a CD Rom, wrap it as a gift, and play it.

[luvfamvaca]

How about a treasure hunt through the house with clues, for example when they open the big gift box with all their names on the tag, there can be a piece of paper telling them there is a huge surprise for them but in order to find out what it is they have to complete the treasure hunt! Then have things hidden with clues all around, sunscreen, sunglasses, snorkel mask, lanyards, beach bag, flip flops, etc., leading up to the final one which could maybe be a toy cruise ship with their boarding information. Video tape them or take pictures while they do it, add it to your vacation photos, would make a great memory slide show or scrap book! Hope this helps! Have fun! :D

[youngestof9]

I just bought an inflatable cruise ship to wrap. I'm giving my kids new bathing suits and sunglasses and see what they do. Then I'll have them open the inflatable together. They're going to freak.

[Fins33]

Thank you all for your suggestions! The excitement is building.

:)

[notentirelynormal]

It might help too, if we knew the age of your kids. A 3 YO would want something different the at 13 YO.

[Fins33]

DS wil be 11 and DDs will be 6 (yes they are twins!).

Thanks again for all of your suggestions.

[cruising to paradise]

I got a photo album and put a pic of the Caribbean and apic I made of people on the beach with our faces glued on it I also put a picture of the ship in it and the itinerary. I gave it to my husband on our anniversary.

[Bonnie J.]

I gave my husband our 1st cruise for Christmas. I wrapped his oldest bathing suit up. Put tissue paper around it and underneath it had the catalogue for the ship! (This was 1984!). He could not figure out why I gave him his oldest bathing suit until I told him to pick it up. Don't know wether he was more surprised I gave him a cruise ot that I had paid for all of it.

Now we are true cruise-a-holics! We are retired now and are about to go on our 11th cruise THIS year! And we have a B2B Nov.25th & Dec.1st. And......we did book New Years Eve on our favorite little ship. But we have nothing booked--YET-- after that cruise!

 

You could pack bathing suits with clues with each one. "You'll be swimming on ***" "You will get sand in you toes on ***" "You will be putting on sun tan lotion on ***" Then have them guess why.

[lady_cruiser]

You could have family T shirts made up for the cruise and wrap them up! :)

Great Idea....

[floatingfouge]

We took our kids on a cruise a few years ago after Christmas and told them by giving them a jigsaw puzzle of the ship. I'd gotten a photo of the ship, added the particulars (date, ports of call, etc) in the lower corner of the photo. Then I ordered it as a jigsaw puzzle for them. Try zazzle.com or portaitpuzzles.com. I think you can specify the number of pieces for you puzzle - so if your kids are younger you can specify say 100 pieces. I think mine was 500 pieces! They loved it!

[Fins33]

That is a great idea!

Thanks so much.

[MrsPete]

DH and I booked our next cruise (Southern Caribbean) in March. We will be taking our DS and 2 DDs and are looking to surprise them with the cruise. Looking for some creative/fun way to tell them at Christmas rather than just telling them…any suggestions?

Here's a story I heard from one of my students a few years ago -- I can't believe the parents actually pulled it off!

 

The family (parents & boy-girl twin teenagers) had been on a Florida vacation, and the parents told them that on the way home they wanted to stop by the cruise terminal and check out the ships. They claimed they were considering taking a cruise at some point in the vague future.

 

They told the kids that they'd called ahead and had "special permission" to board briefly while the ship was in port. That they'd have an hour -- no more -- to walk around, see the public areas, then leave before the ship sailed.

 

So, they pulled up to the terminal and one parent took them to the line, while the other handed off the luggage. I can only imagine that the kids were so agog at the size of the ship and the crowds that they completely missed that luggage was coming out of the back of their van.

 

They explained that only a few people each week are allowed this "preview deal", and it was necessary to have photo IDs taken. Again, the parents must've been quite persuasive to make them think that this was legit.

 

Onboard they went to eat, and the parents made a big deal about how they were "sneaking in" because the "preview" wasn't supposed to include food. They walked allll around the ship, looking at this and that . . . and pretty soon the hour was up. So the kids started saying, "Don't you think we should disembark soon? I don't want to get into trouble." The parents kept saying, "No, no, I still want to see ____." Apparently this was very much out of character for the parents NOT to care about rule breaking, especially when the stakes were rather high, so the kids were becoming worried.

 

Finally, it became evident that the ship was going to set sail. And the kids became frantic. They were pulling their parents towards the exits, begging to leave. When the ship actually began moving, the daugther (the one who was my student) was actually in tears, imagining her family being "outed" in public as the stowaways they were!

 

It was then that the parents broke down and told them that they'd engineered the whole thing to surprise them. Their luggage had already been delivered to Room XXX, and they were staying for the week.

 

Personally, I am certain I could never pull this off. I'm not sure I'd even want to do it, but after the fact both of these teens thought it was hilarious.