Surprise Cruise for Kids!

[ShannLC16]

Hello fellow cruisers,

 

My husband and I love cruising and we just booked on the Valor for Nov. 9th of this year (Southern Caribbean) and we are so excited. This will be my 9th cruise, but our first time bringing our children.

 

We have a daughter (8 at time of cruise) and a son (3 at time of cruise). DD knows about cruising in general, but doesn't know that we currently have a family vacation booked. We are planning to surprise her the morning that we leave. DS is so young, that he really doesn't know what will be going on. ;)

 

Has anyone done anything like that before? Any advice or tips about surprising a child with a cruise?

 

Thanks for any guidance!

[618mom]

We have a criuise booked in July and we are taking our 14DS who has no idea! We live in Illinois and are driving so we are telling him we have a condo rented on the beach in Florida. We aren't telling him anything about the cruise until the day we board.

 

80 more days!!

[DobberDog]

We have cruised with our kids (now 13 10 & 3.5 yrs) several times. our most recent cruise we booked without the kids knowing about it. We did surprise them with the cruise by going to the port on a weekend prior to the cruise and they were so excited when we walked up to the ship. Our 3yr old was so excited and knew exactly what was happening. (he was about 18 months on his first cruise). From that weekend on, he talked about "the big ship" everyday.

 

We wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret until the actual cruise date because hubby and I were constantly planning and talking about it and we went to the port almost every weekend to see the cruise ship. However we only live about 20 minutes from the port.

[ShannLC16]

We have cruised with our kids (now 13 10 & 3.5 yrs) several times. our most recent cruise we booked without the kids knowing about it. We did surprise them with the cruise by going to the port on a weekend prior to the cruise and they were so excited when we walked up to the ship. Our 3yr old was so excited and knew exactly what was happening. (he was about 18 months on his first cruise). From that weekend on, he talked about "the big ship" everyday.

 

We wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret until the actual cruise date because hubby and I were constantly planning and talking about it and we went to the port almost every weekend to see the cruise ship. However we only live about 20 minutes from the port.

 

How was cruising with a 3 year old? I'm interested to know how he handled being on the ship, what activities you did with him, etc. Our son will be 3 years, 2 months and I think he will do well, but am anticipating that it will be a much different vacation than when DH and I have gone by ourselves. :)

[SteelerCruiser]

That is so awesome!!! What a great surprise!!! I am sure they will be super excited!!! I would pack everything up and and tell them surprise yall are flying off for a vacation.......then wait til right before boarding and then spring the surprise of a cruise vacation. Two big suprises in one vacation!!! We are thinking of doing this cruise as well so Happy Sailing!!!

[618mom]

Oh and another thing I am going to do is decorate the door for him. We are taking him for his 8th grade graduation so I am going to put graduation signs up.

[Sheebah]

You're smart to wait as they tend to get Keyed up if you tell them too soon!

With our son, who is now 5 and has been cruising since he was 1- we love to pack a small backpack for him, filled with toys he can enjoy at dinner, children's books on the region (tons on amazon!) and various things to occupy him. For example I just bought the card game uno, which your 8 year old may love, a despicable me coloring book, fresh crayons and a map of Mexico which we will hang with magnets in our stateroom for an onboard geography lesson.

Have fun!!!

 

 

Carnival Miracle video tour:

Edited April 18, 2014 by Sheebah

[Honeytea31]

We are planning on taking our 10, 6 years old boys on their first cruise a week before x-mass. DH is planning on telling the kids when get off the exit to the port. lol. ...:D

WE Have to do it this way or the kids will bug me and DH each day until we go, if so my DH might cancel the cruise :eek:. So its best not tell them.

[wb3690]

FUN!!!

 

A few of my friends did the whole drive to the port then say "you want to eat lunch on the ship?" kids said "can you do that??" they said "sure because we're going on a CRUISE!" so fun

 

Well for you maybe you can say you are going on vacation, flying and then give your kids a small gift to unwrap before they get on the plane. Maybe some cruise related items?

 

have the best time!

[LREcruise02]

How fun! Our kids have been on several cruises but never a surprise. We are thinking about surprising them at Christmas this year with a New Years cruise! My younger one is 3. We just sailed on the Dream end of March. She loves cruising her favorite things are Camp Carnival (they are great with the young ones!) and the water park area. The Dream had little kid slides she could have played on those all day. Also for port days they love the beach and we always bring sand toys. Have a great time it is a great age for cruising!!

 

 

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[DobberDog]

How was cruising with a 3 year old? I'm interested to know how he handled being on the ship, what activities you did with him, etc. Our son will be 3 years, 2 months and I think he will do well, but am anticipating that it will be a much different vacation than when DH and I have gone by ourselves. :)

 

This last cruise with our 3 yr old was a lot better than his first cruise (no diapers, no bottles or sippy cups). He wouldn't go to Camp Carnival at all while my 2 oldest lived at CC. The only thing we did at CC was the build a bear and that lasted maybe 20 minutes. Otherwise, He did amazingly well. We hung out at the aft pool some days and other times we would go to Waterworks. Even though he was mostly hanging out with us, it was a good trip. He went to our roll call meet & greet and enjoyed that. We had daily trips for ice cream and to Cherry on Top. He went and watched the shows, karaoke, and movies with us and all in all didn't mind all the walking we did He is very easy going and takes life as it comes. Hes not one to really fret about anything. He is already excited about our Jan 2015 cruise.

[ShannLC16]

You're smart to wait as they tend to get Keyed up if you tell them too soon!

With our son, who is now 5 and has been cruising since he was 1- we love to pack a small backpack for him, filled with toys he can enjoy at dinner, children's books on the region (tons on amazon!) and various things to occupy him. For example I just bought the card game uno, which your 8 year old may love, a despicable me coloring book, fresh crayons and a map of Mexico which we will hang with magnets in our stateroom for an onboard geography lesson.

Have fun!!!

 

 

Carnival Miracle video tour:

 

Oh, great ideas! I particularly love the map idea. We took the kids on a road trip from NH to FL last May and we bought a National Geographic Kid's Atlas and every time we crossed into a new state we would pull it out, and read the fun facts about the state. I'm definitely going to get a map of the Caribbean. I also like the backpack idea for the table. Thanks!:D

[soccersharon]

Just booked the Pride for August 2015. My family has no idea. Trying to think of an interesting way to tell them, too. I'm considering a video, and posting it on Facebook :)

 

Sent from my mobile device. Typos are inevitable.

[ShannLC16]

This last cruise with our 3 yr old was a lot better than his first cruise (no diapers, no bottles or sippy cups). He wouldn't go to Camp Carnival at all while my 2 oldest lived at CC. The only thing we did at CC was the build a bear and that lasted maybe 20 minutes. Otherwise, He did amazingly well. We hung out at the aft pool some days and other times we would go to Waterworks. Even though he was mostly hanging out with us, it was a good trip. He went to our roll call meet & greet and enjoyed that. We had daily trips for ice cream and to Cherry on Top. He went and watched the shows, karaoke, and movies with us and all in all didn't mind all the walking we did He is very easy going and takes life as it comes. Hes not one to really fret about anything. He is already excited about our Jan 2015 cruise.

 

I'm hopeful that my son will be ok with Camp Carnival as when I go to the gym, I drop him off at childcare and he's never had an issue (different staff at different times and kids are always changing). At the time of sailing, he will have been at preschool part-time for about 2 months - and hopefully potty trained!!;)

[ShannLC16]

There are several layers to the surprise:

 

1). We are going on a vacation.

2). We are going on a cruise.

3). We are going on the cruise vacation with our friends and their kids (who DD is friends with).

 

Our plan, for now, is to wake them up and tell them we are going somewhere. We will then head to the airport, and "bump" into our friends (who are also surprising their kids) and say, "Hey, let's go on vacation together!" Then when plane lands (and I actually have little hope that we will be able to make this part happen), we will tell them we are going on a cruise the next day. I think we will probably cave at the airport and tell them about the cruise and everything right then, but still - pretty epic.

[mrswright]

I am doing this on the 23rd! I can't wait I booked the disney wonder almost a year ago. My daughter who is 6 has been on 4 cruises and has no idea we are cruising this week. I plan on waking her up that morning and just telling her mommy is off from work and we are going to do something fun. I can't wait, I can hardly contain myself.

 

 

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[ShannLC16]

I am doing this on the 23rd! I can't wait I booked the disney wonder almost a year ago. My daughter who is 6 has been on 4 cruises and has no idea we are cruising this week. I plan on waking her up that morning and just telling her mommy is off from work and we are going to do something fun. I can't wait, I can hardly contain myself.

 

 

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That's awesome!! I would be so excited too - oh, you are going to have so much fun!

[MichelleChell]

We surprised our kids one yr for Christmas with a cruise leaving Spring Break. I sent them on a scavenger hunt thru the house. At each spot was a gift like swim suit, flip flops, camera, goggles and what not. At the end was a gift wrapped telling about the cruise. My son was 4 at the time and daughter was 8. So he just followed along and was excited at the end.

 

This yr we are surprising them again. We are cruising with another family and their kids. We cruise Christmas week! So 4 days before we go we are gonna have dinner together and give them each a little gift bag. In each bag will be puzzle pieces. When they put them all together as a group it will be a pic from our last cruise. Telling them we leave that Sunday to do it all again!

[travelgarn]

We surprised our son a few yrs ago. We cruised a 4day to Cozumel out of Tampa. We told him we were going to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens.

 

Weeks before I made him a tshirt that had all the cruise info and a ship on the front and "Guess who got surprised with a cruise?" on the back. When we got to the hotel and unloaded, we called him to the closet where I had the tshirt and asked him if he wanted to wear this shirt tomorrow. He was so surprised and excited. And he wore the tshirt onto the ship.:)

 

I love surprises...giving & receiving.

[chascougs]

I booked the Victory May31 for myself and my 12 y.o. twins and my 10 y.o. Not gonna tell them, gonna let them figure it out when we cross the bridge over to Dodge Island. I told them we were gonna do something that week and we've been to Disney multiple times and we have relatives in Orlando and Miami so I'm sure they won't find it strange driving to Florida. Need to have my camera ready to snap a few pics of their faces when they figure it out!

[Muumuu]

I surprised my grandsons then 14 & 9, with Europe on the Magic in June 2011.

Only my adult daughters and my brother knew. Booked about 18 months out.

Told boys that my youngest daughter, not their mom, and I were going to cruise Europe.

When it got close like a month out told them that they were going down to Ft Lauderdale

With us and their mom to visit my brother. While in FL we went to our favorite Cuban restaurant the night before we were flying out of Miami to Barcelona. And this is how they were told that they were going. At end of meal the waitress brought the check in two bill holders, one given to each boy. In it was their boarding pass. The look of pure joy on their faces was PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!! I still tear.up when I think of it. Second surprise was we went to Miami in a limo. And the third surprise was that their favorite uncle, my brother, was going too. They discovered that at the airport.

Suprising them with the trip is right up there in my top joys.

[kchiumento]

There is no way I could ever keep that a secret. I want to hear how it goes. Sounds exciting.

 

 

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[cruz.n.carebear]

That's awesome!

 

We are doing it this year for our Christmas cruise. I thought about waking them up the day of and saying we are heading for Ft. Lauderdale, but my teenagers will most likely need a day or two to prepare. :p So we depart Dec 20th, and on the 19th we are going to tell them that we've decided to not make them wait for Santa to come and to go ahead and open their gifts. I've been picking up items as they've gone on sale (swimsuits, sunscreen, etc) and I'm going to make up some cool color flyers for what excursions I've booked.(we are doing The Amazing Race excursion in Cozumel so I think I'm going to make up clues as a tie-in)

 

I think the surprise is going to be just as much fun as the cruise!

[Granny1]

I hope everyone comes back after their cruise to tell us how the surprises went, a surprise cruise would be exciting for anyone..;)

[Mistyhon]

We did this last fall for a 7 day on the Magic. Our kids were 6 and 3. We got them up at 5am and threw them in the van for a surprise trip (which involved driving to Galveston from MN!)

 

We kept it a surprise until pulling up beside the ship and have a video of DD excited. Now that they've cruised they both talk about going again almost daily. We will surprise them again in October (mainly because if you tell them about something in advance they will drive you insane until the day arrives.) This time we're flying to Orlando and cruising with friends (and our kids are all friends!)

 

As for cruising with a 3 year old, it kind of sucked, but it sucked so good we're doing it again (LOL!) and hoping since DS will be 4 he'll be a bit better and more easy going.