Surprising Kids

[SthrnCruiser]

How have you presented a surprise cruise to your kids? This will be their first. They are 13 and 11 (one will be celebrating on the ship). I need some creative ideas. I was hoping to be able to do it for Valentines Day, but that didn't happen. I don't want to wait until Easter.

[klass2]

We surprised our kids for their first cruise.

 

We didn't tell them at all. We drove from St Louis to Fort Lauderdale to board the Allure.

 

I did all of the packing and they thought we were driving up to Chicago for a house hunting trip and we had an early appt for showings so we needed to leave super early in the morning. They were distracted most of the morning in the car and not paying attention to the drive but once we got to Atlanta they knew something was up.

 

They kept guessing what we were doing and we told them it was as surprise and they would find out soon enough.

 

We stayed at a hotel in North Florida and they got excited that we were going to a condo that we frequent or to Disney. We did not confirm or deny.

 

We drove past Orlando and they knew Disney wasn't happening.

 

We checked into a hotel in FLL and went to the beach. We walked to the beach area to watch the Oasis and the other cruise ships leave. The kids said how much they wanted to go on a cruise too.

 

We always say "no" b/c it's too expensive (we have 6 kids).

 

This time, we said "how about we get a cruise tomorrow morning?!". They were in disbelief and shrieked and screamed with excitement. It was a great moment. We have it on video. I will never forget their joy!

 

There are so many ways to announce though. You could start a cruise themed day. Start watching movies on cruise ships. Play caribbean music. Eat jerk chicken. See if they get the idea...

Edited February 17, 2016 by klass2

[John&LaLa]

Taking grandson this April. We boxed up the kiddie compass and a Lego like ship model.

[fragilek]

On our 1st cruise we carried out a treasure hunt on xmas day - all clues linked into a cruise some way (films etc) and the end point was a cruise ship xmas decoration. I suppose you could do an Easter one each small egg could have a different clue to the next egg but be linked to sea/ships -

 

ie clue 1 to take them to one small egg attached to a dvd of prates of caribeen and clue 2.

 

clue 2 to the bathroom and have small egg floating in a toy boat and clue 3

so on and so on

 

until the final clue takes them to lager eggs sitting on a ships wheel (could be made out of cardboard) and be placed in the steering wheel of the car so clue would take them there. and a big blow up picture of the ship.

Edited February 17, 2016 by fragilek

[fragilek]

or next cruise they were older one was turning 18 the other graduating we bought 2 photo frames which had 3 diff shapes for pictures -in the outside 2 my DH drew pictures (he is very arty) of places we would visit on the cruise and of the old Tuscan villa we would stay in then in the center one we made a collage of the ship and the itinerary. the 3 frames came mounted on a rectangle base to which we placed small metal plaques with engraving of which each was celebrating - they opened them on the 18th b.day (3 weeks ahead of the eldest graduation) - good may to surprise and also a great keep sake

Edited February 17, 2016 by fragilek

[AnonomissX]

We surprised our kids for their first cruise.

 

We didn't tell them at all. We drove from St Louis to Fort Lauderdale to board the Allure.

 

I did all of the packing and they thought we were driving up to Chicago for a house hunting trip and we had an early appt for showings so we needed to leave super early in the morning. They were distracted most of the morning in the car and not paying attention to the drive but once we got to Atlanta they knew something was up.

 

They kept guessing what we were doing and we told them it was as surprise and they would find out soon enough.

 

We stayed at a hotel in North Florida and they got excited that we were going to a condo that we frequent or to Disney. We did not confirm or deny.

 

We drove past Orlando and they knew Disney wasn't happening.

 

We checked into a hotel in FLL and went to the beach. We walked to the beach area to watch the Oasis and the other cruise ships leave. The kids said how much they wanted to go on a cruise too.

 

We always say "no" b/c it's too expensive (we have 6 kids).

 

This time, we said "how about we get a cruise tomorrow morning?!". They were in disbelief and shrieked and screamed with excitement. It was a great moment. We have it on video. I will never forget their joy!

 

There are so many ways to announce though. You could start a cruise themed day. Start watching movies on cruise ships. Play caribbean music. Eat jerk chicken. See if they get the idea...

 

 

Is that video on Youtube? Would love to see it :p

[UFLaw]

We are lucky, we live in Fort Lauderdale and I packed the car and told the kids to put on suits as we were going to the beach. We pulled up to the terminal and they had their faces in a movie and didn't see the ship till we pulled up. They freaked out!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cruizers]

How have you presented a surprise cruise to your kids? This will be their first. They are 13 and 11 (one will be celebrating on the ship). I need some creative ideas. I was hoping to be able to do it for Valentines Day, but that didn't happen. I don't want to wait until Easter.

 

We just had the fun of doing this for our 11-year old granddaughter. I collected our RCCL trivia prizes, Ship Shape prizes (remember those?), freebies, highlighters and any other logo products we had. I wrapped each in tissue paper and put it in a huge party bag. As our granddaughter opened each thing, she kept laughing and finally realized she was going on a cruise! The final prize was an envelope which had the top part of the cruise invoice so she could see who was going and where we were headed.

 

Whatever you do, I'm sure the kids will be excited! Have fun!

Caren

[MaiseyM]

We just surprised my teens and tweens at Christmas time. I wrote down a bunch of clues on a different note cards (zip line, all you can eat deserts, pool, beach, carousel... and anything else that had to do with a cruise that sounded fun). I had them all read the cards, taking turns. When we ran out of cards, I gave them the final cards (Labadee, Haiti, Fort Lauderdale, Cozumel) and told them to read each one. I told them to decide which adventure they wanted (let them choose a few from the first pile of activities) and then choose a destination. They eventually chose what they thought they could choose and then I gave the final card of "everything... We're sailing Oasis of the Seas in March" notecard. As they read that out loud, I got music to play on cue "Hot hot hot". They were thrilled.

[mcchane1]

I wrote a book for our kids ( they are adults). It was an elementary style book about our family and things that we liked to do. All relating to things on the ship then says we can do all these things when we go on our cruise.

 

I had them all 3 read it together. They were pretty excited even for adults.

[greenbbs]

Our kinds have been on a bunch of cruises (Our 6 yr old and 4 year old are both on #4 and counting), but we've never surprised them......yet.

 

We had to cancel the Adventure of the Seas we were supposed to be on this week because we got pregnant and our son is too young to go still. It absolutely crushed the kids. We've since replaced that with the same-ish itinerary for this time next year.

 

We booked Explorer of the Seas for May 20th of this year from Seattle to Alaska. We're seriously contemplating not telling them till we get to the airport. They have absolutely no clue it's coming.

[shorti503]

We just surprised our kids with a cruise and we didn't tell them until we got to the boat. They thought we were just going on a vacation to Florida. My 9 year old was over the moon excited and my 11 year didn't believe us. Even after the porter took our bags he was still asking what we were doing there.

[TalkingTravel]

We flew to Sydney to board our cruise but told our son we were staying at a hotel called 'Hotel X' for a few nights and asked him to find it for us on the map and get us there. We had marked an X on Circular Quay and said the hotel 'should be around there'. Wish I had a photo of his face when he looked up and saw the 'X' on the side of the Celebrity ship and finally worked out what was happening!

[2016USAHoliday]

1st Cruise: Santa came early on Dec 1. He set up the Christmas Tree, bought Christmas lunch and left DD's (3 & 6) with new suitcase set and things to take away. He wrote a letter saying we would be going to Sydney for 2 weeks then off to the Gold Coast for another week. When we got to Circular Quay in Sydney we asked DD's to help us find our "hotel", its called Carnival Spirit. DD6 said, I know I can read, but that boat says "Carnival Spirit" and the excitement stepped in!!!

 

2nd Cruise: no surprise

 

3rd Cruise: I made DD's (now 6 & 9) a white choc egg and "painted" the outside red and blue. Wrapped it up with cellophane and tied it with a red and blue ribbon. Before sealing the egg halves together, I printed out the boarding pass and put it inside! Never told them that anything was in there and when DD took a bite, the corner popped out, so she smashed it. Just to clarify, this egg was from us, not the Easter Bunny.

 

Loved every minute of the surprise and the girls still talk about it.

[matj2000]

Surprise them.

 

On a couple cruises a while back, I never told the kids until we pulled up to the ships....

[texasweather]

I love reading surprise stories and especially when they work out! We surprised our girls with a trip to Disney a year and a half ago. Big elaborate scavenger hunt. It was so much fun. Until the big reveal. My oldest got mad and refused to believe it, and my youngest started crying saying she didn't want to go. Lesson learned I guess, my kids don't do surprises! We started preparing them 3 months ago for our cruise in a couple weeks and they couldn't be more excited. (Their first!)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pst4ever]

I surprised hubby last year by taking pictures of the ship,airline all the stops made a collage and had a puzzle made(Walgreens online), I put all the pieces in a gift box and he had to put it together to figure out the gift.

[Nado44]

I surprised a significant other by wrapping up some nice RC merchandise and presenting it as a gift.

 

Saw a nice RCL Freedom of the Seas glass block this morning on eBay that looks nice.