Oh we have them all fooled...

[reneeandmark]

My husband and I, along with my sister and her husband, have planned a trip in November to celebrate our adoptions. We have 2 wonderful children adopted through foster care programs and my sis has one from china and 2 fosters who will be finalized by October. We have planned to be there for 8 days and 7 nights WITHOUT the kids knowing anything about it. What are some things you would recommend doing with kids ages 2,5,9,10 and 12? They have NO idea we are going and I feel like a kid in a candy store because I am so excited for them all!! Thanks in advance for your help.:mickey:

[Itchy]

Once you get there I think that the kids will answer all of those questions for you.

I have a feeling that they will want to do everything that they come across. But I think that a must do would be one of the Character meals.

Congrats on your adoptions.:mickey:

[It'sWDW4me]

1. Chef Mickey's for breakfast (my DS13's absolute fav)
2. Crystal Palace
3. The new & improved Hall of Presidents
4. TSMM
5. the biggest thing - relax and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!! :mickey:

Congratulations on your and sis' adoptions!!

[jodijo]

That is Awesome! I am excited for you. What a wonderful way to celebrate your new families.

My advice would be to get some good ADR's (My kids love Sci Fi at Hollywoods Studio -great atmosphere but just ok food, and Whispering Canyon at Wilderness lodge) and then let the kids lead the way.

We surprised our 2 kids a few years ago with a trip. We just walked into the parks and let them decide where to go. Because you have more kids with you, you can print out and give them each a park map and have them circle their top 3 rides they want to go on. Then plan your day that way. - In fact, if you have a long drive or plane ride, that might be something they can do on the way to WDW.

Have a wonderful trip! And who know, we might just see you , we will be there in November as well.

[PixieMagic]

First of all I want to HUG you! You are both amazing families for taking in children who need love, and no doubt you are creating their happiest moment EVER by surprising them with this Disney trip!!

Now, on with it...I have lots of ideas up my sleeve but when are you planning on telling them??

If you could possibly wait until take off by creating a cover story - or even waiting till the time to leave for the airport....tell them not in words but by creating "Disney Bags" they have all kinds of Disney themed gift bags at your local Target/Walmart...a cheap way of telling them...fill the bags with fun items to use both in Disney and on the plane.... Such as Disney playing cards, coloring books, autograph books (get new disney ones wither on ebay or at the disney store), glo necklaces, anything they love or you can think of that is Disney related...then as they open it and look through all the stuff...they will slowely figure out where they are going....it's priceless!!:cloud9:

I could go on and on about this so I will leave more ideas in other posts or you can PM me and I am sure EVERY person on here has all sorts of amazing ideas:thumbsup:

Good luck and Congrats!!!:mjump:

[SallyMcQueen]

Congrats on all the new additions to your families!! :cheer:

We surprised our DD5 with a trip to WDW on her birthday. :party2: We didn't actually go on the trip until 5 weeks later. The first present she opened was a new princess backpack and inside were the personalized maps you can order for free from the disney site along with some flip flops, sunglass and other warm weather items. We live in Wisconsin and her birthday is in late fall so there was no way this was for her to use now. The last present she opened was an envelope that looked like it had a Mickey Stamp and addressed it to DD with M. Mouse in the return address line. Inside was a picture I made on Power Point using a picture of Mickey and the Castle and typed something like "since you've been such a good girl this year your mom and dad said that your deserved a special gift. So why don't you come down to visit me at Disney World." It was first thing in the morning so it took her a little bit to understand what the heck was going on.

For the next couple of weeks it was all she could talk about. We sat down with my many Disney books and I let her look at the pictures and read to her the descriptions of different rides etc. I had one heck of a time keeping it secret :secret:; we purchased the trip 9 mos prior to telling her. So what I'm slowly trying to get at is let have a rough idea of what you want to do, but let the kids pick some stuff out.

As far as fun things to do:
1. Lunch at Cindy's Castle, big hit if you have little girls in your clan
2. Meeting as many as the characters as possible. I think across from Soarin' in Epcot we met Mickey, Goofy, etc. DD really loved that and got lots of great pics
3. See the Spectro parade and fireworks at MK
4. Relaxing and playing at the pool. The little ones will really enjoy that.

[pianobabe]

That is all such wonderful news with the adoptions. Congratulations.
I planned a suprise trip for DS one year and it was great. It was during the school year and for his birthday (November). The day we were to leave, I went on and took him to school. (It was part of our "tradition" when we went to WDW to wear our Disney shirts from the previous trip. We did that because we always flew down and if we got separated at the airport we would know what the other was wearing. When getting his clothes ready for him to wear to school that day, I just casually sat that shirt out for him to wear. He didn't think anything about it.) I had already packed our suitcases and had them in the back of the car when I had dropped him off at school, so the only thing I had to do was go home and wait. I picked him up from school, about 2 hours early. When he asked why, I told him I had some things to do and I wouldn't be back in time to pick him up later. As I was driving, he would ask occasionally where we were going and I would tell him we were just doing some running around and he needed to get his homework done. When we got to the airport, he asked what we were doing and I told him I thought we could watch the planes take off and land. He liked that idea. As I was looking for a place to park, the phone rang. It was for him, so he was distracted by the call (that part wasn't planned, but it worked out perfectly). I finally found a place to park and went around to the trunk to start getting the suitcases. When DS got out, he saw the suitcases. He looked at them and then looked at me with the confused look on his face. I then told him we were going to WDW for his birthday. He was shocked and "fell" against the side of the car. After that, he was on cloud 9. It was wonderful.

As far as what all to do, the main thing is always to have fun. Try Chef Mickey's since you all have so much to celebrate this year. Make sure you let the CM's know when you make your ADR, what you are celebrating.
A suggestion for when you tell the kids what is going on would be to get special t-shirts made for everyone with the trip information on them. (Disney has the create your own t-shirts you can order on-line where you could do those). The morning you leave, you could have the shirts wrapped in boxes and give them out as presents for the kids to open at the same time.

Enjoy the trip!!

[chaodj9]

All The Rides Would Be easily chosen by the kids thats the easy part :thumbsup:

Choose a good hotel relaxing and both fun for the kids but dont go overboard with the hotel becuase im doubting you'll be spending much time there other than sleep and maybe breakfast (my family does port orleans riverside every year)

I think a big part of it is character meals for there age

Number 1: chef Mickey (donald,Goofy,mickey,pluto,minnie")

Number 2: Crystal Palace (winnie t' pooh, Tigger, eeyore, piglet, and occasionally rabbit)

Number 3: 1900 park fare (The Step Sisters, The Step Mother, Cinderella , the prince)

Number 4: Parden me if i get the name wrong but i think its the garden Grill (its the spinning one) my family didnt really like the food but it has chip and dale and i think pluto


Chef mickey -Buffet
Crystal Palace -Buffet
1900 Park fare -Buffet
Garden Grill -Sit down choose item on menu

And Congrats hope it goes well