Surprising Your Kids For Your Disney Trip: Should You?

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Your kids climb in the car, ready for a normal school day, when you turn around from the front seat, phone already recording, and say, “Guess what? We’re going to Disneyland!” Your kids’ faces light up in wonder, and they squeal, “We’re going to see Mickey!” Or maybe not. Sometimes you get the excitement and delight, and sometimes they burst into tears. If you don’t believe it, check out Surprise Disney Trip Fails on YouTube.

But Why?

So why does that happen? You know your kid will love the Disney trip you have planned. You’ve even talked about what it will be like when you get to go “someday,” and they’re all excited and eager to go. Why would they freak out when the opportunity arrives? Well, kids are complicated little creatures. Having a routine suddenly changed can throw them off. They can be completely overwhelmed by trying to adjust to new expectations. They may actually have been looking forward to something at school that day, and they may be panicking as they mentally try to cycle through responsibilities like having the right clothes packed, worrying about care for a pet left behind or the test they were supposed to be taking.

So let’s look at the pros and cons:

Pros:

You may get the moment of surprise and delight you were hoping for, and then you have a beautiful shared memory and a video you will treasure.

Your kids also get the experience of having an ordinary day become an extraordinary day. Isn’t it a gift to know that sometimes regular Tuesdays turn into the best day ever?

Cons:

Small boy intently reading a California Map, Disneyland resort. — Here’s a kid who likes to be part of the planning process.

Your kid may not deal well with surprises.

Your kid misses out on the pleasures of anticipation and planning.

You may have made slightly different plans if you’d been able to get input from your kid.

It’s harder to pack for your kids than you may think. You might bring the wrong stufty or the wrong shoes.

So what should you do?

Of course you can go ahead and do the big surprise if you think your kid will enjoy that. Many do. Or, you can try some alternative strategies.

2. Go ahead and do the big surprise, but give some lead time. It’s just as surprising, and perhaps less panic-inducing, to find out that you’re going to Disneyland in a week. Your kid has time to adjust, plan, pack, and anticipate. There are plenty of fun reveals you can do like a treasure hunt with clues that lead you all over the house and yard until you come to the the treasure which has some sort of Disney treat and a message about your upcoming trip.

On-ride photo of people on California Screamin' at California Adventure. One girl is grinning, the other screams in delight as her hair flies out behind her. — Just 19 hours earlier, these kids thought they were on their way to a local hotel. They seem to have adjusted.

3. Tell them you’re going on a trip, but make it somewhere a bit less exciting. That way, they know they’ll be gone, they get to pack, and you can give them that moment of the magical reveal. For example, we once told our kids that we were going with Dad to a conference during Christmas break. We played up the idea that it was too bad he’d have to go to meetings, but the hotel had a pool so we’d have some fun. Instead, we drove to Great Wolf Lodge. We have an awesome video of them realizing where we really were. We also once told the kids we were going camping (which they do not enjoy) and instead went to Disneyland. Obviously, there’s potential that they’ll get attached to the idea of the decoy trip and have trouble changing gears for the Disney trip, but if you choose wisely you can probably avoid that.

4. Plan the trip with them well in advance, but have some magical upgrade that they don’t know about ahead of time. Tell them you’re going on the Disney Cruise, but don’t tell them that you’re staying in a concierge suite. (Some kids wouldn’t care, but mine would be out of their minds over that.) Another upgrade could be an experience like the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, a character meal, or the fact that their favorite cousins are going to be on the trip with them.