Once you’ve booked your once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Orlando, it’s now time to share the news with your family, especially the kids. Surprising members of your family is all part of the holiday experience, and if you’re still stuck at home due to Covid-19, why not get creative with one of these ideas and announce your holiday to them in the most special way!

A Disney holiday reveal is quite common with these trips to Florida, so there’s lots of ideas out there. These surprises often make for some of the best videos too. The excitement on your kids faces will be a pleasure to watch, as their dream holiday becomes a reality!

Scavenger Hunt

Get the kids searching for their surprise. With this you can be as creative as you like with the clues. Hide them around the house, with one clue leading to the next, which will finally lead them to the big reveal. This could be a box wrapped up with Disney-themed helium balloons inside and a note that says “We’re going to Disney!”

There are so many different ways of doing a scavenger hunt to suit various age ranges. For younger children, you could get them to find puzzle pieces or letters around the house, for them to piece together the surprise. Older children might like something a bit more challenging, such as working out clues - each clue could give you a different word, for the kids to then piece together.

Doing a scavenger hunt does involve a bit more planning and preparation, but it’s all worth it for the kids, as it’s super fun. They often get so wrapped up in the game, that they don’t even realise that there may be a surprise at the end.

Make Your Own puzzle

Most children love a puzzle, so why not create your own one for them and incorporate the surprise within it. Print out a picture of Disney World, Universal Orlando or wherever you are planning on taking the family, stick the image to some card and cut into pieces. This is great as you can adapt the skill level of the puzzle to the age of your child. Watch your kids slowly piece the image together, to reveal their dream holiday.

The puzzle could be combined with the scavenger hunt and include a puzzle piece with each find for added fun!

Balloon Word Puzzle

Balloons always create a bit of excitement. Put the letters from the word Disney onto balloons. Pack the balloons into a box and once opened the kids will need to arrange the balloons to spell Disney. It’s not as easy as you think and will keep the surprise going!

Pictionary or Charades

Play a fun family game together and create one of the answers as “You’re going to Disney World” for the kids to guess. Incorporating the surprise into a game makes it more unexpected for the kids and the look on their face when they finally realise what it is, is something you’ll remember forever.

A Letter From Mickey

Kids often don’t receive mail, so for them to get a special letter is certainly exciting, especially one that comes from Mickey Mouse himself! The letter can easily be created yourself, by using a cartoon style font on your computer. This is something that can be made quite personal, which adds to this special surprise and when the kids read it and realise who it’s from, just watch their face light up.

Matching Family Holiday T-shirts

There’s so many print-your-own-t-shirt shops online that will take any design you send them and print it on a t-shirt of your colour, for not a huge expense. This could be a good way of revealing the news if you have a few kids in your family. Wrap each one up and get everyone to open them at the same time. For this surprise you can let the clothes do the talking and it’s something you can all look forward to wearing on your travels.

When is the best time to surprise them? - For younger children it is best to surprise them within a relatively short period of time, as the future is quite a confusing concept for them. A month to you could feel like years to them. For older children, a month or even longer is more possible and would allow them to get involved in the planning. This can be a great bonding experience and create excitement about the trip. With advance planning, you can also create calendars or craft projects to help children count down to the big day.

Don’t Tell Them!

Keeping a secret like this from the kids may not be easy, but it’ll be worth it to see their excitement. You might want to surprise them on the morning of your trip, perhaps with some t-shirts, just before you head to the airport. With smaller children you may even be able to make it all the way to the villa in Orlando without them realising! Tell them you’re going on holiday, just don’t tell them where. Upon arrival at your villa surprise them with a gift to let them know where they are and what you’ll be visiting whilst you’re there.

Have you ever surprised anyone in your family with a Disney trip? If so, we would love to hear how you revealed it to them. Share your ideas on our socials!