Need Some Help With Surprise Cruise Ideas

[hominid]

When my oldest was turning 6, we took him to Disney. We didn't tell him we were going, we just hopped in the (prepacked) car and took off. When he finally asked where we were going, we said we were going to give him his BDay present. I handed him a wrapped map of Disney world. When he opened it, he FLIPPED out! It was awesome.

 

So we are taking our 2 boys on a cruise for their birthdays (they are 5 days apart). They don't know. Now obviously there is not a map that I can wrap up and I've looked into ship models, but they are hundreds of dollars :eek: So I am trying to come up with another creative and somewhat inexpensive way to "gift" this trip to them. Here's some info:

 

We have 2 boys-13 & 5. We will be driving to the port in NOLA and sailing out on the NCL Star. I plan on having the car packed without them knowing and just hopping in the car, waiting for one of them to ask where we're going. I have some gifts being sent to the room when we arrive, but they won't receive them until we board the ship.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Karysa]

Fun! We surprised our girls for their 2nd trip to Disney when they were 9, 7 and 7. It was out of necessity as there was a chance that we would have had to cancel last minute so we wanted to save them from potential disappointment. It worked out perfectly and by 6 pm that night they were having dinner with Mickey Mouse.

The way we did it was we packed secretly and the night before we put the luggage by the front door. We went in their rooms with a snow globe playing "When you wish upon a star". I can still here one of my DD's screaming as she was jumping up and down at the top of the stairs when she saw the luggage and it all registered.:D

The only idea I can come up with for you is, when you stop for gas at a station that has a store go in and pick them up some candy, a magazine ect and add a brochure turned to your ships layout with a little note. Hand them the bag(s) and tell them here are some treats for the road. Soon enough one of them will find it and figure it out. Be ready with a small camera or video camera and capture those moments! Have a wonderful trip!

[crusinmama06]

NCL does send you a "Welcome Aboard" pre-cruise kit. So you could give them that.

 

When we surprised our girls with a Disney cruise we went to Disney and told them that was it - we were leaving at the end of the week. At the end of the week the driver came to pick us up to take us to the "airport" and when we came over the bridge to the ship I handed them the cruise docs. Much screaming when they realized they were getting onboard that minute.

[Keith1010]

I just wanted to post to say how wonderful your surprise is. I wish you all a wonderful time.

 

Keith

[Warm Breezes]

You can get an inflatable NCL cruise ship on e-bay for $6.29 + $2.50 shipping or how about a NCL Brochure from a travel agency with your ship book marked? A travel bag with Lanyards (my DS liked the ones from his favorite sports teams at that age) for their S&S card, flip flops, underwater disposable camera, sunglasses, swimsuit, etc.

[hominid]

These are great ideas!!! Thanks!

Funny thing, the kids were just talking this morning about how we need to go on another cruise and asking if we could take one in the summer. We totally led them on-LOL!!

[karinvt]

My thoughts were along the same line as WarmBreezes. Get a bag of some sort, could even be paper, and fill it with items so they have to guess. Like sunglasses, sunscreen, beach ball, and print out some pics of the ship (or even a brochure). I would burry the ship at the bottom so it is the last things they pull out.

 

We did somthing similar for our kids. This past summer, we took the kids to Branson, MO. They had no idea. We live in PA but had to drive to Iowa to pick up our step-daughter. We told the kids we were driving back to PA but were really going to Branson. Between the DVD players and Ipods, they never even noticed we were headed in the wrong direction until we pulled into Branson.

[Warm Breezes]

My thoughts were along the same line as WarmBreezes. Get a bag of some sort, could even be paper, and fill it with items so they have to guess. Like sunglasses, sunscreen, beach ball, and print out some pics of the ship (or even a brochure). I would burry the ship at the bottom so it is the last things they pull out.

 

We did somthing similar for our kids. This past summer, we took the kids to Branson, MO. They had no idea. We live in PA but had to drive to Iowa to pick up our step-daughter. We told the kids we were driving back to PA but were really going to Branson. Between the DVD players and Ipods, they never even noticed we were headed in the wrong direction until we pulled into Branson.

 

I had to laugh at this. We did this with my son for his 16th birthday gift. We told him we were going to his uncles house, who had just moved, so he didn't know where he lived. He really only lives about 40 minutes from our house. Instead we were heading to Detroit (about 3 hours from our house) for a Red Wings play off game. DD kept him occupied with her ipod and he wasn't even paying attention. We got over 3 quarters of the way there when I needed a restroom break. As I was coming back out to the car, a family in Red Wings Jerseys were heading into the rest area. The look on DS's face was priceless as he watched them walk by and realized where we were really going.