How would you reveal a surprise cruise?

[sherlynn]

I'm looking for fun ideas to reveal our surprise family cruise on the Oasis this Nov. My wonderful in-laws are taking us all for an early Christmas as they spend the winter in Florida. My in-laws will be meeting us at the ship......the rest of us (3 families with kids ages 3-12) are flying in to meet them. Before they head south in November, we want to reveal the surprise to our kids so Grandma and Grandpa can see the joy on their faces! Any ideas for a fun reveal would be appreciated!

[petel]

I'm looking for fun ideas to reveal our surprise family cruise on the Oasis this Nov. My wonderful in-laws are taking us all for an early Christmas as they spend the winter in Florida. My in-laws will be meeting us at the ship......the rest of us (3 families with kids ages 3-12) are flying in to meet them. Before they head south in November, we want to reveal the surprise to our kids so Grandma and Grandpa can see the joy on their faces! Any ideas for a fun reveal would be appreciated!

 

Take them all to the pier to say goodby to Grandma and Grandpa. When they see the ship ask 'em if they want to go. Then Grandma and Grandpa can insist that it will be OK. One of the adults will have to bring the bags. The kids will figure it out otherwise. Wow! :D:cool: what a great surprise! The kids will love that ship. So will everyone else! Enjoy!:)

[LBumb]

lucky you

[71Corvette]

Here's what I did last year for Christmas and it worked great! This was early in the afternoon on Christmas after we got back from having lunch so nobody suspected a thing...

 

 

Here's a post I wrote up describing what I did with some pictures.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1752170

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Ba' Datz]

I took my son on a surprise cruise to Alaska two years ago. I told him that we were going camping with a group and what he should pack.

On Sunday morning we returned the rental car in downtown Seattle,and took the shuttle van to the pier.

He looked at the ship, not quite realizing what was going on, and I said, that this is our campground for the next week.

 

Needless to say he had a great time. He turned 21 on the last night of the cruise and his new found shipboard friends bought him his first "legal drink"

[sherlynn]

Take them all to the pier to say goodby to Grandma and Grandpa. When they see the ship ask 'em if they want to go. Then Grandma and Grandpa can insist that it will be OK. One of the adults will have to bring the bags. The kids will figure it out otherwise. Wow! :D:cool: what a great surprise! The kids will love that ship. So will everyone else! Enjoy!:)

 

Good plan but not possible as G and G are driving from Daytona to the Oasis and we will be flying in. We want to tell them before G and G leave town for Florida mid Nov. Plus, there is no way I'll be able to secretly pack for my 12 yo dd!!

[edamethyst]

Wen I did a surprise cruise I made a slide show of pictures we all sat down to watch and at the end I had a picture of the ship then had a page that said we were going on the ship and the dates we were going then the last cpl pictures were of the islands we would b visiting, it was great

[emdia43]

I had thought to do that with our first cruise, but in planning it, realized that looking forward to the cruise was a very enjoyable part of the trip, so I let them know, so that they had that enjoyment too. They told me they were glad I did it that way... :)

[NeuroQueen]

Plan a big dinner with grandma and grandpa and all of the families. Make up gift bags with a framed picture of the ship and the itinerary. For each child have swim goggles, water shoes, sunglasses, etc. Each gift could be personalized for each child. Or maybe instead of a gift bag a back pack or small piece of luggage. You are going to have a great time! November isn't that for away so you have some homework to do! Have a great cruise!

[slk230red]

Here's what I did last year for Christmas and it worked great! This was early in the afternoon on Christmas after we got back from having lunch so nobody suspected a thing...

 

 

Here's a post I wrote up describing what I did with some pictures.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1752170

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

 

I remember seeing this on the corvetteforum.com site......very creative.

 

Are you going on the Allure Dec. 1st?

 

71 Green 454

[sherlynn]

Plan a big dinner with grandma and grandpa and all of the families. Make up gift bags with a framed picture of the ship and the itinerary. For each child have swim goggles, water shoes, sunglasses, etc. Each gift could be personalized for each child. Or maybe instead of a gift bag a back pack or small piece of luggage. You are going to have a great time! November isn't that for away so you have some homework to do! Have a great cruise!

 

 

That sounds so much fun! We will definitely be having a big turkey dinner before G and G depart for Florida. it's difficult for us adults to keep the secret from the kids but the longer we hold off, the less time we will have to endure the "how many more days" question!!!! This is a first cruise for all of the kids and for some of the adults and mine and hubby's first on the Oasis so we are pretty pumped!

[saurian]

I surprised my husband with our last cruise. I knew he would have to know ahead of time, and would notice me packing, so as much as I wanted to surprise him the morning of the trip, I could not. So about 2 months beforehand, when everything was ready to go, I dressed our dog in one of his Hawaiian shirts and put a Santa hat on her (it too was a Christmas cruise) and stuck the set sail passes and plane tickets, and a little note from her saying "I wish I could go too" into the hat safety pinned to the shirt. I get home a half hour before he does, so I got all this on her in like 10 minutes, and had to feed her blobs of peanut butter for like 20 minutes to keep her one step up from miserable. When I heard him pull up, I hid in the closet. When he came home, she of course, greeted him at the door, still licking peanut butter from her face, in his shirt, with the hat and paperwork. Naturally he said "What the hell...???" at which I burst out laughing from the coat closet, still holding the jar of peanut butter. Of course then he looked at the hat (in October) and saw the paperwork, opened the envelope and was completely shocked and giddy. He was terribly excited (his first cruise) and was immediately (after the mandatory hug and kiss) on the phone calling his family to tell them the news. Of course everyone already knew but him!

[Zigggypup]

I'm looking for fun ideas to reveal our surprise family cruise on the Oasis this Nov. My wonderful in-laws are taking us all for an early Christmas as they spend the winter in Florida. My in-laws will be meeting us at the ship......the rest of us (3 families with kids ages 3-12) are flying in to meet them. Before they head south in November, we want to reveal the surprise to our kids so Grandma and Grandpa can see the joy on their faces! Any ideas for a fun reveal would be appreciated!

 

Go online and buy the scaled down model of the Oasis. When you get the model, print out the itinerary and enclose it in the box. Then wrap up the box. Then during dinner say our next vacation is in this box. Let kids unwrap the box.

[Ashland]

We've wrapped up the cruise booklet/documents (back in the days those were given) and have given them to our DS &DIL as a wedding gift (they knew they were going on a honeymoon just not how or where)...

 

And for our adult kids, DIL & SIL we've wrapped up the cruise booklets and given as Xmas gifts for a March cruise...No way could we ever spring a last minute cruise on these overpackers and the juggling of their careers and time off they must all do :)

[superduper123]

Here's what I did last year for Christmas and it worked great! This was early in the afternoon on Christmas after we got back from having lunch so nobody suspected a thing...

 

 

Here's a post I wrote up describing what I did with some pictures.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1752170

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

Love it!

[Getting out there]

We surprised our girls when they were in 8th and 2nd grade. We had a scavenger hunt with clues and the last thing they found was the RC brouchure with the page of our ship marked and our cabin circled.

Little one cried and said we were going to sink like the Titanic. That was popular back when we went. I told her there wasn't any icebergs where we were going. She said they were going to hit a rock. She was fine when we went and had a great time. Couldn't hardly get her away from the kid's program. That was about 2000 on the Majesty.

[ger_77]

DH and I planned on taking our 3 adult children and their spouses on their first Mediterranean cruise. We booked their cabins, arranged for their flights, and even booked shore excursions we knew they would enjoy. Then we had everyone over for a family barbecue.

 

We told them we wanted them to see where "we" were going and what "we" would be doing (they didn't know at that point they were joining us), so we handed each of the couples a binder with all the information about "our" cruise. We really started to bore them with all the details, (maps, photographs, etc.) and just when we were about to lose them, we told them to look at the back page. There were the receipts for their cruise, flights and shore excursions along with a picture of our family superimposed on our cruise ship.

 

There were shrieks of surprise, laughter, and even some tears of joy - what fun that was, keeping the secret until the time was right to spring it on them.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[ger_77]

Double post - that hasn't happened for a long time!

[sail7seas]

I love the idea of a big family dinner before G & G leave for Florida and having a scale model of the ship wrapped. You could be tiny stickers near where everyone's cabin is. Photos of the interior of the ship, info about the islands, details about everyone's flights.....

 

What a great time your family will have.

Enjoy!

[71Corvette]

I remember seeing this on the corvetteforum.com site......very creative.

 

Are you going on the Allure Dec. 1st?

 

71 Green 454

 

Yes, we're really looking forward to it. It won't be long now! :D

[JanineM]

That sounds so much fun! We will definitely be having a big turkey dinner before G and G depart for Florida. it's difficult for us adults to keep the secret from the kids but the longer we hold off, the less time we will have to endure the "how many more days" question!!!! This is a first cruise for all of the kids and for some of the adults and mine and hubby's first on the Oasis so we are pretty pumped!

 

How about putting something in Christmas Crackers? Make up Your own and have a note in each giving clues about the cruise.