How to give cruise as a gift.

[Crazyrbbt]

We booked a cruise to celebrate our daughters 16th birthday but we want to give it to her a little early so she has time to prepare and research it a little. This will be her first cruise.

My question is how do I give this to her? We booked one out of Miami going to Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas etc.

I originally bought a model of a Carnival ship and an airplane and was going to put them in a box with a beach theme and print out fake tickets to put in with them. Now I am wondering if there is a better way to give her this gift in a fun way.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much

[surfjock27]

We booked a cruise to celebrate our daughters 16th birthday but we want to give it to her a little early so she has time to prepare and research it a little. This will be her first cruise.

My question is how do I give this to her? We booked one out of Miami going to Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas etc.

I originally bought a model of a Carnival ship and an airplane and was going to put them in a box with a beach theme and print out fake tickets to put in with them. Now I am wondering if there is a better way to give her this gift in a fun way.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much

 

A scavenger hunt is always fun! Come up with some cruise themed questions/puzzles. Maybe have cardboard cutouts of the letters C-R-U-I-S-E at each stop, mixed up, and her final puzzle is to unscramble the letters.

[theriac]

I took my mom on a cruise for mothers day and dad on a cruise for Father's day. Both were actually over those days so I obviously had to give them a heads up to request time off of work and be prepared. I took my mom to breakfast and "randomly" brought up how long it had been since we traveled together and how nice a weekend cruise would be. She agreed and said we should look into it. After eating I acted like I was doing something on my phone and after like 5 minutes I told her to check her email where I forwarded the confirmation email carnival sent me a week before. She was shocked. She then noticed the date I booked and told me she appreciated the theatrics over just being told.

 

For my dad I took him out to dinner and told him I was going to be away over father's day and felt so bad I wouldn't be at home with him. He said it's fine and I insisted I got him the best gift and handed him a card. He jokingly said "probably not as good as your moms, mom's always get the best gifts." I replied "well see..." he opened it up and a folded piece of paper fell out. He read the card, unfolded the paper, and read the itinerary including flights, hotels, excursion, and cruise itinerary I booked for us to go to Alaska in June for Father's day. He felt bad I wasn't going because I said I wouldn't be home then. I laughed and said yeah because I'm going to Alaska too. He was really in shock because he's always talked about going there but always let me pick the places we vacationed to.

 

Now I'm waiting for my surprise cruise! Haha probably won't happen because they know I like to control the itinerary and plans.

Edited November 9, 2015 by theriac

[Cruisin 4 Ever]

If she needs new luggage, I'd buy her a suitcase and put the ship and airplane inside.

[travlngrl1996]

If she needs new luggage, I'd buy her a suitcase and put the ship and airplane inside.

 

I would also include a Carnival gift card with the other items.

[Crazyrbbt]

I hadn't thought about a scavenger hunt. That is a fun idea. So many good ideas. Thank you all so much.

[munchkin4]

We did the same thing in 2006 (Christmas Gift). I made a scrapbook for them. That was in the day when they sent plane tickets in the mail. Made a color copy. Printed pictures of ship and deck plans and stuff for each port. Had both my kids open at same time. Also left a few blank pages for them to put pics in. Something they will keep for a while.

[mzlinda]

I gave my daughter a vacation to Jamaica one year for Xmas. I wrapped beachy gifts--- a beach towel, beach bag, sunscreen, etc. after opening a couple of gifts, she figured that she was going to a beach but she didn't know where until she opened the last gift which was a photo album with a copy of our itinerary.

[pugsley1992]

My parents bought us our first cruise for our honeymoon. They bought us a new suitcase and attached the printed Carnival luggage tags to it and gave it to us for Christmas. The cruise was for the next December so it gave us almost a year to plan.

[Crazyrbbt]

These are all such good ideas. I have to tell them to my husband and figure out what to do. Thank you all so much for helping point me in the right direction.

[emm126]

What a great present!. Love giving gifts of travel to my niece and nephews. One time, I got helium balloons with the ribbon on them and tied note/clues to the ribbons. I put the balloons in a box and wrapped it. One for each child, when opened the balloons floated up and they had to figure out the clues to get the present. They were younger at the time but they really enjoyed it.

[BTromboneFrack]

We gave our boys a surprise cruise as a Christmas present. We gave them a poster that had questions and clues about the ship, which was a Disney ship. We asked them what is 954 feet long and weighs 93,000 tons (or whatever the measurements were). We also asked them questions about the islands we were going to, and wrote down other fun facts about the ship. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt on a poster. We also went to the travel agent and found cardboard replica of the Disney Magic. We wrapped it up as one of the presents they could open after they answered the questions. Lots of fun.

[adamt]

Some of the greatest videos on Youtube are of "Disney Surprises" where the parents literally spring the vacation on their kids as they're getting to the airport.

[Crazyrbbt]

I will go check those out, thanks.

[Riley's Mom]

When I gifted my niece a cruise for her 16th bday, I wrote a little book and on the last page of the book I told her about the cruise gift .

[lauren0309]

When I surprised my boyfriend with a cruise to Alaska last year I bought thick foam posterboard in a craft store and stickers all about Alaska. A lot of the stickers were in 3D so they popped up and I also cut pictures of moose and all wildlife out of a magazine. I even pasted a cruise ship on top and got gold letters from the craft store and pasted on top cruise to Alaska. It was wrapped up under the Christmas tree and he couldn't figure out what it could be. He was very surprised when he unwrapped it!