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Christmas cruise surprise help needed...

tjatczak

By tjatczak,
in Royal Caribbean International

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tjatczak

tjatczak

Posted
Posted

We are giving our son and daughter in law to-be a RCCL cruise for Christmas. We want it to be a surprise - thought about wrapping up some cruise items like flip flops, snorkel and ???? Then have the cruise information at the bottom of the box. Any ideas or suggestions for additional items or other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!!!

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clyde1509

clyde1509

Posted
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I gave my sister and brother in law a cruise on Allure for Xmas. I gave them a box with little presents in...first one was travel sized toiletries. Then a DVD of Chicago. Which was the show on the ship. Then a passport cover. Then sun cream. A guide to the Caribbean . And finally the tickets. Even when they looked at the booking they still weren't sure what was going on lol. They had a fantastic time I'm sure your son and daughter in law will too

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Clemmie

Clemmie

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We did this too for our son and his girlfriend...who got engaged while on their cruise! Some ideas: bottle of sunscreen, travel books for the area they will visit, a couple of sets of those towel clippy things that hold your beach towel in place, beach bag, sun hat/visor, travel clock, travel sized wrinkle spray for clothes, luggage scale. I had printed out a flyer for their ship, and had a couple of youtube videos of their ship lined up to show them after they opened their gifts. Have fun!

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Elvis1001

Elvis1001

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Posted

I put together a fake passport book with a page for each day of the cruise. The first pages showed pix of the ship and the itinerary with a map. Then I included a page for each sea day with pix of onboard activities like shows, casino, spa, mini-golf, etc., and a page for each port including the flag of the country and a few landmarks or possible excursions.

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sandy toes

sandy toes

Posted
Posted

I did this for different family members over the years and a photo album for actual printed out pics or a gift card to SnapFish or some such site for a hardcover photo book (my favorite) is nice. There have been odd reactions to the "tickets". Sometimes they didn't even realize what they were! Once, they thought I was giving a hint for them to buy me a cruise! I always book a date that can be changed if they need to for work schedules. Royal and Celebrity have always been great at helping me. I also booked one on Carnival, as that child always said things like they only wanted to sail on a funship etc when the older ones got gifts (wedding, birthday, graduations, holiday, whatever even just I love you is reason for a gift). I know it will be a great present, hope you can keep it a surprize!

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chemmo Holiday Sharing Rare

chemmo

Posted
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What a wonderful gift....I would suggest one of those photo frames with 5/6 picture gaps...in one the itinerary and in the others pictures of ports to be visited....post cruise they can change your generic pictures for ones of their own...

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kitt82078

kitt82078

Posted
Posted

To surprise my kids last year, I went to etsy and for $8 had a beautiful 8 11 magnet made with Elsa and a Christmas tree and my kids first names, surprise cruise , ship name and date. They put it on their stateroom door to find it faster. Awesome. Still on my fridge 2 years later.

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goodml

goodml

Posted
Posted

Similar to earlier posts, we did this for our kids one year. We bought them each a carry on and filled it full of cruise related things. Do travel agents still have the glossy printed brochure books? I don't even know anymore but I put one of those in each and I had written some clues on sticky notes that guided them to different spots in the book till they finally got to the one we had booked. As the others had said, I put in sunscreen, flip flops, new hat, a novel, a refillable water bottle, beach bag, whatever I could think of. It was really fun.

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moopetguy

moopetguy

Posted
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For my 10th wedding anniversary last year, I surprised DW with a 4-night cruise on Enchantment. The way I presented it to her was a set of mock airline and RCI cruise tickets slipped into a voucher pocket I made, which I then wrapped up in a box.

 

I found a blank ticket template online, and heavily customized it in Microsoft Word. Then I printed everything on cardstock. I'm happy to share the templates with anyone who is interested. There is even a template for the voucher pocket :)

 

I think people who still like holding something in their hands would enjoy this. Back in the day, hard copy tickets looked really nice and would be a great keepsake...this was an attempt to replicate that.

 

IMG_3985.jpg

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missysworld

missysworld

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Posted

We were taking our five kids on a cruise for the first time and decided to to a scavenger hunt for their gift.

Each child had their own hunt. We gave them a hint for the first place to find their first note. For example, for one daughter it said "you love to play this". Her note was located on the piano that told her "you rarely use these" the note was in a school book. 😂 The kids helped each other until they got to the last spot for each of them and it was a ring box that had a few scrabble tiles in it. Once they all had their tiles they had to figure out what it spelled. We helped them along a bit to spell out " look on the tree".

We had placed a cruise ship ornament on the tree. They searched until they found the ornament with a little help from us. We then said "Surprise! Your gift is a cruise!

They squeeled with excitement. The next question was "when"?

We then told them, "next week!"

We took a video of the entire thing and we now have lasting memories of not only the cruise, but the reveal. 😊

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71Corvette

71Corvette

Posted
Posted (edited)

I surprised my wife and kids a few Christmases ago and it was awesome. What I did was pretty elaborate so I won't repeat it all here but you can find pictures and a video in this thread (go to post 32):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1752170&page=2

 

It was awesome - best surprise ever!

Edited by 71Corvette
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Tomnsgirl

Tomnsgirl

Posted
Posted
For my 10th wedding anniversary last year, I surprised DW with a 4-night cruise on Enchantment. The way I presented it to her was a set of mock airline and RCI cruise tickets slipped into a voucher pocket I made, which I then wrapped up in a box.

 

I found a blank ticket template online, and heavily customized it in Microsoft Word. Then I printed everything on cardstock. I'm happy to share the templates with anyone who is interested. There is even a template for the voucher pocket :)

 

I think people who still like holding something in their hands would enjoy this. Back in the day, hard copy tickets looked really nice and would be a great keepsake...this was an attempt to replicate that.

 

IMG_3985.jpg

 

I am very interested can you send it to me @Tomnsgirl@gmail.com

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MaiseyM

MaiseyM

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was wondering the same thing for my teens and tweens. I literally thought about this for a year, since I booked so early. I finally surprised them last weekend. I don't know if you have done a former cruise, but you could even do this with another vacation or other theme. I took this idea from somebody else on You Tube (search cruise surprise).

 

 

 

I made a video on iMovie (took me a few hours to learn how to do this) with pictures from Oasis of the Seas last spring. I compiled all the pictures, added some Jimmy Buffett music and had a 4 minute video of many of our Oasis of the Seas pictures. At the end, I added a few pictures of our future cruise (Harmony) and added in words on each slide in the video. Something to the effect of

We had so much fun that we have to do it again. Get ready! On December 24th, you will be sailing on Harmony of the Seas! The rolling credits at the end listed the itinerary of each island we will be visiting.

 

 

The kids were freaking out, screaming, surprised. I would love to show you the video of them watching this and being surprised, however, my husband got a little choked up and stopped recording the big moment :p He had no idea he stopped filming b/c he was caught up in the moment. Upset he didn't get the surprise on film, however, it's clear that everyone is excited about our upcoming trip.

 

 

You could do something like this with a previous cruise, vacation, or create any other theme, with the surprise announcement at the end.

 

Here is the video I saw on you tube that gave me the inspiration for my surprise.

Edited by MaiseyM
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71Corvette

71Corvette

Posted
Posted
For my 10th wedding anniversary last year, I surprised DW with a 4-night cruise on Enchantment. The way I presented it to her was a set of mock airline and RCI cruise tickets slipped into a voucher pocket I made, which I then wrapped up in a box.

 

I found a blank ticket template online, and heavily customized it in Microsoft Word. Then I printed everything on cardstock. I'm happy to share the templates with anyone who is interested. There is even a template for the voucher pocket :)

 

I think people who still like holding something in their hands would enjoy this. Back in the day, hard copy tickets looked really nice and would be a great keepsake...this was an attempt to replicate that.

 

IMG_3985.jpg

 

I'd love to get a copy of the template too - mainebiker@hotmail.com

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LookingForward2

LookingForward2

Posted
Posted

these are all such great ideas; I think surprising with the whole vacation/cruise is an awesome gift!

 

We are cruising with another couple and for a Christmas gift I am making them a box (actually suitcase style gift box) with all cruising things in it.

 

I'd love to put their actual luggage tags on this, but ours won't be ready until right after Christmas.

Can anyone send me a picture of a real luggage tag? I could edit it and add their information. I usually print mine out and laminate them, attach them with luggage tag holders, but I'm not able to find any old ones that I've done.

Thanks in advance.

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LookingForward2

LookingForward2

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Posted
Here is a link to download the PDF file of my luggage tag from my most recent cruise. Hope that helps!

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6438175/Luggage%20Tag.pdf

 

 

Yep! Thank you!! Not sure what the color scheme indicates but I'm going to recreate it for them the best I can.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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