How to give Cruise as a Christmas Present? Ideas?

[Elationismyship]

We just booked the Fascination for our family for Christmas -- me, my husband, 13 year old and 23 year old. Any ideas on a great way to package something up to surprise the kids at Christmas? We're going June, 2009

 

Thanks!

[Seydlitz]

get a cruise DVD from Carnival and wrap it up. That is what I did 3 years ago.

[Elationismyship]

Great idea . . . . .I was thinking maybe even some sort of clues in several presents then a final present with the cruise info?

[PhoenixDawgCruising]

Did a surprise crusie in 2006, the cruise was for Dec. 27, so here's what I did:

 

I put an envelope under the tree marked "Family", when DH and DSs opened it, it led them on a scavanger hunt all thru the house, which eventually led them to a hidden treasure chest, which held a DVD of the first season of the Love Boat series. Taped to the back of the DVD were the cruise luggage tags.

 

They loved it.

[2TNCruisers]

You could also hide a map in one of the stockings with the highlighted ports of call....or fill everyone's stockings with sun tan lotion, flip flops, sun glasses, lip balm and a bon voyage ribbon.

[trixiefan]

I really wanted to do a surprise for our December 29th cruise, but our oldest (21 yr. old) had to make arrangements to get off work for the week. What a great surprise!

[beccadoby]

I have had clients ask me for anything I could give them (to be as hints)

 

Some have done the scavenger hunt -

 

Some have just wrapped up 1 box with all the "clues" inside.

 

Have fun and just get creative. Either way, they are going to LOVE this present!

[familycruising4us]

I am planning a cruise as a gift as well for my 13, 7 and 5 yr old. So far I have printed pics of shore excursions we are doing: horseback riding on beach, swim w/ dolphins, swim w/stingrays, trip to Bannister Island. I plan on wrapping each pic for each child, since we cut back on gifts bcuz of the cruise, so I want them to feel like they are opening more. :D

I bought them some dresses, dress clothes, wrapping those! :p Oh, and a pic of the ship for the last gift to open, prbly with a copy of the funship pass for them too.

I thought about suntan lotion, towels, but we don't need the towels, and I have a lotion from the summer... :rolleyes:

I'd love to hear any other ideas you get, since I'm still trying to come up with new ones!

[chasinraynbowz]

I love the scavenger hunt ideas. Many years ago, when my kids were small, their father was out of work due to an illness. Money was tight and Christmas at our house that year was horrible. I had already bought them a Nintendo (this is back when they first came out) and a few other things, but that was all they were getting. So we did a scavenger hunt. They started under the tree with one gift addressed to both and I had them running all over the house, laundry room and garage!! Each clue was a riddle they had to figure out. When they finally found the Nintendo, both were giggling and having the time of their lives. They will both tell you that to this day, that was the best Christmas they ever had.

 

Hmmmm... my 50th is coming up. DH... if you read this... HINT HINT... I want a surprise cruise for my b'day!!! hahaha

[luvmyjewels]

I suprised my mom with a cruise for her b-day in Sept. I wrote in her card that for her ** birthday we wanted to give her the gift of Inspiration! (She's never been on a cruise, and had never heard of the Inspiration). I printed out a color picture of the Inspiration along with the itenerary and wrapped it in a small box. I then nested that box along with several larger boxes (each one wrapped). So by the time she got to the last box, her anticipation was really high! Of course she was thrilled by the time she opened it and saw what her gift was!

[sodsmom]

Hi

I went to the dollar store and picked up the kind of boxes you would use for photos or keepsakes, some stickers with fish and shells and some shells and then some of the little boats. I decorated the boxes and put the carnival funnel on the boat. We then painted the itinerary and the date on the boats. I packed the boats and shells in the box. THen I printed the itinerary and the dates and made "invitations" Cordially inviting them to join us on board for a Christmas cruise (kids are older). My DD and DIL are into scrap booking so the boxes will come in handy for that.

[lglaser600]

These are great ideas. I am trying to figure out how give my Grandmother a cruise for Christmas.

[5KSnuts]

I have a friend who was given a surprise cruise. She got a box with sand and various ocean type things....flip flops, seashells, sunglasses...the usual stuff, and if I remember right, there was a little plastic sand shovel in there, so she could dig in the sand, which is where she found her tickets. You could just copy the docs. That would be cool. We are giving our almost grown kids a cruise too, but couldn't surprise them because of all their schedules. Have a great time!

[LizaMM]

I have surprised my mom with cruises 2x.

 

The first time I made a slide show presentation with photos of the ship as well as ports of call and put it all to music with captions. I put the computer in the middle of the dining room table and played it. The look on her face was priceless and she had the CD as a memory. I also made a notebook to go along with it with printed photos and tons of tips (it was their first cruise)...oh and I almost forgot....I wrapped up a couple of things for her to open..a nice lanyard for S&S card, a bunch of singles and fives for tipping, info on shore excursions which I booked and a few other cruise "necessities".

 

The 2nd time was for a cruise many months away. I went out and bought a nice multi=opening photo frame. I printed photos and card/captions on the computer and put those all in the frame and wrapped it up. The frame sits nicely on her desk at work so that she can look at it and be excited every day.

 

I LOVE some of these other ideas and will definetly use them in the future!

[ukbballfan]

Heres an idea if you have plenty of time on your hands. Take twelve different pictures of beach scenes and ship scenes and Photoshop your families heads onto the peoples bodies who are actually in the picture. Then take or email, the 12 pictures to Walmart, or any photo place, and have the 12 new pics made into a 2009 calendar for next year. After they open the calendar present you place it in a family gathering spot...breakfast area, den, etc. Thats gives them 6 months to see whats coming and six months to relive what happened.

[Iannie]

We gave our kids ages 13, 8 and 6 the Elation cruise last Christmas as thier big gift.

 

We did one of those Visa type things.

 

3 new luggage tags, (they where flip flops for the girls and 1 flowered shirt my our son) $12 on debt card.

 

3 new bathingsuits $129 on debt card. All this was in the box.

 

New waterproof cameras, beach towels and sunscreen, $79 on debt card.

 

The looks on your faces when you read that you will be going on a 5 day Mexican Riveria Cruise with your entire family, 27 in all!

 

PRICELESS!

 

and let me tell you it was. We still look at the Christmas pictures and laugh.

[CruiznWithHubby]

Have made, or make your own Tshirts,,,,,,JONES FAMILY CRUISE,,,or something similar,,,,

 

with the dates, or anything else you think is important,,,,

 

Then you can all wear them on embarkation day :)

 

wrap the T-shirts of course :) Holly

[ladyd11933]

I think no matter how you suprise them it will be great. My two teenagers told me yesterday that next time that I should not tell them about the cruise at all until we are leaving for the airport. We booked 330 days out so the waiting in driving them crazy. We have only been on one last year and I think the second is more exciting because they have an idea of what to expect.

 

On the other hand, we originally booked a quad cabin and I was able to get them their own cabin and that is going to be a surprise for Christmas. I think I am going to wrap someting also, just not sure what.

 

Have a great cruise, I am sure they will be super excited!!

[lilpootr]

We are "in the same boat" and are giving our kids a February Cruise on the Legend for their Christmas gift. Because that's their big gift there will not be a lot of presents under the tree but we are going to do a scavenger hunt with a clue attached to some of the presents. As an example, when they open their flip flops there will be a clue like "this is not just a shoe, but also your first clue, as you open more gifts you will find #2." I've ordered the DVD from Carnival and plan on having the last clue be a trip to the family room where we will watch the DVD.:)

[bob&france]

Carnival does have a very nice CD sized gift box , shiney gold with the Carnival logo all over it, red ribbon and when you open it it plays music. At first you don;t notive it;s the Carnival logo just looks like wrapping paper.

Ask your TA to contact their Carnival Sales manager.....we got a few last year.

 

bob

[63Corvette]

You could try to find an inexpensive toy ship and wrap it up as a christmas gift and put some tickets for the cruise (make something on the computer) in the package with the ship. I did something similar to this a few years back for my Wife - she wanted a new stove/oven (Jennaire), so I bought a plastic (fisher price) stove at Walmart and wrapped it up (no clues inside). When she opened it she looked at the tag again, thinking she opened someone elses gift. I then told her what her real gift was - it was delivered and installed the day after Christmas.

[Elationismyship]

Thanks so much - these are all great ideas and I'm going to use various ideas from all the posts. I was worried about the "not too many presents" under the Christmas tree so the Dollar Store idea will really help with that. I"m going to wrap up flip-flops, suntan lotion, etc. This way it won't look so sparse under the tree. Thank you all for the ideas!

[me4me]

Hi,

 

We are doing a surprise 1st cruise for my mother and looking for ideas too. These are great! We are trying to stay away from anything that might tip her off (beach related, ships, etc) before she gets to the last gift that has tickets, etc.

 

If you used a travel agent contact them and see if they can do anything for you. Our travel agent talked with her RCCL contact and we got a RCCL beach towel showing all the ports they go to. :)

[lanoitarus]

How about a model of the ship?

 

Theres one of the fascination on ebay for $40.. its a bit steep but really cool

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carnival-Cruise-Lines-Fascination-Ship-Model-Sealed-NEW_W0QQitemZ380083725818QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380083725818&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

 

Or a bit cheaper, an inflatable model from carnivals gift shop:

http://carnival.summitmg.com/carnival/product.asp?dept_id=3000&pf_id=CAR0077

[becky48417]

My friend bought an ornament that you could open up and put a tiny ship inside of it to surprise her husband.