Surprise Cruise

[just the facs]

Can anyone give me some ideas how to present a surprise cruise. My Dh and I are giving my in law's a cruise to Hawaii for their 60 anniversary. We have the Hawaiian shirts and the leis. I am making dinner, so far coconut shrimp, fresh fruit and pineapple upside down cake. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

[KSCnCA]

When I first started dating my husband I gave him an oversized card with pix of Vegas attractions and journaling about what we would do there, etc. and how I was giving us a vacation to Vegas on such and such a date. I think he still has the card. I created it out of magazine and newspaper clippings. So much for the old days! Now I cut and paste from internet sites. You could also give them several nautical themed gifts cuminating in the gift of the cruise. Have fun with it, I am sure they will love what ever you do for them!

[Ziggy7]

Can anyone give me some ideas how to present a surprise cruise. My Dh and I are giving my in law's a cruise to Hawaii for their 60 anniversary. We have the Hawaiian shirts and the leis. I am making dinner, so far coconut shrimp, fresh fruit and pineapple upside down cake. Any ideas would be greatly appreciatedWhat you have already sounds wonderful! :)

[bepsf]

Put the tickets in the Pineapple Upside Down Cake?

:eek:

[suemag]

Whwn we surprised our kids with a trip to Disney, we wrapped up a small stuffed Mickey, a small metal US Air airplane and gave them luggage. They didn't put it all together until they "found" the Disney hotel brochure inside their luggage with a calendar page circling the dates! It was fun to see their reaction when they finally figured it out!

Good luck on your surprise!

[BigDogMom]

My DH gave me a surprise cruise years ago. He got the mylar balloons shaped like a ship. He attached the docs to them with colorful ribbons, got some streamers and cruise related stuff from the party store and put them all in a large box. When I opened the box, the balloons popped up as a surprise. I found the docs and all the other stuff in the box in a nest of colored easter grass. Very festive!

[VaCruzers]

I gave my husband a cruise as a suprise birthday gift year before last. I individually wrapped about 10 or so gifts & made a little card to attach to each. First, I made up a funny/silly poem of couplets. Each couplet was then put onto one of the cards attached to each gift which had to be opened in order. The little gifts were things like travel shampoo/deodorant/shaving cream, a pair of plastic wings to represent airline travel, a mini bottle of kahlua since we'd be going to Mexico, an underwater camera, a snorkel & mask, a new wallet with money for the casino, a map of a couple of the ports, and (forgive me HAL since it was a RCCL cruise) some RCCL chocolates I had saved from the last cruise. The last wrapped box was the tickets. He had pretty much figured it out by the 6th or so present, but he thought I had just booked the trip for our family we had been planning for the following summer. He was really surprised when he saw the tickets were for 10 days later! I didn't want to tell him that early, but due to the nature of his business, he had to have advance notice to get things in order to be away. You might consider a series of little presents related to cruising along with your wonderfully themed dinner & see if they can guess before the surprise is revealed. Sounds like a wonderful plan!!

[Rosarymb]

I and my parents received a surprise cruise from my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. Non-refundable tickets, and we were told on the spot that if we didn't go, they'd end up eating the tickets (i.e., we'd have to reimburse them, and we'd never hear the end of it). There's been upsides to this and down sides to this. I mean, I'm tickled to go, and I've always wanted to go on a cruise. My sister and b-i-l have literally travelled the planet, Japan to Europe, etc., and have formal wear, passports, shots, etc. My parents and I haven't. We had no clue as to the "prep" work involved. Let me just share a few things about our "free" cruise....

Up to $120 for passports (pictures, ordering copies of BC's, passport costs itself. So that's $240 if they don't have the certified birth certificates and have to order them, $190 if they just need pictures and passports made.

$300 dollars on formal wear, each, for mom and myself; my dad has a tux, so he slides on that one. Your mom and dad may or may not have this stuff on hand.

Getting to the port. The cheapest way for the 3 of us to get to the port was amtrak, and spend the night in Ft. Lauderdale. That's $500, since my sister also scheduled the cruise during spring break -- priceline just laughed at me, and we're not EVEN gonna talk about what the airfare to Lauderdale looked like...had we flown, it would have been closer to $1200.

$60 per day hold on our credit cards, each -- there goes $420 per person, since we'll probably spend it on excursions and drinks...

$37.50 per person on soda cards -- $112.50

We have animals that will need to be boarded during that week -- last time we did it, it was $240 for my 2 cats, and
$480 for mom and dad's 4 cats and dog.

And we're going the week of Infernal Revenue day, and none of us are getting refunds; we're all paying.

So, rough estimate, our "free" trip is going to cost the three of us $3500+, with me helping my retired mom and dad with their cost. Now, if your parents are pet free, have passports, formal wear, and it's easy access to the port, it wouldn't be that bad. Just consider everything....

[just the facs]

:) We are bought the extra insurance. They are 85 years old so anything can happen. We are also going to pay for the ship expences on our credit card. I have credit card I am just using for the cruise,so everything will be paid off by then.They don't have any pets. We are driving down to San Diego,as we live close by. I am worried about the passports and clothes. They have 8 months to get those together If they can't go we have another couple ,who said they would love to go. ;)

[jhannah]

Rosarymb you make valid points. All facets of a trip should be considered. If they wanted to give you a trip, IMO they should pop for the extra expenses, too.

Regarding formal wear, be sure to check out Ebay. Good bargains there, and I'm sure you can save a bunch that way. When you're done, you can list them for sale and have a net expense of practically nothing.

[trubey]

A few years ago we brought a friend and her husband here (Azores) for a vacation. Yes, we paid for everything -- Limo, airfare, guest house, car rental, food, booze --the whole shot.

The way HAL sends tickets, only a few weeks before a cruise, would be a real problem in your case. To let our friends know, I dummied up some stationery and an envelope from the airline with a few logos I snatched from the internet, them typed them a letter in broken English and told them their reserved dates; and that the airline would send them their tickets to the US.

It worked out great. We picked up the tickets and mailed them in another envelope from the 'airline', and everybody was happy. They never did know we did it ourselves.

ALTERNATIVELY

You could just give them a printout of the TA's confirmation in an envelope, deadpan, and when they freak out give the rest of the goodies.

Just a thought.

Lane :D

[Rosarymb]

I think it's a lovely idea, and great that you've thought of the the little "gotcha" extras. One thing I learned with my recent passport fun, don't wait if they don't have the certified birth certificates, especially given their age. The BCs in Georgia were online to 195--something, I think, but if the birthdate was prior to that they said the search could take 10+ weeks. Vitalcheck.com does nationwide BCs, they're who I used, and they seemed on the up and up -- no surprise costs, and they delivered faster than they promised. Most importantly, the passport office took what they sent!