Ideas for surprizing my family with Alaska Cruise

[jakejtown]

Booked an Alaksa Cruise in the Golden for May 2011 as a gift for my family. Husband and two teenage boys, 14 & 18. Does anybody have any ideas on a neat way to present them their "gift". Thanks, looking forward to hearing your ideas! :)

[2Oregonians]

Christmas gift? If so, I would wrap 3 boxes full of Alaska-ish stuff, including either a picture of the ship (or any ship, really) or a toy ship, keychain with ship on it, etc. Have them unwrap the boxes but not open until you say GO! They'll open them at the same time and you'll sit back and see how long it takes the first one to figure it out.

[rdsqrl]

Order (or get from a local travel agent) a copy of Princess'sAlaska brochure. Cut out the page with the itinerary, the page(s) with that ship's deck plans, and the page that has something relevant to the shipboard experience (shore excursions? Or a page about the kids club for your 14 year old?). Put each page in a separate box along with a generic travel-themed gift (travel alarm clock, passport wallet, binoculars, toiletry case, etc.). Have them open them all at once. . .

[Kellie in Texas]

Jake -- I'm doing the same thing, but we're going in June 2011. Myself, DH, and two sons ages 18 and 9. I have purchased three hooded rain jackets for the three of them, all alike. I'm also getting the DVD of the kids' movie Balto. It's a few years old and we used to own it on VCR, but our VCR died a few years ago and we have not replaced it on DVD yet. The movie is about the origin of the Iditarod sled dog race -- to bring medicine to the snowed-in town. It's a cute movie, but not too "sweet" if you know what I mean. We already have some binoculars and good cameras. Plus, since I am doing this on the sly, I still have to buy some "regular" Christmas gifts for the boys to put under the tree and from Santa, etc. so I'm not doing too many cruise-related gifts. Just 2-3 to work up to the surprise. Kellie

[melsal]

For my husband's Christmas gift I am wrapping a tiara (for Princess), a sapphire (for the ship), somberro, fish taco picture etc. as I am giving him a Mexican Riviera Cruise. He will keeping opening gifts until he figures it out or until he reaches the final gift of the itinerary. You could do something similiar.

[carolmacey]

I did this for in-laws to Hawaii. I wrapped/bagged little travel sized items, etc. Final bag was flower leis and the itinerary.

You might find totem poles or sled dogs to wrap up.

Have fun either way!

[Liz54]

Good luck wrapping a sled dog!!! U tube has a clip on how to gift wrap a cat which might be helpful!

[dbteach2]

We booked a cruise on the Ruby (4/17) for during my spring break and are including our boys (24 and 28) as a Christmas present. We told them at Thanksgiving (although Princess ruined the surprise by sending an email to our oldest son, even after we requested no emails!) so that we could be sure they could take the time off. I wrapped a glass ship ornament that I found at Kohls, along with a picture of the ship. Many years ago my parents took us all on an Alaskan cruise-- they wrapped the catalog in a piece of luggage and gave it to our boys. Any way you do it--- a cruise is certainly a great present--lol !

[schittenden]

Not sure if this would apply to you, but we just surprised my parents with a cruise (their first).

 

They thought they were going to be flying to Baltimore to spend 3 weeks around Christmas with us. When we saw them in November, we told them we had some stuff they would need for their trip. We gave them sunscreen, a small travel bag (for like make-up), and other warm-climate items. Then we gave them their travel itinerary (we'd booked the flights and avoided giving them details other than the day and approximate time of their flights) and waiting for the Ft. Lauderdale destination to be noticed. Once they noticed that, we had them open one of the pockets in the bag and it had luggage tags that we'd had made (vistaprint, I think) with their names and addresses and a picture of the Crown on them. Then we gave them all of the cruise info books. It worked like a charm.

 

I think the little clues was a fun way to give the gift.

[schittenden]

We booked a cruise on the Ruby (4/17) for during my spring break and are including our boys (24 and 28) as a Christmas present. We told them at Thanksgiving (although Princess ruined the surprise by sending an email to our oldest son, even after we requested no emails!) so that we could be sure they could take the time off. I wrapped a glass ship ornament that I found at Kohls, along with a picture of the ship. Many years ago my parents took us all on an Alaskan cruise-- they wrapped the catalog in a piece of luggage and gave it to our boys. Any way you do it--- a cruise is certainly a great present--lol !

We got that same ornament for my parents, I think. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring it to Texas with us as part of the surprise.

[kpkcruiser]

The last cruise we took our kids on was a 'secret' one. Costco sold boxes that stacked into one another. If you stack them up on top of one another with the smallest at the top its about 5' high. We put one thing leading up to the cruise in every box - flip flops, air itinerary, hotel info., sunscreen, money holders, all leading up to an album in the bottom box that had the cruise information and a photo of the Grand already on the front page. They were nuts by the time they got to the final box because they suspected what was going on after about the 5th box.

Have fun!!!!

[Bizziecruzer]

Hi - I made a powerpoint presentation together with all the info on the cruise, then burnt it to a cd and gave this as a present to my husband last christmas - put sound for the plane as we took off, waves in the background of the ship etc als had a picture of the ship with an arrow pointing to our cabin - he loved it. :)

[iancal]

A friend of ours did this. She got some letter blocks that said Alaskan Cruise and put a few in each Christmas stocking. Then she told them to put them altogther and make up two words from the letters. They did it.

[Aloha Me]

If you live in a state with or about to get snow...along with any of these other wonderful ideas, make some small tags (leaving one end longer) add "Welcome to Alaska" and laminate them. Then make some snowballs, tucking the long end of the tags into each one, leaving the welcome sign sticking out. Put in a freezer (probably not yours since its a surprise). Place snowballs in a decorative bowl and present when ready. We have surprised our family of 7 with two cruises over time and designed both our giftings from suggestions on this board. What a great bunch of people!

[saksn4]

Jake -- I'm doing the same thing, but we're going in June 2011. Myself, DH, and two sons ages 18 and 9. I have purchased three hooded rain jackets for the three of them, all alike. I'm also getting the DVD of the kids' movie Balto. It's a few years old and we used to own it on VCR, but our VCR died a few years ago and we have not replaced it on DVD yet. The movie is about the origin of the Iditarod sled dog race -- to bring medicine to the snowed-in town. It's a cute movie, but not too "sweet" if you know what I mean. We already have some binoculars and good cameras. Plus, since I am doing this on the sly, I still have to buy some "regular" Christmas gifts for the boys to put under the tree and from Santa, etc. so I'm not doing too many cruise-related gifts. Just 2-3 to work up to the surprise. Kellie

Kellie-My family is also going in June 2011~it is a surprise for my youngest daughter; my older daughter accidently found out and ruined the surprise for her, but she doesn't know the date or details yet! When are you going? We are on the Golden for the June 25, 2011 sailing date!

[Kellie in Texas]

Kellie-My family is also going in June 2011~it is a surprise for my youngest daughter; my older daughter accidently found out and ruined the surprise for her, but she doesn't know the date or details yet! When are you going? We are on the Golden for the June 25, 2011 sailing date!

 

We are going on the June 4th sailing, so I will have time to get home and tell you all about it before you go. :D How old are your girls?

 

One of the frequent Princess posters, ColoCruiser, had some pictures posted a few months ago of the Golden's drydock and they were amazing. I'm hoping that he will be able to provide me with that link again at some point; my husband was in the Navy (many years ago!) and to see the cruise ship out of the water, to see the anchor and the hull, it was something you don't normally see. Hopefully, he will see this and can let us know about those pics.

[saksn4]

We are going on the June 4th sailing, so I will have time to get home and tell you all about it before you go. :D How old are your girls?

 

One of the frequent Princess posters, ColoCruiser, had some pictures posted a few months ago of the Golden's drydock and they were amazing. I'm hoping that he will be able to provide me with that link again at some point; my husband was in the Navy (many years ago!) and to see the cruise ship out of the water, to see the anchor and the hull, it was something you don't normally see. Hopefully, he will see this and can let us know about those pics.

 

 

At the time of sailing, my girls will be 16 yrs. and 14 yrs. I will have to look for the dry dock pictures of Golden! Please do let me know how your trip goes when you get back!

I have been watching the Princess website, and have gotten a large amount of our cruise fare reduced with sales and promotions since I have booked! Now we have more spending/excursion money!

[5326jan]

Buy everyone a set of binoculars. You'll need them. It is such an amazing gift that you are giving them!!!! What an awesome mom/wife you are!:D

[Sunshine1220]

I surprised my husband with an anniversary gift of a NYE cruise in two weeks time. We'll be sailing around New Zealand for nearly 2 weeks. I handed him an envelope with an invitation to attend a New Years Eve party. He was reading it and it still hadn't clicked until he turned the next page and saw the itinerary lol. He was gobsmacked :D

 

Have fun

 

Christine

[cantwait2cruize]

Costco is selling a beautiful puzzle of a cruise ship in Vancouver, wrap the puzzle up for Christmas:)