Surprise

[tigger296]

My husband and I are taking our children on a cruise January 29, 2005 aboard the Splendour of the Seas. This will be our first cruise. Our kids have begged to go on a cruise and this is going to be their gift from Santa. We want to make this really special. The documents won't be here in time for Christmas so I'm looking for ideas and gift suggestions to use to let them know what their big gift is. They're going to be wild when they find out and I'll be so relieved to not have to keep the secret anymore. IT"S KILLING ME!!! I can't wait to tell them. I've bought new "cruise" clothes and have thought of sunglasses, sunscreen and flip flops but need fun ideas so please help me out.

 

Thanks,

Ginger

[thedrunkrock]

Buy them some new shorts, some caribbean shirts, swim suits, something like that, remote controled ship even lol, but whatever you do dont buy the carnival cruise line tycoon game, it doesn't work well with computers. Sunstandard game, pretty package as someone else in the forums put it lol.

 

:)

[ssatterly]

That cruise game works great on my PC. Maybe you just got a bad one.

[ab1881]

We gave my mother in a law a cruise for her 75th birthday last summer and we typed up a letter explaining what her gift was and wrapped it up with the cruise brouchure! The best part is she wouldn't go without us since she hasn't cruised before, so now we're all going!!! What a great gift, your kids will love it.

[Sheffie]

How about giving each of them a snorkle, mask, and flippers? They could even practice breathing underwater before the cruise, too. What great parents you are. What do you think about adopting a much older child, say one about 55 years old?

 

Michelle

[just4kixx]

Last summer we gave my parents a cruise as a surprise. I made a brochure with a little rhyme in it and cut out pictures of their heads and put them on little cartoon bodies throughout the "book". The last page had a picture of the ship they would be sailing on with a bubble to the exact stateroom they would be staying in and pictures of their smiling faces inside the bubble waving goodbye. ( It was actually much cuter than it sounds...) I wrapped the book in tissue and put it in a gift bag, and told my mom I had found something in the attic that I thought she would like.

 

They were soooo surprised! Later that day an unfortunate neighbor had their house struck by lightening. As the neighbors gathered around the commotion, my parents were beaming... "you won't beleive what our kids did for us :D "

 

Only wish we would send them more often!

 

Have fun with it. I'm sure whatever you decide to do, the kids will have a blast!

 

A

[nreilly]

What ages are the kids?

[Ocean Boy]

One year I wrapped up cruise brochures in gift paper and gave it to the family. Another year, to throw them off a bit, I gave them cruise brochures but put them inside left over LL Bean boxes so it looked like they were getting clothes. It was the first time people looked disappointed when they took off the paper and saw Bean boxes!

[42trvl]

I like the idea of putting in cruise brochures with the clothing gift box. Typcially, when we are giving a "trip" type of gift, I will enclose the tix or brochure in a wrapped box with either clothing or some other "gear" appropriate to the type of trip. It usually works well.

[NancyB84]

What about a carry-on type of bag or fanny pack with things to do on the plane or in the car on the way to the pier?

 

I think you can also purchase RCCL logo items.... like fanny packs or caps? Depending on how old your kids are.... they also sell the Adventure Ocean stuff too.

 

Have fun!

[Overtyme]

I think that each day, leading up to the holiday, you should give them each a clue as to what their gift is... one day, maybe something way out there like a picture of a star fish, the next day, maybe a gilligan's island video, etc..

This will give you some form of release and keep them involved in the guessing game.

As it gets closer to the time, make the clues more obvious and maybe bigger (shorts, sun screen, etc).

Today and tomorrow on the Travel Channel at 2PM are the Radiance of the Seas and the Adventure of the Seas - I wonder if you're watching it, if they'll pick up on something or if they'll think it's just another show that you're watching.

[Joy2Day]

About 10 years ago, a friend and I took her 9 year old daughter to Disney for Christmas with a Big Red Boat cruise for New Year's. Since we were driving to Orlando, we wanted to just carry her out to the car and have her wake up on the road. But Grandma was ready to burst with excitement and just knew she was going to let the cat out of the bag when their family gathered for an early Christmas celebration.

 

So, we taped a Disney commercial, put a note on it that said "Play me for a Christmas surprise", then wrapped it in a box in a box in a box ...... until we had a huge box that I dragged into the house like it weighed a ton. Other gifts for Christmas were Disney-related or travel-related (camera, shorts sets, water wallets, fanny packs, ...)

[Lauri32]

I don't know how old your kids are, but this is what we did for our 13yo twin girls last year when we surprised them with a trip to Universal Studios over Christmas break.

 

We made it into a scavenger hunt. The last present they opened on Christmas morning started the scavenger hunt in the form of a riddle. We led them to different things. We're the mean parents who make our kids do chores so we chose some of their least favorite things to do. We had them running out to the trash can. Checking the CLEAN/Unused kitty litter. Looking in the basket we keep to refill water bottles. We also used a word in one of the riddles that they would be forced to look up the definition in the dictionary, another thing they hate to do. We also did nice ones like putting notes in some of their favorite DVDs. They were aggravated with us at the time, but were thrilled with their surprise. They obviously enjoyed it, though. They've asked us to do another scavenger hunt this Christmas.:)

[over the edge]

The surprise is a great idea. We did the same thing last xmas for our kids. We surprised them with a trip to Disney World. I bought small things that consisted of: a calendar with the days marked down leading to the day we leave! The calendars had Mickey on them. I wrapped a video that the TA had given me. You should be able to get one about RCCL. I also did the sunscreen and sunglasses. I bought pj's with a Disney character on them and disney stickers. I wrapped everything separately and then put them all in a big box and wrapped with Disney paper. It killed me too to keep the secret, but it was worth it!!:)

[alexeliz]

I am doing this as a surprise for my 5 kids, we will be going on the Enchantment in March, but this is there Christmas gift.

 

Knowing the age of the kids will help but here are a few things I am doing. My kids range from 6-17.

 

Download the Royal Caribbean theme song with a play me now written on it.

Get a map of the caribbean islands

Another child will get co-ordinate points to go along with the map.

If you can get a hold of a 'Compass' for your upcomming cruise

My youngest is getting a boat

Another child is getting a picture collage (travel magazines etc...)(pictures of dolphins as well as I booked a dolphin swim in Cozumel

 

All of them are getting underwater camera's and a small photo album, plus swim trunks etc...

 

I hope this helps.... if you get any other ideas please let me know as I am in the same boat as you (lol no pun intended)

[cruisernh]

When I gave a cruise to my husband. I wrapped the brochure with all kinds of heavy stuff and I would let is "slip" that I bought it at sears. He thought it was tools. I stuck a sticky note saying go to page whatever. had the cruise and stateroom circled. He had a lot of fun reading on that x-mas

[cpa2be]

My husband and I booked our next cruise when we were on board last month(luv the shipboard credit!) We had talked every year that it would be fun to bring our kids along - we have 2 boys ages 22 & 25. So the last day of the cruise we decided this next cruise 10/05 would be the ONE. I ran down and booked 2 more cabins so our sons could bring their girlfriends/fiancees.

 

We decided to give this to them for Christmas, but my husband and I were sooo excited, we couldn't wait. So we had them all over for dinner last week and we chatted about our cruise, showed them our photos, gave them their souvenirs and served...Pina Coladas!

 

I prepared each couple a gift bag with stuff I had picked up from the cruise - those 'free' drink glasses, the C & A gifts, postcards, toiletry bags and fannypacks (last year's). They of course thought it was fun.

Then my husband handed them each a big manila envelope with a cruise brochure and a cute certificate that I made up telling them they were invited on a cruise. I listed the details, ports, and everything that we are paying for (everything except their drinks and souvenirs).

 

What a reaction! Hugs, tears, disbelief! I couldn't have been happier!

 

Good luck with your suprise, I know they will be thrilled.

[skiiergirl]

tigger256.....EBAY. I see all sorts of RCI "goodies". Don't know the ages of your kiddies so don't know if anything currently on there would work but you can always check back. I have gotten stuffed animals, lunch bags, cufflinks, etc.

[Celmar]

I don't know the age of your kids, but I just purchased The Cruise Journal for my daughter and her best friend. We are going to give it to them in a bag next Wednesday along with pictures, brochures, etc. The journal has places to list friends they met, the name of the ship, ports of call, the captain, CD, etc. I purchased it from wal-mart.com but you can do a search just by typing in The Cruise Journal and may be able to find it somewhere else cheeper. The only reason I went with Wal-Mart was because of the shipping options. Good luck, I know we're anxious to surprise our daughter and her friend.

[cpayne]

How about underwater disposable cameras for their stockings?

[rccruisers]

Tape the music on the RC commercials and give each child a Walkman. They can use them on the trip but something tells me, they already have one. ;) If they do, put the tape in their stocking plus all the other goodies people have mentioned. You are great parents!!! :D