A little over a year ago, our generous friends - the S family - invited us to join them for a Disney World vacation much like we did in 2013. At the time, Chris and I felt like our trip to Disney World in 2013 was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and we didn't imagine that we'd be able to do it again . . . especially after our family grew. However, Ross and Tia really wanted to plan another trip with us and graciously offered to give us some of their Disney Vacation Club points for our lodging.
It didn't take long for Chris and I to decide that we definitely wanted to make it happen! We knew it would be an amazing trip for our family, but we also knew that it would require quite a bit of planning on our part. Way back in October of 2019, Tia and I met several times to discuss options and nail down dates for our lodging reservations.
Then, 2020 happened.
We could have never predicted when we first began planning this trip that a pandemic would plague our world and that our nation would go through shut-downs, mask mandates, new experiences in social distancing, and economic hardship. We never considered that Disney World would experience the longest shut-down in its almost 50 year history or that air travel would be limited. I had no idea that we would be homeschooling or that Chris would have spent months working from home. We had already put a lot of planning time into making this trip happen, but we didn't know if we'd even be able to take it.
Deciding whether or not to take this trip was a series of tough discussions, considerations, and sleepless nights. We just didn't know if it would be safe or wise for us to go, or if Disney would even open back up and stay open. Eventually, though, we decided that we would move forward like we were going to go and just take any unexpected closures or hiccups as they came.
Our first small hiccup came with air travel. We had initially discussed being in Florida for about 8 days. This would put us flying to Florida the Friday after Thanksgiving. When we went to get our tickets, air travel was very limited. We weren't willing to pay an excessively extra amount to fly to Florida on that day, so we decided to go the Tuesday before Thanksgiving instead. Chris had taken out a credit card that earned airline miles when we first decided to take this trip, so we needed to go when his miles would stretch the farthest. We were able to get five of our six tickets for free with his miles by flying out on Tuesday before Thanksgiving instead of the Friday after.
However, our Disney World lodging reservations were only for five nights. By flying out several days earlier than expected, we found ourselves needing to find lodging for the first six nights of our trip. Once again, our friends generously offered to let us have points they had for a resort just a few miles from Disney property. Honestly, it was hard for us to agree to take more points from them . . . we are so very appreciative of their generosity and kindness, but we never, ever want to take advantage of that. After some convincing from Tia, we took the points and were able to get the entire six nights for free (only paying a bit in fees)!
With all the logistics of our trip worked out, we then had to wait several months to see if visiting Disney World was going to be an option while we were in Florida. This entire time, we were careful to not tell the kids anything about this potential trip. Our plan all along was for it to be a surprise, but with how uncertain everything was, we took extra care to not let them know anything.
As the dates of our trip grew closer - and it seemed that things were opening up and staying open - I started thinking about a fun way to tell the kids. I knew I wanted to wait until just a week or so before we flew out, but I wanted to do something unique and special. I finally decided on a scavenger hunt of sorts complete with clues the children had to find. One evening in early November, Chris and I worked together to type up all the clues and make them cute :-). Each clue revealed a little bit about our trip and then guided the children to the next clue.
We tried to hold out as long as possible with telling the kids, but we ended up telling them about a week earlier than we had planned. The reason for this was because we had several moments of almost giving everything away, and we didn't want to ruin how sweet the surprise would be by blurting something out. On Sunday, November 8th, I set up the clues while Chris fed the kids dinner. As soon as they finished eating, we had them all go into the Book Nook so we could put out clues that were in more obvious places. Then, we called them out of the Book Nook, and I explained to them what they needed to do. (The quality of photos is very poor because we took a video but no photos. These are stills taken out of the video.)
The clues took them upstairs, then out to the playset and the playhouse. As each clue revealed a little bit more about our trip, the excitement level rose and rose!
I intentionally planned for them to go outside during the scavenger hunt so that I could put out some of the shirts, Mickey ears, water bottles, and Magic Bands we had collected for the trip. The idea was for them to come back inside and see everything on display on the hearth as the "big reveal". I had thought there was a solid possibility that the big kids would figure out where we were going before they made it back into the house for the big reveal. I had instructed them to keep it to themselves if they figured it out, and by the time they were ready to come back in the house, they were all jumping up and down and squealing with excitement!
When they all saw the hearth covered in Disney stuff, they lost it! It was such a great moment, even though they didn't really know what all "going to Florida" meant.
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