Disney Trip Surprise Bags for Kids

Mom is on the final, exciting stretches of Disney World vacation planning!  It’s finally time to wrap up those last few details, and execute the ideas I’ve been dreaming up for months. For the first time, this trip is a SURPRISE to my kids! I love the idea of creating some Disney Trip Surprise Bags for them. It builds the excitement and can cut down on souvenir costs.

Here are some highlights from the first time I put together some Disney Trip surprise bags for my kids.  I gathered a combination of cheap items from local stores at home, as well as ordering Disney items online.  I’d love to hear from you on any other tips to add or consider!  Have you done something similar?

Disney Trip Surprise Bags

On our last trip, I had a fun Mickey themed tote bag full of Disney World snacks and goodies delivered to our room by Disney Floral and Gifts.  My family loved having this magical surprise waiting for us in our Disney resort room.

They do an amazing job, and the tote bag turned into a useful and fun souvenir to bring back home.  But I thought I’d save some money this go-round, and do something a little different. So I’ve put together two Disney Trip surprise bags for my kids!  (Ok, so I considered making one for myself, but didn’t want to steal their thunder.)

I’m going to bring them along in my carry on luggage, and when we arrive at our room I’ll just sneak in first and place one on each bed… “waiting” for them.

I found the little tote bags at Walmart for $1.50 each.

The online Disney Store received my order a few short hours (it may have been minutes) after booking our trip – HA!  So I already had some hidden items ready to go from there.  I ordered t-shirts and a plush for each of them… again, cheaper than buying in the parks, and fun to have right from the start.

So here’s what I’ve stuffed in each of my Disney Trip Surprise Bags:

• 2 Disney character t-shirts
• Mini candy bars
• Variety of glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets, & crowns – for evenings in the Parks… from the dollar store!  (Everyone wants to GLOW for the party at night, right?)
• Small Disney character plush
• Mini M&M container, decorated, and filled with pressed penny money (more on this below)

These lil’ suckers filled up in a hurry.  And I was torn on the “just get everything exactly the same for both kids” principal, which is typically my rule of thumb to prevent any fights.   So I’m hoping my 3 yr old son is distracted enough by everything else, that he isn’t jealous of his sister’s Princess crown made of glow sticks.  It was a calculated risk.  We shall see.

DIY Disney Items to Include

I’m not super crafty, but there are so many fun Disney DIY ideas you can include in your Disney Surprise Bag for kids!

I got this neat pressed penny money holder idea from a Disney forum years ago.   It’s fun for kids to have their ‘own’ money to run up to these souvenir machines, which are scattered throughout the Disney Parks They get inordinately excited about them, for some reason?

So I decorated a couple of mini M & M containers, and filled them with change for them to use.  (More details on making these holders, and all about the pressed penny machines HERE.)

They also work to nicely store the pressed pennies afterwards.

Well, that’s about it!  I’m just so excited, I wanted to tell someone!  The jury is still out on how we will tell the kids.  I’d love to keep them in the dark up until we arrive at the Orlando airport… you know, a classical “WE’RE AT DISNEY” surprise.  But although my toddler will be clueless, my 8 year old is pretty sharp, and remembers previous trips.  I’d love to video tape that moment of realization, maybe working her [first time for us] Magic Band into the equation somehow.

SO FUN!!  I’ll keep you posted.  🙂

Hiding Your Disney Surprise Bags

Quick Post-Trip update:  The bags were a hit!  After check-in, I snuck into the room first to set the surprise bags up on each bed, which raised a little suspicion but was worth it…

Then I very quickly took this photo, while anxious kids waited outside. (Poor Sully took a face plant…)

In hindsight, I probably didn’t need quite so many mini-candy bars in their bags.  I had forgotten how dessert-laden our Disney trips can be!  But overall, a very fun surprise.

If you’ve surprised your kids with a Disney trip before… please share!  How did you tell them?  Any suggestions for what to include in Disney Trip Surprise bags?