Telling The Kids, Ideas to Make it Memorable.

Taking your first cruise is a memorable and exciting time. How do you capitalize on that time to create a core memory for the kids that extends beyond that monumental moment of seeing the ship for the first time. These ideas are simple, yet creative ways I told our littles about A few of our trips. The video quality is terrible but you will get the point and hear the excitement... that's all that matters.

1. A Scavenger Hunt

We always have a great time with scavenger hunts. They run around the house searching for clues. We even did a city wide Scavenger Hunt once that was tailored to our kids. It was years ago and they still talk about it to this day. #corememory. Create a scavenger hunt to announce the vacation or to announce the vacation destination.

2. Have Alexa Announce it

You can use Alexa in the most creative ways. You can set up specific responses to specific questions. You could also create a routine (which is what I did here). I used smart plugs that would turn on the lights as part of the routine. If you want to re-create this moment here is a quick overview of what I did.

• I purchased maybe 4 Disney light projectors on clearance after the holidays... bare that in mind when shopping. I would not have gotten so many if they were at regular price. I paid maybe 13.00 a piece for them.

• Choose a room (size) based on the amount of projectors you have. To make things budget friendly maybe just do 1 and choose a smaller room to display it.

• Bonus Option- Buy a really cheap one with a small coverage area and turn out the lights and let the kids find the surprise. You could display it in a corner or beside a sofa... somewhere they would have to look around to find it verses seeing it as soon as they enter a room.

• Bonus, Bonus Option- If you really want to make it fun.... You can use wide blue painters tape (or black construction paper) and draw (using a black light pen) directional signs on it or write clues to help them find the vacation reveal (which can be anything you think would be a good representation of what you have planned for them. buy a black light flashlight so they can wave it around and see the clues on the wall.

• I set up a routine on Alexa with the trigger being a phrase... for this, the phrase was actually a question. "Alexa what are we doing tonight"

• Alexa answers the question and then moved on to the next step in the routine which is playing a pre-selected song.

• Lastly as soon as the song started, Alexa turned on the smart plugs(which is where the lights will be plugged in. You can usually get 4 of these on amazon for less than $30. We already used them around the house so I did not have to purchase them. If you decide to buy them don't look at it as a one time use ordeal. Use them to set up a routine for your Christmas lights or to turn on fragrance warmers or anything you find to be convenient.

3. Create Your Own Light Show

You can find really cheap light projectors on Amazon or if you have a ton of time, Home Depot and Lowes always put them on sale after Christmas. Turn the lights out in a smaller room if you only have one projector and plug it up. Let the kids countdown from 10 and walk into the room. Tell them they are going on a cruise with the help of a under the sea night light projector and they will love it! In our video below we used Disney Christmas projectors that we got on clearance and lit up one room and put some old pictures of our last Disney vacations on the TV.. They knew immediately where that reveal was headed.

4.Use one of the Pop Out Boxes

This one is another Fav.... We put a invitation to our Weekend Getaway inside the Box. I got the box from dollar tree and the wind up butterflies from amazon.

5. Play A Game Where The Prize Is The Trip...

*BONUS~ Adults can enjoy surprising their spouses, friends and family.... These are Vacation reveals.... Fun for all ages!!