Ahoy, Tami!
What a wonderful way to surprise your children on Christmas morning!
Six years ago (has it REALLY been that long???), we decided to surprise our daughters with our family's first Disney Cruise Line vacation. We had it planned for months before, and it was very hard to keep the secret! Our girls were 5 & 8, and we decided to give them new luggage and snorkel equipment as gifts to use on our trip. Then, we wrapped a giant box. It was rigged to open from the top, and inside I attached helium balloons to the bottom that would float up as the top opened. On the balloons were the words "Disney Cruise January 16".
Our girls read the balloons and started screaming and running around the room! It was priceless. Your eight year old could definitely read that.
I have seen so many cute ideas, from printing a cruise "ticket" to open, to putting together a puzzle that spells out Disney Cruise. You can do an internet search and find an ocean of ideas to choose from! There are also some great tips
here.
Just a tip: the reason we gave our girls snorkels was so that they could practice before we got to the ocean. We had them play in the bathtub daily to get familiar with breathing with the equipment. By the time we cruised, they were pros!
I hope this gives you some great ideas for your surprise! Have a magical cruise!
Happy Cruising, Tracy V.