How do you recover from a miserable trip?

[Figment1989]

Hi All,

My honeymoon in July was the absolute worst Disney trip I have ever had. I know that's awful. My husband was the only good part of the trip.

Day 1: so exhausted after arriving, then a lot of storms starting around 1pm which led to many rides being closed, and unreasonably long lines for anything open (Magic Kingdom)

Day 2: Weather turned awful around noon, and didn't let up all night. Really bad thunder and lightning

Day 3: Husband got extremely sick

Day 4: Good

Day 5: Good

Day 6: Went home

Now, you have to realize - a large part of my identity is my love for all things Disney World, and just general exuberance about the parks. By the time this trip was over, I was in tears because I didn't enjoy it at all. By the end of the trip, I wasn't even excited for the food - I was sick of eating. I am NOT a killjoy...that's not in my nature at all. I haven't been on the boards at all since my trip because I'm so upset about how I'm feeling about Disney.

I think part of the problem other than the weather was that my DH didn't enjoy the classic Disney things (Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, CoP, etc) but also doesn't like rides (he felt that Test Track was too much of a roller coaster). That being said, he loved AK, loved Kilamanjaro Safari, loved Kali River Rapids. I'm not too big into ToT or RRC, and can do without Everest, but I look forward to Space, BTM, and Splash. How can we structure a trip so that it is enjoyable?

My thoughts might be a mid-August trip (yes, SOOO HOT, I know... but we have to go in the summer and at least crowds should be a touch better) with the days structured as: Morning: TL, BB, or sleep; Afternoons: Go for lunch/shopping/DTD/Hotel; Evening: Go to parks for rides, wandering, etc.

My question is this - how do I recover? I feel like this has to be a one-time thing. I want my love for Disney back. Should I wait for a while or should we try to go back this summer?

Any thoughts?

 

[disneypearl]

I would say that maybe you started the trip already exhausted so didn't get that excited and adrenaline rush as a trip is just beginning. Then the rain came and that didn't bring the happy feelings than if you had good sunny days. I don't know.
It is probably a one time thing. Try again this summer and hopefully it will be a better trip.

 

[rct247]

I'm sure you had some high expectations going into your trip being that it was your honeymoon, being a Disney fan, and having your husband experience something you enjoy. I've gone to Disney with high expectations and lots of plans made in my mind and it honestly can be a recipe for disaster.

It will rain and storm in the summer. It will be crowded. There will be differing opinions and things will not always go as planned.

I think you will fee much better if you revisit expecting things won't be perfect and come with flexibility in mind. My best trips to Disney are more laid back rain or no rain.

 

[Figment1989]

Thank you all - I know this is such a "first world problem." We were talking about it this afternoon, and I think you're right - I was trying for absolute perfection, and put a lot of pressure on the trip to make it great for the DH... I might be planning for August, and planning for a lot of indoor time!

 

[Minnie 88]

Sorry to hear your trip wasn't what you were expecting. We went this past August and it was extremely hot. We made the best of it by going to the parks in the morning when they opened and doing as much as we could in the morning before it got too hot. In the afternoon we went back to the hotel to take a break, go in the pool and relax. In the evening we went back to the parks for dinner and more rides! It worked out well and we had a great time! Good luck planning your next trip!

 

[Chef Mickey]

I've never had a miserable trip to WDW and your experience wouldn't have ruined my trip. Aside from being sick, nothing bad really happened.

 

[Chef Mickey]

You need more days and a plan for what to do in bad weather situations. Rain is actually not always a bad thing if you're in the right park and have the right mindset. You can never plan for being sick, but if it was just one day, not bad.

Essentially 4 days at the park and a travel day can be a difficult trip.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Go to Disneyland.

 

[G00fyDad]

We don't have bad trips to Disney. Yes, we know that there is a lot broken and just ignored at Disney, but when we go, we go for our love of Disney and do not pick it apart. That said, I do remember bad things that have happened, but none have ruined the trip. There have been members of our family that have gotten sick for a day during the trip, but we made do and got through it. We refuse to drive and fly in so we are relaxed and refreshed once we arrive.

 

[Gabe1]

Hi All,

My honeymoon in July was the absolute worst Disney trip I have ever had. I know that's awful. My husband was the only good part of the trip.

Day 1: so exhausted after arriving, then a lot of storms starting around 1pm which led to many rides being closed, and unreasonably long lines for anything open (Magic Kingdom)

Day 2: Weather turned awful around noon, and didn't let up all night. Really bad thunder and lightning

Day 3: Husband got extremely sick

Day 4: Good

Day 5: Good

Day 6: Went home

Now, you have to realize - a large part of my identity is my love for all things Disney World, and just general exuberance about the parks. By the time this trip was over, I was in tears because I didn't enjoy it at all. By the end of the trip, I wasn't even excited for the food - I was sick of eating. I am NOT a killjoy...that's not in my nature at all. I haven't been on the boards at all since my trip because I'm so upset about how I'm feeling about Disney.

I think part of the problem other than the weather was that my DH didn't enjoy the classic Disney things (Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, CoP, etc) but also doesn't like rides (he felt that Test Track was too much of a roller coaster). That being said, he loved AK, loved Kilamanjaro Safari, loved Kali River Rapids. I'm not too big into ToT or RRC, and can do without Everest, but I look forward to Space, BTM, and Splash. How can we structure a trip so that it is enjoyable?

My thoughts might be a mid-August trip (yes, SOOO HOT, I know... but we have to go in the summer and at least crowds should be a touch better) with the days structured as: Morning: TL, BB, or sleep; Afternoons: Go for lunch/shopping/DTD/Hotel; Evening: Go to parks for rides, wandering, etc.

My question is this - how do I recover? I feel like this has to be a one-time thing. I want my love for Disney back. Should I wait for a while or should we try to go back this summer?

Any thoughts?

In the decades of going to Disney we've only had one bad trip and it wasn't all bad but it was hard, also like yours in July. I bounced right back during our next trip. Slapping the Disney out of fans is hard.

I'd suggest not doing the whole trip together. If he golfs, let him golf, go do the rides you love. Maybe he'd like the pools while you hit some rides. My DH was the biggest Disney fan since our Honeymoon decades ago at DL.
We've done trips for 2 weeks at a time throughout my kids childhood. Now he has kinda done that. I've gone with my Mom, a couple times with my DD a few more times I've gone solo. I know it is early on in the marriage but my years and years of wisdom is you don't always have to do things together. Sometimes him doing his thing you doing yours makes you even happier when you are together.

 

[FettFan]

You started off on the wrong foot. You drove to WDW and were exhausted on Day 1.


Would have been better off if you had driven there the day before, so you could unpack at the hotel and unwind a bit instead of throwing yourself right at the park. That way you could have caught the local weather forecast and possibly avoided the rain.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Thank you all - I know this is such a "first world problem." We were talking about it this afternoon, and I think you're right - I was trying for absolute perfection, and put a lot of pressure on the trip to make it great for the DH... I might be planning for August, and planning for a lot of indoor time!

Does your trip HAVE to be in summer? The best times to go to WDW, in my experience, is in March/April, early October and early November. The crowds are more reasonable and the weather is tons better, aside from occasional rain. Also, 6 days...not enough time to really enjoy the place IMO. I never do less than 10-11 days.

ALSO...since your husband is a WDW newbie, as I understand it, look into the Keys to the Kingdom tour. It's a lot of fun, it's structured, and it's a great way to instill or re-ignite a love for all things Disney.

 

[Figment1989]

I've never had a miserable trip to WDW and your experience wouldn't have ruined my trip. Aside from being sick, nothing bad really happened.

You need more days and a plan for what to do in bad weather situations. Rain is actually not always a bad thing if you're in the right park and have the right mindset. You can never plan for being sick, but if it was just one day, not bad.

Essentially 4 days at the park and a travel day can be a difficult trip.

I didn't elaborate much in the original message - it's hard to describe, but everything about it seemed just "off" from the beginning. And I don't mind rain at all, I definitely anticipated the standard short storms, not the ongoing thunder and lightning. Also, by the time the last 2 days came around, I think that I was just so disappointed by the beginning of the trip, that I got so thrown off. In the 20+ times I've been there, I have never had a miserable trip, so that's why I'm so affected by this trip.

We don't have bad trips to Disney. Yes, we know that there is a lot broken and just ignored at Disney, but when we go, we go for our love of Disney and do not pick it apart. That said, I do remember bad things that have happened, but none have ruined the trip. There have been members of our family that have gotten sick for a day during the trip, but we made do and got through it. We refuse to drive and fly in so we are relaxed and refreshed once we arrive.

That's definitely the jarring part - I'm not a picker apart at all. My trips are normally spent floating on a cloud of bliss and happiness. So the fact that the trip felt like such a wreck is something I don't know how to handle!

In the decades of going to Disney we've only had one bad trip and it wasn't all bad but it was hard, also like yours in July. I bounced right back during our next trip. Slapping the Disney out of fans is hard.

I'd suggest not doing the whole trip together. If he golfs, let him golf, go do the rides you love. Maybe he'd like the pools while you hit some rides. My DH was the biggest Disney fan since our Honeymoon decades ago at DL.
We've done trips for 2 weeks at a time throughout my kids childhood. Now he has kinda done that. I've gone with my Mom, a couple times with my DD a few more times I've gone solo. I know it is early on in the marriage but my years and years of wisdom is you don't always have to do things together. Sometimes him doing his thing you doing yours makes you even happier when you are together.

Thank you for the reassurance - We are booking a trip for the summer, so I honestly hope I bounce back. I like your idea of maybe a morning of different things!

You started off on the wrong foot. You drove to WDW and were exhausted on Day 1.


Would have been better off if you had driven there the day before, so you could unpack at the hotel and unwind a bit instead of throwing yourself right at the park. That way you could have caught the local weather forecast and possibly avoided the rain.

Unfortunately, we actually flew! But we woke up at 4 to get to our flight, and we were in the parks by noon. This trip, I am building in down time on arrival day for a nice nap!

Does your trip HAVE to be in summer? The best times to go to WDW, in my experience, is in March/April, early October and early November. The crowds are more reasonable and the weather is tons better, aside from occasional rain. Also, 6 days...not enough time to really enjoy the place IMO. I never do less than 10-11 days.

ALSO...since your husband is a WDW newbie, as I understand it, look into the Keys to the Kingdom tour. It's a lot of fun, it's structured, and it's a great way to instill or re-ignite a love for all things Disney.

Unfortunately, yes, we have to do summer. We both work in schools and can't really get off during the year. When I was younger, my family did November trips and they were wonderful! I would love to do 10-11 days, but my DH is not quite on board with that. I've had fun trips in 5 days before, so I know I can have a fun trip in that amount of time! And I am SO on board with Keys to the Kingdom tour. That is a great idea, and I think it would help!

 

[Chernaboggles]

You are not alone, Figment1989! I also had a terrible Disney honeymoon and it took a long time and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking before I found a way that I could enjoy Disney (husband went often as a kid and always loved it, I did not and it took me a lot longer to get on board). Weddings are exhausting and the constant "best trip of your life!" hype puts insane mental pressure on for the honeymoon. A lot of your negative feelings may just be because there's no way that the real trip can match the honeymoon hype. In reality, stuff goes wrong, people get sick, weather turns nasty, and tired people argue. On a regular trip, it's expected, but on a honeymoon everything bad is massively magnified and devastating.

There's not a thing wrong with you or your Disney mojo, you were probably just too tired to enjoy the trip.

My advice would be to stop planning specific activities and schedules for the next trip and instead have a serious conversation with your husband about what he liked and disliked about Disney. Not just specific rides or activities, but think about the times he was happiest during the trip and look at what you guys were doing in those moments. Match up his likes and dislikes against yours and then design a trip around maximizing the amount of time doing things that you BOTH enjoy. Take the pressure of yourself (and him) to get everything done or to have the same kind of trip you've always had. Instead, the goal should be to have a new kind of trip together. Childhood nostalgia is not always your friend when it comes to married life, sometimes you have to break old patterns and put the pieces back together in a new way, one that the spouse can share.

 

[cheezbat]

There are substitute teachers for a reason! Take a spring or fall vacation. I'm sure the school can survive without you for one week! (My girlfriends parents are teachers so I know how that can be!)

The fall in my opinion is the best time to visit. Cooler weather, normally no storms, lighter crowds at the parks...

Either that or skip WDW and go to Disneyland instead. I enjoy it out there far more than here. Maybe you guys will too!

 

[SSH]

Boy, I've been there...1 bad trip in 2008 or 2009 - can't remember. We usually go in Dec to celebrate holidays. It was their hottest year on record that season...got close to 90 during the day and HUMID - not at all like normal Dec weather. I live in FL and wait eagerly all year for a few cool days to enjoy in the parks. I was getting grumpier every time a CM would chirp happily about how beautifully WARM it was and how out of season the temps were. (Why do weather people, radio dee jays and others all assume everyone loves the heat? But I digress.)

If that happened today, I would handle it sooo much better...slow down. Do pool/water park things, Focus on indoors stuff, treat myself to extra TS meals. Drink around the World probably! And feel grateful to be there at all. But I was dealing with serious family illness and relationship problems that year- and had been to WDW so much, that I was probably feeling some Disney burnout as well. It was crowded hot and I was miserable. Fast forward to Dec 2013 - best trip ever. You'll be back

 

[RandomPrincess]

My first trip to WDW with my husband (he was my boyfriend then)was a DISASTER! We fought most of the time - we had different ideas of what a Disney trip would be. He hated that to took so many pictures. I was overwhelmed having only ever been to Disneyland and was trying to do everything (which there is no way to do). We figured it out and have done many successful trips since then. We are now used to each others vacation style. If I want to watch a parade he goes and does his own thing and neither of us are bothered by it - now. We know we can't do everything and we each pick one or two must dos for each day and everything else is icing.

We have done trips in the rain we went on Feb and it was cold and rainy the whole week. We just wore ponchos and rain boots rolled out pants and kept going. It was a great trip! You have to try to make the most of it. The rain keeps the families with kids away, shorter lines for us!

 

[JIMINYCR]

Put it completely behind you. Dont dwell on the bad parts of your trip, think about the good parts and move on. Theres nothing you can do about bad weather or DH getting sick, these things happen. So plan a return trip during another time of year and preplan a little more to heighten the chances of a better experience. Everyone had trips where things dont go exactly as planned, they learn from them and return wiser, more experienced Disney travellers. Trip # 2 with DH can make up for trip #1.

 

[wdw4jl]

Never had what you might term a "bad trip", but have suffered some self inflicted mistakes in our 25 or so trips we've taken that can ruin ANY good time...one rule is arrival day, no parks..being dog tired is being tired, be it at Disney or anywhere else, we've discovered the first day is for touring the resort, settling in, getting some zzzz's and hitting the MK first thing the next day. Another thing is don't overplan..this is a vacation, this past year we made 0 dining reservations, just ended up where we ended up..we will be doing that from here on out.

 

[Susan Savia]

We've been going since the early 80s. Never had a bad trip. Our trips are always in the wnter. I've seen the time we've worn long pants and heavy sweatshirts, hates and gloves. It didn't matter. We were There. I think I'd just plan out another trip sometime.