So, what's the craziest reason *you've* ever moved a vacation??

[TheReader]

Or, how nuts IS TheReader's DH/Family??

We are supposed to leave on vacation *tomorrow.*  Flights, hotel, rental car, activities at the attraction (FastPasses, folks....)...everything is booked. Luckily only the flights are non-refundable, and while that means taking a hit there, it's a small hit as we got super budget flights on a super budget airline, so yes, a loss, but a relatively small one. 

We've checked hotel availability for the proposed new dates, and found a vrbo roughly equivalent to what we had booked. We would drive rather than fly rather than fork out more $$ for flights and rental car. Tickets to the parks are not date specific, so no issues there. Confirmed the expiration dates of the tickets (for the parks) and we're good. Would probably not get the same FastPasses but it won't let me add the new ones on the later dates w/o dropping the ones we have already, and I'm not doing that till we confirm everything else. So, overall, seems feasible. 

So, why do this?? Because a lot of things popped up between planning the trip and taking the trip, that now everyone doesn't want to miss the stuff here. Oldest DS got hired for a summer job, training begins the week we'd be gone. We would move the trip to one of the weeks he'd be home between sessions (it's a summer camp job). Middle DS is a graduating senior (well just graduated) and our church just announced the Senior Appreciation Sunday is this Sunday, when we'd be gone. They'll also announce the recipients of a scholarship that a member of our church gives; we have no idea if DS will have received it, but he'd like to be there just in case. (his absence won't nullify the award or anything, he just wants to be there to hear). DH has some work stuff that popped up that would make it much better if he were in town. I have a quilting swap hand-off thing that I'd have to miss if we leave tomorrow. Middle DS has a graduation party for a friend he'd be missing. The younger 2 would miss a youth group event. Etc.

None of it *by itself* is anything worth the expense of moving the trip......all of it together has DH looking into things on his end and seriously considering it. We have to confirm the dates oldest needs to be away for the summer job, DH needs to confirm with his bosses that his new dates would work for vacation (more a formality, mostly), and then we'll make the call. I've already emailed the VRBO owner of the property we found to confirm it's truly open. 

So....how crazy are we for switching this around?  And what's the craziest reason you've ever moved a vacation??  (we already delayed this from December to now, because things just got too hectic with our oldest prepping to go to college; we did not have flights that time around, so didn't lose any money.....) 

 

[fairfarmhand]

We don't really vacation, so we've never done this, but it doesn't seem like a good time for your family to be gone when you put all the pieces together. I will say that the older the kids are the harder it is to get away with EVERYONE. 

But really, May is one of the last months we could be gone. For us, February, July and late September/October are good months to leave. But if you have kids in college, everything but July is hard.

[TheReader]

1 minute ago, fairfarmhand said:

We don't really vacation, so we've never done this, but it doesn't seem like a good time for your family to be gone when you put all the pieces together. I will say that the older the kids are the harder it is to get away with EVERYONE. 

But really, May is one of the last months we could be gone. For us, February, July and late September/October are good months to leave. But if you have kids in college, everything but July is hard.

yea, this is meant to be our last real "everyone all together" vacation. It was meant to be in December, and then oldest did, in fact, get accepted to his dream college and suddenly we had "prepare for him to move out, enter college, etc...." all during that and it just felt......overwhelmingly hectic. 

So then we moved it to now, and it was fine. Totally fine. Nice, calm, just under the wire as far as crowds go, etc. We were all looking forward to it. The other stuff was all worked out (my thing, oldest's training for the new job, dh's work stuff) -- wasn't ideal, but was worked out, no problem. THEN we found out, just this past week, about the Senior Appreciation thing, and Senior DS really was/is disappointed to miss it. "Not looking forward to the trip, for all the things I'm missing while we're gone....."  and it just sort of put everything else over the top. So here we are. 

DH just really doesn't want to go if everyone's not going to have fun because they're wishing they were home instead, ya know? And middle ds, the senior, is just so easy-going, for him to speak up that he's that disappointed.....means he's even more disappointed than he's letting on. 

But, yes, probably this is the last time we'll be able to ALL go, 'cause with soon-to-be 2 of them in college.....:sigh:....just gets so much harder to work around. 

[Ausmumof3]

I get it.  We are going away soon and I have mixed feelings due to stuff we’ll miss even though I’m looking forward to it.

[alisoncooks]

I get it. I haven't really had to reschedule a vacation (well, we did cancel our first Disney trip because DH got cancer...but that's different. We went 3 years later).

But it is so hard to schedule around older kids. Mine are only tweens, and we have to cut an upcoming camping trip with the grandparents in half to come home for a class they don't want to miss. Then I have to drive them back to the campground for the remainder. 

[J-rap]

We've only moved a vacation for health reasons, but I totally get your reasons too.

[mumto2]

We tend to book at the very last moment because Dh likes to watch the weather before we commit which is strange.  Everything must align at our house!  So in my world your reasons are totally valid.

[Storygirl]

We have never rescheduled a vacation. I have regretted missing things while we were gone. And we often find it really hard to find a week to go away, because with four kids, there is always something they will miss.

This year my daughters are missing an entire service week at church (it's a big deal, where kids sleep at the church all week), because it overlaps with our plans. This year, DD17 is missing her dance recital (she was only in one dance this year, unlike other years, when she was dancing full time), so she actually dropped that dance class two months before the end of the year, because so much of the class time would be practicing the recital dance that it was not worth her going to class, just to sit and watch. Years ago, she missed another dance event, due to our vacation.

When DD17 was dancing seriously, there were very few weeks of the year when we could get away. I felt I was always sacrificing our family plans to an outside agenda, and I resented it.  She had holiday commitments for the Nutcracker. She had to dance all day every day for five or six weeks every summer. Now that she does not have the big dance commitments, I have decided that our family time together is more important than the outside commitments. I still struggle with my feelings of conflict, and I feel sad when I have to tell the kids they need to miss something, but I think it's important to prioritize.

I've found that when we are missing things back home, we are able to put it behind us and enjoy our trip, so our difficult feelings of regret might be before and after, but not during the trip.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't reschedule a Disney trip for the things that you mention, unless there is something that has mandatory attendance. Perhaps the camp training falls into that category, but for me the senior night would not. But I would not be willing to lose the airfare (for six people, in our case) or (in our case) the hotel deposit.

Our trip this year is also to DIsney, by the way. I hope you are able to figure out a plan.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Storygirl

[TheReader]

42 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

I get it. I haven't really had to reschedule a vacation (well, we did cancel our first Disney trip because DH got cancer...but that's different. We went 3 years later).

But it is so hard to schedule around older kids. Mine are only tweens, and we have to cut an upcoming camping trip with the grandparents in half to come home for a class they don't want to miss. Then I have to drive them back to the campground for the remainder. 

(((hugs))) on the past cancer (I hope past....he's okay now?); we had to cancel after a hurricane once. 

DH looked into sending me & senior DS home Sat/back Sun, to attend the Senior appreciation thing, but just that would cost roughly the same as what we'll lose on the tickets, plus cause everyone to lose the 2 days (or they would still park-hop w/o us...?). Rescheduling, if we ever hear back the specific dates from older DS's camp job, will be less hassle in the long run. 

[Momto6inIN]

We rescheduled our big Disney trip twice before we actually went in 2010. Once because the economy tanked in 2008/09 and we needed to spend our savings on a new vehicle instead of a vacation (isn't adulting fun?) and once because the guy my husband works with's wife was having a c-section during our vacation dates and they both couldn't be gone at the same time (which my husband neglected to tell me because he never really thinks about vacation planning until we were almost ready to go and I just happened to talk with the guy's wife at church one day and connected the dots).

We still had a blast! 🙂

[TheReader]

1 minute ago, Storygirl said:

We have never rescheduled a vacation. I have regretted missing things while we were gone. And we often find it really hard to find a week to go away, because with four kids, there is always something they will miss.

This year my daughters are missing an entire service week at church (it's a big deal, where kids sleep at the church all week), because it overlaps with our plans. This year, DD17 is missing her dance recital (she was only in one dance this year, unlike other years, when she was dancing full time), so she actually dropped that dance class two months before the end of the year, because so much of the class time would be practicing the recital dance that it was not worth her going to class, just to sit and watch. Years ago, she missed another dance event, due to our vacation.

When DD17 was dancing seriously, there were very few weeks of the year when we could get away. I felt I was always sacrificing our family plans to an outside agenda, and I resented it.  She had holiday commitments for the Nutcracker. She had to every day for five or six weeks every summer. Now that she does not have the big dance commitments, I have decided that our family time together is more important than the outside commitments. I still struggle with my feelings of conflict, and I feel sad when I have to tell the kids they need to miss something, but I think it's important to prioritize.

I've found that when we are missing things back home, we are able to put it behind us and enjoy our trip, so our difficult feelings of regret might be before and after, but not during the trip.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't reschedule a Disney trip for the things that you mention, unless there is something that has mandatory attendance. Perhaps the camp training falls into that category, but for me the senior night would not. But I would not be willing to lose the airfare (for six people, in our case) or (in our case) the hotel deposit.

Our trip this year is also to DIsney, by the way. I hope you are able to figure out a plan.

I do get that, too. I really do. 

The airfare was seriously crazy cheap. Crazy cheap. We have not paid, nor will lose, deposits, etc, on anything else (we are not staying on-site at Disney, so it's much easier).  DH (and the kids) has never been to Disney, and so he's *really* wanting everyone to LOVE IT, not be wishing they were somewhere else. 

We're still waiting to get confirmation on the dates older DS has to be gone for his camp job; that will end up the deciding factor. He put the original vacation dates on his application and they cont'd to move forward although he would have, originally, missed a few days of training at the start. 

DH frequently pulls "last minute vacations" and changes and things, so I"m semi used to this from him.....

[TheReader]

25 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

We tend to book at the very last moment because Dh likes to watch the weather before we commit which is strange.  Everything must align at our house!  So in my world your reasons are totally valid.

Ah, nope, my DH is very much like that, too. He hates to click "buy" or "book" or anything else non-refundable until he is SURE it's all going to be fine. We do a LOT of "wanna go to (insert name of place) next month?" sort of stuff. Usually *very* last minute.....so really, for him, this is kind of par for the course. 

[Annie G]

We’ve only cancelled when dh’s folks were in the hospital, (both times resulting in a terminal diagnosis) and when dh had bypass surgery. 

With four kids, someone was always going to miss something.  We just had to work through our fear of missing out and go on trips anyway.  Except in extreme occasions, of course. In your scenario the only one that would make me even consider cancelling is the summer job. Will he lose the job if he’s not there for that? 

We have also had to learn to make plans and just do things. Dh’s sister never actually does anything because it’s never perfect.  Taking a day off when she can earn commissions at work? Nope. Weather might be too hot, or wet, or cold? Nope. Gas prices have jumped. Hotel might have bedbugs. Venue might be crowded. Seriously, she has missed so much because she’s seeking perfection.  And she has so many regrets because now her grandkids are nearly all grown.  Not saying that you are doing this- just explaining the background of why we wouldn’t cancel. 

[TheReader]

35 minutes ago, Annie G said:

We’ve only cancelled when dh’s folks were in the hospital, (both times resulting in a terminal diagnosis) and when dh had bypass surgery. 

With four kids, someone was always going to miss something.  We just had to work through our fear of missing out and go on trips anyway.  Except in extreme occasions, of course. In your scenario the only one that would make me even consider cancelling is the summer job. Will he lose the job if he’s not there for that? 

We have also had to learn to make plans and just do things. Dh’s sister never actually does anything because it’s never perfect.  Taking a day off when she can earn commissions at work? Nope. Weather might be too hot, or wet, or cold? Nope. Gas prices have jumped. Hotel might have bedbugs. Venue might be crowded. Seriously, she has missed so much because she’s seeking perfection.  And she has so many regrets because now her grandkids are nearly all grown.  Not saying that you are doing this- just explaining the background of why we wouldn’t cancel. 

That makes total sense to me; I completely and utterly understand we're a bit of oddballs for doing this 😉 

[DawnM]

I have cancelled trips due to issues in the country we are planning to visit.  If the travel advisories or medical issues in the other country seem unsafe, we re-evaluate.  When I was pregnant the first time, we were going to go visit my parents overseas.  My dad strongly encouraged us not to come due to large outbreaks of malaria and potential harm to the baby with the preventative meds and/or the disease itself (and I have had one form of malaria before.)

[mom2scouts]

Vacations are so rare for my family that we would need something much, much bigger than the combination of things you mentioned before we would cancel. Yes, we might feel bad about missing a few things, but we would feel much worse about not going on one of those very rare vacations.

[linders]

Not crazy - sounds like a convergence of things makes the move logical and feasible (except those FastPasses! Love FastPass planning!)

We are in similar boat - last "family trip" before DS18 heads to college. For various reasons, the best departure date was the day after graduation. After everything was booked, "the" grad party was scheduled...for the night after we leave. And DH, a serious amateur photographer, discovered that "the" photography convention would happen while we are gone. Fortunately, 2 other families of high school friends purposely planned grad parties during the week before we leave, just so DS could attend 🙂 DH is just out of luck.

[school17777]

We are not attending a family reunion this Memorial Day because tryouts for a club team our youngest has been looking forward to were recently announced the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day - when we were planning on leaving.  As soon as the dates were announced, I let the  organizer know we could change our plans to leave on Friday instead of Thursday, but we had to leave Friday or else we wouldn’t get to Kansas in time for the reunion.  Didn’t hear anything until this week and it was sorry but if she’s not there, she can’t tryout as no one else has a conflict with those dates.  Our dd would be devastated to not make the team because we went to a family reunion (of people she doesn’t know and no other kids there either).  Plus, we have had a very busy spring with no down time and we are so tired to make the drive there and back.  Later in the summer would have worked better for us, but Memorial Day worked better for my sister.

[TravelingChris]

We have never canceled yet. We are always buying travel insurance too.

 We had hoped that when dh retired from the USAF, that we would be able to take a vacation to celebrate that before he started work.  That didn't happen because the circumstances were such that he started working again two or three days after he could.  My girls and I were travelling at that time or shortly after but that wasn't a vacation, rather a visit to a renowned clinic to attempt to help my one daughter.  Dh, youngest dd, and I did go on a nice vacation slightly more than six months later.

Another time, we had a vacation planned to go to college reunion with our youngest and have her visit Chicago too (she never had been except airport transfers and holdovers).  it happened that i was hospitalized only about two weeks before we went.  Dh was very worried about going but everything turned out fine and I will be always so thankful we went because my youngest got to meet one of our dearest friends in college and she just died last year (blood clot during routine surgery).  Her mother, who is also our friend, planned a wake a few months later.  it was three days before a trip we were taking (first group tour) to Greece.  i wanted to go but dh rightly told me I couldn't because it would be too exhausting for me.  He was absolutely right.  

[HomeAgain]

I canceled a trip that was to happen in April because my kid won a regional competition in March.  The state competition landed during the same week we were going to be gone.

Our worst almost-cancel was the time we lived on an island.  We had planned to hop the mail plane back to the states and take our kid to WDW.  It stopped by every two weeks or so and usually had seats available.  Well, this was the one time the plane decided NOT to stop on its route and flew right over.  DH and I panicked until we managed to get ourselves on another unscheduled flight: this one stopping when it hadn't planned to.  It had just enough available seats for us, a rough looking crew, and took a detour through Canada so they could get some Tim Horton's, but they finally got us close enough to our destination that we could drive to our original airport and catch our flight.

[LucyStoner]

Back when my brother was married to a pretty dysfunctional person, we moved our vacation so we weren’t going the same place at the same time as they were.  I love my brother but this was back when we could only afford one camping trip per year and I wasn’t going to deal with listening to his husband drink too much and treat everyone badly on our trip again.  He would harass us about stupid shit he didn’t understand.