Misadventures in Travel Planning

Photo credit: MedJet Assit

I recently had dinner with my friend Sean. During the course of our meal, he remarked, “you haven’t recounted any misadventures lately on you blog, I kind of like hearing about them.” And it’s true, but don’t think it’s because I have been cured, I just haven’t always kept you you guys in the loop. Believe me, I still get into them!

And to illustrate my point, let’s talk about last week.

Last Saturday my husband and I flew to Seattle for my Dad’s 65th birthday and to see my two nieces who were visiting from the East Coast. The trip had been planned for at least 2 months. It was a quick trip due to the fact that we already had a vacation planned starting this coming Saturday (p.s., don’t worry there will still be daily posts!).

So last Wednesday I arrived at the office with the intent of printing up my travel docs for the weekend: hotel confirmation, rental car confirmation and flight itinerary. Hotel confirmation printed (check). Car confirmation printed (check). [I am channeling Monica from Friends.] Flight itinerary… uh-oh. I am traveling on Virgin America several times in the next few months, so when I looked online for my future trips there were three in there, but strangely enough, not four. I checked my Amex statements for the last two months and I could see the detail of charges for three of the trips, but not the fourth!

I forgot to book the tickets!!!

However, the Universe works in strange and mysterious ways, often times to our benefit. A couple of weeks ago one of my co-workers went to a San Francisco Giants game where Virgin America gave away two-for-one coupons. My co-worker was not planning to travel during the time period the coupon was valid, so she gave it to me. If I had not had that coupon the last-minute fair would have been very painful, but as I had the coupon I was saved!

On that same Wednesday (I think I need a name for this day??) I also completed the booking for my Christmas holiday plans. My husband and I had been going back and forth the last several months trying to figure out what to do. We had run through many scenarios and in the end we decided to go on a cruise. We really just wanted something mindless where we could relax, and in general, taking a cruise accomplishes this. So Monday through Wednesday of last week I had several discussions with my travel agent as well as my husband honing in on the right package and options, etc. I booked the cruise on Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday night I purchased the air tickets to coincide with the cruise dates.

Friday morning, my husband and I were waiting for our car to be serviced, the dealer had work stations where we could surf the web. My husband decided to check out more info on the cruise we booked. I was at another terminal reading blogs (I am an addict!).

As I was reading, I heard my husband say, “um, what did you do?”

“What do you mean, what did I do,” I asked annoyed at being interrupted.

“You booked the wrong cruise!”

“What?”

“You booked the wrong cruise!”

I. Booked. The. Wrong. Cruise…..

Hmmm.

So I spent Friday morning re-booking the “right” cruise. And finding new flights, because of course, I had bought tickets for air travel in and out of Ft. Lauderdale, but the “right” cruise was into Acapulco and out of Ft. Lauderdale. Sigh.

So it was my punishment that for the entire weekend my husband kept asking: “do you have the boarding passes?” “do you have the tickets for next Saturday?” “did you book the hotel?” For an anal, highly organized individual, this is my own personal hell. But you know what? I totally asked for it!

So when I say I really need to go on vacation. And I really need to unplug. I mean it!

So yes Sean, I do still get into Misadventures, there is no expiration date on my particular brand of disasters!

This post is also part of “We are Blissfully Domestic“, this week on Blissfully Domestic!

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