Have you ever decided on taking a vacation

[NYCgrrl]

I always keep my toiletry bag packed so that's good enough to "dump" (That's a flat out lie; the man dumps, I fastidiously roll) an outfit or 3 into the suitcase for a quick trip to Montauk or Philly or Boston or DC or Baltimore. Trains are our fave method of travel and NYC is very accommodating with tons of trains that are easy to reach.

 

[jevs]

No can do.

Would be nice to be able to do though.

 

[slpeters]

Sort of... it was planned, just not by me, who always plans the vacations.

One Friday morning I notice a meeting with my manager scheduled for the entirety of my last hour. Frankly this makes me nervous--I mean there's no reason to fire me, but if I was firing me that might be how I would do it. I kind of try to put it out of my mind and go about my day. When it comes time for the meeting, my manager walks into my office and declares that I'm leaving early today--apparently the meeting is just to make sure I wrap up my day early and don't schedule any clients for that hour. At that moment I get a text from my husband. Apparently he's in the parking lot, with bags packed, and we have to leave now so we can get out of town before rush hour. We spent a wonderful three day weekend in Saugatuck. He'd made hotel and dining reservations, researched what to do and when to do it, even looped in my boss to make it all work, all without letting on at all.

 

[Kellykins1218]

We decided the Friday before Thanksgiving to go to Disney World and went on Monday ($48 pp round trip on Frontier.) I decided to take my kids to Disney World a couple of summers ago and packed the suitcases, made a reservation at Pop, and left that afternoon from Ohio. We've done lots of same day departures for Niagara Falls, Washington DC, and Atlanta. I love spur-of-the-moment trips.

 

[2goofycampers]

only a day or two before you left ?

no, but I want to be cool like that

One of the perks of retirement.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

Two days before Canada Day this year, my husband got the idea that we should drive the 7+ hours to our nation's capital to celebrate the holiday on Parliament Hill. He booked a room at the Chateau Laurier right next door and we started our day of travel north, adding in a stop at Ben and Jerry's in Vermont. Canada Day this year was at least 40 C. We walked out the hotel doors to go "next door" to Parliament Hill where the festivities were being held, maneuvered our way down the block, decided it was way too hot to be outside, turned around, went back into the hotel and then proceeded to watch the festivities on the hotel TV where it was air conditioned. We did do other stuff, like visit the art museum and enjoy shops and restaurants. We also went out in the evening to enjoy some of the live music, fireworks, and Beaver Tails, but overall, it wasn't something we would absolutely have to do again.

 

[luvsJack]

Our first Disney trip was sort of last minute. My sister and her family had been planning for a year and were planning to take Dd. Dh was a nervous wreck about her going (she was 4). Well, just so happened that a insurance check came in a few days before they left and we had the extra money to go. So me, dh and ds all piled in the car that morning and away we went. (They actually had told us to come with them prior but we kept saying no). Best trip ever.

Right after dh and I got married, he and his dad worked for a construction crew that was building apartments in New Jersey. Mil and I decided to go with them the night before. We rode all the way up, spent two days and drove back. We went to NYC, DC and drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Had the best time.

 

[monorailsilver]

Yes but it was a staycation so we were local.

It was about 2-3 years ago. DH took off a week in August but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.

It was a Wednesday to a Wednesday. Tuesday, we decided we were going to go whale watching in gloucester. So we booked a room on rewards points about an hour west of there. We drove up (south east CT) for the afternoon boat. Saw the whales, went to the hotel and the end to day salem and came home since our oldest had a soccer game that night.

The following week, we booked I think on Monday for 2 nights in Brattleboro and went kayaking in CT, got a pizza, ate on the 2 hr drive north and the next day went to bromley for summer activities.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

The shortest "planned" trip I took was after 9/11. My sister and parents had a trip to WDW planned for late OCT. Bargains were out there to get people to fly. Disney had some bargains too After the Prez told Americans to go to Disneyworld, I said YES I will. I'll never have a cheap WDW VACATION like that one again and I was always so HAPPY we went. It was a great escape in a sad and uncertain time.

 

[1GoldenSun]

Impromptu trips to the beach when I was younger, sure, but I've always lived in a coastal state so not a huge deal.

A few years ago my family was driving from Florida to South Carolina to visit my dad. It was right after Christmas and we had about a week before any of us needed to be back home. On the drive up, we decided just to keep going and spend New Year's in NYC. We had the best time! Only problem was that-- being Floridians--I had barely managed to cobble together enough cold-weather clothes for the family to brave the relatively temperate South Carolina winter weather. It just so happened to be especially cold in NYC that year and we froze the whole time. My son only owned two pairs of long pants and none of us had coats, only light-ish jackets.

We did stop in to see my dad, too, so no hurt feelings.

 

[loves to dive]

Yes, I've done it many times. Decided a week before that I wanted to take a trip to WDW the week before Christmas a few years ago. Rarely do we decide on our plans more than 2 weeks in advance. Lot of the time I'll be mad at my honey and decide to go somewhere for a long weekend or even a week about 2 days before I leave.

 

[mco65]

YES... in fact it was only a few years ago. We were sitting at Olive Garden eating dinner on a Friday evening... my wife was telling me that she had 2 tix to the UT Vols football (Bowl Game) in Tampa the following Friday.. she wanted to take our youngest son because he was a big fan as well but flights were pretty tight so they would have to drive. I simply mentioned, why don't we all go down for the week and you and Jacob can go to the game on Friday and me and the other 2 kids will spend the day at the pool.. then she said, why don't we go to Disney for the week... She called that evening when we got home and on Sunday we were on our way to Orlando. Despite having to do a split stay, and it being the busiest we have ever seen at Disney (New Years eve week), we had a great last second trip to WDW..

 

[Mortlives]

No. The closest I've gotten was six days, when I found out I had a job which would start two weeks later. To celebrate, I went to New Orleans.

 

[dish rag]

Yeah. The last time was earlier this year. It was January and we were setting one record low after another, the schools were closed because of windchills, and I got an email from one of the discount airlines offering $29 fares to Florida. That was a Friday. We were sitting canalside, watching manatees from the dock behind our AirBnB rental on Sunday.

Allegiant, Grand Rapids to Sanford.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yes because sometimes work schedules don't allow for much future planning. Do I prefer it that way? Definitely NOT, but sometimes the job that pays the vacation bills determines whether we can go on vacation or not!

 

[Floridaman999]

I'll take off with very little notice to places I've been to and enjoyed before. If it's a new destination I would need a bit more time to plan everything out.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

The shortest "planned" trip I took was after 9/11. My sister and parents had a trip to WDW planned for late OCT. Bargains were out there to get people to fly. Disney had some bargains too After the Prez told Americans to go to Disneyworld, I said YES I will. I'll never have a cheap WDW VACATION like that one again and I was always so HAPPY we went. It was a great escape in a sad and uncertain time.

DW and I went to WDW for a few days in October 2001 also. Yes, very uncrowded and we got a room at the Contemporary for something like $109 per night. But it wasn't quite a spur of the moment trip. We booked it about two weeks in advance.

 

[lorimay]

We live about 3.5 hours south of Disney and yes, we would sometimes decide the day before to surprise the kids and go for the weekend.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Several years ago DW and I had planned to have a staycation for a week, with maybe a day trip or two to some place close by. But at the last moment we decided to go to Cedar Point and Kings Island theme parks in Ohio. I'd been there before but she hadn't. We also went to Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds baseball games and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

There have been occasional last minute weekend trips over the years, but that was the only last minute full week's vacation.

 

[Colleen27]

Allegiant, Grand Rapids to Sanford.

Frontier, Detroit to Orlando. We even stopped at Disney Springs for lunch on the way to the Gulf Coast.