I should be in Europe right now and I’m depressed

fredandkell

I'd rather be cruising
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
I know, I know. With everything else is going on this is a minor first world problem. But I can’t help it. I thought that I had already had all of my trip cancellation depression back in April when everything fell apart and I knew I wasn’t going to be going. I keep thinking to myself, “oh today I would’ve been at so-and-so.”

I think the reason I am feeling so blue is that to a large extent travel planning has always been my major hobby, more so than the actual traveling, because travel planning is free and the traveling itself isn’t. As this thing keeps dragging on, it’s too depressing to plan any travel since there’s so many what-ifs. So I’m not only mourning the actual missed travel, I am mourning the loss of my favorite hobby.

Anyone else?
 
I can feel you. I've taken to reading and watching lectures about travel in different countries. For me it feels like I'm getting some of the cultural experiences I'm missing while not traveling.

May I offer a little hope? I had a huge trip to Japan planned a few years ago, and I had to cancel ( not for a pandemic but...) and it was heart breaking. I kept all the research I'd done and continued to learn more about Japan. 2 years later I was able to go on that postponed trip. It was everything and so much more then it would have been if I had gone when I had first planned. Canceling was tough, but the eventual trip was worth it. I got to do way more on the rescheduled trip then I ever would have the original trip, I had learned a lot more so I had even more resources to make the trip great, and due to the change in scheduling I ended up in Japan during Cherry Blossom season (not a goal) and it was amazing.

It's really hard in the moment to not be crushed by a canceled/missed trip. I hope your eventual trip turns out better then you could have hoped for.
 
We had to give up three trips since March. Africa, Hawaii at Aulani and the 9 day Caribbean Fantasy Cruise in June. . Also the TUrner Classic movie Cruise scheduled for Oct 4 cancelled last week. We do have a road trip scheduled for next week from Chicago through SD and Wyoming to end up at a dude ranch in Colorado for a week. My husband is a bit of a militant towards those who don’t wear masks etc. I’ve reminded him several times that Sd and Wyoming in particular are not going to care much about our feelings. So we can only take care of ourselves and practice good habits. I’m not worried about the hotels. Mainly the restaurants and bathroom facilities. But I’ve got a couple hundred masks that we can toss every time we get back in the car after leaving and lots of gloves to Toss. It should be interesting.
We are scheduled to go to Disney in September. Not the parks just the resorts. Depending on how Florida is doing in August we may have to cancel that too.
But the good news is we rescheduled Africa for March 2021 and are doing the eastbound transportation on the Magic next May ...I hope assuming the cruises are running and Europe will let us in.
As you can see we travel a lot and have for years. Staying home for more than a couple months has killed me.
 
I know, I know. With everything else is going on this is a minor first world problem. But I can’t help it. I thought that I had already had all of my trip cancellation depression back in April when everything fell apart and I knew I wasn’t going to be going. I keep thinking to myself, “oh today I would’ve been at so-and-so.”

I think the reason I am feeling so blue is that to a large extent travel planning has always been my major hobby, more so than the actual traveling, because travel planning is free and the traveling itself isn’t. As this thing keeps dragging on, it’s too depressing to plan any travel since there’s so many what-ifs. So I’m not only mourning the actual missed travel, I am mourning the loss of my favorite hobby.

Anyone else?
Feeling exactly the same!!!. Should be on our Tauck Bridges tour of Italy now and then heading south to visit relatives. Was scheduled to visit Disneyland Paris on the front end of the trip too. Spring Break trip to DC and Memorial Day at WDW also canceled. Like most on these boards, we travel a lot and enjoy seeing every corner of the world so it is difficult. I am the planner for our family and friends and love that "hobby" too so I feel a little lost. Like you I certainly am grateful we are all healthy and that is what I try to focus on. You are not alone!! I am trying to focus on planning for next year but hard to really dive in when we still have no idea how the world will look in a year.
 


I completely understand the feeling. This year we got our travel done before everything hit the fan. However, we are hoping to go to Ireland and Scotland next year. I'm being very cautious about getting too optimistic about it given the current situation with COVID, travel limitations and quarantines, etc.
 
I hear you too! We were on the WBPC cruise in March and had planned to surprise our kids with 5 days at DL afterward. Well, DL closed while we were on the cruise. We were supposed to spend the last two weeks if June in Ixtapa, Mexico. Not open until July. We planned to celebrate “Halloween” at DL for 5 days in Sept. Not going to happen. We were then trying to plan 2 weeks in Hawaii in Oct, but they require a negative test within 72 hours of travel, and testing is taking about 5 days for results, if you can even get tested. I am sad about the missed fun of vacation, but I am most sad about the fact that our DS will be a Senior next year, and I was so looking forward to spending these times together as a family with him. We do have a pregraduation cruise planned for next April on DCL that we upgraded to Platinum with our cruise discount. Hopefully it will happen! We also have 3 weeks planned for next summer in Ixtapa which will be nice. Even with these things planned, it is SO difficult to get excited because I do not want to be disappointed again and miss out on more time with our son that we can never get back. By the way, we spent a month in Europe last summer, with time before and after a Disney Cruise. We arrived there on July 8, and every day I keep thinking about where we were and what we were doing last year. Enjoy your trip when you get to go!
 
I hear you too! We were on the WBPC cruise in March and had planned to surprise our kids with 5 days at DL afterward. Well, DL closed while we were on the cruise. We were supposed to spend the last two weeks if June in Ixtapa, Mexico. Not open until July. We planned to celebrate “Halloween” at DL for 5 days in Sept. Not going to happen. We were then trying to plan 2 weeks in Hawaii in Oct, but they require a negative test within 72 hours of travel, and testing is taking about 5 days for results, if you can even get tested. I am sad about the missed fun of vacation, but I am most sad about the fact that our DS will be a Senior next year, and I was so looking forward to spending these times together as a family with him. We do have a pregraduation cruise planned for next April on DCL that we upgraded to Platinum with our cruise discount. Hopefully it will happen! We also have 3 weeks planned for next summer in Ixtapa which will be nice. Even with these things planned, it is SO difficult to get excited because I do not want to be disappointed again and miss out on more time with our son that we can never get back. By the way, we spent a month in Europe last summer, with time before and after a Disney Cruise. We arrived there on July 8, and every day I keep thinking about where we were and what we were doing last year. Enjoy your trip when you get to go!
My oldest isn't a senior yet but she is about to turn 14, so I'm kind of in the similar boat of, "We only have so many trips left with her as it is."
 


I am 100% with you. Research and planning travel is more of a hobby than travel itself for me (but we have had some epic vacations. We were supposed to land in Barcelona this morning and start our B2B on the Magic on Monday, with a few days in London after. Two years of planning over a glass of wine with my DH at night. We have bumped our FCC to next summer and will use generally the same plans, should the cruise actually be able to go. It’s not the cruise itself that has gutted me as much as the loss of the planning, loss of the ANTICIPATION of adventures with my family. After much discussion with DH and both DD, we are currently in the car, headed west, to meet with a realtor and look for a vacation cabin. We have dreamed about a vacation cabin, but far away adventures always took precedent because I too kept thinking “we only have so many years left before the kids are off to college”. For my sanity, I need to be able to research and plan, and occasionally completely get away from work/real life, so this is a good option for us right now. I keep hearing the DVC presenters say, “what are your vacation anyway dollars”...for this year my “vacation anyway dollars“ are going to a different experience for our family, as next years’ anyway dollars are already banked in FCC.
 
I understand your feelings. Fortunately, I got in a week at WDW and a short Wonder cruise in Jan/Feb before everything shut down.

Our 2020 Royal Caribbean cruises were cancelled or moved to 2021, so there won't be any international travel this year. However, there are some dirt-cheap airfares this fall, so I plan to visit WDW in November and maybe Disneyland in December, as well as take some short summer road trips. :D
 
Total first world problem. Things could be so much worse. However, I feel the same way. We were going to be there for 20 days (including the 10nt Norway/Iceland cruise) and I'm still mourning the loss of that particular trip and also the loss of my favorite hobby. After spending weeks unravelling that trip and cancelling hotels, flights, and private tours I just don't have the heart to try to book something for next year since we don't know if travel will be ok then. :( I think it's ok to feel really sad about all of this while still understanding that things may be much worse for other people. Hang in there!
 
I'm right there with you. We were supposed to be *checks watch* boarding today for 7 nights in the eastern Caribbean. This was a huge deal for us; my wife and I went on a Disney Cruise 16 years ago for our anniversary and naively declared that we'd do it again every fifth anniversary. Fast forward five years, and we're broke with a kid. Five more years, three kids and still broke. FINALLY, fifteen years later, we were able to realize our dream...and then COVID. To make matters worse, we're posted overseas in a high-stress environment and this was supposed to be our much-needed R&R. I know it seems silly to feel like this when there are others suffering so much more--and I hope that the worst this virus does for anyone here is a lost cruise--but it's a perfectly normal reaction to feel bad for losing something that we cared so much about, even if it's just a vacation. :)

We do have a road trip scheduled for next week from Chicago through SD and Wyoming to end up at a dude ranch in Colorado for a week.
I was jealous reading this...not because of the road trip but because of Chicago. :)
I love Chicago and we're planning a short trip there for when we get back to the States. I want my kids to see a Cubs game, get a Giordano's pizza, and have an Italian Beef sandwich from Portillo's!
 
I know, I know. With everything else is going on this is a minor first world problem. But I can’t help it. I thought that I had already had all of my trip cancellation depression back in April when everything fell apart and I knew I wasn’t going to be going. I keep thinking to myself, “oh today I would’ve been at so-and-so.”

I think the reason I am feeling so blue is that to a large extent travel planning has always been my major hobby, more so than the actual traveling, because travel planning is free and the traveling itself isn’t. As this thing keeps dragging on, it’s too depressing to plan any travel since there’s so many what-ifs. So I’m not only mourning the actual missed travel, I am mourning the loss of my favorite hobby.

Anyone else?

I totally understand!!!
I should have been in WDW with my family on 5/2. Starting the week before ( I would have been pre-packing), especially the day of departure , and the entire week of what "should have been" I was IN A FUNK!!
I've since gotten over it.
 
I’m sorry. We were supposed to go on a 3 night cruise on the Dream followed by 5 nights at WDW for spring break. I was in a funk the entire time we should have been on the trip - every day, I kept thinking, “today we should have been doing ...”. The good news is that I got over it after the dates of the trip passed.
 
I think the reason I am feeling so blue is that to a large extent travel planning has always been my major hobby, more so than the actual traveling, because travel planning is free and the traveling itself isn’t. As this thing keeps dragging on, it’s too depressing to plan any travel since there’s so many what-ifs. So I’m not only mourning the actual missed travel, I am mourning the loss of my favorite hobby.

I said this exact thing to a friend (on a FaceTime call, grrr) tonight. I LOVE to plan travel and I can't even do that since who knows when we'll be able to. I'm bummed I missed our France trip in June, and I'm supposed to be hiking in Glacier NP next week but canceled that as a big chunk of the park will remain closed for the season. I'm supposed to be in Iceland in a month. That is also not going to happen (well, 99.9% it won't.) And weirdly enough, I'm as bummed about not being able to PLAN anything and actually go. Even my usual travel forums are practically crickets. Or there's a bunch of Europeans planning travel, which just makes me sad, since we aren't allowed in anywhere.

We were supposed to do one last big family trip before my oldest two graduate from college in December, to Japan. That surely is not happening either, and I spent a lackluster afternoon trying to think of what we might be able to do here in the US instead and realized that's not even a sure bet. Now it's like a sore elbow I just try not to use, LOL, I just don't let myself think about it because it just makes me sad.

I'm lucky we're healthy, and no one I know or love has been very sick. But I'm mourning the loss of my most fun hobby too.
 
This thread makes me feel so much better. I agree 100% with all of you. We were supposed to go to Europe for 2 weeks in September for our 10th anniversary. We canceled that and had started to plan Hawaii for next May but stopped planning that as well. I don't think Hawaii will have its act together by May. We moved our DCL cruise to January to keep our OBB but I give that 5% chance of actually sailing.

For me the losing the ability to plan is really hard mentally as that is my hobby and my escape. I don't even know what time period it is realistic to start planning for. Late 2021, 2022? I would love to plan a big replacement trip but I don't want to get my hopes up again.

We are renting a beach house this year which will be nice and something we enjoy. I am grateful we are able to do it but I want to be able to plan a big celebration trip. I am starting to think about planning a bunch of dream trips so if and when the ability to travel happens we could do something last minute since the planning is already done. Whatever we have to do to cope right?:)
 
Here with you. We were supposed to be on the 8 night baltic in august. Had booked on opening day and had worked all the other holiday weeks so that I would be allowed to take 2 weeks off in summer. Was reading my planning books , had bought the streetwise maps, and starting to collect what we need to pack already.... Its hard as we are so lucky that we are healthy and that we left NYC 1 year ago but still I feel hopeless in not knowing what we will ever do in the future....
 
Right there with you OP. One thing that I think helped me a little was that I tried to do something reminiscent of what we should have been doing on vacation each day. Tapas when we were to be in Spain, Lemoncello when we were to be at the Amalfi coast, drove to the beach for our beach day in France, etc..

But I’ve got a couple hundred masks that we can toss every time we get back in the car after leaving and lots of gloves to Toss.

We bought a phone UVC sanitizer that runs off of USB power. Our masks fit in that. We actually used that on a recent car trip to keep our masks clean in between new masks, it was especially nice for quick pit stops where you might be tempted to just fold and reuse a mask rather than "burn" one youve worn for a couple of minutes.
 
I am the same.

We cancelled three trips for this year already. Have a trip to Switzerland booked for September - instead of a cancelled European cruise. Looking at what's going on with our numbers in US - starting to have doubts Europe will let us in even in September... And I am the family travel planner. My husband keeps telling me I need to get new hobby :)

We are going off to a traditional every year family gathering this week. Rented huge house so my daughter's Swedish boyfriend could stay with us, and our friends too.

Boyfriend can't come from Sweden, and my daughter also can't go to Sweden, they haven't seen each other for 6 months already.

My friend yesterday called me and told they would not be coming: we both work high risk jobs, but I can afford be off for three days before we leave to get tested and get test result before we leave - to make sure we are no harm to everybody else. She can't afford that. Period. I appreciate her been responsible. But it's so sad we can't again see each other. Haven't seen each other for several months...
 

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