Travel poll

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Since the pandemic, our travel plans/attitudes have remained mostly unchanged. The past couple-three years have been less. It due to lack of being able to schedule... or FUND.

 

[loves to dive]

Nothing has changed for me. I still mostly just go to WDW a few times a year mixed in with a few trips a year with hubby and the dog in the RV.

 

[White Cat]

No change. Travel once a month at least. Even with Covid we travelled. Just had to be more creative.

 

[lovin'fl]

We have always liked travel. Specifically up and down the east coast to include Disney and cruising as well. But once covid hit and the DH went to WFH and we were empty nest, we started to travel more.

Because:
A) DH could work from anywhere so why not
B) we knew some folks who had heart attacks and made us realize you never know when your time is up so might as well live now
C) some of our vacays were canceled during covid (had 5 cruises canceled along with Disney being closed a bit) so once things returned we felt the urge to do those a lot. And we also found other options that weren't closed during covid and hit those up a lot.

So we now travel more. Also made the move to FL during covid times since we could live anywhere with DH telecommuting. We initially bought a vacation rental townhome, near Disney, with plans to go stay a few weeks a couple times a year. Easy to do with DH WFH. But, after a year of that, we A) wanted more time in FL and B) hated the whole renting it out thing (a whole other post is needed about that).

So we sold our northern home and the FL rental and bought a full time home in FL (2 years ago). Now we drive back north frequently (as well as take the autotrain). We are always bopping around now. Either on a cruise, visiting Hilton Head or visiting up north. As well as visiting friends who also made move to FL and live in other parts.

We also had a 17 year old doggo who struggled his last couple years and we had to travel with him (or only do 1-3 night trips away from him) and that dampered our travels a bit. He passed last summer so we have been really ramping things up since then. But now we have parents with health issues that have been impeding our travel plans a bit. So, we say do all you can while you can...you just never know when life will just kick you in the pants.

 

[kdonnel]

I traveled way more than normal as the pandemic eased and places opened back up.

I am so glad I took advantage of the deals and reduced crowds. I fondly remember the $34.25 round trip airfare to Orlando and being at Universal Studios Orlando on reopening day with about 1000 other people. It was amazing being able to walk from ride to ride and ride each ride as many times as we wanted.

Once all the deals dried up we went back to our normal travel pattern.

I feel like the post covid travel surge has ended and there might be some deals appearing again.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We've always loved to travel but I would say our types of vacations and the destinations expanded and means to travel increased because of the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic we had only traveled internationally to St. Lucia and Jamaica. Since the pandemic we've been to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Europe twice with a lot of countries visited, Japan is in a few months, another Europe trip next year, etc. It used to be maybe a big trip a year sprinkled with small trips but we've def. diverged from that. Our longest trip had been 10 or 11 days but now we've been gone 15 days.

We did take advantage of stellar deals from Wynn/Encore and visited Vegas multiple times between 2021 and 2023.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Another factor is that many places in our area that did cat boarding closed after 2020 or just stopped taking cats. It's been challenging to find a facility that boards cats which we feel we can trust.

I was fairly against having someone I didn't know take care of our cat so we had always had our families do that (a mixture between my mom, my mother-in-law and one of my sister-in-laws). We could never board our cat (at least at this stage, he's 11) he would not do well with that so we always had someone over at our house once a day to feed him a can of wet food (dry food is in an automatic feeder), change/refill water and then every several days do his litter while we're gone.

However, after a disastrously awful time when we did our cruise last year I stopped relying on our family. We did a Vegas trip Labor Day 2023 and used Rover (pet sitting website). I was pretty nervous at first allowing someone in my home but it worked well, that particular person did house sitting if you wanted or in some cases would take on the pet at their house. We just had them come over for minimal care, I think about 30 mins was the time slot they get booked for. That person was unavailable for our Utah trip in Feb 2024 so we used a different person also from Rover. We liked her a lot, she's a retired woman, so we used her when we went to Europe last month and will try to use her again if she's available for our Japan trip in a few months.

We'd get daily pictures and this pet sitter we've now used twice also gave more descriptive daily updates like "Apollo was talkative today, he played with me, oh here's his selfie with me, he's had X many poops today (we laughed at that one but appreciated the thought behind it)."

Unless your cat has a medical situation that you trust the boarding facilities more, you may look into that if you haven't already thought of something like that

 

[TippyThomas]

My travel has always involved camping, which is a pretty solitary event. My biggest risk is the gas stations and grocery stores, which are also the same risk when I'm at home. Because of this my travel plans are pretty much the same as they've ever been.

 

[Snowysmom]

I still travel but not as much. My DH passed in 2021 so I lost my wonderful travel partner. We traveled at least 3 times a year prepandemic. We did travel to NH in 2020 and 2021 and WDW in 2021. Now I rely on friends and family to go on trips. My BFF and I now do a BFF trip once a year. We did a Disney cruise, a trip to WDW, and a trip to NH. Next year we are looking at a bus tour in Nova Scotia and PEI. I did a family trip to WDW in 2022 with 2 DSs and 5 grandkids and a famly trip to NH in 2023. My older DS, family, and I are doing a cruise this year. Next year I am going on a wellness retreat to Sedona with another friend. I have also done a solo trip to WDW and have one planned for Dec this year. I told my kids that I want to do another family trip next summer. Still traveling, just in a different way and missing my best travel partner, my DH. I want to travel while I can and I am glad DH and I had so many great trips together and did not wait for retirement.

 

[bennifer]

We travel as much, but now it's different locations. I think it's a combination of DS getting older, the pandemic reminding us that things can change at any moment, and my dad's death in 2022 forcing us to look at our own mortality. We were stuck in the WDW rut and now we're well on our way to visit all 50 states plus international travel. I would like to get us on as many continents as possible before my son's HS graduation in 2028, but I just started thinking about that. So far North America and Europe are the only one we've done!

 

[MillauFr]

I think the biggest shift you will see going forward is people avoiding places like Disneyworld during the hot summer months. People will finally figure out that spending thousands of dollars to sit in a hot humid sauna for a week makes no logical sense.

 

[cabanafrau]

I can relate to the idea of difficulty planning since pandemic because of the feeling everything can be upended at any moment. In my case I think it's exacerbated because during the same timeframe my job shifted to almost entirely WFH and we're suddenly juggling the very challenging needs of three elderly parents with constant needs due to aging/declining health.

 

[CGB]

We have traveled less since the pandemic. Initially, yes, it was because of DH's heart issues and wanting to avoid covid. In 2020, I canceled two weekends trips to Atlanta and Chicago. I thankfully had procrastinated on making reservations for our 2020 WDW trip before the shutdown. Then, DH decided to retire the end of 2021 and we refocused our finances to be pay off the cars and mortgage beforehand. After that, Disney implemented all their nickel-and-diming strategies and price increases which soured us on returning. We'll go back, of course... just giving Disney some time to work out the post-pandemic financial recouping. We've had around 15 trips to Disney, so a little time apart is okay. We did go back to some non-disney weekend trips over the past couple of years, but no long vacations. We just returned from a weekend trip to Dallas and will be visiting Louisville later this month.

Our family has been fortunate to travel widely, so we can appreciate our times at home. Our military time gave us ample opportunities as well as following a toy convention around each summer to different locations. After I retire early in a couple of years, our traveling may ramp up a little more than it is currently. We'll see.

 

[lovin'fl]

we're suddenly juggling the very challenging needs of three elderly parents with constant needs due to aging/declining health.

Same.

 

[EACarlson]

I travel much more but it's due to much more mundane reasons. I took a position after the pandemic that requires travel a couple times a year and my side hustle went from being mostly local to being nationwide so I end up travelling 8-10 weekends a year for that.

 

[fly girl]

No surprises here, we travel the same as pre-covid.

Traveled pre, during, and post. Obviously we were more limited during 2020 and 2021, but we still managed to squeak in WDW and Hawaii when they reopened.

Summer this year was Iceland, and for dh and I WDW in 10 days. Now we are looking for Spring Break 2025. None of us can agree on where to go.

 

[Moliphino]

Habits and frequency have changed, but not really because of the pandemic.
In 2020 I hit a milestone at work and increased to 3 weeks of vacation/year. I use it all on travel.
Destinations changed because Disney cut back and changed so much that we stopped going after May 2021 and do 2 Europe trips a year instead.

 

[soccerdad72]

About the same for us as well - probably a little more travelling now, moreso because with our kids out of the house (one in college and one now graduated), we have more flexibility to travel during the school year.

 

[RangerPooh]

Our travel habits did not change until 2022. We continued to visit WDW during the pandemic. In 2022 we started going on Disney Cruises. We have now sailed three times, with #4 and #5 booked for DCL and #6 on Royal. This year is our WDW park break, something we haven't one since maybe 2016.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

I was fairly against having someone I didn't know take care of our cat so we had always had our families do that (a mixture between my mom, my mother-in-law and one of my sister-in-laws). We could never board our cat (at least at this stage, he's 11) he would not do well with that so we always had someone over at our house once a day to feed him a can of wet food (dry food is in an automatic feeder), change/refill water and then every several days do his litter while we're gone.

However, after a disastrously awful time when we did our cruise last year I stopped relying on our family. We did a Vegas trip Labor Day 2023 and used Rover (pet sitting website). I was pretty nervous at first allowing someone in my home but it worked well, that particular person did house sitting if you wanted or in some cases would take on the pet at their house. We just had them come over for minimal care, I think about 30 mins was the time slot they get booked for. That person was unavailable for our Utah trip in Feb 2024 so we used a different person also from Rover. We liked her a lot, she's a retired woman, so we used her when we went to Europe last month and will try to use her again if she's available for our Japan trip in a few months.

We'd get daily pictures and this pet sitter we've now used twice also gave more descriptive daily updates like "Apollo was talkative today, he played with me, oh here's his selfie with me, he's had X many poops today (we laughed at that one but appreciated the thought behind it)."

Unless your cat has a medical situation that you trust the boarding facilities more, you may look into that if you haven't already thought of something like that

@theluckyrabbit I second the Rover suggestion!
We have a couple of wonderful, reliable sitters for our furbabies whom we found on Rover. I’m not sure what we ever did without them!