Dreaded Vacation Winding Down Feeling

While we still have 5 nights left on our two week vacation, which consists of a cruise, 6 nights in Orlando, 2 nights in Marco Island and 2 nights in West Palm Beach, that dreaded vacation is coming to an end syndrome is here. I know that many people don't even take 5 nights of vacation a year, but we are now spoiled with our timeshare stays and being able to vacation for one or two weeks at a time.

dioxide45 said:

While we still have 5 nights left on our two week vacation, which consists of a cruise, 6 nights in Orlando, 2 nights in Marco Island and 2 nights in West Palm Beach, that dreaded vacation is coming to an end syndrome is here. I know that many people don't even take 5 nights of vacation a year, but we are now spoiled with our timeshare stays and being able to vacation for one or two weeks at a time.

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I know the feeling for sure. I just do my best to live in the moment and not let those feelings creep into my head. I just turn those feelings around by reflecting on how lucky we are to be able to spend this special family time together.

We went away for almost 6 weeks and I did not want to come home. Yes I know the feeling. My hubby was kind of ready to come home, but not me. Isn't timesharing great!

dioxide45 said:

While we still have 5 nights left on our two week vacation, which consists of a cruise, 6 nights in Orlando, 2 nights in Marco Island and 2 nights in West Palm Beach, that dreaded vacation is coming to an end syndrome is here. I know that many people don't even take 5 nights of vacation a year, but we are now spoiled with our timeshare stays and being able to vacation for one or two weeks at a time.

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you may have already mentioned in another thread, but how did you obtain the cruise? by paying for it? or points, whether dc or rewards?

tell us about the cruise, please. (just curious).....area and ports....cruise line, etc. enjoyable?

We are fortunately able to take a few more- though sometimes shorter vaca's. I get past the vaca-is-ending boo-hoos by telling myself that the going home is as good as the going away and that the next getaway is soon anyway. No more drudgery of working for 'the man', so being home isn't so bad. We'd take longer ones, but DW IS 'the man', and she's a real brute of a boss.

Jim

I sort of envy you. These days I just want to come home. It used to be I looked forward to vacations but now I get so tired and I just want my quiet, peaceful house and my own bed.

MOXJO7282 said:

I know the feeling for sure. I just do my best to live in the moment and not let those feelings creep into my head. I just turn those feelings around by reflecting on how lucky we are to be able to spend this special family time together.

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I think this is a good strategy for life in general.

when vacation days are

coming to an end I try and reflect on what a good time we have had etc. Also I usually plan a small home improvement for when we do get home. That keeps me busy (along with all the laundry & collected mail.) The home improvement could be as small as buying new lamp shades etc or maybe even having a room painted. By the time the project is completed I'm right back into the everyday swing of things. Try it, you'll feel great!

Since Rick and I travel about ten-twelve weeks per year, I usually am in the middle of planning that next trip while on the one that is ending.

Rick is always glad to get home to whatever we are doing there, we always have a remodel plan going. Then there are the grandkids, the grown kids, and the cats, in that order. They miss us, and Skype doesn't do it for us.

jme said:

you may have already mentioned in another thread, but how did you obtain the cruise? by paying for it? or points, whether dc or rewards?

tell us about the cruise, please. (just curious).....area and ports....cruise line, etc. enjoyable?

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It was paid for with cash, didn't use points or timeshare to get the cruise. We went out of Tampa on Carnival to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico. We had a good time but would never cruise from Tampa again. The port area is too small and getting through immigration was chaos. We will continue to cruise out of Port Canaveral or Port Everglades though. The wife really loves cruising, while I am more of a land based travel person, though I still enjoy cruising.

MRSFUSSY said:

coming to an end I try and reflect on what a good time we have had etc. Also I usually plan a small home improvement for when we do get home. That keeps me busy (along with all the laundry & collected mail.) The home improvement could be as small as buying new lamp shades etc or maybe even having a room painted. By the time the project is completed I'm right back into the everyday swing of things. Try it, you'll feel great!

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That does not work for me. One of the reasons I do not want to get home as we have working on a remodel for about 2 years and have more plans if we ever finish the first huge addition. We are also trying to get rid of a lot of accumulated stuff from 31 years of marriage and 2 grown kids. We just have so much to do at home, it is overwhelming. I love to get away from it all! We had 2 homes for a few years..getting everything settled in the smaller one we kept takes a lot of work.
We are traveling 12-14 weeks this year. The work is not getting finished but we are having fun. Off to Orlando tomorrow.

momeason said:

That does not work for me. One of the reasons I do not want to get home as we have working on a remodel for about 2 years and have more plans if we ever finish the first huge addition. We are also trying to get rid of a lot of accumulated stuff from 31 years of marriage and 2 grown kids. We just have so much to do at home, it is overwhelming. I love to get away from it all! We had 2 homes for a few years..getting everything settled in the smaller one we kept takes a lot of work.
We are traveling 12-14 weeks this year. The work is not getting finished but we are having fun. Off to Orlando tomorrow.

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We have so much clutter, and so much stored in attics and pantry and storerooms. Our house is a packrat's delight with all the storage space, but I don't WANT to be a packrat. When we are in a two bedroom condo with just what we need, and no more, it makes us realize how nice it is to be relatively clutter free. Our problem with vacations is organizing - figuring out when and where, making arrangements, packing, taking out half of what we packed, a usually miserable day of traveling, unpacking it when we get there, {insert actual vacation here } reversing it all at the end of two weeks (usually), and then it generally takes awhile to unpack, do laundry, etc.

I know, complain, complain, complain - I love to BE somewhere nice, but I just hate the organizing/packing/traveling/unpacking/repacking/traveling/unpacking parts.

I used to do something similar that, or I would stress about what are we doing tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after. I had my calendar all laid out before we went and once there kept checking to see if we are on schedule and had everything lined up in the future to make sure we were having a good time. Really too busy worrying to enjoy the vacation before it was over. Now I have developed a "Stop and smell the Plumaria" attitude and take one day at a time. If I find myself thinking about what is next and all the things we need to do before we go home, or after we return, I mentally stop and think "What is in front of me right now that I am not enjoying because I am worrying about something else." That thing can be small, even just feeling the warm air blow across my face. It puts me back into perspective of my vacation. On our last vacation we only had a wish list of things to do and one schedule activity. It was the most relaxing vacation we have ever had. Now I only feel sad on the last day as we are packing for the plane/car. As we pull away and I give DH my "vacation is over pouty face" he reminds me that we will be back and the date of return. Which is why I love timesharing. There is always another adventure after the last one is over.

It never bothers me, because we also have several more in various degrees of planning.

What kills me, though, is when we have an upcoming vacation that's going to be so awesome that I can't really get into our current vacation. It was like that leading up to our 2 week Southern California vacation (a week at various theme parks using a CityPass, followed by a week in a 2BR at Disney's Grand Californian enjoying Disneyland with friends). A couple months before that, we were at Atlantis and although I enjoyed it a lot, I couldn't stop thinking about Disneyland!

You ladies are too funny... If you didn't pack so much to begin with you wouldn't have to stress about unpacking and repacking it all! Not to mention avoid the overweight bag fees, especially when you buy even more stuff on vacation to add. And how many times do you find yourself having not used alot of what you brought.

To the OP, I typically dont have the winding down feeling, im usually excited to come back and get back in the mix of things. Even when I jokingly say should we extend our stay, I know when I get home Ill have that feeling of nowhere else is better. To be honest, I love vacation for that reason, it reminds me that there is no place like home.

I like to travel in 1 week stints instead of long vacations, that way I can get away every month and I've always got something to look forward to.

Of course living in FL helps with doing in between escapes for a long weekend with so many TS's nearby. Some years I think I've gone away more than 20 times in the year if you count the long weekends.

Besides, I miss my cats when I'm gone more than a week. Lately, I've become such an old cat lady. :hysterical:

pjrose said:

We have so much clutter, and so much stored in attics and pantry and storerooms. Our house is a packrat's delight with all the storage space, but I don't WANT to be a packrat. When we are in a two bedroom condo with just what we need, and no more, it makes us realize how nice it is to be relatively clutter free. Our problem with vacations is organizing - figuring out when and where, making arrangements, packing, taking out half of what we packed, a usually miserable day of traveling, unpacking it when we get there, {insert actual vacation here } reversing it all at the end of two weeks (usually), and then it generally takes awhile to unpack, do laundry, etc.

I know, complain, complain, complain - I love to BE somewhere nice, but I just hate the organizing/packing/traveling/unpacking/repacking/traveling/unpacking parts.

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I feel the same way about all my stuff--what to do with it. Much of it is family stuff from my grandparents (which makes it pretty old). Throw it out if the kids don't want it? Try to sell it? Both seem crass. But if I just leave it for others to deal with, it will be thrown away, so I suppose I could go ahead and lighten my load now......sigh.......but that's a lot of work, too. Every now and then I say to myself, "just start--anything would be an improvement," but I haven't started yet. Maybe after this trip.

My husband starts this lament on the 2nd day of vacation - drives me crazy!

DH - "Do you know we only have 13 days of vacation left? We need to go to the grocery store on the way home from the airport, and I will have lots of reports to do, and need to cut the grass."

Me - "Just stop - I don't want to hear that again, until we are on the airplane."

This may seem like the ultimate in laziness to some of you. I found those packing cubes on Amazon about two years ago, and I just love them. I keep them packed and in my closet at all times: one has nightgowns, swimsuits, rash guard and laundry detergents/ dryer sheets; one is packed with underwear for a week; one is packed with Mickey shirts. I also keep our cosmetic bag packed all of the time.

All I do is grab those, then I grab shorts or pants separately and put them in a cube. This packing solution came from pure laziness.

rickandcindy23 said:

This may seem like the ultimate in laziness to some of you. I found those packing cubes on Amazon about two years ago, and I just love them. I keep them packed and in my closet at all times: one has nightgowns, swimsuits, rash guard and laundry detergents/ dryer sheets; one is packed with underwear for a week; one is packed with Mickey shirts. I also keep our cosmetic bag packed all of the time.

All I do is grab those, then I grab shorts or pants separately and put them in a cube. This packing solution came from pure laziness.

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No way is that laziness. It is organization!

PStreet1 said:

I feel the same way about all my stuff--what to do with it. Much of it is family stuff from my grandparents (which makes it pretty old). Throw it out if the kids don't want it? Try to sell it? Both seem crass. But if I just leave it for others to deal with, it will be thrown away, so I suppose I could go ahead and lighten my load now......sigh.......but that's a lot of work, too. Every now and then I say to myself, "just start--anything would be an improvement," but I haven't started yet. Maybe after this trip.

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Do you think your grandparents would want you to feel burdened? Get rid of the stuff. You'll feel better and so will your children who will not have to deal with it, either. If something feels sentimental but you have no use for it, take a picture of it and write down the memories you have attached to that object. Then get rid of the object. The picture and narrative will be of much more value to posterity than the object itself--which will lose meaning when there is no longer anyone living who remembers whose it was and what it meant.

And start with something manageable. You don't have to do this all at once. Maybe take each Sunday and devote one or two hours to decluttering and journaling. It doesn't have to be a chore. It doesn't have to have a deadline. Just enjoy the journey. You will feel lighter and will have some wonderful memories recorded. Then you can pass down your journal to posterity. A journal or two takes up much less shelf space than all the other stuff.

There was a recent study done that looked rigorously at the mental health benefits of vacation, because while it was always viewed as thought vacation was de-stressful, it actually comes with a lot of stress (as y'all have noted)...the travel hassles, the planning, the worry about cost/money, the worry about what is happening while you're away, and, of course, the end-is-near feeling, too.

What the study found is that the health benefits come in the *anticipation* of the vacation. Those who had planned a vacation, but never took it, experienced the same benefits as though who had taken one, and returned. Having a vacay planned serves as a mental "light at the end of the tunnel" for most people, and that's where the benefits are.

I found it really eye-opening. I love planning travel, and it definitely spoke to my condition. (Well, that, and I love the actual travel part, too.) I wish I could accurately cite the source, but I only get my news in three places-- NPR, NY Times, and Jon Stewart--so I'm guessing it was a story in one of the first two.

Rose Pink said:

No way is that laziness. It is organization!

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That's a nice compliment. I am really not that organized. I am actually one of those people who see a mess and have no idea how to go about starting to clean it. I have a covered patio right now that is causing me to procrastinate. Too many things in there that belong other places.

I used to tell my young daughter to pick up ten things in her room and put them in their correct spot, then walk away and go back to try for another ten a few hours later, counting each one very deliberately. She was a mess as a child and is so organized as an adult, she puts me to shame.

I told her not to pick up more than ten at a time, so she wouldn't get overwhelmed.

I need to take my own advice.

DeniseM said:

"Do you know we only have 13 days of vacation left?

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My son does the same but starts it as a joke because he's so happy that we still have 13 days but then when its gets to 5 he starts to sulk about it.

I feel the same way as its human nature to lament going back to the drudgery of school or work but I remind him to just enjoy where he is right at the moment.