Anyone have a honeymoon horror story or other travel-related disaster? I figure if we've learned from our mishaps, we can pass on advice to all those ladies who are planning their honeymoons now!

I'll start:

My honeymoon actually went off without a hitch (well, except for that 2 a.m. wedding-night phone call alerting us to a new plane departure time -- sometime around 7 a.m.).

My vacation slip-up happened last Memorial Day, when my family and I planned a weekend getaway to a rustic mountain retreat (read: no TV, no in-room amenities).

I was in SUCH a rush to pack in the hour or so before we planned to leave, that I forgot to throw in my husband's swimsuit, a hairbrush and hair dryer, books to read (remember, no TV), playing cards and other activities for the kids, and my contact lens solution. We had to make a stop at Wal-Mart on the way.

THEN, we had some major car trouble on our four-hour drive home. We barely made it one hour, when we had to pull over. My husband: "It sounds as if our front wheel is going to fall off."

Three hours, two cranky kids and one tow-truck later, we were still miles and miles from home with a broken-down car on a holiday weekend. We ended up crashing with a friend who thankfully lived nearby, and we extended our two-night getaway an additional two nights.

An $1,800 mechanic's bill later, we made it home.

We learned a few lessons:
a) Be flexible and upbeat when obstacles are thrown your way on vacation. Turns out, we had a fun extra-long weekend with the kids, and they loved the additional family time.
b) Don't try to pack for a vacation under pressure.
c) That "funny noise" the car is making... have it checked BEFORE a road trip!

Happy travels!

LOL, I thought you were saying at first that you took your kids on your honeymoon, then I read more closely!

My hubby and I were pre-kids on our honeymoon -- but we really do plan on taking them along (and Grandma, and whatever other family wants to come!) when we do another Windjammer Barefoot Cruise for our 10-year anniversary! We had such a good time, we just want to share it with them. BUT, ask me again, as the date gets closer (2009). :-)

that was a nice share

Hello, I certainly agree with you. Thank you very much for sharing your information. It was really very helpful for me.

Honeymoon? What's that? My husband deployed three days after we got married. Our second anniversary is in two days, and - wait for it - I'm traveling for business.

We drove across the country a couple of weeks ago; 2100 miles cramped in a Jeep Wrangler, and not a single fight. I think that's the longest time in two years that we have been other-than-home and not visiting relatives or taking my SD for the summer.

I have learned a few things from car trips and previous vacations that I'm going to apply to my dream vacation; a week winding up the East Coast visiting historical landmarks and then a week in Boston.

Take your time. Sure, you can push on and get further. Sure, another night in a hotel is more expensive. Stopping early, getting a good dinner, getting a good night's sleep without getting overtired is well worth it in relaxation and general mood.

Don't over-schedule. My sister and I went to Boston a couple years ago, and while waiting for our trip around the harbor on a tall sailing ship, walked into a restaurant on the Wharf. Sel De La Terre has Wine Wednesdays which is a four-course meal acompanied by four different wines. The sommalier comes out at the beginning of each course to talk about the wine. The food is outstanding. The meal is $45/person. If we had over-scheduled, we never would have had that amazing experience.

As an addendum, we bought the Go Boston Card and it was the best thing ever. We got over $200 of museum and attraction admittances, tours, etc out of a $97 3-day card.

Ours was an up/down thing starting immediately after the wedding.

My in-laws had paid for the limo to come pick us up . We waited, and waited, an waited - all our guests left - we had bought these lovely flower petals instead of rice for throwing - never got used. MIL went to call limo compnay (whom she had confirmed the day before ) they forgot, and sent our limo somehwere else, so had to rent from anpother company.

We finally get to the hotel and the driver get into a fight with hubby about wanting to be paid (MIL had paid ahead to the other company) hubby refused, this is front of one of Atlanta's best hotels, I thought he was going to get arrested!

We had the governor's room - complete with jacuzzi, which didn't work. But the rest of the room was lovely, and they had a wonderful champagne breakfast for us the next morning. The flight from Atlanta to Pittsburgh was fine.

Then we got to Pittsburgh (this is Feb BTW). Our 1st flight is cancelled due to mechanical problems, so we are wait listed for the next flight. Next flight is fogged in, so we are wait listed again (with 3 flights worht of other passengers). 3rd flight they completely cancel due to ice and snow - so they put us all up in hotels. We get a room with double beds. 2nd night together, and we sleep separately!

We get back to the airport the next morning (where we have been assured we will have 1st priority on the next flight) and find we have been lied to- there are no spots on the plane. So we are offered a spot on a puddle jumper and then a shuttle.

Since we've already lost one day, we take it.

I am immediately airsick and hit with a migraine that lasts the rest of the day.

We finally get to the Poconos, which was lovely, but a day short - and then 2 days later, hubby comes down with the flu.

One day we will re-do our honeymoon, but at some other time of year.

My second marriage was a disaster from the get-go! On the honeymoon (if you can call it that) included our four children. Mine came along because they were too young to be left home alone and my son had severe asthma and allergies and I had no one who knew how to handle emergencies with him. My husband's children also came along - they were 23 and 26. His son was mentally challenged and his daughter hated me. The four kids stayed in the room adjacent to ours. On our first night together after the wedding ceremony, my new husband got out his briefcase, pulled out some paperwork and said, "Ok, we have to go over this pre-nuptial contract I have had drawn up for us. Just read it thru and sign it, then I will sign it." Not only did I tell him what "pre-nuptial meant" but, I also told him what he could do with his forms!

If he had approached the subject prior to our wedding, I would have tried to work it out with him to both our advantages. Obviously, his contract was only to benefit him only - he actually said he could not trust me or any other woman he had married and did not want me to have anything of his in case we got a divorce. Obviously, the marriage did not last long because he kept hammering and badgering me to sign the papers, which I never did.

While my family had pooled together and intended for us to go somewhere WOW like Hawaii or some exotic beach... that just isn't our style. We found an adorable cabin in Tennesse where we intended to bunker down for a few days. (I'm sure they sighed in relief because it was MUCH cheaper than what they had planned.) However, as lovely as the honeymoon cabin was, it would appear that the linens on the bed were never changed from the previous "HONEYMOONERS". Needless to say that was the first and last load of laundry I've ever seen my husband do, because I wasn't touching it. lol

My husband and I had an afternoon wedding at the church directly across the street from his family's house. After the reception we went across the street to change and leave for our honeymoon. After we changed, I visited with his mother and sister and other family members while my new husband loaded our luggage into the car. We then said our goodbyes and drove away to get to our first stop that was 300 miles away.

We got to the B&B about 10pm and the innkeeper greeted us and sent her son to get our luggage from the trunk of the car. When we went to our room, I noticed that there were only a few pieces of luggage. Guess what? My new husband loaded HIS luggage, but noto even one suitcase of mine; not even my cosmetics case.
Determined to put a good face on it, I didn't get upset. I laughed and told him that I was really looking forward to our first shopping trip that would take place first thing in the morning.

Hawaii honeymoon [url=BellaOnline ALERT: For anti-spam reasons, we restrict the number of URLs allowed in a given post. You have exceeded our maximum number of URLs.

hi............ I knew at that moment, he was the perfect husband. We checked in to our hotel in Paris, and our room wouldn't be ready until the following day, so they had to put us in the area of the hotel which was under construction. I didn't mind. I was just happy to get out of the mosquito castle. When I was washing up in the bathroom, I saw a mouse scurry by my foot out of the corner of my eye. After screaming and slamming the door, I called down to the concierge who apologized profusely and moved us to the Presidential suite in the other tower with gorgeous views of the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens. Traumatizing, yes, but the end result was amazing. The rest of our honeymoon was drama (and rodent) free, and I had an incredible time. One of my favorite parts of the entire trip was the water taxi ride from the Venice airport to the hotel right off the Grand Canal...such an amazing city.

When I married my second husband, I thought life would be wonderful. We both loved the same type of music, played in folk groups, had so much in common. I would have a home again for my kids and I and everyone got along great. His kids were adults and on their own, visited often and loved my kids.

On our honeymoon, it was so romantic until we got back to the motel room after a wonderful dinner and dancing. My new husband had champagne on ice. After he poured the champagne he took a thick envelope out of his suitcase and proceeded to show me some "contracts" he wanted me to sign in "case we get a divorce". I was horrified! All the "contracts" were to protect him and his inheritance from his parents and his investments so I could never touch them. I had no intention of marrying him for his money - I thought we had married for love and companionship.

Obviously our marriage went down hill from there. It did not last long because he constantly insisted I sign papers "in case we get a divorce".

Would have loved to have gone on mine even if it was only supposed to be a few days tooling around Vancouver Island and Seattle to go whale watching ... 2 weeks before the wedding he took off with his ex!

when going for a honeymoon even on the 2nd relationship, kids should not be included. It will surely break the moment, you can leave you kids in your grandparent for a day or two. This way, your [url=http://www.plazatravel.com]luxury honeymooon[/url] will be worthwhile.

OK, this is a good topic for me.... Four years ago my wife and I went to St. Lucia in Carribean for our honeymoon. Beautiful place, incredibly poor country (they collect rainwater in tubs on the roof of shacks, for lack of much running water). Things went great the first day, we drank, swam, snorkled, ate great food, um, etc... Anyway, I woke up on day two with a terrible stomach ache, but I thought, "Well, we're on our honeymoon, won't let a belly ache slow me down", so we went down for breakfast, of which I ate none. Then we went on to our sailing lesson, and to do some snorkeling. Anyway, to make this long part of the story short, we went back to the room after lunch and I became very ill. I couldn't even drink water without, um, sending it back up. Anyway, this went on for like 6 hours, then housekeeping came by, saw me, and called the management, who came and called the doctor. So this is where it gets bad. (Side note, My wife and I had only brought $146 with us, me having had to sell my 1966 Mustang in order to finance the trip & the wedding in the first place). So, the Doctor told me to go to the hospital, so my wife asked the management to call an ambulance. They said that the ambulance would not come there, and we would have to take a cab. OK, whatever, so the nice manager just happened to have a cab driver with him in our room, so my wife (I couldn't stand up or really speak at this point) paid the guy and he took us to what I guess passes for a hospital in a thrid world country. Upon arrival, my wife! had to drag me into the hospital as the manager (who came along) and the driver offered no assistance. Then we waited for 45 minutes with me laying on the dirtiest floor I have ever had the pleasure of seeing while they cleared out one of the six beds that were inthe hospital (only hospital serving a city of some 60,000). Anyway, they took me back to a room with only three walls (one of them had fallen down at some point) and put me in a bed with covered with sheets that were stained with substances that I and my wife chose not to investigate. My head turned to the right, and I saw a large roach crawl up the crack block wall. I didn't really care. My wife had to go back out to the front room, and she was gone for a very long time. She had forgotten to bring our money, and was told that the doctors would not treat me until she brought them a receipt saying that we had paid. Anyway, she had to take another cab back to the resort, get our small wad of cash, and hand all but $23 over to the hospital. Meanwhile, I was laying in the hospital bed, looking at the stars (strange) for about 1 hour with no treatment. Sarah came back and helped me get to a bathroom that had no door, toilet seat or toilet paper (which they refused to provide, must be a precious resource down there!). I came back, and they finally started me on an IV. Then the large carribbean man next to me woke up. He was talking nonsense, and was obviously there only because he had some serious chemicals in his bloodstream. He began talking to me and saying, "Boy. Hey Boy. I'm going to kill you Boy.". I felt like garbage at this point, so I think I actually said "please do." Anyway, he began telling me how he was going to kill me (graphically). I still couldn't move or talk much at this point, and my wife had fainted and was sitting down on the other side of the room recovering, so I just sat there quietly and listened to how the crazy guy next to me was going to kill me. Ah, memories. I spent the rest of the honeymoon, save the last two days, in bed recovering. So there's my honeymoon horror story. Sorry if its too long.