jersey

This one is more embarressing then boneheaded but I think will qualify. We were staying in a hotel in New Bern, NC. After having breakfast downstairs we got off the elevator, walked around the corner and into our room. The door was open and my husband and I are pretty good about locking up, so as we stood in the middle of our room debating, we suddenly heard noises in the bathroom (again, an open door). As we looked at each other in horror it suddenly dawned on us that we were in the wrong room on the wrong floor. You never saw two middle-aged people tear for the door so fast. We raced to the elevator and giggled all the way up to the next floor and our room. We think no one knew about our faux pas. I still don't know who would leave their hotel room open while being "busy" in the bathroom.

wtggirl

The last post reminds me of another story. I will have to say that if you learn by your mistakes, I must be a pretty smart traveler by now! Years ago I went on a cruise with the owner of an agency I worked for. Stewards on ships usually leave doors open when cleaning and when we got to our cabin, they must have just cleaned ours. We went in and because it was the first day we had left our suitcases open on the beds. They were no longer there. I looked under my bed and said, "is your suit case black?" and she said "yes". And I said "your suit case is under my bed". She looked under hers and said "yep, and your blue one is under mine" I layed down while my friend went in to use the bathroom. She yelled out. "Hey, are these earings yours- they don't look like something you would wear?" I got up and walked over to look in still totally clueless. First I saw all the toiletries that did not belong to us, then I saw her holding up these four inch long huge earings! They were so ugly! She is facing away from me. Well, when it dawned on me we were in the wrong cabin I started laughing so hard you couldn't hear me and I was laid out over the bed. She came out still holding the earings with a puzzled look on her face?? Well, we were out of there fast, but I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.

diddl_maus

4 couples traveling together. I agreed to get into the back seat of the car driven by a 70 year old ex-race car driver...along the Pacific Coast Highway.

jersey

Diddl- LOL Reminds me of being in Italy with another couple. We were staying outside of Sienna in a converted monastery. We decided to drive into one of the small surrounding towns for dinner and the other couple were going to drive that evening. I guess he never drove an Alpha Romero before and decided to give it a work out on all those little roads and hairpin turns. Have you ever been so scared you can't even squeak?

Ally

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but what the heck.
It was the last stay of our long South Pacific honeymoon. (Oahu, two Fiji Islands, Sailing the GBR and finally a week in Bali)
We went out to a nice dinner in Bali before heading to the airport for a 1:00am flight back to Austrailia, then on to LA and finally Texas. The flight was at 1:00am on Oct 14th. Well, on the 14th we enjoyed our last day, but then of course, we get to the airport and have missed our flight because by then it was 1:00am and the 15th!!! The flight leaving that morning was booked so we had to stay another night, so be the time we got out of Bali, it was actually the 16th...missed our flight by two days because of the 1:00am departure confusion. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

kmpordagee

hehe...almost feel guilty posting this because it's about my mom, but it is quite the bonehead move!

Mom was going on a cruise to Mexico, leaving out of San Pedro, a 2 hour drive from her house. She knew that she was leaving on a Sunday, she was packed by Saturday, even called me to say that she felt like she was forgetting something. (I gave her my age old advice that even if she did forget something, she could just buy it at her destination, lol!)

Well, the thing that mom forgot was to check her tickets and her calendar. The ship actually was leaving on Saturday, which she found out when they called her at home 30 minutes before they left port. Oops! It was too late for mom.

I feel pretty bad for her still, but this is the same woman who would frequently forget to pick me up from girl scouts etc. Still makes me laugh though!

LoveItaly

My most bonehead mistake (after I posted about my husbands I remembered mine). A really really stupid mistake. Cannot believe it to this day.
Last trip to Italy. Flew into Venice.
Stayed in region of Veneto. Have many friends there. Trip was for 3 weeks.
Each group of friends took me somewhere fantastic. Beautiful trip.
The night before I was to fly home a son of my friends had me meet him and a beautiful couple that was good friends of his at 1:00am to share a glass of wine and get acquainted. So we are enjoying a beautiful June night, wonderful wine, great company. About 30 minutes into the conversation the couple asked me "so how did you enjoy Venice this trip?".
Duh - Venice? Can you believe I was 40 minutes by train from Venice and had not gone there the entire 3 weeks?
Had not even thought of going to Venice.
What can I say?
Every side trip I had made that vacation was spectacular, visits with my friends fantastic.
But to forget Venice was 40 minutes away?
Well I certainly felt like the bonehead of the year.
Stilll cannot believe "I forgot to go to Venice".

atilla

Ally - I think you win the "bonehead badge of shame" only because that sounds so much like something I would do!

johnthedorf

I make bonehead mistakes all the time but they usually turn into the funniest conversations or taking the wrong direction and winding up at the best restaurant and town. A part of the Classic bonehead was checking out of my "Mirrored" Motel room in Milan and finding out it must have been an affiliate of that "ranch place" in Nevada! The girl serving coffee looked very very tired.

BuffaloGirl

We were going to Aruba for our honeymoon. We checked our luggage, but had a carry on that had a few toiletries and several pairs of shoes. WE had to change plans at JFK, and having never been there, didn't know you had to take a shuttle bus from terminal to terminal. Needless to say, we missed our flight to Aruba and got stuck in NYC with a bag of shoes and our toothbrushes!

My husband and I both talked housekeeping into letting us into our room in New Orleans (we both forgot our keys), only to find out that we told her the wrong room. The person staying in that room was doing his/her thing in the bathroom, and all three of us hightailed it out of there when we discovered our mistake.

I got stuck in a stairwell at the MGM Grand.

LoveItaly, you take the cake! I would do just about anything to go to Italy.....how could you possibly forget to visit Venice when you were so close? AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

OldSouthernBelle

Buffalogirl: How did you get INTO the stairwell?? I was very upset, being the safety nut that I am, when I found out they LOCK the stairwell doors unless there is a fire/emergency ( or so I was told by the employee when I inquired). Didn't make be feel too well! OSB.

iceeu2

wtggrl....too funny! I would still be laughing! Thanks for starting this thread GT...it's hilarious!

LoveItaly

BuffaloGirl, thanks for making me feeling even more stupid LOL.
I don't know what to say, honest.
I flew into Venice, I was going to fly out of Venice, Venice was 40 minutes away and in the whole three weeks I never even once thought "gosh, I need to go to Venice".
And no, hehe, it wasn't due to the wine..
Honest!!!!
To this day I just shake my head and feel like the dumbest visitor to Italy ever!
Well next trip, guess where I will be go immediately?

hugglynn

Well, we at first thought we made the boneheaded move when we arrived to our reserved condo unit in Englewood, FL last year to start our Christmas week vacation. The complex manager seemed perplexed when we arrived at her door to check in--after all, it was Saturday and we weren't booked until Sunday. They only booked Sunday to Sunday. Luckily and apologetically, the condo was empty, and we were able to get in. We were laughing saying, how in the xxxx did we screw up the dates and arrive one day early. It was only later that we looked back at our email notes and found that we did, in fact, request the date that we arrived....she just said it was available and didn't note any changes...we got her back later in the week when we locked ourselves (both keys) out of the condo and had to have her called from a Christmas get-together to unlock our doorquot;>. Looped as they were, they were very nice about it....and to think these condo managers have it made

Dreamer2

I got locked into my hotel room in Florence, Italy - TWICE. While it was a faulty electronic lock, I figure I was the "bonehead" since it happened TWICE.

The first time I called the lobby, and they sent someone up to let me out and fix the door. Dopey me, I incorrectly assumed it was fixed, and got stuck again. The second time I guess the guy at the desk either couldn't understand me, or didn't care, and never sent anyone even after repeated phone calls. Finally, a panic attack set in, and I stood at the peep hole waiting for passers-by. Most just looked oddly at my banging door and ran. "Help! Au secours! Helfen!" But one kind young fellow stopped to try to figure it out. He was Asain and did not speak English, and spoiled American me did not speak Italian or enough of anything else to be useful. But he got the gist, and took the key that I slid under the door, and was able to open it from the outside. As much as I tried to thank him, he just seemed to want to run away from the crazy American woman slipping room keys under her door! Smart fella! But the guy at the front desk got an earful... And finally the whole lock was replaced.

cigalechanta

I was on the TGV going to Paris from Avignon to catch my flight at CDG.
This lady was in the seat numbered on my ticket. She insistd it was hers and I pointed at my ticket. The handsome conductor came over and looked at our tickets. He said mine was dated for tomorrow. Oh my goodness, I said, I need to catch my flight. (I should have inspected my tickets when they were sent to my house.)He had me follow him to another seat and said, if someone comes on and that's the only seat left, he'd have to put me off, otherwise, I'll be ok. Luckily, i kept it and arrived on time to fly to Boston..
That same week, I had taken a train and thought I could pay on board. This 12 year old, when he found out I had no ticket, told me I would be fined and to go to the toilet. After the ticket taker left he knocked on the door and we had a nice chat all the way to Orange.

Mary2Go

You all make me feel so much better! The first time my husband and I travelled together he was 19 I was 21, this was several years before we married. We decided to go to San Francisco for the weekend from So. Calif. Both of us dumb as could be made reservations at a hotel by the airport not realizing how far it is from downtown. When we realized our mistake we thought it would be easy to remedy by renting a car..haha..no credit cards and under 25. I finally managed to talk some no name rental place into taking my $300.00 in travellers checks (all of my cash) We had fun anyway and 28 years later still enjoy going places although with a little more planning!

LoveItaly

Mary2go, that is a sweet story which I am sure the two of you still smile about.

BuffaloGirl

OldSouthernBelle: I somehow got off at the wrong floor and walked quite a ways down the hall. Deciding that it was too long a haul back to the elevator with coffee and muffins in hand, I decided to take the stairs. I was able to get in the stairwell, but I had a heck of a time getting out. I climbed several flights of stairs to finally find a door that opened. I did almost panic.

I wrote a letter when I get home, but the response stated that the doors are clearly marked (or something like that). I think the doors should be unlocked from both sides at all times!

P_M

Some of you might have read this one on the Europe board, but here it is again. Last year I went on a trip to Scandinavia, then had a few days in Bruges, Belgium before coming home. I knew from a prior trip that most Scandinavians speak English, but for the Belgium portion of the trip I decided to learn as much of the language as possible. I bought a book to help me learn French. I spent quite a bit of time practicing my French words and phrases. When I got to Bruges, I kept trying to speak French to everyone, and they would just chuckle and start speaking English to me. I thought they were chuckling at my terrible pronunciation of French words. On my last day there, I learned what was so funny. The language of Bruges is not French, it's Flemish!! I did so much research for that trip, yet the one thing I failed to look up was the language spoken in Bruges.