Do you ever confuse dates on a trip? Happened to me once. South Lake Tahoe, lakefront motel, sun, high elevation, relaxation, heat - one morning I woke up having no idea what date it was, and if I have to check out or not. TV didn't help much - it took a while to figure out which channel shows the day of the week.

Why was I so confused? Till this day I don't know. But I finally figured I had one more day to enjoy my vacation.

Anyway, since then I've changed my travel alarm clock to the type which shows the date on it.

Yes, I am worse than Faina. Last year I travelled so much I was really tired. Had a flight on a Tuesday (or so I thought). Monday evening got a call from a family member. They were at the airport, where was I?

I was suppose to have flown that day, instead of the next day. I was in a lot of trouble! They finally forgave me.

I confused my dates once and booked my return flight for a day later than I really wanted to come home. When we arrived at the airport, they informed us that we were scheduled to fly home the next day. Thankfully this was on SW Air, which is more generous than most with re-scheduling fees. They only charged us $8 more per person to make the change. However, my bit*hy travelling companion was so mad at me for this mistake she demanded I pay the $8 on her behalf. This was the last trip we ever took together, thank God.

A few weeks ago, I left one of our suitcases sitting in the middle of the airport in Maui. It sat there for about 10 hours until I was getting ready for bed and wondered: "Hey, where is all my stuff".

We high-tailed it the 45 minutes back to the airport because nobody was answering any of the phones there (it was almost midnight). Fortunately it was sitting there on the floor near the luggage carousel.

We went on a ski trip once, and left all the gear sitting by the garage door.

Luckily it was by car, so my husband drove back in the middle of the night (5 hours RT!) to get it all - ended up with a ticket too.

1tiredmama, only in Hawaii!

All these stories of date mix ups remind me how hard it is to keep this stuff straight when you are crossing the international dateline and your flight leaves on one date and arrives on another.

A British friend of ours was flying home from Hong Kong via San Francisco and planned to spend a few days with us. The day before he was supposed to arrive he phoned me from the airport. Yep, he had gotten the dates mixed up and was there a day early.

Our bonehead mistakes have been so numerous I wouldn't know where to begin to choose one for this thread. Fortunately, Phil Flash is one very lucky guy and things always come out ok.

Last flight to Miami I set the alarm for 4:30 PM instead of 4:30 AM for a 6:05 AM flight.

Woke up at 5:00 AM neither packed nor showered. US Airways held the plane for us. Not only was in embarassing, come to find out, we knew 1/3 of the people on the flight. They were FOP going to Boston for a flight and were regulars at husband's restaurant.


We'll never live that one down.

US Airways held the plane for you???? How did you arrange that??

Good grief, are you related to the CEO of the airlines or something?

No! LOL! I used to be such a FF with US Airways, they knew me and my husband. Don't get me wrong, instead of pushing back at 6:05 AM they pushed back at 6:07 AM.

We hauled butt!

GoTravel, I can't even imagine. I am LOL too! Wow, for a bit there I was really really impressed. Thought, umh, we have someone, a real VIP on this board.

I don't know how far you live from the airport but I imagine you did haul butt.
Thanks for my good laugh for the day.

I forgot this story. It is my husband who did the boneheaded move but I like to tell it. Years ago we made reservations for a house in Cape Cod for two weeks. At the time we had no idea that our daughters, who ran track on the Junior Olympics circuit, whould all qualify for the NorthEast Regionals. Which were to be held in Virginia or some place south of NJ on the very day we were to go to Cape Cod. So my DH decided to take the girls and I decide to take the boys and head to Cape Cod. We'd all meet up on Monday. So after a flurry of packing and all the stuff you have to do before a trip, my boys and I head north. As planned, my DH and girls show up several days later. We're all glad to be together again and my DH is exhuasted after hours of driving. So after relaxing for an hour my DH said to me, he thinks he'll go shower and change. And stands staring at me. I say "Ok, whats the matter?" He said, "Where's my stuff?" And I respond, "Where'd you leave it?" He said, "No, I mean where's my clothes you brought from home?" Seems he thought that not only would I packed for myself and five kids but also for him. (Which I never have done in my life.) So we had to go out and buy him all new clothes for two weeks vacation.

On our wedding night, DH and I were dropped off at our B&B very late. We let ourselves in and headed up to our Room, which DH swore up and down was Room 2. But our key would NOT fit in the lock. He said that's exactly where he'd dropped off our bags earlier that day so he knew that was our room. It turns out, however, that our key was to Room 3!!! We didn't know what to do! We're standing in the hall in all our wedding finery, I'm clutching my bouquet, I'm exhausted and it's after midnight and it looks like we might be spending our wedding night in the HALLWAY!!

We finally decided to try Room 3 across the hall in case they'd moved us. We put the key in the lock and I hear some elderly voices say, "Oh my god! Someone is trying to break into our room!!!" I ABOUT DIED--I FELT SO BAD!!! We finally found the innkeeper and she let us into the right room! We had breakfast with our neighborts the next morning--luckily, they didn't hold our gaffe against us!

Robyn

Heheheheh!

jersey, you minded me of 2 real bonehead packing jobs my DH did.

We were in Naples, we were going to Capri for 10 days. Left part of luggage at hotel in Naples and took one suitcase to Capri. I had packed what I wanted, DH than put his stuff in.

Arrive in Capri and guess what. He had the clothes on his back and underwear and a pair of sandals! That was it!! He sure had fun clothes shopping that afternoon.

And than the trip down to the Santa Barbara area for 10 days to be with daughter and he husband. Again I packed for me and he packed himself.

Twice as many slacks as he needed and one shirt. One shirt (plus the one on his back)! Can you believe? So a shopping trip needless to say the next morning. Sigh!

Smart fellow though. He never never had to pack his own suitcase again.

Jersey, that is so husband-like...Did you handle it well or go off on a tirade? I am LOL.

jersey, what a lucky husband -- 2 weeks of new clothes.

It was a long time ago at the Holiday Inn in downtown St. Louis when I woke up and found myself standing on a landing in the stairwell. Could not tell whether I had been going up or down the stairs and didn't remember what floor my room was on. That fact didn't matter, really, since I didn't have my room key. And I really had to p. And I was naked.

I posted earlier about a wrong cabin mistake I made with a travel companion that owned an agency I worked for. Well, on the very same trip (this was some trip!), this companion who happened to be the group leader of about 100 advertisers for a TV station went around the night before the cruise ended explaining to everyone the debarkation process. To each person she stated "And don't forget a full change of clothes for the next day when you put your luggage outside your stateroom". Next morning, we are getting dressed and she says...."Um, you wouldn't happen to have an extra bikini top would you?" Well, of course I didn't and it wouldn't have fit her anyway. She was a large busted woman and she did not have a bra!!! Now, remember I said she had to lead 100 people, and today that meant leading them off the ship in San Juan with a full day of enjoyment before catching our flight home. This time I restrained from laughing although I have gotten plenty of laughs out of it since that day. Thank goodness she did have a blazer to wear over her shirt. And she was pretty swift in grabbing her luggage during immigration (you have them for moments only before checking it to the airport) and grabbing that bra out without too much attention!!

This is the first time I saw this thread - it's a good one!

The biggest bonehead mistake I made was when I took charge of hubby's and my, parents, and SIL's vacation planning to Europe. While in London I realized I shorted us a hotel room one night in Paris. No prob, I thought. Well, some type of convention was going on and all the hotels were sold out. The hotel we had booked was sold out for the following evening. I spent over an our long distance with a travel agent trying to find us a room. We ended up having to pay almost $350 for one night's lodging. The terrible part was not only causing the extra expense, but we also had to schlep our luggage for our last night's stay to a new hotel.

mrwunrfl,

Whoh!

I have a funny from decades ago: My parents went to Cabo in 1960 (!) on a business fishing trip. One of the ladies stood with her feet in the ocean and asked, "how far above sea level are we?" Not really a travel error, just funny.
My husband's favorite is heading out for a run in a small town in Portugal. He of course forgot the name of the hotel (we had just arrived), speaks no Spanish and promptly got lost. He did eventually spot the hotel, but also spotted a car driving slowly through the center of the village with a wooden coffin tied on the roof.