‘Destination Saturation’ and My New 10-Day Travel Rule
By day 15, I liked this guy’s shirt a lot!
Phase three of my Extended Disney Research Trip was a bit challenging–and not because it was the solo portion. As you may know by now, I love being on my own. I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want, and stay as long as I want. Heck, I drove to St. Augustine just because I could! No, it was not the alone-ness that got to me during phase three. It was something I’m calling ‘Destination Saturation’.
After a while, a place ceases to be somewhere you are visiting and it becomes the world in which you live. This happened to us in Paris for sure (and really, what was I thinking? Two weeks in a place I’ve never been?) It happened to us on our road trip in certain locations, and it happened to me in Walt Disney World. Destination Saturation doesn’t have a set-in-stone time frame–it might take a week in, say, London, but only two days in, say, Halifax.
It took ten days in Walt Disney World.
The symptoms of Destination Saturation also vary a bit from place to place, but typically it manifests in the following ways:
-extreme exhaustion at onset
-general lack of enthusiasm
-annoyance at all the little things that used to make the destination ‘special’
-extreme annoyance at all the little things that make the destination inherently annoying
-increased use of social media as a form of destination escapism, instazood bot helps you to increase traffic.
In Paris, this ailment created a serious problem. In Disney World it wasn’t so bad–until my final day there. I swear, if I had to take one more tram to one more monorail to one more happy fun park…I was going to scream. And don’t even get me started on trying to feed myself. That became a feat in and of itself–though that rant shall remain unwritten.
Why? Because I now know that this malady isn’t the destination’s fault. It is the fault of Destination Saturation. I love Walt Disney World. I love it on day one and two and three…all the way up to halfway through day ten. And then I need to go home for a little while.
And so, all future Disney trips shall be ten days or shorter. I think that’s fair (and fiscally responsible!) In addition, all future single-destination trips shall be ten days or shorter. Road trips can, of course, be longer–but we won’t stay in the same town more than three or four nights in a row. In this simple, cost-effective way, I shall forever prevent another outbreak of Destination Saturation.
I hope!
Up next–I continue with my road trip posts and share our adventures on Cape Breton, PEI, and in Fundy National Park and Portland, Maine.
Oh, I so know how this feels. I love Las Vegas, but 7 days is pretty much my limit for it. Last Christmas, when my flight home got canceled, I hit that saturation wall. I was already ready to go home, and instead, I was stuck there an extra four days. Love turned to extreme dislike. Instead of thinking “Woo hoo! More time in my favorite city!” all I could think was how much more money I was spending, how I’d already done everything I wanted to do there and then some, and how I just wanted to be home.
I love Vegas too–almost as much as you do–and I’ve been at the saturation point there, too! I think it was day five on our second visit. But I can’t wait to go back! Why? Because we left on day six! Eleven days would definitely be too many (thus the need for the ten day limit.)
I totally agree. One of the difficulties I have on Rick Steve’s site is that so many of the responders seem to think that if you can’t go for a month or 2 or 3, why bother. The longest trip we ever took was about 15 days- an around the world trip for hubby’s 50th birthday. Even with changing locations several times, I am usually ready for home after 10-12 days. I think I could enjoy several 10 day trips with 5-10 day stops at home between them, but I’ve never had a chance. The problem with that kind of travel (“home” or abroad) is it massivly increases your transportation costs. Oh well, I can dream (and that’s about all I can do for the foreseable future as far as travel goes).
That’s how I ended up in Europe for a month! I was all like ‘if I’m going to spend that much to get there…’ and then had a horrible time. Duh!
My ideal travel style would be one week-long trip every three months–so four trips per year. Perhaps one of them could be a bit longer. But THAT’S never going to happen, either!
I used to tell Chuck that when I retired, I wanted to have enough money to travel for 4-6 weeks 2 to 3 times a year. But I like your idea better- though I might stretch it to 10 days or 2 weeks for parts of Europe.