What’s your most memorable moment while vacationing?

[bluehende]

My best memory is a very simple one and lasted probably 30 seconds. Driving through the Shenandoah Valley (accidentally on peak leaf weekend), and finding ourselves in a "gumball machine" of bright yellow perfectly round leaves swirling all around us. Totally magical!

Fall is such a magical time.

 

[bluehende]

The first two "memorable moments" that came to mind...

1. DD first trip to Disneyworld, she was almost 3. I can still vividly remember her chasing "pixie dust" on the ground and having the time of her life. She was simply truly happy. That same trip we went to a xmas concert in Epcot, she stood on the seats and sang as loud as she could. People back then told me, don't take her, she is too young and won't remember a thing. True....but I remember.

2. This is a memory I will take the grave, but not a good one. Cruise vacation to Mexico when I was in my late 20s. A visit to Carlos and Charlies and WAY too much Tequila. The drunkest I have ever been in my life, it wasn't pretty, but I remember it!

I love all these memories. It takes me down memory lane too. We took our 6 yr old and his 2 yr old and 1 day old brother to WDW. We knew the two year old was too young but the 6 yr old was perfect. Our first day we walk into EPCOT and make a left and end up on Ellens Universe of Energy. It was not called that then. I remembered the ride from the 68 NY worlds fair. They had updated some and the dinosaurs were a bit scarier than I remembered. Needless to say we scared the crap out of the two year old 5 minutes after arriving. That whole trip every time the lights went out on a ride or in a theater you heard this tiny voice saying "turn the lights on" . I was a bad father at times, but the kids lived.

 

[bluehende]

I would also have to say on that same trip to Hawaii when we pulled off the side of a road in Kauai to a small beach area and our son went into the water and experienced the ocean waves for the first time. I can still see his smile and hear him laughing as the waves knocked him over. Prior to this, he had only been in the Long Island Sound in Connecticut, which is nothing like the Pacific Ocean. He was 14 years old.

That whole trip to Hawaii was great as it was for our 25th wedding anniversary. And to think I didn't want to go because it involved exchanging our week 30 week (plus the white floater week) at Smugglers Notch (which we had never given up week 30 in all the years we owned it), but my husband insisted so I went to work planning the whole thing. Glad I listened to him.

We went to Hawaii for out 25th also. One of the weirdest things to happen to us on a vacation happened there. We head on a fairly remote road to a point. About half way there we see a sign that the road was closed during the day. Soon we are going by what looked like an industrial site with trailers and equipment lining the road. Go a few hundred feet and all of a sudden the road is covered with sand and we are in the middle of a plane crash site. We had driven through the beach set for Lost. This was before it aired.

 

[Sugarcubesea]

My best memory was last summer at Hilton Head, seeing my 2 year old grandson splash in the waves of the ocean was priceless.

 

[SmithOp]

All the trips to Hawaii, playing golf with my dad, who passed in 2013.

Rented a jetski in Kona harbor with my son, we encounted a large pod of spinner dolphins. Several juveniles took turns jumping and spinning from the bow wake.


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[WinniWoman]

Our first trip to Maui in May 2003 for our Honeymoon. At that time they allowed organized bike riding from the top of Haleakala. We had a gorgeous sunrise. It was the closest we ever felt to a Supreme Being. Then Bike Riding from 10,000 feet to the Beach. You rode through every climate zone. Because you were on a Bike you could feel and smell each change in climate zones.

My second was taking my teenage son and daughter (oldest son was in Air Force) to Marriott Newport Coast. We had a wonderful week visiting San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Disneyland, and Southern California Beaches. At The San Diego Zoo we gave the kids a cell fone, cash, and told them to call us when they were ready for lunch. They took off running. Later when we visited Sea World and Disney we made them the same offer. But they decided our way (walking not running) was better and they spent the whole time with us.

Yes! We almost did that on our honeymoon when we were on Maui but ended up not being able to for some reason that I can't recall. That was like on Mauna Kea! I forgot! We experienced like 7 climate zones! I have to edit that into my reply post!

 

[WinniWoman]

We went to Hawaii for out 25th also. One of the weirdest things to happen to us on a vacation happened there. We head on a fairly remote road to a point. About half way there we see a sign that the road was closed during the day. Soon we are going by what looked like an industrial site with trailers and equipment lining the road. Go a few hundred feet and all of a sudden the road is covered with sand and we are in the middle of a plane crash site. We had driven through the beach set for Lost. This was before it aired.

Wow! That is cool!

And this reminds me of when we were driving in Kauai I think it was- on our honeymoon-and we also were on an unknown road and pulled off to see a sight- of which I don't recall. We had to walk way into the "jungle" and suddenly we felt something on our legs. FIRE ANTS!!!! We were literally standing in a sea of them! We high tailed it out of there pronto! Lucky that we were not bitten too badly considering our legs were covered with them!

 

[Phydeaux]

Mine was quite some time ago, but very memorable to this day. It took place in Tibet. It was captured in this brief video while sharing the experience with a few of my colleagues. Have a look.

 

[elaine]

I have a lot. But 2 are fun wdw-related: Our annual Easter break trip on the autotrain to wdw. Almost everyone in the station is going on spring break to univ or Wdw andtje overnight train ride was always fun.
And then when my kids were 10 and 6 we did free dining at wdw pop century hotel back when it was full service restaurants and tips included. My kids had never done a character meal or any sit down wdw place. We had 4 character meals and on top, got upgraded to a 1br dvc bc they sold out rooms.
For budget offsiters like us, this was the Ritz.

 

[Luvtoride]

Easy one for me also. On our first trip to Kauai, my son and daughter came with us and we went on the kayak trip to Secret Falls. My wife went right in and and it took me a while. If you’ve been there, you know the water is refreshing. That means COLD.

We had to get going so I dove in and finally made it out to my wife, who was under the waterfall. My daughter was able to get a snapshot of us kissing under Secret Falls. That actually reminds me that we need to get that photo off that SD card and get it on the cloud with our other photos.

Jeff, how about getting a PRINT Made of that picture and framing it and display it in a great spot in your home. Sounds like too special a moment to keep in the cloud!

 

[slip]

Jeff, how about getting a PRINT Made of that picture and framing it and display it in a great spot in your home. Sounds like too special a moment to keep in the cloud!

Yep, I think your right. I may do it on Fracture. The put it in glass. I had a different picture done like that and it turned out great. Thanks for the idea!!

 

[Glynda]

Lots of them. Standing on the bow of the tour boat seeing our first humpback whale rise out of the water right beside us. Waking up at 6 AM in Tracy Arm Fijord in Alaska and going out on our veranda in our jammies to find almost complete silence and big chunks of ice sparkling with various colors from the early morning rising sun. The scenery when driving across Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park on a perfectly clear July day. Our granddaughter's excitement at every turn of Disney World on her first few visits. The three weeks we spent with her when taking her to London and on a Scandinavian cruise in 2017 at 16 yrs old. Our driver dropping us off right in front of the Tower of Pisa so early in the morning that there was no one else visible there but us. And so many more...

 

[Talent312]

I have been authorized to tell you DW's favorite WDW memory:
Sitting with Cinderella inside the castle, while waiting on a table.
"You're my favorite," she gushed -- as an adult.
.

 

[SandyPGravel]

My avatar pic...Getting married on Cabbage beach, just outside Atlantis property.

 

[jackio]

Thank you for starting this thread - I am loving it!

My favorite memory is still one we still talk about. We took our 3 kids to WDW one August and stayed at a timeshare offsite. Our middle son was 8 at the time and a HUGE Ninja Turtle fan.
We had been walking around what was then MGM studios and it was hot and humid and we were exhausted and sticky.

We had decided to cut the park short, go back to the resort, swim and nap and perhaps return later in the day.
As we turned the corner in front of a courtyard, all of a sudden we heard the Ninja Turtle theme song blasting, and the Turtle Van screeched in and all of the Ninja Turtles hopped out, including my son's crush, April O'Neill who hugged him and said "hi handsome". They high-fived and signed autographs and did some musical numbers. The show lasted about 20 minutes.

My son is now 33 and he still says, that besides his wedding day and the days his kids were born, it was the very best day of his life.

 

[WinniWoman]

Thank you for starting this thread - I am loving it!

My favorite memory is still one we still talk about. We took our 3 kids to WDW one August and stayed at a timeshare offsite. Our middle son was 8 at the time and a HUGE Ninja Turtle fan.
We had been walking around what was then MGM studios and it was hot and humid and we were exhausted and sticky.

We had decided to cut the park short, go back to the resort, swim and nap and perhaps return later in the day.
As we turned the corner in front of a courtyard, all of a sudden we heard the Ninja Turtle theme song blasting, and the Turtle Van screeched in and all of the Ninja Turtles hopped out, including my son's crush, April O'Neill who hugged him and said "hi handsome". They high-fived and signed autographs and did some musical numbers. The show lasted about 20 minutes.

My son is now 33 and he still says, that besides his wedding day and the days his kids were born, it was the very best day of his life.

OMG. I just had 2 sips of wine reading your post and tears came down my cheeks! I love that story! My son is 31 and now your memory reminded me of another I forgot (which is why I better get cracking compiling these on paper!).

Our son's favorite movie hero was Indiana Jones and when we took him to WDW we attended the outdoor movie themed show. When Indiana came out crackin' his whip you should have seen the look on our son's face! His eyes were ever so wide. He was amazed and oh so happy!

 

[Karen G]

Like the others have mentioned, there are so many magical and memorable moments, but I'll share two that involved timeshare stays. First was our daughter's wedding on the beach in Cabo during one of our annual stays at our timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Rose. The second was on a NYC trip while staying at our Manhattan Club unit. We went to the Regis & Kelly show and my number was picked when they did a contest where a person on the phone had to guess something about a previous show & then pick a number between 1 and the total number of audience members. The prize was a $500 gift card to Pier One. That was fun, plus some friends at home saw me on tv!

 

[Talent312]

Favorite childhood travel memory:
Tromping thru the snow in Central Park one Winter...
I got into a major snowball fight with my 2 brothers.
Then we wandered into Tiffany's to warm up.
For some reason, they tolerated us fairly well.
.

 

[Bolen]

Ok,

This one is easy for me. When I was 30 many moons ago, I decided to take a sunset dinner and booze cruise while I was in Waikiki.

I went on the boat and noticed there were very few passengers. I thought to myself it’s a mid week cruise so it must not be too busy.

Then....

Who gets on the boat with someone who I think helps him?

STEVIE WONDER

Well, that was a fun night because I had dinner and a few drinks with Stevie Wonder. We chatted for about 2 hours. At the end of the cruise, he gave me a signed autograph record and bid me farewell.

During the cruise, he sang a few songs and I joined in.

It was a night I won’t forget and quite a surprise.


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[Bolen]

Ours is a little different. I was working in West Germany as a DOD civilian for the US Air Force, and was able to put together a long 4-day weekend to travel to Berlin, back in 1990. We did so because this was the weekend Germany was going to reunite into one country after so many years divided politically, and geographically into East and West, so it was a momentous celebration, and the culmination of the Wall being first breached about 3/4 of a year earlier...

Our own particular uniqueness is our claim that we can never leave East Germany or East Berlin...never. The reason is that at Midnight of October 2nd, we were physically standing on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate as October 3rd began. At that minute East Germany ceased to exist, and from then on Germany was wholly Germany. Pretty cool if you ask me, and yes the celebration was an awesome spectacle, yet for many people there, there was a lot of intrepidation too. Many in the East were now officially out of work, with the Russians leaving, and many in the West were fearful of taking on all the debt from the East, and that it would cripple their economy. With 20/20 hindsight it all worked out, and even here in the US, Helen & I are still trapped in East Berlin forever...

 

[fiat1bmw]

Boy, some fantastic memories.

We were our timeshare in Cancun, MX in January and took a 'river' rafting trip in a park. While it was a nice warm day, the water was quite cold. Half way through one of several small 'caves' my wedding ring fell off!!! I thought, OMG my wife's going to kill me!!! The water was about 6' deep but very clear. Regardless it would be like finding a pin in a haystack. As I was looking, a woman with googles came by and I explained what happened. She dove down and found my ring!!! I went down and retrieved it so the day was saved. (I now have to wear another ring outside my wedding ring to ensure it stays on my finger.)

After we adopted our 10-year old daughter from Russia, we took a vacation to Orlando to see WDW that Summer. She, and all the other orphans in the boarding school literally had no possessions to call their own although they were each assigned a stuffed toy that stayed on their bed. Anyway, our timeshare had two full bedrooms so she got to stay in her own bedroom with a king-sized bed which she called her own. I took a picture of her on the bed one afternoon with all the extra pillows that adorn such beds and we had that picture made into a blanket that we still keep on our couch on and off. Quite a change from Russia. (Of course she had her own bedroom in our house but not as large or with as many pillows.)

 

[Shankilicious]

I'll try and keep these short as possible as I can't name just one.
1. On Norfork Lake in Arkansas my two year old had just been to the potty and after walking the long way to the pool, said she had to go again. We told her to pee behind a nearby tree and then told her "only in Arkansas". It's been a family phrase ever since.
2. I went to Vietnam for a buddies wedding during Tet in 2017 with another lifelong friend. The whole trip was unforgettable as it was just us two dudes having a blast. The trip got legendary when, after drinking during the wedding, which started at 9:30am and all the way through the reception which ended at 5pm, we get back to an Australian family friend's amazing hotel, and he invites us to the hotel bar for a drink. We stayed up drinking till 3am! Cost us maybe $50 a piece.
3. For our honeymoon in PCB FL, I had booked scuba diving, jet ski rentals, para-sailing, and a pirate cruise (we're big kids at heart). All but the cruise got cancelled due to a recent tropical storm and it rained almost constantly for first three days. On the 4th morning as we're chilling in the indoor pool, looking at the rain and windblown deck furniture outside, she tells me she has a surprise for me and we're leaving early. The next night, as she giving me directions through TN (we're from the STL area) I catch the unmistakable smell of whiskey and up on a hill I see a large barn that was a barrel house. She had booked a bnb in Lynchburg and the next morning we took one of the first tasting tours ever at my favorite distillery!

 

[Bxian]

1. In Ireland at a bar in the little town of Doolin. Ate dinner next to several guys who left, came back with musical instruments and started playing. The fiddle player was so close that his elbow sometimes touched mine. As I enjoyed the music, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if they played the American bluegrass tune, "A Man of Constant Sorrow" from the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou." I did not say a word but that was the very next song that they played! Gave me the chills.
2. While staying at Mountain Meadows timeshare near Glacier NP, my husband's cousin and his wife drove 6 hours from Idaho and proceeded to drive us through the entire Going To The Sun Road. They had lived in Montana and knew it well. What a wonderful day and an incredible gift!
3. Spent our 10th anniversary and each child's 30th birthday (on a Mom and child trip) in Paris, with the most recent trip taking place about 10 weeks ago. Magic!
4. Any time spent with The Mouse (even as an adult, without kids). Makes me feel like a child again.
5. Any of the time we've spent in Northern California or the Pacific Northwest. Would move there in a heartbeat if it wasn't so far from family and if the real estate was not so pricey.
6. Kauai. Hoping to leverage a long stay there via timesharing exchange or rentals once I am retired.

 

[2saltydawgs]

tough to narrow it down, but here's few:
bareboat catamaran Abaco in the Bahamas, with some great friends - Marsh Harbor to Elbow Cay, Guana Cay and Green Turtle Cay before regretfully returning to Marsh Harbor.
Flying to Sitka for my 50th State - catching fat salmon and halibut on a charter - eating fresh halibut cheeks hours later.
Spending 8 nights in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola - hanging with the locals, and island-hopping the beach bars from the Soggy Dollar to the Willie T - good times!

 

[Steve Fatula]

You didn't specify good or bad. My most memorable moment was in Cabo San Lucas on 9/11/2001. We were on a wonderful trip down there, loved Club Cascadas de Baja. We were in La Paz when Mexican locals came up and told us something had happened in the US, and, we should see. And we did, they were all gathered around TVs watching. They were all very nice and supportive. The timeshare showed continuous coverage of the events in their club room. At the end of our trip, we couldn't leave due to the air embargo, so, they let us stay for free. It was very kind. Of course, no one could get in either. The entire time we were there, we found the Mexican people were rallying around the US and supporting us. That made it a little better given the circumstances. Will never forget that trip.