Early last year, my husband was looking through a vacation site and came across a “mystery vacation” option. He offhandedly mentioned it and we both agreed it might be fun “sometime.” Fast-forward to November, and I was trying to decide what to get him for Christmas, and looking at local coupons for things to do when I came across another mystery vacation. So I thought, why not buy it for his birthday in February, when the holidays have settled down.
Prior to this, I hadn’t ever heard about people buying these vouchers, have you?
The voucher I bought was $199 per person and they offered three levels of vacations yours would be chosen from randomly. Bronze tier was two days in a list of cities in the US. Silver offered four days on a Caribbean island. Gold was a week in Europe. Of course, I assumed from the minute I bought the vouchers that we would get the bronze tier, but we like to travel and I figured that was acceptable to us. Once I purchased our vouchers, it told me to go to the company website and choose our closest airport and preferred travel dates, and they would call me within three days to let me know where our destination was. I think it was actually the next day that they called.
They spun the wheel and we got…a trip to Orlando, Florida, flying out of Atlanta “after 4pm on Friday and returning before 12noon on Sunday.” I was instantly let down and actually angry. They wanted us to drive four hours each way to the airport for a trip that would only give us about one day in the destination! I told them that was unacceptable and we would only fly out of Nashville because it was listed on their site as one of the airport options. They offered New York City or Chicago (in January!) and I declined those again. To be fair to the representative, he was very patient with me while I was fuming on the other end over my own stupidity for buying a vacation like that. Eventually, he offered Orlando again, but on a straight through flight from Nashville. I decided to accept that and we’d enjoy the sun and warmth in February. I spent $200 and upgraded to a longer trip. That was all I was told until they sent us our flight and hotel information about two weeks before our travel dates.
All said and done, we left Nashville on a Spirit flight (no assigned seats and only a personal item!) at 2pm Friday and landed in Orlando at about 4:30pm. I had rented a car for us and it was only $107 for all three days, with all taxes and fees. We had three nights in a Marriott near Disney (which is not really the area you want to be in when leaving kids at home for a solo adult trip, if I’m honest!).
The Marriott was nice enough, but our floor smelled like it was doused in Febreze. They offered a really great continental breakfast, but charged us $25/night to park there! I had called the hotel and asked about upgrading our double beds ahead of time and the hotel said they couldn’t change it since I was on a voucher and I’d have to do it when we checked in. When I checked us in, I asked about an upgrade and was told everything was booked up, which was why I tried to upgrade ahead of time.
We had booked snorkeling with manatees and otherwise left things open to see how we felt. We got up Saturday and had a leisurely brunch with bottomless mimosas at a beautiful old hotel in Celebration, FL (super cute, unincorporated town), then decided spur of the moment to go to Gatorland (which ended up being our absolute favorite part of the trip, highly recommend!). Sunday morning we got up early and drove to Crystal Springs to swim with manatees. This was a pretty big bust because Florida’s warm snap made them all leave the springs where they normally congregate by the hundreds. A group of about 12 of us snorkeled through very cloudy 72 degree water and managed to see one single manatee. That was it. We walked around the trails by the springs and then left for our hotel. Monday we did some sightseeing and then left for the airport.
So the big question: Would I ever buy a mystery vacation again?
My answer: No. We did technically save money over the retail price of the trip. Having a long weekend away felt like cheating and we enjoyed the time together. There was some initial excitement wondering where we’d be sent, but having it be somewhere we’d been several times was a big letdown. On top of that, we do not typically fly the absolute dirt cheap options and I definitely would not book a hotel with double beds (what year is it!?). I disliked not having the reservations in my name to adjust anything. Overall it was a nice vacation because of us and our choices, and the mystery part ended up being our least favorite of it all.
Have you ever booked a mystery vacation? We’d love to hear about your experience!
