@sanstitre_has_left_the_building You are not alone and I greatly appreciate your vulnerability. I read a study a couple of years back that it wasn’t just the vacation that would bring you joy, but the planning of the vacation may even bring you MORE joy than the trip itself! (I found a reference to this study here.) If you think about it, we’re an entire group of people, sharing the joy of planning with each other and for many of us, that joy has been taken away. I avoided this forum for a really long time because I just couldn’t handle the pain of not knowing when I would be able to plan a trip again.
My anger now is different than yours but similar - as people get vaccinated, it’s the return to normal when I don’t see a return to normal for myself and my family for a while. I see things like my in laws planning a huge party for themselves for their 50th wedding anniversary. It’s fine for them, the evite says, because almost everyone invited has been vaccinated. My husband and I are not eligible to be vaccinated in Texas yet, and our kids are 11 and 14. We registered the 14 year old for the teenager trials and she didn’t get selected. Kids under 12 trials are just starting now.
We have a July trip planned. In January, I would have given it a 10% chance of going. Now I would say 50/50. My husband and I would both need to be vaccinated, masks would still need to be required, and overall numbers would need to be lower so we feel the kids would be more safe are conditions we have before we would go. I switched to a one bedroom villa so we could have a kitchen last week. Today we were discussing if we should drive instead of flying. I go between major optimism about this trip and excitement to complete negativity that it won’t happen to worrying about putting my family at total risk for something silly every day.
How cool that you went to paris disneyland, though! I wanted to go there until I saw how expensive it is for airfare for a family of 5. maybe someday!