Last minute cancellation due to weather

Poor you. I get why you’re upset she does t sound like she has much time for you and when you bend over backwards for her, she does’t seem to appreciate it. I would step back now, try to sell your ticket somehow, and then message her again and say ‘Hope you guys stay cool this weekend. I’m trying to sell my ticket fingers crossed’.

Interestingly, many will also avoid spending the hottest part of the day outside. Some have kids who are ok with heat, like my brother and sister were, and some will have some who aren’t, like I was. I spent most summers as a kid hiding in the shade to try to avoid getting Prickly Heat (it didn’t work!)

To be fair she doesn't sound like she thinks about you all that much as she should have let you know when you first text her that she changed her mind. To be honest though, I just let it go. Yes it's wasted the money, but you wouldn't have a good time with hot complaining kids either. Maybe steer clear from anything expensive next time as she's clearly flaky and doesn't value your money that much.

If there’s two adults and two kids, why wouldn’t you buy a family ticket for even more of a discount? Going places with other people, surely you buy all the tickets together?

Anyway, you made your choice to buy a ticket. Go, or don’t go. There can be any number of reasons she has changed her mind at the last minute. Perhaps she thought it would be fine, but then her kids still weren’t sleeping due to the hot weather, two more days of that means you really don’t want to go anywhere. Maybe she hadn’t realised how hot it was going to be. She hasn’t just done it on a whim.

Their climate is not our climate where we get short bursts of hot weather followed by normal service, so there’s no chance of acclimatising. So if you struggle with heat you’re stuffed.

I was in holiday last year in a hot country and by the end of the three weeks I was just about getting used to it, so of course if I lived there I’d be fine.

Interestingly many people seem perfectly capable of doing activities with families when in Spain, Turkey, Greece etc at 30 degrees. not all either involving hanging round a pool or sea.

This^
She was specifically asked if she’s ok with this weather. The forecast was available 4 days ago. She is in the wrong and it’s plain rude on her side.
However I agree with others OP that you should never book non refundable things if you have children in the mix. They are very unreliable and annoyingly tend to spoil your plans.

I disagree and I think your friend is a flake. If she didn't even mention rescheduling or doing something else then she doesn't seem to be into your friendship so I can see why you think it's run it's course.

Maybe next time say I'm about to buy the tickets so are you absolutely sure. However with her I'd say. I bought my non refundable tickets so I'm a bit stuffed now loosing the £40. Let me know if your still up for meeting soon. I will leave the venue for you to choose.

This - OP you should go back and say, ‘actually I confirmed with you that you were going and went ahead and bought my ticket on that. I am now out of pocket and really a bit peed off.’

Oh God, I’m actually properly laughing at the idea of people suggesting you should go on your own to a theme park🤣 Very few people would give that a nanosecond of serious consideration. Of course someone will come along and insist on how much they love going to theme parks by themselves. But they will be the exception. Most of the fun is in the shared experience.

The issue isnt that you did check again, but you have not told her that you have a ticket. And you should tell her now.

If she does not know that you have a ticket, there is nothing for her to apologise for. And if she does not know you have a ticket, there is no reason for her to say "we can handle the heat, let's go anyway".

I think her lack of apology when cancelling is not that bad as she didn’t know you had a ticket. As you’d suggested cancelling a few days before, she probably thought you’d be fine with cancelling now (which you probably would have been if you hadn’t bought the ticket). Your breezy “no problem” answer does nothing to dispel that notion. So as a one-off I wouldn’t think too much of that. In future I would probably double-check at the point of actually spending the money to avoid that scenario (that’s what friends and I usually do, often then booking as a group or effectively pretty much at the same time).

But the fact that she hasn’t bothered to then replace the plans to make sure she sees you soon is not good, I agree. It doesn’t sound as if she’s making much effort with you. Maybe a response putting the ball clearly in her court to contact you before you then step back as you suggest.

Of course you should say. “FFS, friend, I literally just asked you to confirm you’re still on for this due to the weather and you said you were, so I bought a ticket - and now you’re cancelling?! WTF?!”

Well if I was your friend I would want to know you spent the money, that would give me the chance to offer to at least pay half of it as I could imagine making the same decision as your friend but not realising you had paid for a ticket in advance. If I was not worried about money at all I'd offer to pay it all. You haven't given her a chance to offer. She might not but you haven't even given her that opportunity as she is not aware of what happened.

Yes, I'd be annoyed. You had more forethought than her, to check the weather and think about the suitability for her children. She clearly didn't heed the warning until later, and that's her fault. In her position I'd offer to pay for your ticket because my delay in making a sensible decision cost you money. Does she know you've bought a ticket and can't use it now?

Flog your ticket on a local Facebook group/group for the attraction maybe?
It might be that when you discussed it, the weather was hotting up a little but still manageable for her/dc, but then after yesterday she realised a full day (presumably) outside in it would be too much so not a good idea.
Bit shit she didn't just invite you over/suggest an air-conditioned alternative though.

How far away is it? It’s too late to sell online, but I’d be tempted to drive to the venue and offer your ticket to people arriving for £30. (If it’s not too far away)

This is the sort of ridiculous comment I come to MN for!

It has adult rides for the benefit of parents who have taken their children and who like rides. Not because it's somewhere that solo adults would choose to go. No matter how much they love theme parks.

You're not being criticised for your choice of venue. You're being criticised for firstly, not checking just before you bought the ticket, and for not telling her you had already bought a ticket when she cancelled. If she knew you had a ticket, she might not have wanted to put you out and gone anyway.

the way see it is that you agree to do something, you should just reach out if the plan is going to be changed/cancelled.

But that's exactly what the friend did. It was just unfortunate that the OP had already bought her own ticket.

If she hadn't, it would he a complete non issue. There's always going to he a point where one person will have bought the advance ticket and the other hasn't unless you buy together.

My point is, rather than texting her to see if she still wanted to go, you should have texted her and cancelled. Or changed venue to indoor. The plan wasn't doable, no matter how much she was looking forward to it. She obviously also should have cancelled at that stage. Hence you're both unreasonable.

You are being oddly angry about this.

I am very grateful that my friends without kids were very understanding when my kids were young, and forgave me when I couldn't remember what I was doing from one day to the next.