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Original poster

To ask what you dreamed would be fabulous but is actually maybe a bit shit

999 replies

hitsvilleuk · 10/04/2021 11:00

I think this about lots of things to do with celebrity lives, when I was younger I thought it all would amazing now not so sure.

A particular one I have is that I always longed for a villa on the Italian lakes. We went to a hotel there one year for 5 days ( in the same village as George Clooney ) It pissed down for 3 days. Everything was dark and damp and that combined with the endless queuing for flights and the thought of maintaining a property in another country sort of did for the dream. Not achievable without a lottery win anyway but now I don't even want it.

Anyone else got stuff like this or that they actually got and then thought 'meh'. I seem to have it about more and more things as I get on - I just don't want stuff anymore. Is it just to do with age?

OP posts:
Sarahtrue11 · 10/04/2021 16:09

@vixeyann

New York. I was so excited but felt so let down. Service was terrible everywhere we went and it felt very hostile on the subway (been on many other undergrounds round the world and felt fine). The Empire State at night is the only good memory I have of the place.
I agree with New York. I saw some beautiful things in Nwe York, but the subway is dangerous.

That is the scary thing about the USA, there is always the feeling that if you piss some one off, they would not argue with you, or shout at you, they would hurt you or kill you.

I remember getting on the subway in New York. I sat down next to a young man. He looked fine and normal until he spoke. Oh my god, the anger that came out of him. He said that I had touched his clothes with my shoe when sitting down. I probably got pushed into him slightly as I was sitting down, those subways are packed.

The conversation went like this

Him: (seething with anger) How dare you touch my clothes with your shoe.
Me: I didn't? (the last time I argued, as I realised not to)
Him: You fucking bitch! How dare you fucking rub your shoe off my clothes. You stupid cunt".
Him: Fucking move bitch! Ignorant cunt. Move. You are not sitting here.

I moved far away.

There is definitely a threat of violence present on the NY subway

DonttouchthatLarry · 10/04/2021 16:09

The Himalayas - I love mountains but was very underwhelmed on the Everest base camp trek. Everything was all so spread out, separate and distant, I found them much less impressive than the Alps - nowhere did I get the same feeling as in Chamonix with the mountains towering over the valley.

LunaNorth · 10/04/2021 16:10

I’ve stayed at Claridges a few times. Lovely comfy beds, Art Deco bathrooms and great service.

Gordon Ramsay ruined the restaurant though.

Hoolihan · 10/04/2021 16:10

This is why I would never go on the Orient Express - not just because I can't afford it but also because it's my absolute dream and I suspect would be very different in reality to my Agatha Christie based fantasies.

Also Christmas Day, swimming with wild dolphins (absolutely terrifying), the superclubs of Ibiza, living with a man.

RampantIvy · 10/04/2021 16:11

Northern lights - hours spent driving around trying to find them, followed by a lacklustre display and possibly the coldest I've ever been. I still enjoyed it but nothing like I'd imagined.

We were slightly underwhelmed as well @Truthlikeness. I expected them to be green, but they were white. They were still awe inspiring though, just the wrong colour. They looked like this

ArabellaScott · 10/04/2021 16:11

Book publication day is the biggest non-event ever. It's sort of you sat at your desk awkwardly punching the air, to the resounding sound of ... well, nothing at all.

WowIlikereallyhateyou · 10/04/2021 16:11

Ah yes, i found Epcot very boring and disappointing as a kid.

Sarahtrue11 · 10/04/2021 16:12

@Hoolihan

This is why I would never go on the Orient Express - not just because I can't afford it but also because it's my absolute dream and I suspect would be very different in reality to my Agatha Christie based fantasies.

Also Christmas Day, swimming with wild dolphins (absolutely terrifying), the superclubs of Ibiza, living with a man.

Ooh I would love to do the orient express.
MsTSwift · 10/04/2021 16:13

Dharamasalar where the Dalai Lama lived. Dh and I went there on our travels. It rained was chilly and was like a worse version of Wales. Lots of litter and the Dalai Lama was away. Last straw was seeing a monk literally shitting in the street. Our room was so cold we went to bed in all our clothes. There was literally nothing to do. Avoid!

Cottagepieandpeas · 10/04/2021 16:15

Thanks @LunaNorth I’m pleased it was a good experience. I could definitely find an alternative restaurant.

@Hoolihan yes agree about the Orient Express. I suppose I don’t really want to go on the real one, I want the fictional one.

Contactlesslenses · 10/04/2021 16:15

Concerts, especially ones you have to stand. I am a shortarse, so can’t see much once everyone has stood up, except for through peoples phone screens.
Also the quality of the music is never great, there is a reason music is recorded in studios not vast, noisy, echoey stadiums.

Festivals, again, bad for the vertically challenged, terrible music quality, vastly expensive, lots of standing around in either rain (cold) or sun (sunburn)..

WowIlikereallyhateyou · 10/04/2021 16:16

@Hoolihan

This is why I would never go on the Orient Express - not just because I can't afford it but also because it's my absolute dream and I suspect would be very different in reality to my Agatha Christie based fantasies.

Also Christmas Day, swimming with wild dolphins (absolutely terrifying), the superclubs of Ibiza, living with a man.

Yep to Orient express, when i found out you didn’t get your own bathroom facilities just a sink in cabin i was a bit meh. Shared facilities doesnt seem luxurious to me.
Bolshybun · 10/04/2021 16:17

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

We made a family attempt to live in the French Alps. We still dream about it, but the dream didn't match the reality at all. We'd never live somewhere that rural in the UK. We still might buy a place there, but probably won't!

Self catering holidays with other families. All just turns into 'who hasn't done the washing up recently' resentment (mostly because it was always us doing the clearing up).

Definitely agree with the shared accommodation with other families. We had a few trips but the final straw was a long weekend washing and sterilising my own child and friends bottles, cleared away after every meal (whilst one called ‘cinders sit down’ instead of helping) and on the last night we had an early night and they left their leftover food out all night.
TableFlowerss · 10/04/2021 16:17

£80 face cream and serum. Utter waste of money. Find lines are exactly the fucking same. Absolute twats saying how amazing it is on reviews....

flyingant · 10/04/2021 16:18

Bali... not the beautiful, tropical place I'd imagined. The beaches are not nice (except for surfing) and it's full of rubbish. There's so much rubbish that people regularly burn it to get rid of it, so you're having to breathe in plastic fumes. Many people there also heavily harass you to buy whatever item/service they're selling.

MintyCedric · 10/04/2021 16:18

Barcelona...made some great memories but as a city in itself dirty, smelly and overpriced. Also impossible to cram in all I wanted to do in the 4 days we were there despite my best efforts and came back barely able to walk from having overdone it. Getting to Park Guell was a particular low light. Must say that Barceloneta beach was much nicer than I expected though.
I will go back for the things I missed someday but will stay somewhere a little way out (Girona was lovely) and pop in and out.

weareallpassengers · 10/04/2021 16:19

Las Vegas. 24 hours and I had to get out..The lights, the heat!

the80sweregreat · 10/04/2021 16:20

People who say they enjoy camping are mostly lying .. I know people who invested in all the right equipment , only to sell it on a few years later sighting the fact that the ' kids have grown up now' .. or some other excuse rather than admit it was a terrible experience and one they would rather forget.
Ditto ' boating holidays' or 'owning a caravan ': generally you have to be made of stern stuff to kept going with any of these type of holidays or owning one. It's a big commitment/ money pit few are prepared for.

TravellingSpoon · 10/04/2021 16:20

@TroublesomeTrucks

Cadbury's World was the most boring, overpriced, queue-filled pile of nothing I've ever been to.
Yes this!

As a child I always thought it sounded amazing, imagining Willy Wonka style adventures, It was nothing like that and to top it off it was absolutely rammed and very expensive.

Cattenberg · 10/04/2021 16:20

I was planning to go to Paris for DD’s first trip abroad, but maybe we’ll go somewhere else.

I’ve just read The Slap and now I’m surprised by the rave reviews. Horrible, shallow, cowardly characters who never seemed to develop as people or learn anything. And it was full of racist language.

Contactlesslenses · 10/04/2021 16:21

Hamilton.. I found it extremely boring, i really don’t get the hype. I didn’t really understand what was going on and didn’t enjoy the music. After I went and told friends I didn’t like it they said I should have listened to the soundtrack and got to know the storyline before I went...

(I accept that my confusion is down to my ignorance of American history, but still, I don’t expect to have the know the general ‘plot’ of a play before seeing the play..)

Sarahtrue11 · 10/04/2021 16:21

@flyingant

Bali... not the beautiful, tropical place I'd imagined. The beaches are not nice (except for surfing) and it's full of rubbish. There's so much rubbish that people regularly burn it to get rid of it, so you're having to breathe in plastic fumes. Many people there also heavily harass you to buy whatever item/service they're selling.
I agree. I hated Bali. The Indonesian people that I met there told me that they hated white people.

The island also seemed to be full of old alcoholics, escaping life

1Morewineplease · 10/04/2021 16:21

@TroublesomeTrucks

Cadbury's World was the most boring, overpriced, queue-filled pile of nothing I've ever been to.
Agree wholeheartedly. Even my children agreed!
SirGawain · 10/04/2021 16:21

@Superstardjs

The Lion King and Matilda musicals. Disneyland in Florida.
The very idea of Disneyland turns me off. We saw the original production of Matilda at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and it was fabulous. Perhaps it hasn't transferred well.
Sarahtrue11 · 10/04/2021 16:21

@Cattenberg

I was planning to go to Paris for DD’s first trip abroad, but maybe we’ll go somewhere else.

I’ve just read The Slap and now I’m surprised by the rave reviews. Horrible, shallow, cowardly characters who never seemed to develop as people or learn anything. And it was full of racist language.

I liked Paris, but i love art, so I was so excited to see the Louvre