[no filter friday: traveling with other couples]

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
I've decided to designate every Friday as "No Filter Friday" which basically means anything & everything goes. So I apologize in advance if I offend you in someway due to the fact I'm not sugar-coating how I feel about certain issues or situations.

And with that being said: the first topic for No Filter Friday will be about traveling with other couples. J and I currently in the process of planning and booking our vacations for the near future. We're also learning about the type of people we are inviting (if we do invite) on these trips. I've decided to post a few requirements in order to get an invitation to come on vacation with us. These requirements will also have an explanation, along with examples from the previous vacation J & I had taken on New Year's Eve this past year.

1) Do not travel with cheap people.
While this may seem harsh and I'm sure MANY people will not agree with this. BUT if you are given 6+ months in advance about taking a vacation somewhere, I believe that this is ENOUGH time to budget accordingly in order to have a great time on your vacation. The couple that was on our previous trip KNEW that the agenda was to go skiing/snowboarding along with the fact that ski/snowboard rentals and snow-lift tickets were not cheap. YET when the day came to purchase the rentals & snow-lift ticket; we encountered lame excuses as to why they decided to sit around the cabin/ski resort while the rest of us were out on the slopes. LAME-O. My favorite comment about #1 is when J said to me, "they can afford to go out & eat and get fat but when it comes to doing something different that requires physical activity and being fit apparently they can't afford it." HA.

2) Don't invite couples that are fun sponges.
I believe that #2 could also correlate with #1 considering fun sponges & being cheap usually go hand in hand.  J & I have never been the type of couple that would sit around with other people & just whisper to each other. Seriously, if you're going to do that then WTF are you even hanging out with everyone else!? Just stay home if you want to whisper with your S/O. The SAME couple that I spoke about in #1 basically just whispered to each other the entire time. Why would you spend 14 hours in a car to drive to another state if all you plan on doing is whispering and being sketchy with others around you. Not only is this just being a waste of space but they could have done that back home.

3. Don't invite guys where they are just pushovers and never speak their minds to their girlfriends.
Seriously, if you're in a relationship & you just let your S/O run your life (even when you want to have fun) it just looks pretty pathetic. Sure, you can blame this on being "in love" with your girlfriend and you don't want to "upset" her but if you want to do something fun such as skiing/snowboarding.. then GROW SOME BALLS. The bf of the couple that I'm speaking about , J & I even asked him about why they didn't want to go skiing/snowboarding. And once we even told him how much it was per person ($168.00, which is a pretty good price for a ski resort) he actually seemed like he wanted to go & said he was going to talk to his gf about it. I guess she didn't really want to go (surprise/surprise) and instead they sat around for 4 hours the first day (oh how fun!) and the 2nd day sat around the cabin while the rest of us had a blast. GUYS: if you want to do something fun and your gf is just being a huge debbie downer about it then SPEAK UP. If J wanted to go snowboarding and I didn't want to, I would have just stayed behind but I would have never forced J to do the same. When you're on vacation you want to have a good time, not be restricted to do things just b/c your S/O is a huge lame-o and wants to stay inside and sleep.

I actually remember that morning when I confronted the guy about it & asked him why would you pay for the ski jacket, ski clothes and SKI GOOGLES if you weren't planning on using them?! then I said to him that I knew it wasn't him that didn't want to go and I know it was his girlfriend. He actually kept silent and looked at J (as if J would even stop me from speaking my mind). Then he went downstairs (I'm sure to go tell her what I said).  Maybe he had a nice time just doing nothing all day in the cabin.. or maybe not. I pick the latter.

So, lesson learned about not ever bringing that couple on another trip with us again. Of course, J & I had an awesome time & I'm already wanting to plan my next snowboarding trip. While J would rather not invite other couples AT ALL, I think that if you're in the company of others that enjoy the same things and aren't super cheap then you can have a great time. We obviously had an amazing time with the other 2 friends that came along, of course. So I think if you're going to invite a couple on a trip with you, just limit it to 1 more couple. This will lessen any chance of drama or stupid situations (such as not wanting to do certain activities.) On our ski/snowboarding trip it was 1 couple and 2 of our other friends and thank goodness the other 2 people wanted to actually have a good time. Otherwise it would have just been J & I out there on the slopes.

Do you have any rules or requirements that you go by when traveling with others?