Any tips to shake the post trip blues?

MinMou

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
I don't know if it's because I am not working right now, or if it is because we will just be visiting family this year and those trips just don't require much planning, but I can't shake the blues since I got home from WDW back in January. I considered trying to plan our next trip, but it will be a few years away, and I don't know what our son will be interested in then, or even what new attractions/restaurants/etc will be available. I even thought of planning trips for other people, but I am not an travel agent and don't want to get in trouble!

What do you do for Post Disney Blues?
 
I wish I had an answer. Been going for many, many years and trips and still haven't figured this one out. The Post Disney Depression is real. I still have it a year and a half later.
 
I don't have solutions, unfortunately, just chiming in to say that I have been experiencing the depression as well! (and I'm also not working right now, which is not helping at ALL). Out of curiosity, why would helping other people plan trips get you in trouble? Trying to help people solve their vacation problems with thoughtful planning is what has been keeping me sane and giving me a good outlet the past couple weeks. I figure I'll try and get good at doing it now, and maybe try to monetize it later. Or just do it for fun :)

My layman's theory on the cause of Post Disney Depression is this: while we are in the theme parks, we are overloaded with a TON of new stimuli - we're riding thrilling rides, eating in new and different restaurants, dealing with the pressure and stress of crowds, seeing new areas of the parks, wrangling our family members, navigating different modes of transportation, sleeping in a new room, etc. etc. etc. We're also probably getting way more exercise walking around than we do in our normal life. Add in all the nostalgia and emotion that Disney is able to trigger in us, whether through familiar childhood characters or triggering memories from prior trips. Perhaps all these new experiences spike levels of adrenaline, cortisol, oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, and/or endorphins in the brain, and keep them at high levels throughout the trip. Once we get back on the plane to go home, those levels of "happy" hormones would settle back to the normal levels you get just from your everyday life. Post Disney Depression is an emotional response to the "withdrawal" of these hormones.

Not a scientist, or a medical professional of any kind. Just some of the thoughts I had as I sat sadly on our Southwest flight from MCO back to Texas in March, reflecting that I'd NEVER felt so sad to leave a vacation before.
 


Will you be taking any non Disney trips in the interim? Planning any type of travel cheers me up. So does making a photo book for the completed trip.
 
i am DEFINITELY experiencing this. My trip ended two weeks ago almost. I actually got home and cried the day after....it was hard to adjust from the state of "happy excitement counting down to a trip" to "welp, what am I looking forward to now"?

Even knowing that I am probably going on another trip in a year or so, I'm feeling down and having a lot of trouble shaking the blues.

I am just trying to find other small joys in life to look forward to. Disney trips are BIG JOYS but there are other parts of life that are wonderful and exciting too, and many of those are much smaller moments. That's the goal!
 
Will you be taking any non Disney trips in the interim? Planning any type of travel cheers me up. So does making a photo book for the completed trip.


I agree! I would suggest planning your next WDW trips. Anything else you might be planning?

I started planning my August trip, pretty much a week after my last August trip.
 


The only cure for me is to plan my next trip. That can backfire money wise though. For example, my last trip was November '17. Net trip planned is september this year. I got impatient, I found cheap flights....now my next trip is the end of the month....I think i have a problem!
 
1. Start planning next trip even if its only "fake " trip that will likely not happen as soon as you would hope
2. Seriously look at the calendar to see when you can actually take trip mentioned in #1
-------A . Check rates on WDW site for prices of hotels in your possible "fake " trip time frame
3. Stare aimlessly for hours at photos taken on last trip(s)
4. Make scrapbook / photo album of photos form last trip(s)

At least this is what I do... :)
 
The post vacation blues are always rough for me for the first week or two. I do the old "last week at this time I was in Magic Kingdom" just to make myself even more sad! LOL. But after that first week or two, I'm mostly back to normal.

I think it helps to stay engaged on the boards, listen to the Dis Unplugged podcasts and watch their videos, and read all the blogs that are out there. It will give you a taste of Disney each day and will keep you up to date with news and happenings.
 
I too get the depression big time. Got back about 3 weeks ago and struggling to shake it. I tend to find that Disney based projects help me quite a bit though...so I edited my photographs from my trip over the last few weeks which was fun, but now I'm working on a piano transcription of the complete music to the Happily Ever After fireworks show, which is keeping me well occupied! Although I only have 8 minutes left of music to figure out...so then I guess I'll start learning to play it.

Then I have no idea what I'll do....
 
THanks for all the tips! I am lousy at scrapbooking, so putting together albums is not fun for me. And while I am planning other non-Disney trips, they just aren't as interesting to plan!! Getting to see other places IS wonderful, but after we have the transportation and place to stay lined up, I usually have to be patient until we go. I rarely go places that need the same amount of advance preparation and studying that WDW requires. The funny thing is that I miss that planning!!!

We do have a family event in LA later this year, so I am seriously considering a trip to DL. That doesn't require as much advance planning either, but I think it would be therapeutic :laughing:
 
I plan another trip! Even if it’s a year or two out, I like having a trip to look forward to. We are going this June, but are not planning on returning until August of 2020, so about 26 months. :crazy2: It’s going to be hard, but at least I can start another countdown and loosely start planning for it.
 
I told DH that we will go back to WDW for the 50th anniversary, and he didn't complain! Still need to pick dates, and I need to wait a while to try to figure out what will be best for our son, but it did help.
 
Post Disney Trip Blues are tough. What I suggest is here at DisBoards you can read everyones Trip Reports, YouTube where you can watch their trip videos or even ride/show povs (point of views) which makes you feel like you are really there without the long waits lol and lastly I suggest D-Cot where you can listen to Disney Music from the parks to the resorts to the transportation and TV :-)
 
After my 2015 trip, I returned to NY to a bus driver who yelled at me when I had the wrong ticket. I didn't realize the bus changed to an express and required more fare. I got off the bus to buy the ticket, he took off, and I about broke down right there on the sidewalk. The immediate reminder that I was no longer in Disney, where the bus drivers greet you in the mornings with a smile and always have a kind word to say. That was the worst Disney Hangover of my life. It took several days to be able to not fixate on it. (A really great event at my new jobs a few days later helped immensely.)

I also agree that the best cure is to plan another trip. While Disneyland doesn't require that much planning, the research is so fun. I read everything I could about the attractions and restaurants and shows. Having something Disney-related to look forward to is the best cure there is. Well that and an actual trip back. :)
 
We have 2-3 years between our trips so I know how you feel. The first thing I do is look at pictures and consider making a photobook. I’ve only made one of our 5+ trips but I love it. I then think about our trip and how to make the next one better. Were there dumb mistakes made, poorly timed fastpasses, etc and I keep notes. Not only do I keep notes, I have a whole Disney folder on our PC and it keeps everything organized for me. I read message boards and websites dedicated to Disney trips and learn all I can to improve our next trip. I don’t do this every day, I go in spurts.

I have a Disney binder and have thought about putting it on YouTube to show how I keep everything organized between trips.
 
Start planning your next Disney trip, even if you don't know precisely when that will happen. Pick a date and start working with it. Then adjust it and push back the dates as needed. I think even working out a budget for a trip can end up turning it into reality down the road
 
This is definitely something we all run into. You're most definitely not alone! I see you mentioned planning another trip but but you're concerned about factors that may or may not be in place by the time you go again. To that, I say, still research. I'm not sure how many times you've been, but I know for me, I've been planning since our last trip. By that I mean, I've been watching a few restaurant reviews here and there, watching some ride-through videos, looking at some ques, looking at hotel reviews, and coming on here. I also reflect on where we ate, what characters we met, look at photos from past trips, and loosely decide what I can skip next time and what I'd like to see again. If you pace yourself over the next 2-3 months, by the time your next trip comes around, you'll have a general idea of what you'd like to do and what you'd like to skip. Even watching packing videos are fun lol. Since WDW trips are so costly, if you can pick a time frame of when you'd be able to go again, you can even start a "savings jar" and contribute to it. Look up disney movies being released this year, so on so forth!
 
When we get home, we start watching Disney movies that are related to all the attractions we went on or related to the resorts or restaurants we spent time at.
 

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