If you’ve read my trip reports, especially my recent Round The World trip, you’re probably thinking how methodical and meticulous I am when planning a vacation. It may appear that way now, but I’ve experienced a lot of mishaps along the way that helped me become better prepared before I travel.
In my series Lessons Learned, I want to chronicle the mistakes I’ve made in the hopes that others will not make the same errors as well. Some of my experiences aren’t so bad, although others may seem catastrophic at the time.
My first post in this series reflects an incident that occurred a decade ago. Planning ahead may seem like common sense, but sometimes things slip through the cracks.
What Happened?
One of my major travel goals was to attend a tennis match at Wimbledon, London. Fortunately, I’ve been there twice now to watch my favorite tennis stars battle it out on the court, but my first time there almost didn’t happen.
On my Grand European Tour after college, I carved out some time in London for my family and I to go to Wimbledon. I researched prior to traveling that Grounds Passes would be best since purchasing tickets from vendors or scalpers were ridiculous, several thousands of dollars, and getting actual tickets required submitting a request through the Wimbledon lottery a year ahead of time.
We took the Underground early in the morning to Wimbledon and upon our arrival, we saw a large grassy field with hundreds of people (maybe a couple thousand) in long lines. Apparently, that was The Queue to enter the grounds, first come first served. Um…I didn’t expect long lines at 7:00am outdoors in the hot sun. The queue took about 3 hours to get to the entrance, and that’s where the real problem occurred.
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I told the teller that I wanted three Grounds Passes, which cost a few hundred dollars. I handed her my credit card, but she pointed to a sign that said “cash only.” What? Who only accepts cash at a sporting event? I told her we didn’t have any cash since it was the end of our trip and we spent it. She was very nice and asked a man to assist us in getting cash from an ATM. Oops…none of us brought an ATM card.
There was a small bank on the premises, so the man suggested we take out a cash advance on our credit card. As that was our only option, he escorted me inside while my family waited at the gate. The cash advance was a huge mistake as there was a 3% foreign transaction fee (most credit cards don’t have them nowadays) and a conversion fee from pounds to dollars. Well, at least I got the cash to pay for the passes.
When I returned to the gate, my family looked at me hopeful that I was able to make the transaction. I kept a stoic face and told them unfortunately my credit card was declined, and the man escorting me (who was in on the joke) nodded along. Their faces plummeted in disappointment (I know, it’s terrible that I revel in other people’s misery). I started laughing, flashed the cash and told them we were in.
We had an amazing time and was able to watch Venus Williams lose a match on Court 2 (by peeking over the top seats in Court 3), followed by all Americans losing that day (not because of us, I hope).