WIBTA for running away on our honeymoon?

A Redditor and their husband are on their honeymoon, which was gifted by his parents—only to discover that the parents booked a room at the same hotel and have been intruding on their time. Despite attempts to set boundaries, the parents remain overbearing. Now, the couple is considering quietly leaving for another destination to salvage their honeymoon.

‘ WIBTA for running away on our honeymoon?’

(not from my husband) My husband and I are on our honeymoon. His parents gifted us a week in an all inclusive hotel at no cost to us as a wedding gift, and we were really grateful. On arriving we found out that they’d also booked a room at this hotel for themselves for the whole week and want to do group things. Outside of this, we see them maybe 2 or 3 times a year for a couple days at a time as he finds them a bit overbearing at times and they don’t really like me.

It’s not like they’re in the room next door or anything and we can still do stuff in our room alone but they knock on our door regularly, waking us up at 6am, making us get all 3 meals a day with them. We’ve tried telling them we wanted “alone time” for our honeymoon and they shrugged us off saying that’s what our room is for. We also tried faking illness to get out of eating with them and they just got room service to our room and sat with us while we faked stomach aches.

My husband snapped earlier and said this whole thing was way over the line and they had no right intruding on our honeymoon of all things, and they told us that they paid for this whole thing and that as adults we’re allowed to take holidays at the same time to the same place.

We’ve been talking and we saved up to pay for our own honeymoon before they surprised us. We still have the money we would have spent in our joint wedding/honeymoon account. There’s another town we wanted to go to on our honeymoon and we looked it up and we could get tickets from here to there and then back home for less than £60 total.

We could also book a few days in a nice hotel for about half of what’s left in our wedding/honeymoon fund and use the remainder of the week we booked off in another town without his parents knowing we’d left until we had. It’s 9pm now, there’s trains from here to the other town every hour, plus more half-hourly trains tomorrow. Would we be the arseholes if we ran away from his parents without telling them?

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

[Reddit User] −  NTA. Why are you sitting here writing this? Go! Catch your train! Be free!

keepstaring −  they told us that they paid for this whole thing and that as adults we’re allowed to take holidays at the same time to the same place. According to that logic, you can pack up and leave imo and take your honeymoon in another place with your own money.

NTA, this is ridiculous on their part and even really creepy. I can’t imagine what s**t they are going to pull when you guys would decide to have kids… Now seems a perfect time to make your boundaries clear. You tried talking to them, if they don’t losten you need to take drastic measures. Pack up and get on that train.. ETA Wow, thanks for the silver!

Jason_Samu −  NTA. You’re free to travel wherever you want, whenever you want. Turn your cell phone off and disappear for a few days with your husband. Have a real honeymoon. Running away from his parents on a train makes for a great story 10 years from now. Being cooped up in a hotel having tea with Mom and Dad for a week makes for a terrible story 10 years from now.

wadingin3 −  NTA.. Do it! Go!. Edit: and please post an update!!!

alicedeelite −  Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. NTA. Gifts shouldn’t come with strings. This one did. You are under no obligation to accept it (or continue to accept it). Get out of there. Get far away and have a honeymoon, not a surprise group vacation.
I cannot stress enough how very NTA your plan is. Do it. Buy the tickets right now. Hey they’re just two adults going on a vacation. It shouldn’t bother them at all if they have the last half to themselves.. Do it.

And do not EVER accept a monetary gift from them again ever for any reason. If they offer say “no thanks we prefer to use our own money.” No future vacations or houses or whatever scheme they concot to insure you owe them.. Get the f**k out of there.

PlotTwistsEverywhere −  Wow. NTA. Don’t even feel guilty. A honeymoon is supposed to be an incredibly intimate time with your new spouse. It’s your time with literally zero obligations other than to have fun and be free from life for a few days.
It’s not a family event. Your in-laws tried to make it partly their event to enjoy, when it’s not.

They’ll be around for years and have no place even trying to object if you leave because they’re there. Nobody can or will defend them if they try to shine you in bad light or get upset at you. It’s a huge overstep. Just as you can return wedding gifts that don’t meet your needs, consider this nothing but a gift return and go have a blast together, alone, with your husband.

[Reddit User] −  DO IT!!! You don’t get this time back. Run and if they or anyone else tries to guilt trip you just stick to that you were not informed they would be joining you on your honeymoon, and no one in their right mind would willing spend their honeymoon with their in-laws popping in sporadically. How are you supposed to “enjoy one another” when they just randomly knock or muscle their way in with room service?

Also, remind them (if you’re planning on having kids) that their behavior now, dictates visitation in the future. If they’re willing to bulldoze through your boundaries noe, how much worse will they be with grandkids?. NTA.

[Reddit User] −  Love it. Pack your bags and go girl. You’ll have the in laws and parents for the rest of your life. You only have one honeymoon. Just get out of here. You can book the hotel online when your on the train.

NateHeupel −  NTA – You and your husband should be writing this FROM THE TRAIN.

overpregnant −  NTA. Run Lola Run! That’s some expert level sabotage. No one does that. F**king no one thinks that their newly married children want them along on the honeymoon. I’d be in awe if I weren’t so skeeved out.