What's the worse experience you have had??

[LINCLAIRE]

Me and DH Paul were talking last night and discussing the fact that we are very unlucky every time we go to Florida and we are hoping to get it just perfect so we keep going back.
Some of our experiences have been,
1st trip -getting totally locked out of the villa bathroom and having to spend a penny in a saucepan!!!

Paul being sick EVERY DAY for 2 weeks!!

Taking the in-laws!!! ( never again) My FIL is the only living person to go to MK and complain about the amount of kids blocking his view etc, etc.( loud enough for all to hear)

Paul ending up in hospital on the 1st day there -admitted for 3 days and then return to hospital each day for 5 days for IV drips.

Me getting totally lost on the way back from the hospital with 2 little kids in the worse thunder storm I have ever seen

Still gotta keep smiling and as I said, we 'aint giving up 'till we get it just right
Lin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[KayleeUK]

Lin

Fingers crossed nothing has happed to us.

I think you need to keep going back until everything is perfect;)

[Muppet]

Going with our 'weathly friends' who argued about money everyday, spent a fortune on credit cards, maxed them, used their company credit card. Broke my hairdryer while drying their pants, treated us as tour guides for 2 weeks. They also took every opportunity to belittle waiters etc for 'fun'.

Being on the recieving end of some nasty racist comments when mistaken for a hispanic person.

Getting lost in the dark and needing to use a very suspect restroom to pee in.

[signtalker]

First trip to WDW, we booked our passes thro travel agent(pre Dis!!).
Got to hotel, no rep, and no passes for 24 hours(franatic calls to england,no record of us ordering passes!!!).
Getting everything locked in the safe, for half a day, before the hotel fixed it!!.
The microwave not working, changing the phone 3 times in our room.
Waking up and walking in the bathroom, to find a pipe had burst!
Tour company phoning the hotel to clarify transport to kennedy, to be told 3 times we werent staying at the hotel!
Getting stranded on the tarmac of the runway(for 2 hours), in the mother of all storms!!!

Being told by the hotel, that we didnt need to be at the parks at the opening times!!:eek:

Well you have to laugh!!, Im pleased to say 2003 lived up to all of expectations!
Jules

[DisneyAli]

Dont laugh

SEVERE motion sickness after coming off the star wars ride on our first trip to disney 11 years ago.

Luckily we seem to have had 2 very good holidays since, except for some strange reason we kept ending up on the road to Tampa on our way back to the hotel last year, its was like a recurring nightmare, but at least after a few trips up it we knew where to turn round and comeback. We have been lucky with the hotels.

The only really scary moment was last November when we had the mother of all rainstorms and coming out of Downtown Disney we couldnt see the end of the car let alone anything else for about 10mins on the I4.:)

[amf]

Going on honeymoon to Orlando (via Boston) in August 1990, having been married two days before;-

1. DW and I woke up on the departure day feeling quesy. As we headed to the airport and boarded the plane it was clear that we had picked up food poisoning:( There we were hogging the economy toilets....both ends burning, so to speak! About 45 minutes before landing they upgraded us to First Class.....I suspect this was to allow other economy pax to use the toilets;)

2. Having arrived at Boston we went through immigration separately as DW was travelling in her maiden name. she got through but the immigration officer refused to let me in and referred me on for further investigation. Turns out my passport photo had me in the bottom right hand corner, rather than in the middle. To be fair it was also a poor black and white photo! The investigating officer fortunately accepted my DW's vouching for my identity and let me in. This would not happen now, post 9/11. Not a nice feeling, believing I would be refused entry and both of us not feeling well:(

What a start to the marriage. But the worst thing of all was on the return sector, Boston to Glasgow. They were looking for volunteers to be "bumped" with a reward of $200 each and a free night in a hotel and a guaranteed seat on the following day's flight. We didn't take them up on the offer......AGH!!!!

Alex

[Hemelman]

Worst experience:

going on Its a Small World!!!!!!


Best experience:

getting off Its a Small World.


Mick

[Rannoch]

Worst experience - travelling with Virgin Atlantic to Orlando from Manchester in 2000.

[pmcpmc]

All our experiences in dvc have been very very positive.
however we have brought my wife's sister and her husband with us on two occasions.
They must be jingxed.!!!!
The first time they went with us one sept for adults holidays we experienced the first time that Disney closed down.
We were set to experience a hurricane and were looking forward to the new experience.
While we were playing golf at Falcon's Fire golf club(a little windy) the staff were busy boarding up the windows
I4 was blocked in both directions with people trying to get out of the area.
Mad irish men!
When we finished playing we were surprised to find there was no food available .
The hurricane was scheduled to come in at 6:00pm or later.
Only 3:30pm time to collect the panicing wives and go to a Ponderosa at the end of international drive.
Perfect they were open.
Meanwhile the wives had been panicing,being told to stay away from the windows and fill the bath with water.
When we returned to Boardwalk the soup kitchen was open offering dinner for $5(I'm sure you can't believe this)
We couldn't miss the chance to eat again at this Price!!!!
We retired to bed to await our fate .
Poor finish, the hurricane turned away and Disney had to put everything they had packed away back in place
Will post the next adventure later.

[kevin harrison]

The last time we went with 2 friends who were a pain from start to finish.

Mark is quite possibly the tightest person I've ever met - once at center parcs he wouldn't use a 20p spinner to dry his trunks as it was too expensive ! , and to save money we agreed to share a room together - big mistake - he hogged the tv, bathroom etc - Doug the Big Red Dog and various cartoons on at all times - you have to realise he was 31 at this point !, they wouldn't get up at the arranged time for showers etc, so we were always late for parks, to make it worse neither can drive so we were stuck waiting for them.

Mark had worked out that as there was 4 of us he could divide the meal charges into 4, which was strange, normally husband and wifes pay together don't they? or you split the bill in half. Once at Ponderosa we went for food and when we came back our comp mints had gone, it turns out Mark had put them all in his pocket for himself so he didn't have to buy anything till the evening! When it was Marks turn he wouldn't tip and left it to us. He never once payed for parking and the day we drove down to Busch Gardens he gave us 5 dollars for petrol and expected change !! He left our housekeeper 20 cents as a tip when we left after a fortnight.

For us though the worse was the night before coming home, we were at Epcot at 8.50pm thinking the millenium fireworks display wasn't till midnight but finding out they were at 9pm, obviously the 3 of us decided to stay but not Mark - he had decided he wanted to go to the Virgin Megastore instead to buy DVD's, this was when my wife Catherine finally blew a fuse and told him "it's fine to go, but we're not driving you back or to the airport tomorrow" - he then decided to stay!

Checkout time guess who had to pay the room as has his card was maxed out ? Needless to stay once back I made sure I got my money and I've never seen him since. Sad really, I was his best man at his wedding and knew him for 20 years.

[Mrs Dazzle]

DD (then 6) being rushed into ER our last day (well, 4 in the morning to be precise) with very bad croup :( She recovered very well, but we did have a scare when the doctor (NOT a George Clooney look-alike I'm afraid) said she would not be able to travel home for a couple of days, but she did and was fine. Of course looking back, if the old travel insurance would have put us up for another couple of days down at Sand Key, we would have taken them up on it, especially as Katie was by then chattering away like a good un;)

Our first trip as a family to Florida was with the MIL and as much as I loved her, I think if she'd uttered another "sigh, oh well" I would have had to do something about it . . . . everything was "too big", "too hot", "too much food", "too busy" . . arrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh. Given she'd already been to WDW about 10 times was beside the point. And don't get me on my Animal Kingdom rant where she was concerned.

Going for a lie down now *** just remembering has sent me for the bottle:eek: :p

[harry the spider]

Sounds like we have got off quite likely so far!!
Just reminded me of a couple more hairy moments, like when we went last year and had to get to the hospital, we decided that the best and quickest way was to get a taxi.
We got the receptionist to call one for us and went to wait outside, within a few minutes, this cab drew up and in we got, only for the receptioist to come running out waving his arms and shouting " OUT THE CAR, JUST GET OUT OF THE CAR".
We all jumped out thinking that we had pinched someone elses cab, only to be told that this was not our cab, this was a gipsy that cruises around looking to pick people up and charge more than double the fare.
We were also told that if we had argued the price, we would have been dumped on the road!!!!
Anyway, the gipsy got very angry and then other members of staff arrived and just stood their ground until he gave up and drove off shouting some quite choice words!!!
Very scary especially for my 2 boys.

Another story but qiute funny was when we were staying in this hotel near Maingate and we were provided with continental breakfast.Paul got up early and asked if he could get me breakfast in bed, Ooh yes please. said I.
Off he went and I waited and waited." I wonder if he needs help with the tray?" I thought.
Anyway, 1/2 hour later, he came back with a small sandwich bag containing 1 muffin and a polysterene cup of orange juice.
He had to wait at the reception counter for ages while an old man of about 100 yrs old went around the back to "prepare" our breakfast!!!
We still laugh about it to this day.
Lin xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[stevefry]

Waiting twenty hours in Cardiff Airport (3 hours before the flight and 17 hours afterwards because of a delay). Then arriving in Orlando in the middle of the night and driving to our villa after 30 hours without any sleep.
Losing my passport and having to get an Embassy-Official to meet me at the Airport to sort it out.
Arriving at Dollar to pick up the hire-car, only to find I'd forgotten to bring my driver's licence. (Aaargh!!!) We had to phone for a taxi to take us to the villa. - Then, an hour later, (12 midnight) a seedy-looking guy in a busted-up old car arrived. I quickly had to make a decision about whether or not he was really our taxi, or someone looking to mug us. - As it turned out, he was a perfect gentleman!
(I hasten to add that these events didn't all happen on the same holiday, thank God! - and they all turned out well in the end).
Steve.

[snookhams]

I am glad tosee that we are not the only family that have had jinxed holidays in Florida, I am happy to say that most of our bad experiences have happended in either Cocoa Beach or St. Petersburg.

On our first trip DH and I couldnot sit together on the plane, I was pregnant with our first child and we flew Gatwick to Boston, everything OK, Boston to Orlando I dozed off and some nice person sitting near me stole all my money and travellers cheques from my bag. I did not discover this until we arrived at our hotel, frantic calls to police, etc and then trying to get replacement cheques from Thoma Cook this took 4 days!!! because first they wanted me to go 14 miles to collect them - we had no car and no money, and then they faxed them through to a western union place near the hotel in the wrong name 3 TIMES, we only go with amex now, luckily there was a large group of us from DH social club and the organisor gave us some money to keep us going.

On our 2nd trip to Florida but our First with our 2 year old son we had a wonderful week in Orlando, on our first night in Cocoa Beach he had a temperature and took him to local medical centre and they said he had strep throat and gave medicine (tablets!) and of we went back to our hotel and to bed in the middle of the night he had a convulsion and was rushed into Cape Canaveral Hospital, I had to battle to be taken in the Ambulance with him and was only allowed to sit up front with the driver, but DH who doesn't drive was left standing outside hotel room, Fireman offered to take him on their rig, but in the end the Hotel got a member of staff to take him in their minibus. After a frantic 24 hours at hospital we were discharged after maxing the credit card as no one could contact our insurance company, to get back to our hotel to find a Harley Davidson convention, now I am sure that not all bikers are as rude and ignorant as this lot, but to say it was hell for the next few days was mild. They took there bikes to pieces on the pathways outside the rooms, they rode them up and down the pathways day and night and God help you if you were walking along them at the time you jumped left or right and hoped for the best, not what you want with a sick child.

On our third trip with both DS aged 6 and 2 we had both of them hospitalised, the youngest had an allergic reaction to something cooked in peanut oil luckily it was not a bad as it could have been but this was in Orlando and it did put a downer on the rest of the 10 days as we had to be so careful with what he ate we began to relax a little and enjoy ourselves when we transfered to St. Petersburg, only to have our eldest son go down with a high temp. now given our experience on the previous holiday we took him straight to hospital this time he had tonsilitis and a throat swab was taken and antibiotics given, 2 or 3 days later we got a frantic phone call in the hotel room, from the hospital to take him immediatly to the local Childrens hospital - no explantation - so got up and dressed it was 6.15 a.m. and this time we had a car so I drove imagining allsorts. when we got there we had to wait for initial medical records to be transfered from the previous hospital as they were not expecting us only to discover that his swab had showed positive for MRSA! thankfully the doctor didn't believe it as by then he was better and bouncing around the play room, and the general concensus was that it had been contaminated.

I am pleased to say we have sinces spent 2 further holidays in Orlando with no major problems lets hope the trend continues!!!!

[Minniespal]

Lin ~

Fingers and toes crossed. We have had nothing but good times on our holidays.

[Pootle]

I doubt mine really qualify as bad experiences, but we have had flights delayed and been 'forced' to spend an extra night in Orlando on THREE occasions over the years.

We always keep our car until after we have checked in (early) in any case so 2 of the 3 times we were able to spend another evening in the parks as we usually had annual passes. I'm sure you're feeling sad for me already ;)

For the record, the airlines were: BA (who put us up in a very classy airport hotel), a charter, can't remember which, who housed us in Gateway Inn near I-Drive, and Virgin, who put some up in airport Hyatt (those with young families) and the rest of us went to some 'seen-much-better-days' place in downtown Orlando.

All three resulted in early morning flights back to the UK. I did feel a bit jinxed when it happened for a third time. I wonder how frequently it does happen.

[keith&carol]

Our most upsetting experience was a few years ago in Magic Kingdom.
DD and I had taken DD in wheelchair to the loo near COP. While we were struggling with her (even Disney loos are too small for W'chairs) an American Lady with a small girl started screaming at her and then hitting her. Two other Ladies tried to protest and got the full force of her temper themselves. A CM eventually arrived and told her to calm down or she would have to leave the park. We emerged from the loo during this performance shaking like a leaf and feeling sick that anyone could treat a child like that .
As we've been Foster Parents for many years we've unfortunately come to know the depths of human behaviour rather well but in "the happiest place on earth" it really got to us.
Carol

[Peebee]

Our worst experience happened on our first trip on the very first night. We were staying at a hotel off the 192 and didn't have particularly good directions. It was also late in the year meaning that by the time we picked up the rental car it was dark outside. Oh, and it was also our first time driving in the US, just to make it even more fun :D

Anyway we somehow managed to get a bit lost and drop round for a while before we found ourselves at an fully-automatic toll booth that was asking for 50c....and we didn't have any coins! Then a car turned up behind us, then another, and another... Eventually we just had to drive through and lights flashed and klaxons sounded :eek:

We spent the next day or two thinking we were going to be picked up by the highway patrol when they checked with the rental company, but nothing ever came of it. We've never found that toll booth again since, but always keep a ready supply of quarters in the car just in case :D

Paul

[DisneyBB]

Every holiday one of our kids have got ill and ended up at the medical center. Either strep throat, virus etc. Both suffer from Ferible convulsions if they get high temps. The worst was last year when our youngest 2 at the time came down with a temp, mild to start with and then went down hill. We decided to go to the medical center on the way she had a bad convulsion. We were driving on the freeway and couldn't stop. Our DD age 8 was in the back and kept stroking her hand all the time. She was fine after antibiotics and by the next morning was up and running around. We now pay extra to have no excess on our insurance!

[peter r]

Hi Peebee

We did EXACTLY the same thing!
Luckily we didn't have anyone behind us like you but after pushing the intercom button & nothing we just drove through with lights and bells going & to make it worse we wanted to get back on the highway and there was one on the other side so we took a deep breath & drove straight through that as well at about 30 mph!

Like you we didn't hear anything
Peter

[2 Point]

Leaving for our honeymoon and my wife's first trip abroad we were delayed 24 hours from Birmingham. We were pt up in the Excelsior (£700 a night), fed and given a bar tab of £60. On arrival in the Domincan Rep one of the passengers 'lost' his luggage, as he was staying at the same hotel as us the bus had to wait for him. Two and half hours later (!), we were off, a poultry pickup crashed in front of us, the transfer was another two and half hours. Loads of people were complaining and wanting to kill the reps, we just hit the ha and enjoyed the holiday. We were given £460 compensation, without even asking for it, after a few days. Result.

Orlando has been painless. Our first visit we were on a Disney shuttle with the Von Trapp family, It's a Small World in harmony with dad conducting. Very distressing.

Our last trip was marred slightly by the whole party recovering from flu. The only day it rained was Christmas Day and we had to cancel our PS in the Liberty Tree Tavern as my daughter was quite poorly and just wanted to sleep.

Fingers crossed for this trip and for everyone else that needs a little luck.

[IrishAngel]

My first holiday me and my best friend decided to go to Disney World. We were both 19 at the time and i worked for 2 years to pay for it. Anyway the plan was fly into New York and stay with relatives of mine for 4 days then on to Disney for 10 days then onto chicago for 6 days.
My friend had spent the summer before as a nanny and we were going to stay with them. Anyway first part of the holiday went to plan, got to Orlando. The first night my friend says she's homesick (remember she spent the whole summer before in america with a family she didn't know before going) and wants to go to chicago the next day!!!! Well i managed to convince her to give it a few days but she still wanted to change the tickets that night. So back to the airport and $150 to change the tickets. Wish i hadn't bothered. All she did was complain. She also wouldn't stay later than 6pm in any of the parks. In the end we did MK, Epcot, AK and Universal. Haven't been back since but my wonderful boyfriend knows how much i want to go back so he's saying we might manage it next September!!!:bounce:
Oh yeay... got to chicago, wasn't the city, was some huge suberb, with nothing to do all day, and i got an inner ear infection and end up hooked up to a drip in hospital!

[CousinB]

1975 - first time via Washington (overnight stay) then on Southern Airways stopping at 4 places en route to Orlando. Left Heathrow at 10.30am, arrived Orlando 4pm local next day. Total travelling time 34hours 30 min. Similar journey back. Those were the days! Disney was only (a smaller) MK. No Epcot, no MGM, no AK. It was however totally magical and well worth the journey.

1980 - this time via Miami (overnight stay) and a drive. Quicker this time 29 hours. Still no Epcot although it was under construction. On the drive back to Miami stopped off for refreshment in the evergalades and got bitten so severely by mosquitos that DW's legs swelled up to 2x normal size. Needed medical attention at the airport and awheelchair to get on the plane.

1997- flew Virgin via Boston. Left UK with 7 suitcases (there were 3 men 2 women and 2 children in the family party) Arrived Orlando with 1 (man's) suitcase. Remaining cases turned up 4 days later. The only mitigating circumstance was that for the first 2 days we had continuous heavy rain so we did not want to go far from the villa and indulged in some skinny dipping in the, fortunately not overlooked, pool. (No AK)

1998 - severe toothache and a trip to the dentist for extraction.

2000 - via a few days in Las Vegas. no problems

2001 - no problems

2002 (twice) - EAL Sunshine first luxury!

2003 March - again after a few days in las Vegas. 1day in hospital with asthma

2003 September - travelling 17th with Virgin

Why do we keep going back? Because even the bad times are good and the good times are brilliant

[UKAnnie]

Worst experience has got to be our week's stay from 11-18 December 2001 when DH had a dull ache in his tummy for most of our stay. To make a long story short, he ended up in Celebration Hospital on 17th undergoing major surgery. He had diverticulitis and his colon had burst in 3 places (sorry for the gory details!). He was in hospital until 26th Dec. We flew home 30 Dec.

He had never suffered from this before - fortunately, because if it had been a pre-existing condition the insurance wouldn't have covered it. He had wonderful treatment and although it was a traumatic time we're glad it happened there instead of here. I don't think he would still be here, our NHS would have probably fobbed him off with painkillers or antibiotics. The condition only came to light when they scanned him - and you know how long it takes to get a scan in the UK! He already had perotinitis when they operated.

Fortunately he's great now, and we have had another super trouble-free Florida holiday since and are due to go again this November.

By the way we went with Virgin and they were just great with all the help they gave us, nothing was too much trouble.

Ann.

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Ours:

DB and his DW having marital problems on our 1st ever trip to disney (we all went together),spent most of the holiday being the referee!,in the end we all went our own ways!! until the end of the holiday! getting lost driving from naples to miami!

Getting caught out with the car,had to pay an extra £200+ as soon as we had landed because dp wasnt over 25!! we wasnt told about this with virgin! gr!

The hotel in miami,being a complete and utter "dive!" we had to take toilet roll,and seat covers out of restaurants just in case we needed the toilet! (it was horrid),The shower turning from warm to freezing,then to mad hot,it burnt our little un! The beds being YUK YUK YUK!!

Thats about it,this years holiday was perfect nothing didnt go to wrong!!

Beth

Getting stuck (this time) in thunderstorm on I-drive,in traffic, poor chelsea was in tears,it was quite bad.

[Minx]

Going to walgreens in the dark (5 minutes from hotel) coming out from wrong exit getting lost and driving round for nearly 2 hours.

Got bit by a fire ant and ended up hospitalised for two days.

DS at the time aged 7 was attacked by wasps that had made a nest on the hotel balcony.

Dee

[RUSHBURY]

On my very first day of my first visit to Orlando - coming out of a store and getting into the wrong car - then saying OK that's us finished we can head home now - to be answered 'HELLO!!! HELLO!!!' to which I then answered 'HELLO' and turned to face the driver who was shaking his head and smiling. ;)


Helen;) ;)

[sallybrealey]

Ok this are my experience and they arent at disney but I thought I would give you a little insite to some of the stuff I saw happen to people when I was a rep...

*I saw a woman (not staying my company) fall over she landed on the centre of her sunglasses, anyway her nose was nearly hanging off and cause I was in uniform I was asked (dragged) by the police into taking her to the hospital as she was on her own. i didnt mind but I am very queasy and nearly passed out when looking at her.

*I had numerous people with lost luggage, the worst was one guys whos luggage somehow went missing on the bus, we never found it and all we can think is that maybe someone else stole it !

*I had a lady get into a fight with another lady and have her thumb bitten so hard, the bite went to the bone.

* I had one woman diagnosed with a brain tumour and 2 have strokes (in the same week!)

Luckily I have never had anyone die but my boyfriend had a lady die and my friend had a little girl drown which is probably the most difficult thing to deal with. I have been the first person someone has seen when they found out their mother had died, again very difficult to deal with.

I have had a lot of customers have a lot of money stolen, so many people still carry way way too much cash (over 1k in their wallets) and the insurance wont pay out for that.

Ive had a bug from the pool in a hotel (not mine) that made the front page of national papers this year, I was called to the hotel and can only call it an experience. I have never heard so much abuse in my whole life ! I appeciate people were angry and upset but I went through something very similar when on holiday with my family at the age of 14 and however upset my family were we never wanted to scream verbal abuse at anyone or push a table violently but somepeople do !

Anway, love my job and cant wait to get repping again !

Hope I havnt scared you !! :) So many people have a great holiday, my advice is try not to get worried if thinks are quite what you wanted, ok you didnt get the pool view you wanted but how often are you going to in your room oh adn if the travel agent tells you that a request is almost guarenteed (ie a certain room, quiet, pool view) its not, 95% of people request poolviews (and many requested sea views in my hotels - not bad when it was a mile from the sea!)

Sally

[JohnnySharp]

After 9 trips there are a few I am afraid:

1. My wife being rushed to Hospital on our honeymoon , she was suffering from sunstroke whilst sunbathing on Miami Beach.
The hospital doctors were fantastic, never seen so many crowded round one patient in my life, staff at the Thunderbird hotel were great too - people kept shaking my hand and wishing us luck.

2. Travelling down the Tamiami Trail driving from Naples to Miami, it cuts right through the Everglades, we were driving in the dark, no street lights or nothing for over an hour, never seen so many creatures in my life, we were scratching and itching all the way.
Laugh about it now though.

3. One of the engines failing just after take off, can't remember which year, we had to make an emergency landing and came home the next day. I was (still are to a degree) a nervous flier.

4.Stayed in Day's inn hotel one year, not listed below, we were the only 2 people on the entire floor who were not rowdy brazilian teenagers, talk about brats - walked down the corridor to confront about 10 of them, all lads...10 rowdy brazilians v. 1 angry brit - no contest, it was quieter after that.

5. We were in Sarasota staying in a hotel on the beach, I left to put stuff in the car and decided to leave the engine running with the aircon on as it was hot, my wife then appeared with our young son - I had only shut the door with the engine running, all the doors were automatically locked, there we stood engine running unable to get into the car, called a locksmith cost me $50!

6. Stayed at villa near Loma Linda, Davenport - relocated to one at Chatham Park after a week.
We now have a son, he is Autistic. The web site looked fine, however, when we arrived it was a nightmare - the villa was in need of severe re-furbishment, the 3 piece suite was filthy, bed linen ripped, dirty walls, and the pool area was such a disgrace we could not use it for three days..shame *** our boy loves water..oh it was terrible, never rent a home that is several years old - this was 10. One mistake I won't make again.

[Mike Jones]

First time we went we drew attention to ourselves at immigration by filling in the visa waiver incorrectly. The official then gave our passports a very thorough inspection and decided that my 1994 photo (2" brown hair, no spectacles and no beard) bore no resemblance to the current 'me' (number 1 cut grey hair, goatee beard and glasses!) It took an endless time (probably 30 mins!) of interrogating the rest of the family before they grudgingly decided not to deport me! On subsequent visits I have grown my hair, shaved the beard and kept my specs off until thru customs!!

Never had a bad experience in the world though..... but done a few things I wouldn't repeat (" it's a small world, after all, it's a small world etc"):-)

[Red-Snapper]

Worst experience was probably a week or so ago.
We went to Mk on Labor day weekend to see Spectro and FIS as it was the only published day it was on that week.

After a day at Epcot we arrived at Mk at 5.30pm - it was absolutely packed !! worse than on 4th July. All wait times for the major rides were 80 - 90 mins and even IASW had a 40 min queue :eek:

The park was full of very fed up people just stood about as it was impossible to move in the tighter areas - many already had their blankets out on main street waiting for the parade.

The crowds to me seemed almost at a dangerous level in some areas.

We eventually decided to join a line so went on POC as it only had a wait time posted of 30 mins. The line was crammed tight into the tunnel area decending into the ride.

We all shuffled forward like a line of convicts - we were being continually pushed by the people behind. The American woman in front who was with 2 teenage daughters suddenly turned to us and asked that we give them some personal space. We were so shocked (we had not been pushing them or even touched them at all) that we said nothing.

When we got to the boat we were sent forward as a group of 2 and as we passed, the woman made a sarcastic comment about "Brits".

Well we did stay to see Spectro but left immediatly afterwards and were very very grateful to arrive back at the quiet of our hotel.

Sadly MK is now well down our list of priorities for future visits.

:cool:

[Mike Jones]

Redsnapper's experience and decision to relegate MK to the bottom of the 'must do' list mirrors our experiences in the past, although we never had as bad a time as that! I just think that MK is so over-hyped that there are generally too many people in the park at busy times... we still go, but limit MK to an early start, max. 2 hours, before seeking sanctuary at Epcot... where we've never felt pressured even at Easter weekend. Mike. (it seems almost sacriligeous to dismiss MK like this, but it's a victim of its own success)

[Muppet]

I have to agree with the MK comments. We avoid at all costs now. Only did it last year due to going to MVMCP.

LOL at your american woman saying they needed personal space. A woman said to me that I needed to keep up with the queue. If I had moved forward I would of been sitting on another mans shoulders!!! When I turned round to explain she said move up or she will move me up. I simply smiled and told if she felt that stressed maybe she should go in front of us. I 'accidently' kicked or stood on her heels at least 20 times in that queue.

We have also been told we shouldn't be in there as we don't have kids and it all for the children really:rolleyes:

Only in MK do we have these occurances happen.

I've never been in crowds as bad as Red-Snaper though. I wouldn't cope in that high level of people. I'd have a wobbly (panic attack).

[AlisonB]

Red Snapper - was that on the Saturday of Labour Day weekend?

We were there that evening and didn't think it was that bad!! We got there about 7ish I think and yes, it was crowded, but they were showing Spectro twice, so we did quite a few rides - including Buzz, IASW and Haunted Mansion. We ate and then watched FIS, used fastpasses and then got our best ever view of Spectro (the late one - at 11pm).

We've been at Easter before and thought this Saturday was not too bad at all!

[kazzie]

My second from worst experince was the same as another posters.On our very first trip to Orlando we arrived tired and disorientated with three children under 10.DH had never driven in the US.Basically we could not find the hotel! Bearing in mind we were staying at The Grosvenor near DownTown Disney.We drove for hours until it got dark.I was nearly crying and I knew Dh was worried too.A couple of times we drove into DTD and drove to valet parking and asked where the hotel was,they gave wild directions,we'd drive off and then end up driving to Downtown Orlando then further still! The final time we made it to valet parking at DTD someone actually pointed to the hotel which was literally a minutes drive away,we could not believe how close we'd been several times:mad: Instead of arriving about 4.30 we got there about 8pm:o Very traumatic!On any subsequent visits we always get lost a few times but no sweat,just this first scary inexperienced time!

The worst thing is what happened at DLP last November when a woman pulled my DS who has Asperger's out of the car of a ride because she thought he'd jumped the queue as he had the disbled guest pass so he didn't need to queue.The CM did nothing which left me trying to deal with the situation,my DS ran off humiliated and broken hearted and me the most unconfrontational person sceaming at this woman How dare she,my son has special needs etc.The CM just left me to cope with it.when i found my DS and went to Guest services as by this time I was crying hysterically because I was also shook up from being angry.They took me in a room and told me the CM should have called the police,as the woman had assualted my son.I felt I had let him down as if the woman had been arressted I would have felt she was paid back for what she did.It may appear obvious I still do not have 'closure' over this incident:mad:

Oh BTW this scum of the earth was English,from the French people I only encountered friendliness.