What's your worst vacation?

[jkluttrell]

Spin-off from the top 5 best vacation thread, what's your worst vacation of all time and why?

 

[sweetlovin']

My top few are ones I did not want to go on and ended up being berated until I agreed to go. Paris with a bunch of family members. I was 19 but in a weird situation. In the mall there my cousin and I ran into some bad guys. We will leave it at that... that was probably my worse one. Oh and I ended up in the hospital..later in the week for completely different reasons.

 

[ImDMous]

I've been pretty lucky, most of our vacations have been awesome!

The one that I would not repeat would be going to Spokane for a family event. The relatives we went to visit and really the whole lifestyle in Spokane did not mesh well with ours, pretty incompatible really. Certainly not in a hurry to go back

 

[holula]

1) Paris. Summer 2004. 2 18 year old girls lost in the Paris suburbs and being followed by two guys back to central Paris.
2) Australia. It wasn't bad but it was so disappointing compared to what I expected it to be like!
3) Venice. Hot, damp, crowded. It was 100 degrees and with my asthma it was like being in a sauna. No fun.

 

[sweetlovin']

1) Paris. Summer 2004. 2 18 year old girls lost in the Paris suburbs and being followed by two guys back to central Paris.
2) Australia. It wasn't bad but it was so disappointing compared to what I expected it to be like!
3) Venice. Hot, damp, crowded. It was 100 degrees and with my asthma it was like being in a sauna. No fun.

I hated Venice! ! I went to Zermatt Switzerland and Tuscany on the same trip so it wasn't my worse vacation but the three days I was there was awful.

I felt the same way about Sydney, but I just went back and did Cairns and loved it. After Sydney I had no desire to go back to Australia. Then again, I had just spent 15 days in New Zealand. I should have gone the other way.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Probably our NCL Hawaii cruise. A third to a half of the crew walked off in a labor dispute just before our cruise.

and that was only one of the problems.

 

[livie1205]

Ours was BEST/WORST all in one... Our first DCL cruise in 2012, went with 13 family and friends... All that needs to be said

 

[momof2n2]

My top few are ones I did not want to go on and ended up being berated until I agreed to go. Paris with a bunch of family members. I was 19 but in a weird situation. In the mall there my cousin and I ran into some bad guys. We will leave it at that... that was probably my worse one. Oh and I ended up in the hospital..later in the week for completely different reasons.

Worst trip ever was a group trip. Five other families along with my own into a Beach house a few years ago. This was our second time doing this kind of trip & were all really looking forward to it. It was a beautiful mansion right on the beach. Every amenity you could hope for. We had beautiful weather. What could be wrong?

Well, we had booked this trip about 11 months in advance. About six months before our trip The adults in one of the other family started to be convicted on a lot of different things. Different ways of eating, different ways of dressing, different idea of entertainment, etc. This would not of been a problem; however, they worked overtime for that six-month period to convince all the rest of us how wonderful their new ideas were. This didn't work too well. So then they just tried pointing out how awful the rest of our ideas were. By the day we left for vacation I climbed into the van as reluctantly as I've ever gone anywhere. We more or less spent the next seven days trying to always be in a different place at every moment than where our friends. This was so vastly different than our first trip just three years earlier.
The rainy day was a disaster. The mom of that group counted every calorie I ate and announced it to pretty much anyone who would listen. She also very loudly stated how much she hated the movie Tangled, despite the fact that at that time it was my five-year-old's favorite movie. My daughter's feelings were really hurt that Mrs. so-and-so would've said that. Mrs. so-and-so would never have let her children speak that way. But she was trying to make a point. Etc. etc. it's pretty yucky being on vacation and trying to count down how many days you can go home.

Oh- I should also mention that she and her family arrived to the rental house with a raging upper respiratory infection that the other families all went home with by the end of the week. The most part, I can't really fault them for that. Germs happen and we get all paid a good chunk of money to rent this place. But it was like adding insult to injury.

Thankfully it wasn't completely horrible time. The ocean was still beautiful.

 

[aanderson5]

Our worst vacation was to Punta Cana for a friend's wedding. The resort was beautiful, food great and we were with some of our best friends so there were some great moments but unfortunately the bad outweighed the good. Here are a few highlights.

The first issue was we went in August so it was ridiculously hot. We took our 18 month old who hated the sand therefore cooling off in the ocean was out and the pools were bathtubs.

We made the mistake of making our reservations for the early seating which didn't work for several reasons.

There was a lot of drama with the families of the bride and groom. There was so much tension that the day of the actual wedding they thought they had stood each other up. Turns out the hotel was on island time and was just very late picking up the bride. (They drove her to the ceremony location on the beach in a little cart).

Several members in the group ate or drank something they shouldn't have and ended up very ill.

And the number 1 reason it was a bad trip... We had diapers stolen. It sounds crazy, we were so concerned about our electronics but it was the diapers we should have put in the safe. We ended up buying some local diapers for about $40 for 12. They were loose and different brands. On the way to the airport home my son started screaming. As soon as we got to the airport I rushed him into the bathroom, even though the bus driver was yelling at me not to leave the line, and took off the diaper. The entire area that touched the diaper looked like he was burned. This is a kid that never got diaper rashes. I could see why our diapers got stolen.

The kicker is the couple who got married didn't even make it to their first wedding anniversary. The wedding should have been a sign.

Eta- after we left, a tropical storm went through the area and the bride and groom were still there for their honeymoon. So their vacation got even worse.

 

[SLK1]

Last year on the Fantasy, I threw my back out on the second day. I was in miserable pain and couldn't sit, stand, or sleep comfortably. And my family felt my pain. Came home and had to have two months of PT and laser therapy. It truly was miserable and when we went just a few weeks ago, the minute I walked onto the ship, all the bad feelings came back! Luckily my back stayed in tact this time and it was a good week!

 

[mtchurchmonica]

My worst vacation occurred in late June, 1995. It was the first time we spent a week at our beachfront timeshare with our then 7 month old son. Married for 6 years but only having been parents for 7 months, this was our first beach vacation with a baby to take care of. For all the meticulous preparations taken for this first family vacation, one we had not done was to prepare ourselves mentally for the fact that one does not get a vacation from parenting just because one is on vacation.

This was especially true of my husband. Although he was as helpful as I could want him to be in our everyday lives, on this first vacation, he failed the good husband and father test (if there was such a thing). He went about doing all the things he liked to do on vacation (night fishing on a charter boat, drink with friends, sleep late in the morning, lie around and read, etc.) oblivious to ds and me. I was tired and I felt abandoned. By the fourth day, this nanny/wife was on a low boil. By the end, I was ready to blow my top.

I'm no martyr, and we had words (some loud words, no bad words). At the time that this was happening, dh was not receptive to my point of view. Later, on the way home, I suggested that we should plan to bring a mother's helper with us on vacation so we can both have a vacation. That's what we did until our children were old enough that we didn't need one.

 

[mtchurchmonica]

Last year on the Fantasy, I threw my back out on the second day. I was in miserable pain and couldn't sit, stand, or sleep comfortably. And my family felt my pain. Came home and had to have two months of PT and laser therapy. It truly was miserable and when we went just a few weeks ago, the minute I walked onto the ship, all the bad feelings came back! Luckily my back stayed in tact this time and it was a good week!

I have never done this on vacation but it has happened to me. This is horrible! I'm glad your next cruise was so much better.

 

[Yokelridesagain]

High school trip to Atlanta is about the only 'vacation' experience of which I really have bad memories. I have been on business trips to cities I don't like and certainly some obligatory visits to family that I wouldn't describe as enjoyable, but don't really count either of those as vacation.

At the time I couldn't figure out if people in the ATL were rude because we were kids or because that's just how they were. It wasn't until years later that it occurred to me that the fact that 75% of the group was black might have had something to do with it.

 

[JohnDS]

Ski trip in 1997 to Heavenly in south Lake Tahoe. My wife tore her acl skiing and then had a reaction to the pain medication the hospital prescribed and spent the night in the bathroom.

 

[toontoy]

Our worst has to be our last trip to Disneyworld back in December of 2010. My wife won't even let me consider another trip to the world but she likes dcl

 

[Jammy93]

Atlantis Bahamas. Rained every day. Not just afternoon showers. Rain, all day, every day. We went shopping in the rain, swam in the rain, everything in the rain.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

For all the meticulous preparations taken for this first family vacation, one we had not done was to prepare ourselves mentally for the fact that one does not get a vacation from parenting just because one is on vacation.

My DH and I struggled financially when our DD was a baby (part of it due to my being at home) and a vacation was out of the question. What's funny, I used to wonder "how do people do this when they're on vacation, away from the baby's own crib, surroundings, and routine?"

Good for you though! Your baby still went on vacation at 7 mos.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I think I hated my CCL Dream the most cruise. Its the only time I was happy to pack up and leave. Thought I had left my cruising days behind but I then I discovered DCL.

 

[ludari]

I have enjoyed all my vacations but the worst would have to be four days before I was scheduled to leave on a Disney Cruise I fell off my bicycle and broke my clavicle in two places. In short I still went on my cruise with a broken clavicle which extremely painful and prevented me from being as active as I am when I travel. I was a memorable trip to say the least.

 

[sushi2]

A couple of weeks of traveling solo through Mexico while having pneumonia. I was self-medicating with codeine (young and stupid at the time), and I was so sleep-deprived and drugged up that when I tripped on a curb while wandering around Mexico City, I ripped by whole big toenail right off the nailbed and didn't notice. (It really really hurt the next day, and the day after....)
I was so miserable. I had zero energy, couldn't taste anything, could not sleep, it was so incredibly hot, and I was all alone in this huge, unfamiliar city.