Bad Trip

[ebtbmom]

Our 2006 trip was with DHs family, and it was pretty bad (he agrees!). It was his mom, 2 brothers, 1 wife, and 4 kids in addition to us 3. We initially had the trip planned just for our family, we invited ONLY his parents and 1 niece. His dad invited the rest of the family and then proceeded to back out of the trip.

They wouldn't stay where we were staying (POP) and stayed off property to save money. They were late for EVERY park day and EVERY ADR. We would be walking through the park and suddenly realize that the 2 brothers were missing! They would take off to ride what they wanted to ride and leave us and my MIL with all the kids. They actually stated that they did this because we go more often than they do.

My SIL has some vague medical problems that cause her to be "exhausted" on some days and yet bursting with energy on others. Some days she didn't even show up, coincidentally on the days she didn't really want to do what we were doing? But when she was afraid she was going to miss Spectromagic she loaded up the kids in her wheelchair and full on ran them to the handicapped seating section from Tomorrowland!

Finally we had left my dad and uncle renovating our bathroom while we were gone. We returned to our entire bathroom being gutted and the remnants and trash sitting on our deck. Our cats had been stressed out by this and had pooped/puked all over the house!

Lessons of this trip: never travel with others!! We have a small family for a reason.
Also, while it sounds sensible to do home renovations when you're out of town, no, not really!

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Not a trip to WDW but I headed to FL (Ft Myers to visit my aunt when I was a senior in college. My sister and 3 1/2 year old nephew were with me. The way down there was an ice storm in Kentucky/TN. Those poor folks don't know how to drive in ice. I'm from IL so a little more familiar but still not fun. My rear view mirror fell off the windshield at some point in time. The actual time in FL was nice but on the way home we hit Tampa and my car basically quit...I couldn't steer. Turns out my transmission blew out....somewhere on 75 when I was driving 80 along with everyone else and was in the left lane. Somehow I made it over to the side of the road without getting hit. Called a tow truck but a random tow truck was cruising the interstate so he picked us up and took us to Aamco transmissions and they proceed to tell me it'll be $1500 to fix it and I won't get my car til Thur/Fri (it was Sat). I called my aunt and she came to get us and we had an extended stay but I missed the first 3 days of.classes too. I get my car on Thur and we make it almost to KY and I start having problems. Freaking tranny again. At this point I was maybe 6-7hours from home. Ended up renting a U-Haul ($500) and pulled my car back home. There was horrible fog on the way home and my brother in law and his brother ended up coming and meeting us in some random hotel b/c I was afraid to drive it in the fog.

Crap always seems to happen when my sister afraid I travel together. I need to stop bringing her with me.

 

[MichiganDVC]

On my last trip, I got stopped by MCO security for "failing" the bomb hand wipe thing. And, no... I'm not a bomb maker in my spare time. I wasn't really worried, but more annoyed at the time it took to rifle through my carryon bags and the take me in to the special room to pat me down. Luckily, I sent my wife ahead to Outback at our gate and I arrived with my drink awaiting me.

 

[LuvGoofy6]

Luckily as time goes on, we start to remember that we did actually have some fun, and after more time goes by, we start to laugh at the things that went wrong. It probably helps that I start planning the do-over trip!

 

[Rosanne]

Totally!

Spring 2011 we were just pulling off the exit near the McDonald's near the All Stars and a truck started moving into our lane. He/she didn't see us. In order to avoid a collision I moved to the right but the bumper hit the curb and ripped it half off. The truck just kept on going and left us there. I duct-taped it on and we continued to the resort.

I was so distracted and upset about the bumper that I didn't notice I left the headlights on when we left the car to bring our luggage to our room and get settled. The next morning the battery was dead when we were ready to go to Magic Kingdom. Eventually a kind soul helped us get the car started and we had a good time at MK but stopped by Downtown Disney after to pick up Potato Head parts. When we got back to our car I had put the Potato Head parts in the trunk and closed the trunk before realizing my car keys had fallen into the trunk. Stupidly I hadn't unlocked the doors before unlocking the trunk. Luckily I had an extra set of keys in the hotel room but we had to wait over an hour for the bus and we had had it by then and took a $25 cab ride to get back to my car.

Five days later when we got home we found the cat-sitter had not followed feeding directions and the cats had the runs all over the house in place you cannot even imagine.

Yeah, that trip was the worst.

 

[jemlover]

DH and I had planned a three day cruise to the Bahamas and then Disney for the rest of the week. I had been having bouts of nausea for weeks prior to our trip and had multiple tests done with no diagnosis. The day before we were to leave I was having an outpatient test done. After talking with the doctor he decided it was safe for me to travel. I didn't want to miss anything. Well the flight down was miserable and we took a bus to the ship. After getting on the ship I began to feel sick again and had a full-blown panic attack at the thought of leaving the country with this mysterious illness. I convinced DH we needed to leave the ship which was still in port. We arranged to be bussed back to Orlando and as we waited for the bus I was sitting on the floor sobbing while DH looked on helplessly. We made it to Orlando and spent the night in a hotel and arranged for a trip to urgent care so a doctor could certify that it was safe for us to fly home (required by our trip insurance). The doctor there couldn't find anything wrong so basically told DH we should head to the resort and relax. On top of everything else we realized that we had forgot to pack DH's insulin so had to arrange for a delivery to the resort. We spent the rest of the trip in the parks with the help of anti-nausea medicine but DH was a nervous wreck worrying about me the whole time. After returning home I finally was diagnosed with severe reflux which was treatable with mediation.

 

[kathy884]

I can think of two that didn't meet the expectations that I had for them and were huge disappointments for me. For me it wasn't so much individual things that didn't work out or circumstances, but more of Orlando not being a good fit overall for my family at the time.

The first was when DS was two. My husband and I really didn't think Orlando was a particularly good choice for us, but we had extended family all getting together there for Christmas, so decided to join them for a few days. While it's always nice to see family, DS did not like the Disney Parks (they were too much stimulation for him.) He didn't want to go on any rides and the characters totally freaked him out. There was so much joy/relief on his face when we left the parks and decided to spend the rest of the day at the condo swimming pool. Now SeaWorld was another story. He loved that. So basically at Disney we only stayed at their parks on any given day for about two or three hours and then hit the condo swimming pool and that, of course, was a huge hit. Minimal theme park time was the best thing for us to do, but it sure felt like those expensive Disney theme park tickets were a huge waste of money. My dad laughed about cost vs. usage for us. We also didn't see the extended family all that much, as they love the parks and hit them and rope drop and stayed through evening fireworks or later (I think on the Magic Kingdom day there were there from 8 a.m. till 2 a.m. // My extended family are true Disney diehards / love the parks / can't get enough of them). Except for one non park day and a SeaWorld day, we hardly saw them at all. That was another disappointment for me, as I love spending time with them. We didn't try Disney parks with DS again till he was six and then they worked out great. Do note that DS was adopted from Russia, spent the first 13 months of his life in Russian orphanage, and we were even warned that places like Disney can be overwhelming and often don't go over real well due to the stimulation. Probably the bigger surprise than his being overwhelmed with Disney parks was his total enchantment, delight, and fascination with SeaWorld lol.

We had a successful trip when DS was three and DH had a seminar the Contemporary, but we did NO Disney parks, just resort time and SeaWorld lol. We also had a great trip when DS was six. We just did two parks, SeaWorld and the Magic Kingdom.

My next trip that didn't work well was meeting extended family again for Christmas. Do note: DH is not particularly fond of Florida or theme parks in the first place and hates crowds. Christmas in Orlando was really just too much for him to handle on this trip. I think the disappointing thing for me is that knowing DH doesn't really like theme parks, I went way too much out of my way too much to find activities, restaurants, and experiences that I thought he might like (put a lot of time and effort into this), and my efforts were pretty useless. Well all he liked period was the Blueman Group show which you can see anywhere, Cirque de Soliel, indoor wind tunnel sky diving on I-drive, and Gatorland (loved that it was more of an old time Florida place vs. a world class theme park). That's all he cared for period, and he was a "pain in the butt" with all his complaining / *****ing. And that ruined the "Disney magic" for me. Even Boma, a buffet that he had liked on previous trips was a huge disappointment to him. He felt they had replaced some of their interesting African fare he had experienced there on theme park trips with blander offerings that would appeal more to a theme park crowd.

I've never taken DH back to Orlando again (well I did join him when he had to attend a seminar at the Contemporary again, but he was attending the seminar and only did one theme park). We now always go somewhere else we will all like for our main family trip each year. And I still do go to Orlando, but just for mini budget trips for three or four nights and just with DS. DH is thrilled not to be pressured to go, and fine with our going. Sometimes we meet up with extended family too.

On rare occasion DH has been tempted to come with us (thinking DS would really like him to be there), and I've told him that I really don't want him to come because his *****ing and complaining about the place ruins my vacation and I have so much more fun down there without him. But I'll get him a ticket if and only if he can promise he won't complain about Disney the entire time he is there. And every time, he agrees there is no way he could possibly keep that promise and stays home.

Anyway, family vacations seem to be working pretty well these days. DS has college finals finishing up on Dec. 12th, so on the 13th DS and I are doing a mini budget trip to Orlando before the Christmas crowds roll in (we seem to do one of these almost once a year. This one's a little longer than usual. Last year's was three nights / two days.). I'm coming back on the 18th and DS is coming back on the 20th, spending two extra days down there with his grandparents and his cousin who is down there working for Disney. We'll all be home for Christmas with DH. And for spring break we're going to a family favorite vacation destination everyone loves, Puerto Vallarta: DH just loves the food down there, food to die for. We'll get to see humpback whales, visit a remote Mexican Village in the mountains, enjoy the old city and the beach, release baby turtles at the beach and do a food tour.

I really do like vacationing with DH if it's to a place that he likes reasonably well. And Disney / Orlando with others who like the area is magical.

 

[bumbershoot]

Such a shame. Alllllll that planning and anticipation, and I get home and I'm like what just happened? I want a do-over!

It IS a shame when it happens. And sad.

For WDW marathon weekend, 2 days after we got there I got sick. And sicker and sicker and even sicker still. Then DS got it. And we were so sick that we never once thought about just buying some filter masks and going back home. And this was a LONG trip. So sick. Awful.

I wrote it up and everyone told me I needed a redo. I thought "nah, I don't". And then I almost accidentally signed myself up for the WDW Half next year, and almost immediately felt this feeling of "this is the right thing to do". I did need a re-do.

Yeah, it was a bad weekend. I think we should be able to get a redo.

I hope you get one!

Yep...had one of those. Family was at each other's throats by the start of our second day and by the middle of day 3 I was sobbing uncontrollably on a sidewalk in Universal Studios.

Yup. Been there. December trip a few years ago.
1. It was cold - really cold. Like *buy blankets and hats for the kids in a gift shop* cold.

2010, eh?

Before you all think I am horrible mom.. my kids have had the stomach flu so many times.. it seemed like that's what it was.

My sister in law was visiting her mom when she developed appendicitis. It took DAYS for her mom to figure it out and get her to the ER. And her mom is a nurse. Sometimes it just presents really strangely. My aunt actually caught it in her daughter ONLY because they were living with my grandma and sharing a room. This let my aunt have the knowledge of how her 10-ish year old daughter sleeps at night (something not every parent knows), and one night my cousin was up to go to the bathroom multiple times, and was restless even while sleeping. This was SO different that my aunt took her to the ER. This wouldn't have been caught by most, because most people don't share rooms with their 10ish year olds! Lucky cousin.

On my last trip, I got stopped by MCO security for "failing" the bomb hand wipe thing. And, no... I'm not a bomb maker in my spare time. I wasn't really worried, but more annoyed at the time it took to rifle through my carryon bags and the take me in to the special room to pat me down. Luckily, I sent my wife ahead to Outback at our gate and I arrived with my drink awaiting me.

DH travels for work, and almost everything on him tested positive for residue when coming home from Mexico. Of course...first they tested his shoes after having him take them off. Then they tested his hands. Um. You just had him touch his shoes....

 

[DOOM1001]

On our second Christmas trip last year we went to see the Osborne Lights and let me tell you,for some reason there was no snow coming out of the machines,it totally ruined out trip,seven months later we're still talking about it. OK, just kidding but the truth is it seems most bad trips tend to be summer trips,between the heat and the rain it's never a good thing,especially when it ruins a day at the waterpark,I remember being inside that Typhoon Lagoon gift shop for about 3 hours waiting for it to stop,never did.Lets see what else I can think of,OK I remember my manual transmission car losing reverse,it just wouldn't go into that gear,so what did I do,I did what Clark Griswold would have done and didn't let it bother me,so I had no reverse for 2 days,just park somewhere I can go forward or push it back to get out and avoid getting myself in a position while driving to have to use reverse,it worked,did my days at the parks and drove home without issues.Always think what would Griswold do in those situations.

 

[MeanestMomEver]

Oh, I got this.

We've had trips peppered with flakes of badness here and there that I won't even get into. You know, the usual: tag along relatives that hate Disney, lost purse in space mountain, phone dropped in toilet etc.

But on one trip (which had all sorts of mildly awkward and annoying mishaps) when the lights came up after the Enchanted Tiki Birds show, the gentleman seated next to my daughter was dead. I feel like a jerk saying it was "my" bad trip because think of what his family went through. His poor wife was trying to wake him as a nurse came from the crowd to help.

But what made it "bad for us" is that my daughter, who was 19 at the time and a lifeguard, felt so horrible. She thought she could have saved him if she had only noticed. She sobbed in bed every night of that trip.

So, even though it was not our tragedy, it still made us feel just awful. But it also helped to remind us to treasure all the family times.

 

[goopysolelady]

Good to know I'm not alone! I didn't even want to get on Disboards once we got home! We were there from 6/6-6/16 so it was a long trip. My husband got the speeding ticket in Louisiana - don't speed there! This was on our way to Florida. About five minutes later a rock hits our windshield. Of course that chip cracked all the way across by the time we were in the Florida sun. Then on our way back home here comes another rock. My two cracks have almost met now.

The rain was horrible. We had just gotten our good at Flame Tree BBQ, and gotten to our table when the bottom fell out. So I tell everyone to just take their time and enjoy. We were at one of the lower sections. About half way through the meal I was telling everyone to hold their feet up because all of the water was rushing down, and we were sitting in about two or three inches of water.

Again, none of it was Disney's fault but I think we may give universal a shot next summer.

My family was so cranky, and we were traveling with extended family. I do believe we were all over the trip before we ever made it to Orlando!

DON'T get me started about driving through Louisiana! Started our 2010 spring break trip leaving Houston in the rain. Cleared by the time we arrived in Louisiana but we were "greeted" with bumper to bumper traffic (I think everyone and their BROTHER drove to DW from Texas that week ) through the ENTIRE STATE! Add to that road construction... and by 5 that evening I was ready for a helicopter to "lift" us across the state border! With all the delays, we arrived in Tallahassee at 2:30 AM...we'd planned on getting there between 9 & 10. The trip was good with the exception of getting yelled at in an elevator by another resort guest because the bus driver wasn't nice to her Mother! I wanted to yell at her I'M NOT THE BUS DRIVER but, honestly was "afraid for my safety"! The "bad" part caught up with me on Thursday when my finger (which had been bothering me slightly since we left home) doubled in size and began a painful, constant throbbing. Couldn't stand it any longer by 3:30 that afternoon and arranged to be picked up and delivered (sent the rest of the family back to MK) to the "walk in" clinic close to DTD. Yes, it was "walk in" but also included a 3 hour WAIT after I "walked in". Very bad infection, given antibiotics and instructed to go straight to our local ER when I returned home. (Clinic personnel were great...just overworked!) Got back to our resort at 11:15...to late to even THINK about joining the family for the last night in the the park. Started for home the next day and everything went well...UNTIL WE HIT THE LOUISIANA BORDER! I'll end my story there, again thanking God, as our co-pilot who safely delivered us home...ALIVE!

 

[disney meema]

I think I am way overdo for a bad trip ... Been going to Disney World for just over 30 years and every trip has been incredible. The only thing I can even think of is one of my twin grandsons got a 24 hr bug or food poisoning and barfed one entire night yikes! The next day the hotel had to bring in a carpet cleaning machine to clean the carpet .. He was that sick. But on the upside the hotel send up broth, crackers, ginger ale and by dinner that night he was back to normal and having fun. Every time he even hears the world disney world since he got sick he says " remember when I threw up pickles all night at disney world " So not a magical trip to him

 

[anonymousegirl]

January 2010--finally convinces my DH to come to WDW--heavy rains and then I came down with bronchitis. DH couldn't golf as promised, I got worse and worse as the week went on. Final night we had moved over to Pop after BCV, canceled Bistro de Paris (now Monsieur Paul's) and split an Earl of Sandwich in the car in the DTD parking lot.

Could have been worse--DH could have broken his leg or something.

 

[typewrittenwolf]

On my last trip, I got stopped by MCO security for "failing" the bomb hand wipe thing. And, no... I'm not a bomb maker in my spare time. I wasn't really worried, but more annoyed at the time it took to rifle through my carryon bags and the take me in to the special room to pat me down. Luckily, I sent my wife ahead to Outback at our gate and I arrived with my drink awaiting me.

My guess is you went golfing or where you stayed had sprayed the fertilizer recently. It sets off the wipes.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I had bad moments during certain trips but no truly bad trips yet. I don't travel with big groups though. I think that has a lot to do with it.

 

[luvthemouse71]

Oh, I got this.

We've had trips peppered with flakes of badness here and there that I won't even get into. You know, the usual: tag along relatives that hate Disney, lost purse in space mountain, phone dropped in toilet etc.

But on one trip (which had all sorts of mildly awkward and annoying mishaps) when the lights came up after the Enchanted Tiki Birds show, the gentleman seated next to my daughter was dead. I feel like a jerk saying it was "my" bad trip because think of what his family went through. His poor wife was trying to wake him as a nurse came from the crowd to help.

But what made it "bad for us" is that my daughter, who was 19 at the time and a lifeguard, felt so horrible. She thought she could have saved him if she had only noticed. She sobbed in bed every night of that trip.

So, even though it was not our tragedy, it still made us feel just awful. But it also helped to remind us to treasure all the family times.

Holy crap, I think you win..

 

[Alice Royal]

Decided to head over one weekend but couldn't find a ride. Rode the LYNX bus (1.5 hours each way) just to ride Space Mountain once due to the line and go home.

Yep.

 

[disnut8]

I just posted this on another thread. You can't change the past. Why dwell on what didn't go right? Why not look at the fun you did have? Or laugh in a few years about what went "wrong"? My husband got a speeding ticket on the way to Disney World about ten years ago. Not a great ticket as he was going 74 in a marked 70 zone but the cop said or car was driving at 84. I've been married to my husband now for over 32 years and the man does not speed that much (snickers aside ), My husband finally got the ticket down to just over 76 MPH and we paid it.

And now, years later? Once we get to that spot on the highway, he always says "they are going to bust me again". It's a joke, nothing more since we can't change the past. As Stephen King has written "done bun, can't be undone".

 

[Narawen]

On two occasions in WDW I've gotten a stomach bug. The first time my mom got it first, and was sick our last day, then I got it the next morning and was sick all the way in the car on the way home (9 hours). Two years ago I got sick at EPCOT. Went to urgent care because I didn't think I could stand to walk back to the front of the park from first aid and wait on a bus to our resort. Luckily the dr at urgent care was very nice and I got an Rx which stopped the bug within 24 hours. The next day as a scheduled break day, but we did miss our F&W mixology seminar and dinner ADR at Cali Grill. The rest of the trip was fine once I recovered.

 

[Jennasis]

Double post