Can you look back w/ rose colored glasses?

[cabanafrau]

Lots of folks on this site obviously spend lots of time, energy and anxiety in the hopes of having the best trip possible. You can read a lot here about attractions being closed such and such time, not getting the ADR you wanted, bad servers at meals, not getting a room/bldg. hoped for, etc. Anybody have stories to share about getting disappointed, only to find it led you to a wonderful experience or something that's turned into a sort of family vacation legend at your house?

 

[Wendy1953]

We don't let the inconveniences, let downs get in our way! We have a positive outlook, and nothings going to ruin our vacation...make the best of it, and carry on! People are people, mother nature is unpredictable, but vacation time is precious, so why let one unfortunate occurance get in the way? Think positive, and you'll see good things come out of bad!

 

[UP Disney]

We got stuck in the Carousel of Progress in the 1st portion of the ride. The show started, they played "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow", we started to move & came to a halt. Well, they have to reset the program and start over at this point. So we jerk back to position and after a few minutes start over. Same thing! Well, we had some high school or college students in there and they started doing the wave! Everyone started laughing, joking & talking while we were reset to try it once again. All in all, we listened to the 1st part 4 times before they had to shut it down and let us out. Thanks to the students it was an enjoyable wait. That is now our family theme song! We have to see Carousel of Progress whenever we go to Disney!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Staying at POR, I had requested the AB section. In 5 trips to POR, I'd always gotten the mansions, and this was the second time I'd requested AB. Sure enough, at check-in I got "stuck" with the Mansions again, and although it was a building I hadn't been in yet, it still wasn't AB. Even when I asked at check-in, they told me there was no AB room available. Boy, was I disappointed as I trudged to my room. But by the second day, I'd figured out that I was in the prettiest room, best location I'd ever had at POR. What started out as a room I didn't want turned out as one of my favorite.

 

[phisigprincess]

It rained for the majority of our vacation. It really bummed us out. Most of the parades were cancelled, lots of rain dodging, etc. Well we had our ponchos on so much that my dad decided to become a super hero. PONCHO MAN was born! He would very loudly proclaim things like "never fear soggy park goers - Poncho Man is here!!!" He was even making up his own theme music. At the time the rest of us walked as far away from him as possible but now it's HYSTERICAL! Poncho Man has become a family legend. So the rain was a bummer, but it ended up being hysterical.

 

[MelanieC]

Back in 2004 (I think that was the year) when I'ts a Small World was being refurbished we had a guy come up to us and ask us how to get into IASW and we told him it was not open due to the refurbishments. The guy was so upset and let down. We just couldn't understand how you could get so upset that a ride wasn't open. To this day, we still talk about that guy and how upset he was. My kids will say to one of us "Where is it's a small world?" - and we start a back and forth dialogue. I love memories that make us think of fun times at WDW.

 

[poppinspal]

When I was young I loved the Poly and so I was so excited one year when we were going to stay there. Our flight got in very late and when we got to the Poly we found out they were doing work on a good number of rooms. Well it gets worse as they don't have a room for us. So they tell us they're moving us to another resort. My heart broke and although I was too tired to complain you can bet money I was let down. So they tell us they are taking us to the Beach Club. We had never seen this resort as it opened after our last WDW trip. I was so grumpy about it. We get there and I'm just captured by the place. Then we find out they are giving us a suite that was just vacated by that years winning super bowl team. Add in the pool and beaches and cream and well.... to this day that is our family's favorite resort.

And to show I still have these childish moments at 24 here's a story from my trip in December with my family. We all love the Hoop Dee Doo review, we try to do it the first night of our trip. Well my brother is into the Hawaiian culture and wanted to do the Luau so bad, so my parents planned both. Well they decided because we had the meal plan that we should only do one. My brother had recently been diagnosed with a treatable disease but was still losing tons of weight. The most life he had in him was when he was talking about the Luau so we all agreed that we'd do that. (I was secretly so let down I'd miss Hoop Dee) Well we went to the Luau and LOVED it. My usually stage shy sister got up and danced during the birthday song. My brother loved the food and ate more then he had in months. And now he's healthy and we all recall that as a highlight of our trip. (I will mention Hoop Dee Doo was the first ADR I made when planing my next trip! lol )

 

[cabanafrau]

You guys are amazing! This is exactly what I was hoping people might start thinking about. It's so easy in the planning and fretting on this board to lose sight of the fact that life is what happens when we're busy making plans.

Don't know about anybody else, but I happen to love lemonade, esp. when it's pink!

 

[bluejasmine]

I havent had any really bad experiences that made the magic any less for me.. I have been very fortunate always got the rooms I wanted at the resorts, always had good service, good food.. Now we did have a trip it rained like crazy but we just slipped ponchos on and enjoyed it anyway. Oh wait once My son did get lost in DTD in the World of Disney Store I walked around and around for two hrs and couldnt find him,we had also not taken our two way radios so I was hysterical but thought maybe he went back to the resort cause he knows the wdw property and transportation system real well.. I was right he headed back to the resort all by himself.. He's 12 by the way.. Now he has a cell phone and that wont happen again..

 

[TravelGrl]

When we were on EMH at the MK, my boyfriend was reaaly tired and wanted to call it a night. I convinced him to go on Buzz one last time, which was our favorite ride this trip, only to have it get stuck, in the room before last.

We were sitting there for about 5 minutes, and then the lights came on. Then I thought, what a great opportunity to commemorate our favorite ride. We mananged to snap a picture of each of us, with our lazer, when the ride started again.

We then rode it "one more last time" since the stalled time didn't count, and my DBF got the highest score. What a great way to have ended the evening!

 

[zipuzee]

In 1995, we went with another family so there was 9 of us. Well, the other family was having problem after problem with the room, dining ressies, you name it. It was crowded and we thought we'd take a break on what looked to be a short line to see, I believe, Symbiosis at the Land. Well, it took a lot longer than we thought, and the CM kept going through his spiel. At the end of each part, he'd say THANK YOU and wait for the crowd to answer YOUR WELCOME, but in a slow, drawn out, monotonous way. It was so irritating that I thought we might beat the kid to pulp before we got out of there. But to this day, we still get on a roll and say THANK YOU and YOUR WELCOME in that same slow, monotonous way!!

 

[LoveWDW]

Because of a mix-up my brother-in-law reserved O'Hana's instead of the Luau that I had my heart set on. We showed up for the Luau, found out about the mistake, and asked if they could fit us in. The CM was quite rude and said (loudly enough that we could hear) to the other CM there that she bet we had no reservations at all. She called O'Hana's and found that we did indeed have reservations. We had to wait until everyone was seated, naturally, but when we did get seated we had front row seats. So we had a wonderful time despite the boorishness of the CM.

 

[Golliwobbler]

We missed our flight down last year and ended up sitting in the airport for 7 hours before we gave up and bought full fair tickets on a completely different airline. We were originally going to arrive at about 11am, but ended up showing up at about 7pm. Pretty bad start to the excitment of the trip, but then WDW magic stepped in and we were upgraded to CR Tower park side, got in our room, ordered up dinner and deserts and watched Wishes from our balcony. Incredible. We owe so much to an incredible CM named Patricia ("Patty").

We have so many stories kind of like this one, and what we have found is that if you keep a tight grip on hope, then WDW, the CMs, and the magic eventually catch up to you, pick you up like a wave, and move you quickly along towards a better-than-can-be new dream come true - you just need to wait for the ride, catch it and enjoy it!

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

These are great stories!

Don't have much to add, other than it rained and rained last year on my 40th birthday, which was also our 1st park day . . . and MK to boot. It was Easter/Spring Break, so we'd been studying the touring plans, because we knew it was going to be packed (rated a 9 out of 10)! The rain was the best thing that could have happened, because the crowd levels were great, we rode everything we wanted, and headed back to the hotel a few hours after the sun started shining . . . and the people started pouring in. So when family see our photos, complete with ponchos and gray skies, and say "Too bad about the rain", I just smile.

 

[Olallamom]

If you couldn't look back with fond memories then WDW probably wouldn't get many return visitors.
Vacations are sometimes not all that we build them up to be. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my vacations especially all the planning that goes into them. I don't think that I have had a single Disney trip that I haven't encountered atleast one hassle of some sort. You just have to let it go and enjoy the rest of the experience.
It's just how life is.

 

[lorrainesy]

Lots of folks on this site obviously spend lots of time, energy and anxiety in the hopes of having the best trip possible. You can read a lot here about attractions being closed such and such time, not getting the ADR you wanted, bad servers at meals, not getting a room/bldg. hoped for, etc. Anybody have stories to share about getting disappointed, only to find it led you to a wonderful experience or something that's turned into a sort of family vacation legend at your house?

On our first cruise when we got to our cabin, there was already a family there. We were worried that they had double booked but instead found out that we had received an upgrade.

 

[Lizziejane]

I spent months planning a tour of MK that ensured we were going to ride or take in everything - no exceptions. Sounds great until you try getting two teenage boys onto the boats of It's A Small World. They started to protest, and I warned them to be quiet, or it would break down half-way through. Sure enough, we got stuck half way through. Now they were getting really verbal about their displeasure (I think in some parts of the world it's called "whinning" with a capital "W"). We started to move again, and 30 seconds later, we got stuck again. The more the boys complained, the more stuck we got. After a few minutes, they couldn't help but laugh - the music was almost "Evil" after a while, and those dolls took on this look that reminded me of something in a bad horror movie. To make matters worse, we had an English family sitting behind us, with two little girls who loooooved everything about the ride, and thought getting stuck was just the greatest thing since sliced bread. And to my boys, trying to understand their accents was the icing on the cake. We ended up laughing sooooo hard in that ride, that 4 years later, it's the first story they share when people ask them about their trip to WDW! Funny how their worst nightmare turns out to be the funniest memory of the whole trip!

 

[LUVMICKEY]

We don't let the inconveniences, let downs get in our way! We have a positive outlook, and nothings going to ruin our vacation...make the best of it, and carry on! People are people, mother nature is unpredictable, but vacation time is precious, so why let one unfortunate occurance get in the way? Think positive, and you'll see good things come out of bad!

This is so true. We are lucky that mostly all our vacations to WDW have come out just the way we have planned them. Don't get me wrong, we have had a few small things happen, but nothing that we would allow ruin our vacation. It takes most of us a while to plan for our vacation, so why let the little things that happen ruin it.

Michele