Have you ever had a really bad WDW trip?

[Principessa Alba]

I've been kind of enjoying reading these little debates today about things that annoy people at WDW, and I wondered at what point a person's trip is just kind of ruined by something.

We've been there many times, and there were a couple that were not so magical. They didn't have anything to do with WDW or the other guests, though. Once it was weather. I really don't mind rain, but this was monsoon from the time we got there until the time we left. I was wet - all the time. The rain was blowing up under the ponchos!!!! It just wasn't my favorite time.

Another time was with the in-laws. MIL is wonderful, honestly, I love her, but she was just freaked out by WDW. She was not having a good time and I spent the whole time worrying about her. (Luckily, she's never wanted to go again!!!! ).

So what, if anything, has stolen the magic from you at WDW? I don't mean minor irritations, I mean, you went home and thought, I'm kind of glad to be home!!!

 

[PamNC]

We have had a few bad trips, but they had nothing to do with service or WDW. It had to do with outside circumstances and things happening. Life happens. And, when you go often, chances are something is going to happen during or near one of your trips. We typically go twice a year.

I've heard of people going and getting sick, injured, etc etc. So, it can happen.

Once year, 2002 I THINK we had a bad trip. In hindsight, I should not have gone. My mare was injured about 2 weeks prior to the trip. Long story that I won't bore you with. Anyway, it wasn't life threatening at all, but she was hurt pretty badly. I have a sitter that stays at our farm and she is good with horses AND my vet encouraged me to go on my trip. I couldn't relax or enjoy myself at all. It was terrible. The good news is she's 100% mended and all is well. She has a visible "scar" but that's it.

Then, my other two bad trips were this year. Read on.

January, 2006. I wasn't there on vacation but I was in Orlando on business. I booked 3 days at OKW (rented points really from a nice man on these boards) and my husband joined me. We decided to take a little trip to cure the winter doldrums. Well, after one day there my husband's grandmother had a stroke, so we jumped in the car and came home.

May, 2006. We went on vacation this time. My elderly cat had started losing weight months before the trip - the previous October I took her to the vet and they couldn't find anything wrong. She seemed to perk up and gain weight. Then, it got worse again around March and April. So I took her back to the vet and the bloodwork was all good. But her chest x-rays were cloudy - but they couldn't tell me anything except she was old, "may have cancer," "may have this," may have that." Then they said she would probably make it a few months or maybe even another year. No one knew. So, having a good sitter I went on with my vacation and 4 days into it she took a turn for the worse. We had to jump in the car and head home (9-hour drive) and I only got to see her one more time. She passed away the next day.

NEEDLESS TO SAY. DO NOT go to Disney if you have something going on with a family member or pet. It's not worth it. We really haven't had a vacation this year but we're determined. We're booked 11/18 - 11/26 at CSR.

I'm sure this one will be fine! And I feel like we deserve it. Again, if you go a lot, something is sure to happen.

PamNC

 

[mickeyfan2]

Only once and it was the family that invited themselves on our trip that caused the bad trip not the other WDW guests.

 

[Principessa Alba]

Actually I think a thread like this could be helpful. I mean, it's just not worth spending the money if there are things that aren't going to work, like Pam said. 1) if pets or people are sick at home, you have to make sure it's something you can really leave behind and might not make you have to come home early. 2) make sure you haven't invited someone along that just isn't going to be "into it (like my MIL). 3) Weather. I thought I wouldn't mind a little rain...(famous last words!!! )

Just things to consider!

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I've never had an awful trip, but I've had some really awful things happen while on a trip. The following examples happened on different trips.

1. Mom had to go to the hospital, for a hernia. The staff at the Poly were great, we stayed behind and the staff checked on us periodically (I was the oldest, I was 15 at the time) untill my mom got back. The next few days my mom had to take it easy, we pushed her around in a wheelchair. We still had a great time.

2. My great-grandmother died. She was very old and in poor health and had been unconcious for 4 months. We were very sad. We thought about leaving and going to the funeral, but they buried her the day after she died so we couldn't get a flight by the time we found out. We still ended up having a great time.

3. We all got ringworms from a stray kitten we "adopted" shortly before our trip. We called a pharmacy and had some Lamisil delivered to our hotel.

4. We had a big family trip with my aunt's family. There were 14 of us, my aunts' family fought with each other and were miserable the entire trip. It seemed that we were always waiting on someone, and the group refused to split up. We still had a great time. Although, I think if they come again with us, I'm gonna lay down some ground rules.

5. My mom had a terrible knee injury shortly before our trip. She wore a brace and we rented an ECV from an Orlando company and had it delivered to the hotel. She was in pain but still had a great time!

6. Our dog got hit by a car and died while we were gone.

So life doesn't stop just because you're on vacation, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. Overall just have a positive attitude, we are so blessed, no matter what happens, someone somewhere is much worse off than you are.

 

[slavike]

Yes, I have had a bad trip and unfortunately it was caused by Disney, Walt Disney Travel Company to be exact. However, they made it ALL better.

We booked a trip for last September, last week (usually an annual trip). Unfortunately, I had to move it for work reasons, and I moved to October, about 6 months before we were even supposed to go. I had received everything and I noticed that my reservation had my maiden name on it. I called about a month before and changed the name on it. I got another confirmation in the mail with the name change.

Long story short we get to GF no reservation for us. The CM at the desk was horrible, the manger was a stressed out guy but the Conceirge was great. He checked our profile with CRO and saw we are frequent visitors and found out what had happened. Turns out when I changed my name the CM I spoke with may have accidentally changed my reservation, so they can't find me in the system. There are no rooms at GF, Poly, CR, WL, POR, PORFQ, End up at CBR in a very Musty room (GF was supposed to transfer our luggage). Manger comes to our door tells us he tried his hardest however, all he could do is get us money to use on a future trip. Go to dinner, no dinning plan on room card. Resturant was able to fix this, but embarrasing. SO MAD at this point. We go back to CBR , no luggage in our room, call bell services, they don't have it yet. But they are trying find it. At that point I lost it. I was so mad. I talk to the manager who assures me that they will do everything they can to make it right. We slept in our undies. SO MAD.

Next morning I check with Bell services..no sign of our bags. I immediately went to the front desk. I told the CM our whole story. She was horrified. She called the manager and they had a brief exchange by the door. She told me that they not only had our luggage at CR but they were able to get us a room there due to cancelation. We went back cleaned up our things and headed to CR. We get there and go to check in. I tell her our name and start to explain we are being transfered. She immeidately stops me goes to the conceirge check in person and waves us down. WE GOT 14th FLOOR conceirge!!!!! He had another CM take us up. On the 14th Floor we were then introduced to the Concerige up there, who took us to our SUITE!!! Inside was a huge flower and candy arrangement. It was truly amazing!!! For the next 4 days they were overy attentive. It turned into a really great vacation. In 30 Years of going to WDW this was our only bad experience...at the time I was distraught to say the least. But they really did go above and beyond for us in the end.

 

[minnie_ears]

yes, a few, which seems weird since i absolutely love the world.

'04, 8 members of my family including me went to orlando, which included my step mother and her 2 teenage sons. i dont get along with my step mother and her kids AT ALL, but the entire 7 day trip my step mother whined about every little thing. she was even getting on my dad's nerves by day 1. if she wasn't complaining about how hot it was (hello lady, you planned a trip to orlando in june, what did you expect? antartica?) she was whining about having to wait in lines, or complaining if a child or baby would so much as whimper. she truly was the wicked step mom. i said to my dad i would enjoy the trip much better if i could have toured the parks alone, and he took it as a personal insult, so as not to hurt his feelings, i stayed with wicked step mom and co the entire 7 days. it upset me even more because i knew i could have had an amazing time if she hadn't been there, and i did still try and have an awesome trip, but it was really draining having someone constantly shouting GOD I'M NOT WAITING 10 MINUTES FOR THAT or GOD THEY MUST BE CRAPPY PARENTS TO HAVE A CHILD SHOUTING LIKE THAT or IT'S TOO HOT.

also, i had a crappy trip in '00, also with my step mom and family, but that was because i was love sick and away from my boyfriend for an entire week, which at the time seemed like a year away from the love of my life.

 

[LoriKay]

Yes, but it was my own fault. My DH is not as into the magic as I am but goes along occasionally anyway. He was changing jobs and had a week off between the old job and starting the new job which was in a different city. I thought this would be a great time to go to WDW but I was wrong. DH could not get his mind off of everything about the new job, living alone in an apartment in the new city while I was in the old city while trying to sell the house and on and on and on. About 3 days into the trip I decided that it would be better to just go home so that's what we did. I still tell him he's very lucky because I didn't know if I would hold it against him for the rest of time or what! Fortunately, that hasn't been the case!

 

[blondeheroine]

The only times I've ever had a bad trip was due to someone in our own party. I hate to have a wet rag on a trip. Wet rags need to stay at home!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Our last (and only trip so far) to WDW was in September 1991. It was just DH and I as we hadn't had our boys yet. We spent 9 wonderful nights at CBR, saw all the parks, hung out a PI, went to HDDR and TL. On our last night, we started to pack but it was just too depressing. A few nights earlier we had a great time in the pool just floating around and talking to new people. So, we got this idea that we would go swimming just one more time before packing and admitting our trip was over.

We were walking down the stairway and I thought I was about to put my foot on the landing. It turned out there was one more step that I missed and ended up twisting my ankle! I hobbled back up the stairs and we made an ice pack for it. My DH went back down to look at the stairway and he noticed a lightbulb was burned out so the last stair and landing area were dark. We called the hotel manager to let him know what happened. He was very nice. He came up to our room, filled out an incident report, brought me an extra pillow and asked if I wanted medical attention. I've sprained my ankle a few times before and it didn't seem that bad at the time so I said I would see my own dr. when I got home the next day.

I had a miserable flight home to Calif., changing planes in Dallas and limping all over the airports. Turns out I tore a ligament and ended up in a cast for 3 weeks. I was going to let it drop but Disney's Claims Dept. called me to see how I was doing. They ended up paying my medical bills which I thought was nice.

The only good thing was that it happened on our very last night so we'd already had a great trip. We're going back in December and taking our two boys, 11 & 8, this time. They're going to love it! And wouldn't you know it, I hurt the same ankle this past March. This time I tore 2 ligaments and bruised the bones all the way to the bone marrow. It's still healing but almost completely back to normal. I plan to wear my ankle brace on the trip and watch where the heck I'm going!!!

 

[JayneML]

Yes, two years ago we all got sick after eating dinner at Italy. We had to stay in bed that evening and 1/2 day the next, but recovered and went on to have a great trip since it was the week before Christmas. Needless to say, we took it easy and stayed of the "spinning" rides.

 

[Mimi Q]

Yes, and it was my fault. On our first trip to WDW I overplanned. I tried to cram too many things into a week. We were all tired and stressed out by the end of the week. Now I am much more flexible and never make more than one ADR a day.

 

[Kay1]

On the first night of a stay at POFQ, the alarm clock blared in the middle of the night. I couldn't get back to sleep and was a wreck the next day. Then, the next night, the phone rang disturbing our sleep, and finally, the last morning, the maid knocked on our door pretty early. Just a lot of insomnia that wore me out.
What can your do?

 

[ms.ojo]

On the first night of a stay at POFQ, the alarm clock blared in the middle of the night. I couldn't get back to sleep and was a wreck the next day. Then, the next night, the phone rang disturbing our sleep, and finally, the last morning, the maid knocked on our door pretty early. Just a lot of insomnia that wore me out.
What can your do?

I use to travel a lot on business and learned quickly to always check the alarm before going to bed. not that I used it (i prefer wake up calls) but b/c of what happened to you. Apparently some kids (or maybe adults w/ a twisted sense of humor) think it's funny to leave it on a loud rock station set to go off in the middle of the night. I don't understand what sort of people would think this funny, but I can tll you, after it happened to me twice, I always checked...and it was MANY times I found it set for this, and disabled it before I went to sleep. Nothing worse than a rude awakening in the middle of the night. I'm sorry this happened to you!

 

[ChefBilly]

Yes, and unfortunately, it was two trips in a row!
The first was in January of 1999 - it was my wife and I and my sister and her husband. My sister got food poisoning (Cosmic Ray's, we think) and then I got absolutely sick as a dog! (Flu-like. Actually pneumonia-like.) I ended up in the room for two days watching Family Auto Mart infomercials and the White Shadow.

And then in October of 2000 we sailed on the Disney Wonder during Hurricane Irene.
It was an unbelievable nightmare. Very rough seas, I got incredibly sick again. (Not seasick, but horrific flu-like symptoms. I forget the name of the cruise ship virus that goes around, but I guess it could've been that.)
I hated every second aboard that ship, and we will never, ever set foot on any cruise ship again. (NOT Disney's fault. Nothing they can do about the weather. Just bad luck.)

But we've had plenty of great trips.

 

[mla2177]

I just went to WDW in July and my mother (on trip w/ us) got appendicits and had surgery in Celebration Hospital!!!!!!! We did get in three good days though!!!! I frankly don't know how she did the parks in the hot July sun and in pain from not being able to go to the bathroom!!!

We stayed in CBR and they gave my parents 50% off their room and extended it three more days!!!!!

And some people say Disney is loosing their Customer satisfaction skills!!!!!
They did nothing wrong, they didn't have to discount anything!!!!!

 

[cosmo531]

only when i went with my in-laws. i've never met sadder, more "complainy", grouchy, butt-holish people in my life.

never again.

ps. my wife agrees with me.

 

[G8RFAN]

Last year we booked a weekend trip to WDW. Living in South FL, it's only about 3 hours away. Well, two days before we leave, it starts to look like hurricane Wilma is going to continue its way here. If you remember, it was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in modern times. I call WDW and ask about their cancelation policy when the storm is heading towards our home rather than the resort and the expected landfall is less than a day after we check out. They tell me that they would not provide any refunds even with the pending storm. We decide to go anyway after I shutter up the house a few days early; however, I'm a little PO'ed for their lack of compassion. During this time, DS is just getting over a case of pinkeye. Well we drive up Friday, and Sat morning I wake up with what I think is pinkeye. What's left of the antibiotic drops are at home and I am freaking out. I call my doctor's office on a Sat morning and desparately wait for a call back on my cell that is only registering 1-2 bars outside on the balcony (Verizon and ASMu). Orlando Walgreens won't refill my DS's drops. I'm contemplating on driving on my own back home getting the drops and meeting the family 6+ hours later. The redness starts going away and we decide to head to MK, still nervous that my eye is going to get bloodshot and I'll start infecting everyone around me. Well, the redness goes away and I guess I had just gotten something in my eye at night. However, we were constantly talking about when we should leave to give us enough time before the outerbands start coming in and joking how we should just make reservations in Atlanta and not come home. In the end, we got home in time to sit out the storm on Monday and live off of our generator for the following two weeks. I don't think we really enjoyed any of our time at WDW that weekend.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We have only been 3 times, and none of them have been bad. But I can guarantee if you go with people who refuse to split up that your trip will not be pleasant. It is extremely frustrating to keep stopping for things you don't want to stop for! It is also extremely frustrating to be with somebody who whines (an adult, more specifically) about one thing after another the whole time. Unfortunately you may not be able to discern who will whine before you leave home. This is why you must be willing to split up.

I despise being rained on, so being at AK on a day it rained more than 3 inches was not fun.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

March 2003 - We were staying at POR; DW and our kids (then 6 and 4) took turns with a nasty stomach virus over the course of four days. It started with DS4, then it was DW's turn, and then on night before we left DD started vomiting and did so all the way back home. Yep... I was glad to be home. For some reason I didn't catch what was going thru my family, but I spent four days alternating roles as nurse, entertainment specialist, and gofer. I did it all out of love and did not feel put out in the least, but I was thankful just to get home. I was totally worn out.