Have you ever had a really bad WDW trip?

[blondeheroine]

i've never met sadder, more "complainy", grouchy, butt-holish people in my life.

I'm CONVINCED I know your in-laws and that they've been to Disney with me as well!

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

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

You must be my wife's sibling!

 

[RussH]

Wow I remember this one from 2002. I chewed a couple of steering wheels when I was in my early 20's and have maxed out my annual dental most of the last 10 years in long term repayment.
About 2 weeks before my normal Dec solo trip got a twinge in an upper back tooth. Should have known what was coming but after a day or two it went away. Second day at WDW the tooth went abscessed and the pain woke me up in the middle of the night. The next morning called my then/X now Dentists office to get some antibiotics and pain meds....dentist has to talk to you direct will call as soon as he gets into the office on Thursday...Hey its only Monday you $@#^&& . Also started to feel kind of weird scratchy eye balls and hot/chills. Oh great maybe a virus on top. Yep a full fledged 36 hour virus. Once the bar was open I fixed the tooth problem but this is crazy all I want to do is lay in bed. Wednesday felt stable enough and found a great emergency dentist who got me in that afternoon. Got me on meds and by Friday the swelling went down enough to have a great end of the week.

That was my worst trip by far even compared to a rainy cold Christmas day 2000 where I slipped on the wet floor going in the side door the Brown Derby up to catwalk and blew out my knee big time. It was OK that night but could not get out of bed the next morning. More I think about it this was a great WDW trip.
Later

 

[martyshoney]

On our last trip there I thought it was going to go down as our worst one ever. We drove to Orlando and made great time, I had pulled up directions on mapquest and when we got to "Century Road" it indeed was not Disney, it was in a horrible area. When we stopped at a gas station to try and find out where we were my DH had to run back to the truck b/c someone had just gone in there and said they were robbed at gunpoint. We called the hotel and finally someone who knew the whole area was able to help us get back to where we needed to be. Once we were all checked in we went to call our parents to let them know we had finally made it and we realized that the cell phone was gone, we thought we lost it at that dreadful gas station. After about 30 minutes of searching and praying to St. Anthony we finally found it. Then on our first day there our DD was deathly afraid of all the characters. But by the end of that day things got better and we ended up having a great time and none of us were ready to come home!!

 

[Principessa Alba]

Just remember in telling these stories - misery loves company!!!!!

 

[DisneyRefugee]

we go twice a year and have only had 2 bad times.
1. my dd got sick on the last day so we had to get a rental car and drive 14 hours to get home but we got home safe and sound .
2. we tried to go down in summer (right after hurricane wilma) once and our flight got cancelled because of hurricane wilma and so we ended up flying to atlanta and driving to orlando to get to our hotel wl my dd's favorite hotel.
other than that we love disney

 

[Principessa Alba]

(Flu-like. Actually pneumonia-like.) I ended up in the room for two days watching Family Auto Mart infomercials and the White Shadow.
.

OMG you poor thing!!!

 

[Nanu57v]

I love Disney, but never again will I stay at the ALL STARS during Pop Warner week. I'm fairly young, so rowdy teens normally don't bother me, but things that interrupt my sleep do! I was woken up early in the morning by the kids practicing their cheers, and kept up late by them running around and slamming doors. I was run over in the food courts by teens fooling around. I'm still tired!!! Honestly, I was more tired when I left then when I got there, and it was all because of the noise.

 

[mrmagicmph]

I've been going to WDW since September 1971 and have lost track of just how many trips down there I've been on (at best guess, probably 20+ over the years). Only had 1 bad trip but that one was NOT due to Disney... in point of fact, they made everything as much "better" as was possible.

Went down in January 1996 with my then-future-wife (since divorced, thank God), my parents, & my brother (age 22 at the time). Had 2 rooms at the Beach Club, everything was going fine. However, part way through the trip (think we were scheduled to be there for about a week if memory serves), my father in the middle of the night became VERY ill. He'd had cancer surgery in May 1995 and was "done" with chemo, but was still having some problems. MMy mom started pounding on the connecting room door at about 2am saying we had to get to the hospital and do it NOW. Keep in mind, dad is a physician, mom's worked in his office (at the time) for over 25 yrs, and I'm a paramedic. When we're all going we need the hospital, it's definitely QUITE urgent.

I called down to the front desk and told them we had to get to the hospital right away, could they please have someone bring the valet parked car to the front, and please have some directions to the hospital for us if possible when we get down there. As an aside, yes, I'm a paramedic, but I do NOT call an ambulance unless there's something that they'll be able to do that will make a significant difference en route (it's just like dad being a physician will NOT go to the hospital unless it's really essential... professional bias, I know).

Not only did the front desk clerk RUN and get someone to pull the car around, she left the front desk completely unstaffed (there was only 1 person working the lobby at that hour), RACED upstairs with a wheel chair, and had it there (without our having asked for it, or even knowing we could have asked for one!) before we'd all finished throwing on traveling clothes to go down to the car. She assisted us with directions, etc, and made sure that we were as set as necessary, including asking repeatedly if we wouldn't prefer for her to call the Reedy Creek Emergency Services and have them take him to the hospital. Back then, I'm 99% sure that we didn't go to Celebration Hospital, but went to whatever was the closest at the time (Florida Hospital?).

Dad was examined and treated by the staff at the hospital, they woke up his hematologist (blood specialist) in NY, etc, did everything that they were supposed to and got him well enough to be brought back to the hotel, though not really being up to continuing to tour WDW. Still, he definitely did NOT want to go home yet, for many reasons including the fact that he had barely enough hemaglobin (the molecule that carries oxygen in your blood) to fill a thimble; he would NOT have been up to SURVIVING the flight back to NY at that time anyway. So, we stayed the remainder of the trip doing what we could. Most notably, to help improve things, the Mousekeeping staff of the Beach Club sent him up Chicken Noodle Soup from Beaches & Cream daily to help speed his recovery. They could NOT have been any nicer or done ANYTHING more to help.

To add insult to injury, on the day we were to check out, a MAJOR snowstorm hit the NYC area that morning, something like 20-25 inches of snow. I'd already checked out of my room (since the airline had still been saying that they were flying, that we'd be in business for going home, etc), but luckily because my dad was still moving at 1/2 speed (at best), they'd not yet checked out. The Beach Club staff extended my folks for an additional night and gave me another room to stay in (different floor & wing, but, at least we had a place to stay!).

We finally got home to NY, the car service managed to pick us up, etc, and we get delivered back to the house. BUT, even though the house was SUPPOSED to have been plowed, it hadn't been touched and the top layer (of about 20+ inches worth of snow) had turned to ice. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun trying to get dad inside via the front walkway & front door (couldnt even get NEAR the garage door's lock to open that door, the driveway was too steep & too slick.

I started to dig the driveway out (since I was definitely worried that my dad might need another trip to the hospital at some point). Luckily, our neighbor had a power snowblower (MUCH more powerful than the 25yr old model that we had) and loaned it to me to let me finish clearing the thing. No sooner do I manage to get the driveway clear enough for me to drive out of if necessary (I'm still a NY'er at heart, plus driving an ambulance for a living at the time, there are few challenges that I don't feel I'm up to if I HAVE TO do it), and my mom comes out and says that she'd called my grandmother (same city, but the other side of the city) and that "she wasn't sounding right". My mom asked if I could please go over there & see if she was ok. So, off I drive to her apt. building and get up to her apt to find out how she was.

She had a SIGNIFICANTLY altered level of consciousness (didn't really know where she was, not sure who she was, etc). So, this time I actually DID call an ambulance (they could run tests to possibly provide some treatment that might change her condition before we got to the hospital) and they took her over.

All in all, NOT what I'd call a good vacation, but, I will say that the staff at Disney definitely DID do everything humanly possible to make things better.

Just to wrap up the story, dad's now an 11+ yr cancer survivor, celebrating his 70th birthday next month. Grandmother was with us for over 5 more years. I married the girl I was with at the time, but, finally got smart and we were divorced a few years ago. Now, I'm VERY happily married and taking my wife on her first trip to Disney next month (yes, of course, back to the Beach Club!). So, I'd say everything ended up working out.