It's funny now, but not in the moment

Keckster

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 18, 2018
I'm sure it has happened to the best of us. A well planned out park adventure falls apart and there's no one to blame but you and your family. My story to tell:

Our last park to visit was Epcot during Food & Wine Festival. We'd already checked off AK, HS, and MK in our 4 parks in 4 days adventure, so it's not surprising Day 4 would do us in. The first sign of trouble, everybody was slow getting up and going. Our first FP was for Frozen with a 9:50-10:50 window, so there should have been plenty of time, right? Three of the 4 of us are ready, but our young teen was glued to her phone and slow getting dressed, but we made it out of our room at Coronado Springs and started to the bus at 9:30. We were crossing the parking lot to the bus stop as we watched the EP bus pull up. Still a good 100-120 yards away we started to run (despite aching muscles from the past 3 days). Closing in on 20 yards shy and we watch the bus pull away. Okay, no problem it'll just be 20 minutes max to next bus. 45 minutes later we get on and it is now about 10:20. I'm watching the minutes tick away as we ride. We depart the bus at 10:45.

As we head to security we decide to split up, I and my oldest daughter will go through on ahead and try and get to Frozen by 10:50 (and I'm not sure for what, but I guess plead our case for FP leniency). So bagless we breeze through security and at a quick march on to our destination, but it is now 10:50. Unbeknownst to us, my wife's Magic Band isn't scanning properly and she is delayed with the younger daughter. Disney takes her picture and then lets her on through. Meanwhile, having never been to EP before, I am quickly discovering just how big it really is and long it takes to get from the front to the World Showcase entrance (much less the Norway pavilion). It's now 11:05 and we were just under the monorail track. I decide to stop the quest, pull out my cell phone to call my wife and tell her don't kill herself rushing. Unfortunately, no answer. Multiple repeated calls. No answer. At 11:15 she picks up and says "Where the #&$@ are you!" I respond, "Near the monorail track. Where are you?" "We're standing outside of the Frozen ride!" How my wife and daughter got past us I will never know to this day, but with the next sentence uttered and I knew I was in trouble. "I'm just going to have my heart attack right now." <click - dial tone>. I call back, but no answer.

It's now about 11:30 and eventually, she picks up and says "What do we do now?" My sheepish answer, "We need to head over to Mission Space as that FastPass window is 10:55-11:55." "What?!? (Long pause) I'm heading to the fountains, find us there," she says. By 11:45 we are reunited but no words were spoken. We all silently trudge over to Mission Space and in line with a couple of minutes to spare. Determined to put the previous events behind us we recover positive moods. We move on to Spaceship Earth and then to the Land pavilion for lunch and a relaxing ride through Living with the Land. However, the past three days and the late morning snafu have taken a too much a toll on my wife's feet and exacerbated a bone spur.

"I'm going to be a drag on all of you, in pain, and ultimately unhappy trying to go on," she says. We agree to head back to the EP entrance to send her off back to the resort to recover. After hugs and kisses and "it's for the best" condolences, my daughters and I pick up where we left off. We were somehow fortunate to score a 3 person same day FP for Soarin' and then a Frozen while waiting for to board Soarin'. I then ultimately dragged my girls around World Showcase to get a pressed penny from each pavilion for a DIY souvenir. By the time we got all the way around, they too were ready to call it done.

Today, my wife and I are soon to head back, without the kids, to enjoy Epcot and Festival of the Arts. The girls, who will stay with friends for the weekend, are all too happy to skip Epcot. Shhh... don't tell them we are spending one other day split between AK and MK too. A slower pace is in the works with no chance of repeating the story you just read.

So what's your story that's funny now, but not in the moment?
 
Oh boy.... When my family (me, my sister, my parents and my two DDs) went in December of 2016 my mom just refused to get up early. She wanted the complimentary brunch at our off site resort, wanted to swim in the morning, and didn't believe me at all when I told her how crowded it would be. (She hadn't been there in 25 years). We had three park days and went on a total of nine rides. Including the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island. We laugh about it now, but at the time it was ridiculously frustrating!
 
I love Epcot...but unfortunately our last trip took a toll on us all.

I planned our trip, I don’t tupically plan our trips as I like to show up and don’t typically care how it goes but this time we weren’t going with my parents so I planned. I had the bright idea of doing park open or pre park open breakfast and some days a table service dinner around 7pm. Our first few days were no parks and allowed me to nap if I needed. After the long weekend we started doing the parks. Two days of magic kingdom open to close we were fine...then Hollywood studios. Waking up was fine, doing all our morning stuff was cool then around 4 pm hits and I’m feeling pretty tired but push through until fantasmic. The next day...Epcot. I love Epcot but park open to close 3 days before is wearing on us..especially me. I’m dragging the whole day and spent more time being tired then making memories and my youngest is also feeling it as she’s throwing many tantrums. We walk past some older couples as she’s crying in the stroller and casually say “ four year olds are so much fun” and one of them laughs and says “there’s no crying in Disney!” Several rides also seem to be malfunctioning as our line for Soarin had to be routed to a new theater and test track was showing as closed some of the times we looked. We still had fun we just dragged
 
open to close 3 days before is wearing on us

We started out open to close too. We rope dropped AK on day 1, so we were there from 7:30 (for 9 am open) to end of RoL show. Day 2 was HS at 9 am open but we left right as Star Wars Galatic Specatular started. Day 3 arrived at MK 7:30 because we had 8 am breakfast. We did take a mid-day break but then was back for the Halloween Party all the way to Midnight. It wasn't surprising it all came off the wheels on Epcot Day 4 for us.
 
We landed in Orlando 2 years ago with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. The morning of departure they both have a fever. Take them to doctor before the flight and one has an ear infection and the other must be something viral. So we pack all the medicines and go. Every vacation is like this for us it seems so we just laughed. The next day we are supposed to be at MK for 7am for BoG breakfast. The park opened at 8 that day I think. We give the kids Motrin and medicines and on our way after a short night sleep. They are excited so they didn’t let it slow them down. My park plan worked better than I could have imagined. We rode almost everything between Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear by noon without a wait more than 10 minutes. Then it starts to get hot. We get ready to meet Buzz Lightyear and of course as soon as we are up next he takes a break. My oldest starts itching all over. I lift his shirt and he is covered in a rash that quickly spread down his arms and face. His fever has shot up and Buzz is just chillin somewhere while we panic. Finally he comes out, we grab a picture, and off to the doctor we go. Turns out he has strep which didn’t get treated the first time at the doctor and now he has a scarlet fever rash. They give him medicine there and as pitiful as he looked he just wants to go back and ride 7DMT again and our fast pass was coming up. So we leave, drive back to MK, run from the monorail to the ride and just make our fast pass window. They lasted until 11 pm that night with only a short nap in the double stroller while we ran to and from the car. It was stressful but we survived and I’ll never forget that day.
 
We brought our girls at just shy of 3 and 5 several years ago. Our last night we were tired, but did the dessert party, watched the fireworks, took our time leaving the park, etc- it was all just dandy. Got to the bus and of course we were smashed into it like sardines. I had the littles up the steps at the top with them both kind of on my lap, and DH stayed down below since he had the double stroller to hold. We pulled up at POR and our stop was the first one- it was one of the smaller stops so usually not a ton of people usually got off with us but people just started pouring off the bus. I overhear someone say "Where the heck are we? How do we get back!?" and can't figure out what is going on until my husband fills me in: some kid started projectile vomiting all over the bus down where he was. :crazy2: The whole way back to the room he was all "I just need to shower. I just need to go take a shower."
 


I don't know that I've ever had a great Epcot day. It seems to rain hard every time we are at epcot.

Us too!!! Rains every time we go to Epcot!!!

We brought our girls at just shy of 3 and 5 several years ago. Our last night we were tired, but did the dessert party, watched the fireworks, took our time leaving the park, etc- it was all just dandy. Got to the bus and of course we were smashed into it like sardines. I had the littles up the steps at the top with them both kind of on my lap, and DH stayed down below since he had the double stroller to hold. We pulled up at POR and our stop was the first one- it was one of the smaller stops so usually not a ton of people usually got off with us but people just started pouring off the bus. I overhear someone say "Where the heck are we? How do we get back!?" and can't figure out what is going on until my husband fills me in: some kid started projectile vomiting all over the bus down where he was. :crazy2: The whole way back to the room he was all "I just need to shower. I just need to go take a shower."

EWWWWWW projectile vomiting is the worst!!!!!! Glad I've never experienced that on the bus.

Saw a kid squat, pull down his bathing suit and poop on the stairs in the splash pad at the Poly (so we left the splash pad after telling the lifeguard - they shut it down - and we went in the pool and then saw that same kid in the pool! Guess his parents didn't care)
 
I lost my grandparents in Animal Kingdom...not intentionally, we had been stuck at Avis FOREVER and by the time we got to AK my sister and I wanted to ride rides, my grandfather wanted to take pictures of the tree of life. We went to ride dinosaur, went back out to where they were and couldn't find them.

(We were in our late teens/early twenties and I had a cell phone, but nobody else did)
 
Epcot is where it all fell apart for us last trip too. DH ended up getting sick so I was left to wrangle 3 kids under 5 by myself in the blazing afternoon heat.
 
Rains every time we go to Epcot!!!

We're going to be there Feb 3. Weather forecast keeps fluctuating but looks like rain is a good possibility at some point that day. Maybe between it being Superbowl Sunday and a chance of rain the crowds will be lower.
 
I lost my grandparents in Animal Kingdom...not intentionally, we had been stuck at Avis FOREVER and by the time we got to AK my sister and I wanted to ride rides, my grandfather wanted to take pictures of the tree of life. We went to ride dinosaur, went back out to where they were and couldn't find them.

(We were in our late teens/early twenties and I had a cell phone, but nobody else did)

My mom got lost with my son on the Pangani forest trail a few years back. I’m not sure what confused her but she called me in a panic because she couldn’t find the exit. I said to ask someone for directions (while wondering how the heck you get lost when it’s one way in and one way out). She said she tried and it didn’t work. At this point in life she was very hard of hearing and refused to admit it and get hearing aids, so I’m sure between that and the possible accents of the cast members, she wasn’t getting anything. I said to just follow the crowd. That worked, fortunately.
 
Our then 19 month old got lost while we were looking in the gift shop just outside Pete's Side Show. She was lost for around 10 mins and it was the worst thing that has ever happened to us, we were frantic and the CM's helping us were wonderful. We missed our Fireworks Dessert Party while trying to find her.
Want to know where she was? She was "playing" inside a huge pile of Minnie and Mickey toys still inside the store.

And as for EPCOT, we go in September for our trips and EPCOT days are our worst. There is NO shade at that park at all, so much concrete and heat.
 
Yikes... plenty of time for panic! Definitely a parent's worst fear. She no doubt was having a blast with Minnie and Mickey.
Oh it was horrible - she was only 19 months old. We thought for sure she headed for the rides in Fantasyland because she was obsessed with them, so we were all looking around the Teacups and Pooh but a CM found her in all the plush toys. Still can't believe she never even left the store - she was invisible.
 
We went for Christmas week this year. Our plane was delayed five times and we didn’t check into BWI until almost 3 a.m. it really messed up our first day since we were totally exhausted. Ended up canceling our breakfast plans. We missed our first fast pass at DHS. Barely made it to our second FastPass after getting there late and sprinting through the park. We were a tired, grumpy, sweaty mess. We ended up scrapping the rest of our afternoon plans and going back to the hotel room to nap and unpack.

I am still waiting for it to be funny. :rotfl:
 
We landed in Orlando 2 years ago with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. The morning of departure they both have a fever. Take them to doctor before the flight and one has an ear infection and the other must be something viral. So we pack all the medicines and go. Every vacation is like this for us it seems so we just laughed. The next day we are supposed to be at MK for 7am for BoG breakfast. The park opened at 8 that day I think. We give the kids Motrin and medicines and on our way after a short night sleep. They are excited so they didn’t let it slow them down. My park plan worked better than I could have imagined. We rode almost everything between Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear by noon without a wait more than 10 minutes. Then it starts to get hot. We get ready to meet Buzz Lightyear and of course as soon as we are up next he takes a break. My oldest starts itching all over. I lift his shirt and he is covered in a rash that quickly spread down his arms and face. His fever has shot up and Buzz is just chillin somewhere while we panic. Finally he comes out, we grab a picture, and off to the doctor we go. Turns out he has strep which didn’t get treated the first time at the doctor and now he has a scarlet fever rash. They give him medicine there and as pitiful as he looked he just wants to go back and ride 7DMT again and our fast pass was coming up. So we leave, drive back to MK, run from the monorail to the ride and just make our fast pass window. They lasted until 11 pm that night with only a short nap in the double stroller while we ran to and from the car. It was stressful but we survived and I’ll never forget that day.

You did 'what' with two sick babies, and it's now 'fun' after the fact???? All I can say is WOW, for dragging sick babies around and for exposing everyone in your path! It is extremely contagious, and potentially dangerous for child. Can't even begin to imagine why you would treat them that way.
 
We landed in Orlando 2 years ago with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. The morning of departure they both have a fever. Take them to doctor before the flight and one has an ear infection and the other must be something viral. So we pack all the medicines and go. Every vacation is like this for us it seems so we just laughed. The next day we are supposed to be at MK for 7am for BoG breakfast. The park opened at 8 that day I think. We give the kids Motrin and medicines and on our way after a short night sleep. They are excited so they didn’t let it slow them down. My park plan worked better than I could have imagined. We rode almost everything between Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear by noon without a wait more than 10 minutes. Then it starts to get hot. We get ready to meet Buzz Lightyear and of course as soon as we are up next he takes a break. My oldest starts itching all over. I lift his shirt and he is covered in a rash that quickly spread down his arms and face. His fever has shot up and Buzz is just chillin somewhere while we panic. Finally he comes out, we grab a picture, and off to the doctor we go. Turns out he has strep which didn’t get treated the first time at the doctor and now he has a scarlet fever rash. They give him medicine there and as pitiful as he looked he just wants to go back and ride 7DMT again and our fast pass was coming up. So we leave, drive back to MK, run from the monorail to the ride and just make our fast pass window. They lasted until 11 pm that night with only a short nap in the double stroller while we ran to and from the car. It was stressful but we survived and I’ll never forget that day.

I know this is supposed to be a fun thread, but, I just have to say...

My daughter had a very serious reaction to strep when she was younger. Strep is very contagious and can be quite dangerous. To knowingly take a fevered and contagious child back to a park just because he wants to ride SDMT is a bad idea. I feel bad for the person who rode in the same seat after him. Perhaps you weren’t aware that strep can be so dangerous. Just throwing it out there for those who may not know.

OK, resume fun...
 
On our first trip, my oldest DS was 8, DD 6, and DS 4. I was traveling by myself with the kids, their first time on an airplane. So our plane lands around 4, we get to the resort (CBR) and checked in, in our room by 6. I had packed essentials and a days worth of clothes FOR THE KIDS in my carryon. So we have dinner at the food court and are getting ready for bed 8ish and I’m quietly freaking out because our luggage has yet to arrive. Called front desk, they say it’s on its way, an hour later I call again, this time I’m told they can’t locate my carefully meticulously packed luggage for 7 days in Florida with 3 little kids! I’m having a serious freak out, with no clue what to do. By now the kids are all tucked in, and CBR is huge, there’s no way I am going to the front desk now to deal with it. But I’m determined to move past it, this is Disney and bad stuff doesn’t happen here, right? Of course by now I’m realizing that I have no pajamas for myself, so I remove my brassiere and go to bed in my T-shirt. About 3am, bell Services arrives with my mysteriously found luggage, wakes everyone up! And then proceeds to stand there waiting for A TIP! while I stand there in a pretty skimpy T-shirt lol.
But after that the rest of the trip was a breeze, and our once-in-a-lifetime trip turned into an obsession ( but you already know that story
 

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