What are the WORST things that have happened to you at Disney/Orlando?

[Pigletlover]

MY SUNBURN STORY

When I first went to Typhoon Lagoon I got sunburned so badly on my legs that I could not even walk properly for a couple of days. It hurt just to stand and put weight on my legs, let alone move them.

I was staying at a cheap motel in Kissimmee and I rang to ask the pool snack bar guy if he would mind bringing me some food to my room (which was close to the pool). He said no he couldn't, so I had to slowly hobble to the snack bar, holding on to things along the way to try and support my body. It took me ages to get there and back, and people were of course giving me funny looks!


MY LOST PHOTOS

I remember the time I took about 12 rolls worth of photos and when I got back home the photo place told me NONE of them had anything on them!


MY BUS DRIVER STORY

One time I was staying on International Drive and one summer night when Sea World was closing I went to get on the I-Ride Trolley that goes up International Drive. It was quite full with people standing, but I asked the driver if this was the right bus to go north. She said it was and told me to get on.

She started driving and told me to stand behind the yellow line. There was no room to stand behind it because people were already standing ON it, so I told her there was no room. She kept telling me that I had to stand behind the line and got annoyed.

I said "I am NOT standing on these people's feet. Why don't you tell the people further down the bus to move down?" (you know how people often won't move further down). She refused to ask them to, and said I would have to get off at one of the next stops (this was late at night).

I told her I was NOT getting off and that she should not have let me on in the first place if she wasn't prepared to ask people to move further down. By this time the bus had travelled quite a way and several people got off at one of the stops, but of course nobody bothered to move down.

Then at another stop she let a group of about 3 people on and told them to get behind the line. There was nowhere for them to go, so I said to her "There is no room for them to go! Some people got off the bus earlier. Why don't you tell people to move down?"

She still wouldn't do it and thought I was being a big problem so she rang her supervisor and told him there was a woman refusing to stand behind the line. He probably thought I was a violent troublemaker or something and told her to ring the POLICE!

So she did and then pulled over to the side of the road and waited ages for the police to arrive, without bothering to tell anybody on the bus what was happening and why she had stopped the bus. So people were getting impatient and some finally decided to get off the bus and walk back to their hotels.

I wasn't worried about the police coming because I knew I had done nothing wrong and other passengers near me had heard what I had said. We were waiting so long for the police that I finally got off the bus and waited for the next bus. Some people thought it was all my fault that we were stopped and started saying "Oh she's finally got off the bus!"

So I just got on the next bus that arrived shortly after and left, while she was still waiting for the police. I was explaining the story to the nice driver on this next bus (who had overheard her radioing the supervisor) and he was laughing because he probably imagined I was some terrible troublemaker criminal-type. He said "But you're such a nice lady!"

When I got back to the hotel needless to say I rang the I-Ride Trolley customer service number and complained about her attitude, saying she should not have let me on in the first place if she wasn't prepared to ask people to move down the bus.

 

[#1DizGal]

...leaving the World. Sniff...

 

[CleveRocks]

1. MY WIFE'S BAD EYES

During our first night in WDW, my wife had developed some very bad eye pain that included strong sensitivity to light. As usual, she, a doctor, asked me, a counselor, what was wrong, and as usual I made fun of her for seeking medical advice from a counselor. Her eyes were even worse when she woke up the next morning, our first full day in WDW. She was almost unable to open her eyes. They hurt all by themselves, but light made the pain very much worse. She couldn't put her contact lenses in because she couldn't open her eyes wide enough, and her vision is so poor that she can barely see without them. So living a Catch-22, she had to wear her glasses (always a last resort for her) so she could see at all, and thus couldn't wear the sunglasses that would have helped shade her eyes from the sun. Even though it was a really bad situation, her eye trouble launched a running joke for us all day. Since it helped her a lot to close her eyes, she asked to hang onto my arm as we walked so I could guide her with her eyes closed. I called myself her "Seeing Eye Dude" and it stuck all day and the next. Neither of us has used the word "dude" much since some time after college, but whenever I walked away without Lisa in tow I'd hear a pathetic little "Dude?" and I'd have to run back for her. All this with 2 pre-schoolers, too.


2. BAD CM, BAAAAD! (or, THERE'S NO CRYING IN DISNEYWORLD!)

We had FastPasses for Mickey's PhilharMagic. At that time, there were only a very few people in the stand-by line, with a posted wait time of 5 minutes. Well, we had the FastPasses, might as well use them. The FastPass "greeter" collected the FastPasses from me, and when we snaked around and got to the second CM he asked for our FastPasses. I was in the back, but Lisa and MIL both told him the first CM took them from me. He said no, it doesn't work that way, he needs the FastPasses. I reiterated that the first CM already took them from me. He told me, and I'll never forget this quote, "You're mistaken or you're lying and you'll have to get in (the stand-by) line." It takes a lot to get me angry and have me show it, and this did it. I immediately hit the roof at being called a liar, and he then smiled and let us into the theater. I again told him the first CM took our FastPasses, and he sarcastically said something like, "I'm letting you in, aren't I?" As we snaked through the velvet ropes we had to pass by him again. I called down and said something to him like, "Mike (I made sure he knew that I knew his name), why would I even bother lying about this, there's not even a line outside?!" He said nothing, but he smiled smugly and disapprovingly shook his head. Well, we didn't let that person affect our good time, because we all LOVED Mickey's PhilharMagic.

As I waited in line in the gift shop to buy something for my 5 year old son, MIL decided to mention to the cashier the rudeness we endured from Mike the Bad CM. The cashier literally stopped what he was doing to give his full attention to MIL, who highlighted that it was especially poor that he was rude in front of the kids, and motioned towards Lisa, who was standing a few feet away. This was the same day she had those bad eye problems; she was in pain and could barely open her very sore and red eyes. The cashier CM took one look at her, the mother of the kids who witnessed the rude behavior of Mike the Bad CM, and said to her, "Are you crying? There's no crying in Disney World!" (BTW, this was NOT said in the sarcastic tone of a drunken Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own" when he said, "There's no crying in baseball!"). He left the counter to get a manager; meanwhile, there was a line of customers not being waited on all this time. The manager comes out, hears MIL tell the story again, which I pitched in on, and he apologized profusely and offered us a priority FastPass good anywhere in Fantasyland. Pixie dust for all!


3. MY IN-LAWS, UNINVITED, CAME WITH US

.... Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting some sort of story here? Like this title really needs an explanation! Res ipse loquitor.

One quick anecdote: My wife and I don't live near any family. We both work full-time, get a babysitter maybe 4 times a year (each of our birthdays, anniversary, Valentine's Day) for our 2 pre-schoolers. The in-laws insist on coming with us to WDW. Do they offer to babysit for even an hour or two so we can get dinner just the 2 of us? What do you think?

Since these 3 things are the worst things that ever happened to me at WDW, I consider myself a very lucky and happy person!

 

[Twinprincesses]

When I was younger I left my favorite stuffed animal at the hotel. I did not realize it till I got home. I cried so hard, a couple days later I came home from school and there was a fed ex package on my bed and The Grand Floridian Fed exed Sebastian to me

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

My sister invited herself on our last WDW vacation, like you my husband and I only get a sitter about 3-5 times per year. She didn't even stick around for us to hint anything!! now, our family rule is no one else comes with us!

3. MY IN-LAWS, UNINVITED, CAME WITH US

.... Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting some sort of story here? Like this title really needs an explanation! Res ipse loquitor.

One quick anecdote: My wife and I don't live near any family. We both work full-time, get a babysitter maybe 4 times a year (each of our birthdays, anniversary, Valentine's Day) for our 2 pre-schoolers. The in-laws insist on coming with us to WDW. Do they offer to babysit for even an hour or two so we can get dinner just the 2 of us? What do you think?

Since these 3 things are the worst things that ever happened to me at WDW, I consider myself a very lucky and happy person!

 

[tmt martins]

My 1st year playing Paintball at WWoS I was a front player in 10 man .

So that 20 guys on the field at the start of the game .My teams ASKED me to try a run through (meaning it's possible for everyone to shoot me )to get a key player on the other team.

Well I did the run through got him plus 2 more then realizing I was out in the open with no where to hide well I think the other 7 guys found me at the same time because I had more welts then Pooh in a Honey Tree.

Now thats not the bad thing it's part of playing the game .

The bad part was all the MOM's at the POOL later that day pulling all their kids away from the LEPER with the skin eating desease.Now I put my shirt back on but the arms were just as bad.

Oh yea I made that great move and we still lost the game.

 

[Kim&Chris]

During our 2001 trip, DH and I were standing on Main Street watching Spectro go by, when BAM, I passed out cold. My DH helped me up, walked me into a store on Main Street, and BAM, I went out again.

I awoke to Disney paramedics over me, and about 500 onlookers staring at me. I pulled myself together and they put me in a wheelchair and escorted DH and I to the monorail.

To this day, I have no idea what made me pass out, but it was scary!

The most upsetting part of it? I had made a purchase earlier that night & had the bag in my hand when I passed out. When I went down, I must have dropped the bag. When we passed the spot again (on the way out), the bag was gone

 

[bubba73]

The worst thing that has happened to me was actually my fault but I have never forgotten it. When I was very young (6-8), we went to Kennedy Space Center. I remember going on the bus tour and having the time of my life. I was very talkative with the driver. It seemed like every date that he mentioned from history was close to a birthday or something so I always had a comment of some sort. The driver probably thought he had a future NASA employee or Astronaut on his hands. Although it has always been a dream of mine, sad to say it didn't come to reality. Anyway, when the ride was over, the driver pulled my family and myself to the side and asked us to wait for a minute. He had something he wanted to give to me. He walked away and we waited just a couple of minutes. At that time, he came back and gave me a packet of information on the Space Program that had to be 3" thick. I was astonished. My parents were flabbergasted. We didn't know what to say short of Thank You! He had to go and do another tour and we were a little hungry and wanted something to eat and drink. When we got up, I had something else on my young mind and forgot about the packet and left it there on the bench. We walked away for what I believe was 10 minutes before I remembered it and I started screaming. Needless to say, when we got back there, the packet was gone. I went from total elation from this man's generosity to destruction due to the loss of a gift.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

probably when i got engaged in Disney......which sounds bad. lol it was a good and bad time. the getting engaged was great! it happened while we were taking photos infront of Cinderella's Castle at night. so of course they took like 7 or 8 pictures. anyway, so we went back later to get the photos but we were trying to debate on what to do. we didn't really have THAT much money to buy all of them, but we could put them on credit(eek!). so the CM says "oh don't worry you have this card for 30 days after you leave the park! you can go on the internet and buy more if you want!" so we were thrilled and left. course that JUST happened the second to last day we were there.

anyway so we get home and the website wouldn't let us on. said our card number was invalid. after plenty of phone calls and getting the run around from about 9 different people, i was finally told that our photos were lost....and could not be retreived. i was devistated. luckily we got one set of one of the photos they took.......but we lost everything else. everything that we COULD have gotten had they not even bothered telling us about the photo pass. and it doesn't help that NOW all of a sudden they started selling a cd along with your purchase of all of your photos.

 

[MelessaG]

I can't believe I'm admitting this, but my nieces and my daughter got head lice on our last trip. We had been there for almost our whole stay when one niece mentioned that she had "buggies" in her hair. I had never dealt with lice before and wanted to reply with an "Oh no you don't, it's your imagination," but as the sole adult on the trip-I knew it was my problem. I was so mortified. I called Mousekeeping, terrified that they would throw me out, because I thought they should know about it since we had been in the room almost a week. They were wonderful and helped me change out all the bedding. Then I had to drive to the closest pharmacy and buy the combs, shampoo, etc...I offered my other niece $10 to take them to the register and pay, but she wouldn't. I believe her words were "Hey Man! You're on your own. You chose to bring us here by yourself." (She is so much her mother's daughter.) We spent half the night combing and shampooing and by the morning my daughter and the other niece had them. Then, I had three heads to comb and shampoo. I never got them, but even as I kid they never "liked" my hair. The only benefit to having thin, stringy hair, I guess. Needless to say, I didn't feel right taking them back to the parks and exposing everyone else, and, unable to get rid of all of them before our flight home-I had them all wear either a ball cap or bandana wrap on the plane. I know it's not a perfect solution, but I was dying to get my nieces home and let their mother worry about it for a change. And you wonder why I never posted a report about our last trip...though it was really fun until that happened. Between that and the stomach virus my daughter had on the trip before it, I'm a little afraid to go back.

 

[HappyLawyer]

The worst thing that happened to me was i had to leave and go back home.

 

[pampam]

Picture this. My daughter and I were at the Top of the World (where the California Grill is now). I remember I had the chilled strawberry soup and duck l'orange, The orchestra is playing , the entertainers were singing a bunch of show tunes, it was perfect. I payed the bill with my travelers cheques. A few minutes the manager of the restaurant came over, and explained that since the banks were closed they couldn't honour the TC. What!! She said that the TC were in Canadian $$ and they didn't know what the rate of exchange was. I said no, I bought them in Canada, but they were in U.S. $$. I checked and sure enough, they were in Can. $$. I was mortified! Now I had TC about as valuable as toilet paper, considering the exchange rate at the time. And to add insult to injury, there was a penelty charged each time I used them, because they were now dealing in a foreign currency. We were staying at Fort Wilderness, so we just billed it to our room. I had paid the exchange, but the teller at the bank (who happened to be my sister) grabbed the wrong box of TC and so I ended up with the wrong ones. When I got back to my room, I phoned my sis, and the next morning I phoned the bank. They sent the difference to the bank that was beside city hall in MK at the time, but I was still out of pocket because of the foreign currency penlty. I was not happy.

Another time, my daughters wheelchair got a flat tire, but as a guest at the Poly we were supplied with another.

A year ago yesterday, we were at WDW when I learned that my BIL had died. The management at ASMu took excellent care of us, in ways that I never expected. I wish I knew how to send a link to my post "How Disney handled a difficult situation". I think it should be known to all, how kind and considerate Disney was, as my would was crashing in on me. It's interesting that all of these things happened in WDW and were taken care of by WDW. When one stays on site, we are really cared for. It's wonderful.

 

[richard_andmel]

I got sick with a chest infection towards the end of my last trip. I spent the last day in bed pretty much.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Our worst trip was our first trip onsite at Dixie Landings.

As soon as we got there, ex-DH dropped his car keys - alarm and all - in the Sassagoula River.

Next, our car battery went dead, because someone left the back reading light on. The hotel sent over a mechanic to give us a jump.

Next and this is by far the worst - my then-two year old was jumping on the bed, after being warned numerous times to stop and fell off. She hit the back of her head on the sharp end of the nightstand and then reared forward and cracked her face on the siderails of the bed. She was knocked clean out.

I had to call 911. By the time they arrived, she'd come to.

For the rest of our trip, her eye was totally swollen shut and I had to endure "you're a horrible mother" stares from all of the other mothers.

I don't know how, but we still managed to have a wonderful trip.

 

[MinnieM21]

My nightmare story of coming home yesterday from Disney..

This happened at MCO yesterday. We boarded the plane around 6:30-6:45am and the plane was supposed to take off at 7am. Everyone was in their seats when they told us that there was ice on the wings and MCO doesn't have any deicer. So we sat there until 8:15am waiting for the sun to deice the ice off the wings. I thought they were joking because that just sounds so strange but nope they were serious. They turned the plane around at different angles so the sun could deice the wings better.

Everyone connecting to Portland missed their flight and so did half the people on the plane. Then we had to wait for 2 hours for our next flight at 11:40am Then there were mechanical problems and we were sitting on the plane for almost 3 hours. They finally decided to get us off the plane after 2:15 pm and board another one. The plane took off around 3:15pm

The plane finally landed after 5pm in Portland. It was supposed to land at 11:40am. I never knew coming home from Disney would be so tiring.

But I did have the best trip at Disney that I've ever had. It was a really wonderful trip.

 

[theycallmered]

Looking back now as an adult the situation does not seem so horrible, but back when I was 16 what happened in WDW was nearly the end of the world...

I was in WDW with my highschool marching band. My best friend in the whole world was also in the marching band. On the way down to FL from IL her and another girl got into a fight about a boy. All three of us were in the same little clique of girls though so the situation became tense. It was decided by my bff that she would go her own way and break off from the pack (and taking the boy with her) and take along any one else that agreed with her. Everyone else would be ditched. And somehow that included me.

I was crushed when I discovered that my bff had ditched me and the rest of my friends over a boy. A boy that I had no interest in. I was steammed. I treid to not get me and the rest of the ditch-ies down, but no one likes to be ditched by their friends.

By the time we had returned back to our hotel I was steam and I let them have it. I yelled at them big time and managed to get them to cry. While I felt bad that I had made them cry, I was pissed off that they had ditched me in the happiest place on earth.

The next day in WDW we met up and some how or another we made up. I am not sure how but being 16 year old silly girls I am sure that the apology was something along the lines of 'I am sorry.' Simple and sweet (too bad life can't be like that now as an adult).

We spent the day in WDW having a great time being bff again and the boy. Well no one got the boy. He ended up ditching all of us girls to hang out with his guy friends.

Of course before the trip ended rumors had spread that someone had been sent home from the trip and of course everyone thought that it was one of use girls. Why people thought that a little girl spat would prompt the chaperones to send us home, I will never know. But that's what people though. The group of us girls thought the idea entirely funny. Didn't people know that girls, especially highschool best friend girls, always make up. Boys are stupid and girls rule. Duh.


Like I said, not a big deal now, but the idea of my bff ditching me in WDW for a day was crushing and quite possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to me in WDW.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

At typhoon lagoon I was in the wave pool, when someone was coming on the wave. I couldn't move out of the way fast enough. He toppled me and hit his elbow on my forehead in the process. It was the last day we were there and due to fly out a bit later. I went home with a big bump on my forehead.

 

[ncbyrne]

1. MY WIFE'S BAD EYESShe was almost unable to open her eyes. They hurt all by themselves, but light made the pain very much worse. QUOTE]
Oh my....sounds like Iritis - painful in itself, but compounded by tropical sunlight! I'm curious...how long did it last and did she get treatment?

Worse thing that happened to me was finding I had an allergy called "concrete dermatitis". We sat on the pavement in front of World Showcase Lagoon to watch Illuminations. The next morning when I work up, every part of my legs that had contact with the cement had hideous red blotches. I went to the First Aid station in Epcot and got my diagnosis. (Seems it's not all that uncommon). No pain at all, but my legs looked like I had leprosy! I had to wear long pants the rest of the week! UGH.

The very next trip I had an accident in the wave pool at TL. I was in knee high water when a young boy was being rolled/tossed to shore by a wave...knocked me down on the way and pushed us both along the pool bottom. The skin was shaved off on the side of my calf pretty badly. Wound up with lots of bandages that needed to be changed often during the rest of the trip. It hurt too! I'm VERY careful not to be in anyone's path at TL nowadays!

 

[GregoryG]

I just got back yesterday after a week in WDW and sadly have a "Worst" story on this trip.

In line for the Aerosmith Roller coaster in MGM. We were in the inside line and the Cast Memeber was directing the next group into the lanes for the initial movie. If you have been there, you know the line is split into the upper and lower lane.

Both lanes were close to capacity and he directed us to move up along the wall alongside a couple of people pushing wheelchairs as there was just enough space for the 4 of us. The entire time the CM was directing people he was saying out loud "There is no line, there is no line. Move forward and fill all of the available space". We move up and take our spot and I feel a tap on my back. I turn around and one of the people pushing a wheelchair says "Hey Buddy, the line is back here". I indicate that this is where the cast memeber instructed us to go and if you had a question he could check with him...Apparently this was not enough as he began to raise his voice and began to use profanity. I was actually proud of myself as I remianed calm and asked the cast memeber to explain to the gentleman that he had instructed us to go there. The cast memeber did but this was not good enough for him either...as the doors opened and people moved into the little movie area, he continued to jaw at and use profanity (in front of my children mind you) until I got tired of it. I stopped dead in my tracks and just said "ENOUGH!" This finally did it as he stopped also (I can be intimadating at over 6' and 275 but I am a teddy bear).

He then gave a half hearted apology and said that he had been pushing this chair all day and was tired of people cutting blah...blah...blah. (Now if you have been to WDW, you know that handicap parties get priority on most lines and rides). I made sure the I let him and in front of me in the line for the seats and watched in awe as the person he was pushing, get up out of the chair and push her own chair out of the exit as he continued onto the ride. Not sure what to make of there.

I was really bothered by the experience the entire rest of the day and just could not believe that someone would be so vulgar and rude. I guess some people just cannot be happy even if they are at the "Happiest Celebration on Earth".

Sorry if there are spelling errors.

 

[dmk1021]

In 2003 my brother, sister, and I were at ASM at the same time as a cheerleading competition. One night they were screaming and running very loudly at 2am, and we were annoyed to say the least. We called the FD and they said they would send someone down to control it. At 4am, when the noise had only gotten worse, my brother was fed up and opened the door and told them that people were trying to rest and they needed to keep it down (no profanity or anything, just exasperated yelling).

The kids decided to line up outside our door and start yelling directly at us. They began breaking beer bottles against our door, and yelling for us to come out and they'll take care of us. We called the front desk again, this time hysterical, and they insisted someone would come down. This went on for a half hour, and we were frightened, so we called Orange County police. No one ever came to question us, but they left 15 minutes later, after we had heard the police come. It really ruined our trip.

In August 2005, my sister and I were on Pirates when it broke down right by the Pirate with the cats. It was about 10 minutes we sat there, and the boat kept moving slowly forward three feet, and slowly backwards three feet. People started climbing out of their boats (no cast member around yet, they had asked people to remain seated over the speaker). I was so mad at the audacity of people. Not only were they putting themselves in danger, they were disrespecting the ride and WDW in general. When a CM finally came out to help unload us, people began harrassing her, as if she had broken the ride! The woman in front of me was fed up with people treating the CM badly and spoke up. A British man began arguing with her and was swearing and getting in her face as we were escorted backstage and back into the park. Really, a sad event.

Last one (really!). In December 2004, my family went for XMas. A CM tried loading us (5 adults) onto Pooh. Now, 4 adults and a child - maybe, but there is no way 5 adults will fit in one honeypot. We are not skinny people, but not morbidly obese either. When we suggested to the CM that we would need 2 honeypots, my mother heard her tell another CM "that's what we call a "healthy" family." Uh, okay. Not rude at all. Like I said, there is no way five normal adults will fit in one honeypot.