What dramas have you had on Vacation?

[reecejackox]

I would say playing golf in France and nearly getting run over by a car having shooting my shot into the road.

 

[SueInBoston]

lost my daughter when she was around 6 in WDW. It was only a few minutes but felt like a life time.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Major flight delay on first trip to Europe. Arrived in London too late to make a train connection to Paris (first place we were to stay). We figured out on the fly that we could just flip the itinerary and do it in reverse. But it took a little work calling all the hostels/hotels and changing dates.

 

[HiStitch626]

A big family trip a number of years ago. We went to Hoop de Doo. My sister's son was asked to be part of the show, but he was too shy. So, they asked my brother's son. He was in the show and got a certificate or a picture or some other small souvenir. Well, SIL was mad that nephew 2 wasn't chosen first but then gloated that he got the chance to be in the show. Sister was mad that they didn't give nephew 1 a little more time to accept. There was pouting on both sides (from the adult women, not the kids) and it led to more arguments as the week went on. Haven't been back to Hoop with kids since!

 

[chickapin parterre]

June of 1973, my uncle finally decides it is time to fulfill a life long dream and take his wife on a river rafting trip that he had taken 20 years earlier....and he wants to take his kid brother and family. He buys two McKenzie river boats in oregon and my dad hauls them to Stanley Idaho, at the base of the Sawtooth mountains and beginning of the middle fork of the salmon river....or called....The River Of No Return.

Things had changed in 20 years, need a reservation (* uncle was one of first to join a flotilla down the river in 1950s rubber rafts.), second, a wood boat is for only skilled river men ( four hours on a calm river does not do the trick) and more importantly, the river needs water and a drought in the winter had made the starting spot a more than difficult adventure for the most skilled...The forest ranger, said, no, no, no...you can not enter the river.

Well my Uncle ia big shot in STanley, he pulled some strings and BINGO we have a green light. My thought is that we are going to die....and I just made the high school honor roll for the first time. uncle's son and wife join us, 3 to a boat, heavy with supplies. Minutes into the float down the river, one boat hits a boulder, water is streaming in, hole on bottom, no way to repair. On the wrong side of river, rope pull to slanted canyon wall and spend the rest of the day hauling up by trail all the supplies, while the two boats are pulled straight up the bank by us four males. I 17, my uncle probably in his 60s. I don't remember in strong detail the struggle, other than that it was a struggle. But what I do remember is the the T-bone steak we had for dinner.....to this day it is the best steak I have ever eaten......and I went on to make the honor roll all year in High School....I finally got it.

As for the River of No Return....It claimed my Uncles Son 16 years ago, about the same age of his father on that 1973 trip.

 

[VandVsmama]

I was 13 and my sister was about 10 1/2. Parents put us on a flight to go visit our grandparents on the other side of the country. First time flying as unaccompanied minors. Plane had mechanical problems. Flight was not direct, had a stop over in 1 airport but due to the extreme delays, we never made it that night to our destination. The airline put me and my sister, alone, in a hotel room over night. Unfrickin believable in today's world, but this was the 1980s when this happened.

Not exactly a vacation, but when I was a kid, we moved from Texas to CA, so we had to do a big road trip to drive to the new digs in CA. The family dog was high strung, so the vet had to basically prescribe anti-anxiety meds to the dog for the trip. Yep, had to dope the dog. Our van's tire blew out in the middle of nowhere on I-10 in New Mexico. Then we stopped at a gas station to fill up in NM, only I puked at the gas station. We spent the night at a motel in Phoenix and the van got broken into. Then my mom sprayed hair spray on her tooth brush and we stupidly thought it would be wise for her to borrow my tooth brush, even though I'd just been puking the day before.

Once we hit southern CA, my mom had a case of the pukes, too, but not until AFTER we'd eaten lunch at Pea Soup Andersen's near Solvang, CA. I'll let your imagination be your guide with that one! LOL! Fast forward to about 4 hours later and we pulled up to our new house...and 15 min later, the huge moving van showed up.

 

[chickapin parterre]

I was 13 and my sister was about 10 1/2. but this was the


1980s when this happened.

...and 15 min later, the huge moving van showed up.

weren't the 80's great ????

 

[RamblingMad]

My dad got really bad sunburn/heat stroke at WDW in the 80s. We had to go to the hospital.

 

[neverlandsky]

Got sick 2 days into our first trip to WDW. Had to cancel so many ADRs (T-Rex, Boathouse, Art Smith, Cape May, Syfi drive-in, etc). Was mostly at the resort for the rest of the trip. Haven't been back because I'm afriad of getting sick.

 

[Immadismom]

DH and his mom have always wanted to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail. It was a bucket list item for them. So, about 4 years ago they decided that we needed to do it as a family, just an “easy” two day hike, with one overnight in the woods. DH researched it, amd swore high & low that there were tons of YouTube videos saying this was a short, simple stretch that you could hop off the couch and do in less than two days. We are NOT hikers...at all...

So, off we go...DH, myself, DD, DS, and MIL. First day is tough, but not super bad and we stopped by 4 pm to set up camp. Set off again on day two, and by about noon DH says “we should be out of here by now”. Keep hiking, pass some folks who swear the exit we’re headed to is “just over that hill”. Keep hiking, And the next person swears there is no way we’re going to make it out by nighttime. Panic starts to set in, we call for rescue help and they tell us that this is the worst stretch of the trail, as there are no other exits beside the one we came from & the one we’re headed to. We have little extra food, and MIL is starting to hallucinate from low electrolytes. I finally get cell signal again, call FIL to tell him to bring Gatorade and we’re now jogging in the dark. kids and I finally make it out, and DS and FIL have to go back in about 1/4 of a mile to drag DH and MIL out.

That was the scariest experience of my life, and the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But NO WAY was I spending another night out there.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I cut my finger in the Polynesian's pool very badly because they still had the filters turned on and I caught my hand against it. I almost had to go to the hospital but decided not to. The guy that ran the boat rental shack wrapped it in gauze and I went about my business. The hotel called our room the next day and I had to go down to the lobby and fill out an incident report. Maybe I should have sued because the pool filters weren't supposed to be on when guests were in the pool, but I really didn't want to.

 

[cvjw]

My extended family of 14 were in a shuttle van from the airport in Jamaica to the beaches resort in Negril. This was years ago and the road to negril was awful - one lane and there appeared to be no rules of the road down there.

Our van driver was speeding and we went thru this small town where the road was clogged with people. Our van driver was just driving and expecting everyone to get out of his way. One poor lady did not. Whammed her in the head with the side mirror. She went down. Van just kept speeding away.

All of us in the van were horrified. We weren‘t sure what we should do since we were in a foreign country. Van driver went to the next town over and stopped at the police station, while leaving all of us alone in the van. Locals started surrounding the van. My husband started looking for anything in the van that could be used to protect us - we had 6 small children and elderly parents with us. Super scary. About that time, another van from beaches showed up and got us. Glad we didn’t have to find out what could have happened next.

We have never opted to visit Jamaica again

 

[MamaLema]

First time to WDW, We are a family of 5 and had 3 little ones. We took my mom too.
5 minutes in MK me and my mom got into a massive argument and she said she didn’t want to spend the day with me so we spent the next 12 hours apart and somehow found her after the fireworks.
We have gone on countless vacations with her since and we never had a problem.
To this day neither of us remembers what that fight was about and we regret not enjoying MK because life is so damn short.

 

[easyas123]

My grandmother passed away on the second night of a 3 week Outer Banks vacation rental. My cousin, SIL & I were all SAHM w/ little kids and so my grandmother would rent this big place in the summer and we'd all hang out with the little kids and the husbands would come down for the weekends and last full week.
Well - Gram passed away in her sleep on the second night in...shock to say the least. Called the police non emergency number, explained that maybe they ought to get someone over who could handle the situation. What can I say, we were in shock. They came, coroner came. All was taken care of in about 2 hours. We had her cremated (we don't do conventional funerals in our family) and we continued to stay at the vacation house for the remainder of the 3 weeks. We LOVED that old lady, she was a pistol! And she would have loved the drama of it all- Buried her at sea w/ my grandfather & her parents in the BVI's as is our family custom the next year.
Never did tell the rental company there was a death there while. I mean, it wasn't a secret, we called the police and her death was a matter of public record. I still wonder about that - it was 22 years ago this past Sept. 18th. My youngest sons 1st birthday!

 

[Pooh2]

My husband fell out of the outhouse and broke his ankle while we were camping in a remote region.

 

[mrodgers]

Hmm, no drama (except typical young children drama.)

We've been stuck on the Chesapeake Bay bridge in 110° heat in a car without air conditioning for 3 or 4 hours as a kid.

Oh, I guess I do have a bit of drama to ourselves. First vacation, to Disney actually (our only Disney trip.) 2 hours into our 19 hour drive a deer leaps over the jersey barrier into the left lane. I had a car riding my rear (why people, when there's a clear lane right there?) so I watch my mirror as I eased the brakes on, when he scoots over I slam them on and grind to a halt just to very ever so lightly tap the deer and it's head flops and bangs off the hood.

Not enough to stop us, little dent in the bumper and dent in the hood, take care of it when we get back luckily. Ended up being $4200!


And my not so drama and only affected me personally, same trip. I drive 1100 miles to get away from work and take my family on our first family vacation. We get there, park, get out of the car and the very first thing I see is a huge pile of foam lego like blocks. 1100 miles and the very first thing I see is product, the very specific product, I made. I know it was my material because we had just started making colors (foam beads that we mold into parts like, well, giant lego blocks...) and some watch company wanted us to mix all the colored material together for an order for their packaging and then canceled the order. So they molded lego blocks, these specific multicolored lego blocks that I made the material in research and development trials.

As I started here working when the place was only 4 months old and we only made car bumpers and just started to break into non-automotive after about 15 years, it was weird seeing my material molded into an actual consumer shelf product and out in the world for all to see.

 

[nw6675]

As a kid, coming home from vacation in the US when we lived overseas. Rental van with driver broke down when leaving Manila. Had to take a Rabbit bus, jeepney, motorcycle taxi and regular taxi to make it home in one night. Every time the bus would stop and idle the roaches would crawl out from the seats. Rental driver promised to get us our luggage the next day - and he did.

Not quite as exciting, but DH and I flew to Chicago for a weekend trip one Memorial Day weekend. Taxi driver was high as a kite and to make matters worse, parade had shut the streets down by our hotel. We had to walk blocks with our luggage, but we were thankful to be alive lol.

 

[ronandannette]

Losing our Passports in Monte Carlo on day 2 of a 7 day Mediterranean cruise where we planned to visit 4 different countries. Thank the Lord for the Schengen Treaty. Being stranded in Barcelona for 4 days waiting to have them returned so we could fly home wasn't great either.

 

[adkkev]

............

 

[NannyBeBe]

While vacationing at DLR, my husband took a very nasty fall and was in the ICU with a brain bleed.