What Vacation Experience?

[NFLDERS]

Do you wish or hope, to NEVER experience again!

 

[soccerdad72]

Outer Banks with my family -- 5 kids under the age of 6 under one roof with a stomach bug getting passed from person to person.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Severe turbulance.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

When went to Costa Rica about two and a half years ago, I typed in the name of the hotel into the GPS and clicked GO. We drove for about 3 hours and I started to see a big blue body of water show up on the GPS. It was the Pacific ocean and our hotel was in the central part of the country.

OOPS. There were two hotels with the same name and it took us 4 hours to get to the actual hotel through completely deserted dirt roads (at times) where if we had gotten a flat we would have been totally SOL.

Never will make that mistake again!

 

[Kogo Shuko]

Being stuck next to the washroom on a 7 hour flight. >_<

 

[mombrontrent]

A 22+ hour drive from Ontario to Orlando with three kids

 

[wiigirl]

Severe turbulance.

I have turbulance.

 

[snapppyd]

Trip to an all inclusive in Pennsylvania. My MIL passed away the first day we were there.

Went back a year later - my Mom passed the second day we were there.

(They were not with us - we had to drove home immediately both times)

Went back 3 years later - my Dh almost lost an eye when he got hit with a racquet ball.

Needless to say I will drive AROUND Pennsylvania before I will set foot in that place again!

 

[NFLDERS]

I have turbulance.

Hope you meant "hate!"

 

[TheAviator]

Going with the wrong person, knowing at the time in the back of your mind this probably isn't a good idea, then when you are at your destination, the person confirming with extreme prejudice that I was correct in my initial assessment that it wasn't a good idea. To my credit, it only happened once.

 

[ckay87]

Cancun. Ick. In fact, I'd probably just skip Mexico completely from here on. There are lovely resorts, but I'd prefer to feel safer and less harassed at a lovely resort.

 

[DawnM]

Flew from Singapore to Kenya many years back on Air Mauritius. Layover in Mauritius.

Well, apparently they only have ONE flight out per week to Kenya. Flight was late getting out of Singapore and I missed it.

I had to stay an entire week in Mauritius alone without much $$. Fortunately, the airline put me up in a hotel with 2 buffet style meals per day, but I don't speak French and had no one with me. I WAS ON the beach though.

I was in my 20s then and had no CC.

Now I think I would welcome a week at the beach alone!

Dawn

 

[TheAviator]

Flew from Singapore to Kenya many years back on Air Mauritius. Layover in Mauritius.

Well, apparently they only have ONE flight out per week to Kenya. Flight was late getting out of Singapore and I missed it.

I had to stay an entire week in Mauritius alone without much $$. Fortunately, the airline put me up in a hotel with 2 buffet style meals per day, but I don't speak French and had no one with me. I WAS ON the beach though.

I was in my 20s then and had no CC.

Now I think I would welcome a week at the beach alone!

Dawn

That's an interesting story. One reason I am too chicken to travel to Africa. My cousin lives there and says its great, but I feel like if I went I would get attacked by rebels or hyenas or something. I think I'll have to get all of my Africa fixes from Disney's Animal Kingdom.

 

[bjscheel]

We generally have great vacation experiences, we've never even been rained on in 5 trips to WDW. But in 2008 we rode Amtrak from southwest Iowa to Colorado. Iowa was experiencing floods at the time and the train was 3 hours late to pick us up.

That wasn't the bad part though. Because of the flooding, our train back to Iowa was cancelled. Amtrak instead provided us a bus from Denver to Omaha (which is about 100 miles from where we originally boarded in Iowa). They loaded the luggage underneath the bus. The driver started to pull away when my 9 year old daughter said the sides were still open from putting the luggage in. ..DH spoke up and the driver stopped to close the sides of the bus. So a luggage disaster was averted at least.

This was also the first bus trip making that route, so the driver had a Mapquest printout. A passenger offered to stay up all night and help him navigate. This wasn't an interstate trip- we had to stop at every little train depot in CO and NE in case anyone wanted to get on or off (no one did). Though at one stop, someone else in a car approached the driver because they were lost and wondered if they could follow us to Kearney. The driver said, sure, then got on the bus and said "Where the hell is Kearney?"

It was an overnight trip, but I had an awful hard time sleeping sitting up on a bus. Plus the a/c was blasting and the driver didn't know how to adjust it so it was cold besides. Eventually the driver met his quota and had to switch with another driver at a hotel, and the new one knew how to run the a/c.

Finally we arrived at Omaha and my dad was able to come over there and pick us up. Some others had to rent cars to get back to their homes or the depot where they left their car.

It wasn't pleasant, but it sure could have been worse. We've been lucky.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Gee-I feel pretty fortunate-I can't think of any truly horrible vacation experience that I wouldn't want to repeat. The "worst" one in recent memory was when we missed our connection to Yellowstone, had to be rerouted on multiple flights, then got there to find that my luggage hadn't made it, it was cold and snowing in June, and I only had on a t-shirt and jeans. And I did get sick at WDW on a solo trip, my worst fear, and I couldn't get anyone on the phone. Fortunately, I stood out in the hall and cried (I know, not very adult but it got mousekeeping's attention) and the illness only lasted 12 hours. So I guess I've been lucky!

 

[momz]

i got our family kicked out of a KOA once. Long story.

We had rented one of those one room cabin thingies. When we arrived, there was trash strewn about inside the cabin and the railing on the top bunk broke off when my 6 year old DD climbed up into it. When I went to the office to request that the cabin be cleaned and the railing secured, I was told that since I am so unhappy, I should pack up my family and go elsewhere.

In the end, the conversation was overheard by another employee who reported it to the campground's owner. I got a personal appology by phone, and both an email and a snail mail invitation to return for a free stay...we never went back, however.

 

[Pakey]

Altitude sickness in Tibet. I had to see a Tibetan doctor who spoke no English and we attempted to communicate with one another regarding the medications I take (chemotherapy) because he was subscribing medication for me. Taking those pills in a package with warnings and directions I couldn't read was the scariest thing I've ever done. And being served a plate with Yak tongue when you don't feel good goes beyond even my sense of adventure.

 

[yoopermom]

Not mine, but my DF thought it would be a good idea to take his new wife for their honeymoon on a canoeing/camping trip to the Boundary Waters despite the fact that she thinks roughing it is a hotel without room service and an indoor pool. They're still married 27 years later, but it almost didn't last past the honeymoon!

Terri

 

[momof1princess]

New Orleans with a tour bus full of band kids. The hotel was great, and every restaurant we went to had awesome staff, but, everywhere else we went, we had people following us around making lewd comments to our girls (even in their band uniforms!), and it got so bad one time, one of our band dads was ready to beat the daylights out of this one guy who just would NOT let it go. we even had to move our ghost tour to a different location at one point on our first night there, because a group of people was following our group and shouting curse words (the most popular of which was the f-bomb). NEVER want to set foot there again.

 

[SleepyMom]

For some reason I tend to have an injury during vacations... but never at Disney! I keep telling my DH it is the only safe place for me to vacation

In Arizona, I stepped in a hole for a sprinkler head and fell twisting my ankle and bruising my foot at a water park. This was about day 3 of a 3 week trip of course!

In Texas at the Schlitterbahn I was going down a tube area and there was a buildup of people on tubes who weren't moving, and when I got to them my tube flipped over and I hit the back of my head on the concrete bottom. Since I flipped backwards I was facing down and under the group of tubes, I could not get out from under them. Literally one of the scarier moments ever for me. Thankfully I somehow got out, but had to have medical care and leave the park. It was only our 3rd ride of the day.

In Washington DC, I fell on an escalator and cut my knee. Walked with DD to a Metro stop (I just wanted to go back to our room, but DD finally said what would you do if this was me hurt?) and found a hospital, where we spent 5 hours waiting in the ER to be seen. DD was 15 at the time and after 5 hours and my knee gushing blood every so often she went to the front desk and demanded I be seen, and suddenly I was taken back. Needed stitches and found out I had broken my kneecap. Had to fly home 3 days later, that was a fun trip!

Stepped into a hot tub in Minneapolis and curled my toes to avoid stubbing them on the steps and railing and instead somehow broke the toe next to my big toe. It was swollen and purple/black within 2 minutes. It was a bad break! To this day if I step wrong or bump it at all I can feel it still because it never did heal right.

So, injuries are the experience I would like to skip while on vacations!