Whats your worst vacation mishap? Here's mine...

[linzjane88]

We booked a surprise trip to Disneyland on May 5-10 when an amazing Southwest fare sale popped up. Well I realized that those dates fell on a Tinkerbell Marathon weekend which explained why I couldn't find any decent rooms within walking distance to DL. Luckily it's easy enough to change your ticket for free with SW so I cancelled our original tickets and booked us for May 19-24. Easy!

Except for one thing. When I rebooked us I somehow managed to only book my husband. I didn't read the confirmation in detail when it popped up--just casually glanced over to make sure the new times and dates worked. We also booked using airmiles so it's not like I noticed a missing airfare charge on my statement or anything.

Anyway we wake up at 0200 for our 0600 flight. When I go to do the online checkin I see it only says my husbands name. I thought that seemed odd but we have never flown SW before (we transferred our miles in from my Chase card)--maybe we have to check in individually? That must be it. Search my email for confirmation #'s for my girls and I. Nothing. Then I look at my miles balance and see it is only minus the amount my husbands ticket cost . Thats when it clicked and I wanted to puke. At that point it's 0315, the kids were loaded up in the car already and we needed to be on the road to the airport. I make a desperate call to customer service and explain everything. The CS rep told me there was additional availability but it was going to be about 3x the original cost in miles to book. . I decided to live dangerously and see if I could get it sorted out at the airport, expecting the worst but hoping to get better than the outrageous cost of a same day ticket.

I got to the airport and made it to the customer service counter and started crying which was NOT my intention but not having a ticket for most of your party 2 hours before your flight is sorta stressful . Luckily the check-in lady was SUPER helpful. She made a couple phone calls and booked us on the same flight for the same cost as the the tickets were when I originally booked. Crisis averted! She gave me a hug when it was all done. I am SO not a hugger but after her saving my epic mess up I was more than willing.

That sums up my worst vacation disaster.

 

[barkley]

it used to be said in our household that no vacation was complete unless some mishap, illness or injury occurred (it took us 3 Disney cruises to finally make it to castaway cay b/c of ship/weather issues)

the most memorable though was our family cruise to Alaska-phenomenal weather, stunning sites, great excursions............the last night after the luggage was set outside the cabin and the kids were asleep dh and were reveling in the fact that at long last we had succeeded in having an uneventful vacation..........then I got the bright idea to take advantage of the largely bedded down ship to take some uncrowded photos of some of the public areas. I step outside our cabin door and WHAM-one of the crew who was loading luggage onto one of those huge carts got the bright idea when one of the wheels got stuck to walk back several feet, take a running start and throw all his weight against the cart-which slammed into me.

great vacation, great memories, great flight home from Vancouver until I went to get up from my seat and ached all over. between the bruising, the muscle spasms and the whiplash I had to be off work for a couple of weeks.

 

[mummabear]

When DD6 was 2 we went to Port Douglas (DD4 was 3 months) 2 nights before we were due( the night before my DH was due to leave) to go home she slipped next to the pool right before bedtime, she committed immediately. We kept her awake for a bit, checked her eyes etc. at midnight she woke up and started vomiting non stop, we bundled us all into the car and raced to the closest "hospital" but it was an outpost clinic on a local reservation, mostly for snake bites and the like.
They checked her out, hours passed as she continued to be sick, DH had to leave as he had flights for an important meeting in the US, the doctors started talking about helicoptering us to Townsville for a CAT scan, I am thinking OK I'm on my own with a 2 year old, a 3 month old, I don't even have my wallet on me (didn't think to grab it during the rush to the hospital) and the hotel is expecting me to check out tomorrow and nothing is packed away. WTH do I do?!? Then miraculously she just stopped being sick, they kept us in another night for observation and all was well.

Fast forward almost 4 years, we are in the Gold Coast.
DD2 was 18 months, she fell backwards off of a bench and hit her head hard, started vomitting and wouldn't stop, another night in the hospital this time with a CAT scan. Fi ally vomitting stopped 12 hours later,
Went back to the hotel, all was well then at midnight she woke up vomitting again, I reached to get her out of the portacot next to our bed, tried to climb off the bed but got my leg trapped and fell, tried to twist so I didn't land on her and crush her but ended up swinging her round into a door frame like a baseball bat, back to the hospital for another night, get back the next day and both our other children start vomitting. DD5 has to pull out of her swimming with the Dolphins for her bday(luckly could get another date on our trip). And eventually everyone was well agai .

No one seems to have any permanent brain damage thankfully.

 

[Mokat76]

Wow, Mummabear, y'all have some tough noggins.
No vacation disasters of my own but my neighbor seems to be prone to them when on group tours with a particular tour group. A few years ago it was a dream trip to Ireland. First they got caught up in an airline strike or something and lost a day. Then the luggage was lost for two more. Then on day four (of 10) she sprained her ankle on some uneven stairs. The rest of the trip was tough, but she soldiered on.
She's on a trip now. She left sick. First stop was New Orleans. Apparently it did not go well. All I've heard to date is her roommate has two black eyes and she has "lots of stories." Oh, and she never wants to go back there again. Can't wait for those stories!

 

[MickeySP]

Well I had to get my own drinks at the pool on our last cruise, it was horrid!!!

Actually it wasn't on vacation but right before it. We had a RCI cruise to Nassau, St Maarten & St Thomas all booked & paid. I had lined up all our excursions scuba, zipline, & day of snorkeling on a Pirate Ship. We take turns picking vacations so this one was all mine to plan. Well about 3 weeks before we leave I am late for work so I run down our stairs. It has a 4 step bend at the bottom, I hit the bend and go airborne. I hit the halltree, my hand lodges in the spindle. My hand stays put and I go left. Heck when I injure myself I don't mess. My wrist is smashed, as the surgeon said looks like someone hit you with a hammer. Did someone hit you with a hammer? Well I hit the ER & less than 24 hours later I am the proud owner of a shiny new plate and 6 lovely screws

So there goes all my plans - no scuba, no zipline, no Pirate boat Thankfully the cruise line refunded them. We picked up a beach excursion and a champagne Katamaran sail, so still a great time. Oh and it gave my a great excuse to buy the top tier alcohol package

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Last Summer coming home from Orlando, the highway was closed for 8 hours due to a police emergency. We got caught between exits and had to ride it out. Thankfully, we had a full tank of gas. Others weren't so lucky.

 

[barkley]

When DD6 was 2 we went to Port Douglas (DD4 was 3 months) 2 nights before we were due( the night before my DH was due to leave) to go home she slipped next to the pool right before bedtime, she committed immediately. We kept her awake for a bit, checked her eyes etc. at midnight she woke up and started vomiting non stop, we bundled us all into the car and raced to the closest "hospital" but it was an outpost clinic on a local reservation, mostly for snake bites and the like.
They checked her out, hours passed as she continued to be sick, DH had to leave as he had flights for an important meeting in the US, the doctors started talking about helicoptering us to Townsville for a CAT scan, I am thinking OK I'm on my own with a 2 year old, a 3 month old, I don't even have my wallet on me (didn't think to grab it during the rush to the hospital) and the hotel is expecting me to check out tomorrow and nothing is packed away. WTH do I do?!? Then miraculously she just stopped being sick, they kept us in another night for observation and all was well.

Fast forward almost 4 years, we are in the Gold Coast.
DD2 was 18 months, she fell backwards off of a bench and hit her head hard, started vomitting and wouldn't stop, another night in the hospital this time with a CAT scan. Fi ally vomitting stopped 12 hours later,
Went back to the hotel, all was well then at midnight she woke up vomitting again, I reached to get her out of the portacot next to our bed, tried to climb off the bed but got my leg trapped and fell, tried to twist so I didn't land on her and crush her but ended up swinging her round into a door frame like a baseball bat, back to the hospital for another night, get back the next day and both our other children start vomitting. DD5 has to pull out of her swimming with the Dolphins for her bday(luckly could get another date on our trip). And eventually everyone was well agai .

No one seems to have any permanent brain damage thankfully.

there was a period in time when my kids if asked how they enjoyed going to a whatever vacation destination we had recently returned from would give a commentary about the specifics of whatever e/r we had been to "oh, it was nice-they had good cookies but the stickers are better at the one near Disneyland-and oooh, remember the juice boxes and toys at the one by Disneyworld-it's really my favorite"oh well, at least they had positive memories of the trips (strange and warped as they were).

 

[weeniecat2442]

My aunt owns a house on Cape Cod- about 20 mins north of Ptown so it's pretty far down there. It's an awesome house and she lets us stay there (with the dog!) for free. We only go down in the off season, usually April or October.
We headed down for a week this past April for my birthday. We spent a ton of money on awesome food (we cook a lot down there) and wine, beer, and margarita fixins.
We have a great first night there- stayed up late eating the fresh seafood we had picked up and enjoying a bottle (maybe 2!) of good wine.
We went to bed around 2AM.

I wake up alone in the bed and find my BF sleeping in one of the tiny twin beds in the room next to us. I thought maybe he just wanted some space? I go back to bed. An hour later I wake up to him puking his brains out in the bathroom and murmuring "oh my god oh my god." Poor guy was SO SO sick. High fever, vomiting, other awful symptoms. The worst of it was over in 24 hours but he was not himself the rest of trip. Oh and I forgot to add...it rained and we got an awesome spring time snow storm. Rained and/or snowed every.single.day.

We made the best of it and I thought PHEW thank god I didnt get sick! Five days later we are back home and around 10pm I think...wow...I feel weird. BAM I'm vomiting like I never have before. High fever. And now I was murmuring "oh my god oh my god." I was sick for a bit longer than he was.
Ive had salmonella and ecoli at the same exact time and this stomach bug was 10x worse than that!
We need a vacation re do!!

 

[indimom]

No one was injured or made ill during our mishap, but it's still pretty memorable.

In 2013, we took a split stay trip to Disney and Universal. This was a super cheap spur of the moment vacation. We had reward dollars from Disney to cover 4 nights tent camping at Fort Wilderness and 4 day park tickets. We used credit card rewards to cover two nights at the royal pacific resort. So, we only had to pay for gas, groceries and our Universal tickets.

Anyway, I had worried about tent camping at Disney in June... will it be miserably hot, etc. But, everything went beautifully. The four days there were fabulous, the weather was great, and the tent was cool and comfy every night.

The day came for our relocation to the royal pacific. Our plan was to start packing up our camp before daylight, so we could get to the resort early, get our front-of-the-line passes and hit the parks running.

So, our family of four unloaded the tent of EVERYTHING... suitcases, electronics, shoes, camping gear, sleeping bags, pillows, the works. It's all sitting out in the campsite because we were camping with our car and everything had to go back into the trunk in a particular order starting with the tent (otherwise we would have to unpack it all to get to our luggage for the universal portion of the trip.

Here's where it gets... interesting.

You know those sudden afternoon storms Orlando is famous for???
Sometimes they happen in the morning.

And sometimes, in the dark, you can't see them coming....

We had everything out when we heard the first rumble. And within a minute or two, the first drops of rain.
And before we could even think, the torrential downpour started.
And every stinking thing we owned was sitting on a sand pad getting drenched and covered with spraying sand.

We literally froze for a moment... then we frantically started throwing the computers and cameras and phones into the car. The suitcases and shoes were run up to the bathhouse (which had a small awning). Pillows and sleeping bags into the back seat.

Instead of being neatly folded and packed, the tent was haphazardly thrown into the trunk, followed by everything else. In a complete mess. It was so bad we dumped all the picnic food we had planned to take to universal in our coolers to snack on...and filled the coolers with wet items. The messy packing took up all the space. When most of it was stowed away, we trudged up to the bath houses saturated to the bone, to change into new clothes from our damp suitcases.

By the time we hit the road to Universal, the sun was coming up and the storm was clearing....
We arrived at the Royal Pacific Resort (a pretty nice place, by the way) with wet heads and suitcases, looking like castaways on a desert island.

They were kind enough to get us a room early, so we could spread out some of our things to dry. (We spent that evening washing and drying a lot of clothes and shoes).

And we went on with our trip, trying not to let the event get us down....but knowing the entire time... that our car was filled to the brim with soaking wet camping gear, cooking in an Orlando parking lot...for the next three days....before we had to climb back into it for the 16 hour drive home. Yeah, that was us you smelled.

 

[ronandannette]

This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent during our recent Mexican AI vacation. It was pretty "mishap-y", start to finish.

Hi XXX,
Holy crap - I knew in advance this was going to be "the Grizwalds do Cancun" but even at that it's getting to be a little much.

We've had people lock themselves out of their room and have to swim the canal that surrounds the cabana to get help, people lose their &%*$ on the time share salesmen over a $10 spa credit, people push other people 1.3 km in a wheelchair to see a show they couldn't understand a word of, people break out in a head-to-toe allergy rash, people inadvertently pay $11 CAD for a box of 8 tampax at the gift shop and tip 500 pesos instead of 50, people fall out of a canoe and wreck their new iPhone 6S, people order Eggs Benedict for breakfast from room service and end up getting 5 glasses of pineapple juice and a big bowl of hot milk delivered instead, people drinking warm champagne directly out of the bottle in the morning and drying themselves off with pillowcases because housekeeping didn't leave any towels or coffee supplies, glasses or ice, people crash their Segway because they were startled by an iguana...You can share the fun by guessing which people are which. If I am not back by Wednesday, please send help."

 

[SirDuff]

there was a period in time when my kids if asked how they enjoyed going to a whatever vacation destination we had recently returned from would give a commentary about the specifics of whatever e/r we had been to "oh, it was nice-they had good cookies but the stickers are better at the one near Disneyland-and oooh, remember the juice boxes and toys at the one by Disneyworld-it's really my favorite"oh well, at least they had positive memories of the trips (strange and warped as they were).

There was a period of time when we were traveling and drove my a hospital/sign for a hospital, my parents would turn to me and say "well, now we know where to take you". Never anything really big (some broken bones, stepped on glass, burn, what turned out to be pneumonia), but it was pretty consistent. My hospital chart at the hospital near our condo in Florida must be rather amusing - for five years in a row, I showed up between 20-December and 2-January. Weirdly, never ended up at the ED at home as a child.

 

[bjscheel]

We booked a surprise trip to Disneyland on May 5-10 when an amazing Southwest fare sale popped up. Well I realized that those dates fell on a Tinkerbell Marathon weekend which explained why I couldn't find any decent rooms within walking distance to DL. Luckily it's easy enough to change your ticket for free with SW so I cancelled our original tickets and booked us for May 19-24. Easy!

Except for one thing. When I rebooked us I somehow managed to only book my husband. I didn't read the confirmation in detail when it popped up--just casually glanced over to make sure the new times and dates worked. We also booked using airmiles so it's not like I noticed a missing airfare charge on my statement or anything.

Anyway we wake up at 0200 for our 0600 flight. When I go to do the online checkin I see it only says my husbands name. I thought that seemed odd but we have never flown SW before (we transferred our miles in from my Chase card)--maybe we have to check in individually? That must be it. Search my email for confirmation #'s for my girls and I. Nothing. Then I look at my miles balance and see it is only minus the amount my husbands ticket cost . Thats when it clicked and I wanted to puke. At that point it's 0315, the kids were loaded up in the car already and we needed to be on the road to the airport. I make a desperate call to customer service and explain everything. The CS rep told me there was additional availability but it was going to be about 3x the original cost in miles to book. . I decided to live dangerously and see if I could get it sorted out at the airport, expecting the worst but hoping to get better than the outrageous cost of a same day ticket.

I got to the airport and made it to the customer service counter and started crying which was NOT my intention but not having a ticket for most of your party 2 hours before your flight is sorta stressful . Luckily the check-in lady was SUPER helpful. She made a couple phone calls and booked us on the same flight for the same cost as the the tickets were when I originally booked. Crisis averted! She gave me a hug when it was all done. I am SO not a hugger but after her saving my epic mess up I was more than willing.

That sums up my worst vacation disaster.

That was awesome of SW to help you out!

No major mishaps here, or really any minor ones either. The only thing I can think of is on our 2014 Disney trip, our arrival night was supposed to be really stormy at home, so we were really worried about our house and such. Not much actually happened at home, but my SIL's house, where our van was parked inside a building, had a tornado. Our van was okay, but her house had windows broken out. Omaha had a lot of damaging hail, so if we had left our van there instead it would have been a worry too.

 

[wilkeliza]

My first trip to Disney World ever. Looking back it is a cute story to tell but so many bad decisions.

I was so so so excited that my at the time boyfriend (now fiance) was taking me on a week long trip to Disney world during summer vacation (my sophomore summer of college his freshman grad school summer). That was when the obsession with Disney parks began and I was so excited leading up to it. He already had those cheesy parks dvds that tell you everything about each park and come in the like 4 pack. I watched them over and over and read everything and even joined a rival forum to learn all things Disney World.

Well fast forward to day of trip. We get up at crack butt of dawn o'clock at head to the Philadelphia airport. I was pretty nauseous in the car but figured no sleep (I was the kid in those 90s commercials who can't sleep knowing they are meeting Mickey tomorrow) and the crazy cab driver meant I was car sick. We get to the TSA line and the entire time I feel sick I figure it is just the car sickness. The line felt like forever and boyfriend keeps saying we can go home and reschedule it isn't that big of a deal. I start crying and saying no I've been waiting for this day my entire life I'm fine it is just car sickness. Next thing I know I throw up but there is no trash can in the TSA line so I had to do it in the recycling bin. At that point I felt weak but better so was like lets push through. We get to Disney, I'm overly emotional and nauseous the whole trip. I will never forget at Garden Grill asking the waitress how fast it spins because it was making me sick and felt so fast. She laughed and said rough Mission Space trip. I was a trooper through that trip even the time I was so weak after a day in the parks that I rolled my knee and couldn't walk back to the room so my fiance carried me. There are only a few small details I remember and it seems I must have had a 24 hour stomach bug that then just made me so weak that I didn't recover until days after we got home.

Lesson totally learned that if one of us is sick we just postpone the trip. We totally laugh now about how determined I was to push through but realize how stupid I was to actually go.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent during our Recent Mexican AI vacation. It was pretty "mishap-y", start to finish.
We've had people lock themselves out of their room and have to swim the canal that surrounds the cabana to get help, people lose their &%*$ on the time share salesmen over a $10 spa credit, people push other people 1.3 km in a wheelchair to see a show they couldn't understand a word of, people break out in a head-to-toe allergy rash, people inadvertently pay $11 CAD for a box of 8 tampax at the gift shop and tip 500 pesos instead of 50, people fall out of a canoe and wreck their new iPhone 6S, people order Eggs Benedict for breakfast from room service and end up getting 5 glasses of pineapple juice and a big bowl of hot milk delivered instead, people drinking warm champagne directly out of the bottle in the morning and drying themselves off with pillowcases because housekeeping didn't leave any towels or coffee supplies, glasses or ice, people crash their Segway because they were startled by an iguana...You can share the fun by guessing which people are which. If I am not back by Wednesday, please send help."

The bolded is my favorite part. HOW does that happen???!!!

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Remote area of Costa Rica, we get our rental car (Rav-4) stuck at the bottom of a mountain. We can't turn around and go back up the mountain because it's too muddy and we can't keep going forward because we're blocked in by a river. We abandon the car and walk barefoot back up the mountain (the mud was so deep it was pulling our shoes off our feet, we kept slipping and falling...) There's nothing on this mountain but five little farmhouses and a bunch of curious cows who kept following us. There was no answer at the first four houses. We finally reach the top of the mountain shoeless, covered in mud, with cow posse in tow, and find somebody. We speak very little Spanish, he speaks no English, but we managed to explain what's going on with the help of our mad gesticulating skillz.

He enlisted the help of two other farmers and they start talking about floating our rental car across the river to the other side. Dear god, no. There were white crests on those waves and I'm trying to explain "mucho grande agua." They go down to the river to see for themselves and agree agua mucho grande, so that option is out. They spend the rest of the day unsuccessfully trying to get the car back up the mountain. I can still hear the nightmarish sounds of that vehicle scraping over boulders. My DH and I start discussing the fact that we're going to have to buy this vehicle outright from the rental agency, leave it at the bottom of the mountain, and return to Costa Rica in the dry season to retrieve it.

A farmer and his family take us in for the night. They get us fed, we washed up in a bucket of water in the outdoor kitchen, and we slept on a sawdust-stuffed mattress. The next morning we were up with the sun to try again, this time with the help of everyone on the mountain. They got the car out and then insisted on washing it for us before they would let us leave. I was so grateful for everything they had done that I was almost in tears. I unloaded every last bit of cash we had on us into their hands as a thank you. Then my DH drove the next two and a half hours with the emergency brake on because, apparently, the car hadn't already been through enough.

Two weeks later, we returned it to the rental agency and held our breath while they did their inspection. They smiled and told us the car was "in perfect condition."

ETA: I remembered one more detail of this story. The people helping us wanted to use a 4-wheeler to pull our car out of the mud, but the battery was dead and they couldn't jump it, so the poor guy went all the way into town to buy a new battery at his expense. Wasted hours and money later, the now-operational 4-wheeler still wasn't enough to get the car unstuck.

 

[RedAngie]

Last Summer coming home from Orlando, the highway was closed for 8 hours due to a police emergency. We got caught between exits and had to ride it out. Thankfully, we had a full tank of gas. Others weren't so lucky.

How did you handle things when, ah, nature called?

 

[mickeyboat]

We booked a Disney Cruise when the girls were 3 & 4. I spent months meticulously researching, planning and packing every little thing we could possibly need - over the door shoe holder, sand toys, dress clothes, extra film, etc. We spent the night before at a hotel near the airport to make sure we didn't have a problem making our flight. Except when we arrived, the airport was fogged in and our flight was not going to be leaving on time. We were going to miss our connection and miss the boat.

I bawled my eyes out at the Delta counter, not on purpose, but it happened. The very kind agent found a flight, but it was going to be tight. I contacted DCL to let them know what was going on.

We arrived in Atlanta and raced through the airport and made our connection. Unfortunately our luggage didn't. We arrived in Orlando and raced to the shuttle. We were the only ones on board. We didn't even board the ship through the terminal, it was through the back dock. We missed almost the entire welcome party.

DCL was amazingly helpful. They arranged to have our luggage meet us three days later in St. Maarten. They arranged for a credit on our account so we could purchase supplies and some clothes. There was no underwear in the gift shop, though, and the girls went commando in dresses for dinner. DH wore jeans (oops!). DCL washed our clothing every day and had it for us the next morning. They provided bathrobes and formal wear so we could go to formal night. But I was never so happy as when our luggage turned up bright and early on the third day.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Our honeymoon.

DH won 2 night hotel stay at a hotel in Reno, in a golf tournament. We decided to use it on our honeymoon, pay for 3 extra nights, and enjoy the time alone. (Yes, Reno NV. Not really a honeymoon destination, but hey, we weren't really planning on being out sightseeing...)

We rent a car, drive to Reno after the wedding. There are forest fires on the drive there. It's a bit scary to see the red sky to one side and nothing but black burnt land to the other.

We arrive, about 2pm, and our room isn't ready. Ok, we'll check back in a few hours. Wander off to gamble a bit. 4pm, no room yet. Okay, we'll check back in a little bit. Go gamble a little more, wander around the hotel some more. 6pm. No room ... So, now I'm getting a bit perturbed. They finally offer to take our luggage off our hands (yes, we had been wandering the hotel for 4 hours with our luggage; they said they were "really backed up" and couldn't when we first arrived and asked them to hold one suitcase and one overnight bag); give us two free buffet passes, and we go to dinner. Gamble a bit, and come back at 8pm. No room. I ask for the manager, they find one, I ask why no room. He finally finds us a room after about 30 minutes, and we ask to have our bags brought up. (Can you see where this is going?)

It's now 10pm, and no bags. I call down, and they can't find them. So I hike my behind downstairs and ask for the manager again. Luckily, he's still there, and I ask him to take me to the luggage area. No bags. He finally locates them...in his office. I carry them upstairs, and we finally settle down for our first night together.

At 2am, the door bursts open (we had just gotten down to sleep about 30 minutes earlier). We had the "security lock" set, so it shouldn't have opened all the way, but it did. Wakes us both out of a sound sleep, me screaming (we had had a home invasion a few years earlier, and I think this hit that note in my sleepy state), DH bouncing out of bed stark naked. Drunk guy at the door goes "oops", drunk girl starts giggling and asks if he planned a surprise for her, he shuts the door. We call down to the desk and are told "oh, we didn't know anyone was in that room." We relock the door, put our bags and the chair in front of it. Drink a little, have a little more us time, and finally go to sleep.

I head down to the desk about 9am and ask for the manager. Hey, it's the same guy from the day before, and he looks so sad. I explain what happened, he apologizes, comps the night. (so now we're at 3 nights free, 2 paid) Hands me more free buffet coupons (4 dinner, 4 breakfast)

We do our thing, gambling and stuff, see a movie, have lunch. Take trips to our room for more us time, room hasn't been cleaned yet, but no worries. Take a nap, and stuff. It's now 4:30sh. I'm in the shower, housekeeping walks in (no knock, no callout). DH is on the bed, in his boxer briefs. Flings the sheet over him, says "Hey!". She starts opening the bathroom door, he's telling her to leave, I'm stepping out of the shower. Housekeeping gets to see my goodies, she drops the towels on the floor and leaves the room. I get dressed, DH showers. I go to the desk, tell them about her just walking in with no knock, and seeing things that weren't meant to be seen in public. Manager (same guy still!!) apologizes, says there is a housekeeping strike going on and the few housekeepers they have working are temps and most don't speak English. Comps another night.

*side note I've not asked for one thing from the hotel. I've been calm and polite each and every time I've gone to the desk or made a call. The only time we've not been polite to this point is when DH was telling housekeeping to leave the room and it was "get the h* out!"

The rest of the night is uneventful. Gambling, movies, dinner, and lots of us time.

The next day, we're having us time, about 8pm. Note: there has been no housekeeping service that day. Beds are still unmade, no clean towels, trash hasn't been emptied...whatever, it's not a big deal. Housekeeping tries to enter (we moved the chair in front of the door again....after being barged in on twice, we're pretty much done with trusting the "security lock")...no knock again. She's yelling in Spanish about needing to clean (I understood parts of what she was saying), we're yelling to her to shut the darn door. I'm so done with this hotel at this point. I throw some clothes on, and head downstairs. Hey, it's our old friend, the manager! He sees me coming to the desk, and I swear I see him start to hide. I let him know that yet again, housekeeping has walked in with no knock, and that this time, if we hadn't had a chair in front of the door, she'd probably be freaking out about walking in during us time. I let him know we'll be checking out the next day and to cancel the two remaining nights. He says he can't cancel them without charging us for the last night. Um, nope, he's going to cancel them at no charge right now. He tries to talk me into staying, giving us the remaining night for free, and I'm "no thanks".

The next day, we go to check out, and the lady at the desk is all "but you have two more nights with us!!" Nope, no thanks. We leave, and head home. Decide, when we get home, that we're not ready to be there, so we head the other direction, and go to Wendover. Stay on the UT side (cheaper rooms) but go play on the NV side (alcohol and gambling!!!). Stay two perfect nights (room ready at 2pm when we arrived, housekeeping came by between noon and three the 2nd day...and KNOCKED), head home. Go get DD#2 from our friends (where she was staying while we were out of town), DD#1 comes home from her grandmother's (her other parent's mom), and all is good, right?

Nope. The hotel in Reno decided to charge us for 3 nights. (they had a credit card on file for the 3 nights we were going to pay for) Even though we had 2 free nights with the golf prize, and two nights free from the manager. It takes me two weeks to get that mess straightened out, and in the end, I had to go through Visa to get it done.

 

[bcla]

It involved a bear, improperly stored food, and damaged furniture. Let's just say that we were incredibly lucky that we weren't made to pay for the cost of repair, along with a stiff fine.

 

[linzjane88]

Oh jeez. These stories are great! I sort of have one more. It's more sad than funny but an example of how an awful airline employee can make a bad day worse.
About five years ago my uncle, who was a hunting guide in Alaska, was shot and killed by one of the guys he was taking on a hunt. Immediately after hearing the news friends were donating miles and airline buddy passes to get as many of us in Washington up to Alaska to help my aunt and cousins. He died on a Monday and by Friday almost all of our extended family was heading up there. My dad used his airmiles to book my husband and I. In the panicked rush of buying tickets last minute he used my old Continental frequent flyer account with my maiden name. I had been married for about 2 years at that point but had never traveled under my new name because we were poor newlyweds, lol. Why we never thought to fix my name on the ticket I don't know. I guess we were too preoccupied? I actually never saw my tickets until check in because my dad was handling all the travel arrangements.

Friday comes and we get to Alaska without problem. We spend two weeks up there crying, helping with the funeral, etc. The day we go to leave everyone checks in with no problem. We go thru security and the guy nicely tells me he can't let me in without a matching name (id and ticket) but if I go back to the ticketing counter they can change my ticket. I was the last in our group of my parents, sister, and husband to go through (they passed thru security at this point) so I told them to go on. I'm a big girl and this sounds easy, right?

Wait in line at ticketing and get to the counter. The agent looks like the mean principal from Matilda and has about the same personality. She tells me "I can't do anything about that. Call this number.". So out of line I go to make this customer service phone call, during which time my husband texts me that the plane is going to leave 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Phone customer service tells me they can't do Anything. Mind you I am a naive 20 year old sheepishly says "OK" when told they can't help me. Back through security to try again since nobody will help me in ticketing with about 45 minutes to go before the flight leaves . Give him the story that no one will help. He again tells me that he can't let me thru and a ticket change is my only option. Back to the mean Matilda lady. I lay it all out, the reason for the rushed ticket purchase, I explain I'm traveling in a group with these two last names (my parents with my maiden name and my husband with my new name). When I explain I haven't traveled since being married and my dad booked my tickets she gets super snotty and says "well doesn't YOUR DAD know you got married?". I start getting panicked and tell her I don't know what else to do. She takes my ID and ticket again (I'm thinking she's going to work some magic) and announces to the one other ticketing agent "look at this! They LET HER UP HERE from Seattle like this. Can you believe that?!". She hands everything back to me and says "sorry, we can't do anything". Now I start crying. She sticks a "closed" sign on the counter in front of me and walks to the next lane over and shouts "Next in line!" and leaves me at the now abandoned desk and helps the next family behind me. The other attendant she showed my ticket to take pity on the downright cruel way she's acting and closes her station and marches over to me, hops over the counter and takes my hand and says "come with me". She personally walks me to security and signs her name on a forum that gets me thru. Meanwhile Ms. Trunchbull has flagged our entire party as a security threat so my family who has been through security for over an hour and a half and are waiting to board are now being accosted for additional screening. My 10 year old sister and mom get their drinks tested (purchases past security checkpoint)and my dad and Husband get their hands and shoes checked. I get put in the glass box and get a very thorough pat down ( after passing through the metal detector without issue) , crying the whole time. I'm sure everyone in the long TSA line was wondering what my deal was!

The plane was loaded and ready to go, just waiting for me. I got on with my red puffy crying face and a bunch of people clapped. I've never had the plane door shut and flight takeoff so fast in my life. That was one AWFUL experience and I've grown a pair since then. Ha ha.