Your worst moment at a Disney park?

[Ava]

Any trip where DH has a gout flare up stinks because they are normally his fault for not taking his pills and not watching the high purine food intake. Him being hurt or in a bad mood puts everyone else out, but we still enjoy what we can.

I have a feeling this is going to be my story after our trip in May. My father has gout but is stubborn as can be when it comes to doing what he's supposed to to control it. He still eats/drinks whatever he wants. Thankfully my mom & dad are only coming to the parks with us for a few days & using the rest of their time in FL to visit friends who live down there. I love them & want them to experience DD's first trip to Disney with her, but I just know my dad is going to try my patience, lol.

My "worst time at Disney" story is probably from my trip in 2002. My then-girlfriend & I got in a huge fight in front of The Living Seas pavilion and she stormed off. Neither of us had brought cell phones into the park, so after staying put for a bit waiting to see if she'd come back, I went off to look for her. Thinking she might have gone into The Living Seas (which is where we'd been headed when the fight started), I went into the pavilion. It's usually one of my favorites but I couldn't even enjoy it because I just wanted to get to the end to see if she was in there. Got to the end, scoured the whole place, but didn't find her. After I exited I finally found her sitting on a bench behind the pavilion. She had never gone in, she'd been sitting on that bench the whole time. At that point I was so annoyed I didn't even want to go through it again, so I never got to see my favorite manatees that trip.

 

[SoScary'09]

Spending Halloween sick as a dog and cooped up in the hotel room. I felt sooo bad because I kept thinking about the next people that would stay in the room after me. I did my best to wipe everything down before leaving, but still.

 

[MonkersMama]

Aug 2009 I smashed the trunk of the car down on my pinky finger and destroyed it...but that wasn't my worst moment...it came later in the day after we continued to MK for ADRs...enjoyed the rest of the evening and then waited for over 2.5 hours for a bus back to POFQ, in the rain (because the bus stop was so ridiculously crowded), with my finger throbbing, and one of my children puking from overexcitement. I literally stood there in front of the MK gates bawling.

 

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

It was our first trip and we were staying at AKL. We had decided to go to the pool. DS3 and DD5 were enjoying the zero entry part of the pool. DD was playing with another little girl. They went around the corner of the pool and were hanging onto the edge. DD could swim, and there were lifeguards, plus we were keeping an eye on her so we weren't worried. DH was standing, watching DD. I came up to speak to him, I wanted to tell him that I was taking DS back to the room for a bath. In the time that DH had turned to talk to me, DD let go of the edge of the pool and 'slid' into the deeper part of the pool. She was going under the water, pushing off the bottom, and coming up for a breath. She was panicking and struggling. (She knew how to swim, had taken lessons, but was panicking in a different environment than she was used to.) DH turned around and got the lifeguard's attention. She jumped down and started pointing at DD and blowing her whistle. This spurred the other lifeguard to point at DD and blow his whistle. This went on for what seemed like an eternity, but it was only seconds. Yet, neither of them made a move to save DD. By this time DD was staying underwater for longer and longer. DH had to jump in the pool, fully-clothed (forgot to take off his shoes) to rescue her. When he pulled her out, she was coughing, spewing water that she'd swallowed, and crying. We wrapped her in a towel and got her up to the room ASAP. Unfortunately, DH only had 1 pair of shoes for the trip. We stuffed towels in them and dried them as best we could, but his feet were not happy for the rest of the trip.

DD still remembers the AKL pool as 'the place where I almost drowned' and will not swim at any WDW pool without a life jacket, even though she is VERY proficient at swimming now.

Since our first trip, we have learned many things....always bring more than 1 pair of shoes (didn't know that the first time), they have life jackets at the pools (didn't know that the first time), and a kid who can swim in a lake and a local pool may panic and nearly drown when in a 'new' pool so watch them very carefully (didn't know that the first time).

 

[Princess Sleepy]

It was our first trip and we were staying at AKL. We had decided to go to the pool. DS3 and DD5 were enjoying the zero entry part of the pool. DD was playing with another little girl. They went around the corner of the pool and were hanging onto the edge. DD could swim, and there were lifeguards, plus we were keeping an eye on her so we weren't worried. DH was standing, watching DD. I came up to speak to him, I wanted to tell him that I was taking DS back to the room for a bath. In the time that DH had turned to talk to me, DD let go of the edge of the pool and 'slid' into the deeper part of the pool. She was going under the water, pushing off the bottom, and coming up for a breath. She was panicking and struggling. (She knew how to swim, had taken lessons, but was panicking in a different environment than she was used to.) DH turned around and got the lifeguard's attention. She jumped down and started pointing at DD and blowing her whistle. This spurred the other lifeguard to point at DD and blow his whistle. This went on for what seemed like an eternity, but it was only seconds. Yet, neither of them made a move to save DD. By this time DD was staying underwater for longer and longer. DH had to jump in the pool, fully-clothed (forgot to take off his shoes) to rescue her. When he pulled her out, she was coughing, spewing water that she'd swallowed, and crying. We wrapped her in a towel and got her up to the room ASAP. Unfortunately, DH only had 1 pair of shoes for the trip. We stuffed towels in them and dried them as best we could, but his feet were not happy for the rest of the trip.

DD still remembers the AKL pool as 'the place where I almost drowned' and will not swim at any WDW pool without a life jacket, even though she is VERY proficient at swimming now.

Since our first trip, we have learned many things....always bring more than 1 pair of shoes (didn't know that the first time), they have life jackets at the pools (didn't know that the first time), and a kid who can swim in a lake and a local pool may panic and nearly drown when in a 'new' pool so watch them very carefully (didn't know that the first time).

Why the heck didn't the lifeguards help her out? That is really scary!

 

[Mom2Rae]

My worst moment:

I run my father's business and I am the ONLY one who does payroll. Well, he had promised he would have the employees' time to me by Thursday night so I could do the checks in the room....he didn't! So...Friday I had to carry my heavy laptop (remember...this was quite a few years ago and laptops were HEAVY!!) into Epcot. He finally calls around noon and I find a bench to do my work at. In the mean time...Dhusband, Ddaughter (6 at the time) and our friends told me they were going to hang out at the Living Seas until I was done.
Once I was done and put my laptop into a locker I went looking for them and couldn't find them anywhere. No answer on the cells, either. Finally, I found them coming out of the JUST OPENED NEMO ride. This broke my heart. All I talked about was riding that with my daughter for the first time. They actually rode with without me. I cried for about an hour walking around Epcot.
Hubby is STILL paying for that one and it's been over 5 years!

 

[Singledad]

my kid is a semi regular thrower uper. quite often I hear 'i need to throw up' and run her to the bathroom, or a trash can. sadly, last time at disney, she didn't warn me. side of the pool throw up.... so glad she wasn't still IN the pool. but still...

felt horrible, but the lifeguards acted like it was no big deal.

and I always feel like everyone stares at me when i let my kid just go back to what she was doing. She throws up once, and is done. why should I force her to go back to the room and be bored when i know it was a one time thing? Doc says it is just an issue she has with chronic drainage due to her allergies and she is too young still for allergy medications to help it.

 

[WeCantWait]

Mine was when coming out of the Hauted Mansion. A teen boy came up to me and asked me what my shirt said. I told him it said "I love NY" (it was actually I "Mickey Head" NY", he said no and started poking my ****s. I then said, "I Micky Head NY", he kept poking. I saw the crowd he was with watching him and doing nothing so I said "Excuse me" (with a very nasty tone) and walked around him. After I was about 20 feet away the people he was with started yelling, "He has Autism". I wish they would have said that sooner as by this point I was totally freaked out. I kept walking with my family to the Jungle Cruise, hopped on the boat and tears started streaming down my face. It was a terrible feeling. I can't figure out why his family did not intervene as he was poking me. I was then left with a guilty feeling for saying excuse me in such a nasty way.

 

[letthewookiewin]

Mine happened on our first trip. It was only a 4 day trip. I had ever day planned and I was not going to stray from that play (no matter the weather). The day we arrived was the day we had planned to go to TL, and it was March. My DH thought it was a little chilly for TL, but the person at the CBR that took us and our bags to our room insisted that the water was heated. The water was freezing. My DH finally suggested getting in the wave pool. My youngest DH was 5, and small for his age. The waves were just to strong for him and he wanted to just sit on a beach chair. As I was walking out with him, a wave came and knocked him over. I dove to keep his head from hitting the ground, and skinned my leg. It bled a lot. We went and snuggled up in a nearby chair. When I noticed his lips turning a slight shade of blue, and that he hadn't stopped shaking, I told my DH that we had to leave. We had to carry him b/c he was shaking too much and couldn't walk. As we were leaving a CM stopped us to ask if I wanted a band aid for my still bleeding leg. He said that the temps were right at 60.

 

[bakenatj]

Leaving for home!

Sucks every time!

 

[Mixie]

Honestly with all these stories I probably shouldn't post ... but someone may get a kick out of my little story.

First time at Disney, we were in the MK and we got one of those afternoon showers that has everyone scrambling for cover. We waited it out in one of the shops, and, as it does in Florida, the skies cleared and all was well.

We left the shop and I noticed on the sidewalk this itty, bitty frog - like the size of my thumbnail. He was so cute! But he was right in the middle of the walkway, so I stopped, 'rescued' him and placed him in the green next to the sidewalk.

Started back off. Oh look! Another little frog! And another! OMG - there were like 1000 tiny frogs in front of me, and people were walking on them and running stollers over them! I turned green, I just know I did, but managed to not toss my lunch.

Ok - I realize I was being overy sensative - but after rescuing one of them I wanted to rescue them all and was horrified that other people didn't care.

Now it seems just a bit silly... but at the time, it wasn't very 'magical'...

 

[Balt ravens fan]

Mine was when coming out of the Hauted Mansion. A teen boy came up to me and asked me what my shirt said. I told him it said "I love NY" (it was actually I "Mickey Head" NY", he said no and started poking my ****s. I then said, "I Micky Head NY", he kept poking. I saw the crowd he was with watching him and doing nothing so I said "Excuse me" (with a very nasty tone) and walked around him. After I was about 20 feet away the people he was with started yelling, "He has Autism". I wish they would have said that sooner as by this point I was totally freaked out. I kept walking with my family to the Jungle Cruise, hopped on the boat and tears started streaming down my face. It was a terrible feeling. I can't figure out why his family did not intervene as he was poking me. I was then left with a guilty feeling for saying excuse me in such a nasty way.

You can't beat yourself up for that. You had no way of knowing, it was a natural response. Sorry it ruined part of your time in the happiest place on earth.

 

[Seeker615]

We were in Animal Kingdom and were waiting for the safari. we get all the way up to the gates to board and my daughter who was 4 at the time announces she has to go to the bathroom. I asked if she could wait but no she really had to go. So we send the older kids on the safari and off we went to the bathroom. We were not sure where the safari ended so we had to get back in line and we finally got on the safari. Meanwhile my older kids were waiting for us at the end of the ride and they were very grumpy for having to wait so long.

Things went downhill from that point. It got very hot and tempers flared. The restaurants were all crowded and a few places were bottlenecked. We ended up calling it a day at that point.

Rest of the trip went well!

 

[LoveMickeyWaffles]

Worst moment?

We had just come off the Astro Orbiter and my son (who was 4) wanted a Pediasure (nutrition drink). Him and I grabbed a seat while while his dad and brother went on the Speedway. He was half way done with his drink when he got sick ALL over his shirt, pants AND shoes!!! He was a HUGE mess... I rushed him over to the restroom and was working on cleaning him up. I don't do well with cleaning this sort of thing, just don't have the stomach for it. I changed his shirt and pants but we had no extra shoes. Luckily, there was a kiosk near the Buzz ride that had over priced Buss light up tennis shoes!!!

During this nasty moment, another mother was in the restroom waiting on her little girl and got out a tub of baby wipes and asked if she could help clean him up!! I couldn't believe someone would be willing to do that, it was quite the mess!!! I could not thank her enough!!

 

[goofyernmost]

Mine was when coming out of the Hauted Mansion. A teen boy came up to me and asked me what my shirt said. I told him it said "I love NY" (it was actually I "Mickey Head" NY", he said no and started poking my ****s. I then said, "I Micky Head NY", he kept poking. I saw the crowd he was with watching him and doing nothing so I said "Excuse me" (with a very nasty tone) and walked around him. After I was about 20 feet away the people he was with started yelling, "He has Autism". I wish they would have said that sooner as by this point I was totally freaked out. I kept walking with my family to the Jungle Cruise, hopped on the boat and tears started streaming down my face. It was a terrible feeling. I can't figure out why his family did not intervene as he was poking me. I was then left with a guilty feeling for saying excuse me in such a nasty way.

OMG...you have absolutely no reason to feel bad about that. I don't care if he had terminal hickeys, there is no excuse for that type of behavior. His family or the people with him should have been thrown out of the park for permitting and, I wouldn't be surprised, encouraging it. Why would any clear thinking person think that this was OK to do because he had Autism. Autism is not a free ticket for behavior. I'm not even sure it is a reason...seems pretty much of a stretch to me.

Personally I think you had every right to actually knock him on his butt. It showed remarkable restraint, in my opinion, to only do what you did. Don't loose any sleep over this one.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

Mine was the first night of our 2010 trip. There were 10 of us in our group and it was the first trip for 5 of the 10. I wanted everything to be perfect. Unfortunately, I got it in my head rather late in the game that I wanted to make decorations for all three room windows. The weekend before our trip, I went to Home Depot and got a bazillion Mickey head paint chips. Soaked some off every night and laid them out to dry, started making signs on the computer, found out that the paint chips curl horribly and so I decided to glue two together back-to-back and then string them.... of course all of this had to happen after working all day, doing oodles of laundry, fighting with DS to get his summer school packet finished, dinner, etc, etc, etc.

I averaged 3-4 hours of sleep each night for the solid week before our trip.

The day that we finally arrived at WDW (I never did finish ANY of the window decorations ), I was just exhausted. And I had bought tickets to Last Tour to Endor for me and DS. Well, I'm not about to see $160 go to waste so off to DHS we went. We rode RNR; ToT; TSMM...... and then. I. collapsed. The heat & the pressure I had put myself under, I'm sure, didn't help. I actually started hallucinating.

We went on back to our room. Missed the Hyperspace Hoopla, Deathstar Disco, seeing everyone dressed up (we did see some way cool costumes).... I'm still pissed at myself for doing that to myself!

Got some sleep and the rest of the trip was fantastic!!

 

[Kennywife]

Oh man, I remember mine...

it was last fall at Epcot. I had raved to my hubby Kenny about eating at Le Cellier. I scored a great time for us and couldn't wait to go! (This was during the food and wine festival, Oct. 26-31)

So....we get there and I order a filet mignon wiht fries. He has the same. My first bite....I choke. Literally. I ended up in the bathroom where I got sick, shall we say. The piece of steak was lodged in my esphogus!

So, heading back through the park to the buses was excruitiating. I was in pain and crying. (could breathe though) We get on the bus to go back to CBR and all the movement finally dislodged the sucker.....in front of everyone, if you know what I mean. Someone commented on that I must have had a few too many at the festival. (I don't drink. Epileptic.) My husband shot back, "She has a gag reflex moron!"

I missed my wonderful lunch, but we did have a nice dinner at Cali Grill to make up for it.

Anna

 

[crazedprincess]

Ours happened in the parking lot of DHS. We had rented a car for our first trip and we had just gotten done parking and my older daughter and I exited the car. My hubby was driving and my other daughter was sitting on his side and hadn't gotten out yet. My older were waiting for them to get out so we were standing on our side of the car. Another car had already pulled up and parked next to us, when, we didn't know. Well the snotty young girls got out of their car and the driver said to us in a snotty voice, "Did YOU hit our car with your door?" and she pointed at my older daughter. My daughter stared at her, shocked, and said in a small voice, "No, no, I don't think so?" and the girl examined her car door, saw a smudge and meanly said, "This mark was NOT here when I got in and THIS IS A RENTAL." I was steamed at this point and I calmly told her, "I honestly do not think my daughter did that, we didn't hear anything as we got out and I usually keep an eye on that sort of thing." And she yelled at us, "NO, I KNOW this mark was not here and we should make you PAY for it." At this point, my husband was out of the car and over by us and he said, "My daughter didn't do it and we will not pay for it." I was starting to walk away with my girls because they were getting upset and the strangers started to walk away in a huff too. I watched them walk away and get on the parking lot transport and then my hubby did a test by opening my daughter's car door to see if it would reach their vehicle and match up with the smudge. Nope, it was about a foot away from their vehicle, completely opened and it didn't even come close to their car door. So he wrote them a note, telling them in so many words that the door didn't even reach their vehicle and thanked them for yelling at his daughter to start off her day at Disney World. We then moved our vehicle so it wouldn't get keyed. We tried to go on with our day but it's always hard to shake off an experience like that.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Last trip in 2010. We had just gotten off Space and the kids were hungry. I said to my husband to go and grab FPs for Buzz for later and then we would go for lunch at Cosmic Ray's.

The kids and I are waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Husband never comes back. It's like a 2 minute walk from Space to Buzz. At first I thought maybe there was a problem with the FP machines.

Kids were getting hot, upset and restless. Finally I said why don't we go to our meet up spot which was the Child Care Centre. No husband there. I was getting frustrated and angry. The kids and I went back and forth between Space and the Child Care Centre for up to an hour even trying his cell phone which was turned off.

Finally with me holding back tears and saying some unmagical things we went to the gates to go back to the resort as we had planned on an afternoon break after lunch. Figured he would end up there at some point. The CM noticed I was upset and asked if everything was okay. I told her that we had become separated from my husband and he had not shown up at our meet up spot. He had our KTTW on him so I wasn't sure how we would get into our room or buy lunch as we were on the dining plan. She directed me to Guest Services so at least we could get new room keys issued. They were super nice and we were about to leave there when who did we meet coming INTO Guest Services. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry!

Turns out he went to Cosmic Ray's after getting the FPs! Since he always gets the parks all confused I didn't even think he remembered where CR was! That wasted about 80-90 minutes of our MK day.

Luckily we were able to put it behind us, move on and enjoy the day. Oh and he forgot where our meetup spot was even though I told him a zillion times. That I'm still annoyed about. LOL.

Guess we were both partly to blame. But it was so frustrating and the poor kids were asking why we couldn't go on rides or go get lunch the whole time.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

It's interesting to hear everyone's stories. I see some common threads like trying to do too much, trying to make everything perfect, not taking the needed breaks/food/sleep/etc., and unfortunately, interactions with other guests. Mine is of the 'trying to make everything perfect' variety.

In 2008, we went with my mom, my brother's family, and my sister-in-law's parents to Disneyworld (7 adults + 4 kids). My mom wanted this to be so perfect since it was my sister-in-law's parents first time there. We stayed at a resort that was new to us (BC) and the first night there, she wanted us all to have dinner somewhere in the resort area - but we had no ADRs! We walked around forever until finally we waiting in a super long line for pizza on the boardwalk. We hovered around tables and pounced on them when they cleared and finally we all got to eat. Then my mom wanted to walk to HS. None of us knew the way. So we start walking and Mom is trying to figure this all out. By this time, we have spent a few hours trying to find a place to eat, not getting a real 'good' meal, and now wandering around trying to figure out how to get to HS. My DH said ENOUGH. He said good night and started walking back to BC. I ended up taking the kids back to BC with him and said good night to everyone because we were tired and cranky and didn't want to ditch DH.

Well, WE actually ended up having a great evening after that. We got some drinks from the bar and took the kids to the movie on the beach (Enchanted). We ended up roasting marshmallows, playing in the sand, seeing fireworks from afar, and watching the movie.

But the rest of them spent the evening wandering aimlessly for an hour, finally going to get a boat - which never came, and they ended up walking back to BC a couple hours later.

I felt bad because my mom was really upset and that I didn't insist everyone come back with us. They weren't too bothered and they enjoyed the walk, but my mom didn't plan anything else that whole trip - she just said she was doing what my DH was doing because he obviously knew what to do