Have you ever had a vacation where everything went wrong? Hear real life vacation horror stories from other travelers. My name is Matt Channing. To abuse an old phrase, "If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all." So anyway, my bad vacation. When I was 15 my best friend and I went to the Florida Keys for my our spring break with my parents. We were going to learn to scuba-dive and go parasailing and whatnot. When we got to our hotel, the name of which evades me currently, we wanted to shower, but we had no hot water. So we decided to go to the pool, which was not a bad idea, except that I was on a medication called tetracycline (I'm not sure of the spelling) for my acne. The problem was, I didn't put on any sun screen because, being a Floridian, I normally don't burn too bad. However, my medication was, unknown to me, making my skin nearly four times more sensitive to the sun. so needless to say, I looked like a lobster for about 2 weeks.Now, we have all had horrible sun burns I think, so I won't waste any more time there. That night we went to quaint restaurant off Caroline street in Key West. I ordered an entree of Chicken Marsala, which is my favorite dish. Well, the chef didn't quite cook my chicken all the way, so I ended up with food poisoning and was sick till almost four the next morning. This is only the second day of a nine day spring break. The next morning Greg and I went to learn to scuba-dive. In the afternoon we went a couple miles off shore to actually dive. Let me say that my vision is awful, my prescriptions for contacts are -7.0 and -6.75. We had to do a mask- clearing technique at about 35 feet. The technique was simple, fill your mask with water, lean back, and exhale hard while holding the top of the mask, no problem. So I filled my mask, and some wonderful salt water got into my eyes, stinging my eyes, and knocking out my contacts. So now im in deep trouble, so I panic. I swim up to the top of the water because I am choking due to this wonderful wet surprise. At about 3 feet of water there was a coral shelf, I sat on it to compose myself. Our instructor, Dave, came up to berate me on ascending "so darn fast and panicky-like" as he put it. After that was done, he informed me I was sitting on some fire coral, in just a small ½ body wetsuit. So now I am sunburned all over, and coral- burned on my legs; great trip so far. As Greg and I are getting in my parent's car to go to dinner that night, my oh so attentive father managed to back up onto my left foot. After a couple of hours getting x-rays we discovered that I had a small bone bruise, and nothing was broken. Needless to say that killed my appetite, and I didn't eat dinner. Day four was great, we went parasailing and I got about 20 great pictures from high up in the parasail. I was ecstatic, so happy in-fact, that I dropped my camera into the ocean, never to be seen again. So, on day five we just watched some movies, and the sixth day was just a lazy day of getting stung by about three jellyfish while exploring some mangroves. After day five my parents decided to go back to Orlando. My Vacation recap: one horrible sunburn, one painful coral burn, a couple jellyfish stings, food poisoning, and no hot water. This really was the WORST vacation ever.- Matt My spring break 2003 started out halfway normal. Now by halfway I mean that we had 2 dead cars trying to keep us trapped in Craig, a father going crazy trying to get a rental vehicle so that we could drive to Denver, and me missing three days of school (which I didn't mind too much). We got in the car (a 4-wheel drive SUV) and began our supposed journey to DIA, so we could fly to Florida for a luxurious vacation in a Cruise ship, and a few days at Disney World. The skies as we left were clear and crisp but soon turned a steely gray and began dumping snow. Our drive was quite uneventful up until we turned onto Interstate I-70, eastbound for Denver International Airport. As we neared the Eisenhower Tunnel we were making excellent time, and would have probably have been in our hotel by 6:00 free and clear, right? WRONG!! We were hit with what was later termed "The Hundred Year Storm" or "The Blizzard of the Century." As soon as we exited the tunnel, icy roads and gale-force winds slowed our progress. Bumps along the road, formed by large semi trucks with chains, created a washboard for cars to drive on. Most of the time, no one was able to go over 25 mph for fear of loosing control, and going careening off into a ditch. I was so glad my father had experience driving in these conditions. After passing Georgetown, and noticing that one side of the interstate was deserted, we knew there was something wrong. A minor avalanche had fallen on the road, stopping traffic until it could be cleared. We prayed that nothing as unfortunate would happen to our side of the interstate. That's when it hit! Trucks started slipping sideways on the road, sometimes taking small cars along with them. All traffic came to a total and complete standstill. Take it from me, sitting in a car for 6 hours and getting nowhere really isn't the greatest thing in the world to do. People began to get restless, and they kept jumping out of their cars, talking to the other drivers, walking through cracks in the seemingly endless walls of solid traffic, having snowball fights over the roofs of cars, even making the occasional snow angel in the abundant snowdrifts on the side of the road. I, having a diabetic mother, who occasionally has a problem with a weak bladder, ended up having to stand guard as she took advantage of us being in the outside lane of the road, and sat on the edge of the car, in the process getting mud all over her butt. As we inched up the two remaining hills into Denver, mom and dad gabbed with other drivers or with each other while listening constantly to the radio for reports of what was happening, and I turned on my CD player and dived into one of my favorite groups, Good Charlotte. Hours later, when we finally broke free of traffic and started heading into Denver the roadway was virtually deserted. As we drove towards DIA and our hotel, we discovered that the parking lots and roads were drifted in, and there was no possible way to get a car in. Our hotel had been snowed in. All the roads were blown over with 3-foot deep snow. We decided the only way to get in was walk. We grabbed what we needed for the night, bundled up nice and warm, with towels that were destined for use on the sunny beaches of the Bahamas wrapped around our heads, and trekked through the freezing winds and snow to our hotel. When we finally did arrive, the guy at the front desk almost fainted from shock at our actually getting there. When we got in our room, we started making phone calls to my brother at home, and my frantic Grandmother, whom I feared would give her self a heart attack from worry, to assure them that we were ok. We also called the airlines and found out that due to the closure of the airport, and the 4 feet on snow burying the runways, our flight had been cancelled. We tried to re-book a flight for Thursday when the airport should re-open. Chapter 2 "Stranded": So, there I was, sitting in the hotel, being bored, and listening to "Without Me" by Eminem in one ear, and weather reports mixed with the occasional road closure report out of the other, and I decided that there is something wrong with this situation. No phones, due to all the phones line crashing shortly after we made all our phone calls, no way out of the hotel because we were extremely snowed in, no food. It is a total nightmare or we were in a Gilligan's Island re-run. DIA was still closed. For those of you who didn't hear about the closures, or live too far away from Colorado to care, I'll spell it out for you. More than 4000 people had been stranded in DIA due to flight cancellations. One of the circus-tent like peaks of the main terminal ripped, almost collapsed because of the extreme amount of weight that the snow is putting on the structure. All the passengers were moved onto the concourses where they would be safe in case of collapse. Meanwhile, the architect who designed the terminal was contacted so that he could assess the damage and see if it was safe or not. At least while the passengers wait in the concourses there will be food available to them and they were able to get some sleep, because it may be another day until help comes. Chapter 3 "To eat, or not to eat": We woke on Wednesday morning to find everything have been whitewashed by ice and snow. Six-foot drifts were everywhere. Cars became no more than lumps of snow in the streets and in parking lots. Reports confirmed that is had not snowed so much in such a short time period since 1913. Because we could not get our car into the parking lot of the hotel the previous night, it was not totally covered with snow, Daddy decided to see if he could get our car out, and if so, he volunteered to go get some food for people in the hotel, if one of the employees would go with him. Any sane person would be thinking " Ok, we will go get some bread, lunch meat and cheese, and make sandwiches for everyone, right?" Wrong again. It's just not quite that simple. The hotel managers had a different idea. They started taking individual orders from each room!! There we were, stuck with about 50 different orders. My father, a hotel manager named Simon, and a fellow stranded traveler named Jenny and I loaded up into our rented Chevy Blazer and started off. There were some rough spots on the road to the King Soopers that was our destination, so we got bumped around a lot. When we arrived at the store, it was a mad house!! The store, the only one open in miles, was packed full of frantic shoppers trying to get food in case they got snowed in again, or in case the stores had to be closed because the war with Iraq was imminent. We went inside, grabbed a cart, divided the lists of things we needed, and took off, racing through the isles, checking off out lists, trying to get what we needed at the lowest prices for the hotel guests. Some items were either in horribly short supply, or completely sold out. We waited in line for about 40 minutes just to get up to the check out stand, and another 45 minutes to an hour getting things checked out, because we had to do each order separately so that we could get everyone a receipt and their correct change back. Because many people's lists called for deli chicken dinners, I ordered 6 six-piece chicken dinners, and had to wait almost an hour for all of them to get fully cooked. Luckily, during my wait, I was able to purchase pre-made jello cubes from the deli for some personal snacking. When we finally arrived back at the hotel, more than 3 hours after we left that morning, we had to distribute the food to its owners and make sure they got to correct change. That took some time, but at least we were rewarded for our efforts. The guests took up a collection, and all four "Super Shoppers" received a $10 thank you tip. Chapter 4 "Now boarding flight 000 to Nowhere, USA": Thursday morning we woke to find that the weather had cleared out, and they were going to open the airport, with the first flights leaving after 10 am. We packed up, and decided that since the phone lines in the hotel were still down, we would just head out to airport, and hope for a miracle. When we arrived at the airport, what we saw was total chaos, a complete zoo of people trying to get their tickets checked, their luggage through the ports, and themselves past the security checkpoint. The lines for some of the different airlines were literally half a mile long, snaking along to allow for other lines to intersect. I was stationed in one of the endless lines while my parents took advantage of the payphones to try and get our travel arrangements straightened out, and make sure out flight for that morning was still ok. After waiting in line for that seemed like an eternity, Daddy pulled me out of the line, and gave me some bad news. The flight we had re-booked for 11:20 had been screwed up due to a computer error at the main place, wherever it is, and instead of all three of us going to Detroit and catching a connecting flight to Orlando, only one of us was booked at all, and only as far as Detroit, with no connecting flight to Orlando. This news was the final kicker. We gave up our dream and accepted that we just we not meant to go to Florida for one reason or another, and for a while, it seemed that we were not supposed to go home either. I-70 from Denver to Silverthorne was still closed due to avalanches and might remain that way for a few more days. Our alternate route through Laramie and across Wyoming on I-80, getting off at Crescent Junction was also closed, blocking our other route of escape. So we stayed in another a hotel somewhere in the suburbs of Denver. At least this hotel had a pool and hot tub, which helped all of us relax for a little while. We also did a little shopping at a K-mart right next to the hotel, which was going out of business. I ended up getting a couple cool things including a mini black light and some PJ pants with Spongebob on them. Early Friday morning, the first news of the day said that I-70 west was open under fair skies, and we were free to head back to Craig. I personally would have liked to stay over in Denver for a few days, but the parents though it was best to go back before we got dumped on again. Another storm was brewing, due to come in the next week at the very time we would have returned to Denver At least I convinced them to let me go visit the Museum of Science and Natural History in Denver before we left. That place is so awesome. So ended my spring break. It wasn't as great as we had hoped, because instead of basking in the sun in Florida, we got stuck in an endless winter in Colorado. We thought about going again near Thanksgiving, but my parents ended up opting to go in January without taking me, but I had to finish high school. - Alayna J My bad vacation happened last summer in north carolina, to start with I was waiting in the wrong line for my flight so I missed my flight and had to wait at the airport for 2 hours for the next flight to north carolina. Then when I got to north carolina I landed in the wrong airport and so my brother who was supposed to be picking me up was about and hour in the wrong direction so I ended up catching a cab to his house which cost me $60. So finally I was there and I am unpacking my things when I realize one of my bags isnt with me, I call down to my brother and asked if he had seen it he said no, once again things were going wrong, my bag must have been at the airport so I call the airport and ask if they have seen anything but they say that there have not been any reported but if it turns up they will call me.. Later on that night my brother and I are out fishing and of course I slip into the water getting the only pair of shoes I have wet and my brother isnt a big fashion guy so the only other pair of shoes he has is these corny looking cowboy boots.. Let me tell you it isnt easy to pick up girls with a pair of white kaki shorts on and a striped 3 button shirt with some brown cowboy boots ohh yea real attractive.. So finally I get to get some rest and it feels so great until sunrise at about 6:30 because it turns out that the neighbor has a bunch of roosters for cock fights which they apparently like to go off like a million screaming kids as soon as that light comes up over the horizon, well I was up and I have had about 6 hours of sleep I never thought things would get better but they did, I had 2 days left of vacation and I was going to enjoy them even if it was with those boots on. So the next 2 days pass and still no word on where my bag is but its time to get heading home Well a few hours later I end up back at my apartment and I couldnt be happier, besides my one bag I left I had made it back home with everything I went there with, and what do you know the next morning my brother calls and said that the airport just dropped a bag off that fit the description of the one I lost. Man what a vacation, that encouraged me to never travel more than 75 miles from my house.- Josh Two summers ago my family took a vacation to the Ozark Mountains, and I took a friend along. We didn't really plan ahead, so after the 7 hour drive to Missouri, we had to drive alllll around Osage Beach looking for a hotel. The first night we had to stay in a really crappy/creepy motel, until we found a good one the next night. I don't really tan that easily, so I didn't use any suncreen at all the whole time we were up in the mountains. Big mistake. I ended up getting soooooo burned. I was as red as a lobster and people stared at me everywhere I went, and they kept saying things like, "Oh my god! You are SO burned!" It was pretty embarassing. Then my face ended up being really swollen underneath my eyes and I had blisters on my nose that kept popping. Even my lips were so burned, they were swollen to about the size of...well, I don't know what. Finally, my whole entire face peeled. Then during the whole drive back, my little 3 year old sister thought it would be fun to keep hitting me on my sunburned arm. And to top it all off, we went through the worst storm ever on the way home. The people on the radio were telling drivers to pull over and find a ditch or something, but my dad kept driving. It was pretty scary. - Anonymous Oh Gosh... well we go camping every year..right so this year I decided to bring my friend... and my sis brought a friend too... and my bro brought a friend too... well my bro is 18 and his friend is like 16 or 17 or something..well my bro decided to start picking on my friend and she stormed out of the camper..and I was talking to someone so I got in trouble for not running after her... well when I finally caught up to her she was really mad because I didn't give her any attention.. I mean come on.. so then we started fighting and stuff.. and we basically avoided each other..then finally we made up...well not for long at least.. because my sis's friend(she's also my friend) hit her in the stomach because my friend took her hat off.. so I stayed with my sis's/my friend and one night I was hanging with sis's/my friend with this guy and his bro.. jacked up jake..well jacked up jake got his name because he was riding his bike down a huge hill and fell and got all bruised and cut....(their dad is friends with mine) well any ways my friend, my sis, my bros friend and this girl all decided to go to the park at like 11 30 at night and they heard some people coming and thought it was me and my sis's/my friend but it was really a guy and a girl but they didn't know that so.. my friends all went and started hiding.. well the guy and the girl looked around with a flashlight but didn't see my friends so they decided. to DO IT IN THE PARK! eww! in a kids park! then when they were done doing u know what the girl went on top of the playground thing and saw my friends!!!! and they ran out of the park so fast! well after that night we never went back to that park.. well the next day me and my friend were still fighting so we had been fighting the whole trip so far...well we go canoeing and kayaking well... the water was really high... well my cousin wanted to use a kayak so I let her use mine for a while and I went in a canoe with my dad well by this time all the adults had had just a tiny bit to much to drink... and me and my dad hit a tree that was in the water and our canoe flipped!!! it was so horrible! the water was deep and cold... well we finally got back in the canoe and my friend(we finally stopped fighting) was on a tube floating down the river.. well it was time to get out and get on the bus to go back to camp and she was on the other side of the river!!!! so she jumped out of the tube but that was a bad idea because the water was so deep rite there and she couldn't grab the tube so brandon (he's like 29) jumped in and got her and the tube and swam both of them back to the part where we get off.. then when we got back I went a took a shower well lucky me that's what everyone decided to do... so I had to wait until someone was done... well that night the kids went to one site and the adults went to the other.. well my dad had way to much to drink and passed out by the fire well the adults decided to have some fun with him... the put underwear on his head and a bra over his shirt.. then my sis went and painted his nails and his toenails bright pink and we all got in trouble it was funny but it was a really bad trip because now my family has to get revenge on the other families!.. well that was basically it.. oh yeah well my friend and I settled everything but my parents say she is never allowed to come camping with us again..... so that sucks.. that was like my all time worst vacation! - Carla I was visiting Florida for spring break with my family, we decided to drive down to Key Largo ( a 7 hr. drive from where we were staying) so while we were down there we decided to go snorkeling where I got stung by a jellyfish. At the end of the night we walked back to the car that we borrowed from a friend, and of course... the car won't start, it was an old car and it had an old security lock, we waited 3 hours for a tow truck and it took him 3 hours to figure out what was wrong with the car, so we got the tow truck to drive us back for 700 bucks in which there was only 2 seat ( one for the driver and one passenger) there were for of us so my brother and sat on a bench which was right above the engine and was about 200 degrees - Anonymous During my vacation last year, we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My bathing suit was a little big on me, and i wore it the whole time i was there. The problem was whenever i went into the ocean, I sat in the sand and laid in the water and sand got in my bikini top and it weighed it down so i went in the deep part and a current washed my bikini top away but luckily it didn't wash it away to far away cause my whole family were there. Not very many saw it though.- Chandra The worst vacation was to a cottage me and my family rented. It was terrible! First when we arrived it was pouring rain and our cabin was locked so we waited in the pouring rain(our truck was in the parking lot). Finally we got in to see a huge ant nest in the corner of the room, when one came out my dad smacked as hard as he could but it just kept walking! They were the size of a coacroch! It was sick! When we were getting ready for bed a ANT CRAWLED OUT OF THE SINK! Then when i went to bed i woke up with 3 spiders next to me! Then when i went to have a shower there were those huge ants all over the tile and a spider web with a spider in it in the corner of the shower. Later on at the beach i was digging a hole in the sand with my brother when i dug up a yellow stinky sock!!!! And when our neighbor asked me to go tubing for my first time i accepted. When i went he did 6 donuts in a row to see on the 4 one i was in the water with a bloody nose! On the way back out of the boat i slipped and went right into the gross boat water! ewwwwww..... Then finally i got out to see my brand new bathing suit BROWN! ewwwwww......That night i went out to go swimming, when i was in the water this little kid thought i was his brother and picked up a handful of gooy muck and through it at me And guess what it landed right in my face. when i got it all out i realized my bathing suit top had a hole in both armpits! Gosh! Then then the next day we were leaving and while saying bi i ran into the side of my truck! Thank god im never going back! - Julia One summer, my family and I went to the Adirondacks. It seemed like it was going to be a fun trip. We were going for a whole week and planed a hike, canoe ride, and fishing on the lake. I got up one night and had to go to the bathroom that was located about 30 yards from our site. I had to go bad enough that I ventured out and made my way to the girls room when I smelled an awful odor. I had come across a skunk and did not even notice it! Obviously he noticed me, and my family noticed that I met a skunk when I got back. I smelled for over a week! - Bethany, NY I originally live in Florida and had gone on a vacation to visit family in Iowa. While I was visiting, my cousin asked if I would like to spend a night at her apartment. My cousin is not the cleanest person in the world, but still, I agreed and said yes. At the time, there was another couple living in the house with her, her baby, and her baby's daddy. My cousin wanted me to have a good nights rest and told me to sleep in the guest room. I had asked her if the other couple was actually staying in that room and she said yes. I felt kind of bad, but didnt bother saying anything. I work up the next morning to find myself covered in cat hair. It was discusting. To make matters worse, I asked my cousin if the bedsheets had been cleaned before I came over. She went on to tell me that the couple had sex in the room the night before. I felt discusted. To make matters worse, I had been constipated for about 3 days and I had finally been able to go to the bathroom, at my cousins apartment. When I went to flush the toilet i realized that it was clogged. I was sooo imbarrased. I waited a couple of more minutes and tried flushing the toilet for a second time. Nothing would go down. I had to wake up my cousin from her nap, ask her what I should do. She woke up her boyfriend and told him to go clean it. I sat on the couch while he decided what to do. He walked out of the kitchen with a baby bottle scrubber and said "I hope this works." At that point I forget it, I would just ask gramma tonight to get us a plunger. My gramma and I went to the dollar store that day and she bought a plunger. "Please dont give it to them tonight when we eat dinner," I said. She didnt see why she couldn't. So after dinner my grandma says, " Oh cassie, dont forget to take the plunger home with you guys when you leave." I felt soo stupid, seeing that I clogged her toilet, but I will never ask how they ended up unclogging the toilet. - Kate My worst vacation was when we took a family trip and my boyfriend came along with us. We were madly in love. When we arrived at the hotel, We put our luggage in the room. On the way driving to the hotel, I made a wish to myself, and that was: I wish it takes a long time going back home because I want to spend all the time I can before the weekend was over. Well, after that wish, I was for sure that it would happen. So at the hotel, In the pool, My man is flirting with 2 white girls in bikinis. I WAS VERY HEATED!!!! My dad told him to have fun. So basically, NO ONE CARED BUT ME!!!!! I the whole time we were down there, I could not eat at all. I was so paranoid. I could not eat at all. All I could do was be angry. Then on top of that, when they were in the pool, I went to look through his cellphone. I saw the numbers of girls and everything. So, I tried not to shed a tear. But anyway, when we were going back home, it took forever because of the traffic. At first I was happy! My wish was coming true. Then I wanted to have a talk with my baby. Although we were ignoring each other at the trip. He told me that he was going to go to sleep. So I said "OKAY" a few minutes later, his cell phone rang!!! He was talking to another girl. When we made a stop at the gas station, He got out to go to the store, I gave him the condoms back. He seemed not to care. He was on the damn cell phone. After we came back to DC, we dropped him off. He asked for a hug from me, I gave him a hug but I didn't hug him like I really wanted to. He asked me was I ok. I said "YES" I lied about that one. So like two weeks later, My cousin through a party, and he was there. That day, He and I talked out everything. And we started back doing this right.. The lesson I learned was to be careful of what you wish for. - KIKI So I went recently to California and Mexico, where I was born, for a family vacation. Well it turned out that we ended up in California just when they were having there never ending rain storm, where there were floods and mudslides and people dying. So not only were most things closed, but you couldn't see anything, driving down the road was like driving a hybrid boat car. I never even knew there were hills in the distance till the day we left when it cleared up a bit. The only saving grace was the rental car we had, had that "never get lost" thing. So we leave California early cause it was just not worth it and we move down to Mexico. The weather was better not rain, but cool. We went to a few markets, which got really boring after awhile and then we were off to get tickets to the Ballet Folklorico, the only reason we were staying through a Sunday in the first place. Well we get to the theater and its closed so we go to the info building and they say they are closed for renovations for 3 months and the Ballet is not at the university like it always said it would be if they closed. The worst part was there were no signs and the local English paper, which was that particular days paper didn't say anything about it being closed, in fact it said there were open and to go see the show. Well we left Mexico early as well. It just wasn't a good trip. - Anonymous
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