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CONTEST We want your vacation horror stories

10:25 am June 15, 2009, by Charles Yoo

Vacations always go as planned. There’s never a glitch. Nope.

We never miss connecting flights nor get stranded in a tiny city with no places to eat at but Denny’s. Nope.
We always get along with our fabulous relatives and their fabulous children. Nope.
And hotels are always as described.

If you’ve never had a bad experience traveling, read no further. Thank you for your interest. And we know you don’t exist.

But, for the rest of you, let’s talk honesty. What happened on your vacation that turned into a horror flick?

• How did it start?
• What do you remember most about the trip?
• What drove you insane?
• Who did you want to strangle? (with love, of course!)

June 1 marked the starting line for our summer vacation story contest. Every two weeks, we’ll focus on a different category of vacation memories. You share your stories. We’ll pick three and during the second week we’ll let readers decide whose is best. Last week’s theme was family trips.

You can post your vacation horror story to this blog in the comments section below. If you want to email your stories instead, send them to Travelajc@gmail.com. (If you have vacation stories that just can’t be categorized but are totally worth sharing, just send it to us. We’ll find a place for it.)

And the prizes?

Each bi-weekly winner will get to see his or her story published in Sunday’s AJC travel pages and become a finalist for a grand prize getaway to a Florida resort. The prize is valued at $800.

So if you think you have a tale, go for it. Compare it with other Atlantans. Maybe your trip wasn’t so bad after all.

Or was it?

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67 comments Add your comment

Dennis

June 16th, 2009
12:18 am

My wife and our son took a Disney Cruise, which was wonderful by the way, and booked the flights both ways with all transfers included. Everything was great until it was time to come home. Instead of the Orlando Airport, where we flew into, we were routed to I believe, Melbourne. We were the only people routed that way so we had our own special car and driver. After we finally found our own special car and driver, we took off for the wonderful airport in Melbourne, Florida. We arrived a bit over 3 hours before our flight left so we checked in and went through security, to the gate. The airport is not quite what we were used to in Atlanta, but then again, we would still be on Delta. After a short time of waiting, the other flight, (not flights), left the airport. Ironically, it was also for Atlanta. The wonderful people of the Delta crew finished up their work after the flight left and they took off for the terminal lobby. There was one guy who was working a small snack table and he left also. This left myself, my wife, and my son to occupy the whole concourse. Not another soul in sight. It didn;t take long to get thirsty so I went looking for some refreshment. Not one machine or water fountain in sight. I told my wife I would go back through the terminal and get us something to drink and a snack, to bide our time. I goth the snacks and started to go back to the concourse and take their snacks and was stopped at security and told I could not go back to the gate. The reason stated to me was that security was at lunch. It would be an hour or so until they returned. OK, can you go tell my wife to come out and wait with me. No I can’t. Is their anyone who can go tell them to come out? No I was told. I went to the Delta ticket counter and the same helpful people who were at the gate for the earlier flight were standing there doing absolutely nothing. I told them my dilema and asked for their help. There comment was, that they had no one who could go get my wife and son. OK, call back there and page them. No, can’t do that either. All these people were going to let my wife and six year old son wait there for the better part of two hours, not knowing where I was or what I was doing, in a strange airport on top of that. I went up the chain of command until I reached the airpot manager and he was able to convince the helpful Delta folks that they could go get my wife and son. They finally, rudely, went and asked her to come out and meet me. Had I been the type person to yell, they would have heard me calling them. It was that close, but all the helpful security workers couldn’t go back and get them. We finally were able to board and fly home, back to Atlanta. Here we go to pick up our luggage and, yep, you guessed it. It was not there. Without going into detail about that fiasco, it took me 5 more helpful security people, until one of them would look on their little handheld and tell me that my luggage was sent on the frst flight, that left as we were checking into the Melbourne Airport. It was already in the lost and found office, on a shelf. Moral of the story is; I think I will drive to the port for my next cruise.

mama D

June 16th, 2009
12:31 am

My family and I just took a 7 day trip to Pigeon Forge, TN. My family included my 4 kids ages 15,17,and twins 13, my two dogs, myself and husband and our fish named Killer riding in a Expedition packed to the rim. Upon our arrival we decided to stop at the Dollar General to get some paper items. After shopping in the store I took my items to the car and proceeded to take the shopping cart back to be placed with others that were outside. I was almost there when I saw a SNAKE about 6 feet long and a little fatter than a 16 oz bottle. It’s head was in an attack mode. I took off, left the buggy there and started screaming snake and ran, ran, ran. I was ready to run back to Ga. After that major shock, I didn’t know if I wanted to stay but the family talked me into continuing the trip. From that point on it rained cats and dogs everyday and my children were acting out because we didn’t have any reception or WIFI in the cabin. We went to Dollywood and got rained out. Then the cabin was not the best. Imagine in a cabin with all the kids and animals with nothing to do and having to cook everyday. I went on a nightmare journey not a vacation.

Mary Jane Kolassa

June 16th, 2009
8:27 am

What a shame the AJC is sponsoring a “travel horror stories” contest, when the nation’s tourism industry — and Americans who work in it, and those whose livelihoods are in a trickle down fashion also dependent upon it — have been so negatively impacted due to the economy.

Why not be “part of the solution” instead and sponsor a contest about the best vacation taken in the USA? Or where/why would you like to visit someplace in this great land of ours next vacation?

Bruce Strum

June 16th, 2009
9:38 am

We were at Club Med Turks and Caicos for our Honeymoon in 1995. As part of our excursion, we were able to rent a deserted island. We met the boat at the appointed time and we were taken to our “island.” I asked the boat driver, “If it rains, do we move to another island?”. Ronnie Rastafarian responds, “Yeah mon. No Worries”. Well 15 minutes after drop off, the storm clouds closed in with a torrential downpour. With only a mesh umbrella lined with scuba flippers ,to keep our stuff dry. It didn’t really work out. We had a cooler with a baguette, a boiled egg and ham. Around lunch we were blessed by 16 minutes of sunshine, which was long enough for the reef sharks to close in on our position and keep us on the beach. The rains started up again, so severely we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us. Well, the boat arrived promptly at 6:00 pm, exactly 1 hour late. The new rasta driving the boat had gotten lost on his way to find us. He anchors the boat, trims the motor up and we load up. The trim won’t push the motor back down, and the boat is drifting with the tides. I finish the beer that was left in the cooler. I put on my snorkel mask and go overboard. I am looking around and notice the huge channel in the seabed. It’s the anchor, not holding, at all. We are being pulled into the serious channel. I bring this to the attention of our “Captain”. He immediately brings out the radio and calls for help. As I am watching this unfold, he doesn’t realize the radio is not even wired in, nor wireless! So our mayday calls go unheard. After one hour of trying, we finally got the motor started. As the “captain” takes off, I hear this enormous banging. I realize that the anchor has not been brought back up and is banging into the hull, repeatedly. We stop, I haul the anchor in and we get back. We find out when we return the storm was the outer bands of a hurricane. We have the vast majority of this whole day on tape.
Not to be outdone by the weather, we had the ability to use a trapeze at the resort. Two days later, we did the introductory class and went up on the trapeze. I am a large man. 6′2″ tall and 250 pounds. When i went off the platform and my shoulders had to hold my wait, needless to say it pulled both shoulders out of joint. Nothing has worked right since.

JMS

June 16th, 2009
11:12 am

My Husband and I love to scuba dive. We try to take a trip once a year. We went with a group to Cozumel, Mexico. I did not feel the need to take my entire wallet so at the last minute, before leaving for the airport, I took my credit card wallet out of my purse and threw it on the bed taking only my one credit card and my Green card out of the wallet and sliding them both into the side flap of my purse…or so I thought….. (My green card was in an envelope to protect the magnetic strip) We had a great 5 day dive trip and on Sunday we headed back to Cancun to catch our flight to Atlanta. Standing in line at the check in counter I reached into my purse felt the envelope with my “green” card and pulled it out to present it with my passport, imagine my horror when I looked down and saw what I was holding was my work “Manager card”, the only other card I keep in an envelope!! I rummaged back into my purse and there was nothing else in the side pocket… I had a semi out of body experience as I realized that in my haste to discard my wallet back in Atlanta I had pulled out the only other card that I kept in an envelope, and being in a hurry had not actually looked at it as I stuffed it into my wallet… Yikes!! I tried to stay calm and not panic, hoping that delta check in might not ask for the green card. I know I was grasping at straws at this point, but thought that seeing as I have plenty of stamps in my passport showing back and forth travel and I have a USA driver’s license I might be OK! Well that was not the case. They refused to allow me on the plane. Our dive master tried to convince them that he would be responsible for me and that once we got to Atlanta I would not try to enter the USA until my husband went home and retrieved my green card, they still refused to let me board the flight… after much consternation it became clear I was not going anywhere without that green card… I convinced my husband he would have to leave me in Cancun and return to Atlanta to get my card and send it to me…. Easier said than done! Monday also happened to be a federal Holiday so we knew we would get no help till Tuesday if at all, so it made sense to leave me in Mexico and for the Husband to try to overnight my card. Hotel arrangements were made and I bid farewell to all our scuba friends.( all 19 of them!!) Of course looking stupid in front of all those people did not help with the way I was feeling right then either. So off I went into a taxi to take me to the hotel. I would spend the next three nights in Mexico, while my husband tried to get me my green card! I got ripped off in the taxi on the way to the hotel; over paying by 450 Pesos…I found this out on the way back to the Airport as I had an honest taxi driver for that occasion…. So I settled in and for two days had a migraine headache with no medication. Back in Atlanta my husband was hitting a few bumps of his own…Try telling someone you are mailing a green card to Mexico and see how unhelpful they become…after three attempts to get a carrier to overnight my green card, he found one that will remain unnamed, as they said they should not do it but they could see his growing distress. Being international it would not necessarily be overnight but it would get to me as fast as humanly possible. In the interim I was calling from the hotel using my credit card to find out when I should receive my green card, and then on the second day of my exile, my bank noticing the calls and charges coming out of Mexico put a block on my card! My first indication was at lunch when the waiter returned my card and said did I have another form of payment…luckily I had some pesos so I paid left and returned to the hotel, tried to call my bank to see what was going on as I knew I had plenty of $$ in the account. So now I cannot even make that call as the phone company is telling me my card is blocked. I am wondering how I am going to pay for the hotel stay. I have only 500 pesos. I am at this point still thinking I need the 500 pesos to get back to the Airport. I managed to have one of the telephone operators call my husband and have him call me so I could tell him my card is blocked and get my bank on the phone and unblock my card… Finally on Wednesday I received the envelope with my green card, I checked out and rushed to the Airport to try to get on the 4pm flight, I just made it and arrived back in Atlanta later that night…After that experience I decided it as time to apply for my USA Citizenship so that would never happen again and I am glad to say I am now a US citizen! The phone charges on my card, alone, were over $800 for those 4 days…That was 5 years ago, now finally, I can laugh about it, but at the time it was not at all amusing!

JOHN

June 16th, 2009
11:23 am

IN THE LATE SEVENTIES,AS TEENAGERS,ABOUT 6 OF US WENT TO FLORIDA.WE HAD USE OF A CONDO ON THE BEACH FOR A WEEK ,FREE!THE IST DAY WAS PERFECT.IT STARTED RAINING THE 2ND DAY.IT RAINED 17 INCHS THAT WEEK.AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS OF CABIN FEVER,A COUPLE OF MY FRIENDS WERE OUT ON THE BALCONY HORSEPLAYING,WHEN ONE OF THEM SLIPPED AND FELL OVER THE RAILING.HE FELL 5 STORIES!!!HE LANDED ON THE HOOD OF A MERCEDES BENZ THAT WAS PARKED IN THE PARKING LOT BELOW.WE THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD,BUT THE HOOD BROKE HIS FALL ENOUGH,THAT HE WAS JUST KNOCKED OUT.HE WAS OUT FOR 36 HRS!HE AWAKENED AND ,OTHER THAN BEING SORE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS ,HE WAS FINE.THE WORST PART WAS CALLING HIS PARENTS(WHO DID NOT LIKE US),TO COME AND PICK HIM UP AT THE HOSPITAL IN A STATION WAGON.WE LATER LAUGHED ABOUT THE WHOLE ORDEAL,BECAUSE MERCEDES HAD ALWAYS CLAIMED TO BUILD THE SAFEST CARS IN THE WORLD.MY FRIEND WAS LIVING PROOF OF THAT!!!!!

Chris

June 16th, 2009
12:02 pm

In 2001, my wife and I took our Honeymoon to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. We were staying at a nice all-inclusive resort and all was well for the first two days. However, on the third day, I awoke with a stomach ache that I subsequently ignored while drinking, snorkeling, just trying to make the most of our time. Later that day, I became violently ill, throwing up with severe pains and other digestion related complications. I went on like this for a while until I became sick to the point where I couldn’t walk. I somehow ended up on the phone with a doctor who told me I needed to go to a hospital. However, the hotel did not help us get there! There was no ambulance and we had to call a taxi to take me into Castries and to the hospital. I was carried into the hospital by my wife and a man from the hotel who had finally volunteered to come and help us. They took me through the lobby (dirty with little plastic public school chairs) and into the main room of the hospital where there were 6 beds (for a city of 60,000!). They took me to a bed that I noticed had blood stains on the sheets and laid me down. I remained there for a while, watching the bugs crawl on the wall next to me. Much time passed, and I didn’t know why my wife wasn’t with me and why no one was examining or treating me. I later found out that the hospital refused to treat me until my wife brought back a receipt from the lobby saying she had paid. The complication with this is that she was very stressed out and hadn’t eaten in a while and therefore had fainted in the lobby. All this time my eyes were rolling in to the back of my head and I was certain that bad things were coming. Anyway, there was a tall man in the bed next to me who woke up about this time. I heard him say “Boy”, “Hey Boy, I’m going to kill you boy”. He kept repeating this over and over and over for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, my wife arrived, handed the doctor a yellow paper, came over, slammed the curtain shut between me and the crazy man who wanted to kill me and sat down on the bed next to me. At this point, I needed to go to the bathroom (I still hadn’t been examined or treated). My wife walked me there. It turns out that the bathroom was a toilet with no seat and no toilet paper that sat exposed along a wall in a hallway. I sat there and then realized that something was off. There was no wall at the end of the hallway! There was a crumbling section of a wall with people milling about on the other side of it, all of them watching me half-consciously using the toilet in the hall. After that ordeal, my wife walked me back to the treatment room and to my bed. Finally, the doctor came over and pulled out a needle (which was not brand new and pulled from a sterile package :) ) and started the IV. I was there on the IV and sleeping for hours. Eventually, they told us to leave. We had to call a cab, I still had to be carried to it and got back to the hotel. The next day, my wife informed me that we had spent $125 of the $175 we had left on us and still had several days of the trip left to go. We then had to spend the other $50 on a prescription I was given and the taxi to go and get the prescription. Good thing it was an all-inclusive resort! That was it, we tried to enjoy the rest of the trip while I recovered. I’d love to win a trip so that I could give my wife the Honeymoon she never had!

KIM

June 16th, 2009
12:25 pm

WE WENT TO NEW YORK FOR SPRING BREAK.. MY HUSBAND AND 10 YEAR OLD TWINS.. OUR KIDS LOVE NEW YORK AND WE WERE GOING TO DO IT UP IN THE BIG CITY! ON DAY 2 OF OUR TRIP I STARTED TO FEEL KIND OF CRUMMY , BUT I DID NOT LET THAT INTERFERE WITH OUR FUN.. I HAD A REALLY BAD INTESTINAL BUG, BUT BEING STUBBORN.. I TRUDGED ON AND DID NOT LET ON THAT I FELT LIKE CRAP….ON OUR SECOND TO LAST DAY WE WENT TO A FABULOUS SHOW THAT I HAD WAITED 2 YEARS TO SEE.. BEFORE THE SHOW WE WENT TO DINNER AND MY DAUGHTER CLAIMED THAT SHE DID NOT FEEL TO WELL.. I TOLD HER TO SIP COKE AND SHE WOULD BE FINE.. WELL WE GOT TO THE SHOW .. AT THE INTERMISSION SHE SAID SHE FELT LIKE SHE WAS GOING TO PUKE.. WELL SHE RAN TO THE BACK OF THE FANCY THEATER AND BARFED ALL OVER THE FLOOR AS PEOPLE WERE MILLING AROUND GETTING DRINKS AND PROGRAMS ETC… SHE KEPT BARFING.. THE USHERS RAN TO GET TOWELS ETC AND THE THEATER MANAGER CAME AND LOOKED UPSET.. BUT GOT SOMEONE TO HELP ME CLEAN UP THE MESS…. I TRIED HELPING AND PEOPLE KEPT WALKING THRU IT WITHOUT LOOKING!… THE 2ND HALF WAS ABOUT TO START AND EVERYONE GOT BACK TO THEIR SEATS.. ALL EXCEPT THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN FRONT OF US… AND MY DAUGHTER SAID SHE FELT BETTER… WELL… THE CURTAIN WENT UP AND A FEW SECONDS LATER… SHE BARFED AGAIN.. THIS TIME ..ON ME… I RAN HER TO THE BACK OF THE THEATER AND SHE BARFED INTO THE TRASHCAN IN THE REAR OF THE THEATER!
WHAT A SHOW!
THE NEXT MORNING, WHICH WAS GOING TO BE OUR LAST DAY, WE HAD BOOKED A LATER FLIGHT SO WE COULD ENJOY THE DAY… WE ENDED UP IN BED IN THE HOTEL ROOM.. MY HUSBAND WAS WORKING ON HIS LAPTOP, DAUGHTER IN BED FEELING BAD AGAIN, ME FEELING A LITTLE BETTER, AND THEN MY SON SAID THAT HE FELT TERRIBLE AND HE BARFED ALL OVER THE FLOOR OF THE HOTEL BATHROOM..THEN CRAWLED BACK INTO BED… WE FELT MISERABLE BUT HAD FUN ANYWAYS! NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

Lisa

June 16th, 2009
12:28 pm

How about this for a “vacation of a lifetime.” I’m a school teacher in Dekalb, so my husband and I were married last year after school ended. So this year (literally just 2 weeks ago), we were packed and getting ready to leave for the airport for our 1 year anniversary trip to Spain. Our plan was to travel the country for about 8 days, via trains, rental cars, etc.
On Monday, June 1 (our flight was to leave at 5:45 to Barcelona), I went outside to cover the grill on our back patio at 12:45PM…since we were leaving for the airport at 3:00. As I moved the grill to put it back in place, I felt a sharp pain on my right foot. At first, I thought it was a bee sting…but as I jumped away and looked down, I see a foot-long copperhead snake!!! It had bitten my 2nd toe on my right foot.
My husband rushed me to the paramedics, who took me to the hospital. The initial diagnosis was that I’d have to stay for 2 hours for observation….then it became 6 hours. Delta was AWESOME, and agreed to move our flights, at no charge, to Tuesday, June 2….then, they made me stay overnight…which then became 2 nights.
As I write this, I’ve just begun walking (limping–not near full use yet), and I drove for the first time on Saturday.
We had to cancel everything–hotels in 5 cities, Rail Europe train passes, rental cars, meeting with friends, and our flights. So rather than shopping in museums, sampling all kinds of Spanish culture, and seeing the great museums of Spain (I’m an art teacher), I spent the vaction on crutches and laid up, taking pain and poison medications. Call it the nightmare vacation that never got off the ground.

Melinda Chestnut

June 16th, 2009
12:29 pm

A lovely and expensive vacation to a St. Kitt’s resort. Upon arrival, no fruity drink with an umbrella, no one to haul our bags through the resort and up three flights of steps after an 11 hour trek to get there and that was just the beginning.

The next day, the afternoon tea sandwiches consisted of Velveeta cheese on stale white bread that I wouldn’t even feed to the cats hanging around the pool.

It was the drinks after dinner the first night that started all the trouble when some drunken teenagers from the UK picked a fight over a discussion about basketball with my (then) boyfriend. They broke his foot, two ribs, and gave him a black eye. Security didn’t help and just let it continue. They threatened to stab me in my “liver”.

The following morning, I went to get some breakfast to take back to the room and the hotel manager called me over to the desk. He told me we had to leave the resort as the folks from UK always had “special treatment”. Was this guy kidding me? We paid a lot of money for a dream vacation – no way we were leaving. I told him to call the police – he wouldn’t. He told me we had to leave the resort in the morning and couldn’t return until evening and that was the only way he wouldn’t kick us out of our room.

I called our travel agent who could not do anything. I rented a Jeep and broken foot and I would go out all day. The shining spot of the entire vacation were the pristine beaches that we never would have found had we not been forced to leave the “compound”.

Thanks, but I’ll return to the USVI from now on!

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