Vacations Gone Bad... stories? We cut our vacation short and returned

[radwriter0555]

5 days early from Playa Del Carmen because our travel companions pretty much changed the rules and ditched us.

My idea was to make a spring break vacation for my 11 year old daughter and a friend; it was to be all about THEM. So I brought it up to my daughter's friend's mom and she said she had been thinking about getting a house in Merida MX for holiday. I suggested she check our PDC and would she like to go together for the girls.

She looked into it, found a hotel she liked and we agreed to go together and stay seperately. I told her where we normally stayed and the things there were to do, and what we liked to do as well, so we agreed to basically go together but to stay seperately, since I wasn't in the market for a $1,000 per night hotel. We had a couple of discussions about things to do, including the local natural water parks that the girls would love, as well as pool and beach time, since that IS what kids like to do... I asked her if she wanted a spa vacation or an adventure and she was adament that she wanted adventure! We set up a general schedule of adventure one day, resting/beach/pool the next, alternating the events.

We made these arrangements around xmas time.

So 3 weeks ago, she tells us that it turns out her best friend's family is going to be in PDC too, and they have a daughter the same age. So she's going to be spending time with them as well. I had no problem sharing them, we were told they would spend a single entire day with them, on Sunday, no problem.

But then it all started changing. We get there on Thursday night, and had dinner. We were then told that they were spending the day on Friday with their friends, which left us on our own, and totally bored, while they spent the whole day with them; we finally met up on Saturday, which was supposed to be our relax by the pool day, and ended up being spent with their friends... including a dinner which was most unpleasant, as the other mom made subtle attempts to gain the superior position in the group and to force me out of conversations and interactions. I felt very excluded and totally like a 3rd wheel.

The mom kept making noises about changing the schedule again, to just do nothing and avoid us all, (and there I was feeling left out of the loop again) She kept saying how TIRED she was, and how exhausted she was, and made one comment about how she just wanted to be alone with her daughter. I had suggested that I could take the girls on the water park adventures and that was agreed to, but she didn't want to go, which was fine by me. I kept stressing this was about the girls, this vacation wasn't for me.

We had scheduled on Monday to all go (including the other friends) to Chichen Itza at 7:30 am, and the thought of trailing along behind the group, being excluded from conversations and chit-chat, and generally being ignored was not appealing. My kid was really bummed about sharing her spring vacation with the other child, who wasn't particularly appealing, but harmless... so we were anticipating continuing to have a lousy time. We had spent more time in our hotel room than doing anything else, and this wasn't our idea of a vacation.

After the events of Saturday's interaction with the other friends, I decided I wasn't interested in waiting around to see if our friends would "make time for us," to change the schedule again, to change outting events again, etc... We had been there for 3 days and hadn't had more then 2 hours of time for the girls together and we were BORED. It felt like we were waiting for an audience with the queen.

The people we went with had changed the rules. We had determined one course of events, and they changed everything. Our friend had said she had forgotten that her friends were coming to the same place for their holiday. The mom said her friends were leaving Wednesday.

So after discussing the whole scene with my daughter, I changed our flight to come home home on Monday -- 5 days early. We just didn't want to wait around hoping they would make time for us. We felt like we had been ditched and we were having a crappy time. I don't lay in the sun and swim in pools and on the beach. I'm very fair and don't do well in the sun. And in reality, an 11 year old girl doesn't want to play with her MOM, so my poor kid was really bored.

The mom called me on monday morning; I had been trying to send her hotel a fax to beg off, and the phones weren't working either. When we finally talked, she got upset of course that we were leaving, and apologized for spending so much time with her friends. I begged off saying my recent oral surgery had become infected and that I was in a lot of pain, so I should come home and get it handled. She then said that her friends were leaving TUESDAY. (Again the story changed) and I just insisted this wasn't about that, it was about my tooth problem, which was in fact slightly real. I insisted it wasn't about her friends, but she kept apologizing, so clearly, she was aware of her actions.

So, we left. My daughter is glad we came home, and I am trying to teach her to not allow herself to be taken advantage of, or to be a doormat, no matter the access or privilege to be gained. People should treat her right, or she should have the dignity to walk away and not let herself be insulted like that.

I would love to hear other vacation horror stories. I know ours wasn't the worst, these are good people with poor judgement it seems, that made some errors. I'm lucky I was able to extricate myself without wasting a lot of money.

GIVE ME STORIES!

[Frances]

1. Interesting story

In the past I would have done what you did and come up with an excuse about leaving.

However, now I hope I would have been upfront and just said, matter of factly, that both my daughter and I were getting bored and would prefer to go home early. I would try not to blame the other person, just present my feelings as honestly and simply as I could. I would say I was sorry if my change in plans inconvenienced her, and I would mean it!

The reason I would take this approach now is that this is the approach my husband uses with me. I am sometimes disappointed with his position, but I appreciate the fact that I always know exactly where he stands and that he does not have a hidden agenda that will appear later and bite me.

[4morewars]

2. She's not your friend.

or....with friends like that, who needs enemies.

[FloridaPat]

3. My worst vacation & why I don't stay with friend.

I took a trip to Germany to visit a married couple I knew from college. I had heard the wife had a drinking problem. They lived on an army base. First night there we went for pizze on the base. Second night was fried chicken. Yes, I traveled 3000 miles for American food! We bought some vodka and beer - American! Third night my friend started drinking the vodka and the beer. Around 10pm she started in on her husband. I went to bed. Next night same scene but she was up until 4 am screaming at her husband. He had manuvers the whole week. There were 5 empty bottles of booze on the counter - including 151 proof rum. We had signed up for a 4 day trip to Switzerland. It was 2 days away. I was contemplating flying to England but couldn't afford it. She slept in until 6 pm each day so I wandered around by myself. The night before the Switzerland trip she started in again on the hubby. At 10pm he walked out the door. I went to bed at 11 and she was up all night ranting and raving. I got up for the trip at 5am and she was still at it. I started to leave and she said "a real friend would stay". I stayed until she passed out and ran for the train station. I had a nice 4 days and really didn't want to go back, but again money plus I would only have to spend 1 day with them before my reservation. That was my worst vacation. Forget friends. Not worth the hassle. Of course, then there's family.

[trogdor]

12. 151 rum will kick your ass.

That stuff's like drinking gasoline. You could probably run your lawn mower on it. Even mixed sparingly with Coke, it's awful. I eventually took the remaining 3/4 of the bottle and used it as charcoal lighter fluid. Big fireball, singed eyebrows. Believe me, that's ALL it's good for.

Anyway, I hear you about going to visit friends. Some friendships are better maintained at a safe distance, say 6,000 miles across the Atlantic.

[bleedingheart]

14. A friend of mine always encouraged us to stay at her house on

our way to the beach...

In less then 24 hours of exposure I got to hear the following from her or her husband...

1. Her husband was bitching that she won't have sex with him as much anymore.
2. She was always swearing at the kids (F word directed at 2 year old)
3. She complained that her 4500 sq ft house wasn't enough space and that her husband (making $125K) a year was a loser....
4. He kept bitching that she was spending too much money...


My husband and I were so happy to leave there..

[skygazer]

4. I don't understand

You went with these people with the idea that you would be sort of "separate but together". Why did you feel that without them you couldn't do anything fun? I'm not passing judgment here - I just don't understand why you felt like your having a good time depended on being with them.

This is why I'm not much of a planner. My vacation plans are always very broad - I'll leave such and such a day for this destination and I'll come back at this time. Most of the rest is unplanned and unscheduled so I can just do whatever I want when I feel like it.

[tigereye]

5. it is odd how

you never know how these things are going to work out... some folks can be great to travel with, and others a big pain. It's harder with kids, I think, since you want them to have time with other kids.

[radwriter0555]

20. You're right. I've traveled with other friends and companions to many

places and was used to that luxury of compatibility.

I've had great experiences up until now.

Ah well. Good things planes fly a LOT!

[radwriter0555]

19. We weren't staying together, but the original plan was to have daily

adventures with perhaps a day or so for solo vegging out.

Kids don't want to play with their PARENTS. Kids don't want to go to the beach or pool alone either.

We've seen the sights in the Yucatan and again, for a kid, they're not that exciting. The point of the vacation was a spring break with a little girl friend to do fun girl things together.

Our plans were rather broad, but then she changed them completely.

[blindpig]

6. went to Panama 3 years ago

on a snake hunting trip(my idea of fun!), meeting a friend of mind and 2 of his buds there. Were lucky, my buds SO had access to Gamboa, a high end ecolodge, so I paid only $250 for a week at these fancy digs. We were seeing all sorts of nifty mammals & birds and catching more snakes than I ever had out of the US when everything went to hell. My bud is a type A&B diabetic, has been since he was 16, and I was ignorant as to what to do in emergencies. One night while preparing to hunt Ft San Lorenzo he started losing it, passing out then proceeding into a massive seizure, thrashing like a crippled minnow. One of the guys he brought with him was a Pima Co deputy, (my bud is a former LEO), Said "I know what to do, I'm a First Responder!" He was a moron asshole. Gave my bud a big ole shot of insulin. We started losing him quick. We drove like mad in the general direction on Panama City when we came across a little rural clinic. Got him in there on a glucose drip, his blood sugar was 16.
I sat with him all night until he was transferred to a hospital for the indigent, the fate of those without insurance. That was another horror show that I won't go into. Suffice to say that was the end of that trip.

[candle_bright]

7. That's a bummer

Panama is great, and it's too bad your trip sucked. I'm totally jealous that you stayed at that lodge in Gamboa! What a beautiful place.

Obviously you saw the canal if you were in Gamboa, but did you get to any of the locks?

[blindpig]

18. yep

had to wait for a ship to pass thru the lock at Limon before we could cross over to Ft San Lorenzo. Very interesting but had to wait over an hour, damn good thing we didn't encounter one while carring my sick bud!

Gamboa is the shit, rich people have it too good. The part where I stayed was a neighborhood of quadraplexes built of tropical hardwood for Canal middlemanagement types in the 30's. You could stand in the driveway after sunrise and see agoutis, coatis, parrots and toucans cavorting about.

[AgadorSparticus]

8. went to club med moorea (tahiti)and cut our honeymoon short. These people

were unbelievably arrogant, ignorant and inhumane. We were sort of enjoying ourselves until a sweet New Zealander at the front desk was adamant about a very sick Australian girl staying next door to them. My husband, who is an ER doc, overheard this conversation and offered to help since there was no doctor on the resort. We went over there and right off the bat, we knew it was serious. She was running a very high fever and her eyes were rolled back into her head. She was sensitive to light and had neck stiffness. It was more than obvious that it was meningitis. My husband went back to the front desk and told them he is an ER doc and and what was going on. Their response to him was, "sir, you may be a doctor, but right now, you are JUST a guest here". I shit you not. They said that!!! They told us that we didn't know what we were talking about. It wasn't meningitis, but rather dehydration. They were going to continue doing what they were doing--nothing. We were in shock.

The girl was going to die. She had been that way for awhile. My husband made a huge stink about lawsuits and they got off their butt to get their doctor in to see her.

Their doctor didn't know shit about anything so my husband carefully pushed her to get this girl airlifted to a hospital. To make a long story short, she not only did have meningitis, but she had the worst kind. To further add insult to injury, they let all the people that came into contact with her know about the meningitis except for us. They gave them all prophylactic antibiotics except for us. We only knew about it because the New Zealanders told us about it.

After that incident, I washed my hands of Club Med. It is ironic that I'm recounting this nightmare right now because we are getting ready to redo our honeymoon to Tahiti. This time, we are going to Bora Bora and staying in a well recommended place (Le Meridien). We were supposed to go to Hawaii last year for vacation, but our beloved dog passed away and we cancelled that trip. This vacation is long overdue.

edit to correct a word.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Took the kids to Florida

in August. And we were camping. Huge mistake. As soon as the sun came up, we were out of that tent, sweating bullets.

But the really bad thing was that halfway there, our van started overheating. We ended up in a little bitty town on a Sunday having a thermostat put in by a mechanic we had yanked out of church. He overcharged us and by the time we got to Florida, the thermostat had failed and my husband decided he would go to an auto parts store, get the part and replace it himself.

So we got to the campsite - just barely, van was overheating badly. And there is this huge contract we have to sign, basically promising not to rape nature while we are there. We still laugh about that contract, it actually forbade walking on dead vegitation. Anyhow, we waited till dark, drained the radiator onto that sacred ground and replaced the thermostat. Van ran great for many years after that. But a few days later, we were in Alabama on the gulf coast and I said to hubby pull over so I can take a picture. He saw the 'soft shoulder' sign too late. We sat there for several hours waiting to be rescued. (no cell phones in those days) Several very nice natives pulled over to tell us that someone with a rope would stop eventually and offer to pull us out. The first guy wanted $500!! Anyway, a nice man finally came to our rescue and didn't charge us a dime for the tow out of the sand.

After that, we headed home - quickly. We still call this our vacation in hell.

[SarahB]

10. Fire alarm at 6 am on my honeymoon...

Fire alarm at 6 a.m on my 1st anniversary.
Hurricane on Cape Cod.
Ants on my 5th anniversary.
Went into labor on my 10th anniversary.

It all surrounds the same dude though. :shrug:

[knitter4democracy]

23. Hey, I had a kid on my anniversary, too!

My youngest's due date was our fifth anniversary, but we figured he'd come early. Nope. Came right on our anniversary. :eyes:

[Mizmoon]

11. You must have missed my "party in Amsterdam" posts

a few weeks back. I paid for a lovely houseboat on a canal for a friend (platonic) and I to use while we partied-down in A'Dam. Seemed perfect, but alas was not.

My 'friend' complained the whole time, non-stop, about her free acomodations, even commenting that she hated the swans that swam up to the boat looking for bread because - get ready for it - "swans are mean"!

:crazy:

[bleedingheart]

13. Don't vacation with other families...

especially your own..

My sister loves a great beach vacation...renting beach houses with direct ocean views and beach access are her favorite...
So....she wants to rent this place that is going to cost about $1500 for a week and she asks my mom and my family to come along so that we can split the costs.

Three groups...

My sister's family - 5 members
My family - 2 adults and a toddler
My mom

We all paid a little over $500 a piece (really not a "fair distribution since my sister's family would be occupying the majority of the house)......and to complicate things..it just so happens I end up being 5 months pregnant with baby #2 when the vacation occurs.

The night before driving down to the beach...my sister calls me to tell me that I had better not take any rooms with the ocean view because she has first pick......I told her that we would see who arrives first (half joking and half insulted that she would take my money then treat me like some sort of doormat)...I could tell she was already pissed...

So my husband and I get there...and this place has one of those spiral staircases to the second floor...Two bedrooms downstairs...and two bedrooms upstairs...(each level had one bedroom with an ocean view...)
I decide that the bedroom downstairs with the queen bed will be ours and our little guy will sleep on a cot so that we will occupy one room that is on the main level...cuz our 2 year old wasn't going to be able to maneuver the stairs....or preggo me for that matter.

So while I was napping in this room my sister and her family arrives and her husband lashes out at me about how I am a "GUEST" on their vacation and how dare I take that bedroom...

Well that was it...I explained guests don't pay to stay places and that if they wanted handouts to go on vacation then they should have asked for that instead of inviting us along...at this point I went outside...where my sister ..her kids and my little one were playing and I told my husband what happened...and he said.."That's it..we are leaving"...

So my husband packs up...my brother-in-law is yelling all kinds of nonsense and my poor mom is just sitting there feeling bad...
...and when I asked for my share of the cash back..back my sister told me to shove off..

So we went to a hotel nearby for a few days and went home...

I almost didn't ever speak to my sister again over the way I was treated by my bro-in-law but my mom insisted I patch things up and even gave me money to compensate for what I had lost when I had to pay for my sister's stupid vacation...

This was about ...7 years ago...

Then about 2 years ago ....my sister asks if we would be interested in going on vacation again...the answer was ..."No thank you"...and to tell you the truth I think she was offended...

In the meantime...my relationship with my sister has never been the same and her asshole husband has managed to alienate my mother....ah family...it is a thing of beauty...

[trogdor]

15. This should be the law.

Why on Earth would I take my neighborhood with me on vacation? That's almost as bad as having a cell phone with people from work calling on it at all hours. I go on vacation to get AWAY FROM these people.

[GalleryGod]

16. Phew! Wow!

We go to Hatteras on the beach each year. My brother-in-law comes along FREE. My wife calls it her "gift". I call it "moochin' "

[tigereye]

21. we always take family beach vacations

everyone splits the cost and usually it is fine. Usually, the only conflict is when I want to clean up and leave and my sister wants to perform some complicated activity instead. ( or takes forever to pack - she is a terrible procrastinator.) :)

[yvr girl]

17. I've never left a vacation early, but stuff has happened.

My family was camping when Mt. Saint Helens blew in 1980. We were stranded for several days because we were in the fall-out zone.

There was a big riot when I was in Athens - we had to hunker down in our hotel - the riot was right outside.

Hit by a hurricane in Hawaii. (Very rare)

I was in Indonesia when the government was overthrown. Tanks in the street, riots, the currency going crazy, banks running out of money - great fun.

In Mexico I got 'Tourista', had a 'fun' ride on a runaway horse, got electrocuted...

I'm fun to travel with - never a dull moment.

[knitter4democracy]

22. My worst one ever was a J-Term trip in college.

My college has a short term in January, shortened to J-Term, and it's mostly used to get basics out of the way or take really cool trips for credit or to meet really important requirements.

For teachers in Ohio, we have to have a class on multicultural teaching situations, so my college offered a J-Term class (required) for either Mansfield (the closest town with a significant African American population :eyes: ) or the Navajo Nation Reservation in Chinle, AZ. I chose to do the Rez. Boy, was that a mistake.

I spent a month with almost twenty of the ugliest Ugly Americans I've ever traveled with. Gah! It was hellish! My roommates brought enough luggage to live on for a year; I was the only vegetarian, so I had to pack cooking stuff and food in order to have safe stuff to eat (it's for a medical condition, so, no, I couldn't "cheat," even though the group asked me to every stinkin' day, even the profs); almost none of the other students had even traveled outside of Ohio, let alone anywhere different-looking, and they were terrible about it; I felt horribly embarrassed whenever anyone opened his or her mouth in front of a Native American (it was like the worst reality show ever with mostly Young Republicans) . . .

The only thing that got me through was that my teaching assignment rocked! My cooperating teacher was awesome, the students were some of the best I've ever had the privilege of teaching, and the principal actually backed me up on a couple of things and then offered me a job (which, unfortunately, I had to turn down :( ).

:scared: Still hate to think of that trip, though. It would've been so much better if they'd just dropped me off and left me with my cooperating teacher for the month.

[LibertyLover]

24. Vacation stories

About 12 years ago a good friend of mine adopted a baby. A few months afterwards, I went down to Virginia Beach to visit her and to meet the new offspring. As it turned out, I was there on Mother's Day, so that morning at the breakfast table I wished her a happy Mother's Day. Big mistake. Her (now ex) husband, a psychologist no less, was sitting there reading the paper. He barely looked up. My friend thanked me a bit uncomfortably and then looked at hubby. He finally figured out that he was being looked at - his response - why should I wish you a happy Mother's Day - you didn't give birth to Ryan, so I don't consider you his mother. Let me tell you, I was never so happy to have had to leave shortly after that to drive home.

And just this past January my husband and I took our daughter to DisneyWorld for the first time. We know she won't remember it, since she is only 2 but we will and we've got pictures. Anyway my oldest friend came up from Ft. Myers with her 2nd husband to meet the kidlet, since they had not come up to our house the entire year and half that she has been with us. To say that they are weird is an understatement. It started with lunch. The waiter brought a glass of water with a lemon slice in it - my friend tore him a new one for that. During lunch they kept going on and on about how awful environmentalists were because they had gotten the state to impose a speed limit for motor boats on the river they live on and so they couldn't go as fast as they wanted to. It seems the river is a haven for mannatees. My stepdaughter, who is an environmentalist, had accompanied us and was seething, but kept her mouth closed. But when my friend's husband informed us that it would be cheaper to let the mannatees in Florida die and import more from South America, we suddenly decided that the kidlet urgently needed to go back to the hotel for her nap. We saw them again the next day for about an hour until they had to go back to their room and warm up. I'll admit it was a bit chilly, probably 45 or so, but for us coming from Maryland it wasn't too bad. She told me later that they were very disappointed in their hotel because the chef had put pepper, which she is allergic to, in the clam chowder and she had a reaction. I asked if she had mentioned that to the waiter because I know the hotel they stayed at and they will bend over backwards to accomodate guests. No she replied, who ever heard of putting pepper in chowder. It was a relief when they went home early.