Things that DID NOT ruin my vacation

[infinitemonkies]

SmileyEagle's post about all the sightings he had during what was a great vacation despite abundant suckiness has inspired me to start this thread.

A few examples of things that "ruined" the vacations of some of VRS's special brand of EWs:

Having to wait in a line to check in.
Having to pay the outstanding balance before checking in.
Not allowed to use a coupon that expired weeks earlier.
Not allowed to check in a day early for free
Bike delivery was late
Not allowed a free upgrade after booking the wrong date because Dave "should have known" what dates they'd meant to book for. (This one is my favorite)


So I wanna hear some horror stories about things that have gone wrong on your vacations that did NOT ruin it.

I'll go first since I started this thread:

The owner of Jokeaday.com (R.I.P. [the site, not the owner]) used to throw a weekend party/barbeque for his subscribers each summer in Tennesee . One year, my buddy Dan and I planned to attend and make a road trip out of it.
The week before we left, I got my car and my left ankle totalled in an accident, but we decide to make the trip anyway. We borrowed a POS 25-year-old pickup truck that probably wasn't road legal, with no AC, no CD player, power nothing and a transmission on it's last legs. Dan proved hopelessly inept at driving a stick so I wound up driving 1500+ miles working a clutch with a freshly broken ankle.
And we had a blast!

[smileyeagle1021]

SmileyEagle's post about all the sightings he had during what was a great vacation in part because ofabundant suckiness has inspired me to start this thread.

let's be honest, sometimes the best memories are the ones where everything goes wrong. Yeah, it sucked walking into a pole in front of dozens of hot guys (I do mean that in multiple meanings of the word ) I have to admit, that was funny as hell. The desk clerk thing, yeah he was rude, but to quote Margaret Cho, "if you've been oppressed because of who you want to fuck, when you do fuck you're going to click up your heels and fuck" It's people like that desk clerk who remind me why it is so important for me to stay strong and be proud of who I am, and I'll be blunt, Ms. Cho isn't that far off the mark. The BART sightings were actually really funny to watch (with the exception of the loach, but the loach exists on every form of public transit, there is no escape).

One of my other favorite vacations was when I had food poisoning... it sucked but it was still a blast.

[LibraryLady]

Oooh! Things that went wrong but didn't spoil the vacation? I've got a good one.

There was the time that the ship couldn't go to Iceland because of persistent 40 ft. seas. We went to Vigo in Spain instead. That gave me the opportunity to visit Santiago de Compostela. It was especially nice since an earlier port on the cruise let me visit Mont St. Michel. How often do you get to visit two major pilgrimage sites in one week?

[Taboo]

This is an awesome thread!

Let's see... I've been stuck at an airport for 7 hours in London overnight due to bad weather, and couldn't even leave the airport. I just shrugged it off and slept on the floor on top of my luggage. Didn't let it wreck my day. I can't sleep on planes since I get motion sick, so if anything I got to my destination feeling more rested and in an even better mood than I would have been otherwise!

I got abandoned in Ireland once. I was about 12 and was traveling with my parents. We were visiting a small island off the coast and they forgot to get me when it was time to move on and drive to the next town. They got, oh, quite a ways away before they realized I was missing. I think they didn't show up to pick me up until about 8 hours later - they drove all the way to the next town before they noticed I wasn't there, I guess, and then had to drive all the way back. I didn't have a cell phone or any clue what was going on, but I just shrugged and went and hung out with the people staying in the neighboring rental house. We had been on the island for a music festival, and the guy next door was one of the teachers. Instead of freaking out over my parents being idiots, I got to go have an impromptu jam session with several awesome professional musicians and then bake scones with his wife.

I think the worst trip I had was to Canada last year. A friend was getting divorced (yes, he married VERY young!) and since the divorce was disapproved of by his religion, he was very stressed out. I offered to come up and visit him for a few days to cheer him up. This, of course, was offered before I realized I couldn't afford plane tickets. And I didn't have a car or a license. Oi. I took the lovely Greyhound bus. Yeah. 17 hours each way. I found out a few hours into the trip that I was coming down with the flu. Subsequently, I discovered that my bus' bathroom door was broken - jammed shut, making the bathroom completely unusable. I got harassed by border patrol, who thought I was too ill to come into the country, and finally got through only to fall asleep and sleep through my stop. I ended up at a town an hour away with no money, since I hadn't had the time to exchange any before I left. Luckily I was able to call my friend and have him pick me up. I spent four days drinking nothing but Gatorade only to turn around and go back home, still sick. I'm glad I did it, as I was able to cheer him up a little, which made it all worthwhile - but I hope to never go through that again.

Yeah. Dave's customers should switch places with some of us normal folks who don't drop a year worth of rent onto a vacation home.

[Food Lady]

I don't have any stories, but this thread is making me realize how hardy we who work in the service industry can be. We learn to make lemonade from lemons because we have to. It's a necessary skill.

[smileyeagle1021]

I don't have any stories, but this thread is making me realize how hardy we who work in the service industry can be. We learn to make lemonade from lemons because we have to. It's a necessary skill.

I like how my coworker put it (after seeing the reaction I had to the aloe vera gel).
"It isn't a true vacation until someone gets injured, property gets damaged, or police become involved"

[BethB]

Hmm...let's see. With us it's always car troubles. Flat tires, brakes, ect. never fails.

[Dreamstalker]

One April, my dad and I decided to drive up to Arches.

No sooner do we cross the CO border than it starts snowing (wtf, it was 70 and sunny when we left Los Alamos). Get to Durango in the afternoon, say "screw it" and find a hotel for the night. Find some dinner and live music at a local bar/grill.

Next day; the road up to Arches is closed except for vehicles with chains (even then there's a warning: basically "don't do this unless you're insane and/or skilled in wilderness survival"). Decide to head through Utah and Arizona instead. Still snowing. The car loses the rear shocks in Monticello, UT; cue search for another motel. Not the greatest day as we don't have any real cold-weather clothing but not too bad.

In Canyon de Chelly, I have a major brainfart and lock the keys in the car (still snowing). A local drives us down to the police station so we can wait somewhere warm until they can find a locksmith who deals with Explorers.

Somewhere in Arizona (NOT snowing), we get completely lost on some ranching roads that are sort of on the map, but not really supposed to be. That was when dad decided that his next car did need GPS of some sort.

[TOLady]

Many moons ago, I travelled with my now ex to Mexico.

He decided that he wanted to look really tanned that year and didn't want to waste time using sunscreen.

Ended up so badly sunburned that he had to sleep in the pool gently swathed in towels because he couldn't stand having the sheets touch his dry skin. I - of course - had to stay with him at the pool and tell him stories during the evening.

Didn't let it ruin my entire vacation though. At that point, after having dated/lived with him for 5 years already (yeah - I was young and stupid back then) I knew that something like this would happen (boy the stories I could tell you about the other vacations we had), so I just dealt with it and re-introduced myself to a great man named "Tequila" I'd met during the previous year's vacation when ex managed to get himself so hungover, he was useless for 3 days!

Yes - Tequila Gold is definitely all man (not like jackass)! Straight up, nice and chilled - Tequila saved that vacation!

Please drink responsibly

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

When I went to New York, it rained on the night I went to see Spamalot. And we had to walk to the Schubert. My toes were cold.

The show was amazing.

Also my second day there I spent the day in Central Park and my feet were killing me the rest of the week.

And when I went to Pearl Paint, they didn't have any non-photo blue lead, which resulted in me spending an afternoon looking for a different art supply store.

Incidentally, Manhattan has, like, NO alleys!

...Dear God, I MISS IT! :'(

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I was a kid (from about age 10-16), we rented a house in Stone Harbor, NJ for a week each summer. One year (when I was maybe 13?) there was a hurricane and we were advised to evacuate the island the day after we got there. So we locked all the windows and drove home (about a 2 hour drive). Went back down the next evening after the storm had passed. The water line was up to the top of the porch steps. We were upstairs (2-family house) so the flooding wouldn't have affected us, but it would have been awfully stuffy if we'd stayed there with all the windows closed (no AC). So we missed out on a day but we had fun the rest of the week.

When I went to Key West, we got to the hotel and our rooms weren't going to be ready for another hour or so. The staff let us store our bags in the closet behind the desk, and we just dug out our bathing suits, changed in the bathroom by the pool, and killed the time hanging by the pool. Which is what we were there for, anyway .

[infinitemonkies]

Here's a quickie:

Flight out of Salt Lake City gets delayed 11 hours, and my 6 hour layover in Las Vegas gets cut to 20 minutes.

I can say I've gambled in Vegas, but only at an airport slot machine.

[AccountingDrone]

6 hour layover in the Frankfurt Airport/Bus/Train terminal .... they had a bomb scare in the train terminal end, so we got moved to a different section and I had the cutest german guy in a militaristic uniform help me move my suitcase and hang around chatting with me until they cleared the station so we could go back ... then I went to the little cafe above the tracks for brunch to kill time while I was waiting, and a table full of cute germans bought me my brunch so they could practice their english with me

I never had such a fun layover before