What was your pre-trip calamity?

[piperdown]

It seems it happens to most of us. The kid/spouse gets sick, an appliance/car decides to fall apart, the weather takes a turn...something to make the already stressful planning/packing phase just a little more crazy.

Here's mine. We leave on Saturday. A week at WDW and then on the Fantasy we go.

Our Westie has pretty bad skin allergies that we finally got under control about six months ago. A year ago, the poor thing was virtually hairless. In last three days, the allergies have flared. She's scratched herself bloody and we're finding tufts of white fur everywhere. DH took her to the vet this afternoon. Steroid shot, antibiotics, and iv fluids (vet says she's dehydrated). She's headed to the kennel on Saturday morning. I just hope the steroids kick in quickly.

Add to that a few last minute "emergency" projects at work. So very thankful that DH is teacher and on summer vacation. He's done soooo much this week to get us ready to go.

 

[rszdtrvl]

A month before we went to Las Vegas, our dog tore his ACL. He had surgery and was just a few weeks post-op when we went on our trip.

Very stressful for us! (And for our poor dog!)

 

[minkydog]

Two days before we left for WDW, DD-then 8 fell and broke her arm. She was hurting a good but, but we took her narcotic. She came home with a great souvenir--her pink cast with several signatures from characters, including a fancy one by Cinderella.

 

[usnuzuloose]

It seems it happens to most of us. The kid/spouse gets sick, an appliance/car decides to fall apart, the weather takes a turn...something to make the already stressful planning/packing phase just a little more crazy.

Here's mine. We leave on Saturday. A week at WDW and then on the Fantasy we go.

Our Westie has pretty bad skin allergies that we finally got under control about six months ago. A year ago, the poor thing was virtually hairless. In last three days, the allergies have flared. She's scratched herself bloody and we're finding tufts of white fur everywhere. DH took her to the vet this afternoon. Steroid shot, antibiotics, and iv fluids (vet says she's dehydrated). She's headed to the kennel on Saturday morning. I just hope the steroids kick in quickly.

Add to that a few last minute "emergency" projects at work. So very thankful that DH is teacher and on summer vacation. He's done soooo much this week to get us ready to go.

Had issues during the trip. But have you tried over the counter benadryl daily? Mine was the same , but i give him a full pill for his weight twice a day and changed his diet and he has not had any problems since. Poor littles guy.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The weekend prior to our cruise, the people living with us ALL got the flu as in the real deal. We never get flu shots, but because of vacation timing we did. While we were pretty much safe, I was extremely panicked. No one got sick in my family.

Then there was that snow storm in the Carolinas. We inched our departure ahead as the forecast chnaged. We ended up leaving a day and a half early.

Then that Saturday both my sister and my wallet went missing. We thought we had been robbed at the airport the night before. She found her wallet in her car and in calling the MCO Hyatt to let them know, I asked of they had found mine and they did.

I could have missed the deck when we walked on the boat that Sunday.

 

[etoiles]

The week before leaving on our trip we drove to my parent's house and stayed overnight to drop our guinea pig off to be taken care of while we were gone.

We came home the next day and found that our basement had flooded from the rain last night (power apparently went out and so our sump pump failed).

It happened to a lot of people and since we weren't the first in line for help there were fans in our basement still drying things out when we left on our trip.

I normally like to clean our house before we go so it was the opposite since we had to move things from the basement, etc... and it was not nice and relaxing to come home.

 

[bcla]

My wife delays packing until the morning that we're scheduled to leave and were planning on taking public transportation (BART) to San Francisco airport. Happened several times. Once we got on but figured out we weren't going to make it, hightailed it out of a station near downtown San Francisco, and then caught a cab that took us straight to the terminal door. We caught a break because we have a child and they put us in the priority line. One time we've got an SFO-SNA flight and she's delayed packing again. This plane is at the international terminal (plane originated in Mexico) so we think we catch a break because the BART station is right at the international terminal. But then we see a long, long line at security. And with our child we get waved to the priority line again.

Yet another time we're scheduled for an international flight but my wife doesn't finish packing until that morning. I'm egging her on to go and I'm especially late because I couldn't get a long-term parking permit for the BART station. So I drop off my wife, kid, and luggage there and drive home to leave the car. I see how fast I can walk and then just stick my thumb out. A neighbor I don't know offers me a ride and I get there in 5 minutes instead of 30. We get there with some time to spare, and the line at security barely exists.

My wife also delayed when I was taking her and our kid to the airport to visit her brother. I try and see what I can do. She calls me later and said that she got there about 7 minutes before the departure time, but the gate was closed and they already gave their seats to standby passengers. This is a regular flight at the airport, and they were first standby for a flight four hours later. However, my wife had to spend four hours with an insanely restless child at an airport. Oh joy.

I also remember going on road trips where my wife delayed getting ready. We were going to leave in the morning on a camping trip to the Pacific Northwest. The first stop was a two night campground reservation at Crater Lake. However, I can't get her to move and we don't leave until about 8 PM. There was no way we were going to make it so I book a motel room in Klamath Falls and figure we'll camp the second night. So we're driving up I-5 and at about 1:30 AM I need coffee. Make it to the motel at about 3 AM and almost sleep until checkout time (noon). So basically the plan to have a full day at Crater Lake goes away, along with any reasonable chance to go on the boat ride on the lake.

 

[StephMK]

Last Christmas, 2 hours before we had to leave for our flight, DH decides to mess around with our security system. We have lived here SEVEN YEARS and have never used it. He got it turned on then couldn't get it to stop.

It is blaring, we are trying all digits from the little card, and I'm on Google for a solution. Call to a security Co does not help since it's not attached to anyone and it's an old system. Can't get into locked control panel to unplug it.

DH finally calls previous owner who happens to still live in neighborhood. The Guy is nice enough to stop by and manages to turn it off with the old code once he remembers it. We changed the code but I don't remember what we switched it to.

We were able to have a good laugh once quietly sitting on the plane later.

 

[rabyoga]

My happened driving to Disneyland. My 18 yr. old daughter were happily driving to DL. We were right outside Palm Springs/Desert Springs-by those big windmills. I get a massive blow out on my right rear tire. Luckily, I got control of the car and got safely to side of Freeway. AAA were my angels- although I was on hold for about 15 minutes. Got the spare and drove to Banning and found a Goodyear and got a good tire. Scarey but everyone was safe

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Several years ago our middle daughter impaled herself on the roof of her mouth with a chopstick and a piece broke off. Fortunately DH had the presence of mind to get some tweezers and ever so carefully pluck out the broken piece. We measured it against the chopstick and it was a perfect fit/match. I'm so glad that DH was home because I would have panicked and taken her to the hospital where she probably would have gotten some infection or another.

 

[leebee]

On one trip to Disney, DD and I were scheduled to fly to FL at the same time a hurricane was coming through the northeast. USAir delayed our flight (by a day), put it back to the original day, delayed it again. I called and asked them if they'd like us to leave early, before the hurricane window, so they'd have 2 fewer passengers to reschedule due to the storm. They were pleased to change our flight at no charge, and we were happy to go to WDW earlier than planned!

On one trip, DH was going to be taking us to the airport, which is about a two hour drive from home. He didn't come home from work, and didn't come home, and didn't come home. Once he arrived, I drove down I95 like a madwoman to get to the airport. DD and I were putting our carry-ons onto the security scanner when the airline paged us BY NAME I sent DD running for the gate while I waited for the carry-ons. We made it, but just barely. Good thing this was at a small airport, or we would have missed our flight (and it was the last flight of the day!).

 

[kmb584]

DD gets sick 3-5 days before we go to WDW. Every single time. It's normally a horrendous ear infection (or 2, the kid shows no symptoms until the infection is blazing) but for our trip in May it was pink eye. Her pediatrician jokes that he knows we're going on vacation soon because DD is in for a sick visit!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It seems it happens to most of us. The kid/spouse gets sick, an appliance/car decides to fall apart, the weather takes a turn...something to make the already stressful planning/packing phase just a little more crazy.

Here's mine. We leave on Saturday. A week at WDW and then on the Fantasy we go.

Our Westie has pretty bad skin allergies that we finally got under control about six months ago. A year ago, the poor thing was virtually hairless. In last three days, the allergies have flared. She's scratched herself bloody and we're finding tufts of white fur everywhere. DH took her to the vet this afternoon. Steroid shot, antibiotics, and iv fluids (vet says she's dehydrated). She's headed to the kennel on Saturday morning. I just hope the steroids kick in quickly.

Add to that a few last minute "emergency" projects at work. So very thankful that DH is teacher and on summer vacation. He's done soooo much this week to get us ready to go.

Had a couple. Had boarded my dog with friends for family trip to Europe. Dropped her off the morning we were flying out (that night). Just as we're leaving for the airport, got a call that she had run away. Never did find her.

Second incident - one of our suitcases was stolen as we checked into our pre-flight hotel (flying out next day to Hawaii for honeymoon). Had to replace traveler's checks, hubby's razor, camera borrowed from hubby's work.

Oh, and there's the night before we left for our first cruise (were going to be gone for 3 weeks), and the plumbing backed up. Did our best to snake it out, and told the kids to put drain opener down the drains every day, use paper plates & plastic silverware and space out their showers (as the drain would drain slowly, if allowed to sit between uses). Finally opened up about a week after we left.

Of course, I had the mandatory (dental) crown falling out the night before one trip, also.

 

[Patience]

Our oldest daughter broke her wrist a week before we left for our WDW vacation in 2011.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Two years ago in August we were going to Disney with another family and leaving for Disney on Sunday at 6am. Saturday night we were going to sleep at my parents to drop off our dog. At 1pm on Saturday my DH was out running errands while I was home packing. My cell phone buzzed saying that I had an email and Thank God that I looked. It was an alert from Chase that a debit had been made from our checking account in the amount of $971.23. It was made at a jewelry store in Dubai. I immediately called my husband and asked if he was doing an jewelry shopping in Dubai. We immediately ran to Chase since it was a Saturday and they were closing so we could close all of our accounts and they gave us temporary Debit cards. We didn't get out of the bank until almost 4pm with $1,000 less in our accounts and still not finished packing and leaving in 3 hours.

We did not get upset - just blessed that we were going to DISNEY!! The person who hacked our accounts had moved all of our money from our saving account into our checking account and if I hadn't checked that alert - they could have taken all of it. We did get our money back, since we caught it so early, while we were in Disney.

I now have even more alerts on my accounts and will never not check my email. I have a separate tone for Chase alerts!

 

[SleepyMom]

Our last trip, in January of this year, I was getting the dog ready to go to the kennel the day before we left. Had a very early flight the next morning, so he had to go the day before. I was in the garage measuring out his food and when I went to stand my back went completely out. I was barely able to get to the door going back into the house, and yelled for DH and DD to come help me. They thought I was kidding!

DD took the dog to the kennel and DH took me to the chiropractor. That evening at 5pm I was laying on my bed with ice and found I couldn't get out of bed. It took DH and DD 45 minutes to help me up. There was no way I could get on a plane in 12 hours

The next morning, I woke up and even though my back was tight as could be, I could move. We got on the plane and I took it very easy the first few days, but was riding all the rides by the time we left.

In the past when my back had gone out 2 different times, I had to have shots and do PT for months before getting better... so to be mobile in less than 24 hours and on a plane was amazing... guess it was that Disney trip that made me better

 

[pigletgirl]

Two weeks before our honeymoon, our car decided it needed $1200 worth of work on it. Needless to say, it wasn't worth that much to try and fix it. We sold it before we left.

 

[Angelrose]

OP, I just have an idea for your poor little Westie. Have you tried giving him Linatone? It's an oil that really helps with all kinds of skin problems. You just put it in their food. My dog loved it. He was a Samoyd (sp?) He would bite his paws until the bled. Once I started the Linatone he stopped and he never had a skin problem again. It works with cats too.

 

[smokeyblue]

Two days before our last Disney I was at work and swamped trying to get everything done before my last day. I was was waiting for an important email attachment and it flashed on my screen as I was having an in depth conversation with a vendor. I opened it an it was not my attachment, it was a virus and it "ate" my computer right in front of my eyes. I just went to the bathroom and cried. I called IT and they hauled my computer away. I went to talk to my boss and she was blazing mad at me. She was convinced I had been accessing something I shouldn't have and she wouldn't let me explain otherwise. She said she didn't know what would happen to me and that I just needed to go enjoy my vacation. Uh, thanks a lot!

From there my trip just went from bad to worse. There was a giant snow storm and they cancelled our flight and booked us to leave two days later. The weather in Florida was horrible. It poured and poured rain the whole week. Then to top it all off I had an accident at the end of the trip and hurt myself badly enough that it took a month to heal.

The silver lining is that with some old vicodin and prednisone I had squirreled away for emergencies (to help with the pain from my accident), 8 left over snack credits and some determination we had the best WDW day ever and for one day we left the park happy and satisfied.

:uckily, when I got back I found out that the computer thing wasn't a big deal at all. IT told me it happens all the time, but most people don't ever admit that they did anything wrong! They were able to rebuild my computer and I didn't even lose any files. The world was right again!

 

[VBelle68]

Our first big trip with all 3 kid, my DD5 woke up the morning we were leaving to drive with itchy red spots! Yup! Chicken pox! Doc told us to go and have a good time. We were lucky, it was a fairly mild case.