we missed our cruise ship because the dallas airport closed due to high winds. we were redirected to san antonio where we stood i... [show more]

we missed our cruise ship because the dallas airport closed due to high winds. we were redirected to san antonio where we stood in line for 5 hours straight and weren't able to talk to anyone. we called the airline and the wait was 129 minutes. when the dallas airport opened again, they called out over the loudspeaker "we have 35 seats on this flight, it's first come first serve." everyone rushed into a chaotic crowd. my husband got tripped by some guy with his luggage. when we finally made it to dallas, we had to stand in line for another hour to get a flight from here to there to there to meet up with our cruise ship. but first we had to spend the night in the airport....on cots....with crappy little blankets....and we had to fight people for those cots. the "do not leave your baggage unattended" announcement played in english, then spanish, every 15 minutes all night long. and that is also when janitors vaccum. we were next to a tv and we couldn't change the channel so we had to hear about anna nicole smith and her baby's daddy all night long. and to top all this off, i caught a really awful cold from the stupid airport and endured the rest of our cruise feeling semi-miserable. how's that? [show less]

It was sometime in the early 1990's when my family from Newfoundland, Canada, decided to take a cheap family trip to the picturesq... [show more]

It was sometime in the early 1990's when my family from Newfoundland, Canada, decided to take a cheap family trip to the picturesque province Prince Edward Island. It was early September (probably the week before Labour Day), and we all thought that we should take the first ever family vacation with my father and grandparents in tow. (My father often couldn't come on family vacations due to his self-employed work obligations). So all together, we piled into the family van, and off we went.

We arrive the first night at a quaint but urban motel on the outskirts of New Glasgow, PEI. Me and my sister, 4 years my junior, loved the fact that it had an outdoor pool. Much to our dismay, the pool was unheated, and once we jumped in, we almost froze to death. Since pools are scarce in our native cold Newfoundland, we tried to tough it out and have some fun, however the chill in the air and water got to us, and we returned to our room defeated.

That was only the beginning of our "fun" in PEI. My folks didn't want to feed everyone at a fancy restaurant due to the expense, so we ordered take out from a local Chinese food restaurant - delivery. Boy, was that a BAD choice. Amongst the six of us - My mother, father, sister, grandmother, grandfather, and myself, 3 of us soon after eating the food began to vomit uncontrollably. Turns out we have severe food poisoning. My mother called the local hospital, described the symptoms, and was told to get us there as soon as possible.

So, all of us, puking and stomach sick, pile into the family van, and get driven to the nearest major hospital in neighboring Charlottetown, PEI's capital. Immediately the hospital staff get us on gurney's, everyone's in a panic, and the three of us who are sick (my grandfather - 75, my sister - 7, and myself - 10 or so) get rolled to three separate parts of a very overcrowded hospital.

All of a sudden, my family is left having to take turns seeing all of us, without much notice, and cell phones were not allowed in the hospital to keep in touch. At any rate, I'm quickly looked over by a nurse, wheeled on a gurney to a corner of the hospital lobby, and left for close to 2 hours without as much as a family member or a hospital attendee taking a look at me. I was frightened beyond belief (apparently my grandfather was the one they were worried about, due to his age).

2 hours later, a nurse shows up and wheels me into a small little room with no windows, with a table with what must have been several cases of needles on an examination tray. By this point, I'm ready to scream, as I was very scared of needles, being all of 10. Turns out that the nurse had to do at least 12 blood tests to make sure I didn't have blood poisoning or some similar fate, so here I sat with this nurse pulling vile after vile of blood from my veins (approximately a full pint, from what I was told after the fact). 10 minutes after this episode my mother shows up, tosses a barbie doll in a box on my bed, and says "Sorry I wasn't here, but I have to go check on your sister..." and walks out the door. Another 2 hours pass, I haven't so much have used the bathroom (I'm hooked up to an I.V. with no one in the room with me), or seen a family member, before my mother comes back to tell me that me and my sister have the okay to go. My grandfather was staying overnight for observation.

When my grandfather got discharged the next morning, we were all on our way back to Newfoundland, having had enough of our entire 3 day holiday in PEI. Needless to say, we never had all six of us on a vacation together again, and avoided Chinese food on any further vacations at all costs.

- J. Fowlow [show less]