A Vacation gone wrong….

There is NOTHING worse than a sick kid on vacation.

Trust me…..

I have been there.

I'm just going to tell you a little story.

We were flying to Universal for a full week before Christmas in 2022. We had been planning this trip for a while and we were so excited to try new things and I did not skimp on anything for this one.

The morning we are going to leave my youngest daughter says her head hurts. I gave her some meds and thought she would be fine. BOY WAS I WRONG! We did not take an early flight that day. We stopped and grabbed some lunch before heading on to the airport. Once we got settled on the plane she fell asleep before we even took off. I thought that was a little weird, but she had spent the night at my mother in law’s the night before, so I thought she was just tired. I feel her shaking a little from being cold. I always pack a blanket on the bottom of my backpack. On this particular trip I also had a jacket with me. I cover her up and continue watching my movie. 20 minutes before we are going to land she wakes up and asks me how much longer. Before I am able to answer her she starts throwing up all over me. It just keeps coming. I grab the puke bag in the back of the seat, but not before we were covered! She filled the ENTIRE BAG! Thank goodness the guy beside me was sleeping and did not wake up. I am not sure how the smell did not jolt him to life, but he slept until our wheels hit the ground.

She felt awful—”I am so sorry mommy….I am so sorry…” Of course I am trying not to cry as I have puke all over both of us, all over the blanket and my coat. I am trying to wipe it up the best I can and calm her down and let her know that this is not her fault and it is okay.

I did not have Tylenol in my bag. Darn it! So, when we get off the plane I go straight to the closest store and buy a $12 bottle of Tylenol to give her. At this point I was going to do whatever I had to do to keep her from throwing up again.

She tells me she feels better. I am thinking that she just got a little sick on the plane from sleeping the whole time, and she is going to be totally fine! We go to the resort and head to dinner. She eats a little bit, but not much. Says she feels okay.

It did not last long….she got sick again in the night. So…the next day I sent my husband and older daughter to the park and I stayed back to take care of her. We laid in the hotel bed alllll day with not a thing to watch on the TV. That night we were supposed to go to the Universal Christmas Event that I had paid for. I was so excited to experience this and I was determined she would be okay! She had slept a lot of the day and did not throw up. We went. She made it about an hour before she said she needed to go lay down. We got one expensive photo with Santa and I sent her and my husband back to the room.

It is never as fun when you are missing half of the people you are supposed to be experiencing this with. The following morning my older daughter had a migraine, which she does get from time to time. So we all stayed back and did more of a low-key day at the resort. We had been laying in bed for hours and I was ready to go crazy. I made everyone go lay by the pool in the sun to get a little fresh air. Thankfully Kaylin’s head was better and Hadley felt okay, but still was not great.

I decided I probably needed to order some more meds for everyone because I did not pack the things that we needed and I wanted to start taking Emergen-c myself! I did not want to get sick! The poor delivery guy probably thought I was crazy! Bottled water and lots of meds!

The 3rd day my husband did not feel well. So, he stayed back with Hadley and Kaylin and I went to the park for a few hours. We find out that we need to move our flight due to a snowstorm. We were supposed to fly home on the 23rd, we could fly home sooner or fly home later. Well….I was fighting for at least a couple normal days at the park..so I add a night to our stay and say we will fly home Christmas Eve. She should be feeling better at this point, right?!

Day 4- I finally got Hadley to go with us to the park, but we had to rent a stroller for her because she was tired and didn’t want to walk. But she was at the park and that was a step in the right direction in my book! She did not want to ride much, but watched a few shows and was at least out of the darn hotel room!

Day 5 we were making this happen. We got some time at the park. We were slow moving, but we were there. Mid afternoon Kirk and Hadley went to take a nap to get themselves together for the evening. I was going to see the Holiday Parade! Well….at dinner Hadley started coughing while eating and thew up alllll over her food. UGH! She said she choked, okay okay….. we go to the parade and find a seat…Hadley starts coughing and throws up in Kirk’s hands. He is DONE. He takes her back to the room. UGH! Kaylin and I did ride a lot of rides this night together and Kaylin got a lot of good time at the park. Poor Hadley rode only a couple things and spent more time in the room.

We were all ready to go home. It was not the vacation we had planned and we were just done.

We finally head to the airport all just ready to pretend like this trip did not happen.

We get to the airport and I can’t even make this up. The line to check baggage was 2.5-3 hours longs. I have NEVER seen Orlando airport like it was that day. We wait in line….and we get up there to see the words CANCELED come across the screen….I am like NO…I probably did it wrong…let me do it again. YOU GUYS! I was about to CRY!

Yep…CANCELED. Along with EVERY SINGLE flight on Southwest. We go to the next line to see what can be done. Flight home on Christmas night…you have to be kidding me. So…I try to pull myself together to ask the girls what they want to do. Any other vacation my girls would have said stay longer, let’s go to Disney. They say…”GO HOME!!!!!” Thank goodness I have an amazing friend who works at Enterprise. I text them and ask if there is any way they can get me a rental car. We got one! I have no idea how, but we did!!!!! We drove home from Orlando on Christmas Eve. No snacks, no blankets, no normal roadtrip things, but home is where we wanted to be!!!! We had to stop to grab a few snacks and drinks because things are closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was like supermarket sweep when we walked in…this store will be closing in 10 minutes!

Thankfully we made it home safely.

I learned a few things on this trip. I am always packing Tylenol for my girls in my bag that I have on the plane and I will always carry meds with me just incase. That was a trip we will never forget. Not because it was amazing, because it was far from it. But…we had each other and we made it home safe. We are not laughing about it yet, but we are going back to do a re-do Universal trip and I can’t wait because this one is going to be better!!!!

This trip was not ruined because of lack of planning. This trip was ruined from sickness.

A ruined trip is THE WORST! Do you not find yourself on a trip and feel lost or like it was a bust! Use my free services to help make sure that your vacation goes as you have planned and doesn’t fall off the rails due to missing out on important details!

Here are a few things that I wish I would have had with me as well as taken before we left!!!! Don’t screw up like I did!