by Serenity Hildebrandt

Created on: January 15, 2009

It's every Child's dream to go to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. To go there for Christmas, with all the festive decorations and goings on, is all the more alluring. But who would have ever thought that a adventure in Disneyland could turn into the proverbial trip from hell.

My dad had a new pickup to pull our trailer with and we spent a fun filled week at the Disneyland Trailer park. The trailer park is gone now but it's a place I will never forget. Our first day it rained and my dad bought us ponchos to try to keep us dry, but how do you stay dry when you are zinging through the rain at 90 miles per hour on Thunder Mountain Railroad. When we got back to the trailer a nice warm bath would get that wet cold felling, out of our bones, or so I thought. As It turns out, that wasn't the case, because the water heater on the trailer stopped working. Thus, the only way we could get hot water was for my mom to heat it on the stove, one saucepan at a time.

The second day went pretty much as the first, standing in line for rides and getting sopping wet. By the end of day two I had a fever and got real sick. The next day I wasn't any better so that meant missing Christmas Eve in Disneyland and staying couped up in our trailer. My sister went to the park with my mom and dad stayed to take care of me. Not only did I feel bad at this point, for throwing another wrench into our trip, but I had to end up missing a full day of fun at the most magical place on earth. To a child, this is the most ultimate form if punishment, you can ever receive.

Come Christmas morning, I felt much better and was able to open presents. Even the Sun was cooperating that morning. As we headed off to catch the monorail into the park, it looked like all the bad stuff was behind us and we were set for a day of ineffable fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to the monorail. Instead, we spent most of that day taking my mom to Kaiser Hospital, due to a slight injury that occurred while waiting to cross the street to get into Disney Land. Luckily her wounds only stemmed from two twisted ankles, that were caused by her tripping over an orange construction cone at the corner of the cross walk, we were waiting at. Needless to say, we didn't get any time at Disneyland that day and didn't even get back to our trailer to have a luke warm bath, until that evening. The driver of the shuttle bus and people at the trailer park felt so bad for us, that they bought my sister and I stuffed Minnie and Mickey mouse dolls.

We finally got to go back to Disneyland for our last day there and we were all wondering what might happen next. They gave mom a wheelchair and dad pushed her around the park. My sister and I got to go on all the rides we wanted to, but even that was not enough for her. She is a Disneyland fanatic and I think she could live there and never get tired of it.

In spite of the rain, no hot water, getting sick and mom spraining both ankles I guess everything turned out ok, but I would never want to live through another trip like that again. To this day, I make sure that I have plenty of clothing, medicine, and hospitals nearby every time I plan a trip somewhere, no matter how small the break may be. I only hope that the next time I visit the happiest place on earth, it will be the time of my life, versus the vacation from hell.

Learn more about this author, Serenity Hildebrandt.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.