“AHHHHH!!!!!!!” was all that managed to come out of my mouth. I ran so fast out of that room that I had to grab the side of the door frame in order to turn down the hallway without slipping. I kept running all the way down the stairs and out the door until I came upon my family who claims that they were searching for me but I think that was just a cover up.

It all started the minute my dad had announced at the dinner table that we were taking a trip to Orlando, Florida. I was nine years old at the time and I had never been so excited in my life to go on vacation. I woke up every morning (for about a week before we even left Washington) and begged my parents to switch our plane tickets and leave right this very instant...and of course they said, “No honey, it doesn’t work that way.” My family and I had taken off for Florida so that my brother and dad could golf with the pro’s and my mom, sister and me could spend time in Disney World.

When my brother and I were younger, we would explore every hotel we stayed in for hours on end so the hotel we stayed in this time, the Caribe Royale, wasn’t any different. The minute we got off the plane and to our hotel room, Connor and I were immediately gone searching for something exciting to do or find. After a couple of hours exploring our building, we decided to walk over to the main building which was basically the lobby. Once we entered,, we raced up a huge flight of stairs that looked like the kind of stairs that royalty slowly walk down in movies. The moment we hit the very top we saw an enormous room filled with ping pong tables, stuffed animal machines and the game we had been begging our parents to get us for YEARS, air hockey. Connor and I glanced over at each other with our jaws practically touching the floor and before we could even express how happy we were, we were pounding the puck into each other’s goals. After the other kids started to give us dirty looks seeing that they had been waiting for us to be finished for about an hour now, Connor and I unwillingly left the arcade room and raced back to our building. Our room was on the fifth floor of the building and of course since I was only nine I hadn’t paid any attention to what floor, building or room we were staying in. I just followed Connor. So since I had been fully trusting Connor this whole trip, when he said, “Hey Maegs I’ll race you to the top!” I easily agreed. Once again, we both were taking two to three steps at a time, jumping up the stairs.

This is when it all went downhill. Like in many hotels, this stairwell had little hiding spots under each set of stairs and of course Connor took the first opportunity he had to slip in underneath one and laugh at me as I ran by. I ran and ran and ran until I got to the floor that seemed about where my room possibly could be, thinking that I had come out with a complete victory. So I walked down the hall of rooms and saw a room that was opened so I figured Connor had just gotten in and left the door open. I walked in.

“Mom!? Dad?! Con?! Malls?! Is anyone here?” no one answered. So instead of thinking ‘hmm..maybe this is the wrong room’ I plopped right down on the pull out bed (which last time I checked, wasn’t in the room I was staying in) and started to watch the T.V. that was already on. As I flipped through the channels and found nothing on that interested me, I started to worry. I wasn’t worried about whether I had turned the wrong way or if Connor had tricked me but I was worried that my family was in Downtown Disney without me! So after calling their names again many times, I got up and walked around. I found nobody inside until I walked back into the living room where a Mom, Dad and two little kids were standing...it was not my family. “AHHHHH!!!!!!!” was all that managed to come out of my mouth. I ran so fast out of that room that I had to grab the side of the door frame in order to turn down the hallway without slipping. I kept running all the way down the stairs and out the door until I came upon my family who claims they were searching for me but I think that was just a cover up.

“Maegan where the heck did you go?” Connor asked with a smirk.

“Where did I go? Where did YOU go? I thought you were behind me that whole time and then I went into a room which I thought was our room but it really wasn’t our room and watched T.V. for like twenty minutes and then I went through the room looking for you guys and I came back out and this family was standing there! I have never been so scared in my life! Not only was this weirdo family in there but I thought you guys went to Downtown Disney without me!” I replied, completely out of breathe. My legs were shaking so much that it looked as if I could have collapsed right then and there. After about five seconds of them trying to understand all that I had said to them, they all burst out laughing. “It isn’t funny.” I said very sternly.

“Ha ha ha ha ha hey Maegs where’s your jacket?” Mallory asked. Wow. As if it couldn’t get any worse.

“I am not going back up into that room.” I said completely seriously. Again, they all burst out laughing. “There is no way that I am going up there and asking that family that I probably scared just as bad as they scared me, for my jacket back!” Of course, I ended up going back up and retrieving my jacket. But they had left the door open again so I sneakily tip toed into the room, snatched my jacket and raced out of there almost as fast as I had the first time, without getting caught.

“Please can we just go to Downtown Disney now? I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing that might make my day better.” I said very frustrated. And with that, my (real) family and I got in the car and drove across the street to the happiest place on earth.

At the time that this happened I was scared out of my mind. Out of the many times that I’ve been lost this time was probably not only the scariest but also the most embarrassing. The only way that this experience has changed my life today is I always check that I’m going into the right hotel room at least three times before actually stepping into the room. Looking back on it now I think it was pretty funny but I definitely will never want to relive that memory ever again.