For Immediate Release |
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Contact: Chris Payne or Jason Logan | |
Phone: (918) 669-2379 |
TULSA, Okla. – Thrifty Car Rental today announced that Amy Angelilli and her husband, Dave McGuinness of Philadelphia, are the grand prize winners in the company's 8th Annual Honeymoon Disasters® Contest.
Overcoming muggers, sleazy hotel clerks, endless amounts of rain and a hospital with no electricity is just part of this couple's hard-luck honeymoon, and the reason Thrifty chose Amy and Dave's story as the winner. The winning story was chosen from more than 1,000 entries from across the U.S.
The Grand Prize in this year's contest includes: a one-week car rental from Thrifty; roundtrip airfare to the sun-soaked Cayman Islands; six nights at Villas of the Galleon on Grand Cayman; $1,000 spending money from Thrifty; and, a honeymooner's adventure package.
The earliest sign that Amy and Dave's honeymoon might not go as planned started when they landed at their "always-sunny" Caribbean destination – and were greeted by buckets of rain.
Using trash bags for umbrellas, they arrived at the hotel only to find their honeymoon suite so cramped, there wasn't room for them and the luggage. So they paid an extra $60 for a larger room that held everything "as long as you held your breath," according to Amy.
On their first evening out, they returned to the hotel after dinner, and were mugged by two masked men who escaped with Amy's purse. Nearby, an apartment security guard watched the entire episode from behind a fence. Amy pleaded in Spanish for him to help, but was told, "inside the fence is my problem, and outside is yours."
Despite the never-ending rain, the couple decided to make the most of their time together by stargazing when the clouds parted briefly. They fell asleep in their lounge chairs by the pool until an amorous hotel employee awakened Amy by snuggling in beside her. She politely rejected Ernesto's advances.
A few days later (raining, again!), Amy decided to go swimming, but lost her footing on a rock and seriously bruised her foot. "A meat slicer would have been less painful," Amy recalls.
They rushed to the emergency room and found that the hospital was without electricity except for the emergency generator used only for essential functions. After X-rays, the doctor on duty ordered a muscle relaxing shot. With no electricity and no light, Dave was asked to shine a flashlight on Amy's backside. (It was the first time they had seen a moon in several days!)
After copious amounts of paperwork, the couple returned to the hotel with Amy wanting nothing more than a shower. When she turned on the shower and nothing came out, she grudgingly settled for a cold sponge bath of water salvaged from the ice chest they had taken to the beach earlier that day.
You can read the full text of Amy and Dave's story and other humorous entries online by visiting HoneymoonDisasters.com or by clicking the "Promotions" link on Thrifty.com.
Entries for the 2003 Honeymoon Disasters Contest are now being sought. For a complete list of rules, or to enter online (U.S. residents only), visit HoneymoonDisasters.com. Contest entries will be accepted through September 30, 2002.
Other stories in this year's contest included:
Joe and Coleen, Tulsa, OK: Every nervous newlywed knows the feeling associated with "taking the plunge." But Joe and Coleen may have taken things too literally – when their car plunged over a cliff on Pikes Peak. He and Coleen had made it to the top of the mountain, and were at the four-mile point on their way down, when Joe blacked out due to oxygen deprivation. Coleen remembers flying through the air, striking every rock boulder and tree along the way. In fact, the car landed in a tree – with the engine still running!
John and Ann Marie, Huntsville, AL: On a seven-day "adventure tour" in Costa Rica, they detoured through a rainforest and discovered the dirt road dead-ended at a river. Unsure of how deep the waters were, Ann Marie played scout by riding on the hood of the Range Rover, while swooping birds dive-bombed her head. (It wasn't until much later that she realized they were vampire bats.) The couple learned not to leave the windows open in their hotel room, as they returned from dinner to a bug hoedown of historic proportions. "Wall to wall, floor to ceiling, there were crawling, flying, humming and cart-wheeling bugs that we had only seen in Indiana Jones movies," said John. When the road to the restaurant was washed out, they braved the footbridge that crossed a chasm complete with hungry crocodiles.
Teri and Scott, Grand Island, NE: On their honeymoon south of the border, the Woodwards were warned by friends to take a popular over-the-counter remedy so they wouldn't get sick from the water. They took dose after dose . . . until their tongues turned black! Certain they had picked up some form of plague, the bride refused to let her husband kiss her during the entire trip. They cancelled day tours, stay indoors and waited for the plague to set in. At home, their doctor told them it was a common reaction . . . to the medicine! So much for the Black Plague!
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Thrifty Car Rental, with its affiliate Thrifty Car Sales, is a subsidiary of Thrifty, Inc. Thrifty Car Rental is one of the world's largest international car rental franchise networks, consisting of over 1,200 locations in 60 countries around the world. Thrifty, Inc. is a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE:DTG).
