1mama2three
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
Ok, I have thought about this for several days...whether or not to post anything at all, but I decided that I need to tell my story in hopes that it won't happen to anyone else...
I, like many, adore Bonnet Creek. We stayed there this past May and returned again for out trip in January. Both times we had the EPCOT view and it was beautiful. Sadly, this trip started out a lot rougher than the last. We arrived at BC at 12pm on Friday, and they checked us into tower 4 by 1:15pm or so, which was sooner than we expected. We had driven through the night from IL, so we hurried to unload. We unloaded everything onto the baggage cart and then got to the room. Upon entering the room, I did my customary bed bug check on the kids' beds (it was a 2BR) and didn't see anything. Then I somehow got distracted...very easy with 4 kids...and realized later on that I had missed checking our bed. We unpacked and quickly laid everyone down for naps...I was laying on top of the bedspread and my husband was on the couch. At 5pm we woke up and showered and hurried off to EPCOT to eat. When we returned home, it was late and we all went to bed. When we got into bed it was dark in the room...for fear of waking up my son in the crib. Woke up the next morning early and started rushing around to get ready. Put my son on the bed to put on his clothes and a bug crawled out from under where I had set him. I immediately freaked and said to my husband...is that a bed bug? We pulled back the covers and they were EVERYWHERE. Big ones, little ones...it was like nothing I ever would have expected. Even worse, there were both old (dried) and new blood spots on the sheets...that is pretty scary to both of us because we wonder whose blood that is???? There was also bug feces all over the bed skirt and mattress. Had we checked, we wouldn't have missed it. Housekeeping SHOULD have caught it too (which leads me to believe they never did change the sheets in that bed from the last guest). The infestation of that bed was so bad that the bugs didn't even bother hiding because there really wasn't any place!!!
Anyway, we called the front desk and they told us just to throw our clothes in the dryer and someone would be up at some point. We waited for 30 minutes or so (trying to quarantine everyone), and then my husband called and asked for a manager ASAP. He arrived after 1 hour from the original call. He told us that we shouldn't be concerned because it was only in that one bedroom since we didn't see any anywhere else. And I mentioned to him that we had found dead ones on the kitchen floor while we were waiting and that my kids had carried blankets and other stuff between the two rooms. He claimed that wouldn't be a problem and that we could take anything that wasn't a food source for them like our electronics and that they'd take all of our clothes and wash/dry them for us. He said that everything else needed to stay in the room to be treated. They did give us some replacement diapers/wipes, some food credits for the restaurant, and a rental stroller because we couldn't take any of it. They said they'd get us a new room and we'd have our clothes once we returned, which they did. Then they told us that the place would be heat treated the next day so we'd have to wait on everything else. Well they did heat treat, but only the one bedroom...not the kitchen and not the living area. Further more, they never moved our belongings into the bedroom where they treated stuff so some stuff never got treated and sat there for 24 hours in an infested room. Upon talking to a person who has experience treating bed bugs when I arrived home, I found out that they gave us serious misinformation and did not treat the room as they should have. Given what we told them...the WHOLE condo should have been treated. Aside from our luggage, they left everything out in the main room and never treated it. So, we traveled home with belongings that were never treated...because they said since they weren't by food sources we shouldn't worry. Wrong...too bad I didn't know all this then. I've tried quarantining stuff in our garage, but now I freaked that we'll have them in our home. I did find eggs on the outside of my purse, which never came in the house, but it rode in the van all the way home. So every morning and evening we check out beds and I even wake up in the middle of the night to check my bed. It really is mentally damaging when something like this happens to you.
Oh and the manager told us we would see bites in about 2 days...we didn't see any bites and we were hopeful that we didn't have many or didn't react. Wrong again...on the way home (9 days later) we developed large welts all over. My husband's were mostly on his back and stomach. Mine were on my stomach, back, face, neck, hands and legs. They are so itchy it is unbearable. The welts turned into a bunch of tiny bites in clusters. I stopped counting at 100...and that's just on me. It has now been two weeks and I'm still itching and I have scabs everywhere. I will only wear long sleeves out, and for the 1st week I rarely went out because my face looked like I had pox. I cried yesterday because the stress of continually checking and hoping you didn't bring them home is terrible.
Anyway, I KNOW this can happen anywhere, and I still think BC is a nice place to stay. However, it is unforgiveable that we slept in a dirty bed that obviously had never had the sheets changed. Furthermore, the misinformation that they gave us isn't right either. They've dealt with this many times, I'm sure, and they should give the right information.
Learn from my mistake...check and double check everything. You CAN see bed bugs...even the little ones. Don't take anything in the room until you do. If you have to do something to remind yourself...make a check-list...which we should have since we so easily get distracted with the kids. Lastly, no need to worry about it and let it ruin your trip, but know your information about these bugs before you ever leave. Had I done a simple check, I would have saved myself a whole lot of stress and trouble.
I post this here because if you stay and BC and encounter this issue, please make sure they treat EVERYTHING so that you don't take it home. Because of this...I'm not sure we'll be taking any vacations for a LONG while...I'm way too paranoid.
I, like many, adore Bonnet Creek. We stayed there this past May and returned again for out trip in January. Both times we had the EPCOT view and it was beautiful. Sadly, this trip started out a lot rougher than the last. We arrived at BC at 12pm on Friday, and they checked us into tower 4 by 1:15pm or so, which was sooner than we expected. We had driven through the night from IL, so we hurried to unload. We unloaded everything onto the baggage cart and then got to the room. Upon entering the room, I did my customary bed bug check on the kids' beds (it was a 2BR) and didn't see anything. Then I somehow got distracted...very easy with 4 kids...and realized later on that I had missed checking our bed. We unpacked and quickly laid everyone down for naps...I was laying on top of the bedspread and my husband was on the couch. At 5pm we woke up and showered and hurried off to EPCOT to eat. When we returned home, it was late and we all went to bed. When we got into bed it was dark in the room...for fear of waking up my son in the crib. Woke up the next morning early and started rushing around to get ready. Put my son on the bed to put on his clothes and a bug crawled out from under where I had set him. I immediately freaked and said to my husband...is that a bed bug? We pulled back the covers and they were EVERYWHERE. Big ones, little ones...it was like nothing I ever would have expected. Even worse, there were both old (dried) and new blood spots on the sheets...that is pretty scary to both of us because we wonder whose blood that is???? There was also bug feces all over the bed skirt and mattress. Had we checked, we wouldn't have missed it. Housekeeping SHOULD have caught it too (which leads me to believe they never did change the sheets in that bed from the last guest). The infestation of that bed was so bad that the bugs didn't even bother hiding because there really wasn't any place!!!
Anyway, we called the front desk and they told us just to throw our clothes in the dryer and someone would be up at some point. We waited for 30 minutes or so (trying to quarantine everyone), and then my husband called and asked for a manager ASAP. He arrived after 1 hour from the original call. He told us that we shouldn't be concerned because it was only in that one bedroom since we didn't see any anywhere else. And I mentioned to him that we had found dead ones on the kitchen floor while we were waiting and that my kids had carried blankets and other stuff between the two rooms. He claimed that wouldn't be a problem and that we could take anything that wasn't a food source for them like our electronics and that they'd take all of our clothes and wash/dry them for us. He said that everything else needed to stay in the room to be treated. They did give us some replacement diapers/wipes, some food credits for the restaurant, and a rental stroller because we couldn't take any of it. They said they'd get us a new room and we'd have our clothes once we returned, which they did. Then they told us that the place would be heat treated the next day so we'd have to wait on everything else. Well they did heat treat, but only the one bedroom...not the kitchen and not the living area. Further more, they never moved our belongings into the bedroom where they treated stuff so some stuff never got treated and sat there for 24 hours in an infested room. Upon talking to a person who has experience treating bed bugs when I arrived home, I found out that they gave us serious misinformation and did not treat the room as they should have. Given what we told them...the WHOLE condo should have been treated. Aside from our luggage, they left everything out in the main room and never treated it. So, we traveled home with belongings that were never treated...because they said since they weren't by food sources we shouldn't worry. Wrong...too bad I didn't know all this then. I've tried quarantining stuff in our garage, but now I freaked that we'll have them in our home. I did find eggs on the outside of my purse, which never came in the house, but it rode in the van all the way home. So every morning and evening we check out beds and I even wake up in the middle of the night to check my bed. It really is mentally damaging when something like this happens to you.
Oh and the manager told us we would see bites in about 2 days...we didn't see any bites and we were hopeful that we didn't have many or didn't react. Wrong again...on the way home (9 days later) we developed large welts all over. My husband's were mostly on his back and stomach. Mine were on my stomach, back, face, neck, hands and legs. They are so itchy it is unbearable. The welts turned into a bunch of tiny bites in clusters. I stopped counting at 100...and that's just on me. It has now been two weeks and I'm still itching and I have scabs everywhere. I will only wear long sleeves out, and for the 1st week I rarely went out because my face looked like I had pox. I cried yesterday because the stress of continually checking and hoping you didn't bring them home is terrible.
Anyway, I KNOW this can happen anywhere, and I still think BC is a nice place to stay. However, it is unforgiveable that we slept in a dirty bed that obviously had never had the sheets changed. Furthermore, the misinformation that they gave us isn't right either. They've dealt with this many times, I'm sure, and they should give the right information.
Learn from my mistake...check and double check everything. You CAN see bed bugs...even the little ones. Don't take anything in the room until you do. If you have to do something to remind yourself...make a check-list...which we should have since we so easily get distracted with the kids. Lastly, no need to worry about it and let it ruin your trip, but know your information about these bugs before you ever leave. Had I done a simple check, I would have saved myself a whole lot of stress and trouble.
I post this here because if you stay and BC and encounter this issue, please make sure they treat EVERYTHING so that you don't take it home. Because of this...I'm not sure we'll be taking any vacations for a LONG while...I'm way too paranoid.
