Bed bugs!!

[100acreHiker]

This, right after my family being ill on a Disney trip, is my biggest travel fear. I am sorry to hear the OP's trip is colored by this experience. I am big on checking the bed and furniture before we settle in, but you often can't see evidence if it's a mild infestation. And while I do know that no resort is immune to bed bugs, I do wonder if there are resorts on property that have significantly less or more bed bug problems. Anyone know if there are and which ones have the best or worst records? Our two stays at GF were amazing, and while I did check the room thoroughly, I know that I wasn't as worked up about the possibility than when we spent a night at an airport Holiday Inn this summer (and I fully admit it may be totally misguided on my part). We're staying CR this winter and I've read a report or two, but nothing to imply it's a big problem. OP--I hope the rest of your trip makes up for the stress!

 

[rainboots]

We were at POR in Feb 2014, and I found a dead one on a freshly laundered washcloth that was folded. I stripped the beds, and there was no evidence at all, so I let it go at that. I left it in plain sight for housekeeping though. Eeeek!

 

[tcherjen]

This scares me so much.

 

[gdrj]

It happens more then you know. Disney pays guests to keep quiet about it from what I've heard. All star music had an outbreak a few years ago, mattresses burned, etc.

I'm sorry the conspiracy theory paranoia is silly

Thats what I like facts "from what I've heard'... I guess the OP will be hunted down by Mickey and Minnie in a dark alley for breaking the code of silence.

So true. Disney uses a special code when referring to bedbugs at the front desk. They will never say "bedbugs".

Again it would be silly for them to announce "hey we have bed bugs in room 2054...yucky!" Most businesses use a special code for things. From observing a shoplifter, a disruptive customer, to a need to clean up bodily fluids.

 

[Disneylover99]

Again it would be silly for them to announce "hey we have bed bugs in room 2054...yucky!" Most businesses use a special code for things. From observing a shoplifter, a disruptive customer, to a need to clean up bodily fluids.

Well sure. But it's also silly when you directly ask them about bedbugs and the front desk gets flustered because they don't know what to say and call it by a code name. Yet you walk by the room that was assigned to you, and the lights
are on, the mattresses are stripped and leaning against the wall and heat lamps are on.

 

[Puffy2]

You can look up hotels at this link to see bed bug activity. http://bedbugregistry.com/

 

[Rosebud123]

OP here and it's not a negative post or scam. I'm 65 years old and never tried to get Dis to pay for anything in all my 33 trips! I woke up at POFQ at around 5:30 am with a lot of itching. I had about 10 bites. My DD and I pulled back the covers and we caught the tiny little bugger in a cup and put him in a little plastic baggy that he happily crawled around in. Then we took him to the front desk. The manager was so nice and could see all the bites on me. He was wonderful . Gave us money to go to Wal-Mart to get my DGD, DD and myself some new clothes. They had to escort us back up to our room to get stuff we needed for the day, but anything that was fabric had to be collected by them and taken to be disinfected, luggage included. We did get a new room that management checked out.I was so upset that we had to take time out and get a taxi to go shopping at Wal-Mart on our MK day. He did reimburse us for our one night. So I usually do check the beds when we check in, but with our plane getting rerouted because of storms, we got in late and I never checked the bed . Never make that mistake again! And thank you to the posters that had a little compassion to think that I would not make something like this up and try to scam Disney. I'm an honest person and would never think of doing that. I was just wondering if anyone had a problem and how it was handled. Michael, the manager was great. Oh, he said it happens about once a month.

OMG! If I were you, I would throw out your luggage and buy new cheap suitcases. I would dry all of your clothes in the dryer on hot for 60 minutes. I would not trust ANYONE else to do that for me. The inconvenience and money spent will be well worth it. And when I got home I'd go straight to a laundromat and dry everything again for an hour!!!!

 

[Aurora0427]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn't it be a good idea for it to be routine for Housekeeping to do a bed bug check after a guest checks out and they're getting the room ready for new guests? They're supposed to strip the beds anyway. Check for bed bugs. Is it not that simple? What am I missing?

 

[wilkeliza]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn't it be a good idea for it to be routine for Housekeeping to do a bed bug check after a guest checks out and they're getting the room ready for new guests? They're supposed to strip the beds anyway. Check for bed bugs. Is it not that simple? What am I missing?

They do check but if the infestation is low there may be no visible signs of bedbugs when the bugs are in hiding. Bedbugs do not tend to like the light so they will hurry back into the bed or into small spaces as soon as the light is turned on.

 

[Disneylover99]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn't it be a good idea for it to be routine for Housekeeping to do a bed bug check after a guest checks out and they're getting the room ready for new guests? They're supposed to strip the beds anyway. Check for bed bugs. Is it not that simple? What am I missing?

I'm guessing housekeeping does notice it and reports it more then a guest would and then the room gets treated. In my case, I was told that housekeeping found possible evidence and so the room was going out of commission for a few days while they treated it.

It does make me wonder how often housekeeping finds evidence.

 

[Aurora0427]

They do check but if the infestation is low there may be no visible signs of bedbugs when the bugs are in hiding. Bedbugs do not tend to like the light so they will hurry back into the bed or into small spaces as soon as the light is turned on.

That's what I was thinking... Figured I was missing something.

 

[Aurora0427]

It does make me wonder how often housekeeping finds evidence.

I almost think I don't want to know the answer to that question. I go over the room pretty well, but it makes me paranoid.

 

[disnut1149]

OP here again. We're home and I put all my clothes in the dryer for an hour directly out of the suitcase. Then I washed everything again in water. Also, threw out my suitcase. It was old anyway. Wiped down everything that isn't fabric. My DGD is already asking me to plan another trip. It was so much fun, brutally hot, but fun!

 

[Lisann]

OP...thank you so much for explaining the full story to us. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of this while on vacation. I have learned a little about bed bugs now so I will be on the lookout in the future before I unpack in my room.

 

[red712371]

My husband and I were unfortunate enough to have this experience this past November. It was not at Disney. I have a huge bug phobia and woke up to see a bug crawling at my face - seriously freaked me out for quite some time. Totally changes the way we travel now. Then again, I think that we were slightly flippant about it in the past and were lucky to not bring them home in the past. We luckily didn't bring any home. Sadly, I inspected the room and bed before we got settled in. I did notice an odd scent in the room - and now I know what that strange smell was. I wish the OP a good time on the rest of their trip.

 

[carmelhp]

Since bedbugs can come from anywhere (like your luggage near an infested bag in a plane's cargo hold), does anyone treat their bags with a repellant?

 

[heidijanesmith]

We thought that DD and I had bed bugs during our first trip to WDW at AKL 2005. DD had severely itchy bites on her back and legs and I had some on my back (we shared a bed together). AKL management handled it very well, did a thorough check of our room and could not find any. We moved to a different room anyway. When we got back home and went to our doctor, turns out we had poison ivy. DD must have picked it up before we left or down there. Then some of the plant oils from her got on our sheets and then got on me.

I was impressed with AKL's management even though we didn't have bed bugs.

 

[Three cats]

Since bedbugs can come from anywhere (like your luggage near an infested bag in a plane's cargo hold), does anyone treat their bags with a repellant?

I ended up buying us light colored hard shell suitcases a couple of years ago and got rid of our fabric ones. I figure it'll be a heck of a lot easier to see something crawling on light colored plastic vs black fabric with a ton of zippers and compartments.

 

[Aerinha]

Since bedbugs can come from anywhere (like your luggage near an infested bag in a plane's cargo hold), does anyone treat their bags with a repellant?

From what I understand there isn't bedbug repellent, only heat kills them. I could be wrong. I started packing my clothing in giant ziploc bags. The kind you press closed not the kind with the zipper pull as that doesn't seal air tight. All unworn clothing remains in the bag which is only unsealed when removing an item. All used items just go in the suitcase. That way if there are bed bugs they can't get in everything, just exposed items. The high heat can melt some garments and shrink others and I would prefer not to have my clothing ruined so bags it is.

 

[Anderkym]

It's definately a bigger problem than I had realized. We just left Disney World on Wednesday afternoon (Aug 26). The night before, the last night of a 9 night stay I found a bedbug crawling on the ceiling above the vanity. We really had not felt like we had any bites but a few did show up the next day. We stayed at Pop century (and have for the last 5 August trips without issue) and they handled the situation very well. The night duty manager and pest control came to our room to positively id the bug. We were given $100 each to buy new clothes and carry on's since we were leaving the next day, we were comp'ed a nights stay and were moved rooms immediately. We were given taxi vouchers to go to Walmart at 2 am to purchase clothes and were given a 3:30 pm checkout as our ME bus came at 4pm. They sent all of our items (clothing, fabric suitcases, basically anything fabric) out to be cleaned/steamed and will have to ship them back to us (all the way to Canada) as they were not back in time before we checked out. Was it a huge hassle? Yes, but they really did handle the situation well. I'm just glad I noticed the bug when I did or we very well could've brought them home with us. I'm sure when the package arrives it'll go straight into the wash again, just to be on the safe side.