Food poisoning while at Disney?

[HopperFan]

I will start that I have complete sympathy on how this impacted your trip. Our trips are so personal and special for many reasons. My son had a medical emergency in a Disney show and the CMs failed on every level to help us. The situation was so bad that I spent the next three days in our room (luckily I had a unit at Bonnet Creek) and then cancelled the rest of the trip to head home. The situation was escalated all the way to the President of DHS, and I was offered nothing but I did tell them my main concern was complete retraining of everyone who worked the show.

Is it worth contacting Disney to see if they can do anything? My daughter lost a full day as well as the mine train ride I paid for. The rest of us got small shifts at the park I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for but if we get sick on Disney’s food, we shouldn’t have to pay for a day in the park we couldn’t use as well. But I have a feeling we’re out of luck. It just really sucks.

I think I purposely said I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.

I was curious if anyone else had something similar happen and if they contacted Disney.

In any case buffets are ruined for us. Not worth the risk to get sick off a $50/pp meal. Uh no. And I it’s hardly the fault of the guest for not bringing sanitizing wipes…but ok.

What you can do is ask for a "credit" for her unused ticket ~ how much is unknown as her ticket wasn't priced the same as a full day. I would also request a refund of the LL ticket you paid for. These are the items she missed out on due to being sick. They can check the system to see that she did not use either of these. And you could request a refund of her dinner. It would be good business for them to refund that.

I can’t express to you how sick my daughter was. I thought we might have to call emergency services. It was our first time staying at the new Grand Floridian resort studios and she vomited all over the carpet. She never got to experience Magic Kingdom with her grandmother who will likely no go ever again. This in no way was any fault of hers.

Cousin got vomit sick at a Disney hotel ~ he was young and there was concern about dehydration. Disney called and paid for a taxi to take them to the ER and refunded the taxi upon return. When there is an illness that might need medical care it is always good to contact the front desk for any assistance they can give, even if it is cleaning or in room supplies. This also creates a documentation of an illness in your room should you need it and they know to deep clean after checkout.

I don't think folks are questioning how sick she was, just that the odds are she got sick from another guest either at the buffet, or touching a ride vehicle or queue line. While not your daughter's fault, it is not something in Disney's control either. It's the pitfalls of vacation and travel.

I feel like if it was a stomach bug one of us would have got it. Especially me since I was cleaning up after her. At the buffet, we all got different things.

I always have loved the buffets at WDW but they are not safe.

I don't think folks are trying to imply it was not food poisoning what they are saying is that the odds are extremely low because it would have likely impacted more people.

My FIL was an inspector for the FDA his entire career and per him we should NEVER eat at buffets or salad bars. The food poisoning is the lowest risk because it usually comes from the coolers the food is sitting in not being properly set and for periods of time so that the bacteria grows in the food. This means that multiple dishes at the buffet would have been impacted. This might come also if food is sitting out at room temp too. I would bet dollars that neither of these are issues at Disney where things are checked constantly and rechecked each shift with high turnover.

What he said is the greatest concern at buffets and salad bars are the germs you pick up from the people who went before you. They touch the serving pieces with all their germs and sadly at times they sneeze cough etc into the food on the buffet line. Since you say you ate different things, odds are she touched a serving piece after someone who was sick that no one else touched.

With all due respect, comments like “not sure what you want Disney to do”. “You should have told them sooner”. And “you can’t prove it” is not really super helpful either.

That said, it is a message board and people are always going to assume a member is trying to get some advantage I guess. I was just looking for support or ideas. I appreciate the those who offered that.

I don't think anyone is trying to belittle what happened to your trip. I think they made some valid comments or thoughts, even if it didn't appear to come with comfort.

Yes, you should contact them for refunds on her unused items and a refund of her meal. They likely will refund her meal in goodwill.

The you should have told them sooner ~ I get that ~ everywhere on this board we emphasize how important it is to address problems as soon as possible and while you are still there. You likely could have gotten concierge to refund you on everything while you were still with success. Also reporting the illness in the room gives you documentation in your file of the event.

I don't think saying you can't prove it is anything other than saying the truth (I know sounds harsh). Odds are it was not food poisoning, odds are she got sick touching something after someone who was sick. It presented as traditional food poisoning but unless you reported immediately and go through health dept hoops ... on the books it just a virus.

 

[princesslover]

Thank you for the thoughtful, non-judgmental responses. There are quite a few here and I don’t have time to quote them all but thank you. To clear some things up:

My daughter was projectile vomiting in the middle of the night. I was focused on cleaning up the brand new carpet in the GF resort studio we were in and making sure she was ok. The next day, I had to figure out whether to pay for genie +, whether to still do LL for mine train, what to do about breakfast reservations, whether she might or might not feel well enough to go that evening, there were 1,000 problems I had to figure out. Also, my Mom is disabled and in a wheelchair so I was responsible for caring for her and transferring her around as well. I think it’s easy to say afterwards what should have happened but unfortunately I was the only one in charge and dealing with an extremely bad situation.

Of course I told the front desk about the vomiting and directed them to the bed and the spot where she vomited. I also disposed of the soiled towels before we (my Mom and I) left for the park for breakfast by flagging down housekeeping staff. And when we left, I left a huge tip for them for the extra cleaning. I am a responsible person.

Calling several days later DOES NOT impact what remediation Disney can do. This is false. What it means is that I have to email and it may take several days to respond. This I was told directly by Disney who gave me the email to guest services. I am currently awaiting a response.

I don’t think I’ll find the humor in this ever. My Mom is older and not in great health. I don’t anticipate a repeat trip.

Thanks for the empathy.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Of course I told the front desk about the vomiting and directed them to the bed and the spot where she vomited.

This would have been the time and place to have aired your disappointment in your trip and to work towards what you want in the end. If they themselves couldn't have fixed something like tickets or whatever they would have directed you to Guest Services in the parks.

My daughter was projectile vomiting in the middle of the night. I was focused on cleaning up the brand new carpet in the GF resort studio we were in and making sure she was ok. The next day, I had to figure out whether to pay for genie +, whether to still do LL for mine train, what to do about breakfast reservations, whether she might or might not feel well enough to go that evening, there were 1,000 problems I had to figure out.

Yes but you still went to the parks in shifts the next day. While people can empathize and sympathize with you you would want to understand that some parts of your comments are you opting to do things and then when it didn't work out you want financial compensation for your choices.

If your child is vomiting you shouldn't (by health advise) go out and about with her so genie+ shouldn't have been purchased for her regardless or a LL. On the one hand you've made mention several times throughout the thread just how bad she was but on the other hand you're talking about wondering if she'd be well enough to go out in the evening. If she was bad (and I absolutely believe she was) none of this would be a consideration for her and for the safety of others since at that time you wondered if she had food poisoning you could have gotten others sick. I didn't want to mention that before but with your above comments that adjusted it. Her illness as you said was around midnight nowhere near enough time for someone to be projectile vomiting and then go back to a theme park. I realize that our minds want to make things work out so we'll try our darndest to do so but sometimes the responsible thing is to admit defeat (in this case that the theme park plans were shot 100% for the next day) and it just sucks but it happens.

Ultimately I think you're speaking from an emotional level that she missed out on park time with her grandmother, that the trip is now marred and gosh that just sucks understand we feel you That, to me, is now why you wish Disney to make it right for you because you want back that lost time but truth is this sort of stuff happens to guests all the time and many do just move on with life. Disney may do a lot of bending over backwards for you, they may do nothing, they may do something in between but it is also not an experience that can be translated to how it would be for another guest as all situations tend to be different in the details.

 

[princesslover]

I stopped by the front desk on our way out the next morning as we were getting picked up by Sunshine Flyers at 6:00 am. Didn’t have much time to go into detail other than alert them about the room. If you’ve never had to get a wheel chair and two teenagers down to the lobby— from a different building than the main building—with one teenager weak and still sick, worrying about making your ride, well, I do not know how to explain it. But there you have it,

I thought she got sick from the food and might be better by evening or maybe a fast moving bug feeling better by the evening. Maybe I was desperate. Maybe I was trying to be hopeful. Maybe I was sad. But wow, thanks for the Monday morning quarterbacking.

Could a Mod please close comments? Thanks, I’m no longer interested in defending my actions to strangers who were not there and can sit comfortably on their couch and debate my thought process.

 

[georgina]

These things get debated endlessly. Just don't come back to the thread!

It is really hard to know why or how someone gets sick when traveling, and pinpointing a specific place or food.

 

[princesslover]

These things get debated endlessly. Just don't come back to the thread!

It is really hard to know why or how someone gets sick when traveling, and pinpointing a specific place or food.

That’s fine. I get it. But seriously nitpicking and analyzing every single decision I made is ridiculous. Ultimately Disney is going to be the ones deciding what can be done so why go through great lengths to fo that. I honestly don’t get people.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That’s fine. I get it. But seriously nitpicking and analyzing every single decision I made is ridiculous. Ultimately Disney is going to be the ones deciding what can be done so why go through great lengths to fo that. I honestly don’t get people.

I apologize if you were hurt but you can't make comments to people when they pushback on you about just how sick your daughter was then talk about making plans with her for the next day. You even said it made you ponder if you would get emergency services. I'm sorry but either it's a very dire situation or it's not. You're giving posters conflicting portrayals about the situation and then getting mad (not me) when they don't take you seriously on how sick your daughter was, then you call out posters (me) who mention the conflicting details. It can't be all ways here

If all you wanted was to know where to direct your complaint to def. that is a question easily asked and without need to go into further details Hopefully your daughter is on the mend/well now.

 

[princesslover]

I apologize if you were hurt but you can't make comments to people when they pushback on you about just how sick your daughter was then talk about making plans with her for the next day. You even said it made you ponder if you would get emergency services. I'm sorry but either it's a very dire situation or it's not. You're giving posters conflicting portrayals about the situation and then getting mad (not me) when they don't take you seriously on how sick your daughter was, then you call out posters (me) who mention the conflicting details. It can't be all ways here

If all you wanted was to know where to direct your complaint to def. that is a question easily asked and without need to go into further details Hopefully your daughter is on the mend/well now.

Final comment:

That is quite literally what I asked in my initial post. “Has anyone had this happen and contacted Disney.?? That was my question. Period. Go back and look.

Then people started making assumptions about things (why didn’t you contact emergency services, why didn’t you contact guest services? Why didn’t you tell housekeeping (which I did). My responses were to those questions.

My daughter can be very very ill, and I can also hope she gets better quickly before we leave. Even though in the back of my mind, I know it’s extremely unlikely. it’s a once in a lifetime trip so you hope for a miracle. Lots of thoughts going the my mind at that time. You are not me. You didn’t feel the feelings I did. Or the stress. People can say they have empathy but your comments say something different. You don’t have empathy. You want to be right.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Final comment:

That is quite literally what I asked in my initial post. “Has anyone had this happen and contacted Disney.?? That was my question Period. Go back and look.

Then people started making assumptions about things (why didn’t you contact emergency services, why didn’t you contact guest services? Why didn’t you tell housekeeping (which I did). My responses were to those questions.

My daughter can be very very ill, and I can also hope she gets better quickly before we leave. Even though in the back of my mind, I know it’s extremely unlikel. it’s a once in a lifetime trip so you hope for a miracle. You are not me. People can say they have empathy but your comments say something different.

That's why I added "without need to go into further details" Regardless again sorry you've gotten upset but I'll still stand by my comment of not having it all ways. As far as empathy it means I've been there in this case been sick on trips, been sick enough to go to the hospital, lost park time at some point, had trip disruptions (thanks Irma and my 2 years of planning!) and so much more. It means I know how much it sucks when trips don't work out the way you want them too. It does not mean I (or anyone else) have to agree with you. Best wishes on your new year and I sincerely hope there's a future trip for a re-do of at least some sorts

 

[gorkt]

I am fairly sure I got food poisoning, or ate undercooked meat at Teppanyaki grill many years ago. The reason I feel that way was that out of our party of four, three of us all got ill a few hours after eating. Again, it was fairly sudden onset, and we were okay the next day, just tired. No vomiting, just lower intestinal distress. We slept in and went to the parks in the evening.

I didn’t really think about getting compensation from Disney though because I couldn’t prove it was the meal. These things happen on vacation unfortunately. I also got noro on a cruise back in 2018 and also never got upset at the cruise. It is what it is, and you take these type of risks on vacation. I do have vacation insurance in case of more serious illnesses or trip disruptions.

 

[brockash]

I can’t express to you how sick my daughter was. I thought we might have to call emergency services. It was our first time staying at the new Grand Floridian resort studios and she vomited all over the carpet. She never got to experience Magic Kingdom with her grandmother who will likely no go ever again. This in no way was any fault of hers.
I feel like if it was a stomach bug one of us would have got it. Especially me since I was cleaning up after her. At the buffet, we all got different things.

I always have loved the buffets at WDW but they are not safe.

Go ahead and call...it sounds like at the very least you just need to be heard and feel that they listened.

Would I call? Definitely not, to me, it's not worth my time. Yes, it sucks, but things like this happen in life. - My daughter got sick one day at Dland a few yrs ago and she and I missed a whole day as well. Things. like this happen all the time. Honestly, they will probably try to find some kind of way to compensate something in my opinion, just because that's kinda their business motto, so if it'll make you feel better, go for it. Do I think it'll change anything at their buffets? 100% no, but from reading your posts it sounds like you will feel better if you call, so just call.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm a firm believer in the saying "It can't hurt to ask.". I would probably not call, but instead would send an email. Disney wants to have happy customers. I would say the chances that they will give your daughter a 1-day comp ticket for the day she had to miss out on the parks are probably pretty high.

 

[VFL]

It's not just in buffets. I got horribly sick from a dinner I had at The Brown Derby. How do I know that was the place? The only other thing I had to eat that day was first thing in the morning, and not something usually connected with food born illnesses like salads, buffets, meat.

I'd had the pork chop at TBD, and it had some pink to it. I was hesitant, as I come from the old school notion that one should cook pork until it's nearly jerky. I was trying to be more modern in my foodie thinking. That didn't work out too well, as I woke up in the middle of the night (we were leaving to drive home the next day), as sick as I've ever been from food poisoning (I've been blessed that way 4 other times in my life; I'm special that way I guess), including norovirus.

This is all to say that you can get sick from food anywhere food is served. And it's not always from the obvious source. Certain illness can also be spread from person to person, so I'm told. Any way you look at it, getting sick while vacationing is the pits, and my sympathies go out to any who have had that experience.

Actually, pork is perfectly safe to eat somewhat pink now - in fact, I have eaten it this way many times. So it likely wasn’t the chop. It is never fun to get sick on vacation though so I definitely for you and the others who have commented in this thread.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I stopped by the front desk on our way out the next morning as we were getting picked up by Sunshine Flyers at 6:00 am. Didn’t have much time to go into detail other than alert them about the room. If you’ve never had to get a wheel chair and two teenagers down to the lobby— from a different building than the main building—with one teenager weak and still sick, worrying about making your ride, well, I do not know how to explain it. But there you have it,

I thought she got sick from the food and might be better by evening or maybe a fast moving bug feeling better by the evening. Maybe I was desperate. Maybe I was trying to be hopeful. Maybe I was sad. But wow, thanks for the Monday morning quarterbacking.

Could a Mod please close comments? Thanks, I’m no longer interested in defending my actions to strangers who were not there and can sit comfortably on their couch and debate my thought process.

If someone is projectile vomiting (and I don’t doubt your daughter was) from an unknown cause, that person should not go anywhere for a minimum of 24 hours. I think most schools have this rule (I know all the schools and daycares I’ve run across do), and the same should be applied to vacation. No one in the parks wants vomiting, fevers, or other gross stuff. And we all know those little cherub faces can look all better for a few hours and then turn with a vengeance!!

 

[SouthJersey]

I stopped by the front desk on our way out the next morning as we were getting picked up by Sunshine Flyers at 6:00 am. Didn’t have much time to go into detail other than alert them about the room. If you’ve never had to get a wheel chair and two teenagers down to the lobby— from a different building than the main building—with one teenager weak and still sick, worrying about making your ride, well, I do not know how to explain it. But there you have it,

I thought she got sick from the food and might be better by evening or maybe a fast moving bug feeling better by the evening. Maybe I was desperate. Maybe I was trying to be hopeful. Maybe I was sad. But wow, thanks for the Monday morning quarterbacking.

Could a Mod please close comments? Thanks, I’m no longer interested in defending my actions to strangers who were not there and can sit comfortably on their couch and debate my thought process.

Monday morning quarterbacking?

The TL;DR version of your original comment is that your child got sick and you blamed Disney's buffet without a shred of evidence or reason to suspect them besides eating there, and you want compensation from Disney. Is that not accurate?

You probably would have found more people to be in agreement with you if you had wanted a reimbursed park ticket for a missed day, cost of your daughter's meal, and the LL ticket as it didn't get to be used, etc. Instead, your post pretty much implied you wanted a bit of 'Disney Pixie Dust' of freebies and services as if it was owed to you because Disney failed on behalf of your child.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Everything else aside, you should definitely report this to Disney. Food viruses are often attributed to the last place you ate (a natural assumption), but that is not always the case as some viruses can take up to two weeks for symptoms to appear. (I work in the food industry and all of this info is part of the food safety courses we need to take regularly).

But the point is that the only way for Disney to really know that they may have a problem is if guests report the sickness and where they ate. If no reports come in, Disney would not know and cannot rectify the situation (if it is something in the food prep, if another guest passed it, if the product itself was spoiled and so on). Reporting is important so that the source of the problem can be identified and fixed. They may compensate as well -- particularly if others have reported -- but either way, it is very important for guests to report instances like this otherwise they cannot work to investigate if the source was there.

 

[mgarbowski]

I'm just hopping in to say thanks to everyone who mentioned norovirus, as it perfectly fits what I've experienced since Tuesday afternoon, and I was not previously familiar with the "winter vomiting bug." I was wondering what it was, and the symptoms and time frame all fit perfectly. I'm about 98% recovered as of this morning, but Tuesday night was not fun, and I spent almost all of Wednesday in bed. All unrelated to Disney by the way, and fortunately nobody in my family got sick either..

 

[SouthJersey]

I'm just hopping in to say thanks to everyone who mentioned norovirus, as it perfectly fits what I've experienced since Tuesday afternoon, and I was not previously familiar with the "winter vomiting bug." I was wondering what it was, and the symptoms and time frame all fit perfectly. I'm about 98% recovered as of this morning, but Tuesday night was not fun, and I spent almost all of Wednesday in bed. All unrelated to Disney by the way, and fortunately nobody in my family got sick either..

Not possible, you must've been at Biergarten the same night as OP. Did you get your free villa at the Grand Floridian and $500 in gift cards for the staff's ill-will?

 

[RamblingMad]

We experienced food poisoning at Jiko. But I was too worried about getting my significant other to the hospital, which was hard to find on Google maps in Orlando, to complain to anyone. We weren't staying on property. We spent a day at the hospital.

We ended up extending our vacation another two days, and I booked us a Universal hotel for the first time last minute on my phone.

You make the best of a bad situation. I didn't complain, but I also haven't been back since it happened.

I also avoid buffets during flu season.

 

[raidermatt]

Its highly unlikely it was food poisoning. Not impossible, but unlikely. Much more likely to be a Norovirus.

As others have said, the timing makes it MUCH more likely she picked it up somewhere earlier, but this also cannot be determined for sure.

You can always ask Disney. Sometimes they do things just because somebody asked. But there is no way of knowing if they did anything wrong at all. In fact they likely did not, so you would be asking just to try to get something, not because they SHOULD do anything.