Scared to go back to WDW?? :(

[maccalovah]

I'm sorry you had a bad trip. I agree with others- you deserve a do-over.

I'm really sad to hear about the theft- I guess I am also guilty of forgetting that although it is WDW, it is also the real world, and there is always a chance something can get stolen. So, thanks for that reminder. I was in Epcot last weekend and remember feeling a little nervous about leaving a shopping bag in the stroller while we rode Spaceship Earth. I distinctly remember telling myself, "well, it's Disney, no one is here to steal anything"...Nothing ended up happening, but I will remember your story from now on and be more careful!

 

[java]

Oh and I always think of a diser- who I have not seen in a long time. Her husband died at Disney, while on vacation with their 2 children. She returned and made beautiful memories for her children. They remembered their Dad and did something special in memory.

If she can go back, anyone can.

 

[purpledisneyprncess]

We didn't have such a great experience down there last year, which was our 2nd time going to Disney. It rained a lot of the time, the kids wanted to hang out more at the hotel than go to the parks (Where we spent $$$$ on the tickets!). It was exhausting trying to get them to get ready to go to the parks each morning. I think what happened in our case was we over extended ourselves and wore out the kids at the 1st day of being in the parks- then that set the tone for the rest of the trip. Anyhow on the ride home (which is an 18 hr drive btw) we said we were going to give Disney a break for a few years. Well..... that didn't happen! LOL We soon forget about our "less than stellar" experience there and are planning our annual trip again for this Easter/beg. of April!!! And we are very excited!

Hoping your next trip to Disney will be very memorable (in a good way)

PS- To those afraid of international germs/diseases being brought into the Country- I get what you're saying and it is a crowded place, but I can't live in a bubble and you can catch all kinds of things from touching the shopping cart at your local grocery store. Just keep washing hands!! The flu season is really bad this year--

 

[goofy4tink]

I've traveled to WDW in early Dec for about 10 years now. I have been ill on my departure day, but was very careful about sneezing and touching things. I was at the very tail end of a cold, so felt much better the next day after my arrival. My dd, 10, did get very ill on one trip....spiked a temp of about 103 two days into our 5 night stay!!! Spent about 36 hrs in our room!!! Not the best trip, but she recovered and we continued on.

If you are careful about not touching railings, and washing your hands more often than you think possible, then you should be fine. Those railings are just plain nasty...I try to stay clear of them on every trip...time of year doesn't matter.
As far as things being stolen??? People tend to forget 'real life' when they are within WDW!!! Would you leave a stroller, full of things, outside a store at the mall?? I doubt it. But, for some reason, we do it at WDW. And there are dishonest people there!!! They go there for a reason...lots of people to prey on. So, long story short? Don't leave anything in a stroller you don't want to lose. Obviously, in the OP's case, the thieves wanted the stuff, not the stroller. And that happens a lot. Take backpacks...no, it's not as convenient as a stroller but it's sure a lot safer!! I remember one poster who left her SLR camera in the stroller...was so surprised when the stroller went missing...when found, the camera was gone!!!! Well, of course it was!!! It was valuable.

 

[MisWal]

I'm so sorry you had a rotten trip! Two major things can sure make it feel like a total failure of a trip. But this time, keep your important stuff with you and make sure your family washes their hands frequently and keeps their hands out of their mouth. You will have a wonderful trip that will hopefully replace the memories of the bad one.

I am itching for a re-do of our May 2012 trip. I took my niece with us and was looking forward to a wonderful first trip for her. DS7 started not feeling well the night we got there and was sick with a tummy ache the rest of the trip. He would be somewhat fine (although exhausted) during the day, but up all night, which also kept the rest of us up all night.

 

[katt789]

As people have said: it was one trip. When you have a bad trip, that just gives you MORE reason to go back and try it again, right? The flus and colds are definitely going to be worse at that time of year, by April they'll be way better, but still take the time to make sure you're washing hands before you eat, not stuffing hands in mouths & stuff, and don't change anyone's diet too drastically. (if you go from eating relatively healthy to eating chicken nuggets and ice cream 3 times a day for a week, your body won't like it)

Thief wise, that sucks, and I'm really sorry about that. I definitely do feel like everyone's more at ease at Disney, but bad stuff can still happen. Definitely keep everything on you, maybe invest in some little mini back packs that the kids can carry around with some of the stuff, and you have one for the rest? Also in April you probably won't have to bring as much stuff around with you as in the winter months.

Try it again, see how it goes!

 

[WDSearcher]

Someone please help me get over this....our last trip was 11/27-12-3. I'm sad to say for the first time EVER it was a nightmare. But a nightmare I'm having a hard time getting over! We had our double jogging stroller stollen, and everything in it, went with the thief. After waiting nearly 45 minutes for security to come, and giving a report, my husband found the stroller outside of the new Jack Sparrow experience upside down and completely wiped out of all of our belongings. My kids Christmas hats, sweatshirts, extra clothes and basically everything we had was gone. We went on with our trip and tried to forget it. It was my DD's 5th birthday and it was just a crappy way to spend our day at DHS! To top it off, on our trip home, my DS, 7, fell ill that morning with a stomach virus he had picked up somewhere on our trip. Poor kid was sick from Orlando to NJ. HORRIBLE! I think that has me more traumatized than anything else! He was just so sick! I really don't like traveling during this particular time of year because of the increase in colds, flu, and tummy bugs and now I will probably never do it again. The Christmas parade taping was on my bucket list so that's why we went, along with it being DD's birthday! We have a 5 day 4 night trip planned in April and I'm already panicked about germs, and thieves! Help!!!!!!! I love Disney so much and don't want to feel like this! I'm usually super excited counting the days an now I'm just nervous!!!!

Well ... to be fair ... your stroller didn't get stolen -- you got that back. It was all your STUFF that got stolen, and that's very preventable. As others have said, you should never leave anything in your stroller that you would be upset about losing. If you wouldn't leave it in your unattended stroller at the local mall, you shouldn't leave it in an unattended stroller at WDW. You learned a tough lesson, but clearly Disney isn't crawling with theives or there would be a lot more stories about them here.

As for getting sick ... if your kids had come home sick from school or church or the park, would you be scared to go back to school, church or the park? Probably not.

Just chalk it up to "life" and move on. Prevent what you can; plan for what you can't.

 

[moozle]

I understand how you feel, on a smaller level. Up until this past December, the past two trips we had awful experiences at Animal Kingdom. Not bc of WDW, but because of our kids!! I don't know if it's because we always sandwich AK in the middle of the week for some downtime, but both prior trips my children were monsters on AK day. To the point of almost leaving and going back to our hotel.

We were the awful parents in the front of the park putting our kids in time out on a bench .. in the happiest place on earth. I had another parent mad at me at Yak and Yeti bc my oldest (7 at the time) was crying (just being dramatic bc she was in trouble. We weren't yelling at her. In fact, I was ignoring her completely). This other parent approached my daughter, asked if everything was alright, gave me evil looks, asked her if she needed to "tell her anything". It was awful.

ANYWAY, I was terrified to even go to AK this year. My husband wanted to skip it. But we all talked about it and decided we need to reverse this curse of bad luck we had associated with AK. So we went, and it was a FABULOUS day and now all of my negative memories associated with that park have been erased.

 

[GillianP1301]

What a horrible experience for you, I'm sorry!

I think you should go back again, if for no other reason than to create some new, happy memories to help minimize all the bad ones. Not much you can do about someone getting sick, that's just bad luck. As for the theft, try to mitigate that disappointment again by not having anything that valuable to be taken. You need a stroller, can't do much about that, but you can carry less with you and not leave anything in the stroller of value by either carrying it with you on attractions or leaving it in lockers.

Don't let one thieving creep ruin future plans for your family.

 

[DisneyFive]

Sorry to hear your trip wasnt as magical as is could have been.

Unfortunately bad people do bad things, and that is no different at WDW. Regarding the stroller, while it is horrible that your stroller got swiped, at least you found it again. &and really, if the contents were that valuable, then they really shouldnt have been left in an unattended stroller. (and I dont mean that to sound preachy). It truly was a bad coincidence that it was your DDs birthday.

You were there around 6 nights? While it always is a major pain to have your child get sick, why not look at the bright side? At least it didnt start at the beginning of the trip or while you were in the parks having a great time! It started on the day you were leaving. The flu has been rampant this year all over the U.S., and WDW is not different.

Sounds as though you've had other trips that were great. Just focus on those. Hopefully you got all the bad stuff over with with this last one.

Dan

 

[Violet Parr]

When our stroller was stolen, there was absolutely NOTHING in it or on it. No way to identify it as ours. It was an easy steal. I wasn't with dh that day, so our normal bag of baby wipes and things we could afford to lose wasn't on it.

In the future, we will always travel with some sort of identifying marker on our stroller that is unimistakable. Not just a luggage tag with our name. Something really loud and obnoxious. Those signs you see on strollers that say, "JOEY'S STROLLER" really do deter thieves, because if they ARE caught with the stroller, they can't say, "Whoops, sorry, I thought this one was ours!"

Also, I can't stress enough. Pay for a locker! It's worth it. We often go when it is very cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon, and then cold again in the evening. It's so nice to toss things into a locker and not lug them or worry about them!




VP

 

[disnut8]

My father-in-law visited us in Biloxi, MS years ago (before casinos). He and his sister-in-law decided to parasail. My father-in-law was taken up and then taken down. And severely fractured his leg in the process. Protruding bone and all. He spent the rest of his visit in the hospital, special arraignments had to be made to transport him home to Maryland.

He visited us again. One trip does not a lifetime make.

 

[MrRomance]

First of all, I'm sorry your trip was so awful. It must have been a terrible time and I totally understand your reservations about going back. It is very easy to mentally attach your unfortunate situation and bad luck to WDW, in fact, it's human nature, but the problem wasn't WDW, it was a thief and a virus that could have struck anywhere.

This year will be my 12th trip to WDW. I have been in Feb, April, July, August, October and November. I have NEVER had anything stolen and I have NEVER got sick. Neither has anyone I have been there with. You've been unlucky, REALLY unlucky, but that doesn't mean it's a WDW thing.

Try to remember that thieves exist everywhere, viruses exist everywhere. How many times in your life have you had something stolen or had a stomach flu when you were not at WDW? Keep things in perspective and enjoy your next trip!

 

[micandsofsmom]

Thanks! It's so true!

 

[Timandalicia]

Here is how you get past it. Disney World is such a wonderful place that this has only happened once out of the dozens of times you left your stroller full of stuff unattended. It is remarkable how safe we all feel there. Sometimes we take that for granted. No where else on Earth, including any non-Disney theme parks would we even think of leaving our strollers filled with stuff unattended. How amazing of a place is that!

 

[maxiesmom]

Try to remember that thieves exist everywhere, viruses exist everywhere. How many times in your life have you had something stolen or had a stomach flu when you were not at WDW? Keep things in perspective and enjoy your next trip!

This

WDW is not a place where bad things always happen. If you go to the mall you will touch things that sick people have touched. You just need to be more aware of where you put your hands. Don't touch railings if you can avoid it, don't touch your face, and use hand sanitizer.

As far as the stroller goes, I would be upset too, but crooks are everywhere. Unfortunately it seems you had to learn that the hard way.

 

[fla4fun]

Sorry you had items stolen, OP. Even if they were items you could afford to lose, that doesn't mean you wanted to lose them. I agree with the pp in that I have seen people leave things on strollers like purses and cameras, and I wonder "What are they thinking?". Just like the pizza flyer scammers that troll the resorts, I'm sure there are theme park thieves looking to make a quick buck by taking your stuff. I don't even carry a bag with me these days - everything goes in pockets. But I do the same thing if I go to the grocery store or mall - it's not just a WDW thing.

As far as illness goes, I haven't gotten ill at Disney since I started carrying the individually wrapped Wet Ones towellettes and using one before I eat ANYTHING at the parks or resorts. Even if you stop in the rest room to wash before going to the restaurant, you will touch things other people have touched (when was the last time that paper menu was cleaned, hmmmm?). I don't touch any silverware or anything until I'm ready to eat and once I have my food ready, I wash and I eat. I also never touch my face when out in public, because it's easy to catch an illness that way. I also try to allow a few feet between myself and the person in front of me in line whenever possible, so I have some room to move if the person behind me starts sneezing and coughing. Other than that, I don't worry about what I touch, or who might have touched it before me.

I don't feel I'm any more likely to get sick at WDW than anywhere else. In fact, I feel I'm less likely to get sick at WDW than I am at work, because at work we all work very closely in one room with a secured door that stays closed - so if someone comes in to work sick, it's really hard not to catch it (and a lot of them come in hoping they will be sent home so they don't have to bring a doctor note for the time off). A couple weeks before my January trip, there was just me and one other person in the office - everyone else was out sick! I use way more hand sanitizer and Lysol at work than I would ever use at WDW.

 

[bigsteve83]

CM's may very well hate me, but oh well. I found this nifty little device at Babies R Us called a stroller lock. It looks like a plastic monkey, although I'm sure they have other animals, and it attaches to your stroller. It has a retractable cable that locks back into itself with a combination lock. I just park it enough out of the way so the CMs don't have to move it and lock it to something. The cable is even small enough to lock the zipper on a backpack.

 

[mmafan]

use a bike lock on your stroller wheels and use hand sanitizer after EVERY RIDE...

 

[Cais]

use a bike lock on your stroller wheels and use hand sanitizer after EVERY RIDE...

Please don't bike lock your stroller and then park it outside of the designated stroller parking area. And definitely don't bike lock it to part of the scenery or you may find yourself with a cut lock. Although the person who locked their stroller to a (moveable) stanchion kind of made my day.