Celebration Health Trip Report

[DisneyMama27]

Ok, so this one wasn't exactly on our itinerary, but I have never seen a thread about injuries at WDW! I thought I'd share my experience, FWIW.

DDs 5 and 8 are playing in the living room at OKW (2BR) and one (the 8yo)smacks her head into the coffee table (no sharp corners, just a good push) Pretty deep cut right below her eyebrow -not terrible, but we think we need "the glue." SO not knowing what to do, I picked up the phone and called 911, hoping to at least get good advice.

They offer to send out a "medic" to check her out and see what needs to be done - said first aid was available. I think, good,maybe they'll have GLUE. Nope - 2 nice paramedics came and decided we should let a dr. decide, so we got a FREE ride to Celebration Health ER.

Now, I would have preferred to NOT go there, but for an ER visit, it wasn't too bad. DD got bored quick and was wishing we had grabbed her DS (me too). We waited about an hour before they took us back, then had a few more waits. (Played the Disney ABC game, Rock Paper Scissors, etc.) Eventually, we got the GLUE - took about 5 minutes to actually treat her, but if we had not gone, she would have a nasty scar. Well worth the $100 deductible. DD was worried about stitches, so I told her to tell people "Stitch did it!" if they asked what happened!

All in all, it wasn't bad. I realized we were waiting because other people had more emergent needs, so it made me TG that her injury was so minor. Everyone was very nice!

Oh - and the paramedic from Reedy Creek Fire Dept. told me that they are NOT owned by Disney, but that Disney pays for ambulance transport of all their guests. Made me wonder though, since he was wearing a name badge REMARKABLY similar to CM badges!

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Glad everything worked out.

Not that I would have used it in that case but thats one of the things I always carry with me in my backpack is the Liquid Bandaid and then Superglue for the real bad ones.

Many contractors still wear the Disneyest name tags to signify that they are part of the Disney World even with out working for Disney. I think this puts some guest at ease when dealing with them.

 

[jensen]

Oh - and the paramedic from Reedy Creek Fire Dept. told me that they are NOT owned by Disney, but that Disney pays for ambulance transport of all their guests. Made me wonder though, since he was wearing a name badge REMARKABLY similar to CM badges!

I've been reading a few things about Reedy Creek Improvement District... it seems that all of the land is the district is owned by Disney and everyone who lives in the district is a Disney employee, so it's Disney. I even read that they de-annexed Celebration when they built the town just so that the people of Celebration couldn't have a say in what happens within the boundaries of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

But, on your main topic... that's really interesting that Disney pays for Ambulance calls. I hope I never need it, but it's nice to know they save you a little money.

 

[ohiominnie]

The fire department and emergency services department are not owned by Disney. They are part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. It's a township/governing board set up before WDW was ever built. They basically govern themselves and supply all of their own services (emergency services, road maintnance, sewer, water, etc) to the area. There are two residential areas within RCID (Celebration being one and one called something like "Bay Lake Villages" ---don't quote me exactly on that, but it's Bay Lake something) Because of those residential areas and b/c of the taxes charged on the businesses (WDW and places like AMC, Lego store, etc) that is how they fund the township.

My dh writes Mouse Matters and got a very nice email from the administrative secretary at one of the firehouses (the dalmation station). She invited our family for a tour and gave us lots of interesting information about the emergency services on property. Lots of stuff that was done just for Disney property (special fire hydrants designed just for them, for example)

We talked to a couple of the paramedics too. (and saw them getting back from a Subway run!)

She said that about 80% of the runs they make are what they call "band-aid" runs. Those are the ones where, if you were at home, you'd never think of calling a squad....like in the OP's case, but since you are there, out of your element and often times without tranportation or any idea of where to go, you call 911. And they are perfectly fine with that!!

This is something else I didn't know. In each park is a core group of paramedics and EMTs somewhere in the park. So if there is an emergency, they can be anywhere in that park within a few minutes and triage and start to treat before the official squad can get there. That was comforting.
Very very interesting tour.

btw, if you're interested, a fully comprehensive site about RCID can be found at www.rcid.org