Flu bug going around at Disney?

[Emagine]

Well, we do Homeschool and we do tend to go to a few places but not many as both of my kids are Autistic. Having said that, we also just returned from an 8 day visit to the world. No one caught anything and nothing has come home with us. We just took our vitamins, washed our hands, did not do buffets, drank a lot of water and slept normal. We go 2-3 times a year and only our second trip 6 years ago did my youngest take a 24 hour bug. No one else did.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

you are joking, right?

you're going to stop 'living' (so to speak) because you are afraid you will run across a germ? I just returned from my first trip to Hawaii with some delightful lil creature incubating in my tract but I will certainly go back. (ok, if it happens a second time, then i'd have to re-think)

germs are everywhere and it's our phobia of them that has in part created this mess. We wash and sanitize and purify until our bodies can't fight back against the unknown any more.

I'm not going to deny myself going someplace because i might get an upset stomach around the trip.

Now you are equating "living" with going to WDW? I know that this is a fan board, and I don't mean to be disparaging to the whole place, because I know it brings a lot of people a lot of joy. We live quite a joyful life thank you very much, with or without WDW.

FOR US, it was not worth it. Yes, we had fun, but this flu is the worst we have ever had so we are not going back.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

We left on 10/31, and I spent the night of 11/2 (and almost all of 11/3) sick. Then my daughter, and my son got it. It could be Disney, it could not be. We always look at Disney as a great way to improve our immune system.

Either way, to never go back because of it? Good golly, just lock yourself up in a room and plastic wrap the windows shut. Make sure you never visit a large metro area either. That sort of thinking will make you sicker in the long term.

I've been to Disney 9 times in my life and this was a first. And there's no way it'll keep me from going back!

Again, I know this is a fan board, and I am trying to be sensitive to that, yet be honest about my experience. I respect that people get great joy from WDW and I think that is great. We did have fun, but it wasn't so great that I would risk this again.

As far as your second to last paragraph, that is just insulting. You are saying because I don't want to go back to WDW, I am doing the equivalent of locking myself in a room with plastic wrap? Think about what you are saying there and how insensitive that is.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

We have gone down yearly for the last 6 years. Three times (50%) someone in our family has come down with the stomach bug. I do believe disney has more germs that most other places and I have to say, that I think they should have more sanitizer stations near the rides/around the park. I don't know why they refuse to put up sanitizing stations, probably because it doesn't "look" pretty.

They do need more hand sanitizing stations. I didn't see any. We were using our own hand sanitizer as often as we could and I'm not even sure how much can be prevented with it (so many things are airborne), but it might help a bit if it was available for everyone to use as well.

Or it might just be the nature of the beast, with having so many people crammed into a constricted area, from all around the world, touching bars, rails, etc.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

I went to WDW 1st week in Oct & I was sick for 3-3.5 weeks with Disney Flu. I feel SOOOOOO much better now but now it is cold outside GL all!!!!!

Oh that's awful! Three weeks! Glad you feel better now.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

We have had a stomach virus during 4 different trips to WDW over the years. It happens.

I agree it is germ infested. So many people from different states & international.

I agree most people will not cancel due to illness.

We had a neighbor take their kids that had head lice. This still freaks me out to this day. I can barely fly thinking about this & I no longer let my kids try on hats at WDW in stores.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

That's a good point. It's not the kind of vacation that is easy to cancel or postpone, so I think people do try to plow through it, even though someone in their party is under the weather. This probably contributes to the spread of infectious disease.

 

[fla4fun]

Now you are equating "living" with going to WDW? I know that this is a fan board, and I don't mean to be disparaging to the whole place, because I know it brings a lot of people a lot of joy. We live quite a joyful life thank you very much, with or without WDW.

FOR US, it was not worth it. Yes, we had fun, but this flu is the worst we have ever had so we are not going back.

I don't think they are equating "living" with going to WDW. I think they are equating "living" to going anywhere outside your normal living sphere. Because any time you step outside your normal routine, this could happen. I'm sorry you got the bug, but honestly, you could get the same bug at home. You could get the same bug going to your local grocery, or the kids could bring it home from school.

I understand that your feelings toward WDW are negative right now. We just don't want you to think you can avoid being this sick again simply by avoiding WDW. It's not that simple.

I've been going to WDW for years (since 1971) and I've been there during some of the largest norovirus outbreaks they have ever had, and I haven't been sick yet (knocking on wood) either during or just after a Disney trip. I have certainly had the norovirus numerous times through the years, one time so bad that I simply could not move a muscle without vomiting. But I caught it not from a vacation, but from going to work and the grocery and going about my daily routine.

I hope your family feels better soon.

 

[mesaboy2]

Now you are equating "living" with going to WDW? I know that this is a fan board, and I don't mean to be disparaging to the whole place, because I know it brings a lot of people a lot of joy. We live quite a joyful life thank you very much, with or without WDW.

FOR US, it was not worth it. Yes, we had fun, but this flu is the worst we have ever had so we are not going back.

I would point out that you seem to be equating "this flu" specifically with WDW, when there is no causal relationship other than you went somewhere with thousands of other people. WDW hardly owns that distinction, yet it earns that relationship for you.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

I would point out that you seem to be equating "this flu" specifically with WDW, when there is no causal relationship other than you went somewhere with thousands of other people. WDW hardly owns that distinction, yet it earns that relationship for you.

Yes. We were there for a week. We went there healthy. We stayed on-site and never left and all came home with influenza. I don't think there is a stronger causal relationship than that.

I don't know why sharing my experience is causing such anger and nasty comments on here. I have been nothing but respectful, I know I am writing on a fan board, I never said that no one should go there again, or that you are negligent for going there or anything. Just that FOR US, this was not worth it and we won't be going back.

I'm not happy that this ended this way, I sure wish it had been different.

If anything, maybe people reading this thread going there soon can take some extra precautions to try to increase their odds of not getting sick.

 

[mesaboy2]

Yes. We were there for a week. We went there healthy. We stayed on-site and never left and all came home with influenza. I don't think there is a stronger causal relationship than that.

I don't know why sharing my experience is causing such anger and nasty comments on here. I have been nothing but respectful, I know I am writing on a fan board, I never said that no one should go there again, or that you are negligent for going there or anything. Just that FOR US, this was not worth it and we won't be going back.

I'm not happy that this ended this way, I sure wish it had been different.

If anything, maybe people reading this thread going there soon can take some extra precautions to try to increase their odds of not getting sick.

I am sorry you had a poor first experience. My DD8 has been some 25 times, and gotten sick once. I've been over 30, and not once. I think what everyone (including me) is trying to say that you were unlucky and that it is unfortunate your first impression is what it now is. Maybe over time you will reconsider. If not, that's obviously your call--but Disney fans would consider that a shame.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

I don't think they are equating "living" with going to WDW. I think they are equating "living" to going anywhere outside your normal living sphere. Because any time you step outside your normal routine, this could happen. I'm sorry you got the bug, but honestly, you could get the same bug at home. You could get the same bug going to your local grocery, or the kids could bring it home from school.

I understand that your feelings toward WDW are negative right now. We just don't want you to think you can avoid being this sick again simply by avoiding WDW. It's not that simple.

I've been going to WDW for years (since 1971) and I've been there during some of the largest norovirus outbreaks they have ever had, and I haven't been sick yet (knocking on wood) either during or just after a Disney trip. I have certainly had the norovirus numerous times through the years, one time so bad that I simply could not move a muscle without vomiting. But I caught it not from a vacation, but from going to work and the grocery and going about my daily routine.

I hope your family feels better soon.

Thank you for your reasonable comment and wishes that my family gets better soon, I appreciate it.

If you look back at that comment though, that's exactly what the commenter was saying, that just because I am done with WDW because of this flu, I am now not "living" and someone else said why don't I just seal myself in a room with plastic wrap. Not so nice.

Of course I don't think I can avoid all sickness just by not going to WDW. But the fact is we haven't all gotten this sick ever, we went there healthy, and we did contract influenza there. It seems that people on here are also trying to equate the fact that because you can get sick other places, therefore you are not more likely to contract something at WDW. That I disagree with considering the crowds, the contact surfaces, the visitors from around the world.

 

[LuckyGirl777]

I will be exiting this thread now. For those who wrote mean comments, feel free to continue saying how I am going to seal myself in a room with plastic wrap and stop living because I am not going to WDW anymore.

At this point, my only prayer is that none of my family develops complications from influenza, or worse. That would be magical.

If anything, I hope my experience can be a cautionary tale for anyone traveling there soon and they can take any precautions they can.

 

[LisaTC]

I will be exiting this thread now. For those who wrote mean comments, feel free to continue saying how I am going to seal myself in a room with plastic wrap and stop living because I am not going to WDW anymore.

At this point, my only prayer is that none of my family develops complications from influenza, or worse. That would be magical.

If anything, I hope my experience can be a cautionary tale for anyone traveling there soon and they can take any precautions they can.

I didn't see, but did you have a cheek swab to check for Influenza or have a definitive diagnosis? Did they give you any antivirals, etc? That seems a little disturbing. We always get flu shots because even if exposed, it lessens the severity and getting the flu is horrendous. Everyone has had a negative experience that they equate to the "I'm never doing that/going there/eating that" again! Its normal. Your angst will wane eventually. I got Norovirus on one of my many trips to Chicago (my favorite city.) Lying on the hotel bathroom floor for 2 days, thought I'd die. Swore I'd never eat shrimp again or go to Chicago during winter, blah, blah, blah. Everybody says that at one time or another and you eventually get over it. When a whole family gets sick, it's monumental at the time and has negative memories. Sorry this happened.

The likelihood you could get sick at Disney, especially, if riding the buses, is probably higher than your regular life. Concentration of bugs. I always take new toothbrushes on vacation and Clorox wipes and wipe down our cell phones and backpack handles and phones and door knobs and drink lots of water. The solution to pollution is dilution Hopefully, you can look back and not feel so badly. It will happen one day.

 

[electricsoup]

As far as your second to last paragraph, that is just insulting. You are saying because I don't want to go back to WDW, I am doing the equivalent of locking myself in a room with plastic wrap? Think about what you are saying there and how insensitive that is.

If you find it insulting, I suppose that's your prerogative but no insult was intended. I consider it a fair assessment of your statement, if a bit hyperbolic. Your statement was sort of a hysterical "I'm not going back there because I got sick" that sounds somewhat ill thought out at best. If you're going to put out there that you're going to avoid a place that we're all still talking about, and then take it personal when someone points out that they may find it ridiculous, perhaps it's you that needs to think about what you're saying.

 

[Sparkly]

I once got a nasty stomach bug whilst at my grandma and grandpas. It started after we visited a Chinese resteraunt (not food poisioning, started literally after we came back). I was unwell for pretty much the whole week and I was afraid to visit their home and go to that resteraunt because I associated it with getting a stomach bug. And this was April!

I had a little bit of a stomach bug on our last trip too, but I'm still really looking forward to going again!

 

[rascooby]

I think it's likely that we'll get sick while at Disney World. We'll be traveling on an airplane with people who might be ill. We'll be staying up later than normal. We'll be running around more than we usually do. We'll be eating less healthy than we do at home. We'll all be sleeping in one room. We leave Sunday and everyone around us is sick with either colds or a bad stomach flu. All 3 of my girls are coughing, but feel fine. Hopefully their coughs will be gone by the time we leave. I've been doing my best to make sure we all get good sleep and we're taking vitamins. There's not a lot we can do.

We've talked a lot about how we'll have a great time and make the best of it, whatever bad stuff comes our way.

 

[LilyWDW]

Yes. We were there for a week. We went there healthy. We stayed on-site and never left and all came home with influenza. I don't think there is a stronger causal relationship than that.

I don't know why sharing my experience is causing such anger and nasty comments on here. I have been nothing but respectful, I know I am writing on a fan board, I never said that no one should go there again, or that you are negligent for going there or anything. Just that FOR US, this was not worth it and we won't be going back.

I'm not happy that this ended this way, I sure wish it had been different.

If anything, maybe people reading this thread going there soon can take some extra precautions to try to increase their odds of not getting sick.

Actually, it would most likely be a correlation not a causation. Just saying...

 

[kjetjl]

We were in Disney from 9/23-10/5. The last night we were there, I talked with a man whose son had thrown up earlier in the day. I thought to myself thank goodness we didn't have to deal with illness on our trip. I have 8 kids. Some of us got a bit of a runny nose on the trip but nothing major.
On the drive home (we took 2 days), our 2 year old had a fever but she did fine with the drive.

Our first day home, things got crazy! All but 3 of us got very, very sick with a variety of symptoms, high fever, low grade fever, vomiting, indescribable all over body pain, cough, congestion,... We have now been home a month now and just in the last 6 days or so have we all felt back to normal. What was really weird was we would seem to get better and then a few days later, we would be sicker than before.

It was interesting to me to read of people getting sick at Disney around the time we were there.

Finally now just getting to tell our friends what a GREAT trip we had because we were all so preoccupied with being sick to even think about the trip until NOW!! But it was a great trip!!

 

[Magpie]

I will be exiting this thread now. For those who wrote mean comments, feel free to continue saying how I am going to seal myself in a room with plastic wrap and stop living because I am not going to WDW anymore.

At this point, my only prayer is that none of my family develops complications from influenza, or worse. That would be magical.

If anything, I hope my experience can be a cautionary tale for anyone traveling there soon and they can take any precautions they can.

Don't know if you'll read this, but...

The sickest my family ever got was when my son started public school for the first time in Grade 5, after homeschooling for four years.

My son ended up in the emergency room twice he was so sick.

What would you think of me, if I'd announced to the world that none of my children would ever be attending school, ever again, because it made us sick? Would you consider me a reasonable, rational person?

Or would you perhaps think I might be overreacting just a tad?

There are many good reasons not to return to Disney. It's expensive. It's crowded. It's not to everyone's taste. But using "I got sick" as your sole reason not to return raises questions as to what you'll do the next time you get sick. What if you catch the flu at work? Will you quit your job?

 

[cey]

Last year, we came back with cold symptoms (my worst day was on the flight back) so this year, I am packing several purse size antibacterial hand gels, a large pump size one for the room and also antibacterial liquid soap in a pump dispenser for the sink area. Take that you flu and bacteria germs!