Food Poisoning and Bad customer service ruined our trip

jswanson

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
2
Normally my experiences with the Disney Company have been warm and friendly. I have fond memories of visiting my grandma in Southern California as a child, and she taking me to Disneyland for the day. Now with my own family, we wanted to share the experience and lifetime memories. We booked a family trip for 6 days last November to the Disney World Resort in Florida.

The first part of the trip was nice. We enjoyed Downtown Disney and the Magic Kingdom. But visiting Epcot on the third day was a mistake. It was an absolute tragedy!

First we walked around the park, visited the Kodak center and rode the Test Track ride. But then we decided to have dinner at the Norwegian Restaurant Akershus. Big mistake. We all had dinner from the Smorgasbord but within the hour three of us were violently ill. Not everyone in the group got sick, but we narrowed the bad food down to, everyone that ate the pickled herring or the rutabaga soup got ill. We started the trek back through the park out to the parking lot so we could get back to the hotel ASAP.

It took us almost an hour to get through the park with the crowds and the frequent bathroom stops. What disheartened me was how uncaring and uneducated the staff was. Several times we’d walk a little ways, and then someone would need the restroom. Panicked we’d ask the first Disney employee we could find where the nearest restroom was. Of the four employees we stopped, two of them were able to direct us to the nearest restroom.

To make matters worse, the last restroom we were able to stop at was near the gift shop at the front of the lake (the side nearest spaceship earth.) Every restroom we went to after, save for the one next to the gate at the front of the park was closed. It was near closing time, I understand, but people were still watching the fireworks show, and we had members of our family that were ill from the food with Diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting. I actually had to vomit a little in the bush near a rest room (by the ice cave/ gift shop,) because one of your employees stood in the door way and refused me to enter as it was being cleaned. We even had a disabled adult with us, and the employees were still unhelpful. They kept directing us to guest services up near the gate.

By the time we reached the gate, members of my family had vomited in a bush or messed their pants. It was absolutely humiliating.

We spent the last two days of our vacation laid up in the hotel recuperating. It was an expensive trip to have to waste half of it sick in a hotel room. One that we made many sacrifices financially to make. I am surprised that this is how Disney has evolved. Yes its, been many years since I visited a Disney Park, and I was only a child. But I never dreamed treatment of park guests would be so gruff and rude.

My sister-in-law has suggested taking all the kids down there for a family reunion in the next year. I am strongly opposed to this just for the sake of the guest treatment. The employees were not knowledgeable of where we could even find the restrooms in their own park! They offered no assistance and only aided in us feeling more miserable and humiliated as we walked through the park literally soiled. We are considering Universal Studios Instead.

Lastly, it is horribly difficult to find any customer services information, let alone an email address or a phone number. Even the front desk at the hotel could not give me clear information on who to send this complaint to. I am not confident this letter is even sent to the correct address, but it is my hope that it will be routed to the proper people, and maybe some other family won’t have to go through what we have. Perhaps, Disney World doesn’t want to receive complaints, but it is a poor way to run a business by not listening to the concerns of your customers.

I am disgusted in Disney World Epcot’s lack of knowledgeable staff, and lack of caring. Even if the bathrooms were being cleaned, we obviously were in an emergency situation. Even after vomiting in a bush outside the restroom, the staff was uncaring. I am so sad that this is the memory of Disney that we’ve created in our family. It is definitely not the one I grew up with, nor expected. My co-workers have come back from vacations with marvelous stories and memories. I only wish I could have had the same experience with my own family.



Anyone know guest services number for EPCOT? or an email, anything. Now that I've discovered they make it hard to give feedback, I seem intent on finding someone to complain to appropriately. The hotel staff just defer to their general manager. But I had not problem with the hotel, it was great! Spent LOTS of time there! :)

I just want to complain to someone about epcot service. I think its important, some one should know about it.
:yo-yo:
 
I know someone can help you with the proper email or snail mail address to discuss you experience with. I just wanted to say that I am so sorry you had such a bad experience and I would hope that this one bad thing keep you from visiting again.
 
Walt Disney World Guest Communications
P.O. Box 10,040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

Let them know, they do want feedback. Sorry you had the difficulties you did.
 
I'm sorry that your trip ended so badly. I agree with an above poster, I hope you don't let this situation prevent you from visiting again.
 

Wasn't there a post almost identical to this on the cruise board the other day?

Maybe you guys could get together to add credibility to your complaints.
 
Wow, that is such a shame. I think you definitely should make the powers-that-be aware of the unprofessional attitudes you encountered, as well as the possible food poisoning you dealt with. They need to have feedback to make improvements. Especially when things go wrong.

I hope you also had lots of good memories before things went awry.
 
I appreciate the pain and suffering you and your family went through but make sure the illness was caused by disney before you let it ruin your memories of Disney.

First, I find it odd that two foods could be contaminated. You said the infected people ate either the herring OR the soup.

Second, depending on the offending organism, food poisoning does not always begin in a few hours. Could it have been something you ate the day before or eariler that morning.

Third, Could it have been a virus that you caught and was completely unrelated to Disney.

Within the last year I thought I had a case of food poisoning caused by some bad pizza Within about 6 hours of eating this Pizza my son (4 yo) and I had extreme digestive tract events (involving the inlet and outlet ports) that continued for about a day. I was certain the cause was food poisoning from the Pizza as our symtoms started within about 30 minutes of one another. However in about another 6 hours my other son (1.5yo) developed the same symptoms and he had no pizza. Then in about another 12 hours my wife experienced the same - again she had no pizza.

My post is no to belittle your experience but to give you some food (no pun intended) for thought about what the cause of your illness may have been.
 
I think someone on the cruise board cited the pickled herring as the source of what she thought was food poisioning also.
 
I'm sorry for the uncaring attitude of the employees toward you too...

I don't think though that food poisoning happens within the hour. It's not typical of food poisoning, sometimes it can be something eaten well before hand or just a nasty virus brewing that happened to coincide with your vacation and affected you all. Poisoned foods have incubation periods.

2 months ago, I became violently ill a few hours after eating chinese food, I thought for sure it was to blame. I spent 8 hours on my bathroom floor, vomiting every 10 minutes, then extreme diarrhea in between. My family all ate the same dish and they were fine. I had to chalk it up to a virus or something I had previously ingested the day/night before, just now affecting me.

I know exactly how you felt and I'm sure it was made worse by not being in your own home and the anxiety of not knowing when you'd find your next restroom.

Sorry your vacation was ruined and hope you'll make another attempt at your Disney vacation again.
 
Actually some food poisoning can happen very quickly after you swallow the infected food.

I agree...CMs should know where the bathrooms are. I'm really not sure however what you wanted them to do other than that. If you slipped on a wet bathroom floor, that CM would have lost his/her job and Disney would be liable.

I'm sorry you were ill. I'm also sorry you didn't decide to join the DIS until you wanted to post this. (Noticing this is your second post and your first is on the restaurant board). This is a wonderful board for lots of useful information.

I've eaten at Askurhaus and loved it. No problems. Just something that happens every once and a while. I'm sorry you ended up sick on your vacation.
 
Originally posted by Dan Murphy
jswanson posted his/her other DIS post, identical, on the restaurant board.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=499845

The thread on the cruise board was virtually the same story. Same restaurant, same food I think, however they had a land/sea and were denied boarding at the terminal because of it. I think only the DW was affected though... not the entire family.
 
I remember the one you're talking about Pugdog - the poster wasn't allowed to board, and then he/she was upset because Disney didn't do enough to make it up to them.
 
How long ago did this happen??

Two months ago?

Two posts?
 
Originally posted by CRB#33
How long ago did this happen??

Two months ago?

Two posts?

Search function is down... but recall reading it just a week or 2 ago on the cruise board.
 
I don't think the OP asked for a clarification of how they got sick, she was just relaying her experience. I don't find it hard to believe at all. When I went solo with DH in October, I had several days to myself in the parks. The misinformation given to me by CM after CM was appalling. I knew much more than the average CM. From are there fireworks tonight? to where is the closest restroom, to what time do the parks close? I also overhead other guests getting wrong info. I guess is it just a case of getting quality employees at low pay.
 
OK, I am a true CSI-geek, but I love the science I learn from the show. One thing is this: some seafood and mayonnaise bacteria will cause vomiting within an hour of its consumption.

But that's not really the issue of the OP, who may well have posted this twice, and as the only posts, because of the difficulty of tracking down information on addresses and the apparent lack of concern by empoyees who were witnessing violent illness in guests and ignoring them.

I hope you will give WDW another try -- there is still magic there!
 
Wow. If you cannot track down someone at Disney to address your complaints, I bet an Orlando lawyer would know just who to contact and be happy to do so. The hospital paperwork should confirm a diagnosis of food poisoning. And two days in the hospital is not a frivolous lawsuit in my opinion.
 
because there is nothing worse than going on vacation and getting ill. I spent many vacations sick in a hotel room and it isnt fun.

We are considering Universal Studios Instead.

So you dont think Universal Studios has food poisoning there as well??? It's a matter of "russian roulette" so to speak when you go out to dinner to eat and have no control on what is cooked. You could go back to Disney and never get food poisoning or whatever you had again or you could go to Universal and get it. There is no 100 percent guarantee that any theme/amusement park wont have food that will spoil and give you the illness or that anywhere in public places you wont have illness spreading around. I would hope that you didnt ride the Disney transportation back to your hotel if you and your party members truly soiled yourselves that badly. If so fecal matter can cause another outbreak and that could have happened earlier by some other person who didnt tell anyone and they spread it around. One just never knows where you get illness....it is a crap shoot (no pun intended)

Sorry your trip was ruined...that stinks but somehow I truly wonder how much blame Disney has in all of this.

Hope you are feeling better now.
Heidi
 











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