Food Poisoning at WDW

[MrRomance]

I've been 9 times, never had food poisoning or even an uspet stomach. I wonder how much is "food poisoning" and how much is stomach bugs. Whenever you have a large amount of people in one place, stomach bugs and viruses spread. My tips would be carry a pocket sized bottle of hand sanitizer (my wife always does this) because bugs often spread from menus! Seriously, don't worry about it, I don't know anyone who has had food poisoning and my wife has the weakest stomach on the planet!

 

[Disneymad]

If it makes you feel better I've been visiting WDW regularly for 13 years and being from the UK, that's usually always 2 weeks or so as well. I've never had food poisoning there and I eat like a pig

BLTLDZ makes a great point though. The differences in tap water from people's regions can often make people poorly simply because they're not used to it and they have sensitive stomachs - I'd put a lot of people's upset tummy's down to this.

 

[Cin]

I got really sick within about 15 minutes after dining at a resort for lunch. The only remedy I required after the vomiting (which wasn't my idea, my stomach decided that for me) was to go back to the hotel and take a nice cool bath and drink water and eat bananas and rest in a nice dark quiet room for a few hours. I was good to go again by 7pm but I was still really shaky. I can't guarantee though it was food poisoning as it was super hot that day and there is the possibility it was heat related as well or instead of a food borne illness. I wouldn't let it deter me from dining at WDW again. I can't say with 100% certainty that it was food poisoning, but it was within minutes of consumption so.... you make the call.

 

[Kimberlyann11]

If it was within minutes of consumption, chances are it wasn't food poisoning. Food poisoning has an incubation period.

 

[Bonniec]

We are locals and go almost weekly so I will give you my 2 cents.

1. If it were true food poisoning, a lot of people would get sick at once and it would make the news. It could certainly happen, but it could happen anywhere.

2. Local water could make you sick if you have a sensitive stomach (my son is like this). I don't know if the water fountains are filtered because I never drink them (I'm going to ask this next time so we can all know once and for all). But the water from the soda fountains is filitered...and it's free. Just get ice water from those to be safe.

3. While Disney is very clean, the guests are not. I rarely use hand sanitizer but I do at the parks. At a place where you have to wait in life for everything, including the toilet and sinks, people are a lot more prone to skip washing their hands. And because you are on the move so much, it's just easy to forget to. Definately use some before putting your hands in your mouth. You touch a lot of surfaces that other people have touched.

4. Dyhdration will make you sick. Even when we go weekly, we still manage to get dehydrated. Time flies by so fast there and it's incredibly hot! No matter how much water I drink, I always end of feeling nauseated. I think some people are more sensitive to that, my hubby thinks I'm wierd that I always get sick yet I'm from Florida. I can barely eat when I am at the parks because I get so dehydrated. Make sure you drink a LOT and try to seek out air conditioning whenever you can. Keep an eye on your kiddos too if you have them. They tend not to tell you these things until it's too late.

 

[krb2g]

Last time we were in Disney I got sick (GI); I am 99% sure it was not food poisoning but a 24-hour bug (probably from another guest). It was not a situation I'd pick for my trip, but we were still able to get everything we wanted to done and we still had a great time. You could get food poisoning anywhere; I think Disney actually has a remarkably *good* track record for the size of the operation they run.

 

[BLTLDZ]

I'm back to say: On our december honeymoon, DH & both caught some sort of stomach "bug"...Coincidentally, mine happened the day after we dined at Bistro De Paris and tried Escargot , which, by the way, I did not like and DH's happened the day after mine...I still think it was not the food, but a bug..I have been sick from food, and sick from stomach bugs...I definitely think people often confuse food poisioning with a 24 hour bug.

 

[walkdmc]

DH and I are physicians and I see food poisoning about 3-4x/year. My point is, we know symptoms of food poisoning and we were even confused last year while at the World. During our last trip to WDW, we ate lunch at Le Cellier and shortly after, DH developed crampy abdominal pain, followed by mass expulsion of liquids. He thought it was a staph toxin in a dish at Le Cellier....until 2 days later when everyone in our party developed the same symptoms.

We use clorox wipes and hand sanitizer like crazy while at WDW but the Norovirus is resistant to most hand sanitizers, is very contagious and can mimic food poisoning. I'd venture to say a lot of people who think they've had food poisoning have probably caught a nasty GI virus, Noro or other.

 

[Belle5]

I am going to add one other thought to all of this. Unlike catching a virus while at home, people will jump right back into their vacation at the very moment they start feeling better...but are likely still contagious. I am not saying I blame anyone one little bit for that way of thinking. After all, people are thinking, "I paid a fortune to be here." Or, "I get one vacation a year and you can bet I am getting back out there to enjoy it."

I am not sure what the psychology is behind people thinking it's "something they ate" rather than a virus. Maybe it's because they happen to feel bad after eating something. Maybe it's because they don't want to believe THEY are contagious...If it's "food poisoning"--then they don't have to feel guilt about spreading it around themselves.

As the mom of a pretty large family, I found an exact science for keeping the stomach virus from spreading through the eight of us. What was it? Complete isolation for the one with the virus...and here is the real key= the sick person had to stay in isolation for 24 hours AFTER they felt better. Worked like a charm! Anytime we broke the rule and let someone out of isolation because they were feeling better...it passed through the family. That is a LOT of sickness!!

 

[HunnyJar]

I am going to add one other thought to all of this. Unlike catching a virus while at home, people will jump right back into their vacation at the very moment they start feeling better...but are likely still contagious. I am not saying I blame anyone one little bit for that way of thinking. After all, people are thinking, "I paid a fortune to be here." Or, "I get one vacation a year and you can bet I am getting back out there to enjoy it."

I am not sure what the psychology is behind people thinking it's "something they ate" rather than a virus. Maybe it's because they happen to feel bad after eating something. Maybe it's because they don't want to believe THEY are contagious...If it's "food poisoning"--then they don't have to feel guilt about spreading it around themselves.

As the mom of a pretty large family, I found an exact science for keeping the stomach virus from spreading through the eight of us. What was it? Complete isolation for the one with the virus...and here is the real key= the sick person had to stay in isolation for 24 hours AFTER they felt better. Worked like a charm! Anytime we broke the rule and let someone out of isolation because they were feeling better...it passed through the family. That is a LOT of sickness!!

This is what we just encountered.. Two days into our trip we are sitting outside of Crystal Palace waiting to be called when a family that is very obviously sick sits right down next to us. The children's noses are running, they are coughing and touching everything. We promptly got up and moved and as we were moving the mom said to one of the kids, "Sick or not we are going to enjoy this breakfast." Ugh.

 

[jess20k]

On my trip in March of 2009 I am quiet certain I did get food poisoning. However, since you just never know..I won't mention where. It was a quick service restaurant though. I have never been so sick in my life. It lasted about 16 hours and I could not move from the bathroom, then I was laid up in bed for one day. It really was a horrible experience! But, that can happen anywhere. It is just a scary thing. It would never deter me from eating at Disney though. Food poising is just one of those things that you never know when it could happen.

 

[LisaTC]

On my trip in March of 2009 I am quiet certain I did get food poisoning. However, since you just never know..I won't mention where. It was a quick service restaurant though. I have never been so sick in my life. It lasted about 16 hours and I could not move from the bathroom, then I was laid up in bed for one day. It really was a horrible experience! But, that can happen anywhere. It is just a scary thing. It would never deter me from eating at Disney though. Food poising is just one of those things that you never know when it could happen.

That sounds like Noro/Norwalk Virus. Lying on the floor, wanting to die...sound familiar?

 

[ems_mom]

At the Yachtsman Steakhouse a few years ago my DH and I were seated next to a family with one very clearly sick child. The boy was crying and obviously wanted to leave, but the family continued with their dinner. See where this is going?

After the poor kid lost his cookies the family finally cleared out, but the whole situation was gross. The restaurant was so crowded they didn't even really clean it up, just covered it...

Needless to say we both felt ill after that. We couldn't finish eating our entrées and took our desserts to go, but I think they eventually ended in the trash.

Please don't take your sick child to a restaurant!

No we didn't have food poisoning but we did lose vacation time because some stranger was sick!

 

[leebee]

There are two categories of food poisoning (intoxication and infection), and the bacteria causing food poisoning have an incubation time. If you ingest a bacterium that falls into the "intoxication" form of food poisoning, it means that the bacteria has infected the food and you are eating its toxin. It will take about 4 hours for this to make you sick (unless there is a whopping load of toxin in the food, enough to make it taste bad- bad enough that you wouldn't eat enough of the food to make you sick). If you consume a bacterium that is of the "infection" form, it takes a minimum of 6-8 hours for enough bacteria to grow in your system to make you sick. So... if you get sick right after you leave the restaurant, or within an hour or two, it's highly, highly unlikely that you have food poisoning.

You also need to remember that there are some foods that are far less likely to become contaminated, like tomato sauce, salad dressings (oil based), etc. There has to be enough water and protein source in the food, at the right pH, for the bacteria to grow. pH is too high in tomato products, there's not enough available water in oil-based products, etc. for the bacteria to be able to grow. Some bacteria need oxygen to grow, some can't grow if there's oxygen around. Interestingly, food poisoning from things like egg, chicken, and tuna salad isn't really from the mayo. The bacteria is carried in the protein source (or introduced by cross contamination). The mayo coats the protein source and creates a mini-environment where no oxygen is present... and it's this environment that encourages the bacteria to grow. SO, while the bacteria probably wouldn't grow if the mayo weren't there to create the no-oxygen environment, it's not really the mayo that causes the food poisoning.

There are lots of other things that dictate true food poisoning...like temperature of cooking, processing, holding of food, and it's statistically almost impossible for just one person to get food poisoning from a specific food; if you get it, many, many others who consumed this food will become sick, too. I guess my point is to remember to wash your hands and remember that if you are sick, it's most likely from a bug from being on a plane, in crowds, in strange places than it is from food poisoning!

 

[mdcousins]

The last time we went to Disney (5 years ago) our daughter had chicken fingers in MK. She became very ill that night. We spent the night and most of the next day in the ER....they said it was food poisoning. She vomited 18 times and was extremely dehydrated. Check your chicken!!

 

[HelenParr]

You are at no greater risk for foodborne illness at WDW than eating out anyplace -- maybe a little safer because Disney is darned careful.

Having said that, it happens. If you want info on foodborne illness, including timeline for onset and such, you might want to take a look at FDA info. Google "fda foodborne illness onset times." But DO NOT freak yourself out.

As PPs have said -- low percentage chance.

 

[Pumbaa_]

and that ends the current round of food poisoning thread

thanks for playing