Has anyone gotten sick from the buffets?

[hsmamato2]

My husband got sick after eating at Ohanna's. Needless to say, we are not eating there again. He thinks it was the food. Although, I didn't get sick and everyone there eats the same meal. Who knows what it was, but dear husband refuses to eat there again. It is a good thing I didn't care for the food because he would have to be left out on that dinner.

OMG!!! we all ate at the ohana breakfast a few weeks ago-13 of us,and my DH got incredibly sick about 1 hour later, the rest of us were fine. This was very obviously from the food,as he was fine, and then he wasn't(sorry to anyone who was at MK that day) he had to go back to the room for the rest of the day, but once he "got it all out" then he just had to rest and was ok the next day- We surmise it must have been the one thing he had that the rest of us didn't- a tall glass of grapefruit juice,which he didn't finish,b/c he said later"it tasted kind of funny"
I think it could happen at any restaurant,but most in Disney are very well run,and later in the trip dh was drinking juice at the Kona cafe,so he wasn't too put off....

 

[freshmanjs]

OMG!!! we all ate at the ohana breakfast a few weeks ago-13 of us,and my DH got incredibly sick about 1 hour later, the rest of us were fine. This was very obviously from the food,as he was fine, and then he wasn't(sorry to anyone who was at MK that day) he had to go back to the room for the rest of the day, but once he "got it all out" then he just had to rest and was ok the next day- We surmise it must have been the one thing he had that the rest of us didn't- a tall glass of grapefruit juice,which he didn't finish,b/c he said later"it tasted kind of funny"
I think it could happen at any restaurant,but most in Disney are very well run,and later in the trip dh was drinking juice at the Kona cafe,so he wasn't too put off....

It is possible it was the juice, but I don't know why it would be "Very obviously" so. Most food borne illness has to incubate in the body for several hours before there are symptoms. Seems much more likely to me that it came from something eaten the day before. Also, these viruses can be very easily transmitted on surfaces or through the air. So, it may not have been from food at all.

People tend to automatically associate the illness with the last thing they ate. And they are very frequently wrong about the source.

 

[hsmamato2]

well, I'm no doctor.... but in my experience, when the body is affronted with some nasty thing,it neds to immediately expel the offending...whatever. I've seen it happen before...
and once Dh "got rid of it",violently ,his body didn't feel the need to protect itself anymore by disgorging the...whatever it was that made him suddenly and violently ill-and just as swiftly disappeared.
I'm no doc, all I have is what's in front of me....
But for the OP, I think nasty germs could potentially come from any restaurant,anywhere. Just have to gauge your level of being creeped out by certain things.
When we went to a Golden Corral,(ewww) I wouldn't let the kids touch the dessert bar,b/c I saw many kids sticking the dirty hands into the candy bowls,which were put at eye level...it was all a sticky mess...ewww-
at Chef Micks, it *appears* to be well kept up and clean,and we've never gotten sick there in 13 years of visiting....

 

[the Fidge]

You get a 2 day illness after every flight? That is quite unusual. Must be some kind of immune deficiency. I know airborne germs are concentrated on planes, but that is quite a severe reaction.

Sadly it is , I learned after my first pregnancy this fact. After many years of contatnly picking up viruses it finally made sense. So now I at least have the understnading so I know how to protect myself. Thankfully DS has his Daddy's genes very rarely sick, thank God!!!

 

[freshmanjs]

Sadly it is , I learned after my first pregnancy this fact. After many years of contatnly picking up viruses it finally made sense. So now I at least have the understnading so I know how to protect myself. Thankfully DS has his Daddy's genes very rarely sick, thank God!!!

Well, in that case, I don't think anyone would call you a germ-phobe. Seems like just good precautions for you.

 

[desertbloom]

I also agree with Albertan Mom. So many people assume that when they get sick at Disney, it must be due to food poisoning but it is more likely that they have caught some rampant stomach virus. I will say something though, I have a friend who owns a restaurant and he won't touch buffets! Not necessarily because of food spoiling issues but rather due to unhygienic serving practices of the guests who eat at these buffets. For example, you get people who will put the serving spoon right smack dab in the middle of the serving tray so that the handle, which has been touched by hundreds of inviduals, all of whom could potentially be carying a stomach virus, comes into direct contact with the food that you're about to eat! I can't tell you the number of times that I've seen young children help themselves to the cereal/candy at Chef Mickey's by thrusting their germy hands into the containers. Or, there's the classic, let's pick up a pastry with our hands and then decide that we don't want it, putting it right back onto the tray for the next unsuspecting bloak to pick up! That being said, I haven't starting avoiding buffets yet but it does kind of gross me out just thinking about it!! Just food for thought (no pun intended)!

This is EXACTLY why I will not eat at buffets unless I am one of the first ones there when they open. Have you ever taken a moment to watch people going up to the buffet table? It is disgusting. I have seen people scratch their nether regions and then handle crab rangoons, kids pick their noses then grab stuff with their gross little hands,etc etc. Ugh.... it's turning my stomach just thinking about it!

 

[freshmanjs]

This is EXACTLY why I will not eat at buffets unless I am one of the first ones there when they open. Have you ever taken a moment to watch people going up to the buffet table? It is disgusting. I have seen people scratch their nether regions and then handle crab rangoons, kids pick their noses then grab stuff with their gross little hands,etc etc. Ugh.... it's turning my stomach just thinking about it!

You are right. But, I don't assume it's all that much better back in the kitchen. Especially at fast food or any mid-low end restaurant.

Also, we are touching germ filled surfaces all the time and touching our faces.

The way I see it, we have pretty good immunity to this stuff. And, there is no way to avoid it.

I would agree that buffets are a good breeding ground.

 

[desertbloom]

Oh, also... I have had food poisoning from a popular chain restaurant before. I knew my chicken fajita tasted kinda funny but I ate it anyways because I didn't want hubby to get upset I was wasting the meal. My food poisoning was so severe I had to have IV fluids. Let me tell you that having food poisoning is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Worse than labor! It also took about 5 hrs to start after I ate the bad chicken with sour cream. It took me 2 weeks to get most of my energy back. The ER doc said it usually takes about 5-24 hrs for most food poisoning cases to start. I still can't eat anything with chicken and sour cream together to this day and it has been 12 yrs. I can't even have sour cream on the same plate as my chicken. It was very traumatizing.

 

[PlutosFriend]

This is EXACTLY why I will not eat at buffets unless I am one of the first ones there when they open. Have you ever taken a moment to watch people going up to the buffet table? It is disgusting. I have seen people scratch their nether regions and then handle crab rangoons, kids pick their noses then grab stuff with their gross little hands,etc etc. Ugh.... it's turning my stomach just thinking about it!

Oh my Unfortunately, you are right. We do eat at some of the buffets. I alway pull the food from the back of the pan, not at the front where someone could have possibly touched it with their hands. We got sick on our 2000 trip. It was awful. I didn't really blame it on a buffet, but who knows? We did eat at Chef Mickeys that time. But then we also ate at a seafood place in the Tampa area, so it could have been that.

 

[NMW]

We've only ever done the Cape May buffet at WDW, but we do it every trip and have never gotten sick. I do agree with the people that say most of the germs at buffets come not from the food, but from the people with the unclean hands.

In Dec we were at my sons football banquet. I watched a kid pick up the spoon in the pasta, eat off it, and put it back. This boy was 11 years old and his mother was right behind him in the buffet line! I almost gagged and was grateful that my son had already gotten his food. I walked over to where he was sitting with his friends and whispered "DO NOT take anymore of that pasta"!

 

[desertbloom]

In Dec we were at my sons football banquet. I watched a kid pick up the spoon in the pasta, eat off it, and put it back. This boy was 11 years old and his mother was right behind him in the buffet line!

WOW! Did the mother discipline the kid, or let the manager know to change out that tray of food? Ewwww!!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Yes, I got food poisoning from Chef Mickeys in Oct 2006. I ate the cream sauce pasta dish and no one else with me ate it...I was paying for it for a day and a half

 

[marc1477]

Not sick from the food....sick from eating too much. Thats my own dumb fault.

 

[gatrbait]

I as a rule don't do buffets at all...no way jose...forget it...except when it comes to Disney. I have watched them and they don't put out the huge portions so they rotate the food out quicklythey are always cleaning up and replacing stuff and even replacing spoons, forks, thongs etc. with the new food. I value this and think it goes along way to food safety and looking after their guests. But like I said this is my opinion and I am sure there are others who would strongly disagree with me...
Have a great day and enjoy!
Micky

 

[freshmanjs]

Yes, I got food poisoning from Chef Mickeys in Oct 2006. I ate the cream sauce pasta dish and no one else with me ate it...I was paying for it for a day and a half

How do you know it was from that?

 

[Bichon Barb]

I've read that many of the stomach ailments (i.e. diarrhea) that people suffer while traveling aren't from bad water, food poisoning, etc. and are often from the stress/excitement of travel, rich/greasy foods, alcohol, etc.

 

[MickeyNicki]

How do you know it was from that?

Because we all had the same pizza for lunch and we were fine. We all ate at the buffet but I was the only one that took some pasta with cream sauce and I was the only one sick that night.

 

[freshmanjs]

Because we all had the same pizza for lunch and we were fine. We all ate at the buffet but I was the only one that took some pasta with cream sauce and I was the only one sick that night.

How were you able to rule out foods eaten for breakfast, foods eaten the day before, foods eaten the day before that, surface borne viruses, and airborne viruses?

 

[Stinky_Pete]

Due to the incubation period, people do not usually develop symptoms of a food-borne illness for between 24 - 48 hours after exposure, unless the food was rancid, in which case I would hope they would know not to eat it.

Those who claim that since they felt ill an hour or two after eating somewhere and therefore must have contracted a food-borne illness there are usually mistaken. It is most likely something else. It could be a food-borne illness, but may have been from somewhere or something else. This is why it is not always easy to trace an outbreak of food-borne illness to its source. If everyone got sick a couple of hours later it would be pretty easy to trace the illness back to the source.

 

[La2kw]

If you are concerned about germs or getting sick, the character meals at CRT, LTT dinner, Ohana, Akershus and the Garden Grill are not buffets. You are waited on by servers and the food is much more sanitary, IMO. As already pointed out, food poisoning is much more serious than just not feeling well. You usually end up in the hospital if you have food poisoning.