Just emailed customer relations

[mttafire]

I don't see that it is Disney's responsibility to stop this virus. You could well have brought it from home. How do they control that. It is your responsibility to take steps to avoid getting the virus. Good hand washing with soap and water and plain old friction gets rid of more germs than any hand sanitizer can. Not going out when you are sick and exposing other people. It is not airborne but a contact born disease so take your own precautions.

Perfectly stated!!
Im beginning to thinkthat the original poster that started this thread may have set us up for a joke. There is NO way she could have been serious and actually emailed disney about this....At least i hope not.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

Let's see I take a plane to WDW (sick people are probably on the plane) I stand in line and use the restroom at the airport (more people many whom are probably sick), I stay in a hotel room (who knows who was in here before me), I touch door knobs, telephones, tv remotes, food trays, grab bars on rides etc. I use the restrooms in the parks. I stand in line with people who are coughing and sneezing (many whom are from out of the country my body is not used to these new germs), I am in a place that is populated with many many children (sorry, I am a teacher I see children lick, pick and do other gross things...mine included). I am tired from cramming lots of fun into every hour of the day. I am up at the crack of dawn for Early hours and I am going to bed late so I can stay and watch the fireworks. I am hot and not used to the climate or humidity of Florida. I am a little dyhydrated even though I am drinking plenty of fluids (most are probably made with Florida water again, my body is not used to this water). I am eating great food (rich food) I am on the meal plan and I feel I must get my moneys worth so I eat appitizers, dinner and dessert (my body is not used to all this rich food) I am eating counter service (again, my poor tummy is not used to this much fast food either). Heck now I am sick!! It is WDW's fault , well....... not because they are not clean but becasuse I chose to vacation in the GREATEST PLACE IN THE WORLD.
In defense to the OP my son had the flu (the "I feel like a bus hit me" cold headache and body ache flu) on one of our trips. I stayed with him in the room for 5 days. He was the only one who had it. It was horrible! I would not like to have a repeat of that.Since then we do use lysol, hand sanitizer and Clorox cleanup wipes. Last trip DS ended up in the Celebration hospital for part of the trip. We had to use and ambulance to take him from the hotel to ER. WDW did offer to extend his park ticket as he was not able to use it. We didnt have them do it though as we were leaving and they only offered for him not myself or anyone else in the group but I thought it was so nice of them It was not their fault in any way. I just think that you take your chances when going to someplace that has crowds. Look at schools. We have chicken pox and the tummy bug going around my school right now. We do clean well but you just can't stop it. I wonder if trip insurance would help in anyway? We have it in case DS can't make the flight but I never even checked to see if it would help if we were sick????

 

[DizzKneeGeek]

Look at schools. We have chicken pox and the tummy bug going around my school right now

Better close 'em down. You're fostering an epidemic.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

Then I could go to WDW when it is not school vacation or really really hot! YIPEEEE school is out for the year!

 

[Lynne M]

Just a clarification -- it's likely not rotavirus that's going around, as was previously posted, but a norwalk-type virus. Norwalk-type viral illnesses are what are very common especially this time of year whenever you get people gathered in one place such as a school, daycare, cruise ship, etc. Rotavirus is a lot more serious, and generally does not affect adults. My DS got rotavirus when he was a year old, and was hospitalized for almost a week.

Here's hoping for a nice, healthy trip for anyone going soon! (Like us! )

-gina-

Thank you for posting this.

This outbreak happens EVERY YEAR. All over the country. I had it a couple of weeks ago, and I wasn't within a thousand miles of WDW. You can get it at the mall. At your office. It is wildly contagious. There is NOTHING that WDW can do to prevent it from happening, short of forcibly dipping every guest in a tank of bleach before allowing them on property.

Even if they closed the entire property tomorrow, kicked all the guests out and disinfected every inch of it, the minute they re-opened hundreds of guests who had picked up the virus at home would come right in and start re-contaminating the place.

It's a fact of life this time of year. Wash your hands frequently and hope you don't get it.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I think that a lot of times, these things get blown out of proportion due to the natural human tendency to embellish when telling a story. If you're a CM and had to clean up vomit two or three times during your shift, it may certainly feel like "people are throwing up all over the place".

Someone mentioned seeing the vomit not being cleaned up- it's possible that Disney has certain CMs who deal with cleaning up this sort of thing- I know that where I used to work, we had someone stand near the mess to make sure nobody got near it, and someone who was trained to clean up health hazards (any kind of bodily fluid, etc) would come to take care of it- so just because nobody jumps on cleaning it up right after it happens, that doesn't mean they aren't doing it the right way. Now, if it's left there for an hour and nothing is done, then I'd say it's safe to say there's something wrong!

I always seem to get sick a couple of weeks *before* my trip- all the stress of working extra hours and last minute planning, I guess. Thus, I issue this public service announcement- Don't work! It is bad for your health!

 

[CleveRocks]

Don't look now, but it seems that good sense and lack of emotional sensationalism have hijacked this thread.

 

[DizzKneeGeek]

Don't look now, but it seems that good sense and lack of emotional sensationalism have hijacked this thread.

Sat it ain't so!!

 

[disneyfan2kids]

What is your job? I stand at a counter in DisneyWorld and tell people they have to Purell before they can eat.

This is ABSOLUTELY hysterical!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

Okay, so say Disney does set up Purell stations at the buffets. What are they going to do about the kids who lick the serving spoons in the buffet line? Or the kids who put the food back that they already took and decided they didn't want? Or the parents who have spent all this money to take the family to WDW and now their kid has the chicken pox/flu/terrible cold and damn the torpedos, but they are going to the MK???

Nope, not Disney's responsibility to teach guests good health habits. They tried to do that with the kids' menus and look what happened.

We were just there for Thanksgiving week. We didn't see anyone having a "protein spill" at Small World or anywhere else. This was actually the first trip we took in a long time where one of us didn't get sick. When that happens, we stay in the villa or head over to the Doc-in-the-Box.

 

[DebbieB]

My 2 aunts in PA and a friend in MN recently had bad stomach virus illnesses. Nowhere near WDW. Point is you can get it anywhere. Even if they disinfect everything in the park, when the people start coming in for the day they will bring it back in.

 

[cleo]

I just got back from a trip to AK, Epcot and MGM Studios and I can hardly believe we've had an additional 6 pages added to this thread in that time. I also got a PM from the OP asking to have the thread closed, and I'm going to honor her wishes because I can certainly see how she would feel as if she started a thread with the best of intentions and it went in a direction other than the direction she intended or expected.

I'm also going to say we didn't see or hear of a single sick person at any of the 3 parks we visited, and we were looking. But just because we didn't see them doesn't mean there weren't any. The one thing we did do (I'd have done it anyway, but my beloved husband would be more reluctant; in this instance he complied wholeheartedly because of this thread) is, we used hand sanitizer obsessively, making a huge joke out of it but knowing it was a good idea just the same. I would suggest anyone who is as big a fanatic about avoiding illnesses as I am (and I'm a HUGE fanatic) might want to bring hand sanitizer. But you already know that, those of you who are germ-phobics, don't you? And I'm betting you bring it everywhere you go, not just when there's an outbreak.

Flus and viruses are going around this time of year. The OP might have been a bit stronger in her choice of words than some other posters may have been, but ultimately her point about washing is an excellent point. On-line forums tend to jump on stong sentiments, as we did here, in an effort to get facts rather than fears. But I hope the OP here knows she prompted a lot of conversation that might just lead to exactly what she's hoping for. Even if we don't email Disney or hold them responsible, maybe we'll be just that bit more careful about our personal hygeine and the end result will be less transmission of cold and flu for everyone. I'm grateful for the reminder, no matter what words were chosen to convey the message.

And with that (yes, I know I got the last word, but I hope that's ok with most of you in this instance) we're done.

Stay well, my friends.