KYW Channel 3 - Report on WDW Dine at your own Risk

[pammypooh]

I stayed up to watch the advertised "Dine at Your Own Risk" segment on KYW news at 11 last night.

It came on around 11:12 and the segment was actually almost 5 minutes long. Very long for news segment.

It started with a doctor that said that he got food poisoning at Coral Reef last May. (That was confirmed by results of test)

Went on to say that about half of the restaurants had "serious" food contamination issues. They actually named some restaurants by name including, Cindy's, Brown Derby, and Cape May (buffet). Talked about food (Turkey, Cheese, Chicken, Sausage, Cous Cous) not being kept at appropriate temperatures and that is why food bourne illnesses could occur.

But here was the stat that grabbed me. In 2003, there were 8 (that's right - eight) reported cases of food poisoning....out of how many million meals served.

The Disney spokesperson that was interviewed said it best - any case is one too many, but we really do our best and have been a training ground for others...(I am definately paraphrasing)

Anyway, for anyone that didn't see it, that was the basic report.

Sorry if too long.

Not going to stop me from enjoying my favorite WDW restaurants!

Pam

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Thanks, Pam. I couldn't stay up last nite!!! I tried!

 

[chelsea&austinsmom]

Thanks I feel alseep and didn't get to watch the news last night.

 

[swanmom]

I'd like to respond to the "eight REPORTED cases." Several years ago, I got momentally sick after eating a dinner at Citrico's. To make a long story short and skipping all the gory details, the hotel sent over a doctor who would not make a written diagnosis.
In agony, I went to the local 'immediate care center' who diagnosed "acute gastrointestinal infection caused by food poisoning." The attitude of the Disney staff (hotel, restaurant managers, Disney supervisors etc. etc.), even when presented with a written diagnosis, was one of 'cover your a......" They used every excuse, no matter how implausible, to deflect responsibility. I was told: "you must have had the flu", "you must be allergic to something", "you must have eaten somewhere else"
(I hadn't!), "you must have picked up a bug on the plane (we'd been there for 6 days.) They refused to acknowledge that it was food poisoning and would not agree to report it as such. Having already missed several days of my vacation (and a day trying to prove it to Disney staff) I decided not to pursue it further. But I can't help wonder how many other people this has happened to and what it would do to their REPORTED cases of food poisoning.
How much better their response would have been if they had just agreed to investigate and check their food preparation practices to insure the health of their other guests!

 

[dianeschlicht]

THanks for the report. With only 8 cases among all those, it is doubtful it was from the restaurants. Usually food handling issues would have caused more numbers than that in a shorter period of time. I woner what the average would be for ANY restaurant.

 

[buzzlady]

There is going to be another report on tonight. I think they said about EPCOT restaurants.

 

[Kimickey]

You know what if we listen to all of the reports on resturant cleanliness we would never eat out again ever in life. I try to ignore stuff like this because of all the silly reports. No place is perfect. There are always isolated incidents that happen that get blown out of proportion. I will continue to eat at these establishments and enjoy myself.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Although I swore I wasn't going to watch the report, I broke down and watched it anyway.

By the way they were promoting this piece, you'd have thought that people were dropping like flies all over Main Street.

When I heard that Disney only experienced 8 cases, out of the tens of thousands of meals served, I knew it was CBS's lame attempt to bash Disney and ABC. It must be sweeps time.

Between my DH and myself, we've probably eaten 100 meals at Disney, and thankfully never experienced anything negative.

Looking forward to my upcoming trip to the world, and eagerly anticipating all the yummy meals we're going to have

 

[toefungus]

If anything it made Disney's dining record look great, 8 cases out of tens of millions of people eating there. Here's the link the the video:
http://kyw.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=4369&tf=kywviewer.tpl

 

[charlie,nj]

last nights "important" undercover segment was a joke....it must be February sweeps time...

here is the cbsnewyork web site story...

eat at your own risk: WDW

 

[battricia]

I just have to say that just because only 8 cases were 'found' doesn't mean there couldn't be more. Someone else mentioned the disney health staff wanted to write off their sickness as something else, which would deter people from reporting, as well as many other reasons. 'Oh it was just a bug, couldn't be food poisoning', etc. I'm in no way saying that people should stop eating at Disney restaurants, but be cautious, and if you DO get sick REPORT IT! It's not to make the disney company look bad, it's so that they know that
some things are problems and they can FIX the problems, so that no one else gets sick.


tricia.

 

[TeresaNJ]

My husband and I watched this report last night on KYW 3, and thought it was laughable, if not downright slanderous. First of all, did the doctor who was diagnosed with salmonella eat anywhere prior to his Disney trip, such as in the airport, etc? Secondly, if people truly had cases of food poisoning, as one of the posters intimated, then why did no one else who ate in that restaurant on that particular day come down with it? If a food product is contaminated, then everyone who ate it should all become sick, not just one person. I worked in an ED for many years, and 9 out of 10 people who thought they had food poisoning actually had gastroenteritis. Disney serves over a million per year, so to only have 8 documented cases goes to show their standards are maintained. I thought the report was inflammatory, served no good, and it's chief goal was to make Disney look bad. My impression was that CBS was trying to bash ABC.

 

[pumba]

person.......and is usually the whole batch of food that is the cause.....but another thought is one time when we were down there.....we saw someone that had her tuna salad sandwich sitting in the sun light outside.....90 degrees....the family was busy with the kids and I heard the mom say .....I have had my sandwich for a half hour and I will eat it sooner or later......she was taking care of her other family matters......so anything is possible......we have had 16 visits to the mouse and I love the thought of eating in Disney.....everywhere anytime

 

[Serena]

I didn't watch it, I was watching the Mummy with my dd. But I figured if it was worth reporting, it would have been on the main news as a big deal. 10's, 100's in a day that all came down sick, not such a low number, reported or not.
They couldn't keep a major case of food poisoning out of the news.

 

[chell]

Originally posted by Kimickey
You know what if we listen to all of the reports on resturant cleanliness we would never eat out again ever in life.

So very true!

 

[C.Ann]

We have a very large - and very well known Medical Center in our area - and I got food poisoning in their cafeteria while my DD was hospitalized there.. They too tried to pass it off to a 101 other things but agreed not to bill me for my subsequent hospitalization when I threatened a lawsuit..

It can - and does - happen anywhere. On my last trip to WDW I got food poisoning again - but it was at the IHOP off-site..

I'm very particular about my food now (DH says I won't eat something if it's more than 5 minutes old) but once you've had food poisoning severe enough to be hospitalized, it's something you never forget - and never, EVER want to go through again..

If all cases of food poisoning were reported correctly, I'm sure that Disney would have just as many as anyone else.. You simply can't feed such huge numbers of people day after day without there being incidents.. But that's the chance you take when you eat out - no matter WHERE you eat.. Certainly not worthy of the kind of news coverage that WDW is getting.. TWO nights of it? Sheesh!