We got Covid on a Disney trip

Just saying it's also possible it occured on the airplane or in the airport.

But that’s the point. It wasn’t Disney’s fault, no matter where it happened. But it is part of a Disney trip. Airport, airplane, Uber— those are all part of a Disney trip.
And that’s the point — no matter how careful you are, no matter how careful Disney is, a Disney trip is inherently dangerous right now.
 
I am trying to better understand the risk of eating indoors at a restaurant. All the articles seem to suggest it is high which seems logical but so hard to know based on various accounts like these that maybe outdoors is not as safe as we think. For the OP and MasonDuo, curious if you ate indoors anywhere during your trips? Thanks in advance. I want 2019 back :(
We did eat indoors on three occasions and I’m not lying when I say I was uncomfortable. The rest was quick serve where we ate outside. Could I have picked it up from a restaurant - possibly. Funny thing is I have have not eaten in a restaurant at home since before March but the “Disney bubble” and the sheer need to eat has a tendency to let your guard down. I would say that Disney is doing a great job of distancing in their restaurants and at the time we were there, a lot of spacing was occurring. We didn’t eat at any non-Disney owned places (ie Disney Springs) due to reports of less distancing taking place. I agree with your post - I’ve read a lot about indoor dining and I can safely say we will continue to stay out of restaurants and if we would end up at wdw again before the end of this pandemic, I wouldn’t eat in one there either.
 
I feel bad you caught the virus somewhere on your trip. We were at WDW from November 15 to the 21st. We were a group of 6. We drove down from New England, we ate breakfast in our room every morning, lunch we ate at a quick service, dinner every night we ate a sit down in a restaurant, at the parks and at DS. We took a test at the Maingate facility on the 20th, both rapid test and PCR tests were negative. To be honest, I believe we probably had it in late February, but there really no testing back then.
 


We have been home for over two weeks and have all been well thank goodness. I do think that your room, especially a DVC room since DVC mostly runs at full occupancy could be a likely place to pick up covid. It's the place that made me the most nervous even with me cleaning it as well when we checked in. If someone were to get sick while there they would likely stay in their room obviously without a mask since that's one of the only places it's allowed. Hopefully they would disclose this upon check out, but we all know maybe not. Disney is fabulous and they're doing everything they can, but the people before you could have touched or coughed on pretty much anything in the room. Headboards, couches, curtains, even the floor a kid rolls around on. It's just not possible to clean all of it between guests. I think the steady focus of the prevention of spreading through the air with masks sometimes makes people forget that its also on surfaces like other germs and you touch the cabinet handle and then rub your eye and that's that. On a positive note the chances you get a room that someone who was sick just checked out of are pretty slim. I'm glad all of you that caught covid in this thread are doing well now! I hope we are all out of this soon!!!
 
I am not surprised. We went in August vs. 11/19, and the crowd is way higher. Make sense because it was the Thanksgiving weekend. It was pretty crazy and given how busy the place the park and pool are, and some people refusing to adhere to the mask rule (still some really hard heads out there), no Florida mask mandate (CM lives in Florida) things are sketchy. We cut our trip short due to other circumstances. I am not sorry to be back home. I felt safe in August, not during Thanksgiving weekend (not surprising, but for some reason I was not expecting that big of a crowd)

I enjoy the resort and CMs tries making you feel at home. (Except for Beach Club since we are not 'Bougie' enough. Ha-ha. Dressing like the common man makes people give you the side eye...)

I hope you and your family get well soon.
 
I'm sure Disney must have guidance on this but I haven't seen it anywhere -- what's the protocol for if someone becomes symptomatic while still staying in a Disney resort?

Sorry to hear how it went...larger reported crowds have been making us nervous about upcoming trips.
 


I am trying to better understand the risk of eating indoors at a restaurant. All the articles seem to suggest it is high which seems logical but so hard to know based on various accounts like these that maybe outdoors is not as safe as we think. For the OP and MasonDuo, curious if you ate indoors anywhere during your trips? Thanks in advance. I want 2019 back :(
It has to do with how fast the virus is able to latch on to nearby surfaces ( including you). The ventilation in a building also plays a huge factor is how far the virus is being spread.

Even indoors, the recommendation is to keep the air flowing through open windows/ doors so that the virus is diluted. Now that they have acknowledged it’s “airborne” eating outside maybe less risky, but you can still be exposed. There really is no safe zone, it’s one of tolerance and accountability. If you feel safe to dine in do so. If not, take your food to go and or eat outdoors away from others not in your circle and even then, don’t leave your space while eating or drinking until you have finished and are able to mask back up.
 
I hope you feel better soon. I know you’ll get people who say it could have happened here or there and that’s true; however, I’ve been there done that and bought the “I went to Disney World and all I got was COVID” t-shirt. We were there 10 days after driving there and driving home. I got symptoms the day before we left so day 9. Yes it could have happened anywhere but judging that we were there for that length of time, no planes, wore masks, hand washing and hand sanitizer constantly etc etc - it can happen and will happen at WDW. There’s a large crowd, winding queues, bottlenecks, restaurants etc. we knew the risk going but figured if we took precautions (like driving, one bedroom villa to cook meals, brought air purifier for room and wash clothes) we would be fine. It can happen. Thanks for your report - at the end of the day, just be cautious everyone. I was lucky that it was a mild case but remember, Disney doesn’t live in a vacuum - there will be cases. stay safe everyone. OP, thanks for sharing your story.
Thanks for sharing. This helps me not feel too sad about our decision to cancel our trip for this month to avoid the risk. Like you say, there are large crowds and Disney is not in a vacuum so the risk is there. Happy to hear that you got a mild case but confirms that even with all the precautions you took, you were exposed and contracted the virus. Again, thanks for sharing!
 
Any studies on transfer of virus while lodging at resorts? Like on bedclothes, comforters? Pillows?
Thank you to those who are sharing their positive test results and tracing back to activities and travel to help narrow it down for the rest of us. Hope All of you have mild cases and recover 100%.
I still just don't understand those that refuse to wear masks.
 
Any studies on transfer of virus while lodging at resorts? Like on bedclothes, comforters? Pillows?
Thank you to those who are sharing their positive test results and tracing back to activities and travel to help narrow it down for the rest of us. Hope All of you have mild cases and recover 100%.
I still just don't understand those that refuse to wear masks.

Earlier studies suggest transfer from an object is rare. The virus just doesn't live very long without a human host. Yes, sure you can get it from a pillow case if you place your face on it 2 minutes after an infected person coughed on it. But with reasonable housekeeping and disinfection, those types of transfers should be rare.

Most dangerous transfer places are any indoor location, especially unmasked, for any extended period of time. While social distancing inside restaurants can reduce transmission -- it appears to continue to remain dangerous. Sitting around for an hour+ without a mask, the virus can circulate in the air further than 6 feet.

The likely "Disney" infections are most likely occurring during dining, but also due to simple gathering: Travel with extended family, congregate in hotel together. Or sometime in the process of getting to/from Disney.
 
Sounds like you are both doing well so that's good. I'm not surprised given the amount of people you came in contact with before, during and after the actual Disney part. I'm surprised we don't hear of more cases since the bubble isn't really a bubble. We always come home from a WDW trip with some ailment or another, I'm thinking odds of getting sick are better than the odds of not getting sick when in such a large crowd of people. We came home in Jan. (me and my adult son) with some sort of mystery ailment. He was feeling bad the day we left for home, I started feeling bad two days after we got home. Both of us had fevers, coughing, aches. I was having a hard time breathing and figured I had walking pneumonia (which he confirmed since he is a RT). Lasted about 2 weeks for both of us, neither went to the doctor since we knew there wasn't anything they could do that we weren't already doing at home. Covid? Maybe who knows since it wasn't being talked about that early in the game.
Neighbors of mine who stayed offsite last January also got horribly sick with the same symptoms you describe. The wife and 5 year old daughter got sick but the husband, the oldest of them, didn't.
 
Regardless, people need to know that the temperature screenings they are doing at theme parks is completely useless. I told Disney that in a survey they sent me about the measures they have taken. It provides a false sense of security. If you go to WDW, you WILL be around people who have the virus.

This. Of the handful of people I personally know who have had COVID, zero have had a fever. Small population size, I know, but I do feel it gives people a false sense of safety and needlessly puts the staff taking temperatures at risk putting them nearer people, albeit briefly.
 
So sorry to hear this, I'll make sure not to show my wife...we have re started visiting Disney because we are re locating to FL and are in the area, though we are in our own RV which takes the accommodations out of the equation.

Besides transportation (planes, buses etc..) If we look at visiting the parks I think the most dangerous part would be in door dinning and improper handling of your masks, we see soo many people touch their masks then everything else.

We try to all wear n/kn95 and sanitize anytime we touch the mask, we also haven't eaten in doors and probably wont until this is essentially over.
 
I think someone asked above, but does anyone know if Disney has some sort of contact tracing or reporting system? I'm sure things like this have happened since opening.
My opinion is that they probably won't event want to have any contact tracing so that no cases are tied to Disney. They were closed for so many months and now at reduced capacity that they can't afford to have any cases tied to them. That is my opinion and I don't know if they have contact tracing at all!
 
You can just as easily contract COVID going to the local store as at WDW. I don't think WDW is any more dangerous then shopping at the local Walmart, it might even be safer.
 

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