Does Disney make you sick? It does me!

[C&D]

I have gotten sick from being at Disney.....................but if wasn't the Disney Company's fault. I've been over forty times and have contracted an illness maybe twice and it was because of one of the guests that wasn't cognizant (or didn't care) that they were spreading germs. I won't go into the details but I can think of twice that I've contracted a cold/sore throat after being exposed. Symptoms ensued approximately three to four days after exposure.

 

[imagineer boy]

Just out of curiousity, did you go during the winter time? Every time I take a trip some place during the winter, I always come back with a cold or a flu. In fact, a while ago I took a trip to DL during February and came back with the most horrible flu.

 

[DizneyPryncess]

My husband gets sick every time he goes somewhere via airplane. I don't know all the logistics of it, but I know germs spread in airplanes for some reason. (small space, compressed air?). He takes Airborne, which is some kind of medicine, before getting on airplanes. It never fails though - he gets ear infections, colds, flu's....whatever it is. So it's not just Disney for him, it's airplanes.

Maybe that could be it?

Or it could just be all the handrails, doors, rides, etc. with so many germs on them each day. Carrying around hand sanitizer is always a great idea

 

[Master Yoda]

My husband gets sick every time he goes somewhere via airplane. I don't know all the logistics of it, but I know germs spread in airplanes for some reason. (small space, compressed air?). He takes Airborne, which is some kind of medicine, before getting on airplanes. It never fails though - he gets ear infections, colds, flu's....whatever it is. So it's not just Disney for him, it's airplanes.

Maybe that could be it?

Or it could just be all the handrails, doors, rides, etc. with so many germs on them each day. Carrying around hand sanitizer is always a great idea

Skip the airborne. They just got their pants sued off and wound up settling out of court to the tune of 23.3 million. It was concluded to be nothing more than an overpriced vitamin. From what I heard their "clinical trial" consisted of 2 test subjects that were quite coincidentally Airborne employees.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdFlu/Story?id=4380374&page=1

 

[SleepingMonk]

Florida resident, season pass holder, been hundreds of times over the past 30+ years.

Never made me sick.

 

[CleveRocks]

For years, doctors have recognized something commonly referred to as travelers' illness. Our immune systems are used to fighting off the bacteria and viruses ("bugs") at home; our immune systems learn by fighting, and once they know how to defeat a specific enemy, they usually get rather good at it, and thus we don't get sick all that often.

But a respiratory bug or a stomach bug in Wisconsin is different from a similar bug in Florida. Therefore, someone traveling from Wisconsin to Florida has a greater chance of getting sick than someone who stays in Wisconsin, and therefore is exposed only to the Wisconsin bugs that his/her immune system already knows how to fight.

But we're not just traveling to Florida ... we're traveling to a vacation mecca that attracts people from all over the WORLD. And those people from all over the world bring their bugs with them. When they touch things with their hands, their body fluids leave bugs behind, and when they breathe, their breath aerosolizes bugs into the air for the rest of us to breathe in.

So when we go to WDW, we expose ourselves to countless BILLIONS of "foreign" bugs, bugs our immune systems have never encountered before. If our immune systems fight bugs they've never seen before, they aren't as successful as they are at home, and as a result, we get sick more often there than at home.

In addition to all of that, there are other factors that make it easier for us to get sick. Overall, people on a WDW vacation push themselves harder, walk/stand more, sleep less, and so on, than they do in real life at home. This puts a strain on the system, and makes getting sick easier than during regular life. In addition, we sometimes don't eat as well on vacation, and perhaps don't drink as much in the way of fluids as we do at home (and most of us sweat more on a WDW vacation that we do at home). All of this contributes to increasing the possibility of getting sick.

So it makes perfect sense to me that someone, such as the OP, gets sick more often at WDW than at home. Makes perfect medical sense.

 

[CleveRocks]

Oh, and another thing ...

Antibacterial lotions and wipes are just that, anti-bacterial. They do NOTHING to kill viruses. I agree that using them can be helpful, but they are far from a panacea.

 

[Hidalgo]

... we're traveling to a vacation mecca that attracts people from all over the WORLD. And those people from all over the world bring their bugs with them. When they touch things with their hands, their body fluids leave bugs behind, and when they breathe, their breath aerosolizes bugs into the air for the rest of us to breathe in.

So when we go to WDW, we expose ourselves to countless BILLIONS of "foreign" bugs, bugs our immune systems have never encountered before. If our immune systems fight bugs they've never seen before, they aren't as successful as they are at home, and as a result, we get sick more often there than at home.



So it makes perfect sense to me that someone, such as the OP, gets sick more often at WDW than at home. Makes perfect medical sense.

I think that pretty well sums up the problem.

I wasn't trying to insinuate that Disney is the CAUSE of my situation, nor infer that they don't exercise due sanitation techniques. (after re-reading my initial post...I see now how that might have come across wrong) I'm just hugely frustrated that this seems to always happen. Combine that with the fact that my wife and son dearly LOVE the place, it puts a real burden on me to be truthful and say that I'd prefer not to go.

I suppose I'll just be honest and tell them to have fun at the parks, and I'll go play a round of golf. :wave:

Thanks to everyone for their insight.

 

[unkadug]

Does Disney make you sick? It does me!

April Fool's

 

[Phonedave]

It doesn't help either that they now make you put your finger on the pad when entering the parks. My sister runs around with antibacterial hand sanitizer and decontaminates us all periodically throughout the day. :lookaroun .

I never understood that. You touch plenty of other places that other people have touched all day long. Whats the big deal about the finger scanner.

Do you use an ATM at all. You are pushing the same buttons that everyone else has pushed. How about an elevator. How about handling change. Touching handrails. Rental car steering wheels (a large percentage of people pass their driving time by engaging in .... digital nasal matter extraction).


As for the OP. I have never become ill at WDW. My 10 y/o daughter once had a bout of some sort of gastrointestinal illness while we were there. Some Immodium, some fluids, and a good nights rest fixed her up.

I know you have said you drive, but at times fly. I have become sick from being on plane trips (not to FL, but to TX) In a plane you are rebreathing air over and over again, and it provides a greater chance of inhaling something that a sick person sneezed/coughed out.

Someone mentioned allergies, and that is a distinct possibility. Somthing you may want to look into.

-dave

 

[Phonedave]

Oh, and another thing ...

Antibacterial lotions and wipes are just that, anti-bacterial. They do NOTHING to kill viruses. I agree that using them can be helpful, but they are far from a panacea.

Not only that, but many hand sanitizers don't kill bacteria either.

Take a look at what the required contact times are and what is in them. Somthing that is 20% rubbing alcohol is not going to do anything.

Hand sanitizers also do not remove dirt. All that gunk (whatever it is - other peoples sweat, excretions, whatever rubs off on the lap bars, etc) is still on your hands - its just dead (if your sanitizer is working). Makes that burger extra tasty. Like you own protable Pecos Bill's topping bar

-dave

 

[Susan Savia]

Never been sick during or after a Disney vacation. But I imagine there are folks that have a long reserved vacation planned and a day or two before their due to go, come down unexpectedly with some bug or a cold and go on and go anyways and meanwhile their passing off germs in the plane, the airport, on the busses, in the parks etc. etc... :lookaroun

 

[firekymmie]

I know sometimes my girls get a head cold the last day or 2 but i think it is from the clorine in the pool's. They spend so much time in it down there and it is nothing that doesn't clear up with in 2 days of being home....

 

[WDW 3]

Nope, not even once!

I agree with Dave, you touch things all day, the finger scanners are the least of your worries.

 

[cblodg]

It doesn't help either that they now make you put your finger on the pad when entering the parks. My sister runs around with antibacterial hand sanitizer and decontaminates us all periodically throughout the day. :lookaroun

Maybe they could train CMs to clean their areas more often? I don't know what else they could do to prevent illness. Germs get shared when there are that many people in a tight environment.

She's not the only one! Heck, I even had Clorox wipes sitting at my desk. I had to train people (at my desk) who would be doing my job while I was on vacation at the World. heck, every time somone touched something I started to get nervous. After they would leave I would Clorox my whole station in an effort to keep me from getting sick BEFORE I went on vacation. My last two trips I got a cold a day before we would leave for vacation. Not this year.

And I didn't start to feel a cold come on until we were a day away from leaving Disney. Which is why I now travel with cold medicine all the time.

 

[deb4him40]

Nope. I work in a family practice clinic and worked at an urgent care for 10 years. Spent the first year sick all the time, but immune system finally caught up. I do take airborne before flying though, otherwise I get a cold. :veryconfu Don't know why.

 

[hrcollectibles]

I am making an assumption here and may be way off base but is it possible that you and your sons life is too clean? I see an awful lot of literature about how being too sanitary and/or secluded is actually worse for your health. Your body builds up immunity through regular exposure to viruses, bacteria, etc. Remove that regular exposure and you end up with a defenseless immune system. Being an MD you wife gets plenty of exposure to all kinds of nasty things but if you and your son are not around different people on a regular basis you might be lacking this immunity training. I know that before I was married my house was spotless, I was rarely around kids or large groups of people and was rarely sick. When I got married 8 years ago my wife had 2 kids and I literally spent the first 3 years of my marriage with some type of upper respiratory ailment. My immune system eventually caught up to the assault but it took a while. Take a quick look at your day to to day life and if you and your son are not out in the public regularly you might want to start going to places with more exposure to people and build up your immunity system.

There is also the possibility that you are running into some kind of allergen or irritant. If that is the case a regular treatment with an antihistamine like Claritin before, after and during your tip might do the trick.

Leave it up to Yoda to summarize what I was going to say. I usually get sick on the way home.. I call it Disney Home Sickness... Actually I usually come home with a cold because I like to sleep in very cold rooms

 

[mickeymatt]

I got sick one time

We checked into POP and then went to Big River Grill at Boardwalk. I at a fish sandwhich and about 2 AM that night I woke up with Nausea and Vomiting. We were going to go to Epcot in the morning but I could not do it. It wiped me out all day. The next day, though, I was fine. It was the weirdest thing.

 

[Mikester71]

My wife, my brother and myself all ended up with wicked colds upon returning from our WDW vacation a couple of weeks ago. I know a cold is a virus and is not caused by climate or fluctuating temperatures, but I still think it played a part. We went from 10 days of 80's and even 90's to highs of 30's and 40's and even lower in the matter of a day or two (we drove down and back). :shrug: My wife had a stomach bug on the second day of our vacation that lasted only the one day thank goodness, but the rest of us managed to stay pretty healthy while we were down there.

As a germaphobe, I constantly was my hands and try not to touch things like door handles and stuff that people would be constantly touching. As crazy as it sounds, I use my knuckles usually when using an ATM machine or the debit machines in stores. So you can imagine how big a fan I am of the finger scanners down at the parks! :lookaroun

 

[tiggerzgirl83]

NO, thank goodness!!! The only thing that really bothered me was when I got off the plane and my ears never popped back to normal and for 4 days out of 7 days at Disney two years ago. It sounded like I was talking into a cup all day long. It really aggervated me. But I was in Disney so I was still happy .