Illness at mgm studios

[metman]

I am writing this today because I feel that I have to talk to some people like myself who love Disney but feel the standards have dropped in the past few years. We have been going to Florida for the past 5 years and in this time I have racked up over 14 visits to wdw and just to let you now I fly from England so as you can see I do spend a good buck at Disney.
Any way to get to the point 2 weeks ago on the 24th of January we went to the mgm studios me Andy my partner Donna my 2 boys and my mom and dad in there late 70s. we have had a great time for the past 4 days being in America but to my mom mgm is her best. When we got there I checked to see if the 50s dinner had anything, yes they had a 2.00pm free so I grabbed it and told my mom to look forward to a great time. This we all had my mom had the shredded stake on top of the mash and so did my dad.
We left and went of to do some rides, about 2 hours later my mom starts to look rough and not well so we take her home. All through the night she is being very, very ill at both ends. To put it politely so any way she stays in bed all the next day and the next. She carried on being ill not even being able to hold any water down.
So at this time we were worried for her and took her to celebration hospital. They put my mom on a drip and feed her a lot of tablets. She was then sent home. At this point DW and me took off to the mgm to have word with the manager Kevin fillipello. We had a good chat with him a asked to give us a card from him so we new we had chatted at this time. he promised to look into this and get back to us next day.
My dad stayed in all the following day and my mom got a little better but she was still very rough. We never got any calls and no comments on how was she from Disney even though we left our name and address with them.
Now on the 4 the day after all of this my dad goes down the same he is a very big man but he has the same signs so we now take him in and they say he has had food poising but due to his over weight ness he is over 20stone over 300lbs he could have got food poisoning from 2-5 days before this time as it would have taken longer to go though his system.
Well we got home 3 days ago and since then I have tied and tried to talk to Mr fillipello and this was all I got from him



Sir,

Please contact the Guest Claims Department at 407-397-6677. They will
Be able to answer any questions or concerns that you might have.

Kevin Filipello
Area Manager 50's Primetime Cafe
-----Original Message-----
From: akyte12345 [mailto:akyte12345@mac.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 4:53 AM
To: Filipello, Kevin
Subject: Re: RE:

Well this is my problem I feel I love Disney but they have let me and my family down, I do not know where to go from here but I do have one final thought on this matter whilst we were in celebration hospital a couple were there and her husband had all the same problems we had and he had stake that day as well and he was at mgm but in the sci-fi dinner.
Do we let this go as it ruined our holiday or do we follow this up what do you think any comments or did any one else get poisoned this day

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest :brick:

Andy (metman)

 

[dazzer68]

oh sorry to here the bad news hope they are making a speedy recovery.
blimey good luck just a phone call from them would help ,just to know they cared.good luck stick at

 

[jesserin]

I am writing this today because I feel that I have to talk to some people like myself who love Disney but feel the standards have dropped in the past few years. We have been going to Florida for the past 5 years and in this time I have racked up over 14 visits to wdw and just to let you now I fly from England so as you can see I do spend a good buck at Disney.
Any way to get to the point 2 weeks ago on the 24th of January we went to the mgm studios me Andy my partner Donna my 2 boys and my mom and dad in there late 70s. we have had a great time for the past 4 days being in America but to my mom mgm is her best. When we got there I checked to see if the 50s dinner had anything, yes they had a 2.00pm free so I grabbed it and told my mom to look forward to a great time. This we all had my mom had the shredded stake on top of the mash and so did my dad.
We left and went of to do some rides, about 2 hours later my mom starts to look rough and not well so we take her home. All through the night she is being very, very ill at both ends. To put it politely so any way she stays in bed all the next day and the next. She carried on being ill not even being able to hold any water down.
So at this time we were worried for her and took her to celebration hospital. They put my mom on a drip and feed her a lot of tablets. She was then sent home. At this point DW and me took off to the mgm to have word with the manager Kevin fillipello. We had a good chat with him a asked to give us a card from him so we new we had chatted at this time. he promised to look into this and get back to us next day.
My dad stayed in all the following day and my mom got a little better but she was still very rough. We never got any calls and no comments on how was she from Disney even though we left our name and address with them.
Now on the 4 the day after all of this my dad goes down the same he is a very big man but he has the same signs so we now take him in and they say he has had food poising but due to his over weight ness he is over 20stone over 300lbs he could have got food poisoning from 2-5 days before this time as it would have taken longer to go though his system.
Well we got home 3 days ago and since then I have tied and tried to talk to Mr fillipello and this was all I got from him



Sir,

Please contact the Guest Claims Department at 407-397-6677. They will
Be able to answer any questions or concerns that you might have.

Kevin Filipello
Area Manager 50's Primetime Cafe
-----Original Message-----
From: akyte12345 [mailto:akyte12345@mac.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 4:53 AM
To: Filipello, Kevin
Subject: Re: RE:

Well this is my problem I feel I love Disney but they have let me and my family down, I do not know where to go from here but I do have one final thought on this matter whilst we were in celebration hospital a couple were there and her husband had all the same problems we had and he had stake that day as well and he was at mgm but in the sci-fi dinner.
Do we let this go as it ruined our holiday or do we follow this up what do you think any comments or did any one else get poisoned this day

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest :brick:

Andy (metman)

Interestingly enough... I thought I'd pitch in here and say that I got sick with a stomach virus in WDW on January 24th as well...

But though I thought it was food poisening, when I went to the hospital I was told it was a virus that was sweeping through FL and that 3 schools had been shut down b/c so many of the kid's had come down with it. I too was sick for 3 days straight, very similar signs to the food poisening... In fact, I even posted here on magic that first day telling everyone it was such.

In the end though, it was just a virus. One that was througout FL and not confined to Disney. The Disney standard is stilll very high, but they are not immune to things that are brought in by guests.

It was disappointing at best, I spent 3 days of our vacation, horribly ill and confined to a hotel room far away from the comforts of my home. But I don't blame Disney for my being sick. (Well, actually I did at first. But soon realized it was out of their hands.)

I hope you were able to salvage some of your trip and enjoy the end of it with your mother and father. Being sick on vacation is awful... I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

[metman]

Interestingly enough... I thought I'd pitch in here and say that I got sick with a stomach virus in WDW on January 24th as well...

But though I thought it was food poisening, when I went to the hospital I was told it was a virus that was sweeping through FL and that 3 schools had been shut down b/c so many of the kid's had come down with it. I too was sick for 3 days straight, very similar signs to the food poisening... In fact, I even posted here on magic that first day telling everyone it was such.

In the end though, it was just a virus. One that was througout FL and not confined to Disney. The Disney standard is stilll very high, but they are not immune to things that are brought in by guests.

It was disappointing at best, I spent 3 days of our vacation, horribly ill and confined to a hotel room far away from the comforts of my home. But I don't blame Disney for my being sick. (Well, actually I did at first. But soon realized it was out of their hands.)

I hope you were able to salvage some of your trip and enjoy the end of it with your mother. Being sick on vacation is awful... I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

i wish i could say we did but we did not we lost my mom and dads full usage of tickets at 500 dollars down the drain and a lot of time and money running around doing hospital runs and prescription collections so to say we had a good holiday no we did not
but thanks for the kind words andy

 

[Iakona]

I am not sure you can blame this on food poisoning. My wife went through this (same symptoms) starting Thursday and we were at the hospital Thursday evening until late. Monday was the first day she was "functional."
She thought it might be food poisoning as well, but no confirmation from the hospital. What they did say (and the next day our local newspaper had an article about the same subject) was that a virus was sweeping through Massachusetts as well. The article we read mentioned the Norovirus. Right now my son and I are crossing our fingers that we do not come down with this.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

i wish i could say we did but we did not we lost my mom and dads full usage of tickets at 500 dollars down the drain and a lot of time and money running around doing hospital runs and prescription collections so to say we had a good holiday no we did not
but thanks for the kind words andy

That would be the best example I've seen lately for paying extra bucks for trip insurance.

It could have been food poisoning it could have been a virus. The is no real way to tell for certain, unless you had salads I tend to lean toward a virus. Food poisonings from steak are much less likely unless your eating undercooked meat. The US has had several outbreaks of food poisoning that are suspect to be related to lettuce, so a salad might have done it.

But the fact that all four of you ate the same thing and only 1 got sick soon and the other 3 days later makes it morelikely a virus from mom and then to dad.

 

[luvGoofy]

My husband, myself, and our 2 children were at Disney in December and all us ended up getting sick but it wasn't food poisoning. When we got home and went to the doctor they said it was just a nasty virus that has been really bad this year and as other posters have said it has been particularly bad in Florida.

 

[New2WDW]

Just curious, but would travel insurance help in this matter? Did you and your family have travel insurance?

Sorry about your troubles. Hope things turn out for the better.

 

[metman]

Just curious, but would travel insurance help in this matter? Did you and your family have travel insurance?

Sorry about your troubles. Hope things turn out for the better.

we had medical insurance but this does replace the holiday lost or the disney tickets lost. it cauld be a cold but there were no other simptons to follow this up or doctors that said this.

what i am going on about is how disney handled this matter and there non caring attitude to all of this
that is what i am writting about and this is why i am so angry. they said the would do something and look into it and get back to us but to date there has been no calls no how are you, no remarks on the food or kitchens or that there was a bad cold in florida. maybee if they had said this in the first place i would not be saying this about them now.

 

[kcnole]

Correct, what you got was a virus, not food poisoning. Extra weight has nothing to do with how long it takes for food poisoning to kick in. Your mother got a virus, the same one that's been sweeping tourist destinations lately, and then your father caught it from her. It's a shame, but I don't think you can blame Disney for that.

 

[marni1971]

Just be cafeful saying `Food Poisoning at MGM Studios` - especially as a thread title. You may have good cause for being upset, but without proof it was Disneys fault, and with a known virus in Florida, it could be called slander. We all know what the Mouse Police are like! EDIT - good to see you changed the title of the thread.

Knowing the style of company written responses, I`d say this is the standard way of dealing with such a matter - the dead on, straight down the line official standard. The Manager probably can`t get involved - he has to pass it to the corporate legal side of things. Much like you can`t talk to the press if you`re involved in a court case. I`d be very - although pleasantly - surprised with a personal follow up. Sadly you`re were just one of probably 200-250,000 guests on property that day, and just another number. I have found however park medical facilities to be superb in the past.

 

[jesserin]

we had medical insurance but this does replace the holiday lost or the disney tickets lost. it cauld be a cold but there were no other simptons to follow this up or doctors that said this.

what i am going on about is how disney handled this matter and there non caring attitude to all of this
that is what i am writting about and this is why i am so angry. they said the would do something and look into it and get back to us but to date there has been no calls no how are you, no remarks on the food or kitchens or that there was a bad cold in florida. maybee if they had said this in the first place i would not be saying this about them now.

I know it's frustrating, but please try to remember the vast size of Disney, at our resort (Pop) alone there were many many rooms sick when i was ill. The housekeeper told me she'd knocked on at least 10 different rooms (just in our building) that had sick people in them that day! I'm sure most everyone wrote in to Disney, and to be honest - though it seemed cold, you did receive an email from back from the manager. There was not much he could do, but what little he could do he offerred to your family. I wish there was some sort of sypmathy department Disney had, that certainly would help make people feel much better about their concerns, but in reality - everything goes through guest claims and customer relations. And in this case, there's only so much they could do knowing that no one really knew the cause.

I'm sorry your vacation was ruined. If you did have trip insurance and you went to the hospital, that certainly should have covered most everything that happened to your parents. Be sure to check into it.

 

[The Mom]

I'm so sorry your vacation was ruined. Something similar happened to my niece while at WDW when she was bitten by something while lying poolside, and ended up with a major infection.

That said, as others have mentioned, it's very hard to track down food poisoning unless a very large group is infected (such as at a banquet, wedding, school, etc) or samples are taken that show an infection.

We were able to document a case while on vacation once, only because we had an Epidemiologist in the group, and it was a clear case of the uninfected member not consuming something that everyone else in the group had. (It was a golf foursome, and ended up being contaminated water from those orange coolers. My husband, much to everyone else's horror, only drank beer. :lol: )

The timing is also important. Even with increased weight, decreased motility, etc it would be very, very, unusual for there to be a 72 hour gap between exposure and symptoms of food poisoning. BUT, 48-72 hours is about right for a viral illness.

 

[New2WDW]

we had medical insurance but this does replace the holiday lost or the disney tickets lost. it cauld be a cold but there were no other simptons to follow this up or doctors that said this.

what i am going on about is how disney handled this matter and there non caring attitude to all of this
that is what i am writting about and this is why i am so angry. they said the would do something and look into it and get back to us but to date there has been no calls no how are you, no remarks on the food or kitchens or that there was a bad cold in florida. maybee if they had said this in the first place i would not be saying this about them now.

I understand your comments and problem I was just wondering if you had Travel/Vacation insurance so that you might get at least some money back due to illness during your trip. Yes I do agree that Disney should handle these kinds of matters better.

If you did have vacation insurance thru Disney here is what I dug up:
Vacation Insurance protects you against covered unexpected events. Our vacation insurance policy continues to offer great benefits covering many emergency and unexpected situations prior to and during your vacation. The policy includes the following coverage and benefits, subject to certain exclusions and limitations:

• <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Trip Cancellation/Interruption (up to the total cost of your vacation package) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) ($25,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Emergency Medical Transportation ($20,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Medical Expenses ($10,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Lost baggage ($2,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Travel Delay ($600) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Baggage Delay ($500)
• 24-hour Travel Assistance via LiveTravel

A link to more info: http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw/media/reservations/InsureWEB06.pdf

I do hope you get things worked out with Disney but in the meantime hopefully you can salvage some of your money.

 

[metman]

I understand your comments and problem I was just wondering if you had Travel/Vacation insurance so that you might get at least some money back due to illness during your trip. Yes I do agree that Disney should handle these kinds of matters better.

If you did have vacation insurance thru Disney here is what I dug up:
Vacation Insurance protects you against covered unexpected events. Our vacation insurance policy continues to offer great benefits covering many emergency and unexpected situations prior to and during your vacation. The policy includes the following coverage and benefits, subject to certain exclusions and limitations:

• <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Trip Cancellation/Interruption (up to the total cost of your vacation package) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) ($25,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Emergency Medical Transportation ($20,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Medical Expenses ($10,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Lost baggage ($2,000) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Travel Delay ($600) <LI style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE: none">Baggage Delay ($500)
• 24-hour Travel Assistance via LiveTravel

A link to more info: http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw/media/reservations/InsureWEB06.pdf

I do hope you get things worked out with Disney but in the meantime hopefully you can salvage some of your money.

thanks for all the help but this is the point if you go back to my first thread disney said they would look into it and come back to us at our villa on our phone number
this they did not then when i tried to talk to them about it again all i got was a wall. if he had said there was a cold flue going about i might have nown what was going on but he did not. nor did he show me and my family any respect.

that is why i am not happy and that is why i am complaining

last year the manager at the wilderness lodge was amazing i asked if he could help me with a problem and a hour later it was done it was only to find something for my son for his birthday but that is what you go to disney for because of the service. and this we did not get when he felt we had a problem.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'm sorry this happened to you. Even if Disney realized it was not food poisoning, it would have been nice for them to follow up with you.

 

[coastermaster83]

Well I can tell you first of all it is the norwalk virus, Its not the same verson thats been floating around cruise ships around the world but its part of the same family and its a nasty one. I spent 2 days nursing my girlfriend back to health after she chucked her guts out for 24 hours straight. I some how didnt get it I think because I lysoled the world down after everything I did. Anyways its very rude of them not to get back to you but I think it all depends on the person your dealing with some people are very helpful and others dont give a care and I sure Walts rolling in his cryostasis chamber thinking about the people that are not helpful working in his park. I would say if you dont hear back from him make a formal complant so that it goes on his record. Thats what they always tell us to do at work if we have a problem with someone call the assc. hotline and report them and they will look into it.

 

[jesserin]

Well I can tell you first of all it is the norwalk virus, Its not the same verson thats been floating around cruise ships around the world but its part of the same family and its a nasty one. I spent 2 days nursing my girlfriend back to health after she chucked her guts out for 24 hours straight. I some how didnt get it I think because I lysoled the world down after everything I did. Anyways its very rude of them not to get back to you but I think it all depends on the person your dealing with some people are very helpful and others dont give a care and I sure Walts rolling in his cryostasis chamber thinking about the people that are not helpful working in his park. I would say if you dont hear back from him make a formal complant so that it goes on his record. Thats what they always tell us to do at work if we have a problem with someone call the assc. hotline and report them and they will look into it.

I'm confused. He did hear back from him. :veryconfu What else can the guy do? Other than recomending you file a complaint with guest services... there's not alot else the manager could have done. *shrugs* I think he did exactly what he should have done - and probably does the same thing on a daily basis to any other customers that have issues.

 

[Uponastar]

I came down with a horrible case of either food poisoning or a stomach virus while staying at WDW once, too. I guess I'll never know for sure which it was, but really, what does it matter? These things happen. I missed 2 days out of that trip, but such is life. There is not alway a place to put blame, nor is it always right or even satisfying to do so. You can't change what happened.

 

[kcnole]

They probably checked to see if there was any problem with the food, when there was not, there wasn't much more Disney could do for you then. They followed up with an e-mail, I don't know what you wanted them to do. Disney may or may not have known that there was a nasty virus going around, but they're not a medical facility and there are probably hundreds of people every day on property with a virus. They can't follow up with everyone and make sure they are all ok. Any more assistance to you would have been outside of their abilities.