Well that stunk!!

ASilverman31

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
So disappointed in our recent stay! Not only did my son's kindle fire get taken out of our room, but my other son was sick with 104 fever and strep throat the first day we arrived and no one offered any help. First of all, it was 9 p.m. at night and no one was there to answer the front desk call (it took 3 tries to even get someone on the phone). I finally got in touch with someone at the back desk to direct me to a local walk in with a shuttle. The shuttle service was unable to locate a driver and no other alternative was offered by anyone! I dragged my burning up just turned 6-year-old child out to Kissimmee at 9:30 at night in an Uber that I paid over $60 round trip for and took me until 1 a.m. to get back to the on-site hotel. When I informed guest services about what had happened they said it was up to me to call back to someone at the front desk (who was not answering) to get a taxi voucher! No one had told me that was an option and I was not waiting any longer with a very sick child! Thanks for nothing! This was my 6 year old's birthday trip, and it was an awful disaster! Unfortunately, Disney did not help matters. I'm sad that this was only our second trip with our kiddos, and may be our last after this debacle. Not very magical at all!
 
So disappointed in our recent stay! Not only did my son's kindle fire get taken out of our room, but my other son was sick with 104 fever and strep throat the first day we arrived and no one offered any help. First of all, it was 9 p.m. at night and no one was there to answer the front desk call (it took 3 tries to even get someone on the phone). I finally got in touch with someone at the back desk to direct me to a local walk in with a shuttle. The shuttle service was unable to locate a driver and no other alternative was offered by anyone! I dragged my burning up just turned 6-year-old child out to Kissimmee at 9:30 at night in an Uber that I paid over $60 round trip for and took me until 1 a.m. to get back to the on-site hotel. When I informed guest services about what had happened they said it was up to me to call back to someone at the front desk (who was not answering) to get a taxi voucher! No one had told me that was an option and I was not waiting any longer with a very sick child! Thanks for nothing! This was my 6 year old's birthday trip, and it was an awful disaster! Unfortunately, Disney did not help matters. I'm sad that this was only our second trip with our kiddos, and may be our last after this debacle. Not very magical at all!
I'm very sorry that your child was so ill and I truly hope he's getting better by now. :eeyore:

At the same time, I don't think Disney is to blame for anything. Illness happens and the resorts are not hospitals. :confused3

If you think you shouldn't have had to pay for the ride to the clinic, you could ask Disney for reimbursement. They might do that to for customer relations' sake.
 
I'm very sorry that your child was so ill and I truly hope he's getting better by now. :eeyore:

At the same time, I don't think Disney is to blame for anything. Illness happens and the resorts are not hospitals. :confused3

If you think you shouldn't have had to pay for the ride to the clinic, you could ask Disney for reimbursement. They might do that to for customer relations' sake.
I understand that resorts are not hospitals. What I expected was help getting some help for my son, and maybe even someone to check that we were doing okay the next day. That is good customer service, especially since they knew that we were there specifically for his birthday trip that was prearranged by Disney travel agent. Also, I did speak with customer relations after we arrived home regarding reimbursement for the uber ride, and they informed me since they offer the taxi voucher (which they did not tell me about) I was solely responsible for the money. They were not willing to cover any of the expense. That is what prompted this review. I'm really disappointed in the whole process. Very uncaring all around.
 
I understand that resorts are not hospitals. What I expected was help getting some help for my son, and maybe even someone to check that we were doing okay the next day. That is good customer service, especially since they knew that we were there specifically for his birthday trip that was prearranged by Disney travel agent. Also, I did speak with customer relations after we arrived home regarding reimbursement for the uber ride, and they informed me since they offer the taxi voucher (which they did not tell me about) I was solely responsible for the money. They were not willing to cover any of the expense. That is what prompted this review. I'm really disappointed in the whole process. Very uncaring all around.

I can empathize with your frustration. Several years ago, my wife and I were sick with high fevers from sinus infections while at Disney with our 2 small (at the time) children. We were staying at the Polynesian. We were so sick we took turns sleeping all day while the other parent forced themselves out into the parks with the kids. Disney was *zero* help, except to provide numbers for the local walk-in clinic, hospital, and concierge doctor. Since we had no car (and I'm not sure if Uber existed back then), by day 3 we gave in and called the concierge doctor. A guy showed up at $300+ a pop ($600+ total) to tell us yep, we have sinus infections and we need an antibiotic, which thankfully he had with him at some inflated price. Prior to calling the concierge doctor, I called the local walk-in clinic and was told it was a 1.5 hour wait and would be something crazy like $350 to be seen. Since both of us were sick, we weren't about to hop in a cab with our two kids and waste a day doing that for more money than the concierge was going to charge. Of course, we started on the antibiotic the concierge doand were starting to feel better right about the time that we were on our way home.

The year after that, we were again on property and my daughter ended up with a sinus infection. We knew it was a sinus infection because she always got them after a bad cold. The doctor on call at our pediatrician's office refused to treat her without her being seen, and he also refused to let us speak with our own pediatrician--but that was his mistake, because our pediatrician was the practice owner (who apologized profusely once we got home), and this particular on-call doctor disappeared from the practice shortly thereafter.

In my personal opinion, the whole setup is a racket and Disney is complicit in it. I agree that it's not Disney's responsibility to provide medical care, but for most people it's difficult to cancel or reschedule trips to Disney, and they really should help to facilitate care--at a reasonable rate--for families who end up sick during their resort stay. Instead, all they do is refer you to local providers who are more than willing to take advantage of your unfortunate predicament.

There are now "virtual" medical providers which will usually do a video conference with you through an app or online, and are willing to treat minor illnesses. I believe in most cases your employer or medical insurance company must have a relationship with one of the providers for you to use them. About a year ago, I tried one such provider for my daughter while at home, and was able to obtain an antibiotic to successfully treat her ear infection, for a much reduced rate (I think it was $45-$50 for the consultation). Strep is a bit tougher since the symptoms can mimic other illnesses, and without a strep test a physician may not prescribe. If available to you, I'd still give it a shot before I'd shell out hundreds of dollars to a "tourist doctor."
 


I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. It is frustrating to be caught without a car when you need urgent medical attention. And even worse when you're supposed to be on an amazing vacation and someone in your family is sick.

On our most recent trip, we needed to leave Magic Kingdom to go to a local urgent care. We went to the first aid center, and they gave us the phone number of a clinic that provided free transportation to and from their location. Disney did not provide the service itself, but had a relationship, I guess, where they allowed the shuttle backstage to pick us up. We did have to wait a really long time (I think over an hour?), a lot longer than they initially told us it would be, for the shuttle to arrive. By the time we got back to the park, we had missed the fireworks, which I was really sad about. I also had that feeling of wishing there was something more Disney could have done, but also understand that it wasn't their fault we were in that situation (although maybe it was in part - my husband had a bad reaction to a bug bite that occurred in the park) - but it was still incredibly disappointing to miss out on an experience I had been looking forward to (fireworks with our kids for their first time at MK).

I wish you were able to get in touch with someone earlier on who could have helped with arranging transportation! Despite having to wait a long time, I was thankful to have the option since we didn't have a car, and hadn't thought about the fact that we could have taken an Uber.
 
I can empathize with your frustration. Several years ago, my wife and I were sick with high fevers from sinus infections while at Disney with our 2 small (at the time) children. We were staying at the Polynesian. We were so sick we took turns sleeping all day while the other parent forced themselves out into the parks with the kids. Disney was *zero* help, except to provide numbers for the local walk-in clinic, hospital, and concierge doctor. Since we had no car (and I'm not sure if Uber existed back then), by day 3 we gave in and called the concierge doctor. A guy showed up at $300+ a pop ($600+ total) to tell us yep, we have sinus infections and we need an antibiotic, which thankfully he had with him at some inflated price. Prior to calling the concierge doctor, I called the local walk-in clinic and was told it was a 1.5 hour wait and would be something crazy like $350 to be seen. Since both of us were sick, we weren't about to hop in a cab with our two kids and waste a day doing that for more money than the concierge was going to charge. Of course, we started on the antibiotic the concierge doand were starting to feel better right about the time that we were on our way home.

The year after that, we were again on property and my daughter ended up with a sinus infection. We knew it was a sinus infection because she always got them after a bad cold. The doctor on call at our pediatrician's office refused to treat her without her being seen, and he also refused to let us speak with our own pediatrician--but that was his mistake, because our pediatrician was the practice owner (who apologized profusely once we got home), and this particular on-call doctor disappeared from the practice shortly thereafter.

In my personal opinion, the whole setup is a racket and Disney is complicit in it. I agree that it's not Disney's responsibility to provide medical care, but for most people it's difficult to cancel or reschedule trips to Disney, and they really should help to facilitate care--at a reasonable rate--for families who end up sick during their resort stay. Instead, all they do is refer you to local providers who are more than willing to take advantage of your unfortunate predicament.

There are now "virtual" medical providers which will usually do a video conference with you through an app or online, and are willing to treat minor illnesses. I believe in most cases your employer or medical insurance company must have a relationship with one of the providers for you to use them. About a year ago, I tried one such provider for my daughter while at home, and was able to obtain an antibiotic to successfully treat her ear infection, for a much reduced rate (I think it was $45-$50 for the consultation). Strep is a bit tougher since the symptoms can mimic other illnesses, and without a strep test a physician may not prescribe. If available to you, I'd still give it a shot before I'd shell out hundreds of dollars to a "tourist doctor."
I'm really not sure what you are driving at here.

It is NOT Disney's responsibility to provide medical care and to claim they are "complicit" in some form of "racket" is just laughable. Yes we all get ill from time to time, yes it may have a negative effect on our vacation, but WOW, to blame an organisation for the going rates of medical care and claim there should care provided really is setting customer expectations waaaay too high.
 
Arriving so late with a sick child must have been awful. Being in an unfamiliar place and trying to find medical help is the worst. I wish someone had told you about the doctor that comes to your room. We used it when our daughter was sick one year-although we paid upfront I believe our insurance reimbursed us and getting the antibiotic right away was helpful. Another time we used an Express Care that was only 10 minutes from the Beach Club and the Uber fees were less than 20.00 round trip. But they were probably closed at 9:00.
I hope you were able to have a nice vacation after your son felt better.
 



GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top