We got Covid on a Disney trip

[purrenh1]

Also, the resorts we were in (CCV and BWV) were very quiet with few people and plenty of space. I never felt at risk at all in the resorts. We ate all of our meals outdoors and didn't really feel at risk at any of those locations either (Homecoming, Geyser Pointe, etc.).

I noticed your earlier comment about not spending all day at a Walmart. There is so much confusion and conflicting guidance that this was a helpful reminder: DURATION is one of the risk factors along with things more commonly cited like distance and ventilation. I am so hopeful about being able to safely go in March 2021. I am preparing by reading trip reports, and I find your positives and negatives really helpful, so thank you.

We are trying to do almost all dining outdoors (like 3 Bridges, or Flame Tree), or in our room (take out from Sanaa) to minimize risk. We will try to enjoy resort time when shared facilities like the pool (which thankfully are outdoors) are not crowded.

I wonder if there were some rides that had better, more outdoor lines? I wouldn't do Soarin' for example on this trip, being that it combines duration and lack of ventilation as risk factors.

 

[AZMermaid]

Interesting. People normally don’t suddenly die from Covid. If he knew he was Covid positive he should have never gotten on that plane. Maybe he had symptoms (since almost everything is a Covid symptom) but tested negative before the flight? More info is needed.

And sometimes people just lie. I’m an elementary teacher and my next door teaching neighbor is 8 months pregnant. We have a very clear procedure for quarantining if a family member is positive. Last week, She had a kid come to school and tell her, “I ‘m not supposed to tell you this, but my mom has Covid.” Nurse verified it. Yep. Mom is positive and sent knowingly sent the kids to school, one to a very pregnant teacher.

 

[sevenseaslagoon1971]

Hope all who have been diagnosed are taking care and feel better soon.

Husband and I returned from a 3-day WDW trip 3 days ago and plan to get tested for COVID tomorrow. No symptoms. We were very careful during our trip and flight. No indoor dining, masks at all times (except when in our hotel room or eating/drinking). There’s still a chance we got it and I’m feeling nervous waiting to find out.

We knew the inherent risks and decided to go anyway. I’m glad we went and Disney is doing a good job but it’s certainly not a perfect system. For those who are very nervous I would recommend waiting. But it’s certainly up to everyone and their own risk tolerance.

UPDATE: Husband and I got tested 5 days after our last exposure. Got COVID lab tests (not the rapid test) at CVS and got results about 24 hours later. Both of us-thankfully- tested negative.

Looking back, we both felt it was worth it to go to Disney. would we do it again before a vaccine? No. It was stressful enough most of the time to make us think we should wait until things are safer before our next trip. We spent a good bit of time and energy trying to stay away from other people especially in high traffic areas and choke points (like in Fantasyland near Small World and Peter Pan).

 

[KittyKitty]

It was stressful enough most of the time to make us think we should wait until things are safer before our next trip.

That is what happened to me. I went over Thanksgiving. Disney did a great job, but that nagging feeling in the back of my mind while I was there made me decide to postpone next trip.

 

[Firepath]

A couple articles say this:
The incident was documented in a series of tweets by a passenger, model Jordan Pope, who said that the wife of the deceased man "confirmed a positive test when talking to EMTs."

Also, it was noted he lost his sense of smell and taste and I think at this point if either of those things happen to you there isn’t much of a question, you have Covid.

Isn't breathing affected at high altitudes? Even if you're not worried about others, seems like it would be safer on the ground.

 

[chrish2]

She had a kid come to school and tell her, “I ‘m not supposed to tell you this, but my mom has Covid.” Nurse verified it. Yep. Mom is positive and sent knowingly sent the kids to school, one to a very pregnant teacher.

Kudos to the kid.

Anecdotally I've started to hear more and more of these stories. Makes me wonder if human behaviour has a tendency to go "I don't feel that bad so if someone catches it FROM me they will also not have it that bad".

 

[a1tinkfans]

Wonder how the school handled the revelation? Was there a call home? Was child sent home? Other children on that child’s bus transportation notified. How selfish!

 

[rjb123]

And sometimes people just lie. I’m an elementary teacher and my next door teaching neighbor is 8 months pregnant. We have a very clear procedure for quarantining if a family member is positive. Last week, She had a kid come to school and tell her, “I ‘m not supposed to tell you this, but my mom has Covid.” Nurse verified it. Yep. Mom is positive and sent knowingly sent the kids to school, one to a very pregnant teacher.

That is disgusting. IMHO a parent who does that should be told that their child is not welcome for in person learning for the remainder of the school year. Its all online when you knowingly endanger the lives of others.

 

[AZMermaid]

Wonder how the school handled the revelation? Was there a call home? Was child sent home? Other children on that child’s bus transportation notified. How selfish!

Yes, both kid and sister were removed from class and had to be picked up immediately. Because the student was not positive, no-one else had to quarantine or be sent home.

A girl my son sits near tested positive so he had to stay home for 14 days (now 10 days per CDC). But, my daughter was fine to still go to school because she herself had not been exposed. Had my son started showing symptoms, she then would have quarantined as well. So that case was similar, child was not actually sick, but exposed. So no-one near her had to quarantine.

 

[AZMermaid]

That is disgusting. IMHO a parent who does that should be told that their child is not welcome for in person learning for the remainder of the school year. Its all online when you knowingly endanger the lives of others.

The irony is this same mom sent the principal a pretty harsh email because there were sill 25 students in that second grade classroom because only two chose to stay online when we returned in person about 6 weeks after school started.

 

[Bucknut2710]

Wife and I had a 6 night stay at poly 11/6 through 11/12. We both became symptomatic on 11/14 and tested positive on 11/16. There is a slight chance we may have had it before the trip but doubtful. This trip is the riskiest thing we've done since the start of the pandemic. We followed the rules, tried not to touch railings and anything else that people touch often. The places we didn't feel comfortable were the plane rides to and from and in the parks, (particularly in the mornings) in high traffic areas like Galaxy's Edge. Social distancing is impossible when there are many people all trying to be in the same place. We thought they did a good job in ride queues. Stay safe out there.

So sorry to hear about your experience. My family just returned from a trip a few weeks ago and feel lucky to make it back healthy. Hope everyone feels better!

 

[TammyLynn33]

That is disgusting. IMHO a parent who does that should be told that their child is not welcome for in person learning for the remainder of the school year. Its all online when you knowingly endanger the lives of others.

Maybe just maybe think of the trouble this child got into for “telling” his/her secret. The child may be safer at school. Sad but true.

 

[kristenabelle]

It was stressful enough most of the time to make us think we should wait until things are safer before our next trip. We spent a good bit of time and energy trying to stay away from other people especially in high traffic areas and choke points (like in Fantasyland near Small World and Peter Pan).

That is what happened to me. I went over Thanksgiving. Disney did a great job, but that nagging feeling in the back of my mind while I was there made me decide to postpone next trip.

I feel exactly the same - the energy I spent trying to stay away from large crowds and constant vigilance kept me on edge. I still had great moments of joy, but I think I'll stay away until I'm personally vaccinated at least.

 

[PsycProfPlum]

That is what happened to me. I went over Thanksgiving. Disney did a great job, but that nagging feeling in the back of my mind while I was there made me decide to postpone next trip.

We had exactly the same experience. I don't regret going but the experience was off just enough that we postponed March to July.

 

[Aprilalidocious]

And sometimes people just lie. I’m an elementary teacher and my next door teaching neighbor is 8 months pregnant. We have a very clear procedure for quarantining if a family member is positive. Last week, She had a kid come to school and tell her, “I ‘m not supposed to tell you this, but my mom has Covid.” Nurse verified it. Yep. Mom is positive and sent knowingly sent the kids to school, one to a very pregnant teacher.

Is it possible, though, that the mom was quarantined in their home and maybe they weren't making much of it because she's had help or managed to stay away from her kids? I only ask because I've heard about similar situations. That said, as contagious and dangerous as Covid has proven to be for some, She could've spoke with the school and asked how to proceed and never should've made her child feel uneasy with secrecy or risked exposing a teacher

 

[oompa_lumpia]

My GF and I flew to WDW for a week, did all the things, surrounded by crowds, and didn't catch it. Afterwards she brings it home from the gym and we both wind up with it. I really think the most likely places to catch it are where you have your guard down-- at home. Don't get complacent!

 

[eMoneyBug]

Friend of my son recently tested positive so he went to get tested last week via the saliva method and the results were inconclusive...so of course he says I don’t have it dad, but we are kinda like just stay in your room until 2021

 

[Yinn]

My wife and I are just back from a short trip. We haven't been tested yet, but we've been extremely careful at home and tried to do so in during the trip as well.

The good news is that everywhere we went, guest compliance was excellent (>95%). Even walking in from the parking lot to the parks, people were wearing masks. Another positive was that many things Disney is doing seemed very safe. For instance, ride queues were well spaced and outdoors to the extent possible. Also, the resorts we were in (CCV and BWV) were very quiet with few people and plenty of space. I never felt at risk at all in the resorts. We ate all of our meals outdoors and didn't really feel at risk at any of those locations either (Homecoming, Geyser Pointe, etc.).

The downsides were that distancing broke down quickly in the areas crowds were high and there was no structure imposed with floor markings. For instance, in the Emporium people were not very mindful of personal space, were free to move in any direction, and several people were within easy touching distance. Essentially it's a free for all in shops (except for check-out) and you cannot count on others to be aware of distancing. We experienced that at both World of Disney and the Emporium in particular but also in some of the other shops in the parks (resort shops were much less crowded).

The parks are at 35% capacity which doesn't sound like a lot of people. However, keep in mind that a lot of people-eating attractions and dining are closed (or low capacity) so 35% feels more like 45-50% in terms of the number of people just walking around. 50% capacity is essentially a pre-covid day in some of the parks (according to Len Testa and touringplans). Also, while overall capacity isn't terribly high, people do not spread out evenly across the parks and tend to congregate in the usual particular areas. New Fantasy Land on mid-afternoon Monday was essentially as crowded as it was pre-Covid, maybe more so with the queues taking up some of the outdoor real estate. Adventureland had dozens of people eating Dole Whip (maskless) right by large crowds of people just trying to get to where they were going. Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story land were also quite crowded. I wore an KN-95 mask the last day and was glad to have it.

I'm not trying to sway anyone one way or the other, just trying to provide a realistic preview of what you might experience when you are there. It was a bit of a shock to the system for us as we haven't really been around people much since March. Overall we had a good trip, but it was a bit more stressful just being constantly concerned about distancing from others. It scratched a big itch for us and it was great to be "home" but we will cancel our March trip and rebook for a later date when we are less worried about being around crowds.

Just got back myself and I have to say overall I was madly surprised at the lengths Disney went to for a safe experience. That said, it's still up to the guests. While it's impressive to see multiple staff members approach people to ask them to stop eating and walking, the fact remains that people are doing it. I've also had to ask repeatedly for space - which was often met with eye rolls and nothing else.

For my trip, unfortunately there was constant non-compliance - it was especially bad in Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom and more so when there were more young adults (20's) were around.

For anyone reading who is concerned but wants to go - avoid closing time. While there's social distancing everywhere, at close they still funnel you through choke points with no social distancing requirements. You will be shoulder to shoulder, front to back.

It took us a bit but we ended up changing our days up. We're usually open to close park warriors, but it was just too much to deal with. By the end we were going at park open, leave by 11am. Return between 4-5pm, leave an hour before close. We hit all the parks, the only thing we missed was Pirates of the Caribbean, and Test Track due to an emergency evacuation (whole building evacuation, smoke, etc.) as we were just about to board - which of course had no social distancing and was a bit of a free for all.

 

[WorldOfPooh]

I noticed your earlier comment about not spending all day at a Walmart. There is so much confusion and conflicting guidance that this was a helpful reminder: DURATION is one of the risk factors along with things more commonly cited like distance and ventilation. I am so hopeful about being able to safely go in March 2021. I am preparing by reading trip reports, and I find your positives and negatives really helpful, so thank you.

We are trying to do almost all dining outdoors (like 3 Bridges, or Flame Tree), or in our room (take out from Sanaa) to minimize risk. We will try to enjoy resort time when shared facilities like the pool (which thankfully are outdoors) are not crowded.

I wonder if there were some rides that had better, more outdoor lines? I wouldn't do Soarin' for example on this trip, being that it combines duration and lack of ventilation as risk factors.

At some point you have to just go out and do something. Otherwise you end up like Dr. Brix's parents who were locked down for 10 months and then went on hunger strike which caused Brix to violate her own command not to gather during Thanksgiving.

 

[WorldOfPooh]

My GF and I flew to WDW for a week, did all the things, surrounded by crowds, and didn't catch it. Afterwards she brings it home from the gym and we both wind up with it. I really think the most likely places to catch it are where you have your guard down-- at home. Don't get complacent!

At the end of the day, unless you quarantine 24/7 with no contact, you are susceptible no matter where you are. Especially with the new super super super 1 million times more contagious London mutation of the super super super contagious Covid virus.