Earlier this week, we share 10 tips to help keep you from getting sick when visiting a theme park, in response to all the stories about the current measles outbreak that started at Disneyland. Obviously, if you've been immunized, your chances of contracting measles at a theme park are so low as to be unmeasurable. (And if you haven't been immunized, for your sake and for all those around you, please do get immunized right away!)
But there's much more than measles in the air around the world these days. Catching a cold, or even the flu, isn't nearly as serious as the measles, but those illnesses still are annoyances that can lead to more serious health issues, especially with influenza. No one wants to get sick. Yet, even if you do follow all of our tips to stay healthy, that only improves your chances. One day, that common cold germ or flu virus is going to find you, despite your best efforts. And it might just happen while you're visiting a theme park.
We'd love to hear your stories about what happened, and how you coped with an illness either during or right after your theme park visit. I told my story about a nasty summertime flu virus in Stories from a Theme Park Insider. That one hit me on my way to work, and I spent the evening with my face in my arm, watching the Country Bear Vacation Hoedown show while peering through a gap in the curtains in front of the exit hallways, as I tried to shield myself from the relatively sparse crowd in the park that evening, until we had someone to cover so that I could go home. (I ended up having to finish the shift.)
If this has happened to you, please tell us your story in the comments. Being sick on vacation stinks, but a positive attitude helps get one through. Whether that comes through optimism or schadenfreude, perhaps your story can help cheer up someone else who's gotten sick in a park.
Keep reading:
Somehow our 6 and 4yo's never became ill even though we were pretty much confined to our room for two days.
I will never rub Humphrey's nose again!
I was coming up on the one year anniversary with the girl I was dating (now my wife) and we really enjoyed dates at Disneyland. So I planned with her to go to Disneyland on our anniversary, but unknown to her I ordered tickets for the Fantasmic dessert buffet (back when it was on the balcony of the then-Disney Gallery, now the Dream Suite). When I ordered the tickets they stressed repeatedly that they were non-refundable, non-exchangeable, non-transferable, nothing.
The night before our date, I came down with a horrible stomach flu. I was up all night puking my guts out. But knowing I had these tickets that were a now-or-never deal, I sucked it up and picked her up on time. When she answered the door she said I looked like death, and tried to call it off. I insisted we go, and so we went. To convince her I was fine I made it through a simple light breakfast, and a ride (forgot what it was, something gentle) and then we got in line for Storybook Land. As we inched along she kept saying I was looking worse and worse. Halfway through the line, I knew she was absolutely right. I bolted out of line and made it to the nearest trashcan to empty the contents of my stomach. My girlfriend flagged down security, security called first aid, and a nurse came and insisted on pushing me to the infirmary in a wheelchair.
Once we got to first aid, my girlfriend ranted and raved asking why I was so stubbornly insistent on coming when I was clearly so very sick. I had to show her the tickets and ruin the surprise, and the nurse chimes in, "Oh, you could have just called and explained, and they would have changed the date." My girlfriend took them to city hall, explained the situation, got them exchanged for a night two weeks later, and drove my sorry butt back home.
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