The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [43]
If you do end up getting bitten while on vacation, it’s going to be hard to tell if the bites are bed bugs. Unfortunately, Florida is home to a huge number of bloodsucking insects, so the bites could be fleas, fire ants, mosquitoes, or bed bugs. It could even be a simple heat rash. Luckily each type of bite/rash looks and feels noticeably different, so educate yourself beforehand so you’ll know the difference; there are pictures all over Google Images comparing different types of bites. You’ll also be able to narrow it down because ants and mosquitoes are fairly easy to spot, whereas fleas and bedbugs are smaller and better at hiding. Obviously, if you wake up and have the bites, as opposed to getting them while walking around the parks, chances are better that there are bed bugs in your room.
Finally, it’s becoming more apparent that bed bugs are no longer just coming from beds. They’ve been found in high-class boutique clothing stores in NYC, in the cargo compartments of airplanes, and even in movie theater seats. So unless you plan on never leaving your house and never inviting anyone in to visit, you’re going risk bed bug exposure and there’s nothing you can do about it. So stop worrying and enjoy your vacation, dammit!
But people on Disney web forums refuse to take this advice and just LOVE to freak out about bed bugs. Like, totally apeshit panic attacks that threaten to ruin their vacation before they even leave. And the media isn’t helping, with a different inflammatory story about the little bloodsuckers popping up in major publications every week or so. However, I contacted a number of people on Disboards who claimed to have been bitten by bed bugs at WDW, and it seems like a lot of these people are just trolls trying to stir up trouble. Only Yolanda, a single mother of two, had a story that sounded legit.
“We were staying at the Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside,” begins Yolanda. “I was in a double, my son was in the other double, and my daughter was in a trundle that pulled out from under my son’s bed. The first morning all three of us woke up with painful red bites, which at first I thought were fire ant bites. But then I remembered reading about bed bugs a while ago on Disboards and realized I had totally forgotten to check the beds (won’t make that mistake again!).
“Well, sure enough I found little brown flecks all over the back corners of the mattress, so I started freaking out a little bit! I frantically dragged both kids down to the Concierge Desk and told the gentleman behind the desk, Jerry, what happened. I was trying to be quiet so that the other guests wouldn’t hear me, because I didn’t want to start a panic, but when I showed Jerry the welts on my daughter’s arms he screamed, “Oh no, bed bugs!” like a little girl! LOL!!!
“You would have thought we had Ebola the way they handled everything. First they bought us brand new outfits from the gift shop, made us take off our old clothes and seal them in plastic bags (always wear clean underwear, kids!), shower, and then put on the new clothes. Then they bagged up all of our luggage and anything else we had with us and took it away to be heat-treated, which they said might damage some polyester-based materials. We were also told that the mattresses would be thrown away and that our room would be treated and quarantined for at least a week.
“In the meantime we were moved to a bed bug-free 1-bedroom suite at Saratoga Springs, which was beautiful, and our entire stay was comp’d! Our clothes and luggage came back the next day, and only one of my sweaters was destroyed (it shrunk up, I guess from being washed in boiling water), which they also paid me for. All in all it wasn’t the best experience, but Jerry and the rest of the staff really went out of their way to make sure our vacation wasn’t ruined. I have no complaints about the whole thing, and would still stay at Port Orleans,