Nothing is more devastating to a family trip than to have someone get seriously sick on vacation. I planned our epic family Halloween Disney trip for 6 months. I made handmade costumes for the Halloween party at Magic Kingdom that cost us a significant part of the trip budget and was completely non-refundable. Only to have my youngest daughter pick up the worst stomach bug she’s ever had in her entire life half way through the trip. Here’s what you need to know when your kid is sick at Disney, but let me tell you how extremely concerned that experience made me about how clean a hotel room might get between visitors. I know the kind of mess my poor kiddo made. I did my very best to clean up after her and made several frantic calls to the Disney hotel staff in that horrible 24 hours. Knowing what I know now, it’s no wonder so many people come home from Disney trips with stomach bugs. Ever since that fateful trip, we’ve made it a family policy to do a quick sanitization of any hotel we stay at, anywhere. Yes, that included when we stayed at an AirBNB in London this spring. If you’re heading out on a family vacation this year, here’s how we keep it super-simple:
10 Things We ALWAYS Clean
Once we’ve put our suitcases down, checked the mattresses and removed the decorative pillows, I hand out wet bleach wipes to everyone in the family and between the four of us we take 5 minutes to sanitize the following things: When we fly, I pack only the bleach wipes. Be sure to leave your luggage near the door until you’ve got an all-clear. Bed bugs can transfer to your luggage and you don’t want to bring those with you home. We collect all the pretty pillows that are meant just for decorating and place them on the top shelf of the closet to keep them out of the way for our stay. This keeps our own dirty shoes at the door but also protects our feet (and therfore our bed sheets while we’re sleeping) against anything in the bathroom or on the carpet that wouldn’t be cleaned between guests. Those first 5 – 10 minutes upon arrival help with my peace of mind and have never stopped us from enjoying our vacations.
