A Missing Kid Story

Status
Not open for further replies.
Lucky they didn't find him at the bottom of the pool...or worse! :scared1:


I will say this much....I had a terrible incident onboard and was told this same thing.....

"The (Cruise) Director promised them that someone from Disney’s corporate office would contact them, and shortly after returning from the cruise, a rep called. She said that Disney could not offer a refund, but could give the family a two-day Disney World park-pass with limited access"

Minus the offer of park tickets, in my case.

My advice to everyone now would be, if you have a problem this serious on the ship, DO NOT accept the consolation that "someone will take care of you after you get off the ship".....BECAUSE THEY WON'T!!!!

If I had it to do over again, and if I'd been physically able to, I would have stood on the desk at guest services and screamed until I got a refund.

And I bet these parents wish they'd done the same thing.


And before anyone starts calling me a "hater"...please note that I did not say that this could happen only on DCL. It could happen on any ship....but the only time I've ever had something awful happen and found out that the "magic" was missing, happened to be on DCL.
 

Well, first, the dad's wrong, the bands don't tell you where on the ship or even in the clubs a child is, they only tell you if the child has been checked into the club or not, there's no GPS chip in the band at all.

Second, what's missing from this story is where the child found? Probably right there in the kid's club since he couldn't be checked out by anyone else, either that, or he was checked out by someone who had the right password and marked as a person who could check in/out and there was a huge misscommunication on the part of his party.

Disney has never offered refunds on cruises unless it's a major act of God and the cruise can't sail at all, even then they usually only offer to reschedule, so I'm not surprised he didn't get a refund, they did try and offer a couple of passes to the parks, so it's not like they ignored him, honestly, he panicked, didn't understand their lost child process, and wanted the world.
 
It seems like the dad had a lot of assumptions and is now contacting the media in preparation for a lawsuit.

From a child safety perspective, you should never make a public announcement about a missing child. You want to do this only internally or by a code word. In the event that this is an abduction, you want to avoid anything that tips off an abductor.

As for why the gangway staff didn't know, my best guess is 1) they're not going to let a 3-year old off the ship, as the dad implies and 2) the alert is likely given to those that can actively search.

This isn't my realm of expertise, but wouldn't the CD be the more appropriate person to speak to, rather than the captain? Unless the kid is on the bridge, of course.
 


It's scary a thing like this happened. I'd be curious to know where he was found too. Was he checked out by someone who was authorized to do so? And if so how did they miss that fact? An incident like this is a good chance to review missing person procedures. They should have also let the parents know what the procedures are too. I don't think something like this ruins a whole trip. I also don't think they were entitled to a refund. The two day park tickets were going above and beyond in my opinion. If it was proven that the CM actually did something wrong maybe but the fact he was with a family friend makes me think he was checked out and it was a lack of communication issue rather than the child was actually in danger issue.
 
When the dad complains about the "party announcements" but the lack of announcement for his son that reminded me of something I'd heard on board.
"Red parties" and "blue parties" are codes for health and other emergencies that various staff are to respond to. He very well maybe missed an announcement about his son.
I'm wondering, given his friend found the child if maybe someone else in his party checked him out.
If that's the case, I hardly blame Disney for giving them "too little compensation." Rather too much.
I don't think I have rightly enough information, but they're a bit too careful with their child care for me to take this at face value.
 
Well, first, the dad's wrong, the bands don't tell you where on the ship or even in the clubs a child is, they only tell you if the child has been checked into the club or not, there's no GPS chip in the band at all.

Second, what's missing from this story is where the child found? Probably right there in the kid's club since he couldn't be checked out by anyone else, either that, or he was checked out by someone who had the right password and marked as a person who could check in/out and there was a huge misscommunication on the part of his party.

Disney has never offered refunds on cruises unless it's a major act of God and the cruise can't sail at all, even then they usually only offer to reschedule, so I'm not surprised he didn't get a refund, they did try and offer a couple of passes to the parks, so it's not like they ignored him, honestly, he panicked, didn't understand their lost child process, and wanted the world.




The article says he was found safe and sound in the youth area where he was supposed to be. It is there in the dcl statement. The system worked the child was there, safe and sound, however you have to wonder why the Father and the CM's didnt find him when they searched the area.


I have had both my kids missing at public areas, it is amazingly scary.

As for this blog.....(and I am not the statements/detials are, or are not true)......I don't put alot of faith blogs with a agenda of *protecting the Comnumers*, especailly since they didn't note in the where the child was found.

IMO


AKK
 


The article says he was found safe and sound in the youth area where he was supposed to be. It is there in the dcl statement. However you have to wonder why the Father and the CM's didnt find them when they searched the area.


I have had both my kids missing at public areas, it is amazingly scary.

As for this blog.....(and I am not the statements/detials are, or are not true)......I don't put alot of faith blogs with a agenda of *protecting the Comnumers*, especailly since they didn't note in the where the child was found.

IMO


AKK


And of course they're going to tell the truth! Why is it that the father and the website can be lying or not believable, but DISNEY is ALWAYS right, and ALWAYS telling the truth????
:confused3:confused3:confused3
 
:sad2::sad2::sad2::sad2::sad2:

Once again it happens. Something like this happens on a Disney ship and no one believes it or everyone defends it.

If it were any other cruise line, the topic would have been in HUGE CAPITAL LETTERS with the cruise line's name splattered all over and everyone would be talking about how TERRIBLE the other cruise lines are, and how this COULD NEVER HAPPEN ON DISNEY.

Sometimes the people here just never cease to amaze me. :sad2::sad2:
 
Our 7 yr old walked away from me at Hollywood Studios. When I realized that my DH didn't have him I went into full blown panic as well. My sil flagged down a CM and notified them. He asked what my DS was wearing. I literally had to pull my mind back into the moment as I was thinking of everything that could have happened. Crying hysterically wasn't going to get my son found. They immediately radioed in to other CMs that my son was missing. He was found, thank goodness!!! He said he got into a large crowd of people and then couldn't see me, so he got onto a bench to get a higher view of what he could see. He said then one of the park staff came up to him and when he said he was lost, he said then he was surrounded by park staff. My sil stood in one spot while the rest of us were looking, so the CM let her know my son was found. When DH went up to GS to get him, he said that there about 10 parents there retrieving lost children. That's insane!!! But they ended up bringing my son to me. He told them that since the parade was starting up I was probably in line to watch the parade. Lol. Yes because that is where I would be if my child got lost. Lol. Crazy kid!! So our story ends well and the CMs did everything in their power to help find our son. No one was there to console anyone as they all had a job to do. Family was there to console me, not Disney. Disney was there to find my son.

I am not saying that DCL did right or wrong in the article, but I know from previous experience, that Disney did all they could for us.
 
And of course they're going to tell the truth! Why is it that the father and the website can be lying or not believable, but DISNEY is ALWAYS right, and ALWAYS telling the truth????
:confused3:confused3:confused3

Now Stacy.........why would the blog not challenge the statement and print it loud and clear, if it was not true?


You may also note I was questioning why the child was not found during the first search by the Father and CM's, whose job it was to keep track of the child.....that doesnt really put DCL in a good light.


I also question why the family name was not included ..... and that this in somthing like 2 months ago.





AKK
 
justmestace said:
And of course they're going to tell the truth! Why is it that the father and the website can be lying or not believable, but DISNEY is ALWAYS right, and ALWAYS telling the truth????
:confused3:confused3:confused3

Disney is the only one of the sources to name the location. What reason would the father have to withhold this information?
 
So the kid fell asleep in a corner of the club. Why was the parent allowed to roam through the club looking for his kid for so long since the policy was changed in December 2011? I know that DD disappeared on the Magic and it didn't take long for a CM to get her description and pass it onto other CMs via their radio. We had been in the atrium getting pictures taken before dinner with various characters and thought she was still with us, but she had seen another character she wanted to visit while we were going to the next spot.
 
It looks like the child had fallen asleep in one of the rooms and they just didn't see him as they were walking around. What good would it have done to announce for a lost child? "We have a lost 3 year old" isn't going to help anyone on the ship since there are 3 year olds all over the place. They don't make those types of announcements at Disney parks either.

I sounds like there was quite a bit of panicking going on (understandable). The father states that the mother was unconsoleable, yet wanted someone to console her. He rushed to the gangway, when it was more likely the child was still in the club since he hadn't been checked out. I understand the panic. Been there. But the system did work and it would have been more helpful if both the mother and father had looked through the lab/club rather than running to other places.

Nancy
 
As for this blog.....(and I am not the statements/detials are, or are not true)......I don't put alot of faith blogs with a agenda of *protecting the Comnumers*, especailly since they didn't note in the where the child was found.

IMO


AKK


It's the blog for Consumer Reports. Not exactly a fly by night organization.....
 
I think that, as always, the truth is somewhere in between. Reading between the lines, it sounds like there was about a 45-minute window between when they couldn't find the child and when the child was found. During that time, the parents ran all over the ship trying to find the child while not getting an adequate sense of urgency from the cruise staff. There's a whole lot we don't know about this situation.

It's possible the DCL staff was distracted or didn't think it was that big of a deal. Alternately, the DCL staff could have been trained in responding in a calm manner that wouldn't escalate the level of distress. We don't know. A lot of the reports are based on the father's perception of the situation at the time, which, as others have mentioned, may actually have been counterproductive in terms of locating the child. DCL staff are all over the place, and, as mentioned, this sort of information would likely have been relayed in code, and not in public.

The two questions really are, was the child actually in any real threat of danger (as opposed to perceived danger), and was DCL actually dealing with it or did they treat it as parental overreaction? I don't know. I wasn't there, and I don't know DCL's policies on that. The malfunctioning wristband is a problem, obviously. But I also don't honestly see them letting a child that young off the boat unaccompanied and without a KTTW, and I have to think that the youth counselors assigned to the area would have noticed a child that young trying to leave without a parent. But, again, I wasn't there.
 
We lost a child on the Magic years ago. It was during the Until We Meet Again Gathering. We turned our back and when we looked back the elevator was closing and he was gone! Turns out he never got on that elevator but instead had run out to the balcony to see the characters.

I immediately when to the cruise director while my husband chased the elevator. She called the kids club and someone came immediately, took a description and sent an alert. The kids club staff did the searching. Turns out they found him just as he was knocking on our stateroom door. When he couldn't find us after a few minutes, he headed to the stateroom. My only complaint which I never voiced was that they would not let him stay in the room with my nanny who had answered the door. She had permission to sign him in and out of the club. They brought him back to the kids club, I was notified immediately and before I could even go get him, my husband had returned to the club and gotten him.

We were very happy with the response and they were very reassuring. Told me it happens all the time and that they would find him and they did.

Now, my child was a little older and he was gone maybe ten minutes so it is different, but it is scary. I thought Disney did a great job.

My point in posting is not to contradict the story but to reassure those who are alarmed by this.
 
Green Tea said:
It's the blog for Consumer Reports. Not exactly a fly by night organization.....

Ever since CR bought the site from Gawker and laid off the original editorial staff, the site really went downhill.
 
I saw it as the father's information that "How had our son been able to craw away and fall asleep without anyone noticing?" The blog also said that "Luckily, there was no need for that, as a friend flagged Brent down to tell him the boy had been found and was unharmed." The fact that they didn't say the kid had been found in a different location. Given the slant of the article, I would expect the father to ask why the kid had been able to leave the club area if he had been found outside. That is just went through my mind when I read it though. DD has disappeared a few times, once it got to the point of getting a picture so the police could post it to all units but she had snuck back into the house and was found hiding behind a recliner. It can happen anywhere, even right under your nose. Regarding the bracelet, I thought that the CMs did say it had a GPS chip in it, which is why it is so expensive to replace if lost. I know the first thing the CM at the door use to do was scan our KTTW card and see if the child was still in the club. I don't see where it mentions that anywhere, though if the father was allowed into the club to look for his kid it may have said he was still in the club. I don't think complete info was given by either side.
 
It's the blog for Consumer Reports. Not exactly a fly by night organization.....

Its a blog blogs are opinions not always facts....that does not make it a journalistic group....many respected magizines use blogs to print thing they would not trust to the magizine.....AKK
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

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