A Missing Kid Story

[KappaSigHero]

You joined the DIS in February of this year.

You're right, there was ONE thread in the last week that was very positive toward someone seeking advice about another cruise line.

That is the first time in the whole 11 years that I've been on the DIS, that I've seen a thread like that stay pleasant.

I've seen more than one, but perhaps I'm reading different threads. But then again, I've only been here since February.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

Yes! I was thinking that as well. If it had been my child supposedly 'missing' and then turned up still where she was supposed to be, I would have been apologizing to the CMs for causing the ruckus (and giving my child an earful about hiding to have a nap!).

But I will file this away to not be too nice about it. I'll hold out for the free bottle of wine and consider myself well compensated

Really? The bottom line is this...the parents left the child in the care of the CM's who had no idea where the child was. They could not even say if the child was in or out of the club. Yet not only do you think the parents made a big deal out of it...but a 3 year old should be scolded for napping?

 

[justmestace]

I was just thinking the same thing about the KTTW.

Also since the child was sleeping under a stack of metal chairs.... The metal may have interfered with the RF signal. I am curious how many dead spots exist in the club. Most Children are running around and Disney probably never notices areas that loose signal.

Where did it say he was under METAL chairs?


If the signal is no good around metal, then they really DO need a whole new system, since the walls are metal.

 

[KappaSigHero]

I think the key is DCL finding out why the bracelet didn't function correctly. If it was because of interference from the chairs, then the child wouldn't have been able to leave the club anyway, and the CMs can learn 1) that if a bracelet comes up unreadable to look in those areas and 2) to have a better storage area for chairs so kids can't nap under them. If the bracelets aren't functioning altogether, then all bracelets need checked after each disembarkation.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

Where did it say he was under METAL chairs?


If the signal is no good around metal, then they really DO need a whole new system, since the walls are metal.

Isn't the body of the ship also made from metal?

 

[justmestace]

Here's what all the father said on his blog, and his responses to a few comments which should probably be obvious, just by his replies.

I think that in the beginning, all he really wanted was to have someone tell him that DCL would try to make some kind of change in how they keep track of the kids, and for the Captain to meet with them.

When that didn't happen, and when he was told it would be handled on land, once they got home, he got upset....and that's when he thought about a refund....in his anger and feeling of being dismissed.

I DO know exactly how he feels, because when I had my accident onboard, I was told it would "all be taken care of on land, once you get home"....and it wasn't. It just made it easier for them to tell me "TOUGH LUCK".

Anyway....this is long, but it's probably worth reading, because I really don't think he seems like as much of an evil villain as people are making him out to be:

In January, we decided to take our two children on a Disney Wonder cruise. We went with several other families we knew and expected to have a fantastic time. While on board, we left our 3 year old son, in their child care facility, the Oceaneer Club (for children aged 3 to 12).
We were happy to see they had a wrist band tracking system, which could identify where a child was on the ship at any time and alert staff if the band went outside the area he was supposed to be in.
So you can imagine our fear, shock, outrage and panic when we came back after an evening with friends, to find our child missing from their child care facility.
Our 5 month old had been left in the nursery that day, so my wife had stopped off to pick him up, while I went with two other parents to the Oceaneer Club to pick up our older son.
We walked into the care facility, which was always dimly lit. I walked around each of the rooms looking for my son. I spotted two of his friends and asked if they’d seen him. They said he was there someplace, so I continued to walk around the facility hunting down my child.
I remember thinking it was a bit of a hassle to send a parent in alone to wander around and try to find their kid. I began to get a little annoyed as I searched. Where could he be? For a split second I even had the thought, ‘I hope he is actually here,’ but dismissed it as silly at the time. At that point, I was more annoyed than worried and decided to ask someone if they’d seen my son.
I returned to the room where I’d originally started searching, and the employee commented that this was the third time they’d seen me there–was everything okay? I told him I couldn’t find my son, so they started walking around, calling his name. I began looking under draped compartments, behind obstacles, anywhere a child might hide.
At that point, I took a moment to call my wife and asked her to come over immediately because they couldn’t find our son!
When I went to search the bathroom, an employee stopped and told me that ‘parents are not allowed in the bathroom.’ THAT was the point it hit me right in the face—MY KID WAS MISSING!
I don’t know if I can fully describe the feeling when you realize your child is gone. Everything changed from that moment… I was no longer frustrated, angry, or annoyed, I was scared to death and went completely into FIND MY CHILD MODE, which started with understanding their operating procedures for missing children.
I quickly assessed the staff, the surroundings, and the efforts made so far to locate him. I told the employee I could no longer assume my child was in the facility and I needed to know what their next steps were immediately.
He said the next step was to check the tracking band system, which would pinpoint my son’s location. We walked over to the computer and as they pulled it up, everyone got very quiet. The screen showed my son’s band as ‘UNREADABLE’!!!.
At that moment I came close to losing it, but I had to focus… I had to find my child! ‘Unreadable’ could mean anything—wandering the ship, taken by a stranger, or worse. My wife had shown up by this time and was understandably distraught but there was no time for me to console her.
I immediately ran to another care facility for older kids called the Oceaneer Lab. I asked if they had done any child swaps between care facilities and whether THEY had my son. They checked their system and said they hadn’t transferred any children between rooms that day. At this point Carol, a senior team member, came in and also began searching for him.
Realizing that if my son was there they would find him shortly, I ran back to the Oceaneer Club to see if miraculously he’d been found. One look at the terror on my wife’s face and the pleading look in her eyes told me he was still missing. I shook my head and she began to sob, calling out for help. I will never forget that moment.
I was forced to turn my back on her and head the other way to continue the search for our son. In a display of heartlessness, none of the employees offered her sympathy or consolation. They literally turned their backs on her and acted like she was irrational and overreacting, leaving her there alone sobbing and shaking.
I ran as fast as I could all the way to the front of the ship and down 5 flights of stairs, to get to the gangway. We were docked in the Bahamas, with people coming on and off the ship. I told the personnel at the gangway that my son was missing from their child care facility and that they needed to make sure no one else left the ship until he was found. They gave no indication they would stop anyone from leaving, and were unaware of a missing child, a full 20 minutes after he’d gone missing. They said if I had a missing child I needed to inform Guest Services.
So I bolted back up 3 flights of stairs and all the way across the ship again to get to Guest Services, where I ran right up to the counter and told them what had happened. I let them know I just got back from the gangway and asked them why no announcement of a lost child had been made yet.
The employee checked a few things in the computer and said that an announcement had gone out to the staff’s ‘wave’ phones, an internal cell phone system. This seemed suspect, since neither the gangway personnel nor this individual at guest services had known there was a lost child until I told them. I again asked why no announcement had been made and told again that a message had gone out on the wave phone network. I then asked if they had cameras on the ship, they said yes. I urged them to begin reviewing the recordings to determine if my son had left the facility on his own, or been taken.
I turned and ran up several flights of stairs again, back to the Oceaneers Club to see if anyone had found my son in the time I was gone.
There was a crowd of people gathered, including all the friends who’d come with us on the cruise. They said my son was still missing and everyone started searching the halls.
I was trying to imagine where he might go if he left the facility on his own. He’d shown a great interest in the balcony area of the ship where he could look down at the water. What if he went to play on the rails and fell?? I found myself walking back and forth several times. I had to pull myself together and focus. Panic wouldn’t help me find him.
I turned around and saw Carol coming out of the theater, where she had been searching. I pulled her aside and said firmly and clearly that they had make 20 announcements a day about excursions, parties, and dinner times, but in the 45 minutes since my son had gone missing, not one announcement had been made. Nothing that said ‘excuse me guests, but we have a 3 year-old boy who has gone missing, so please take a look around and see if you spot anyone matching this description.’
I told her if she didn’t make an announcement immediately, I’d be forced to break down the door and make the damn announcement myself! She promised she would make an announcement, but wanted to finish searching the theater first.
I turned and ran back to the Oceaneer club, where I was flagged down by one of our friends. My son had been found and was okay. I was lightheaded…could barely breath… and exhausted… I stood against the wall and began to cry from shock and relief.
Out of nowhere, a stranger came up to me with tears in his eyes and gave me a supportive hug. Having a son of his own, he empathized with what I had gone through. He said after what just happened, he was already considering leaving the ship with his family and flying home.
I went inside and they told me that my son had crawled into a ‘tunnel’ of stacked chairs and fell asleep, not to be found until 45 minutes later.
Later that evening, someone came to our room with a bottle of wine and a printed apology card. But as my wife and I discussed what had happened, there were still too many concerns and unanswered questions to let this drop:

• How had our son been able to craw away and fall asleep without anyone noticing?
• Why were the employees unable to find him for nearly 45 minutes?
• Why was his security band unreadable?
• Why did everyone ignore my wife and make her feel so alone and terrified?
• Why did none of the ship’s crew seem to be aware there was a missing child, despite the wave phone message which seemed to be their primary form of communication?
• Why was no announcement made on the ship at any point?
• Most importantly, why was there no apparent protocol in the event of a missing child considering this is Disney, a world-class organization that builds it’s reputation on the happiness of children?

We felt that there were too many things that went wrong for us to simply accept a bottle of wine and a printed apology card. We wanted to make sure someone in charge knew about these problems–we wanted to speak with the Captain.
So I made a call and asked to meet with the Captain, at his earliest convenience, to discuss what had happened. I was told that someone would contact me shortly. We were never allowed to speak to the Captain, but it was arranged for us to meet with the Cruise Director instead.
I really did not want to go into this meeting angry. My primary intention was to help them better understand what went wrong, identify things that could be improved, and the overall way the issue was handled.
During the meeting, I made it clear that while we were relieved that our son was eventually located, he HAD been missing for 45 minutes while in their care. The fact that he was found didn’t change the apparent lack of a clear plan to find him, or the lack of urgency exhibited by the cruise staff.
I was given the following answers and assurances:

• They were aware the lighting was too low in the care facility and they plan to renovate it the next time the ship dry docks.
• They do have a process for handling lost child emergencies, however since that hadn’t been apparent to us, they would look into that and address it.
• I was given an apology for the lack of empathy shown to my wife by the crew during the crisis.
• They would definitely investigate why the tracking band was unreadable.

Near the end of the meeting, the Cruise Director asked me what they could do to make it up to us. I told him I didn’t have a specific remedy in mind, but something needed to be done, especially for my wife since this cruise had been booked to celebrate her birthday. What happened essentially ruined her birthday and spoiled the entire trip for her.
I mentioned that we had a dinner reservation for her birthday, and I thought to myself that maybe the Cruise Director or the Captain might come by to wish her a happy birthday and apologize to her in person. At least to show that they do value their customers and that truly cared for what had happened to us.
Later, I spoke with my wife and we agreed that the best outcome would be not having to pay for a vacation that was ruined. So I sent a note to the Cruise Director and then headed to the restaurant.
Dinner was alright, considering we were hardly in a mood to celebrate after what had happened. Disappointingly, no one came by to apologize or offer birthday wishes.
When we returned to the room that night, there was a printed note from the Cruise Director saying someone from their corporate office will contact us after the trip.
A few days later, we received a call from Rebecca, an executive from Disney’s communication team. After I told her the whole story, she was apologetic, but said there was no way they would refund our money. All she could do was to offer us a two-day Disney World park-pass with limited access.
I was stunned by her response, as she attempted to analyze the exact number of cruise days that were ruined. She told me that since our son went missing on the third day of the trip, we had enjoyed the first two days and only the last two days were ruined. Therefore, they were only willing to offer two day park passes as compensation. Adding insult to injury, the last thing she said before she hung up was to call her back if we changed our mind about accepting her offer.
Considering I have two little boys, we would most certainly have booked other Disney vacations and cruises in the years to come. But this experience—the loss of my son, the poor response to the crisis aboard ship, and the uncaring, calculated corporate response afterward—has changed all that.
“Disney” should be synonymous with making fantastic memories—that famous ‘Disney magic.’ But for my family, we will always associate Disney with our horrific experience of losing our child and a serious lack of customer service.
Would refunding our money or offering us another cruise have made up for their mistakes and lack of empathy during a child crisis? Not really, but would have said they cared enough to try.
Where is the Disney ‘magic’? For me, it’s been lost. Where is the customer service Disney is supposed to be known for? Nonexistent. If you choose to cruise with Disney, you may be forced to ask one more question–“Where is my child?!!!”


I appreciate your comments. We don't hate Disney, but definitely are not happy with the way they handle their business and customer service.

1) We care more about the lack of procedure, the lack of information, the lack of anything really in what you would expect in a missing child situation. No announcements, other employees did not know what I was talking about 30 minutes after our child was missing.

2) Lost is lost. If you have a child you are watching for a friend one day at your house. If they show up at your house and ask for their child. You explain to them how he is not lost after 45 minutes of you not being able to find him.

Lost = not being able to find something
Found - finding it

Just because something is found, doesn't mean it was not lost.

3) Having a child walk off in a department store because of lack of attention versus having a child go missing in a secure daycare facility is two different things. (note I always watch my kids, even in department stores, so never had mine walk off or get lost yet)

In a department store there is nothing in place to keep them from running off so the explanation for them to become missing is logical. When you have a locked and secured facility and no one out of 10 people can find your kid for 45 minutes, then you assume the worst.

4) I waited almost 2 months to post this story, to let myself think about it and really understand what the issues where. I did not ask for a meal, or accept their offer for tickets, because it lacked to real attempt to resolve the issue.

Since they hung up that one call with us, we have never heard from them again. They don't really care what effect it has on us.

5) Lastly, we don't expect anything from Disney for writing this, not even an email or a phone call.

I am far from over-reacting, but if you read the article, then you would see numerous levels of failure that are just unacceptable.


I had a long response written up to this, but oh well. You clearly miss my points in the article as a number of others have as well. I actually want nothing from Disney and expect nothing from them. I just wanted to tell my story on how they handled this situation, which I have done.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Where did it say he was under METAL chairs?


If the signal is no good around metal, then they really DO need a whole new system, since the walls are metal.

There are different kinds of metal.

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

Isn't the body of the ship also made from metal?

Yes but if the the ship's hull is between the child and bracelet, and the rfid reader/scanner the child is in a lot of trouble. The bracelet needs to be totally surrounded by metal that is between the child and the scanner for their to be a problem(assuming that was the problem).

 

[justmestace]

I think the key is DCL finding out why the bracelet didn't function correctly. If it was because of interference from the chairs, then the child wouldn't have been able to leave the club anyway, and the CMs can learn 1) that if a bracelet comes up unreadable to look in those areas and 2) to have a better storage area for chairs so kids can't nap under them. If the bracelets aren't functioning altogether, then all bracelets need checked after each disembarkation.

I can't imagine that they have metal chairs in there. I would think for safety and cleanliness concerns, they'd be plastic.
If the seas were rocky and chairs started tipping or falling around, kids could be hurt really badly with metal chairs.

Point being, I don't see the "metal chair" angle as a reason for the bracelet to not work. And I didn't see anywhere that it was noted that the chairs WERE metal....just people trying to come up with some kind of excuse.

 

[justmestace]

There are different kinds of metal.

I own an ornamental iron business.

So what is it that you're saying about the metal being different? Why would that make a difference?

 

[MrsScooby]

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????

Stace, there are some big holes in the Dad's story. Why won't he say where they found his son??
That makes a huge difference in evaluating this situation.

Maybe I've just known too many people who stretch the truth in order to threaten a company to settle out of court that I tend to be a bit suspicious

The fact that they couldn't find the kid quickly is a big mistake on DCL's part, but I would need more details than those provided by the posted article before I totally believe the Dad's story...

 

[KingRichard]

So the system would have told them if the child was checked out. Now maybe he could have walked out with a different family but unlikely.

I think this post by the dad tell it all.

I remember thinking it was a bit of a hassle to send a parent in alone to wander around and try to find their kid. I began to get a little annoyed as I searched.

Also.

We walked into the care facility, which was always dimly lit. I walked around each of the rooms looking for my son. I spotted two of his friends and asked if they’d seen him. They said he was there someplace, so I continued to walk around the facility hunting down my child.

So was he asking a couple 3-4 year olds where was his child?

When your room key gets scanned your whole family(everyone in the room) pics pops up on the screen. Next time your on the ship watch the screens. The whole password thing is just a extra layer of protection.

They know who is supposed to be together or not.

 

[KappaSigHero]

I can't imagine that they have metal chairs in there. I would think for safety and cleanliness concerns, they'd be plastic.
If the seas were rocky and chairs started tipping or falling around, kids could be hurt really badly with metal chairs.

Point being, I don't see the "metal chair" angle as a reason for the bracelet to not work. And I didn't see anywhere that it was noted that the chairs WERE metal....just people trying to come up with some kind of excuse.

Regardless of the reason, it's worth investigating.

 

[justmestace]

Stace, there are some big holes in the Dad's story. Why won't he say where they found his son??
That makes a huge difference in evaluating this situation.

Maybe I've just known too many people who stretch the truth in order to threaten a company to settle out of court that I tend to be a bit suspicious

The fact that they couldn't find the kid quickly is a big mistake on DCL's part, but I would need more details than those provided by the posted article before I totally believe the Dad's story...

He DID say where the boy was found, in his full blog.

I posted the full blog. He never has threatened to sue or anything. He was blogging his disappointment and fear, just like a lot of people do with their blogs or Facebook posts.

 

[KappaSigHero]

Stace, there are some big holes in the Dad's story. Why won't he say where they found his son??
That makes a huge difference in evaluating this situation.

Maybe I've just known too many people who stretch the truth in order to threaten a company to settle out of court that I tend to be a bit suspicious

The fact that they couldn't find the kid quickly is a big mistake on DCL's part, but I would need more details than those provided by the posted article before I totally believe the Dad's story...

The dad did say where the child was found on his blog, but Consumerist chose not to report this.

 

[lizabu]

See, I don't think he's an evil villain. I think he overreacted. I think his reaction tends to be the norm these days. Things cost more than ever and wages aren't keeping up with inflation. When things don't go perfectly instead of accepting the written apology and the complimentary wine they go straight to I want a full refund for my entire cruise. I don't think most people would think the 45 minutes of inconvenience he experienced is = to a full refund of an entire cruise. One would wonder if the search was focused in the kids club if the child wouldn't have been found much sooner. It takes time to run up and downstairs. The main problem is the malfunctioning wristband. But does that entitle him to a full refund of the entire cruise? I really don't think so.

 

[justmestace]

Regardless of the reason, it's worth investigating.

Very true.

 

[MaleficentRN]

I bet we aren't getting the whole story. I'm going to assume that while dad was running around the ship for half an hour, that during that time the CMs found him in the club. Then while passing his friend, the friend said, "Hey, they found your kid 20 minutes ago under the chairs." How long after he left the club the second time did they find him? The kid was probably with mom, having himself an ice cream on deck while dad was threatening Guest Services.
Also, I don't believe the bands have GPS so I don't get the "unreadable". Maybe the CM said something like, "It doesn't read his location". because it's not supposed to?
I think a good solution to the whole freaking out parents is to assign a CM whose only job is to talk to them and keep them calm and updated.

 

[justmestace]

KingRichard...for some reason I can't quote you.....

The kids' club has kids up to age 11 in there, so maybe the dad was asking an older child if they'd seen his son, and not another 3 or 4 year old.

Either way, I can see asking a 3 or 4 year old if they'd seen him....my daughter could have told me if she'd seen her younger brother when she was 3 and 4.

 

[manateesmom]

Really? The bottom line is this...the parents left the child in the care of the CM's who had no idea where the child was. They could not even say if the child was in or out of the club. Yet not only do you think the parents made a big deal out of it...but a 3 year old should be scolded for napping?

This. The issue isn't that the kid turned up okay, apparently in the kid's club. The issue is that the parents went to pick up a 3 year old left in DCL's care, and the CMs had no idea where the kid was for 45 minutes.

It sounds like some of this panic on dad's part could have been avoided if a CM had said with certainty that there was no way the kid could have gotten out of the club. But it sounds like the CMs thought the kid COULD have gotten out of the club, and that's the impression dad got, too. How is dad supposed to know how fool-proof the system is, if even the CMs are worried the kid got out? If even the CMs weren't sure if that was possible, I'm not sure how everyone on here is so confident that it couldn't happen and that the system "worked." A ship-wide alert went out looking for the kid.

Moreover, obviously no one had eyes on that child when he climbed under a bunch of stacked chairs (safe?) to take a nap for, well, at least an hour, it sounds like. No one went, "gee, where did the little boy in the blue shirt go? he was here a minute ago." Why was it dad who noticed that the kid was missing? How poorly was he being supervised within the kids' club that nobody noticed his disappearance until dad showed up? This is a 3 year old, I'd expect someone has at least a lifeguard-level of eye-scanning going on to keep an eye on these kids.

For that matter, was this child's bracelet functioning at the beginning? If not, why wasn't that addressed when he was dropped off? If it was, how can a bracelet go from registering inside the club/lab to "unreadable" without some kind of alert or something? Because the point earlier about the kid being at the bottom of the pool could be relevant - I mean, he could have fallen, hit his head, and drowned in a toilet or something, and the malfunction of his bracelet didn't even alert anyone to check. Someone could have disabled his bracelet to snatch him. There was apparently no alarm when he "disappeared" off the monitoring system inside the club, and no one was watching a screen to see his "blip" go away.

Ultimately, no, I don't think this is worth a free cruise, I guess, but it's not a non-issue, either. It's unacceptable that, having accepted responsibility for a 3 year old, the DCL CMs then lost him and had no idea where he was, that no one was keeping even a casual enough eye on the kids' comings and goings so as to notice when one disappears.