Lost Kids at DW

[tgiardetti]

I'm just planning our first family trip to Disney World with our 5 year old son. I'm trying to plan for the unthinkable (him getting lost or separated from us). We want to tell him what to do if this happens.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? Do you hold your kids hand the entire time to prevent separation? How busy will the crowds be in August?

Trying to figure out a plan.

Thanks!

 

[scootch]

I taped my cell phone number inside my kids shoes(they wore crocs) and showed them what the Cast Members look like. I took my girls alone from the time they were 2 and 5. I then just repeated taught them to look for a cast member and show them their shoes. There are other ways(dog tags, ect...) for identification but the shoe idea was just cheap and easy for me. I also found renting the disney strollers was a good way to keep them from getting lost too. They are expensive but was worth the expense for me, also keeping the sun off of them. They didnt' use it all the time at age 5, but it was definitely worth it.

 

[Dopey420]

I'm just planning our first family trip to Disney World with our 5 year old son. I'm trying to plan for the unthinkable (him getting lost or separated from us). We want to tell him what to do if this happens.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? Do you hold your kids hand the entire time to prevent separation? How busy will the crowds be in August?

Trying to figure out a plan.

Thanks!

I would wait until I was at the park, and say "If you get lost, stay where you are and we will come find you. You can also ask a Disney cast member for help." Don't make a big deal out of it, don't freak him out.

Also, and I may be wrong on this, but in the history of Disney parks, no child has been lost and not found, I do not believe.

And there is no way you are going to be able to hold a 5 year old's hand the whole time LOL! Both of you will hate it!

 

[Lilliputian]

I agree that one of the best things you can do is teach him what to do if he does get lost. Staying in the same place is important. Tell him that it's the grown up's job to do the looking, so he just needs to stand still. He can get help from a CM. I also tell my kids that when they're lost, they can get help from a mommy with young children, but there are so many CMs at WDW that I wouldn't really expect them to use that one there.

On your end, you need to realize which situations are the ones where you may lose him the easiest. Leaving the parks after fireworks or other night shows is the biggest one. After parades is a bad time, even if you aren't leaving. Going through security and through admission gates is another one. You probably do want to hold onto him during those times. If you're taking a stroller, put him in it. If not, just hold on. When it's something like going into the parks, where you're going to be busy opening your bag for security, have him hold onto your shirt or something. Watch him after you go through the gates. You're going to want to put the tickets away, but he's going to want to go.

When children do get lost, it's usually something that the parents can see later in retrospect that they could have anticipated it and been more proactive. Unless he's prone to wondering, he probably won't get lost during the less crazy times. While the parks aren't empty in August, it's not so packed that you'll lose each other easily, except at park closing, and that time is tricky year-round.

 

[GirlDreamer]

In WDW there is no such thing as a lost child. It's lost parents

That's something we learned in training, that if we ever came across a lost child, we could lighten up the situation a bit by saying how silly it was of the parents to get lost and that we'll have to find them

 

[Kiwini]

Take a picture of your son each morning with your mobile phone - that way you'll have a picture of exactly what he looks like and how he is dressed that day. If he gets separated, you'll be better able to share what he looks like (and remember for yourself!).

 

[DisneyGal24]

Both of our kids (DD6, DS3) wore lanyards with zipped ID protector. Inside the protector we put a card with our (DH, me) cell numbers and pictures. We also talked to the kids about finding CM if they got separated from us.

 

[ErinsAuntMimi]

Great tips from the PP's...

Show him the CM tags when they enter so they know what they look like. Remind him to look for uniforms and stay as close to where "you" went missing as possible.

ID with your cell number on it is wise. Safetytat.com has waterproof tatoos that are said to last for up to a week. Good for kids, allergy alerts, health or other issues. (There are other methods, items and sources... this is just the one I tend to recommend. Have heard great things about them.)

There is another thread on here somewhere with anecdotal stories of people actually losing their kids. There are undercover CM's in security ALL OVER!! If the worse case scenario happens, he will be okay.

Be mindful of the most crowded areas - parades, entering and leaving (park, shows, rides). You will want to hang on to him there for sure.

But as someone else posted, don't stress him, or yourself, out by fearing losing him. Simply practice common sense and put in place ID so you can be contacted quickly.

Have a great trip!

 

[bearloch]

We used to get a glow in the dark whistle and we had a little code 3 short blow stamp foot 3 times blo again! lol it worked good having the glow in dark for the darker shows and rides ! never got lost thought we also had neon shoelaces on shoes and a id tag attached there

 

[pbinn310]

i read on here about the stretchy bracelets with your phone number on them. I just ordered them on etsy.com. I got my 4 year old granddaughter one with her name and a princess charm and then a matching one with no charm and a cell phone number . She loves to wear jewelry so i figured this was a great idea. Got both for $10.

 

[joxer1014]

When our family first went besides showing my DD (2 1/2 at the time) CM name tags I took her and introduce her to CMs in different areas so she wouldn't feel scared in talking to them and that she knew there were different outfits for them. I did it for each trip until she was 10. CMs have no problem in talking to little ones and like one PP said its the parents who tend to get lost!

 

[chartle]

There is another thread on here somewhere with anecdotal stories of people actually losing their kids. There are undercover CM's in security ALL OVER!! If the worse case scenario happens, he will be okay.

This is not anecdotal but a pure urban legend, there has never been a child abducted by a stranger at WDW. There was a real news story about something happening at WDW but it was found out to be a hoax. What made it even more interesting was that after the story hit, the webpage for it was taken down which fueled theories that Disney had gotten to the source and killed the story. No the news source that published it realized their error and took it down.

OP one thing to realize is that CM's will not search your child looking for ID and even with a cell phone number they will not immediately call you. Most CM's do not have cell phones on stage and even some that do they can't call an outside line.

They have procedures in place that have worked the past 40 years so I think they know what they are doing.

 

[disneychic2]

Great tips from the PP's...

Show him the CM tags when they enter so they know what they look like. Remind him to look for uniforms and stay as close to where "you" went missing as possible.

ID with your cell number on it is wise. Safetytat.com has waterproof tatoos that are said to last for up to a week. Good for kids, allergy alerts, health or other issues. (There are other methods, items and sources... this is just the one I tend to recommend. Have heard great things about them.)

There is another thread on here somewhere with anecdotal stories of people actually losing their kids. There are undercover CM's in security ALL OVER!! If the worse case scenario happens, he will be okay.

Be mindful of the most crowded areas - parades, entering and leaving (park, shows, rides). You will want to hang on to him there for sure.

But as someone else posted, don't stress him, or yourself, out by fearing losing him. Simply practice common sense and put in place ID so you can be contacted quickly.

Have a great trip!

We took our 5 year old DGD in April and ordered the safety tats. One tat for all 5 days, even with swimming and baths! We had to scrub it off after getting back home. We didn't need them, but it gave us peace of mind. We also showed her the CMs and took her picture every morning at the bus stop.

 

[iluveeyore]

I have experienced this with my sister - we were in MK watching the stage show at the hub and when it was over and everyone in the crowd started shuffling away, we couldn't find her six year old son (we had four kids with us, just me and DS). She of course started to panic and run around screaming his name. I told her to do a loop, and I would stand there with the other children. He had no ID on him, but had already been told before if he ever got lost, find someone with the nametag on. As she went around the loop, she found a CM standing with him by the entrance to Tomorrowland, chatting happily and just watching people go by. He waved and smiled, and told the CM there's my Mom! I think my sister was more freaked out than my nephew, and the separation only lasted about 5 minutes. She was actually crying with relief when she walked him back to us. I asked her if she thanked the CM, and once she got her wits about her, she went running back while I stayed with the kids and actually hugged the young female CM that had calmly waited with him and kept him in the same spot. The CM told her that if it happened again, once the crowd had dissipated and if they hadn't spotted his mom, she would have taken him up front to guest services to wait for her, so that's where she should go if she couldn't find him in the future. This made us feel secure for the rest of the trip, because we knew it would be calmly and safely handled if we became 'lost parents'.