A Missing Kid Story

[justmestace]

Add to that, he and wife had dinner at Palos the next even or the one after, .......they could not have been to upset, as I wonder where was the child during dinner? as child are not allowed in Palos.

MAYBE they had friends or relatives onboard, who watched the children.

Never ASSUME anything.

 

[WVURunner]

If you were a parent, you'd realize that there's no consolation in having someone "make light" of the situation of your child being missing.


Beyond posting on his own blog, the man didn't seek any MEDIA attention.

I agree, I would not make light of the situation to the parents but the CM wasn't making light of the situation to the parent of the missing child, she was relaxing a group of people and a child.

People do blogs/facebook/twitter because they want attention.

 

[KingRichard]

I'm beginning to wonder if a few drinks may have been a factor in this.

45 minutes? I really don't believe it was that long!

Some people have pushed it to a hour? Next it will be 2 hours?

Sorry, but they don't know what every child looks like!

They don't know where they are exactly!

25 nights so far on DCL and not once did they say wait here i will go get your child. They hand you a pass and you go in and find your child. It can take a long time.

You know how many blonde little girls are in there wearing Disney shirts!

 

[justmestace]

My personal opinion is that you blog/facebook/twitter because you want attention.

Maybe YOU do.

I only use Facebook, and I use it as a way to connect with family and friends who live far away. I'm not one of those who posts every time I go to the grocery store, but I do post the things that are going on in my life, because I think my friends and family might want to know.

MOST people....and I'll bet you NO ONE here....did not even know this guy's blog exists....until a different media source picked it up, and then by odd chance, someone here on the DIS saw it.
Otherwise, no one here would have even heard about this.

 

[justmestace]

I'm beginning to wonder if a few drinks may have been a factor in this.

Of course there weren't any drinks involved....this was on a DISNEY ship, not Carnival or some other line.

And I think it's mean that you'd even say that in the first place.
I DON'T drink at all, and have gone into panic mode over my kids many times.

 

[manhattanman]

Not criticizing the parents for freaking out, but they don't deserve a full refund. Apparently he also wants the refund because he doesn't feel the crew treated him or his wife well enough. I can't tell what he wanted them to do though, besides act more concerned.

The overreaction I mentioned was not that of the father, but of the quoted post that a Facebook commenter made on his blog that the family's experience for the entire cruise could be compared to the child dying on the third day of the cruise. THAT is an overreaction. Had the child died they wouldn't have been going to Palo afterward most likely.

Yeah that's a stretch, although i dont like the actuarial excuse that since it happened on the third day that they should not get anything for days one and two and they are going to pro rate their recompense like its a fridge whose compressor died under warrantee. What they did afterwards is also immaterial in my mind, what should they do spend the rest of the time in their room with their kid on a leash ?

My greater concern is ( although off topic) that others have mentioned, is the people who will blindly come to disney's defense to malign those who speak out about their negative interactions with the mouse. Irrespective of who did what, it doesnt seem that the rfid chips did not work the way they were desgined which is one of the big selling points of the kids club. I would hope that this would nudge DCL to look over their policies and hopefully make improvements, because even disney can make mistakes. But if when people have a beef ( legitimate or not) with DCL, if they have an army of posters implying that the guy is either a liar, a charlatan or both then there is no incentive do try and make things better.

I have no dog in this fight, i was happy with the clubs but I can see how I probably would not have the same opinion if they couldn't locate my kid for three quaters of an hour.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

No, it wasn't...here's what the man said in his blog:

"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."

But in truth, he does go on to say that before dinner, he talked to his wife and they thought about a refund, so he sent a note to the CD. And then of course the only thing he heard back is the same thing that they told me...."Someone will contact you when you get back home".......which, to me, is where they add insult to injury, because once you're back home and they don't have to listen to you, and they don't have the worry that you'll talk to other passengers about your ordeal, they can have their shoreside person say "Too bad".

I have to take back immidiately, but as you pointed out........the in red..They were already talking ruined vacation.........they went to a full refund pretty damn fast.


AKK


AKK

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Of course there weren't any drinks involved....this was on a DISNEY ship, not Carnival or some other line.

And I think it's mean that you'd even say that in the first place.
I DON'T drink at all, and have gone into panic mode over my kids many times.

I dont think Carnival is a issue here.....why knock down Carnival in this matter?


AKK

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't think he is a liar, a charlatan or anything else. I also don't think Disney did anything wrong in this incident - and yes, they do things wrong sometimes, with the exception of the bracelet not working, but then I don't know exactly how that bracelet is supposed to work. It's his opinion that he wasn't treated correctly (he seems to be very annoyed that he didn't get to speak to the captain) and that they believe this incident ruined their entire vacation. Some would say yes, that 45 minutes is pretty bad, but they got the kid back and now their entire vacation is ruined? They also decided they wanted a refund. This isn't refund material.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

MAYBE they had friends or relatives onboard, who watched the children.

Never ASSUME anything.

That *assume* works both ways........I still find it odd he never mentioned where the child was........AKK

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I don't think he is a liar, a charlatan or anything else. I also don't think Disney did anything wrong. It's his opinion that he wasn't treated correctly (he seems to be very annoyed that he didn't get to speak to the captain) and that they believe this incident ruined their entire vacation. Some would say that 45 minutes was pretty bad, but they got the kid back and now the entire vacation is ruined? They also decided they wanted a refund. This isn't refund material.

You summed it up perfectly..much better then I could.

 

[justmestace]

Regardless.....my last thoughts on the whole thing before I move along.

The comments on the man's blog are pretty interesting, and I think they're a really great indication of a more diverse opinion that what we've seen here.

There ARE a few people who stated they thought the dad overreacted and was asking too much when he asked for (not demanded, not suing, not contacting the media) a refund.

But for the most part, people are supportive and concerned and find that it's sad and scary that the bracelet didn't work and that the adults in charge didn't know IF the kid was there or not.

It doesn't matter which cruise line it happened on, THOSE people on the blog haven't said much, if anything about Disney....all that matters is that a Mom and Dad were scared out of their lives, even if it "only" was for a short time.
Which is far more rational & supportive than what THESE people here have said about this man and his family.

I just think it's so sad that some people have to defend DCL and try to come up with assumptions and place blame on the parents, and all the other things I've read, rather than just say "Wow...the Club messed up...or Disney needs to check this out and find a better system".
Quite a few other people have said that the same thing has happened to them, so that should show that there might possibly be a problem with the system. Is it so hard to just admit to that, feel bad for the families whose kids have gone missing, if only for a short amount of time, and move on???

When I got up this morning, I honestly thought this thread would have dropped to page 2 or 3.....sad to see that so many are still wanting to hang this man in their effort to defend the almighty Disney.

 

[WVURunner]

Maybe YOU do.

I only use Facebook, and I use it as a way to connect with family and friends who live far away. I'm not one of those who posts every time I go to the grocery store, but I do post the things that are going on in my life, because I think my friends and family might want to know.

MOST people....and I'll bet you NO ONE here....did not even know this guy's blog exists....until a different media source picked it up, and then by odd chance, someone here on the DIS saw it.
Otherwise, no one here would have even heard about this.

And by posting, you are drawing your family/friend's attention to what is going on in your life. I am sure no one knew about his blog prior, but since his job seems to be about social media, I am sure he knew that posting his story would make it's way else where.
I feel we are going so I will end this, plus lunch break is over!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

People do blogs/facebook/twitter because they want attention.[/QUOTE]

This is a good point..it almost sounds like he's setting up to file a suit later on.


AKK

 

[justmestace]

I dont think Carnival is a issue here.....why knock down Carnival in this matter?


AKK

Well, I DID say "or some other line".....and why not, that's the first thing DISer's do when excessive drinking is mentioned.

 

[justmestace]

People do blogs/facebook/twitter because they want attention.

This is a good point..it almost sounds like he's setting up to file a suit later on.


AKK[/QUOTE]


WHERE would you get that??? ASSUMING again? Any rational credibilty you've had as an ex-skipper just dropped into the tank. Usually your FACTS are spot-on and reasonable.

This is just too sad.

 

[jjje]

25 nights so far on DCL and not once did they say wait here i will go get your child. They hand you a pass and you go in and find your child. It can take a long time.

You know how many blonde little girls are in there wearing Disney shirts!

I'm lucky because my little one has red hair so she usually stands out a bit. One day I went to pick her up as they were playing hide and seek though. The other parents who were there for pick up and I were laughing about choosing the worst possible time to pick up our kids. I was impressed with how creative some of those kids were with hiding places!

 

[manhattanman]

I don't think he is a liar, a charlatan or anything else. I also don't think Disney did anything wrong. It's his opinion that he wasn't treated correctly and that they believe this incident ruined their entire vacation. Some would say that 45 minutes was pretty bad, but they got the kid back and now the entire vacation is ruined? They also decided they wanted a refund. This isn't refund material.

people are already implying that he's a drunk, or a guy on the take trying to milk it on social media as well with lots of people questioning his parenting skills.

I'm glad everything worked out well and a lot of people have beefs ( legitimate or not) with disney, I'm sure its not the first time someone has asked for some type of refund. I would imagine that some of these beefs are legitimate and some are not.

If " losing" ( and I use this term loosely) someone's kid for 45 minutes isn't "refund material", what is ? when the ship sailed through the tail end of sandy, people were legitimitely scared (even though the ship was never in any real danger) although i dont think there were and real injuries, but the passengers got a discount on a future cruise. Were they wronged worse than this guy and his wife ?

I think the bigger isssue is not whether he gets a dime from disney, but how or why did the technology that Disney implemented and markets heavily fail in this specific instance ?

 

[ItAllStrtdWAMouse]

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.

Page 2 of this thread refers to the original blog post: http://www.brentcsutoras.com/2013/03/06/disney-cruise-lost-child-destroyed-vacation-lost-confidence/

From original blog: 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.

I apologize for inserting the metal chair legs assumption. I specify chairs and furniture for a living and only under rare instances are chairs all plastic in commercial settings.

Someone else made the comment about the ship being metal. Not really relevant, Your house and every building has metal in it. The RF signal is distorted by the distance from target from the reciever and by the mass and composition of items around the target (this child's bracelet). Receivers are installed all over the kids club to help eliminate this problem with reception. Think of it this way. Have you every been inside of a building and lost a cell signal? Then moved 5 feet to have it return. This is my assumption why they received no signal. If the child was in a dead signal area and did not move because they were sleeping, a signal would not be found.

 

[KappaSigHero]

It's pretty clear that opinions won't change, and we're going around in circles. So I'm stepping out of this as well unless anything new comes into view.

So... How 'bout those fish extenders? :whistle