A Missing Kid Story

[DISNEYFOS]

I haven't read all the responses to this thread, but since we just booked our first Disney cruise..it caught my attention.

I can't say I've ever had the experience of a lost child and I can only imagine how scary it would be...but I have to say.. I'm not so sure my first reaction would be to ask for a refund???

I would be working tirelessly to make sure they were reviewing their procedures..lessons learned..what went wrong, so no one ever experienced the same terrifying moment. Disney is not infallible.. maybe redesign the space so little ones can't crawl in and hide...or insure procedures dictate those are the first places to look.

It would also be a a long time before I used childcare I'm sure...but contacting the media because I didn't get a refund? umm no....

 

[bmer1rick]

Those who have experienced the check in/out process for the clubs on DCL are commenting based on our observations and personal experience. You are basically drilled before being allowed to take a child with you from the club. You have to present your KTTW card. This shows the CM at the desk your picture and the pictures of any children who YOU are able to check in/out of the club. If you are not linked to the child you are trying to check out, forget about it! In addition to this, you need to know the password that you set up when registering your kids for the club. If the pictures match up, you won't be leaving with your kid until you remember that password. It's easy to set it up for someone else traveling with you to pick up your kids, but again, if they don't know the password they won't be allowed to touch them. There is a locking gate on both the entrance and exit side of the desk on the Magic/Wonder. The desk is more part of the entrance outside the clubs from what I remember on the Fantasy/Dream. There are always CMs stationed at the entrance/exit. I do believe that it would be extremely unlikely for a child to exit the club with an adult who is not authorized or even alone because they make every kid scan their bracelet to make sure they have sign in/out privs if there is not an adult there checking them out.

Completely true. In fact, my wife once tried to get ms DS out of the club and was not allowed to. When they checked the names approved to take my DS out of the club, I inadvertently forgot to include her with checkout privileges when signing him up.. Even though her KTTW card showed the same room and her as the mother, the CMs would not let her check him out. Being on the "business end" of the wave phone conversation with my wife was not fun and I ended up having to go to the lab to check him out and add her checkout privileges.

 

[MrsScooby]

Completely true. In fact, my wife once tried to get ms DS out of the club and was not allowed to. When they checked the names approved to take my DS out of the club, I inadvertently forgot to include her with checkout privileges when signing him up.. Even though her KTTW card showed the same room and her as the mother, the CMs would not let her check him out. Being on the "business end" of the wave phone conversation with my wife was not fun and I ended up having to go to the lab to check him out and add her checkout privileges.

Too funny
Sounds like something my DH or I would do.

 

[caribbeandreaming]

This is one of the reasons why we don't cruise with our 2.5 year old. We left him at home with grandparents last year and will be doing so again this year. I know Disney is wonderful, but these sorts of things do happen. I would never be able to relax and enjoy the trip worrying about whether or not my DS was okay. I'm overly paranoid about things, but all I think about is that he doesn't know any better than to fall overboard, go running off the ship in a foreign country, etc. All it takes is one slip up by one person, and that's not a risk I'm willing to take. I'm not saying that anyone is a bad parent for taking their young children on a cruise, and I'm sure we miss out on a lot of memories we could be making as a family of 4. I'm just not comfortable with it and would be worrying the entire time. This article just confirms my fears.

 

[darkwing818]

Those who have experienced the check in/out process for the clubs on DCL are commenting based on our observations and personal experience. You are basically drilled before being allowed to take a child with you from the club. You have to present your KTTW card. This shows the CM at the desk your picture and the pictures of any children who YOU are able to check in/out of the club. If you are not linked to the child you are trying to check out, forget about it! In addition to this, you need to know the password that you set up when registering your kids for the club. If the pictures match up, you won't be leaving with your kid until you remember that password. It's easy to set it up for someone else traveling with you to pick up your kids, but again, if they don't know the password they won't be allowed to touch them. There is a locking gate on both the entrance and exit side of the desk on the Magic/Wonder. The desk is more part of the entrance outside the clubs from what I remember on the Fantasy/Dream. There are always CMs stationed at the entrance/exit. I do believe that it would be extremely unlikely for a child to exit the club with an adult who is not authorized or even alone because they make every kid scan their bracelet to make sure they have sign in/out privs if there is not an adult there checking them out.

Absolutely true & take it from one who learned the hard way. Back in the "Stone Age" (before wave phones) of Disney cruising probably 2001 or 2002. Long story short (hopefully) on day 1 of our 7 day Disney cruise, my DW had registered our DDs into the clubs, while I was off trying to score a Palo dinner. 3 or 4 days into the cruise my DW asked me to go get the girls & meet her for lunch; no problem right?? Wrong I found out I needed a password, (which my DW forgot to mention ) so even though I could see the girls & they could see & talk to me, I couldn't check them out. The CM paged my DW, she called the club & gave me the password & I got my girls out for lunch. Funny, while some might think this was over kill, we thought & still do think it showed DCLs commitment to keeping our DDs safe. Just our opinion...

 

[nkochrn]

How exactly can the father blame the CM's for overlooking his son when HE himself seems to have overlooked him! I've never been on the Magic, but after coming back from the Dream I can't imagine any kid ever being able to escape the kid's club. There were always CM's by the doorways. During the open house a kid tried to open one of the Crew Member Only doors and a very loud alarm sounded.

I did have trouble finding my daughter in the kid's club on the Dream once but it's just b/c it's such a big area and I figured she probably wandered to a different area and we just missed each other in passing. I never once doubted that she was in the club and I found her fairly quickly. DH also had trouble finding DS once and wondered if he had hidden behind some of the curtains but never did he panic about it and he found him quickly.

Did anyone read the FB comments on the Dad's actual blog? One of them actually compares this to the child dying on the 3rd day!!! That's ridiculous, I don't think Disney owed him a thing and was very generous with their offer. The system in place worked just as it should have, except for the band being unreadable.

 

[justmestace]

I haven't read all the responses to this thread, but since we just booked our first Disney cruise..it caught my attention.

I can't say I've ever had the experience of a lost child and I can only imagine how scary it would be...but I have to say.. I'm not so sure my first reaction would be to ask for a refund???

I would be working tirelessly to make sure they were reviewing their procedures..lessons learned..what went wrong, so no one ever experienced the same terrifying moment. Disney is not infallible.. maybe redesign the space so little ones can't crawl in and hide...or insure procedures dictate those are the first places to look.

It would also be a a long time before I used childcare I'm sure...but contacting the media because I didn't get a refund? umm no....

Read all of it.
Refund was NOT his first reaction, nor has he pushed for it.

He also didn't contact the media. He talked about it on his blog. No one here would have known about any of this if another source hadn't copied a portion of his blog (not even the full blog) AND had another person not posted the copy here.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

I haven't read past the second page and probably won't. So far it's either the dad's fault or failure to admit that DCL could ever do anything wrong. From the link I really wasn't impressed with the dad's comments on the electronic wristband unless they have drastically changed since our 2008 cruise. If the band was unreadable DCL would replace it and that was probably a note the CM put in there as a reminder for when the parent picked up the child. Second, the dad probably didn't even go in the club but stood at the counter looking inside. We were not allowed in there unless it was to get our kids and we were escorted so I really don't get what he meant by being there 3 times before someone asked him what he was looking for. The staff were probably busy with other parents and he just tried to peek inside. And for the child leaving on his own? Highly unlikely. The only time our DS left without us was for lunch. My wife went to the club to get our little guy to topsiders only to find out they had already done it with about a dozen or so kiddies and were all back playing.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We were on the Dream last year. I sent my teenage DGD to pick up her 9 year old sister from the kids club. DGD called and said, she wasn't there. I got on the phone with the CM, who informed me, that she wasn't checked in. I replied, "Oh yes, she is...I checked her in myself." The CM responded, "maybe, someone checked her out". " I said, "Uh, no...that's why her sisiter is there now". We were allowed into the club and FINALLY found her. The only explaination from Disney, "it was a mistake".

It was scary, but I was assured this was a rare occurrence. Now, I'm a little concerned...

Am I the only one this has happened to? What can I do to verify, that My DGK IS indeed CHECKED IN? It was scary at the moment (about 15minutes), although I KNEW she had to be in the kids club...I checked her in. What could've caused this "glitch"?

 

[TDC Nala]

While it hindsight, its apparent the child wasn't in danger, I don't think it can be said that the 'system worked'. If the system worked, when the CM's checked their system, it should have said that the child is still in the club. They could have then focused their search in that area instead of the entire ship, which probably caused so much time to pass from when the child was thought to be 'missing' to 'found'.

The CMs did focus on that area of the ship. The father is the one who went running around the ship when he couldn't find the kid right away.

Even reading what's been put here by the dad I can't be sure the bracelet didn't actually work and say the kid was in the club. He had information that pointed to the child never leaving the club - they can't just walk out past the CMs at the entrance, and nobody came to get him. He freaked out when he couldn't find the kid immediately. Not that he shouldn't have, but I can't say from reading this that Disney did anything wrong in this situation, unless the CMs should know to look under the chairs. It's not the dad's fault either...but if he wants a full refund, he's not entitled to one for this. And I'm not sure what else he wanted if he said he expected to be "taken care of" by the cruise line.

Did anyone read the FB comments on the Dad's actual blog? One of them actually compares this to the child dying on the 3rd day!!!

That is certainly an overreaction.

I'm actually somewhat surprised the club will take kids as young as 3. I think the only way to keep this from happening again is for the CMs to take roll every so often, not sure how they'd do that. It's not a one-on-one supervision kind of thing, if a kid crawls under something and goes to sleep or takes a lot of time in the bathroom the CMs might not realize that.

There's also the fact that kids might hide sometimes because they think it's funny. My niece did that once (not on a Disney ship but still).

 

[eeyoremommy]

I remember when we sailed on the Fantasy the first time. We've also done the Magic. Our DS was in the Club or Lab. He does not have check out privileges. Only DH or myself can check him out. We knew he had to be in the club. I went in, looked everywhere, asked a few kids if they had seen anyone matching his description, and asked a few CMs. We focused on the area he was supposed to be. No sight of him. I went back and looked again. The new kids' areas are quite large. After looking about 15 more minutes, he was found. I never panicked, freaked out, anything. I am one of those moms that worries when her DS 9 has to use a men's restroom at events by himself and is gone too long or still does not let him check himself in/out of the club. I knew he was safe. On the older ships, it was the same way. If I couldn't find him, I figured he was hiding in the climb/slide area.

Different people have different expectations. I take family vacations to spend time with my son. If he wants to go to the club, he goes. Usually he spends a lot of time with us. As a PP said, the up side is that the event will improve things for everyone.

 

[sabrecmc]

Even reading what's been put here by the dad I can't be sure the bracelet didn't actually work and say the kid was in the club. He had information that pointed to the child never leaving the club - they can't just walk out past the CMs at the entrance, and nobody came to get him. He freaked out when he couldn't find the kid immediately. Not that he shouldn't have, but I can't say from reading this that Disney did anything wrong in this situation, unless the CMs should know to look under the chairs. It's not the dad's fault either...but if he wants a full refund, he's not entitled to one for this. And I'm not sure what else he wanted if he said he expected to be "taken care of" by the cruise line.

This is what I'm saying, too! If the CMs said the child is in the club/lab and Dad couldn't find him and panicked, started running around the ship, etc., then that is not at all DCL's fault. The kid was where he was supposed to be and where the Dad was told he was.

If the CMs said, nope, no kid here when in fact the kid was there (b/c of a problem at check-in or with the bracelet not working) and Dad panicked, that is a different story. Not a free cruise kind of story, but definitely something needing to be addressed.

To me, that distinction is HUGE. I've been unable to locate DD in the club before and it is scary, but I know she is in there somewhere. I just can't put my eyes on her as fast as I want to! But, if I were told she wasn't in there when I KNEW she had to be, then yes, I'd be panicking.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I haven't read all the responses to this thread, but since we just booked our first Disney cruise..it caught my attention.

I can't say I've ever had the experience of a lost child and I can only imagine how scary it would be...but I have to say.. I'm not so sure my first reaction would be to ask for a refund???

I would be working tirelessly to make sure they were reviewing their procedures..lessons learned..what went wrong, so no one ever experienced the same terrifying moment. Disney is not infallible.. maybe redesign the space so little ones can't crawl in and hide...or insure procedures dictate those are the first places to look.

It would also be a a long time before I used childcare I'm sure...but contacting the media because I didn't get a refund? umm no....

I would also suggest you read it, as you will notice many oddities in the Fathers statements and conclusions.


Seems he wanted to talk with the Master and was given the Cruise Director, who is the person in charge of this. They had some questions which were ansnered as best as could be at the time.

It is was this point they emmidaitely wanted a full refund. So its a matter of subjecture and opinion as to whether he immediately wanted compensation or not.

This is really something that has been over blown, I know have been scared crasy when my kids were unacounted for , but even the Father has admitted he over reacted.

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.

The bottom line is the system worked, the child was never in danger, or left the club. The system in place worked. The only part that there is real questions is why the wrist band didnt work?

 

[manhattanman]

The CMs did focus on that area of the ship. The father is the one who went running around the ship when he couldn't find the kid right away.

Even reading what's been put here by the dad I can't be sure the bracelet didn't actually work and say the kid was in the club. He had information that pointed to the child never leaving the club - they can't just walk out past the CMs at the entrance, and nobody came to get him. He freaked out when he couldn't find the kid immediately. Not that he shouldn't have, but I can't say from reading this that Disney did anything wrong in this situation, unless the CMs should know to look under the chairs. It's not the dad's fault either...but if he wants a full refund, he's not entitled to one for this. And I'm not sure what else he wanted if he said he expected to be "taken care of" by the cruise line.


That is certainly an overreaction.

I'm not sure I understand all of the details in order to say whether it was an over reaction or not.

Our kids used the club late in January on the dream. One of the big advantages of the kids club, in my opinion, is the ability to track kids while they are in there. If it was just a doorman ( scan the KTTW going in scan going out, like key loggers) that would be okay but that's not what they chose. They have the ability to locate the kids in real ( or near real) time. My son's bracelet broke off twice, we didnt lose it but there was no way they were letting him back into the club without a new one being on his wrist, because they wouldnt be able to find him if we were to return. The club is big, lots of places to hide and there are multiple entrances and exits to you could do the "scooby-doo" trying to find your kid which is one of the reasons I think that they went to RFID trackers because parents spent inordinate times looking for their kids.

I was always very impressed that when we went to pick them up, they always asked for the password then told me in which room my son and daughter were in.

whether is was technical or operational error or something more pervasive I dont know but asking kids to wear RFID devices and then saying " sorry its not readable" or its "unavaialble" pretty much negates the whole process. I dont expect the club to track my kid in real time, I dont need a chaperone and like the fact that they can do stuff independently in a safe environment in the clubs but if they cant find him for 45 minutes, my guess is that I would be somewhere between frantic to paniced. I also dont think that looking back in retrospect and criticising the parents actions is either warranted or fair, anyone who has lost a young child in a crowd, even temporarily, can tell you that rational thought and reason play second fiddle to fear and panic.

 

[TDC Nala]

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. Their kid didn't die, nothing happened to him, they're pretty much at this point annoyed because they don't feel the crew has treated them the way they feel they should have been treated. Had the child died they wouldn't have been going to Palo afterward most likely.

 

[WVURunner]

First off, I am not a parent so I cannot comment from that perspective but I have cruised with my niece and nephew often. I have also worked at an overnight camp for 8 years supervising girls ages 5-17, holding many positions ending with me being asst. camp director. During my time working at camp, we experienced plenty of missing kids. We had procedures in place to handle this and hold drills. During a code, the rest of the children should not know what is going on. The staff assigned to them continue to care for those kids and keep activities going as normal. During a code, an outsider should not notice anything. All lifeguards are required to report to the lake and do start a search while all other staff do a search based on their assigned areas. When a code goes out over the walkie talkies the first thing the counselors do is report back on their numbers. Most likely, the kids joined another group or is near the last place where they or the group was. My point being is that during a code, it appears to be business as usual to any uninformed eye, when in fact, it is not business as usual. I am sure, to this Dad, it seemed like Disney wasnt doing anything, while I am sure, they were running the procedures for their code.
My niece and nephew love the club/lab and have been known to hide from us when it is time to leave. It has taken me 30-45 minutes to find them. There are a lot of places for the kids to hide. I dont expect to walk in a have a CM inform me where a child last was. Kids move around in the rooms and jump from activity to activity.
We were on a 14 day cruise recently with very few kids, all the CMs knew my niece and nephew and those who picked them up quite well, referring to us by name prior to getting our cards, one CM even joined us for dinner. I had to give the password every single time.
I realize the Dad was panicked but I find it hard to believe a child could ever leave the ship unnoticed. We do not allow our niece or nephew to carry their cards; they stay in the safe until we need them to leave the ship at a port. You cannot get by without a card and they do check. We cruised with a large group and a friend decided to join us last minute. We never signed him up to take the kids out of the club because we had already did that ahead of time and it never dawned on us he wasnt signed up. He decided to leave the ship to get some photos of the ship in port and my nephew asked to join him. We grabbed his card and never thought twice about it until they were stopped at the gangway and he was informed he could not the child off of the ship, even though the other three adults in his room had permission. My sister ran down to the gangway and took him off the ship and came back on and got the permission added.
The Dad should have handled the whole situation better and continued to search the club and not jump to insane worse case. I can understand it was unnerving but it is not the CMs job to handle his wife, it is the kids club CMs job to continue to watch and care for the kids still remaining in the club while the assigned staff tend to finding the child. His son was where he should be, I would never have the nerve to ask for my cruise to be reimbursed. It was my fault I didnt locate my child properly in the club, it is known that you are expected to go find them, the CMs do not deliver them to the gate for you. Yes, the wrist band issue does need to be addressed.
The 50+ nights I have cruising with Disney with kids in the club has me completely trusting their system as it has always been 100% flawless for us. When I have kids, I will have no issues leaving them there at any age.

I think this father is just looking for his blog/media attention and my opionion would be the same even if it was another cruise line.

. All if a sudden a CM, I think the lady that was working at the port adventures desk, came over from the opposite direction of the clubs, and took her to the club, saying that she "must have escaped". I felt so bad for this poor little girl, and was very curious to know if her parents would be notified that she had managed to "tailgate" another child and escape the kids club!!

I am going to guess that the CM was just lightening up the situation and trying to break the tension by saying this. They are to return every lost kid to the club and she was just kidding as she was following procedures. While working at a camp, I did this often, if I found a kid, I would joke, if you don't like your group-you don't have to run away or I could see why you liked this group's activity better than your groups, or next time, let your counslers's know you want to play a game of hide and go seek...

 

[justmestace]

I would also suggest you read it, as you will notice many oddities in the Fathers statements and conclusions.


Seems he wanted to talk with the Master and was given the Cruise Director, who is the person in charge of this. They had some questions which were ansnered as best as could be at the time.

It is was this point they emmidaitely wanted a full refund. So its a matter of subjecture and opinion as to whether he immediately wanted compensation or not.

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".

And even after THAT...the ONLY thing the man did is to blog about it. BIG DEAL.
He didn't contact the media. He didn't hire a lawyer. He simply expressed his disappointment in his own blog. Just like everyone else would do...either on Facebook or Twitter....except for the fact that his blog probably gets far less exposure than most other social media.

 

[justmestace]

First off, I am not a parent so I cannot comment.

I think this father is just looking for his blog/media attention and my opionion would be the same even if it was another cruise line.


I am going to guess that the CM was just lightening up the situation and trying to break the tension by saying this. They are to return every lost kid to the club and she was just kidding as she was following procedures. While working at a camp, I did this often, if I found a kid, I would joke, if you don't like your group-you don't have to run away or I could see why you liked this group's activity better than your groups, or next time, let your counslers's know you want to play a game of hide and go seek...

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.

 

[WVURunner]

And even after THAT...the ONLY thing the man did is to blog about it. BIG DEAL.
He didn't contact the media. He didn't hire a lawyer. He simply expressed his disappointment in his own blog. Just like everyone else would do...either on Facebook or Twitter....except for the fact that his blog probably gets far less exposure than most other social media.

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

 

[TDC Nala]

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.

The quote you mentioned as "making light" was not said to a parent of a missing child. It was said by a crew member who found a child wandering around by herself. The person who originally wrote it (who was not related to the child) heard the CM who found the child, say "She must have escaped" and thought it was an indication that the child had escaped from the kid's club. Which it really isn't as she could have escaped from her parents. Lost kids are brought to the kids club until the parents can be located.

I don't see how there is anything wrong with what this CM did or said.