Children getting separated from parents?

[fljelad]

What happens in this event? Does WDW have a protocol? Are children directed to contact any CM? Can someone ease my mind? My 7 year old doesn't wander but I need some pointers in the unlikely event that we are somehow separated.

 

[PrinceJohn]

I don't know what WDW would do, but this is what we tell our 2 older boys (7 & 9)
1. DO NOT leave the park - under any circumstances - I don't care if the park is closed - I don't care if it is a police escort - do not leave the park without your parent (if I'm separated from my child, I want to be certain that they are contained inside the park)
2. Go to the closest ride, restaurant, or store the second you look around and are alone. Tell the cast member you are lost. DO NOT talk to anyone standing around - even if they have a name tag.

I believe that these 2 rules are easy to understand by any child over 5, and will get you safely reunited. I hope you never need them.

 

[WDSearcher]

Yes, WDW has protocol for lost kids. The best thing to have your child do is go to the nearest CM and say "I'm lost" or "I can't find my parents." That CM will instantly radio Security and get a message to Guest Relations to let them know that a child has been found so that when parents show up at Guest Relations or approach any Security CM, that info is available. The CMs will generally keep the child near the area where s/he was first discovered so that if parents or siblings come back to look, the child is still there.

It's also extremely helpful if the child has some sort of ID on them (you'd be surprised how many kids don't know their parents' first names or the name of the resort they're staying in or dad's cellphone number). The parents should always have a relatively current photo of the child with them when they travel, as well as making a point of knowing what the child is wearing that day. The number of parents who have no idea as to height, weight and even hair and eye color of their own kids is also staggering! And not knowing what the child is wearing obviously makes it that much harder to find them. Remember ... you know what your kid looks like. The CMs don't!

 

[WDSearcher]

Tell the cast member you are lost. DO NOT talk to anyone standing around - even if they have a name tag.

I believe that these 2 rules are easy to understand by any child over 5, and will get you safely reunited. I hope you never need them.

How do you define to your kids who a cast member is if you also tell them "do not talk to anyone standing around, even if they have a name tag?" Don't you tell your kids that CMs wear nametags? How are they supposed to tell the difference?

 

[fljelad]

I am one of those parents who can describe every freckle and mole to within a millimeter so I'm sure I could give a good description!

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I don't plan on "losing" my boy but I like to plan for all eventualities.

 

[ILuvWDWorld]

We told our boys to go to the nearest gift store and ask the CM to call our cell phone since they have that number memorized.

 

[NJDisneymom]

I tell my DD to find a CM (and I do refer to them as the ones working there with the name tags) and another good tip I read was to have something with your cell phone number on the child (in their shoe, inside their watch band, etc).

My dd is 5 and would know our home number but not the cell number we'd have on us at Disney.

 

[PrinceJohn]

How do you define to your kids who a cast member is if you also tell them "do not talk to anyone standing around, even if they have a name tag?" Don't you tell your kids that CMs wear nametags? How are they supposed to tell the difference?

We tell them, specifically, to go to a CM with a name tag who is either running a ride, or behind a counter at a store or restaurant. I know this is splitting hairs, but I want them to know that they need to talk to someone who works at Disney - not just someone with a nametag.

 

[JeffnFl]

You need to have a plan that you have discussed with the children before going to the park. You might tell them that if they get separated, to go to the last ride where you were all together at. If the other party does not show up in short order, then a CM should be contacted, who will then call security. (Sometimes you get mixed up on what was your last ride.) When Security hears of both a lost child and of a lost parent, and they know the location of each, they can them get them back together in short order. The problem is when someone fails to report.

 

[ladydancer]

I found a lost little girl about 20 months old on our last trip wondering around in a gift shop in Epcot. I told a cm and stayed with both of them until her dad showed up. Of course she had no ID!

I did then and will on our next April trip have ID on all 5 of my grandkids ages 14 months to 9 years.

 

[experiment626mom]

When we went when our kids were younger, I found a picture of what the nametags of CM's looked like, I think it was on Deb's site. We told them to approach only those people that had that type of nametag and tell them they were lost. We also dressed exactly alike every day. Same colored t-shirts and shorts. My dh and I both carried recent pictures of the kids. This way the kids could tell the CM's what we were wearing and visa versa. Also. make sure your kids can describe you!

Some states also have kid id cards. Kind of like a state id.

 

[Coll0610]

In addition to carrying a recent phote of your child, consider taking a picture each morning on your digital camera. That way, if you forget what they are wearing, you can just check the camera.

Also, if you lose a small child, instead of looking for them at your eye level, crouch down to their eye level and look between the people's legs.

 

[NCDisneyMom]

In addition to carrying a recent phote of your child, consider taking a picture each morning on your digital camera. That way, if you forget what they are wearing, you can just check the camera.

This is exactly what we did. Also, in reference to the CM name tags...be sure to point out the CM name tags, as they also sell the Guest of Honor badges to anyone. The CM tags are white, and have Tinkerbell on them.

On the first day of our last trip, I brought my ds, age 4 1/2, to a CM as soon as we entered the park. I asked the CM if my son could see his name tag. So the CM bent down to show him, and even explained that only the CM name tags would be white with Tinkerbell on them. We "quizzed" our ds a few times throughout the trip to make sure he still remembered.

 

[dthogue]

As pointed out previously, the CM's wear white nametags, that is a very important point for your children to know.

Please also don't count on your children to remember specifics, like names, phone numbers, resorts, etc. Just because they know then in normal settings, they are likely to be upset if separated from their family and might not be able to recall these things.

For a simple ID, we had made at our local Wal-Mart a pet id badge in the shape of a heart (cost about $5). We engraved it with my DD's name, our names and our cell phone number. It came with a fastener and we will put it on our DD's sneaker. If she gets lost, she can just point to the shoe.

 

[ChickieToo]

Three years ago my then 5 year old niece wandered away from our group of ten. When we realized she was gone we all started running around calling her name. After a few minutes I came upon a group of characters (Alice in wonderland characters if I recall), and as I yelled my niece's name they said to me "Are you Michele?" (My sisters name) I said "No I'm Aunt Joanne," right at this point my sister came up behind me and they asked her name, and my niece cried that that was her mom, and they let her go with us. I guess the saw her wandering around crying and kept her with them. They asked her parent's names and other identifying questions, and they weren't going to let anything happen to her or let her go with anyone but Michele. However, I realize that is testimony to the WDW staff, and not some strange adult that my have other motives. (As a side note, the little knucklehead did it again at the end of the trip, but I had stayed behind getting a soda, and I came along and saw her looking at toys--she just saw something she wanted to look at and walked away from the group.)

My then three year old DD witnessed the entire thing, and she still remembers it, and now when we go to Disney she stays right with us. I admit I've not thought about putting ID on her, but she carries a little fanny pack, and from now on I'll slip a card with our info on it, where we are staying, cell phone nukbers etc. And the CM badge trick is something else I'll do.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Please also don't count on your children to remember specifics, like names, phone numbers, resorts, etc. Just because they know then in normal settings, they are likely to be upset if separated from their family and might not be able to recall these things.QUOTE]


I lost our 7yo DD at the All Star Music this past November. She ran ahead of me by just a bit as we were making our way back from the main pool to Jazz #2. We had told her many times only to talk to CMs if lost (she can ID them pretty well under normal circumstances). Turns out she went to the Jazz bldg on the other side of the courtyard and went to the room corresponding ours in that bldg. She knocked on the door and fell to pieces when it was a stranger who answered instead of her mother. DD remembered our room # and the nice folks brought her back. It still scares me to think about her going into a stanger's room, though. It was proof to me that no matter how well you coach kids, they can lose their coaching when they panic.

The 25 minutes she was gone were the longest 25 minutes of my life.

 

[terri01p]

Just thought I would add my story as well, when my daugther was about 7, we got separated in one of the restroom areas. She thought I had already went out and she went out and started looking for me. To make a long story short WDW does have a lost child alert of some sort , all I can say is I was frantic and went inside nearest gift shop, the CM told me to stay put, and within 10 minutes she came walking in with a CM , they hopped too whatever they did, but I was listening to a hand-radio one CM had and they know their stuff. Thank GOD for that. Back then never even thought to talk to my kids about safety ( Go Figure) anyways shes grown now and still remembers that. One more thing...they even took us to a area to calm down and brought us drinks and was so very good about the whole thing.

 

[cruiseonmagic]

I posted this on the Disney for Families forum--hope it helps. Safety tips from a CM.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=747059

 

[domestic goddess]

A friend of mine suggested that she tells gives her children a whistle and tells them that if they get separated from their parents to sit down where they are, off to the side of the walkway or on a bench, and blow their whistle. This way a cast member will notice them and you as a parent can just listen for the whistle and follow the sound. Also, if they stop you are not chasing them around the park. My DH got separated from us at Cedar Point(an amusement park in Ohio) one year and it took us 3 hours to meet up with him because we apparently were moving in the same direction looking for each other, just following the same path separated by many other people. Finally I stopped and let the kids ride some rides(of course they were with me) while I scanned the crowds going by and we finally found him. That was before Nextel and now we are never separated long.

We now also find a landmark that the children are familiar with at each park, not too popular like Cinderella's castle, and tell the children that if they do get separated and can't find us to tell a cast member that they are to meet us there.

It is so easy to get separated in a place like that. It is great to plan for the worst case and hope it never happens.

Have a great time at WDW!

 

[princess aurora]

I posted this in another thread, Lost Children and it works here too.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/akrock/akrock7.htm

Disney is EXCEPTIONAL at helping Lost Parents/Adults reunite with their kids. I never thought about the ID tags but my little ones were too little to really wander off. Now they can get very easily distracted by gifts, sights, music, rides. Although I did watch my daughter actually vere off the path we were walking b/c she was just obliviously happy and skipping along. I had to yell "Hey, we're over here".

I love this site. I get new tips and wonderful ideas everyday!