Has anyone actually lost their kid at Disney?

[SoonerSarah]

I'm just totally curious, has anyone, or anyone that you know lost a child at Disney.

If so, what was the outcome? Was there anythying on your child to ID them?

 

[VagueFury]

My daughter got lost while we made our way through a big crowd a few years ago. She was back with us in a couple minutes after a cast member spotted her standing alone looking freaked out. The only thing she remembers about it now is the cast member gave her a pin.
She knew her name and ours, where we were staying and such, but I never labeled her or anything. I don't really think there is any need for that even though a lot of people do so. Disney is very good at locating lost kids. Can't see it hurting though.

 

[tinkerbellandeyor]

Yes my mom has it was back in 88 I was 3 and somehow got lost in what was Disney b-day land

 

[donac]

We were in BB wiith 5 kids and 4 adults. The kids were 10,10,9 and 5,4 . we were getting on the tubes on the lazy river and were keeping an eye on the younger kids and lost sight of the older ones. They got off and kept together but a cm sent them the towel rental. The fathers went looking for them but rode the rides hoping to see them.

After a while we heard "Will ***** please report to the towel rental" They were there folding towels.

We can laugh about it because they older, we knew they were going to stick together and they had no money so when they were hungry they had to find us. The kids still talk about it and the older ones are now 26, 26, and 25.

It can be scary and it is something I have thought about.

 

[weezyree]

Although I haven't lost a kid at Disney, but elsewhere and also haven't heard of any stories from friends...I was just thinking of this lastnight while surfing Disboards. I found a link on here somewhere where you can print labels with the child's name, age, who they are with, a contact number and where they are staying. I printed it as we are taking our 3 year old grandson to WDW in June. He is a handful and very busy as most 3 year olds are!!

I have a lanyard for him to wear and plan to put it on there, but will also pin one to his shirt in case he decides to take the lanyard off. I will make it a pin of Mickey and put 'If I am lost, turn me over' and then write the info on the back side of the pin. That way he will think it's just a Mickey pin.

Just an idea!!

 

[Becc1]

My then 13 yr old got seperated from us at DHS a couple of years ago. I must admit I did panic although he was only gone about 10 minutes! He didn't have his cell phone on him because of no pockets in his shorts but he was smart enough to find a CM and ask to use their phone. We now choose very specific places to meet up if anyone gets seperated again.

 

[bellebud]

I "thought" I had lost my dd11 when she was 9yo. It was dark, after the nighttime parade (shoulder to shoulder people), we were a large group, she was w/ me & my group, said she told me she was running ahead to our others in our group who were just a bit ahead of us (but I didn't hear her say this)... to me, all of a sudden she was gone! I screamed for her (my mom and my ds were with me) - they stayed outside screaming for her, I ran into a shop and said I lost my dd, she was wearing this and that, they kind of just looked at me. I said "aren't you going to use those walkie talkies and help me???" One of them took me outside but was no help, I finally thought 'let me cell phone my sil in the other group and check with them', and she was like "yep, dd's here with us, what's the problem?"

I ran up to where they were, started crying, ds8 was hysterical crying and hugging her. They all had no idea what we just went through. I will ALWAYS have my kids keep a cell phone on them at the parks from now on. AND I think it's easier to lose a kid when there are multiple adults watching them all. If it were just me and my dh and 2 kids, we'd each have one by the hand. There were 9 of us, so kids are running back and forth to cousins, parents, aunts, uncles, nana, etc. Of course, that was the end of that (running back and forth between adults). If it was daytime and not just after a parade, it wouldn't have been as bad. But it was a horrible 5 minutes for me.

 

[luvwdwfla2]

My DS6 got lost in the WL lobby. We were at the pin cart and while I was not looking he wandered off. Luckily he went right to the front desk. Exactly what I had taught him to do. The manage took him for a walk in the lobby to look for us. They found DH in gift shop. I stayed at the pins, did not want all of us wandering. It was a long 5 mins.

Glad I had practiced different scenarios with him before we even went to disney. I have also been told that the first thing the adult should do is contact a castmember. Dont search on your own, it is faster that way, and tit puts the castmembers in the area on alert quicker. Especially with multiple entrance/exits at a ride etc

 

[mjaclyn]

I have never lost one of my kids (they are 2 and 4) but I do take precautions. My 4 year old knows to immediately look for a cast member or a 'mom with kids' if for some reason we get separated. I also buy Safety Tats (http://safetytat.com/). They are temporary tattoos that you can put on your little one and can say a variety of things from 'I have a severe peanut allergy' to 'If Lost Please Call:', and you can write your phone number on it. What I like about them is that they are very easy to put on (just like a sticker), you can put them on your child's arm so they know where to find their phone number and they last for about a week. All you can really do is prepare yourself and your children, watch them closely and hold their hands in a crowd, and if something does happen try not to freak out so you can find them as quickly as possible.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I lost my DS when he was almost 2. It was just 3 weeks before his birthday.

We went to Pecos Bills to have lunch, and decided to eat outside. It was really crowded, but there was 1 table open that was under a tree. So we sat down with our food, and our 2 kids. The boys were almost 2 and almost 3 years old so we had them in a stroller. We got them out to sit at the table.

Then we noticed all the birds in the tree above us, and they were pooping all over. It was landing on the table. We moved in a hurry, but it was confusing. We grabbed our food so it wouldn't get pooped on, I grabbed oldest DS, and I thought DH grabbed youngest. Well he was busy moving the stroller so it would be closer to our new table. I looked down and said where is DS. DH thought I had him, and I thought he had him. It was awful! He wasn't anywhere to be seen.

I told DH stay with older DS so we don't lose him too, and I went outside of the eating area to look. I was so lucky that he had on one of those winnie the pooh hats with ears, because I saw him (saw the hat) way down the path, almost out of frontier land, just walking along having a good time. I took off running after him, but a woman picked him up. She thought he was lost, which he was, and she started looking around. By the time I caught up with them I was crying and out of breath. DS was looking at me like I was crazy. The woman handed him over, and I couldn't stop thanking her for stopping him.

OH, and he did have a card in his pocket with all our information on it. I just don't know if anyone would think to look for it. I also take a photo with their picture each morning in case we lose them. I think I might forget what they were wearing or something. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about it now. We might get seperated, but they are old enough to know what to do.

 

[dsnymomof4]

AND I think it's easier to lose a kid when there are multiple adults watching them all.

I totally agree with this. This is why DS2 got lost on our trip last year. My Dsis, DD13, DS2 and I were going through Minnie's house. On the back porch there were chairs - I sat down to put my camera away. DD13 had been holding DS2's hand, but let go thinking I would have him. I assumed she still had him and walked out to the garden and he wasn't with them. My heart stopped for a second, then just started looking around. I immediately went towards the gate and started asking people standing around if they saw a little boy come out by himself. DD went back into the house - where he was playing in the kitchen! It's amazing how fast they can get away from you - especially a toddler. So, on our most recent trip, we brought a harness with us - worked out great!

 

[SoonerSarah]

AND I think it's easier to lose a kid when there are multiple adults watching them all.

See, that is my issue.

We will have DH and I, our 3 girls, MIL, FIL, BIL and possibly my parents as well.

My youngest sister got lost at a mall (it was a large mall in Chicago) years back and they were completely freaked out. She was less than 10 years old and the party had started walking to the cars when someone realized she was missing. It took about 30 minutes, but she was found by a security guard.

It is mainly my 3 y.o. that I'm worried about. She doesn't have superb language skills, and generally refuses to speak to people that she doesn't know very well. I've tried teaching her our names and she doesn't quite get the concept. I'm not really a person that freaks out in emergency situations, but losing my kids is something that scares me.

I have looked into a few different options for identification and I'm just not sure which one I'm going to go with.

 

[brockash]

When my ds was 5, we lost him for a few mins. at Disneyland. We were around the Adventureland area. We were in a big group, and my nephew, dsis, and my mom (and others) were ahead a little bit, and my dh and I were discussing if he was going to take the baby back to the hotel with him. We got done talking, my dh left with our dd, and my ds wasn't there. I assumed he went ahead with my mom, so I ran up to reach them and he wasn't there. We started running around calling his name, and then I spotted him. When my dh and I stopped to have our conversation, we had stopped near a gift shop/stand things, and he was standing there, one foot in the store the other out holding a stuffed animal. He claimed that he could see me the entire time, but it scared the crap out of me. In reality, the whole situation probably was under 5 mins., but it was a scary couple mins. at the end. Ever since then, we've taken wristbands for the kids to wear, just in case. Thankfully it hasn't happened since.

 

[dsnymomof4]

When DD9 was little, I purchased the Who's Shoes ID. You write all of your information on it and it velcros onto their shoes. What I liked about it was that it was bright florescent pink and said "Who's Shoes ID" on it, so it was noticeable that it would contain contact information if someone were to find her. As far as having all those adults going, just make sure each person knows if they're in charge of a child, so there is no "oh, I thought you had her". And while losing a child is always a concern in public, don't let it overwhelm you. Reinforce with your kids that if they were to get separated from you, they stay where they are and/or find a nearby CM to tell they are lost.

 

[2Kds2K9]

When we walked into the park, the first thing I did was show the kids the name tag of the CMs and told them if they got lost, to look for a person wearing a name tag in that shape.

DS was about 4 when we lost him outside of SM. DH took DS and DD to the restroom while I went to look at the pictures. DH and DD walked out and asked where DS was. Complete panic! As I tried to get the attention of a CM, DH walked just beyond the attraction area. There was a toy cart with a CM holding DS's hand. He had sniffed out the toy cart and the CM noticed that there was no adult with him. She gently took his hand and talked to him until we showed up.

I found that when one of my guys has gone missing, I immediately look for what attracted them. With DD it's always been dogs. We've lost her several times at fairs and have found her petting a dog. Yep, she'd be the one to help someone look for a lost puppy! That ALWAYS scared me!

Good luck and have fun!

 

[dizneechic]

We lost my ds (then) 6 last Feb in the shops (Emporium) on main street. We were talking with a CM looking for mickey sprinkles and she had us follow her across the store and my middle ds got distracted along the way and wandered off. We realized a minute or so later that he was missing and my dh flipped and went with my older ds to start looking (backtracking) and me and my dd cashed out and alerted the CM that my ds was missing. He was about to radio to the other CMs when my cell phone rang and it was a CM with a young boy with my number on a bracelet, she was by the plush animals with him and he would like me to come get him. DS was terrified and while he knows every bit of our info couldn't get any of it out to talk to her, so just stuck out his arm in tears and she knew what to do.

Before our trip we had purchased the glow in the dark silicone bracelets for our kids w/ our phone numbers on them (and they were also great for dark rides ) and let them know if they got lost to find a CM and show them the bracelet. Unfortunately they were needed, and we were thankful we had planned ahead of time. I'm sure Disney knows how to handle lost kids with or without the kids having info on them, it just made the situation for us slightly less stressful knowing DS also had a plan he was comfortable with and did exactly what he needed to do to be returned quickly and safely.

 

[DVCBELLE]

I lost my son at Disneyland once...he was about 3 and I had told him in the morning that he could have a cookie from the bakery later in the day. We were watching a show near the bakery and I turned to say something to him and he was gone...I think he had been sitting in our stroller but honestly it was 5 years ago and the details are a little fuzzy. Anyway - he was gone...I called his name but it was crowded and the show was moving (it was the moving HSM show) and the crowd was moving and I could not see him anywhere - I was in total panic mode...I called my DH to come meet us and help me find him - and then my DD saw him inside the bakery- he had decided to go get the cookie I had promised he could have. He wasn't interested in the show so he went to get the cookie. It was probably less than 5 minutes before I found him but it felt like an eternity to me.

My mom lost him on Tom Sawyer's Island this year...she didn't realize there were secret passages out of the Fort and couldn't find him...she called me panicked and we hopped on the next boat to help her look for him...she found him before we got there but she was pretty panicked about it - I wasn't that panicked b/c I knew he won't go in those secret passages even when I am with him and was sure he was just playing in the Fort somewhere...its nice that as they get older you can trust that they won't do the stupid things they did when they were little!!

This fall when we were at Disney World - we saw a little boy (about 2) wondering down the middle of the parade route about 10 minutes before the parade started. I saw a man and woman chasing after him. I was about to go stop the little boy but the woman reached him and just started hugging him and the older gentleman fell to his knees crying...I am not sure how long the little guy had been missing but it was clearly his grandpa and the man was so relieved to have found him that he must have been missing for a good amount of time!

 

[momto2js]

We lost DS3 this summer at Busch Gardens in the Sesame Place area. He was climbing on the climber in front of me and behind my Dh and when we got to the bottom he was gone. I sent DH to the one area exit and I headed to find an employee. By the time the ride operator I found picked up the phone I found him.

We leave tomorrow on my first solo trip with both kids. It was a last minute trip so I had DS pick out a tag at petsmart and engraved my cell number on it. I will put them on the kids shoes and on lifejackets if we go to a water park. My DS who is now 4 is a good swimmer and with a life jacket he will be "safe" in the shallow area of the kids pool but it is big area to keep track of both.

 

[wbarkhur]

We lost our 7 yr old son this last November in DHS. It was crazy busy a few days before Thanksgiving. My DH, I and our 5 kids were on our way out of the Beauty and The Beast show, it was the last show so it was starting to get dark, there were soo many people (they were lined up for the second fantasmic show already(6 ish) and were already back this far) we ended up taking a different way out then we had in. My son some how got seperated from us and thought that we were going to go back were we parked the stroller so he went that way. We noticed he was gone pretty quick, my husband went back the way we had came, but didn't see him. We decided to split up and go look, after about ten min, I was starting to get really freaked out, and was just about to go find a CM to report him missing, when we saw him walking down the road crying and scared. I was so happy to see him and we were both ok again after a few min.
But it did make us realize a few things. We had put safety tatoos on our kids, and the first day in MK pointed out a CM to them and told them if they got lost to find someone like this and tell them they were lost, show them their tatoo with our number ect. The thing we failed to realized is that our son was looking for a CM dressed like the one we showed him at MK, he didn't realize (and we failed to tell him) that they have different uniforms in different parks. We did take him up to a very friendly and helpful CM who showed him his name tag and told him that no matter what park/area he was in that the CMs always had name tags on and to look for that, he also told us that if they do find a child they know that a lot of parents put their info on the child somewhere so they know to look for it. So if you do point out CMs to your kids make sure you point out the name tags, not just the uniforms.

 

[Familyx4]

We were at EPCOT in in 2000 at some pavilion where Mission Space is now and when we walked out we realized our 5 year old daughter was not with us. We immediately walked back in and due to my training I started to scan the furthest point first and work my way back closer. I noticed my wife running and our daughter was right there in sight of the door with a nice mother who way on her knees talking to her. Our daughter was crying but happy to see us and us her. It must have only been seconds but that period of time not knowing where she was seemed like hours.

I understand that Disney cast members are trained to spot children who are alone and ones that look very uncomfortable or upset.