Has anyone actually lost their kid at Disney?

[sukhakuli]

We lost our 20 month old. Well, I guess "we" lost her is inaccurate, dh lost her while I was in the bathroom. He was rearranging things in the stroller and she walked into a Cast Members Only area. I came out and dh was panicked. I felt oddly calm about it. We looked all over the area, and of course she was gone, so we were about to go report her when a CM came out holding her hand, and dd was chattering happily about the "Mouse." She was completely unfazed. Dh was super upset, though.

We've been to various theme parks a ton, and ended up having 2 more kids, including one with autism who runs off constantly, and we haven't lost anyone since.

 

[Kallista]

I lost a 6 year old in BB. He wandered off. We looked for him for about 20 minutes and then I reported him to Lost Children. They wrote his name down and reported (by walkie talkie) his description to the area managers and the front gate. I went to look for him some more and found him playing in some sand by the wave pool, behind a chair. He was completely unfazed, but I was a wreck. Then we went back to "Lost Children" and apologized.

 

[SoonerSarah]

I had thought about getting the silicone bracelets, but then I noticed that they were 7 inches which is huge. My oldest daughter has very petite features and her wrist is 5 inches and her hand isn't that much bigger. I suppose I could put it on their ankles, but that wouldn't work for the baby (not that I'm that concerned about her getting lost).

I have considered the dog tags and the safety tats and I saw on another thread where someone posted some disposable wristbands.

It's interesting to hear all of these lost kid stories with such positive end results.

 

[dizneechic]

I had thought about getting the silicone bracelets, but then I noticed that they were 7 inches which is huge. My oldest daughter has very petite features and her wrist is 5 inches and her hand isn't that much bigger. I suppose I could put it on their ankles, but that wouldn't work for the baby (not that I'm that concerned about her getting lost)

That's exactly why we ordered ours from Reminderband.com. They have children's sized silicone bands and they are 5 7/8". We actually need to order some more because the child size ones are a little tough to get on my oldest now. The ones we ordered were the glow in the dark debossed band with gold fill. You can see my oldest ds's here (click image for larger view):

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

We have the silicone bracelets with our cell phone number on them. The oldest two wear them as bracelets while our youngest keeps it on his ankle.

We lost our youngest DS at World of Disney in 2009 when he was 2 years old. He hopped out of the stroller while DH and I weren't looking and wandered off. After that first moment of panic and frantic searching, I told a CM and held onto the other 2 while DH started checking the store.

The CM radioed his description to the other cast members and within a few minutes got a call back that he was with a CM in another part of the store. Our little man was happy as a clam as he had found a particularly amusing toy and didn't even realize he was "lost" and was a bit confused as to why Mommy and Daddy were so upset.

The CM who found him mentioned that he noticed there were no adults paying attention to him and was going to check on him when he got the call about a lost boy matching his description. He recognized the silicone bracelet (anklet) and said "cell phone, right?" which made us feel that the bracelets were a good choice.

...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.

Ditto! This happened to us at the beach when our oldest DS (4 at the time) got lost at the beach - he knows all our info by heart but in panic mode that all goes out the window. The saint of a woman who stopped his panicked run said he just held out his arm and cried.

 

[Paradise18]

When we were at Magic Kingdom in May '09 I was sitting with my daughter in front of the Tomorrowland Speedway waiting for my son and husband to get on the ride. My daughter was having a temper tantrum and a little girl walked over to her and smiled and said "hi," I thought it was cute and it took my daughter by suprise. The little girl and her mother left. About 15 minutes later I saw the little girl walking around without her mother and it didn't appear as though there was another adult close to her around. I got up with my daughter and started to keep an eye on her from a distance. By this time my husband and son were back and in the distance I could see her mother coming up from Tomorrowland. I pointed her out to my husband and he ran down to her to let her know where her daughter was. When I saw the mother I pointed out her daughter and she ran over and scooped her up giving her the biggest hug ever. The poor woman had tears in her eyes and I could tell she had been frantic. Everything ended well, but things can happen in an instant.

 

[bumbershoot]

We haven't, but there's only 3 of us to keep track of.


DH got lost, though, at Disneyland when he was a kid. Actually, he didn't get lost, he didn't even move! He was the map-reader that day, and had his nose buried in the map, and his family started moving, and left him behind! He finally noticed, and *stayed put*. He did not move. And I think that's vital. Kids need to stay where they are, not go running around. And parents need to send one person back to the last place they saw the child, so that a child that has stayed put can be easily found!

Hubby was found by, of all people, Captain Hook! CH could see that Robert was missing some family members, and stayed with him until his family finally realized their middle child was gone, and came back.

To this day he will give CH a big hug. He's a villain, but was the good guy that day!



For the big groups, even when it's just the 3 of us we make sure that ONE adult has the main charge. If we need to switch, we say "OK E is with you now, OK?" and wait for a response. When we had our reunion in December with 8 people (including 3 kids), we had to do the same after nearly losing two kids (oh I guess we did lose DS for a minute or two). The 3 year old and my son were standing together in the room when you get off Spaceship Earth, and the 3 year old bolted. My son grabbed her hand and tried to get her to stay there, but she's a strong and determined tiny mite of a thing, and dragged him along. They were found quickly.

And after that we reverted to the verbal "handoff" of kid duties, never allowing a child to just run off to another adult, always requiring them to wait until we could make the hand off obvious.

 

[justhat]

Yes, my son, and I only had 2 kids at the time as the 3rd wasn't born yet.

We were all eating ice cream at a table near Dumbo. I was with my older 2 kids (ages 5.5yo and 3yo at the time) and a friend and her 2 kids, ages 3yo and 8yo. My son, the 3yo, said he was finished with his ice cream and asked to sit in the stroller. I cleaned his face and hands and he sat down. I figured he was tired and wanted to nap. The stroller was directly next to me, but the seats were facing out, away from the table, and I was sitting at the table, so facing away from the stroller. My friend, however, was facing the stroller as she was across the table from me. My 5yo finished and so did the other kids and I started to clean up the table so we could leave. As I walked to the trash can I saw my son wasn't in the stroller, but figured he was around the table. He was not. We searched the immediate area and nothing. My friend and I split up and she went towards Dumbo, I went towards the Pooh ride. Neither of us saw him. So she kept looking and I went to find a CM to help. I went to the Pooh gift shop, the one you walk through after the ride, and asked the CM at the cashier and she said she didn't speak much English, didn't understand what I wanted, and couldn't help!! (She had a Japanese flag pin on.)

So I ran out in a panic and before I looked for anyone else, I decided to stop and think like my son. So I went to the Pooh playground. And there he was. Running freely. He didn't look remotely "lost", and of course not, *HE* wasn't, he knew exactly where he was and wanted to be there. I, otoh, looked ill I imagine.

The one saving grace in terms of kidnapping was that since he didn't look lost, anyone on that playground would have assumed he was there with a parent cause he was playing so confidently.


As far as ID, he did have ID with us on the trip, a dogtag necklace I made in the Seas pavilion in Epcot. But he kept taking it off and throwing it on the ground that day, so I just took it off him and put it in the stroller. So he was ID-less at the time he was lost. But even if he hadn't been, who would have looked for it since he didn't look scared or lost?

 

[brockash]

I had thought about getting the silicone bracelets, but then I noticed that they were 7 inches which is huge. My oldest daughter has very petite features and her wrist is 5 inches and her hand isn't that much bigger. I suppose I could put it on their ankles, but that wouldn't work for the baby (not that I'm that concerned about her getting lost).

I have considered the dog tags and the safety tats and I saw on another thread where someone posted some disposable wristbands.

It's interesting to hear all of these lost kid stories with such positive end results.

That's what we do. My ds has always been old enough/big enough to wear the bracelet around his wrist, but I've always put it on dd's ankle. We've gone when she was 17 months, 2 1/2, 3 1/2 and will be going again in Sept. She's tiny, so she'll still be wearing it on her ankle, and we've never had any problems.

 

[bean24]

In 2000 we did a family reunion trip and vlost my 12 yr old nephew. We were all looking at the Pooh store and then moved on to IASW. When we were boarding we realized he wasn't with us. We went back to the store and there he was. The CM told us it happens all the time and she told him to just wait there and we would be back soon enough.

 

[LuLuO]

Not Disney related but MIL, my mom and I took my two kids DD3, DS1 and my DN2 to the pumpkin patch. I told my mom that she was in charge of DN and MIL was in charge of DD and I was in charge of DS. Easy right? Well, my mom got distracted loading pumpkins into the cart and MIL and I were busy helping DS and DD pick out pumpkins. I looked around and DN was gone. I gave DS to my mom and told mom and MIL to stay put. I ran off yelling DN's name. After about two minutes of me trying not to panic I saw him across the field at the entrance to the haunted house. I bolted for him and scooped him up. I was a blubbering mess but he was looking at me like I was nuts as were a lot of the other people who were gathering pumpkins.

The whole time I was kicking myself for not having put the safetytats on them that day. I had forgotten them at home. Now, I carry safetytats in the car along with three lanyards with my cell phone number.

 

[dfchelbay]

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?

I found a lovely little 5 year old British boy a few years ago at Hollywood Studios. I still remember his name, Harrison. We went to the nearest cast member and they all radio one another and within minutes mom and dad and child were reunited. They are very fast and have great technology to relay information back and forth to resolve this type of thing in a very short time.

Just last month, we found another lost little boy wandering and crying at the Osbourne lights. About three moms came to his rescue immediately. He was about 7ish, and we asked him if he knew his mommy's or daddy's cell phone number. He did, and as he was dialing, out of the crown came frantic mom. She was as scared as he was. Happy ending for all.

 

[fortheluvofpooh]

OH my gosh YES! My 5 yr old dd in 9/10 It was THE longest time frame in my life. May have been no more then 10 minutes but I thought I was going to die. We were going to get in line for Soarin and our friends needed the baby swap for their child so we went to get the ticket and I looked at DH and said Where is H? and he said she is right here. and she was not! We both looked away at the same time and that quick she was gone. I yelled over to my our 15 yr old "Wheres H?" and he glanced around and said I don't know, I asked my friend and she didn't know. All I could do was literally stand there and scream. My DH, 15 yr old and our friends husband all took off in different directions. I just kept calling her name and screaming she's only 5 yrs old where is she. My husband came running with her and we just fell and cried!!! DD just walked to the front of the Soarin line cause that is where we were going to go. I must have looked like a freak, but you have no idea what to do. I still cry when I think about what could have happened, how scared I was. This was our first trip with out a stroller and baby harness. I think the harness is coming back out next trip.

 

[nrpofp]

Yes I lost my son at disneyland. He was sitting in the stroller at pirates of the carribean. I was talking to a lady and then he was gone. I spent ten minutes looking for him I called security. My mom found him walking out out of gift store with a toy in his hand way over by the tiki room. Its pretty far away if your not familar with Disneyland. My mom is the last person you want to make mad. Not only was my 4 year old a run away, but also a thief. He was not even scared a bit. Hes 6 now you still can't take your eyes off him. It was the scariest 20 minutes of my life.

 

[Debella]

We are going to Disney next week and this is a fear of mine. My older dd i almost 10, so I know she can find a CM and she knows our cell phone numbers, but my younger dd is almost 4. We're renting a stroller from Orlando Stroller Rentals and there was something on their website about how you can also rent a GPS device to safety pin in your child's pocket. We are getting this because I like that I can try to find my daughter first before waiting for a CM to try and find me. I'm also going to put my name and cell phone number on her too...just in case.

 

[Jerseyguy's Wife]

I lost my DS2 on his very first day at WDW. Well, I thought I did. I agree with the poster who said that it's harder to keep track of the kids with more adults. On the boys' first trip to WDW, there were nine of us. Only 2 were kids. We were at GF waiting on our Park Fare reservation when I looked down and the baby was gone. I asked all the adults in our party if they had seen DS. No one had. I took off and looked in the stores in the lobby. I sprinted up the stairs (DS was a huge stairs fan). I checked out the elevator. I was beginning to truly panic. One of the people in our party said that B (one of the adults) had gone to the bathroom. I ran in there asking loudly if she was in there and if she knew where DS was. He was in there with her!
Now, had it been anyone else, they would have been back in a few minutes. Not her. She takes forever. Think: she brings clorox wipes in with her. Yeah, so you get the point. She had been gone for probably 10-15 minutes.
So I left the bathroom and began to sob. I couldn't help it.
Now I use the extra Disney luggage tags to list the boys' info and slip them through their belt loops. The boys like their "tails" and if they are ever lost, the tags are screamingly obvious.

 

[teacup princess]

One of my worst parenting moments was losing my child at WDW. We lost my 4 y.o. about 10 minutes into our first day of vacation. We got to DHS at rope drop, made our way straight to the Tower of Terror, all the way telling the kids about the ride and how much fun it was going to be. Well, I guess we got him a little too exited 'cause while the rest of us went to park the stroller he made a B-line straight for the ride and got in line. We turned around and he was just gone. There were 4 adults with us and nobody saw him go. We just panicked and went in all different directions looking for him. We had looked everywhere else in the general area so I decided to go look in the attraction. I got in line and then when I still couldn't see him I rope jumped to the other side (I got a few comments but didn't care) and continued my way up to the front. I found him there almost at the entrance, just standing in line by himself. I was surprised nobody in line did anything but I guess they just thought he was with the party behind/or in front of them. It was probably only about 10 minutes but it was the scariest 10 minutes of my life. All the kids were wearing id's but it doesn't help if the child is oblivious and doesn't even know he's lost . We made sure to have another talk about staying together and not wandering off by yourself and luckily that was the only incident of our whole trip. We can finally laugh about it now.

 

[stm61]

We lost 2 of the kids several years ago. We were staying at POR and were about to head out to the pool when the youngest had a swim diaper incident. We let ds12 and dd6 go ahead, knowing we'd only be a few minutes behind them. We get to the main pool and they're not there. There were only a few people in the pool and the life guard's hadn't seen them. The only thing I could think of was they went to POFQ, so we jumped in a boat. They aren't there either and now I'm really getting nervous. The guards got a supervisor, they radioed all the life guards at both resorts, and brought a golf cart to drive us around looking for them. We'd searched half of POR when we found the missing kids waiting by the room. I'd told them to go to the closest pool, which I assumed was the main pool. It was our first time at POR and I didn't know there was a quiet pool at the other end of our building. How ds knew it was there I don't know, but that's where they went. They were mad at us for not showing up at the pool! That was about 6 years ago, now I make sure I know where ALL the pools are before we check in.

 

[bigal'sdaughter]

ok - I'll admit it- I was one of those kids that ran out of the secret tunnels from Tom Sawyers' Island. First off, I was never the one running away- that was my brother. I was about 8 and I clearly remember it. I turned around to tell my Mom to come in the tunnel and I ran in. A minute or so later (not quite at the end of the tunnel) I looked behind me and they were not there! I panicked and ran back to find them in the same area- to this day I don't know if they even realized I was gone....

Now we lost DD 2.5 in the Emporium on Main Street just as the sun was setting for about 2 minutes in 09. Scariest 2 minutes of my life. She just went to look at something and she realized we were gone/we realized she was gone. We were screaming her name and then I saw her ... she was very upset!
This time around... baby will be carried/in the Beco/stroller and one hand on DD at all times!

 

[Jessica14]

Yes, although DS6 wasn't actually lost. We lost track of him in the Boneyard in AK. I had no idea that it wasn't just the one enclosed area and that you could take a bridge and go to a toatally separate area. Well, I take a picture of him and then return to DH and DD thinking he was just running around the slides and steps. I realize he is no where to be seen (mind you this happened two years ago too, and he was in one of the slides). My DH says of course he is here, where would he go? I said in not a calm manner NO, HE IS NO WHERE IN THIS AREA! Suddenly, he appears at the top of some steps and says, "Come see what I found!" I was right, he actually had not been in that main area and it absolutely freaked me out. DH of course said, "See? Told you he was here."

He also let go of my husband at night during MVMCP. My husband has crutches and had DS holding them. DS let go and started walking one way while we all walked the other. Luckily, I saw him right away and spotted him because of his Mickey Christmas hat!
Jessica