Has anyone ever......

[Brynnie]

.........lost a child in WDW??? I am taking my nieces ages 3,6, and 8 for the first time July29-Aug 2. My sister is nervous about losing one of them since there are only 2 adults going (she really wanted one adult per kid but her husband/my boyfriend cannot come with us). I just wanted to know how Disney helped find your lost child and how long it took. I also would appreciate any tips to prevent this horrible thing from happening. I have I.D. tags for the kids with my cell phone number and I think everything will be fine but I just wanted to know your stories in order to calm my sister's fears. About six months ago, the 6 year old got lost at the Christmas Tree shop and my sister freaked out. It turned out that she had gone off with my mom so everything was fine but my sister just would not be able to handle it if this happened and it would ruin our trip.

Thank you for any advice!

Angie

 

[cleo]

Yes, I've lost a child in Disney and it was the most agonizing 10 minutes of my life. I'd go through 20 hours of labor again rather than experience 10 minutes of my lost boy!

However, if you must lose your child somewhere Disney is the place to do it. By the time I found my son (about 10 minutes after he got lost) he'd already been intercepted by a CM 9 minutes earlier. They are always on the look-out for misplaced children and their internal system is excellent for reuniting parent with their youngsters.

Your sister might panic, but it is extremely likely her offspring will be in good hands shortly after he or she 'looks lost'. I know there are many on the boards who detest the wrist attachments that keep tots close to mom or dad, but if your sister is that frightened she may want to use one with her youngest. The best defense, really, is to designate one person as the map reader (or whatever distraction comes up) and one as the child minder. And teach the older children to look for the nearest Cast Member if they get lost rather than wandering off looking for mom and dad.

 

[Flower4Pwr]

It's important to teach the children ahead of time that if they get lost to find someone wearing a nametag and tell them that they are lost. Sometimes kids will just wander around because they don't know who to go to for help. Make sure there is a number where you can be reached and most importantly that the children KNOW this number. If they get lost you also go to a CM right away and let them know EXACTLY what the kids are wearing. A lot of people get so upset in the moment that they forget this and that greatly hinders the process. Good luck on your trip!

 

[TiggerStac]

I have been a lost child at WDW. I was maybe about 5 or 6 and I wandered away from my parents, etc. It was right at 20,000 leagues. I have a few memories of it...I don't remember my parents coming back for me I do remember the guy in the scuba suit out front. My parents had taught me who to look for and I did. They did end up retracing steps and finding me..no harm done

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

I haven't lost a kid, but that's only because my neice was on a leash. I wholly advocate leashing an under 5 child, it keeps them close by, and alleviates the fear and pain of a possible missing kid.

That being said, Disney has things in place in case that happens. Please make sure you show your child the CM's and tell her if she gets seperated to find one of them. make sure she knows your FULL name not just NANA or Momma...

 

[wdwcindy]

I haven't lost anyone but have read here on the DIS about rapid recovery of kids at WDW.

One thing about finding the nearest CM: make sure the child knows how to distinguish between a CM nametag and the name tags that regular guests wear. It used to be just the difference between white (CM) and red (guest) but now there are multiple guest tags in different colors.

One other thing I've seen mentioned is, if you have a digital camera, to take a picture each morning of all the kids. That way you don't have to try to remember is little Billy is wearing red or blue today, or was that yesterday?

Happy travels.

 

[ksjayhawkfan]

Heres our story from this past June

We had an issue that we needed help with at CSR. It ended up being ok but it was very scary and I was frantic.

It was our first night at CSR. My DH,DD and DS were walking to our room from the main building and our DS, who is 8 decided he wanted to run up the stairs at Casitas 4 and meet DH on the other side by our building Casitas 5. Well needless to say, he got lost and we couldnt find him. DH brought DD back to me in the room and went to look for him. About 15 minutes later we still couldnt find him, so DD and I went to look for him too. After another 20 minutes we still couldnt find him, so I went back to our room and called the front desk. I told them what happened and they transfered me to someone else. I told them the story and they transfered me to security. They said they would be to our room ASAP. Well 15 minutes later, no DS and no security. I called again and was transferred again. The person who answered that time said they knew nothing about it...Ok by this time I was really upset. So he said he would be to our room himself....15 more minutes no security and no DS. By this time oue DS had been lost for more than an hour. DH was still looking for him and about 10 minutes later found him wandering around Casitas 3. We called back to security and told them we found him, they said they still needed to stop by the room just to make sure everything was alright....they never showed up.

Like I said it all turned out ok, but we were really scared. And this is from a kid that has been taught to find an adult in charge(policeman/CM/etc.) He just thought he could find us on his own

 

[donaldsgal]

Heres our story from this past June

We had an issue that we needed help with at CSR. It ended up being ok but it was very scary and I was frantic.

It was our first night at CSR. My DH,DD and DS were walking to our room from the main building and our DS, who is 8 decided he wanted to run up the stairs at Casitas 4 and meet DH on the other side by our building Casitas 5. Well needless to say, he got lost and we couldnt find him. DH brought DD back to me in the room and went to look for him. About 15 minutes later we still couldnt find him, so DD and I went to look for him too. After another 20 minutes we still couldnt find him, so I went back to our room and called the front desk. I told them what happened and they transfered me to someone else. I told them the story and they transfered me to security. They said they would be to our room ASAP. Well 15 minutes later, no DS and no security. I called again and was transferred again. The person who answered that time said they knew nothing about it...Ok by this time I was really upset. So he said he would be to our room himself....15 more minutes no security and no DS. By this time oue DS had been lost for more than an hour. DH was still looking for him and about 10 minutes later found him wandering around Casitas 3. We called back to security and told them we found him, they said they still needed to stop by the room just to make sure everything was alright....they never showed up.

Like I said it all turned out ok, but we were really scared. And this is from a kid that has been taught to find an adult in charge(policeman/CM/etc.) He just thought he could find us on his own

Just goes to show you that no matter how well you train your children, you'll never know their response until they're in the moment.

I hope you filed a complaint with the manager of the hotel. I mean, for you it worked out okay. Every CM is human and capable of mistakes, but making 3 phone calls, speaking to 3 different CMs, and having NO security support would be pretty frightening.

 

[BandGeek911]

It was a few years back and my sister got lost for like 5 minutes. We were in tommorow land store and my little sister wandered out of the store by herself. Apperently we all split up and everyone thought she was with someone else when she wasn't ( "Where's (my little sister's name)?" "I thought you had her!" ) Luckily we were wearing matching shirts with our last names on it and a CM had found my little sister and when we came running out of the store looking for my little sister the CM noticed our shirts and returned her safely!


So Tip if someone does get lost- try to wear matching shirts with your last names or a picture of something and the same color or something like that

 

[Eljay]

My husband & I were just outside Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary once when I saw a little blond girl standing alone with her head down. I watched for about 10 seconds to scan the surrounding people to see if she obviously belonged to someone close. Nobody close seemed to pay her any attention and suddenly she burst into tears. We went right to her and got down on her level and talked to her until a CM could be summoned. She was lost and the CM took her by the hand and told us that he wouldn't take his eyes off of her until they found her family. He was on his walkie-talkie immediately and seemed to have a definite procedure for lost kids. She must have wandered out of Chef Mickey's is all that I can figure.

 

[Skylarr29]

I have been a lost child a Disney and I remeber it very clearly. I was probably 4 or 5. we were waiting in line for its a small word and I was watching the boats go buy. Well the line kept going and I wasnt paying attention so lo and behold I turned around saying Mommy and no one was there. I ran up the line looking for them and didnt see them. A women grabbed me and said are you lost. I said yes!!!!! SHe took me to a cm and the cm put me on her shoulders and asked if i saw my mommy. I saw here freaking out. It was there turn to get on the boat and tehy noticed I was gone and they had to walk through the boat and wait as if they had just exited. I told the CM and we ran down the exit ramp and my mommy never lost me again(and I paid alot more attention) Total time lost about 2 or 3 min total.

 

[tinker-kyle]

Our DD was 2 on her first trip to WDW ... we lost her breifly (enough for us to have a heart attack) at the Lego playground at DTD ... i had put her on top of a small playground structure and was waiting at the bottom of the slide for her to slide down ... well she didnt ... she turned around and walked down ... so here i am looking up the slide for her and then running to the top and shes walking around ... saw here pretty quickly once i realized she wasnt "in" the slide. it was quick, but scary

one postive thing ...she was wearing an ID bracleet with our names/cell and hotel ... my brother's a doc and he had gotten us some blank hospital ID bracelets she wore it the whole week

another thing ... that slide/playground equipment is no longer there

 

[ThinkTink!]

The ID tags are a great idea. I had one for my son and he carried in his pocket just in case we got separated. It had my cell number and where we were staying. I would suggest being extra cautious if the kids go on any rides without you (ie: Dumbo) - the exit seems like a very logical place to wait for them when the ride is over but kids seem to find unique ways of exiting rides and just popping up! Also, the gift shops make me nervous, it's so easy to get distracted and let go of their hand to look at an item. We like to follow the 'freeze' rule. If you somehow get split up - the child should 'freeze' right where they are instead of paniking and running around to locate you.

 

[bigmerle1966]

This past trip we lost my friends 4 year old. We were in line at The Magic of Disney Animation at MGM and just missed being able to go in and were going to have a 15-20 min. wait. Someone told us that if we hurried we would be able to see the Incredibles, that they were outside near the Animation Station (they were actually inside). We asked a CM about it who went to find out and she came back to tell us where they were. As we headed in the door for some reason the 4 year old went back to the first line. As we got to the back room of the Animation Station his mother realized he wasn't with us. She went to look for him, we figured he had probably stopped to look at some of the displays along the way. She came back, in a panic because she couldn't find him. We all headed back to look for him and found him with a CM right outside. His mother had told him that if he got lost to look for a CM and he did just that. He told the CM that we had gotten lost. He had only been gone about 5 minutes.

 

[Luigi's Girl]

Hate to admit it since I'm such a paranoid parent who always has to have her kids in sight or anxiety sinks in, but I lost a child in WDW. It was in 2000 when my DD was 9 and it was right outside of Fantasmic. Me, DH, DS12, DD9, and Grandma & Grandpa were looking at the souvenir stand going around in a circle and somehow my DD wandered away because she thought we had walked away and went into the show. We were all frantic and I stood on a bench screaming out my daughter"s name (funny how you don't even care who's looking at you or how you sound when your under that strain) while my DS cried out loud for his sister (we still tease him to this day and say "see you do love your sister"). A CM saw me and asked if my DD had light hair and glasses and wearing a visor and she told me another CM was in the arena parading her thru the stands so her parents would see her. Total time she was lost was about 10 minutes but it was the longest 10 minutes of our lives.

 

[hdecker]

I second the matching shirt idea. Our DD's are 13 and 15 and we will still be wearing matching shirts, have been since the first time at the world when they were 3 and 5. It also really takes the stress out of packing, but more important, I know that if one of them ever wandered away - I would definately freak and wouldn't remember anything. We always get 5 - 6 sets of different shirts that aren't likely to have alot of duplications - Bass Pro Shop with great big fish on them; bright orange; you get the picture - but never red in June (that's another whole thread I'll stay away from). From what I've seen of the lost kids in WDW though, the CM's really are professional.

 

[DebbieTN]

You might not want to do it with a film camera, but if you have digital camera, you could take a picture of them each day so you would have a record of what they are wearing. Plus you could show their picture to CM's and others.

 

[jw50]

We tried to lose some but they kept finding us

 

[mking624]

My husband got lost in WDW when he was a little boy. It wasn't that he wandered away...but his parents (my inlaws) walked off and he didn't know (they weren't very watchful of him, so it was basically the kids' responsibility to know where the parents were going...as opposed to the parents guiding their kids). He was found about 10 minutes later...he stayed in the same spot. To this day he remembers what told him to stay put. He used to watch G.I. Joe cartoons and they'd always have these short little "lessons". The lesson he remembered was that if he ever was lost/separated from his parents, to stay right where he was...because that's usually the first place they're going to look. He remembered what G.I. Joe told him, he stayed put...and a few minutes later his parents came back and found him.
He got in trouble and his dad made them all leave the park as a result...which I found absurd. They're the ones who walked off without paying attention to their two children, and yet they blamed their little boy for it...and he didn't walk off at all. In fact, he was never known to walk off from anyone.

 

[mom22boys]

I spent one day at MK this past February with my best friend from high school. At the time my boys were 4.5 and 22 months. Her children were 5 and 3. I, like your sister, was worried about being out numbered, but was pleasantly surprised at how managable it was. We always had my youngest strapped in the stroller and then the three older ones took turns riding. We always had one adult to push the stroller with two of the kids in it and one adult to hold the hands of the other two. That was my biggest rule with my 4.5 year old. He always had to be holding my hand. So I guess my second piece of advice is to use a backpack so that you are more easily able to hold the kids' hands.

Have a great trip!