Lost Kid at Disney Story

[KPeterso]

Thought we had lost my daughter in Hollywood Studios when she was 4. My husband was walking a little way ahead and I didn’t see my daughter. I thought she was walking with him. So I shouted to him “where’s Aria??” I was a little loud and panicked and a few people looked around. He calmly replied “she’s in the stroller that you’re pushing!” Oops. In my defence I also had a 9 month old who didn’t sleep well!

This reminds me of one. Was at Disneyland with BFF, her kids, and a few others. My Mom and I wanted to stop to fill our AP popcorn bucket for later. We had been walking along, but were going to split up a bit to meet up back at the DLH for our reservation at Goofy's Kitchen to celebrate the boys' birthdays. BFF and her 2 kids were with us and the stroller. Her older ds wanted to go into a store and look at something with her and (more importantly grandma who would buy anything). So they wandered off. A couple minutes later, I looked at my Mom and said "I hope they realize they left us the stroller and baby". I did not want her to freak out when she realized she had left us the stroller so I did text her and we found them on our way to DLH later. Baby was fine with us as he knew us well enough and may have been snoozing a bit too.

 

[DisLiss]

We haven't lost anyone at WDW yet, LOL! We've lost people, adult & child, other places though. I'm actually a tiny bit concerned about our upcoming trip because my kids are old enough to roam around together without us, now, and I'm afraid that might lead to trouble, LOL! We've already been laying down ground rules!

We made the daily photos a tradition on our family vacations just in case, though. We would stand the kids outside the resort door every morning and take a pic, no matter where we were vacationing. So now I have oodles of pics of my kids posed in front of resort doors over the years.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I've been taking my DS to DLR since he was 14 months old (he's 13 now), and when he was 3 and 4 I was worried about losing him in any crowd. He's always had some anxiety about getting separated from us, but he's also our "captain curious" and tends to dart through any opening he can find to go explore. I had temporary tattoos made with my cell # on them and put one on the inside of his arm when we'd go anywhere just in case. I also got one of the dreaded child leash backpacks - ours was a turtle with a clown fish that was the handle for the retractable "leash" - and got us both used to it in crowded places. DS wasn't a fan of the backpack, but I explained that because he kept letting go of my hand and running off in crowds, we had to use it until he could stay close to me on his own. After getting separated at a museum when he dashed into an elevator without us, he decided the backpack was a good idea.
Well, when we went to DLR that year he really didn't want the backpack, and I was never happy about having him "leashed", so we made a deal that as long as he held my hand and stayed by me he wouldn't need to wear it. We were in line for Small World and heard the parade starting, and decided to leave the queue to go watch it, but were back a row or two. I was just about to ask DS if he wanted me to pick him up to see better when he turned to me and anxiously said, "quick mama! Put the backpack on! Put the backpack on! I'm going to run away to find a better spot to see!" We all started laughing, I put the backpack on him, and he wiggled his way past the adults to watch the parade.
Having gone through all the times that kid ran off and got separated from us just because he spotted something he had to go investigate, I have total sympathy for all parents of "runners" who need to use those kid leashes to keep track of them.

 

[CheshKAT]

Anybody else lose a kid while you were at Disney? We lost a 9 years old at EPCOT for about an hour, probably less. It was New Year’s Eve about 10:45 I believe. He was our second youngest, so we were more focused on our 5 year old daughter. Being New Year’s Eve it was extremely packed with people and we were walking from future world to World Showcase. He was following us from behind and glanced away, then started to follow someone else he thought was us, who went off in a different direction. About the time we got to World Showcase, we realized he was gone, and backtracked.

We had told everyone if we got separated to meet at the Mexican pavilion with a backup plan of asking a cast member. I made my way to Mexican Pavillion and told my wife we would meet at France for New Year’s when I got him back. So I got to Mexico and waited, no sign of him. Found out from a CM that the lost kids are taken to the Odyssey Center and made my way there. (Evidently it was so crowded and because of his height, evidently he couldn’t see where the Mexican Pavillion was.) Found him over at the Odyssey center, he was somewhat embarrassed being the oldest lost kid there by a long shot. We weren’t able to make our way over to France for midnight, so we watched the countdown and celebration from where we were, and met up with the rest of the family after things started clearing out a little.

So he has the distinction of being the only one of our 5 kids to get lost at Disney, and we remind him every time we go. The next time we go there in Spring he’ll be 17, and our youngest will be 14 and doing things on her own. Of course, we’ll still remember to razz our 17 year old: “If you get lost…find a CM”

That's a great plan. We do the same. We always had a meeting spot for an approximate time and that always worked. Fortunately, we never lost one of ours.

 

[ktlm]

Thought we had lost my daughter in Hollywood Studios when she was 4. My husband was walking a little way ahead and I didn’t see my daughter. I thought she was walking with him. So I shouted to him “where’s Aria??” I was a little loud and panicked and a few people looked around. He calmly replied “she’s in the stroller that you’re pushing!” Oops. In my defence I also had a 9 month old who didn’t sleep well!

Reminds me of my friend's WDW lost child story. They were on an extended family trip-- her parents, her siblings and her nieces and nephews. They were going to see a show with other family members and their kids and she told her husband to go put the stroller in stroller parking which was a good distance away from the show. He came back and they stood in the crowd waiting for the seating to open up for a bit and after a few minutes she looked around and then asked him where their daughter was? He said- I thought she was with you. She said "No-- she was with you...in the stroller". After a few frantic minutes of fighting backwards through the show crowd and running to the stroller parking area- they found her sound asleep still in the stroller. I have to wonder what the people thought who parked their stroller next to the one that still had a kid in it!!!

We didn't fully lose ours, but the Mary Poppins story also brought up a memory. DD was 3- or maybe even just under 3. DD was a talker and she loved the characters, loved the Mary Poppins movie, and was so excited to run into Mary Poppins outside Akershus in EPCOT--- Mary stopped and got down on her level and was talking with her and asked her "Would you like to clean the nursery?" which DD apparently took as meaning Mary was taking her home to clean her room right then. DD (who had no intention of leaving WDW even when it was time to catch our flight home which is a whole other story) yelled "No" and took off running as fast as her feet would carry her through the crowd. I wish I had a picture of the shocked look on Mary's face. Luckily DH had fast reflexes and some people who saw the bolting toddler blocked her so he could catch her, or who knows how long we would have lost her-- she was an independent, outgoing toddler and didn't care if she couldn't see us and probably would have been happy enjoying EPCOT on her own. Poor Mary Poppins- once she got over the shock and saw that DH had caught DD, she mouthed "sorry" to me and I started laughing and she couldn't help but giggle- she tried really hard to hold it in and maintain that Poppins refined composure.

When DD was a toddler- we had silicone bracelets custom made with our cell phone numbers that she wore at WDW. It wasn't expensive to do. We made sure they were her favorite color so she would wear one.

 

[DizKids2]

We lost the same child twice, on two different trips. We have 3 kids and this is our middle child. Neither instance was for long. The first time we were with extended family at 1900 Park Fare and she was probably 3. I was carrying our youngest, who was still a baby. We all sat down at the table as we were seated and when I looked around our daughter wasn't there. DH immediately went searching and she was twirling around in the lobby.
The second time it was just the 5 of us. We had just gotten off of Pirates, got back to our strollers, looked around and realized she wasn't with us. When we went back into the store, she was calmly talking to a cast member, trying to describe what we looked like so they could help her find us.
Both of these moments made my heart stop and they were brief, I can't imagine what it would feel like if we had to go around a park to a lost kids area and hope she was there!

 

[Wendy1985]

No my parents lost me to the point that the park had to be shut down in 1988 I was playing at a playground my parents had their eye on me and some how got out of both of their sight it was at mk

 

[brockash]

Lost my ds at disneyland when he was 5...it was less than 5 mins., but it was a panicked few mins. lol. We were walking in Adventureland and we stopped because my dh was going to take our baby back to the hotel for a bit. We were traveling with extended family and they hadn't stopped...I assumed he was with them, but when I caught up to them he wasn't there. We started frantically looking around, calling his name and out of the corner of my eye I saw him...he had 1 foot in a little olen store/stand and 1 foot out staring at us. - I guess technically he wasn't lost as I think he watched us the whole time, but I didn't know where he was for a few mins. After that all the kids started wearing bands with our phone numbers on them when we went to Disney.

 

[Missingmypooh]

My aunt lost me for about 30 minutes at Busch Gardens once.

and my DS1 ran away from me (with a toddler and baby) on main street USA in 2019. We were waiting for Dad to get back from Starbucks and my son hoofed it across the street to the shops.

I alerted a security guard and stayed with the other kids while husband ran off in the same direction about two minutes behind.

literally three plain clothed security team members (meant CMs. Never lost one at UOR) appeared out of nowhere, plus a few more CMs. Bless them.

10 minutes later he was found giggling inside a clothing rack

 

[BalooFan]

My seven year old niece and I were separated at the old Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground at DHS. We were very careful with her and her mom stressed to her to find a CM immediately if she became separated from us. As I recall, there was a slide with one entrance, but (unbeknownst to either of us) two slides. I was waiting at the bottom of one slide and she went down the other. She didn’t see me at the end of her slide and when she didn’t come down the slide on my side I went to see what happened. After a minute or so of panicked searching I saw her walking toward me with a CM. Almost 20 years later she still reminds me how I lost her.

 

[elle21]

I lost my then 4 year old at HS. Three of my kids were lined up for Jedi Training and right before they started walking them over to the stage it started to pour. Everyone, kids in lines, parents standing around waiting, and CM’s, scrambled for cover. I looked around and my other kids were back under the awning where they first line up, but my 4 year old was gone. I started calling and walking through the area and still no sign of him. I saw a CM and said, “I can’t find my son.” She looked at me and said okay and just kept walking. I panicked at that point because I needed help. To this day I tell myself that she must not have understood what I said.
I started moving further out and found him alone standing in front of a gift shop nearby. He looked worried but he was so shy and quiet at that age that he didn’t say much.
At least he was wearing a safetytat with our name and number on it…if someone else had found him they would have been able to call us.