Magic Kingdom- lost child, lost shoe, etc.- not so magical for us!

[aimeew5477]

Let's skip right to the parts that weren't so magical for us:

CRAZY CROWDED!: First of all, we were there on 3 different days (from October 14-20) and we always felt that it was crazy crowded (even if the ride lines weren't that bad). It was very hard to maneuver through the streets with our stroller. It definitely took away from the magic of the park and I am thinking that this wasn't anywhere near as crowded as it could be.

LOST CHILD: THEN, we lost our almost 3 year old daughter in Mickey's Toontown. We were over by the water jets in Donald's Boat and while were changing our 13 month old out of wet clothes, apparently my 3 year old wandered out into the masses. I swear this all happened in the matter of seconds- and she is NOT one to wander off so it really freaked us out. Every second that passed felt like hours! My husband and I separated (one of us staying close to the boat) and after a few minutes went by of panicking, we decided to find a cast member (which was actually harder than I expected). They called for help and it took about 5 minutes for someone to show up- again feeling like hours (and I felt those 5 minutes could have been critical because someone could have taken her and left the park by then). They didn't ask for a picture of her (which I tried to show them) and they did the same thing we did- wandered around looking for someone they didn't know and had no idea what they looked like. I decided to walk out of Toontown thinking she may have went toward the tea cups or the dumbo ride. As I was walking back in, I saw her sitting on a curb with a CM by a little stand. RELIEF! There she was- thank goodness. That was absolutely the WORST 15 minutes of my life. BUT my question is, if a CM had her, why didn't the people in charge of helping you look for a lost child know about this? Don't they have a way to communicate with each other when a child is found? It could have saved a lot of anxiety if we had known right away that she was sitting with an employee. Moral of this story- ALWAYS have your child wear something with your cell phone number so that they can call you directly if they find your child.

LOST SHOE: As we were walking over the bridge near the castle, a family asked if we wanted our picture taken in front of the castle. What a nice gesture! We all stood in front of the railing with the beautiful castle behind us and got a great family shot- but as I was walking away from the bridge holding my daughter, her sneaker got caught in the railing and fell into the river! We again asked for help and they sent maintenance to help us (again taking about 5-10 minutes for them to show up). Luckily the shoe didn't go anywhere and stayed floating at the top. They did finally got it out for us but now we had a wet sneaker for the day.

So as you can see, we didn't have a lot of luck at Magic Kingdom during our stay (not that it was Disney's fault) but I thought I'd share my story so that hopefully more people label their children with their cell phone numbers and so that you don't get too close to the bridge and lose your shoe

 

[minniecarousel]

There is nothing more frighteniong than losing your kid in a crowd. We lost our youngest in Great America when he was probably 5 or 6 - longest 10 minutes of my life!

 

[LoveKermit]

I don't normally read TRs, but your title caught my eye. I cannot even imagine. Our DD is that age. She's obsessed right now about getting lost. But she runs real fast (don't they all?).

My 12 y.o. cousin wandered off last year at Great America. She too got swept in the crowd (and is clearly old enough to know better). Her mom was livid and relieved all at the same time.

Puts the shoe in perspective.

 

[skier_pete]

Sorry you had to go through that, I couldn't imagine a worse feeling other than that feeling after several hours. The only consolation is if you are going to lose your child, there is no safer place than in a WDW theme park.

For others reading this, in the past, we have always print stickers, which we paste on the back of DD shirt, with both of our cell phone #s. (No names, though - just "Mom" and "Dad".) This way if she was ever lost, she doesn't need to know how to reach us. We have never lost her, but in the crush of the parades and fireworks we have gotten temporarily separated. We also have trained her to go right to a CM..."someone with a nametag".

I am a little surprised at their response - usually when a child goes missing, the call goes out across the park...if the other CM found the child, it should have been called in as well, though possibly the CM had *just* found your child.

Ths shoe - well that's just bad luck...can't imagine that really "ruined" your trip! And a 5-10 minute response to a lost shoe seems reasonable versus a lost child.

 

[aimeew5477]

Losing a child was definitely one of the scariest things I have ever had experienced. I just kept thinking that she doesn't typically wander off and that maybe when we turned our backs, someone decided to swipe her.... and 10-15 minutes gave them plenty of time to get out of the park. It is just so unlike her to do this but I guess Disney has some pretty tempting attractions for her to go after. The CM must have had her for some time since she was coloring a page and handing out stickers to other kids that came to the stand. I don't know if she didn't have a radio or phone but hopefully they do something about that in the future. The shoe was definitely not a BIG deal and didn't ruin our day, but it did start our third day off there with a rough start. We just wondered what was going to happen to us next.....