To those who have "lost" a kid at WDW...

[riddlemethis]

What is the protocol for a lost child?

Not saying we WILL lose our 6 y/o, but I may be saying that he has been ... misplaced.. int he past.

He tends to get disoriented in crowds so I'm just wondering what happens

I remember reading somewhere on a thread that a Cast Member could get them an ice cream or something?


They have our cellphone numbers memorized and when he was... misplaced... he knew to find a nice-looking person and ask to use their phone.

 

[wilkeliza]

Do you want the "official" or the "in practice" protocol. I can give you both.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I have found a kid...and a missing parent...nothing was done for either, but we linked them up quickly, before Disney CMs even needed to be involved. I wouldn't plan on misplacing him...I'd just have a plan for where to meet at the end of each ride if you do go missing. If he can memorize a cell, he can memorize a meeting spot.

 

[wilkeliza]

Official policy - all missing children under 10 are taken directly to baby care to wait for their parents to arrive. Children over 10 go to guest relations immediately.

In practice policy - a lost child either identifies themselves as lost to a CM or is brought to a CM by another guest. One CM stays put in the location in case parents come around while the other CM walks with the child around the immediate area. They let the kid stand with them for 5 to 15 minutes before even starting the lost child protocols in hopes that the parental figure or adult responsible for the kid shows up. If nobody shows up the managers are notified, description of parents given, and kid is taken to baby care or GR based on their age as posted above. If they know your cell number and are confident in giving it CMs will either use their personal cell (remember safety trumps show so they'll never get in trouble for that) or use the location phone to call you.

A parent tells a CM their child is lost. #1 thing to remember, STAY WITH THE CM! Do not under any circumstance continue looking on your own. Stay with the 1st CM you notify. They will call over the radio to their manager and initiate a lost child protocol for a park wide search. This is where a photo of what your kid is wearing that day comes in handy. I can't tell you how many distraught parents can't remember if Johnny wore a blue shirt or red shirt that day or if he was in pants or jeans. Once there is a description it is given to all CMs through the radio system. Security and non-safety critical CMs (so those not operating the inside of a ride) will go into high alert mode. They'll call baby care and GR to see if a kid has been brought there. Every person leaving will be looked at carefully to make sure they aren't the missing kid. If the child is not found quickly there are even more extremes (park wide lock down) but I've never experience that. Even the time a parent didn't realize their 5 year old was missing until after the fireworks and after the park was empty and admitted they hadn't seem him for about 2 hours when they first sat down for the fireworks. How that kid didn't get hurt and wasn't in any ways distraught when he was finally found I'll never know.

 

[alliecat523]

My DD "lost" me while waiting in line to buy food. She panicked, grabbed a CM who let her use her cell phone. DD called me and I ended up being 10ft away (it was crowded).

I think as long as your kids knows your cell it will be easy to reconnect. When my DD was younger we always had a plan or place to meet. Like meet me at the entrance to Pirates and if I don't show up, tell a CM.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

What is the protocol for a lost child?

Not saying we WILL lose our 6 y/o, but I may be saying that he has been ... misplaced.. int he past.

He tends to get disoriented in crowds so I'm just wondering what happens

I remember reading somewhere on a thread that a Cast Member could get them an ice cream or something?


They have our cellphone numbers memorized and when he was... misplaced... he knew to find a nice-looking person and ask to use their phone.

yjr

What is the protocol for a lost child?

Not saying we WILL lose our 6 y/o, but I may be saying that he has been ... misplaced.. int he past.

He tends to get disoriented in crowds so I'm just wondering what happens

I remember reading somewhere on a thread that a Cast Member could get them an ice cream or something?


They have our cellphone numbers memorized and when he was... misplaced... he knew to find a nice-looking person and ask to use their phone.

the main thing I would do is make sure to take a cell phone pic each day or after clothes change. ours was an older child to walked away from group to throw something away and then could not find us. in less than 5 minutes he had been found by security and was at lost and found before his dad got there. we had a large group so dad headed to lost and found while rest stayed in that area. the picture helps you remember what child is wearing that day. I work at a small park in Pa. we a family finally ask for help after they could not find their child after 15 minutes. he had been with security for over 10 of those minutes. I had to order mom to stay and talk with security after she had me call them. she got really upset when they did not take her straight to her child when she insisted her child had a red shirt on when the child they had was in green. took dad to get phone out with pic that should child had on green that day. mother was still saying he had on red. and at our park it would do your child no good to ask a CM for a phone as that could get you fired if have one on you in the park. we are to keep child and radio for security. the other thing is to know where lost children/ parents is

 

[Lurkerin]

Read a great tip on the boards before our last trip. Write a cell phone number on each of your kids magic bands. Or who knows, maybe your forgetful significant other.

 

[Dinohood]

what you need is a game plan like say if you can't find us and we can't find you we will meet up at something that is big and can been seen in a crowd. Since i don't know WDW very well never been i can't say but if it was Disneyland and he was lost in tomorrow land you could meet up at pizza plant that has a big rocket outside of it. Speaking of getting lost that did happen to me when i was a teen at disneyland it was night time and long story short do not tell the cm that your child is delayed that is what my brother told one cm may be thinking i could be found faster it was no help.

 

[Kerriowl]

I always point out to my children who to ask for help if needed. It is super easy at Disney to tell them to look for the mouse ears CM tag and ask that person for help. We recently got to practice this at our local children's museum. I lost my 5 year old in the crowd of other blond boys we had come with. I found an employee and gave her a good description including his shoes (this was great for boys - they are always wearing the same shoes!). She then radioed about a lost child and he had already notified an employee that he was lost and was at the front desk safe and sound.

Another helpful item is Safety Tats. We used these for our first Disney trip when our boys were still new at our cell phone numbers. It is a temporary tattoo that you can write on with Sharpie. It lasted about 4 days in Disney with sun screen and swimming.

 

[momma2ethan]

We, as a family, have a lost child protocol and have followed it for years. DS9 wears an ID bracelet with his name and my cell #. It's metal and the info is engraved, so no possibility of it washing off. He's worn it since he was just over a year old, basically once he started walking the bracelet went on and does not get taken off. This ensures that in the event of him getting separated from me I could be reached before he had my number memorized. It now ensures I can be reached if something were to happen to cause him not to be able to speak, hurt/sick etc) If we get separated he is to go directly to the closest staff member, tell them he can't find his mom and request to use a phone. We have had this put to the test twice. Once as a test to see what he would do. He was 7 and wandered a bit at the state fair. I could still see him but he couldn't see me so I just watched and waited, ready to run to him if he panicked. He did everything right. Stopped, turned in a complete circle scanning the crowd for me, walked to the sunglass booth 10 feet away and was asking to use the phone when I walked up. He was near tears but did not panic. The following year we got separated again at the same state fair. Truly separated that time. I was the one near tears when we were reunited. It was less than 5 minutes but he was very calm and confident because he'd passed the "test" the previous year and followed protocol. We go over the separation rules whenever we are going to be in a situation where it's a possibility. At wdw that means on the bus to the park every single day.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

We used Safety Tats and every day pointed out "what safe people look like" so they would know who to go to if they got separated from us.

 

[riddlemethis]

These safety tats sound like a great idea! Also writing the number on the magic band is also a good one.

 

[riddlemethis]

Official policy - all missing children under 10 are taken directly to baby care to wait for their parents to arrive. Children over 10 go to guest relations immediately.....

Thank you so much for all your info! This is very helpful!

 

[100AcreWood]

I was separated from dd (10 at the time) on the lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon. I jumped off once I realized she she was missing waiting for her to come around again but she never did. Dh went to the lost child area to ask for help. Meanwhile dd had hopped off and asked one of the CM lifeguards for help. Once dh made it to the child lost area they radioed the other CMs and that's how we found her. It was all pretty quick - less than 10 minutes of panic. We were pleased at how well they handled everything and surprised our dd remembered all the things we told her about staying put.

 

[wilkeliza]

Thank you so much for all your info! This is very helpful!

No problem. Just remember anything you put on your child to identify them they have to be able to "present it" I've heard of parents butting it on the back of birthday buttons or celebration buttons and saying CMs are trained to check on the back. I'm here to confirm that is not the truth and in fact CMs are not suppose to touch children especially something that would require moving clothing. Of course no CM is going to be heartless so if a crying child needs a hug or a hand to hold they'll do that but to remove something form a kids clothes crosses a line almost no CM will be willing to cross. So if you you put your phone number on something make sure you child understands they need to show it to the CM. So don't put the tattoo on their stomach or back or anything like that. Put it on their arm. If you want it covered just put it under their short sleeve and tell them to pull just the sleeve up when they show the CM.

One genius thing I saw was a parent who got dog tags made then laced them to their kids shoes. The kid just came up to us and pointed to his shoe. Had all the info we needed. Another was form someone here. They bought their kid runner ID bracelets so that they just had to put their wrist out.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Any suggestions with what to do with a kid who doesn't know how to point? We will be going with our to-be 18 month old in May. He's very mobile, but completely non-verbal and does not point. Of course I will keep a very close eye on him, but we all know things happen...

 

[wilkeliza]

Any suggestions with what to do with a kid who doesn't know how to point? We will be going with our 18 month old in May. He's very mobile, but completely non-verbal and does not point. Of course I will keep a very close eye on him, but we all know things happen...

At 18 months I imagine he would go straight to baby care so no need to worry too much. Put the safety tat or bracelet or necklace where it is easy to spot (i.e. on their hand for the tat) and then if he gets away from you alert the very first CM you see and stay put with them. Like I said at that age with little verbal skills a CM is going to scoop him up and take him straight to baby care if they realize he doesn't belong to a family around them.

 

[jsternad]

I always take name tags and write my cell and DH's cell on them and stick them on my kids backs. "If I'm lost, Please call ###"

 

[MumziMom]

Way back when we made ID cards for our kids, for us, and for "don't lose beloved stuffies" - We gave both of our kids our ID's, with our phone numbers/photographs, heights (my husband is really tall.) We had their ID's with their photos/height/weight/age, other id'ing information - all had our dates of stay, and where we were staying. More info than was necessary, but I wanted to "make sure" - also, our daughter's favorite stuffy had an id attached around her/its neck with our names, our phone number, where we were staying, and a plea to find us. We had a small ID of her/it with photograph and description. Our daughter felt more secure carrying Bunny's ID as well. If we had lost Bunny, it would have been very, very bad. But we needed to take Bunny with us, in order for our daughter to sleep. Our son had been known to take off, but at Disney, he was right with us, as was our daughter. The crowds were a little overwhelming.

If I were to do this again, I would probably consider a printed wristband. You can order them online, though ordering just a few is fairly pricey. On this site, https://www.rapidwristbands.com/order#/order?type=embossed be aware that if you order more than 4 bracelets of one size, they are less expensive per bracelet (4 costs $50.36, while ordering 5 costs $26.90).

 

[kimfirstdisneytrip]

All good ideas. This is also where matching shirts/outfits can be helpful too. There can be big crowds at times, but if you are in matching shirts the crowds are less likely to separate you from each other, plus it is easier to show your shirt to a cast member. Yes -the tattoos, memorized cell phone, determining ahead of time where rides exit and where to meet up, teaching him to stay put if he gets separated from you is really important, you can find him a lot easier than he can find you, and also showing him how to identify a cast member to ask for help. The Cast members are great, always around, and on the ready for situations as these.