I just got back from the world (May 22-30.) One day I was in Animal Kingdom, and there was a little boy screaming hysterically, he couldn't have been more than 2. He was obviously lost. And one of the employees who takes the pictures of families by the tree of life, was holding the kid by the shirt, like the kid was diseased or something. A lady who didn't work for disney mind you, went up to him, and offered to take the kid to guest services, this guy just hands the kid off to her! A perfect stranger! I am still in shock. But I left a long note for the head of security in Animal Kingdom. If anyone is interested by the way, the guy's name who gave the kid to the lady was Cecil and he was an older gentleman. Then on the way out I saw a cop and I told him what happened, and he just said "that's really disney's problem." Well at that point I had just had it and said "well if god forbid that kid turns up dead, then it becomes your problem!" And I walked off.
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Can Anyone believe this?!
- Thread starter steveshady
- Start date
TTATraveler
Active Member
That is awful. I am not sure of what Disney's policy is on this, but the CM should have taken the child to Guest Services or remained with the child until the parent came back to pick up their child. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the cm thought the lady who came up was a parent/guardian. Otherwise, the cm in my opinion was irresponsible.
RnRJoe6114
Member
All i got to say is 'WOW!'.
General Grizz
New Member
Cast Members, by policy, should make sure the child calms down, and then he/she should proceed to contact the appropriate area where the child can wait for the parents if they cannot be found.
From what you wrote, the CM's actions were very inappropriate.
From what you wrote, the CM's actions were very inappropriate.
General Grizz
New Member
Mm, perhaps. But I hope they would be trained like Cast Members as they play active roles in the parks, where they will experience many different types of situations and be asked several types of questions.Thrawn said:
Disneydreaming
New Member
speck76 said:
Unfortunately, unless our species changes and we evolve to having eyes on all sides of our heads,:lookaroun it only takes a split second for a child to get lost in Disney. Too many distractions, too many people. Its too easy for a child to get separated from their parents, especially if there are several children to watch, or you are a single parent, and I am speaking from experience.
I agree that the CM didn't handle this properly, he made a very bad judgment call. Having lost my oldest child twice, once at the Poly and once at Epcot (she wondered off while her Dad was watching her :brick: ) I can say that all the CM's did an excellent job of finding her. Every CM stopped what they were doing to find her. Maybe this CM was new and didn't know the procedures.
JPVonDrake
Well-Known Member
Although this is no excuse as they are trained in Disney Traditions (which includes guest safety concerns) but as Thawn stated the photographers are employees of Kodak, not Disney Cast Members.
Since you have the name of the photographer, please feel free to write a letter to:
wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com
As this problem should be addressed by Disney Management.
Since you have the name of the photographer, please feel free to write a letter to:
wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com
As this problem should be addressed by Disney Management.
daveemtdave
New Member
This is scarey. Our family was visiting the Cleveland Zoo near our home one day when this little tike put his hand in my wifes and started walking away with us. No parent to be found......we contacted a zoo employee who instructed us to take they boy to security. We did this and we waited for the parents. When the mom finally appeared around 45 minutes later, she stated she was never in the area where this little one found us. They had been searching the area where the family was looking at animals. My wife, being the 'outspoken person she is' could not resist in asking his age...age was 3; then she said maybe YOU THE PARENT should have had him in a stroller or at least by the hand. This child found us by an open pond and wooded area. Parents should know where their little ones are...it is their responsiblity, BUT all adult workers should be equiped with the responsiblity to know WHO to contact if for some reason they can not leave their post.
M:SpilotISTC12
Well-Known Member
I cant believe that. That is so not right. Disney should be known to help little kids and not to send them off with strangers.
Epcot82Guy
Well-Known Member
Disney CMs, as people have said, are trained on how to handle lost children if they are on stage. If we can leave our post, we take the child and, using judgment, briefly try to find the parents and then go to Guest Services. If we can't, we find another CM (usually a greeter, FPer, etc.) that can to take the child. I actually had a child that came up to me when I was returning from a tour at the Land. Luckily the parents came by about 3 minutes later. Children do wander off, and parents are usually searching for them. However, that is part of the role of a CM.
Having said that, I believe Thrawn is correct. And these employees are not trained in Traditions (even the grossly truncated modern version), so their training is solely by their host company with Disney guidelines set at the management level. Therefore, things like this slip through the cracks quickly unfortunately.
Having said that, I believe Thrawn is correct. And these employees are not trained in Traditions (even the grossly truncated modern version), so their training is solely by their host company with Disney guidelines set at the management level. Therefore, things like this slip through the cracks quickly unfortunately.
Christina
New Member
You lose a kid and they become property of either IASA or El Rio De Tiempo... baha. No, but seriously what that CM did was awful... and just handed the boy off to a perfect strange! Tsk... Disney wouldn't want to have a kidnapping under its name, thats for sure... the CM should of handled the situation properly.
DisneyFreak529
New Member
Even if it was Kodak, it's a little wrong to just hand a child over to some one who you don't know or the child doesn't know. Any carring, smart person should know better. The kodak guy or what every he was should of stayed with the child till a Disney staff memeber could call or page the parents to that area.
sillyspook13
Well-Known Member
What bothers me is that the CM didn't even know that lost children at Animal Kingdom are taken to the baby care center, not Guest Relations. Unfortunately many of our third party CMs aren't well trained in the ways of the mouse.Epcot82Guy said:
One evening, near time for the park to close, we had a girl whose parents left her in the restroom at Camp Minnie Mickey. We kept her calm and waited in the Camp for about 15 minutes to see if her parents came looking for her. I even went searching for her parents with no luck. Our manager was the one who took her up to baby care.
The toughest lost child case I had was one day at parade. The mother was hysterical and spoke almost no English. Fortunately a security guard quickly found the little girl!
dixiegirl
Well-Known Member
sillyspook13 said:What bothers me is that the CM didn't even know that lost children at Animal Kingdom are taken to the baby care center, not Guest Relations. Unfortunately many of our third party CMs aren't well trained in the ways of the mouse.
One evening, near time for the park to close, we had a girl whose parents left her in the restroom at Camp Minnie Mickey. We kept her calm and waited in the Camp for about 15 minutes to see if her parents came looking for her. I even went searching for her parents with no luck. Our manager was the one who took her up to baby care.
The toughest lost child case I had was one day at parade. The mother was hysterical and spoke almost no English. Fortunately a security guard quickly found the little girl!
WE WERE there a couple of years ago and the beginging of fantasy in the sky
you could hear a mother screaming franticlly for her child...that was the worst thing to hear..not sure if (which i hope)she found her child..but in a crowd like there can be at times at disney it is very easy to lose a child especially at nite when there are bottlenecks all over the place..
Thrawn
Account Suspended
DisneyFreak529 said:
I agree that it was wrong. However, the blame can't fall on TWDC to train Kodak employees on how to handle these situations. Complain to Kodak, not Disney.
That being said, those photograph hounds shouldn't be there in the first place. I hope that contract runs out really soon.
tracyandalex
Well-Known Member
i agree, those photographers are annoying!!! my only comment is that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that you don't hand a lost child off to any random person. i have been to disney many times with my parents and remember wandering off, through no fault of my parents. there is no excuse for the way the kodak cm acted
tracy
tracy