Lost Parents

[Ariellen]

That makes my wonder, the next time that I am in WDW I am going to put a label or a sticker in the back of my shirt, or a wristle band with my kids phone number and room number, so in case I get lost my children can find me.

One little girl with lost parents showed me that she had her dad's cell phone # written on a piece of tape in her shoe so that we could contact him. (Turns out the parents had just walked about 10 feet ahead, realized she hadn't followed, and came right back before I could even touch a phone to call Guest Relations, but I thought something like that was a good idea.)

 

[Dagger]

That is sooooooo great!

 

[ears2you]

reason #485900 to love disney

 

[simple]

Not necessarily a secret, but I thought it was a cute little tidbit of info.
Did you know that there are no lost children in the Magic Kingdom? There are only lost parents. The reason for this distintion is because when a child becomes seperated from their parents, they are often afraid that their parents will be upset at them. When you tell them that it is not they who are lost, rather their parents, it shifts the "blame" to the parent.

oh that's splendid :sohappy: WDW is really awesome

 

[TikiBeckie]

I love that!

 

[hockey128290]

A CM told me this when I was there. It's a very clever way to put getting lost lol.:lol:

 

[MyNameisStitch]

I had a number of lost parents when I worked at Studios. And it honestly makes the kids feel better to know that they aren't lost, their parents are the ones that are lost. Its reassuring to them to know that your going to help them find their parents. Its not the most pleasant task, seeing a little kid scared at WDW is a heartbreaking experience. But in the end when you reunite the parents and children, its one of the most rewarding experiences as a CM.

Also a note to parents, When you take your kids to the parks for the first time...Take the time to point out the cast members to your kids. I know there are many, many different costumes that we wear but the one distinguishing feature is the Nametag. Every cast member wears the exact same nametag so its very easy to point out. If you take the time to point out the cast members then if you get lost (remember, lost parents) your child will know who they can trust to find you.

And if you ever find yourself lost, retrace your steps. Most cast members will stay for a few minutes in the same place they found them. Look around for cast members that are standing in the area. If you don't see a cast member standing with your child go to any CM and ask for assistance. Try to remain calm so you can give a clear description to the CM and they can relay it to their manager. If the CM is not wearing a radio or is not close to a phone they will ask you to follow them to a phone or take you to another CM with a radio. Just follow the directions of the CM and they will help you. We understand that being lost is a difficult thing and very frightening. If your giving us a description too fast we will ask you to repeat some things and may ask you to slow down. We're not trying to be mean, we just want to make sure that we get as much information as possible.

Also, heres a little tidbit from one of my friends in security, We've never had a lost parent that we couldn't find.

 

[Coasterlover]

Not necessarily a secret, but I thought it was a cute little tidbit of info.
Did you know that there are no lost children in the Magic Kingdom? There are only lost parents. The reason for this distintion is because when a child becomes seperated from their parents, they are often afraid that their parents will be upset at them. When you tell them that it is not they who are lost, rather their parents, it shifts the "blame" to the parent.

Actually, they do that at other parks too. The Six Flags park by me does the same thing. It's good that they do that, it probably gets the kids a little less worried.

First post!

 

[Jenna]

Aww I think this is a lovely idea to have that!

 

[PyxiiDustt]

I lost my parent when I was little. It could have been traumatic, but a CM found me and together we found my mommy. I was 6, and my family has been teasing me about it since =] But without the wonderful CM's, who knew what would've happened.

 

[Rabflmom]

A good thing for lost parents to know.....in the waterparks they have a CM in an area set aside for watching the children of lost parents. If a guard or CM has a child come up and say they lost their parents or even if they see a child who seems sort of lost, they radio in and all guards etc. then look for parents who seem to be searching. The CM with the child first looks in the area where they become lost and then takes them to the area where they can wait for lost parents. The CM there has checkers and games for them to play while waiting and gives them lots of attention so they aren't afraid etc.

One thing to remember and not to ask for is.....if you become seperated from your kids, the parks cannot put an announcement over the PA for them . They can only use that for real emergencies or they would be announcing for lost parents or seperated families to come get their kids or meet somewhere every 10 seconds.

 

[H20Babie]

I hate preparing for the worst, but in Disney it's a necessity. I've "trained" (for lack of a better word) my DS(5) that if mommy gets lost, he is to look for a CM (a person with a Disney name tag) and tell them his mommy is lost. We've rehearsed giving his full name, my full name, his birthdate, our resort, and my cell phone number (which will also be taped to the inside of his shoe). He knows not to give out this information to strangers, other than people wearing a Disney name tag. Worst case scenario: I get lost and incur a long-distance charge on my cell phone!

 

[alamere1496@aol]

When we go to the parks, my husband and I each put an expired lisence in each of of kids pocket. That way, if our 3 year old gets seperated from us (which has never happend I'd like to point out) he knows enough to show someone who his parents are even if he doesn't always pronounce our last name right!!

 

[Ckaitlin16]

The entire theme parks

Have 'lost parents'. I work at Epcot and one day a 5 year old came up to me crying his poor little eyes out. I was sooo sad when I saw him like that. so after I figured out what his name was, his brothers name, and what resort he stayed at I gave him like 50 stickers and a name tag for the strollers with a pen so he could draw. The entire time I had kept reminding him that his Guardian was lost, then my manager comes up on her headset right in front of the poor kid and says "yes we have a lost child in Epcot Strollers". Fortunetly the child did not here it. It was a good day in all when his grandparents came up with security to retreve him.:sohappy:

 

[Jefferson1964]

My 4 year old son got seperated from my wife and I about 2 years ago. We were walking from Frontier land to ride buzz light year...My wife thought he was in the stroller i was pushing ahead of her and I thought he was with her behind me...well we found out he was with neither of us...My wife went over and got several cast members to help look...turned out to be about 10case members...all very nice people. Anyway, one cast member found him and radioed over to the cast member we were with describing him. He told us to follow him over and my son had gone over to the grass area and was smelling the flowers and watching the geese...he never knew he was MISSING, LOL.....the cast member were laughing along with us..he was just having a good ole time by himself...we never told him he was missing...but did make him walk up front...lol.......

 

[protiius]

love it!

 

[andyg711]

missing children problem solved !!!

I found a banner ad over on thedisneyblog.com that said that 27% of children going to theme parks get lost and directed me over to http://rent.bigleapgps.com

Apparently there is a small gps tracking device you can rent for your trip just for this problem. The even have a hotline number to call where they will direct you to the lost child. It's actually quite cheap compared to the panic of searching for 20 minutes!!!

 

[jonnyc]

I found a banner ad over on thedisneyblog.com that said that 27% of children going to theme parks get lost and directed me over to http://rent.bigleapgps.com

Apparently there is a small gps tracking device you can rent for your trip just for this problem. The even have a hotline number to call where they will direct you to the lost child. It's actually quite cheap compared to the panic of searching for 20 minutes!!!

I might get one of those for my Mom, she does tend to wonder off :lol:.

 

[sbkline]

Not necessarily a secret, but I thought it was a cute little tidbit of info.
Did you know that there are no lost children in the Magic Kingdom? There are only lost parents. The reason for this distintion is because when a child becomes seperated from their parents, they are often afraid that their parents will be upset at them. When you tell them that it is not they who are lost, rather their parents, it shifts the "blame" to the parent.

Yet, it still doesn't have any affect on whether or not the parent will be upset at the kid after they find them. Disney can try to place the blame however they want, but when that parent shows up, they're still gonna scold the child, if that's what they were going to do anyway.

If my child wandered off and got lost (yes, I say the child, because I think this whole notion of "lost parents" is a bunch of horse hockey), I would be very relieved to find him and would give him a big hug and express how concerned I was. But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna give him a big lecture on listening to Mom and Dad whenever we tell him to stay close and not wander off.

 

[TwoTigersMom]

Yet, it still doesn't have any affect on whether or not the parent will be upset at the kid after they find them. Disney can try to place the blame however they want, but when that parent shows up, they're still gonna scold the child, if that's what they were going to do anyway.

If my child wandered off and got lost (yes, I say the child, because I think this whole notion of "lost parents" is a bunch of horse hockey), I would be very relieved to find him and would give him a big hug and express how concerned I was. But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna give him a big lecture on listening to Mom and Dad whenever we tell him to stay close and not wander off.

Oh sbkline, are you going off on one of your little tangents again? What if your child didn't "wander off"? The 1st time I got separated from Hagan was at Typhoon Lagoon. He was about 3 feet from me playing in a puddle. I turned for, maybe 30 seconds, to speak to my grandmother and when I turned back he was gone. He had been playing and he happened to stand up to look for me at the moment I was talking to my grandmother. he happened to stand up facing the opposite direction from where I was and he panicked and went off to look for me. He didn't just wander off aimlessly, he was scared.

When Austin got separated from us, I had left him with my husband and in laws while I went into Team Mickey. They were going into World Of Disney. Kevin thought he was with his mother, his mother thought he was with Kevin. It wasn't Austin's fault, he didn't wander off. He just didn't notice them walk off from him.

Now, if you had been taking your little guy when he was just a small sack of potatoes, you wouldn't have to worry about him getting lost. He would know the area so well by now that you'd find him sitting back in your hotel room eating your Pringles with the mousekeeper. :ROFLOL: