Credit: DisneyA terrified father shared his story online this week after he lost a child at Walt Disney World Resort.
Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney Springs welcome tens of thousands of guests daily. Security cast members meticulously protect every area of the Central Florida Disney parks, making them extremely safe for children. However, every parent knows that losing sight of their child is the worst-case scenario, even in the most trustworthy places.
It’s best practice to tell kids to approach anyone wearing a Walt Disney World Resort nametag if they can’t find their parents. Disney cast members are trained to help reunite families efficiently without scaring the little ones. When approaching a lost child, a Disney cast member will always say the parents are the ones who got lost and reassure them that they’re on their way back.
Even with Walt Disney World Resort’s strict protocols, every second without a lost child feels like an hour. In a Medium post, Sawyer Kuhl recounted his experience searching for his five-year-old child at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In the blink of an eye, the petrified dad felt like his entire world fell from beneath him.
Kuhl was fumbling with a lever on his stroller after getting off a Disney bus when he glanced up to look for his two young daughters. But he only saw one of the girls; she wasn’t where her also-panicked mom said she was.
“My heart was pounding two million times a second,” Kuhl explained. “My brain was racing faster than Dale Earnhart Jr and scattered in more directions than a shattered piece of glass.”
“Every muscle in my body was the tensest it’s ever been,” the Disney Park guest continued. “I wasn’t sure my body would be able to handle this situation. I felt like I was under attack. From all sides, including within.”
Kuhl rushed toward the theme park entrance, hoping to spot his five-year-old in the buzzing crowd. He couldn’t bring himself to scream her name, feeling like it was impossible to breathe or speak. Then, he saw her–with another family.
“I sped up into a trot,” Kuhl recalled. “There she was walking along without a care in the world, on her way to meet Doc McStuffins next to some other family, not realizing it wasn’t ours. The nearby woman wore a blue shirt like my wife did that day. Grace was so excited and happy that she didn’t even notice we were not with her.”
“I’ve never exhaled harder or hugged anyone tighter in my life,” he said. “The whole ordeal was probably 30 seconds, but it felt like 3 hours of terror and agony.”
Kuhl and his wife reminded their daughter to be more careful in such a crowded place and went on to enjoy their day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. His memories of the trip are mainly positive, like his daughters hugging Disney characters or riding Expedition Everest for the first time. Those agonizing moments without his daughter reminded Kuhl to be grateful for every minute.
“I had been trying to open the stroller so we could get going. My wife was trying to book our fast passes so we wouldn’t have to wait in line. We were both doing things to help the family. But no matter what you’re doing, you need to not take your family’s safety for granted,” he concluded.
Have you lost a child at Walt Disney World Resort? Share your story with Inside the Magic in the comments.