Mimi goes missing at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
A Mom and The Mouse, Kristin Ford — By Kristin Ford on November 4, 2009 at 6:05 am
My daughter takes Mimi for a spin on the Mad Tea Party in the Magic Kingdom on her birthday.
How much stuff are you willing to drag through Disney World for your children’s convenience? I have a pretty high tolerance for packing – I plan for every possibility and load down the stroller – but I draw the line at stuffed animals.
My kids would be doing a happy dance if I allowed them to bring assorted plush “peeps” with us on our Disney travels. But besides the hassle factor, I live in fear of losing a lovey that cannot be replaced.
I have relaxed this rule only a handful of times – when the class stuffed animal was with us for the weekend and must see Disney World for himself, and most recently, on my kids’ birthdays. They were overjoyed at the news, and I told myself they were old enough to keep track of their prized possessions.
Wrong.
Mimi, the brand-new Littlest Pet Shop cat, was cast aside when C and L saw the Tomorrowland cooling station and rushed to dance under the mist. None of us realized she was missing until we finished riding Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.
My daughter began wailing, and I berated myself for relaxing the rules. But as we retraced our steps, a little girl who also was playing under the cooling station recognized my daughter and ran over with the missing stuffed animal. The tears quickly were brushed aside as Mimi was showered with kisses and admonished not to get lost at Disney “ever again.”
Thankfully, a meltdown and another trip to Target were averted.
Tags: Disney World, packing, Parents
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6 Comments
A near tragedy averted. We allow one friend to travel with us. However, the friend has a collar with a tag indicating the child, the name of the friend and Dad’s cell phone number in case he gets lost. So far no tragedies. When left behind we have always come back to find our missing friend.
I wouldn’t have bought my kid a new toy. That only teaches them that if they lose their possessions, you will just buy them a new one.
I agree. As a kid my parents would say, “If I get you this you’ll just break / lose it.” When I eventually broke / lost it, they’d say, “See…?”
We were taught there were consequences. Seldom did we get second shots. And when you played games there were winners and losers.
I do think we’ve slipped a bit and think our kids ‘deserve’ better when in fact it is good to teach them some adversity.
This happened to my sister in 1994 when she was a little kid and we were staying at what at the time was called “Dixie Landings” which is now the Port Orleans Riverside. But back to my point, she left her stuffed bunny back at the hotel and she being only 3 she didn’t realize that he was missing till we made it back to Ft. Lauderdale. Being her prized bunny she was upset, I being the big brother made a call to the Resort in search of the bunny. Housekeeping had found him and made note that he was in our guest room and the kind lady on the phone said that they were just going to call to let us know when I rang them. She offered to ship the bunny back home to us, I offered to pay and she declined. The next day, Fedex knocks on the door and there he is. They even took polaroids of Mr bunnys extra day relaxing at the resort. The good ol’ disney days. Every once in a while you still get to see this magic at disney. When I was a manager there I made sure to go out of my way by even dropping off personalized items from the ye olde christmas shop to guests rooms if something they bought got broken by the horrible package pickup people. That bunny incident made me want to provide that same service during my tenure there from 01-06
What a wonderful story. I especially love the part about Mr. Bunny’s extra day relaxing at the resort, that made my day!! It is a sad fact there is no such thing a quality customer service any more. I work in customer service over the phone, and still provide a smile even though the customers cannot see me personally, they can tell I enjoy what I do, and go out of my way to assist in any way possible.
It’s so funny that you wrote this because I have two-year old twins who are very attached to their “blankies” and I’m having slight panic attacks at the thought of them bringing them into the MK and losing them! I’m going to have to put my foot down and tell them no blankies in the Magic Kingdom! Of course, they could always get lost on the plane. Oy.