Disney Cruise Line Critique: PARENTS BEWARE

As happened to Denise Thomas:
On May 1st, 2005, while preparing to go to lunch on the 9th deck of the Disney Wonder cruise ship before departing the dock, we became separated from our 5-year-old daughter Gwen. We were on the 2nd deck near our room, which left a lot of area to cover for our search. Gwen was lost on a huge ship with hundreds of strangers around.

We were panic-stricken and sickened with fear after months of hearing news out of Florida regarding child abductions, killings and sexual assaults. What better place and time to steal a child then during the chaos of boarding a ship. We began screaming and running and searching frantically. No one could locate her. And knowing that statistics state that if you do not find a lost child within the first 8 minutes of separation, your chances of “live recovery” are greatly reduced.

I encountered only one Disney employee during this time, and requested that he hurry and call Security. “No Mam’, you must go to your stateroom and call Security.” was his response. He was too busy with delivering baggage and making rate.

In our panic, we couldn’t even remember what stateroom we were in or how to work the card key. Instead, we continued running around the decks, up and down the stairs yelling and searching. Other passengers volunteered to help. Still, no Gwen.

I ran back to the Disney employee who was still busy delivering baggage and asked if he had called Security. When he answered “No” and that I needed to do the calling, I pushed him towards the office and screamed to “Go Call Security! Our little girl is MISSING!” He continued to downplay the situation. “Kids get lost all the time” was not a proper response and this enraged us even further. At that point I grabbed his nametag off of his shirt, still screaming, cursing and causing a scene of panic, and said we were reporting him to the Supervisor, adding, “You will no longer work here!”

At this time, my husband ran up to me and said we had located Gwen. In my panic-induced frenzy, I continued yelling and venting my fear and anger at the employee. From there we went to the Supervisor, who profusely apologized and said he would look into the occurrence. When we asked what the proper response should have been, he replied that “assisting the parent and calling security is the absolute proper response.”

Upon our return from the ship safety initiation, Disney Security was waiting at our cabin and asked me to come to the office. They would not let my husband accompany me, and I would shortly find out why. I was not going to the office, I was headed towards the ship’s brig.

The employee we had asked for help from, in what appears to be an effort to cover his shortcomings, insisted on pressing charges of Battery against me, a panicked mother. The Brovard County Sheriff came, handcuffed me and took me away in the squad car. All this time they would not let me communicate with anyone, so I had no idea what was going on.

Finally, the ship’s officer went to our room and told my husband that I had been taken to the county jail. He was told he had two options: 1) Get off the ship, or 2) stay on and continue the cruise without me. WHAT KIND OF CHOICE WAS THAT?! It is my guess that they will use this against us if we request a refund, saying that we were given the option to use the “vacation” package that we had paid for. And leave me in County Jail for 4 days. The only response my husband could come up with was “You are heartless.”

The story continues, this from my husband’s perspective:

Being told that Denise was being transported to the county jail, the kids begin crying, “We want Mommy” and “Is Mommy going to be OK?”. The worst part though, was that they both started saying that they were sorry for getting separated and that everything was their fault. “We should go to jail Daddy, not Mommy” nearly broke my heart.

With 15 minutes left before the ship had to depart, we finally were offered help – to pack our belongings, stuffing them into any suitcase that was nearby and to get us off the ship. We were then promptly dumped off at the curb.

From here could things get any worse? Well, actually Yes. The taxi ride cost us 42 dollars and I had just enough money to bail Denise out and pay for the taxi. I apologized to the driver for not having enough to tip him, so I gave him my new straw fedora, which I had bought for the cruise.

At the jail, I was then told that they do not accept CASH for bail. (?!) To get a money order, I had to leave our baggage, unattended in the lobby, and walk half a mile to the nearby Circle K mini-mart. I told the kids to bring their teddy bears, that we were going for a long walk.

The walk was along a deserted county highway with no sidewalks. The surrounding neighborhood did not seem to be the safest part of Florida either. I finally got so unnerved at having to bring our kids through this, I went up to an elderly couple sitting outside their mobile home and pleaded my case for help. They were very kind and helpful and drove us to the mart.

After buying each kid a candy bar for dinner with nearly the last of our cash, we were given a ride back to County. They even offered to lend any assistance we might need afterwards. THEY had more compassion for our kids than Disney.

During Denise’s booking, she was made to strip, change into a jumpsuit and slippers, photographed, fingerprinted and then given a mat to take to her jail cell. This process took over 5 hours. Because we were again not allowed to communicate, I had to tape 2 quarters under the payphone and beg the receptionist to slip Denise a secret note giving her the phone # of the hotel I was taking the kids to and where to find the quarters.

This walk was going to be many miles long. And with all our luggage, another local resident came to our rescue, giving us a ride to a nearby run-down, trucker motel.

When you look at the overall scenario, we were blessed because we got back our child. We could not imagine the emptiness and dread and guilt of returning home without our Gwenny. But conversely, this was supposed to be the “magical vacation” that relieved many years of the stresses we have been enduring, caring for Denise’s wheelchair-bound Mother in our home, and we were angry and disappointed.

Gone, is the week that we had to put Denise’s mother into a nursing home because we care for here at our house. (many elderly details here that do not need to be discussed.)

Gone, is the week that I took off of work, and the week that we put the dog into a kennel. Everything was shot to Hell.

And for our 10-year-old’s vacation school report, she had to come up with a creative way around saying that her Mom went to jail instead of going on the Disney cruise. I told her that her Mom had acted bravely and was doing what was necessary to find her lost child. A good analogy is how a mother bear acts when her cubs are in danger – momma bear will do anything to protect her little ones! Including pushing a non-caring, slackard employee into action.

Their rash decision to press battery charges against a panicked mother was so shortsighted and rude, when a simple conversation could have fixed the whole misunderstanding. Our lawyer who handled our case (another $1,500 down the vacation drain!) said that we have very little recourse against such a giant corporation that owns most of Florida and runs the judicial system. Our request for reimbursement from Disney was a blunt “No, you’ll have to sue us.” This came from the Corporate Headquarters.

Since that forgettable week, all charges were dropped. No Florida State’s Attorney in their right mind would touch this case. And not wanting to relive that horrible attempt at a cruise, we have not, as of yet, pursued any action against Disney.

Please share this with your readers so that they do not go on board a Disney cruise thinking everything is “for the kids”. It is if it is profitable or convenient to them….

Sincerely,
Brad and Denise Thomas