My sister stayed here on wed and thurs the 16-17.She was in the room right over the arch for the entrance to DCA.I just read your report on the little girl.Its kinda funny cause when I meet up with my sis in her hotel room.I had notice that there was nothing keeping someone from just hoping over.There where two chairs and a little round glass table right next to the wall.My girls right away started clamping on these to see the park.Maybe the park can put up some sort of glass up or something. :confused:

What I find disturbing in this tale is the statement "Here's hoping that they visited the room and kicked those horrible people out of the Grand Californian. It makes you wonder what kind of people are staying in some of the most desirable and expensive rooms at the Grand Cal!”

Unless there is information that is not contained in the story, I consider this to be highly presumptuous. None of us know the circumstances that led to this incident.

Now, if the parents were passed out drunk in a pool of their own vomit, or if the girl's weird uncle was encouraging her because he thought it was cute, then, yes, you can probably safely call these people horrible.

But:
What if a single parent was taking a shower and didn't realize the girl could access the balcony, perhaps left unsecured by housekeeping or the previous occupants.
What if the entire family was napping, and the little girl awoke before everyone else, then wandered outside while they slept.
What if the girl's brother just cut his foot, and while Mom or Dad was attending to that, the girl slipped outside.
What if she was left in the care of her teenage sister, who promptly left her alone to make out with that really cute guy next door.

I've heard "Tears In Heaven", so know full well how this could have ended. Lest anyone think I don't take child safety seriously, earlier this year I reported a foster family for suspected child abuse. But if you're going to call someone horrible parents, it seems that you should know all of the facts first.

ralfrick:

I too was bothered by that quote. But this one by the security guard bothered me also:

But it all boils down to that old saying of 'guests are idiots.' Fortunately, the kid did not get hurt.

I have not seen the article, but if I had a young child I would supervise them on the balcony and the sliding door would be locked so they could not get out there. When I stayed there last month I locked the sliding door when we went to bed. I suppose it is habit from when my child was young.

I do remember whan my child was a toddler she was never unsupervised. So, I'm in complete agreement of not blaming the hotel and putting the balme on the parents. They may not be "horrible", but where were they when this happened?

What disturbs me about this article is how uninformed the writer of this article is. I was there. For those of you that are unfamiliar with my posts I work for Security and make it a habit of not posting here, becouse a majority of topics discussed and the appropriate answers could compromise our initiatievs, however, for someone to say that there was no Disneyland Security response proves that they did not do their research before writing. Being that the incident was at the Grand Californian Hotel, hotel trained officers respond. Most park officers can't tell you the room number from the outside of the hotel, but Hotel Officers can. Inside the Hotel several officers were responding and did locate the room in question just as the child was pulled back into the room by the parent who was napping beforehand. It was a very serious and thorough respose, and one that I'm proud to say I was apart of. So just becouse the one officer observing the scene on the parkside (who was from the hotel) seemed passive and overly calm, know that hysteria and panic just makes things worse. He was communicating vital information in a professional and efficient manner.

Glad you're out there, 10-8, as I'll be staying at the GC June 27-July 2.

10-8:

Thanks for the "insider" info on this.

I believe that most of the article was written as a quote from mostly one person (there were 2 other quotes by a security guard and by Adrienne Krock) who witnessed the incident, so it was fairly subjective on that person's point of view on what they heard and saw.

It's nice to know that one of the possible situations in ralfrick's post was what happened here. Thank's again ralfrick for reminding us to not jump to conclussions when we don't know all of the facts.

I'm still bothered by the security guards quote and that he/she called guests idiots. That was not a fair judgement call by that person as he/she did not know all of the facts (and if he/she did, it makes the quote even worse). Plus it generalizes that all guests are idiots. Not very Disney.

I too was glad to hear that security was at least checking in with the parents. If they were sleeping the did not even know the danger their kiddo was in. We stayed at the GC last month and I was very surprised how close the roof was from our balcony. I had even joked with my husband about being surprised there were not more cases of people walking out onto the roof. I can see how tempting it would be for a child.

Inside the Hotel several officers were responding and did locate the room in question just as the child was pulled back into the room by the parent who was napping beforehand. It was a very serious and thorough respose, and one that I'm proud to say I was apart of.Hi 10-8. thank you SO much for your post. I'm glad to hear that the hotel security personnel were on top of it. :)

Inside the Hotel several officers were responding and did locate the room in question just as the child was pulled back into the room by the parent who was napping beforehand. It was a very serious and thorough respose, and one that I'm proud to say I was apart of.

I'm very glad to hear this! My comment was made based on the information I had at the time, but my core message still stands: This summer my family is planning a trip where we'll be in hotels with balconies. I had never thought about my sons climbing over a fence but knowing them, I could see it happening. I do hope that other parents will read this story and keep it in mind when staying at a hotel with balconies off the rooms!

Adrienne

Thanks again to 10-8 for reminding us that Disney is just about the classiest act in the business, even when they are responding en masse to horribly negligient behavior from their customers. I can only imagine the employee "response" this type of incident would have gotten if this had taken place at the cheap chain hotels on Harbor Blvd. instead of a Disney hotel on Disney property.