In Which Jenn Secures All Her Belongings Inside The Ride Vehicle EVERY TIME

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Say what you will about Dinoland USA, but I have an unabashed love of its flagship ride: Dinosaur. Equal parts intense and absurd, scary and silly, it’s a great example of a non-coaster, dark ride/thrill ride hybrid.

After many years and many trips to the past, I can now make it all the way through the ride without shutting my eyes once (I said it was kinda scary!). My one remaining fear? That all my stuff is very carefully stowed in the pocket in front of me. Travel back with me to the much less distant past: 2009.

I was at WDW with a grad school friend – for safety, I’ll just call her D – and her two younger sisters, here referred to as B and S (because those are their initials; no subtle commentary here!). We rode Dinosaur. We loved Dinosaur. We left the park for the Magic Kingdom. We went to get a snack at the dearly departed Main Street Bakery. While we ate, we checked our phones, of course, because we are millennial degenerates. Only… B’s phone was gone.

How was this possible? She knew she’d put it in her bag, in the side pocket. That was before Dinosaur. But she didn’t recall ever checking for it after…

B hadn’t put her bag in the ride vehicle’s pocket – I think because it didn’t quite fit? I’m not sure. She held the strap the whole time and it was fine. But despite the phone being stored in a pocket, it became apparent that the crazy jostling of the time rover had bounced her phone right out of her bag and, presumably, onto the show floor. Her phone was now chilling in the late Cretaceous period.

We immediately went to guest services, where B filled out a lost and found sheet. We were told that there was a nightly sweep of all ride areas, and if her phone was there, it would be located then. In the meantime, we could only wait.

Here’s where the magic of Disney kicks in: the very next morning, we got a call that B’s phone had been retrieved from Dinosaur! A quick swing by central lost and found and they were reunited.

So all’s well that ends well. But it was a stressful experience all the same. And an educational one – you really can’t be too careful when it comes to stowing your belongings! Even pockets, without zippers or similar closures, can’t be trusted. That’s true of all rides, of course, but Dinosaur, with its incessant bouncing and open cars, now makes me extra paranoid.

Maybe next time I can tell you about that time I left my phone in an orange team Mission: Space capsule…

Have you ever lost anything important at a Disney park? Did you get it back?

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