Child w/ Autism and considering a Disney Cruise

[lucigo]

Hardybuz, I'm so sorry to hear that the oceaneer's club didn't work out well for your son with autism. I also have a son your age and this has been my concern about spending the extra money for a Disney cruise. My son has been on 12 Carnival cruises and 1 Holland America cruise. I hesitate to call him high functioning only because he is not mainstreamed, but in a varying exceptionalities class with push-in, but he is verbal and impresses me more and more everyday. Anyway....as he has gotten older camp carnival can be great on one ship and not so great on another. Last year a summer cruise on a big ship last summer went horribly until I moved him back to the 2-5 yo group (a big ego crusher for mom). He loved that they let him play video games and that socially he could play with the 5 yo's. The 6-8 yo group (and he is 8) was just too big and too verbal, and not structured enough for him and he was just lost. But then we went in October last year on a smaller ship and he did great in their 6-8 yo group, wish was smaller and in a dedicated room with video games as opposed to the summer cruise where the kids were all over the ship.

What I'm getting at here, is I suggest a small ship, during the school year when there will be smaller groups of kids, and don't be afraid to move your child to a different age group.

 

[hardybuz]

Hardybuz, I'm so sorry to hear that the oceaneer's club didn't work out well for your son with autism. I also have a son your age and this has been my concern about spending the extra money for a Disney cruise. My son has been on 12 Carnival cruises and 1 Holland America cruise. I hesitate to call him high functioning only because he is not mainstreamed, but in a varying exceptionalities class with push-in, but he is verbal and impresses me more and more everyday.....
What I'm getting at here, is I suggest a small ship, during the school year when there will be smaller groups of kids, and don't be afraid to move your child to a different age group.

Wow, your son really is a cruising veteran! I totally agree that smaller ships are the way to go for us. In fact, we traveled on the Wonder a few years ago and had a much better time. I definitely think it was because, as you pointed out, our kids do better when they are separated into smaller skill/age-related groups. The OC on The Dream was sort of a wild free-for-all, and that definitely was not the best scenario for our son.

I'll have to give Carnival and Holland America a try, though. Carnival sails right out of our hometown, and that would be a lot more convenient than driving all the way to Florida! I'd only have to hear "Are we there yet?" a couple of times before we really would be at the port. Thanks for the tips!

 

[mdvlprof]

I have a five year old son and a thirteen year old daughter. We will be sailing on the Disney fantasy on the seven night Caribbean cruise. My son has a cecostomy tube. The tube requires saline and glycerin in order for its use. will they still allow my family and I to sail?
thanks

I think they should let you sail. I'd check with their special needs folks, just to make sure. I've heard that they have some issue with hemodialysis, but haven't heard about any problems with -ostomies. Of course, you'll need to bring supplies.

 

[toy]

I just wanted to say that you don't have to go through Autism on the Seas to get priority boarding. All you have to do is tell the employees at the port that your child has autism and you would like to go through handicapped boarding. Also, when people say "priority boarding" an AotS, its not the same as platinum or suite boarding, its handicapped boarding, which are two different things.

That said AotS is a great travel agency, especially for first time cruisers with children with autism, but if you have booked through another agency or directly with the cruise line this option is still available to you, as are other cruise line accomodations, all you have to do is know what you need and don't be afraid to ask.

This is so helpful. I didn't even know this was an option. My dd gets so anxious with all the people that she is literally ready to jump out of her skin. She loves cruising but she doesn't do well with waiting with all of the people. There is ZERO patience in that child. Sometimes I don't think that is the autism.

I will definitely talk to the people at the counter when checking in.

 

[HowdyHeidi]

1) The Oceaneer's Club

The club itself is amazing. Any kid not on the spectrum is sure to be in heaven. But the staff, who had been told about our son ahead of time, did not shadow him at all, or even check on him, even though we were told that a cast member would guide him around until he was situated with a group. We tried to limit his time to one hour in the Club, so that he wouldn't be over-stimulated, and so he wouldn't monopolize the CMs, who of course had other kids to watch, too. But both times when we returned, we found our son standing in a corner, alone, in classic shut-down mode. It was extremely frustrating to know that several cast members must have walked right by him, and just left him standing there by himself. It was more frustrating to think he might have been standing like that for the entire hour we were gone. After a couple of times of this, we just stayed with our son in the club, and took him around to the different areas ourselves.

This was probably the most disappointing part of the cruise for us, since one of the best things about a Disney cruise is feeling like your kids will be getting top-notch care if you and your spouse want to take an hour to spend in the adult pool, or have dinner at Palo's, or just take a nap in a lounger. Because of the inattentiveness of the OC staff, this was never an option for us. In a nutshell, our son got a great vacation, but we as his parents never got to *be* on vacation, if you get what I mean.

2) The crowds

If there was one single thing that will keep us from sailing on The Dream again, it would be this. Crowds are no fun even with kids not on the spectrum. But the sheer volume of people on the ship meant that we had to do some maneuvering to keep from being part of a cattle drive and sending our son into sensory overload. We ate breakfast and lunch at odd times, we skipped Castaway Cay entirely so we could try the ship pool (and would you believe, the ship pool was STILL packed, even with half the people on the island), and basically spent a lot of time just wandering the ship, enjoying the quiet spots.

The bottom line:

The Disney Dream, while a spectacular ship, was not for us. It was beautiful, but it was too big and full of too many people for the staff to realistically be able to accommodate our son. The crowds were insane, and our food options would be risking more contamination (and a day of our son throwing up in our cabin) or bringing every bit of his food on board with us. That, coupled with no supervision in the Oceaneer's Club means that going on another cruise, for us, would be waaaaay more work than it would a vacation.

That doesn't mean that this would be everyone's experience. Each parent should judge for themselves whether they think their child's particular issues will work with the benefits (and shortcomings) of this ship. Hopefully, the Dream will live up to its name for special-needs families, even though, unfortunately, it didn't work out for us.

We'll be skipping the cruise next time, but being a die-hard Disney family, we will simply be going back to our one-bedroom villa at the Wilderness Lodge, where we can prepare all our son's meals at our leisure, not have to battle crazy crowds, and have relaxing evenings watching the MK fireworks from our balcony.

Just wanted to chime in here. I did not send my child with special needs to the clubs, his medical needs prohibited that according the disney's policy. I did send my typical (and very outgoing and social) child to the Oceaneers Lab. I found the same indifference of the staff. They were not very involved with any of the kids. And from what I saw, if you child seemed unhappy or unable to figure out where they fit in or what activity to do, they called the parents instead of trying to involve them. I was not at all impressed with the staff. Now the facility was top notch and my son did enjoy the games.

The servers at the dining room were OK with my child with special needs. Not superb, but OK.

Although the ship is fantastic, the staterooms fantastic, and overall we did have a lot of fun, I would not sail on the Disney Dream again considering my experience with kids areas. I would LOVE to go back to WDW though. That was a fantastic experience from every angle!

 

[lucigo]

Wow, your son really is a cruising veteran! I totally agree that smaller ships are the way to go for us. In fact, we traveled on the Wonder a few years ago and had a much better time. I definitely think it was because, as you pointed out, our kids do better when they are separated into smaller skill/age-related groups. The OC on The Dream was sort of a wild free-for-all, and that definitely was not the best scenario for our son.

I'll have to give Carnival and Holland America a try, though. Carnival sails right out of our hometown, and that would be a lot more convenient than driving all the way to Florida! I'd only have to hear "Are we there yet?" a couple of times before we really would be at the port. Thanks for the tips!

Try a fantasy class Carnival ship. Our Holland America experience was good and bad. Good that there were only maybe 10 kids on the whole ship, bad that even at 5 years old he was asking for Carnival after that cruise - no golf, no arcade, no "friends". I was a bit concerned that the way the camp was set up he could escape, but then I always worry about that kind of thing.

 

[lucigo]

This is so helpful. I didn't even know this was an option. My dd gets so anxious with all the people that she is literally ready to jump out of her skin. She loves cruising but she doesn't do well with waiting with all of the people. There is ZERO patience in that child. Sometimes I don't think that is the autism.

I will definitely talk to the people at the counter when checking in.

You can also ask at the front desk of the ship after boarding if its possible for one person to stay with her in the cabin during the life boat drill. Sometime they say yes, sometimes no, but its worth a shot.

 

[OKWMom]

I appreciate the PP's information, especially regarding the clubs. DH and I have been toying with a Disney cruise and I just don't think my low functioning ASD daughter will enjoy it.

 

[JACH1976]

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