Special Needs Teenager Experience??

[gskywalker]

Assuming we can cross the border by December and that Disney cruises are sailing then, we are going on my daughter's Make a Wish trip aboard the Dream. I am looking to find out people's experiences or knowledge about a Disney cruise for a special needs teenager.

Background: Our daughter is very social and will be 16 but have the cognitive ability of a 7 or 8 year old. It is her dream to go on a Disney cruise and we hope that she will be able to be engaged enough. At the parks she loves the characters, parades and fireworks the most. At the Disney hotels she just wants to hang out with the animation staff because it is very difficult for her to find/make friends to hang out with. I have read she can only go in the teens club even though she would fit and be most comfortable in the 4-12 group. We hope to try her in the teens club with the staff there. Her younger sister will be there with her but we don't want for her younger sister to have to spend all her time trying to integrate her older sister in.

1) Please shares experiences or knowledge you have
2) Suggestions for onboard activities, Castaway Cay?
3) Anything Else I am not thinking of

Thanks Everyone

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Assuming we can cross the border by December and that Disney cruises are sailing then, we are going on my daughter's Make a Wish trip aboard the Dream. I am looking to find out people's experiences or knowledge about a Disney cruise for a special needs teenager.

Background: Our daughter is very social and will be 16 but have the cognitive ability of a 7 or 8 year old. It is her dream to go on a Disney cruise and we hope that she will be able to be engaged enough. At the parks she loves the characters, parades and fireworks the most. At the Disney hotels she just wants to hang out with the animation staff because it is very difficult for her to find/make friends to hang out with. I have read she can only go in the teens club even though she would fit and be most comfortable in the 4-12 group. We hope to try her in the teens club with the staff there. Her younger sister will be there with her but we don't want for her younger sister to have to spend all her time trying to integrate her older sister in.

1) Please shares experiences or knowledge you have
2) Suggestions for onboard activities, Castaway Cay?
3) Anything Else I am not thinking of

Thanks Everyone

Yes, if she attends a club on her own, it will have to be Vibe. That said, the other clubs do have open house hours that she can attend, as can you. IF they continue with open house hours in the clubs. Or, indeed, the clubs will be open (maybe with restrictions as to how many can be in there at any one time.

As to the character meet & greets, there's no knowing at this time whether DCL will continue with them, due to the distancing restrictions that may or may not still be in effect.

 

[dvcgirl1]

I have two brothers with special needs, and I have taken them both on Disney cruises. While I cant predict what will change with future cruising, I CAN share some of our experiences. My brothers are both older than 18, (so going into a teen club wasnt even an option for them), but their cognitive level is low enough to where they would have enjoyed what the younger clubs were doing. I just checked the Navigator and basically we found plenty of fun things for them to do each day. There was some pool time, but they prefer seeing characters and going to things like family games (even if they cant participate, they enjoy watching and feeling like they are playing along). We watched movies in the theater, went to craft time, cooking demos....a mix of things they could do and some things they would enjoy watching. There are character dance parties throughout the cruise, putt-putt (Dream or Fantasy), The Midship Detective Agency, the shows in the theater. Fireworks after the Pirate party. There really are many things to do, and the DCL staff was wonderful to them at every event, for all of our cruises. I believe she will have a wonderful time!

 

[Pixarfans]

When you get on board, you can go talk to guest services and ask them about getting you the supplies for some of the kids club activities or other activities that she cant get to. Example, we were on the Star Wars Cruise, we were not able goto the bb8
Drawing workshop but guest services got the materials for us. Just be specific and realistic and ask nice, they will do what they can.

 

[gskywalker]

Thanks everyone and keep the experiences coming everyone else, this is helpful.

 

[annacali]

My DD is similar and was 16 on our last cruise. She did go into Vibe and found younger kids (14 yo) to play video games with without difficulty. She also enjoyed interacting with the staff in there. She loved Vibe.

 

[CaLuCa]

Hi! I saw your post awhile ago, and wanted to give you our experience. My oldest DD is now 17. She has been on 3 DCL, one at 9 years old, one at 12, and one a little before her 16th birthday. The one we did when she was almost 16 was by far her favorite. She is also very social, yet her cognitive ability is all over the place. She can read, but any math beyond what a kindergartener or emerging first grader should be able to do is above her. She also loves characters, parade (other than waiting and being in the sun) and shows. Only recently have we gotten her on rides...mainly her love of Star Wars and me omitting the details I knew of Rise was the only reason she did Rise. My main concern with her is her inability to discern the intentions of strangers...especially kind strangers with bad intentions. For this reason, I am very protective of her and who is around her. I had a lot of anxiety and "what ifs" leading up to the cruise. She didn't have that great of a time on the previous one, mainly because she got lost on the way back to our room after the kids club let her leave by herself. We had attempted to not let her have "sign out" privileges, but because she was in the tween group that is a given. She got very turned around, and it scared her. (As a side note, this is actually one of her strengths. For some reason, she can successfully navigate her very large high school and all four Disney parks. So I was surprised when she couldn't find her way back. All the hallways look the same and for anyone else who can comprehend the order of numbers, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but it wrecked her trip.)

Knowing all this happened, we were blunt but extremely kind when we met the CMs for the Vibe. We explained what had happened on the previous cruise and if it was okay with them, she and I would prefer for her to stay at the Vibe (or wherever they were meeting) and I would return to get her at a certain time. At the beginning of the cruise, I would even pop in and see how things were going. Sometimes, she was the only one in there, and sometimes there was a group. All times, she was engaged in the group and laughing and sharing and everyone was kind. As a mom with a kiddo that doesn't always have the most normal life in course to see your special needs baby laughing and sharing a regular life moment is phenomenal...better than any fireworks at sea! She is bananas nuts to listen to at times...rambling...bunny trails...but the CMs were always present and so inclusive.

As others stated and you were aware, going into the other clubs isn't really going to be an option. My daughter didn't even miss them. She had such a great time in the club. I do think it had a lot to do with how amazing that group of CMs was. Either they had a great heart or some wonderful special needs training, but they did wonderful. She even hung out with them on Castaway Cay. I'll never forget the final night, they did a parents versus teens game and watching her be included in the group was probably one of my favorite memories.

We were scheduled for a 7 night out of Barcelona in a couple of weeks. I was hoping to do this cruise and another before her 18th birthday next year because that will be the last chance for her in the teen club. Now, we'll have to wait with the rest of the quarantined world.

I had a thread I started last year about her and suggestions. I'll see if I can find it and link it.

 

[gskywalker]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.
CaLuCa and
annacali

Her being allowed to go off on her own would be a huge problem. Part of what she has is very little short term memory. Its why we always stay in the same building on the ground floor at Pop Century because she knows the building, pool, Main lobby, etc. One time they put us on the 2nd floor and she was lost, had no idea where she was. She lost all of her independence. Hopefully her sister will love the teens club so much that we can trust her to make sure that she gets her back and forth.

How did she hang out with them on Castaway? We had wondered about that but she won't have the physical abilities to go on the teens excursion that day. Our 2nd daughter likely will go on it but our special needs daughter can't ride a bike, nor would she have the physical endurance for the bike, snorkling, etc.

 

[CaLuCa]

During the time on Castaway Cay, they had it organized where the counselor CMs were there for games and things. She was adamant she did not want to spend it with us, having really loved the club by our CC day, so we dropped her off and went to the family beach. As a side note, we had these grand plans of going to Serenity Beach and being alone, but one of our twins wasn't feeling well and we didn't feel comfortable checking him into the kids club on CC. We ended up not staying that long, because of him not being at the top of his game, so we went to get her earlier. She was the only kid there. I'm not sure if any others had been there, but the CMs were packing things away. They had volleyball, basketball (I think), some frisbees. Her motor skills are not where she can play any of that with an age cohort so I don't know if she did any of that. I also saw UNO and card games. Basically, she was talking the CMs ears off.

Just reaffirm with her and the CMs that she needs to stay with them. They are not bound to keep her there if she says she wants to leave. My daughter is very good at following rules (very literal), so she was good to stay put. I think doing a few random checks by popping in the club to see how things were going early on helped ease my anxiety.