1st Cruise with a special needs child (CP)-Share your experience on a cruise

[Tripletmom2001]

We have sailed three times with our family - triplet boys one with autism. Twice on Royal Caribbean and once on DCL this past August. DCL was close to double the price and I expected outstanding service. I was very disappointed. They kids meals were the same every night and the same as the parks. My son with autism never ate anything served to him at dinner and whenever I asked for something different it couldn't be accommodated. One of my sons doesn't like meat and I tried to get their pasta & meat sauce for him with any vegetarian sauce and the best they could do was dry pasta. RC was always accommodating and if they saw my son not eating offered to get him something else. The issue wasn't a server issue since I did speak frankly with our server one day not in the dining room. He used to work for RC and understood what I had requested. It just wasn't possible on DCL. As with everything Disney prior planning of every detail is required. My boys had just turned 13 so the kids clubs were off limits during staffed times. Really a shame because the clubs were incredible, nothing like I've seen on RC. During the open hours there is staff, but they never interacted with us. My son has limited verbal skills and uses a communication device. My other boys loved Edge and went to their programming every night. I don't think they had anything during the day.

 

[bsblady01]

some advice since your son has some medical issues is make sure you have a passport for everyone and make sure your medical ins will cover you outside America. good luck with your trip

 

[blondietink]

We have sailed three times with our family - triplet boys one with autism. Twice on Royal Caribbean and once on DCL this past August. DCL was close to double the price and I expected outstanding service. I was very disappointed. They kids meals were the same every night and the same as the parks. My son with autism never ate anything served to him at dinner and whenever I asked for something different it couldn't be accommodated. One of my sons doesn't like meat and I tried to get their pasta & meat sauce for him with any vegetarian sauce and the best they could do was dry pasta. RC was always accommodating and if they saw my son not eating offered to get him something else. The issue wasn't a server issue since I did speak frankly with our server one day not in the dining room. He used to work for RC and understood what I had requested. It just wasn't possible on DCL. As with everything Disney prior planning of every detail is required. My boys had just turned 13 so the kids clubs were off limits during staffed times. Really a shame because the clubs were incredible, nothing like I've seen on RC. During the open hours there is staff, but they never interacted with us. My son has limited verbal skills and uses a communication device. My other boys loved Edge and went to their programming every night. I don't think they had anything during the day.

Yes, I had kind of forgotten how bad the food was as far as variety and accommodating my son's food allergies and my other son's need for a special consistency of food preparation. We thought the food choices were slim and the choice on the kids meals (because we often couldn't find anything on the adult menu) was very limited. Even on the buffet it seemed like the only thing made for kids was macaroni and cheese, which for someone with a milk allergy (along with corn, egg, wheat and soy allergies}, was not doable. So my son with the food allergies ate plain salad and fruit for 5 days and my other son we spent lots of time chopping up whatever food he might like. And yes, we did notify the special needs department ahead of time of their special needs. Also, not a peanut butter sandwich in sight anywhere.

On other cruise lines we have been on they have bent over backwards to make sure both of my sons had things to eat and they are always asking if we were satisfied.

I sincerely hope that you have better luck with DCL than we did.