autism and a cruise???

[Lifisgd]

We are DVC Members and we are having a difficult time deciding on going on the disney cruise and use our points (no cost)or paying for a seperate autism cruise that disney offers, but you can not use your disney points.

My fear is the scheduled emergency evacuation alarms, etc. The autism cruise seems to offer more things such as seperate boarding on and off, no alarm testings, same servers at every table. etc.

Has anyone been on a disney cruise with their autistic child???

Thank You.

 

[DisneyDreams4P&B]

Oh My Gosh, yes, yes and YES. We have been on 2 cruises now with out ASD boys and they did so well. Now I have not been on a Disney Cruise but hear that they are one of the best with ASD kids. We went on Princess and Carnival and I have to tell you, our children were so well cared for, that next to Disney, it has become our favorite way to travel with them. They had such an amazing time, both cruises (have to tell you though the Carnival staff really went above and beyond for them)

I can tell you that the more planning that goes into it the better time you will all have. Make sure that you speak to the Special Needs Coordinator, and explain as much as you can about your child.

Another DIS'er here LuciGo and I actually became friends on another board dealing with cruising, she also has a son with ASD and has cruised.

Send me an email at jennajonesme@aol.com . I have a 'cruising with autism" booklet that I put together, that might help.

 

[DisneyDreams4P&B]

opps forgot to add, again while we weren't on the Disney Line, I know that both Princess and Carnival made different arrangements for us for the muster drills so the boys wouldn't have to be in crowded situations and hear the ships horn. You can usually find out when they are going to blow the horn from the ships purser, but you pretty close with whenever they leave port, if your in your cabin, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Selket]

I've cruised with DCL but my children do not have autism. One has other needs and I thought the staff handled it all very well.

I just wanted to note that on the regular cruises your wait staff follows you every night through all the restaurants (unless that changed recently?) - we had the same servers every night.

That is awesome that DCL offers that special cruise - I wonder if they do other cruises like that....

 

[lucigo]

I have taken my 5-yo with autism on 9 Carnival cruises...we love to cruise! We have not yet tried Disney because of the cost difference, but I'm sure they would do their best to accomodate you! I organized an autism cruise in February and will most likely do another one this winter, small, local and much less expensive than the large autism cruises. I could go on and on and write a book here but instead feel free to email me with specific questions.

 

[toodycat]

In addition to the Disney cruises in my signature, we've also taken DS who has PDD-NO on two Princess cruises and three on Holland America. Cruising is his favorite type of vacation. He loves the swaying of the ship and the vast selection of food. The fact that there are organized kids' activities is also a help. DS usually feels like he has every right to be there as opposed to being "accepted" in a more informal social setting. The only thing that he sometimes has a tough time with is noise. Some shows are too loud and he needs to use his earplugs. Have a wonderful time.

 

[cathydisneynut]

We are DVC Members and we are having a difficult time deciding on going on the disney cruise and use our points (no cost)or paying for a seperate autism cruise that disney offers, but you can not use your disney points.

My fear is the scheduled emergency evacuation alarms, etc. The autism cruise seems to offer more things such as seperate boarding on and off, no alarm testings, same servers at every table. etc.

Has anyone been on a disney cruise with their autistic child???

Thank You.

Oh yes! And with points! DS had a great time and was very well looked after by the staff. I didn't know they did a separate cruise for autism. You also get the same servers/stateroom person every day. He was ok with the horn, and the alarms. We just thoroughly explained everything beforehand, and he is much better with noise than he once was.

Would totally recommend the regular cruise!

 

[mazz1]

hi

we did the 3 night disney cruise with two autistic children ages 14 and 10 last year and i didn't know they had specialist ones either

with it being a first we decided not to take any risks and stick with a 3 night cruise to see how it went

we had a accessible stateroom at the rear of the ship as our oldest child has mobility difficulties too and we had the same servers every night that moved from restaurant to restaurant with us

we requested a dinner table just for the 4 of us so the children would not be distressed dining with strangers and the emergency drill i panicked about so much before we went was calm and well organised

my children didn't take part in the childrens clubs but they did enjoy the shows in the theatre and the beach at castaway cay

all in all i worried a lot before going and it turned out that we had a great time, the staff on the ship are wonderful and we could not praise them highly enough

 

[lucigo]

I believe what the poster is speaking of isn't a self-contained autism cruise but a group cruise put together by autism on the seas. They are a travel agency who put together group cruises and are able to get lots of special accomodations. I haven't been on one with them but they do sound like they have a good program.

 

[jersue96]

We are the parents of a 6.5 year old daughter with mild autism. We too hesitated on a regular cruise. We did our first cruise with carnival in 2006, she just loved it. We did a disney cruise in December of 2007! She just loved it. These were regular cruises, the noises did not bother her. The cruise in 2006 was our first trip with her. We flew from PDX-MCO and she did great, loved it, we did our cruise and then that December went to Disney world. She loved it. We did not do anything in a different way, she did things as though she did not have a diagnosis of autism. We too were worried, what if, and we were so surprised how well she did. Now we did have to hurry through things at times, but not to a point where it was unenjoyable. She did fine at Dinner, we ate with lots of people and were in big groups. We brought some electronic toys with us to help distract her and keep her busy. Disney is just wonderful, cruise and Disneyworld, working with families that have children with disabilities. That is the only place we go as a family and can put our gaurd down without being judged or given dirty looks. It truly is a magical time. I hope you enjoy your cruise and your children have a great time.

 

[AutismOnTheGo]

My son is 10 with autism. We have been on 3 cruises with Autism on the Seas with a 4th panned. We have not been on Disney, yet. The services they provide our fantastic and make the cruise magical. They only charge about $25 total extra per guest to cover part of the supplies they purchase. They also provide additional staff on board just to assist people traveling with Autism on the Seas. For us the minimal fee has been more than worth it for them to provide respite, planning, and private parties. Would love to see you all onboard

 

[NJMomma]

My son has PDD-NOS. We are going on our second Disney Cruise on Halloween. He LOVES it!!! He watches the Disney Cruise planning video over and over again. My son can handle the muster drill with no problems. He gets excited, tends to stim a bit more than at home, but really his ASD wasn't an issue on our vacation. He even spent some time in the kids clubs. We cruised NCL and didn't like it as much, but that had nothing to do with autism, we just weren't so impressed.