DCL with our autistic ds. We need tips!

[Nik's Mom]

Hi,
Search isn't working, and I just know there have been posts regarding cruising with autistic children. We've decided to do the dcl cruise next May and have started preparing our autistic ds. Well, he does not want to hear about it and gets upset when we bring up the subject.
I finally got him to explain why, and he said that there are sharks in the ocean and "it's too dangerous".

For those of you who have cruised with autistic children, how did they handle it? Were the nervous before? Do you have any advice? What good tips do you have?

I just picture us trying to board, with ds having a huge meltdown, and DCL declining us from getting onto the ship.

 

[disneyelaine]

We have cruised on DCL with our son. The first trip when he was 5. And now he is 10 and we have cruised once per year. He was fearful the first time, but once on the ship and he saw it felt like a hotel, he was fine. He was very afraid of sharks (and still is), so at Castaway Cay we told him about the big netting thing they have in the water to keep the big fish out of the area and assured him no sharks can get in. That calmed him down. On the ship, we showed him on high up we were and told him how no sharks could ever reach us way up here.

Then when he was 9, he went thru a phase where he did not want to go on the cruise because he saw a tv show, a true story, about a ship catching on fire and sinking. The show showed this ship sinking. He became so terrified and we were days away from our cruise. He is a good sized boy and very stubborn. I KNEW if we arrived at port and he refused to get on, it would be very hard. I called DCL and gave them a heads up to this. They were very nice and said if we had a problem in boarding with him, we would be given refunds due to his condition. It turned out ok and he boarded and all was well, but he was a bit more anxious than normal that trip. But it was nice to know we would have not been out the money.

My son has spent many good times in the kids club and if your son is HF it should be fine for him. But let them know of course. My son did have a melt down on our last cruise while he was in the kids club. It was absolutely awful for us, but DCL handled it well.....they removed all the kids quickly and most did not even see or know my son was in a rage. For that I am thankful. We were alerted immediately and he was sitting under a table, calming down when we arrived to get him. He got unreasonable upset over a boy who said was drawing like a baby. (His motor skills are very delayed and the activity was animation drawing). And he started to push the chair over. Luckily the boy was not hurt. I felt awful. But DCL sent us a bunch of nice new games, hats, etc...up to our room within a few hours, along with a nice note. Very classy on their part and very unexpected. Of course I did not send him to the Kids Club the rest of the trip, but DCL said he was welcome if we stayed with him. Once again, that was very nice and very reasonable.

Tips....You could show him the DCL video if you haven't already. Or maybe write a social story about going on a cruise.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Thank you for your reassuring words. They helped a lot. Ds is so resistant to change. He's used to WDW, but the cruise is all new to him. I will definitely play the dvd. We just received it this week.
Thanks again!

 

[DisneyDreams4P&B]

Hey Nik's Mom,

We have a cruise coming up on October 21 (shhh... it's on Princess not Disney) with our autistic son 6 and our SID son 4. I have worried about their reaction to cruising and whether or not we would be asked to leave the ship at any one of the ports. Here are some things that I have tried to do to prepare them: (we use the Floortime method DIR with the boys)

1.)
Get a toy boat that looks as close to what a cruise ship would look like. (We actually found a fisher price pirate boat that had levels you could take on and off, I painted it white (with the plastic paint) and stuck a little Princess Logo on it. (I know -way A- retentive but it has proven to be very successful). I found little people figures and we would "play" with the boat. We would take the boat on the "big water" like the pool or their bath tub and then take the boat to the sand and have the people get off the boat and get on the beach. A great deal of time, we let the boys start off the play and see what they do and say and then just ask them questions to see what response we get. We have used things that will happen on the boat as a "script" for them so that when it happens on the cruise ship, it is not a new scenario to them. (you may even want to get some small disney figures and put them on the boat too)

2.)
Get as many pictures, travel brochures, etc. of the DCL and make a social story. Be sure to use pictures of your son next to these things with a picture of what they will be doing:
example, take your son's picture and put it on the page with a shot of what your cabin will look like along with a picture of PECS of bedtime. Get a picture of one of the dining rooms (or as many as you can as you will rotate between 3) with his picture and a PECS of eating.

3.) I have made little cards for the ship's staff that will be coming in contact with my sons, telling a little bit about their issues, things that they like, don't like (for conversation starters and things to avoid), I use these sparingly but find most people really appreciate them.

4.) Have you called DCL and asked about how you can embark/disembark and tender (if wait lines are a nightmare for you like us). Princess has given "priority" to the boys and they will be one of the ones to get on and get off first, to help avoid meltdowns. I also called and requested to be able to bring certain things onboard (like favorite food items they can't be without) and they have been most accomidating (sic), I can't see DCL being any less.

We will be back Oct. 28, so I will post how the cruise went for both boys. I wasn't really sure how this was going to go, but have talked to many other people who have children with ASD and have cruised with them and they all had a wonderful time, and Princess has really gone out of their way to reassure us and to make our cruise as stressfree as possible and from what I have heard about DCL they are only comparable or better.

Hope some of this helps,

 

[Nik's Mom]

Wow, that's some great information, DisneyDreams4P&B! I know DCL has a medical form, and I plan on getting that filled out so they are aware of his condition. I will definitely see if we can pre-board. Ds will definitel freak out if there is a big crowd of excited people trying to get in.

 

[disneyelaine]

Those are great suggestions! Also you may want to check if Princess has a pager system if you will be using the Kids Club. That was priceless when my son had his meltdown and we were alerted immediately via pager. Now we did cruise Holland America and they do not have pagers, so we did not even use their Club, but my son did not want to go anyway....it was not as nice as Disney's. I would not be comfortable without pagers. I think most cruise lines have them now and was suprised HAL did not.