Special Needs Kids

[boatlover]

Hi,
Husband and I have cruised several times on other lines and now think it would be fun to try it with our children - 5 years & 2 years. We are leaning toward Disney, because as another person so nicely put it, there would be more tolerance of a child's normal "upsets".
Here is my question - our 5 year old has austism and we are wondering how willing they will be to accept her into the kids program. She can communicate her wants and needs, uses the bathroom independantly, and is a happy and friendly girl. She doesn't have typical conversational language and doesn't fully understand the "give and take" of group activities as well as other kids and often prefers to play in parallel. We would only leave her there if she wanted (she will make that very clear to us!) and maybe just for an hour or so at a time.
Does anyone have experience in this area? Curious to know how understanding and flexibile the staff is. Example - if there is a scheduled activity like a treasure hunt or something that takes her age group out of the kids facility, can she stay behind if she prefers? Or maybe we should really consider the day's schedule in the kids program and plan her time there accordingly? Is that schedule posted each day? Thanks!

[Denise58]

very interested to hear the answer to this question too. I have a 10 yr old son with PDD. We've taken him on Celebrity and Norweigan with no problems. He's very verbal and sociable. Would like to know how Disney would handle them too.

Monarch of the Seas 6/94
Majesty of the Seas 6/96
Galaxy 8/02
Norwegian Dawn 4/04

[Sweetspot]

My 14 yr old high functioning autistic son has been on 2 DCL cruises now and we have our 3rd and 4th booked. Our 1st cruise was when he was 12 and the 2nd he was 13 but we put him in the 10 -12 clubs. We were completely open with the counselors and they were understanding of autism and bent over backwards to make sure his time was magical. I think that first cruise week was the best week of his life. He spent most of the day and night in the club. He doesn't always like to join group activities and they would let him do what was comfortable to him or let him play on the computers instead of joining in. I told them to beep me if they needed me and I would come running and I did. I think as long as you are willing to understand they have a lot of children they are responsible for and work with them you will
have no problems.

One thing I would suggest, bring earplugs. The first night of the club is very loud as are the shows at times. If your child has any problem with noise sensitivity if you don't have earplugs with you they aren't available
anywhere on the ship.
They give you a Navigator for each age group that list the time and type of activities for each day for the entire week when you check the kids into the club. You can pick and choose what your child might like and know you need to pull them out when it's something they can't handle.

Let me know if I can answer any of your questions.

[boatlover]

Thanks for the reply, I was beginning to give up. Sounds like it might work for us, guess we won't know if we don't try. Hadn't considered that it might be quite noisey (that makes perfect sense) and I don't think she will tolerate wearing ear plugs so I will keep that in mind when we look at the schedule and plan our day. Not sure yet when we will cruise, I am thinking maybe early December or early January if we can get a spot. Curious to hear more from you Denise58 about your Celebrity kids program experience. My husband and I have traveled on Celebrity twice and really liked it.