4biegelboys

THanks for the review. Hubby and I are determining our 20thouse anniversary trip and this boat is on the listnew so it will be good to hear a current review. This will be a cruise without our kids, first big vacation by ourselves in a very long time!

We will be sailing on oasis in 2 weeks. We have previously sailed on Freedom (which we loved) I'll let you know what we thought when we get back

Should also say we booked last year when they had a BOGO sale going on.

We are going on the oasis in April during my kids spring break and there's 6 of us and we got an inside family room (you need to have 5 or more in your party to book this room I think) and it was around $3900, my mom and dad are going and for their room for 2 was around $1900.

On freedom my sons (then ages 15,14&13) were allowed to go off on their own but had to check in often. They had to always be with one of their brothers, although I did tell oldest he could go to arcade while the other 2 were doing florider or rock wall (he had just had acl surgery so couldn't do any of the "fun" stuff). They just had to come and go from those areas together. They didn't do much with the activities or hang out in the teen club. I felt safe letting them do this and it will be the same rules on the oasis this April.

Ugh....the thought of this just gives me a panic attack, as I'm a big Disney planner and my biggest fear of excursions is not getting back to the ship in time...I didn't read all the responses and since you said you're eating breakfast with Mickey I'm assuming you're having breakfast at chef mickeys which is in the contemporary resort. Or if you are eating I the park at crystal palace or be our guest. An 830 reservation (ADR)...that is truly pushing it as they like you to be there 10-15 minutes before you're reservation and you're reservation will take a good hour to eat. If you are planning on spending the day in the magic kingdom, to make it back to the ship in time I would leave no later than 3 hours before you have to be on the boat, it can take a half hour to get from the gates to get to your car at the magic kingdom. Seems like a lot but I know those highways are pretty congested and you'd be driving during rush hour both times. Plan on it being fairly busy too since its spring break time. Make sure you get your fast passes at the 30 day mark (I think it's 30 days for non resort guests but I could be wrong). If you hadn't made your adrs(although it sounds like you have) make them now. Those early morning reservations are hard to come by. If you do have them prior to park opening they will let you in but pretty restrictive about where you can walk. I hope you have a great visit.

Wow. Sorry we get to jump ahead in some lines and not follow dress code. We certainly would take standing in line and following the dress code over autism any day. Our kids may get some "benefits", but we have to deal with autism 24/7/365. Life is hard, especially with autism. We love cruising and will continue to do so. Sorry if we get priority boarding, we will wave to you while you're standing in line to board. Unbelievable.

For everyone else, "Autism on the Seas" is amazing for anyone interested!

I have said this on more than I need occasion leaving people with their mouths open! My son may not have a voice but I sure do!

As for my previous comment I obviously didn't read the whole thread. Every kid is different. There is a company that makes clothing geared toward sensory sensitive children and if I remember they had kaki pants that were made of soft materials similar to sweats. I'll have to look it up. I say try it (sometimes they surprise us and start liking this) but have a back up familiar plan and if people stare because he's wearing shorts just stare back. If the staff are aware I can't think there would be a problem

I have 2 sons who started cruising when they were about 10 and 14. I used this as an opportunity to teach them manner/etiquette. No they weren't thrilled to put on khaki pants or dress pants/suit. They did however out of respect to us as parents and to the general rules of cruising. I would consider explaining to your nephew what is to be expected of his dress and behavior on this vacation. I always found it best to state your expectations and let them live up to it. Shorts are a no-no on men as well as women in the dining room at night. They can change into their shorts after dinner. Good luck! I think key to any situation like this is to "be the parent" yourself and positively encourage the right action while they are young...they will grow up to be decent respectful gentlemen who make a mamma proud!!

agreed! I taught my boys at a very young age that there are certain times you need to wear nice clothing. One of my sons have autism and dressing can be difficult but we found nice pull on pants and soft t shirt like polo shirts. He knows he has to wear those when we go somewhere nice. He is trying suit pants this trip too. He said he liked the silky feel. The boys all know that after dinner (or wherever we are at) they can change.

I don't mind dressing up. I sure don't get it too often in my everyday life (as I type this in my work greens at steel mill Covered with lime dust) I like seeing my family all dressed up. 2 nights is a nice balance I think.

Here is a good site to find the scheduled rocket launches. As you can see, there is an Atlas 5 launch scheduled for March 25th. The window for the launch is 2:05PM to 3:35PM. So, if you come on down a few days early to enjoy the beautiful beaches, you will have a great view of it from the beach.

 

We will be on the Freedom leaving on March 30th. I will be looking for the launch at 10:51PM, but I suspect we will be a bit too far to the south for a good view. We live in Melbourne, FL during the Winter season though, so we see lots of rockets go up. A night launch is very impressive and can be seen from very long distance, so we will likely see it as long as it is not cloudy.

 

Update... I wanted to add that the SpaceX launch on March 30th is a resupply mission to the ISS. So the launch window will be very short (about 5 minutes). About 10:45PM, look for the Space Station to fly over you. Or in the case of those of us on the Freedom, it will be to the north. If you have never seen it, it is relatively easy to spot. It will be a bright light moving quickly across the sky.

We will be on that cruise too! My boys would find this really cool. Can you see the launch pad anywhere? Maybe so we can take a drive by it before boarding.

I am wondering about how they break up the older kids. I read 12-14 and 15-17. I have a 12, 14 and 15 year old (along with a 6 year old who will go to AO) and was wondering if they could all be together.

well if it is..then we are embracing the dorkiness..lol I have some from Disney that we are bringing with.

We are leaving in 12 days for our first family cruise. We are traveling with 10 and booked the 2 interior family rooms which each sleep 6. It was quite a bit less than doing 3 rooms. We usually share rooms when we go on vacations anyway and don't spend much time in our rooms. So excited!!

We booked the 2 interior family rooms on Royal Caribbean. They're are 10 of us. The 2 rooms looked like they were a lot as big as 5 (2.5 each) regular cabins. We cruise in about a month.

I've never heard of anyone being left back because of too many absences. I think it depends on the student. Going on vacation is (to me) different than a kid that misses because he'd skipped class or was receiving failing grades. Why punish kids for parents wanting them to have experiences? My oldest will be at 9 days after our cruise (missed 4 because he had knee surgery) the other 3 will be at 8 (went out of town for great grandmas funeral for 3 oldest stayed home) I think if the parent Is Really Involved In THE Child's education and the school sees this they may be more lenient. .maybe. we also go to a very small school (actually 2 small school districts with maybe 300 students k-12 in one and maybe 550 k-12 In The other )so everyone knows everyone else.

We make an educated guess and if we're wrong we make arrangements with the Schools. We usually pull the kids out because we agonist always vacation during off seasons because of my son who has autism. This year we thought we had the right week for Spring break but we're a week off so they'll be missing a week. Teachers are giving our kids homework ahead of time and special assignment to do while on vacation. I try to avoid times when I know testing is going on (end of grading periods, or semesters, the first week of mar H and the first week of May are usually our weeks of standardized testing) I can guarantee my kids will remember and get more out of our vacation than what they will in school that week. My kids are 15,14,12, and 6, they are all honor roll and straight A students.

My son who has autism is usually really picky with shoes (no ties has to fit just so)when he was that age I found some nice black leather velcro shoes for him at target. He isn't really fond of them but he knows if he needs to dress up (church, concerts for school, funerals, weddings, ect) he is to wear them. Now he has a pair of slip ons we got at pay less for like $15. Other 3 always had dress shoes and since they only got worn about once or twice a month they could get passed down. I think he should be fine.

Thanks I just emailed them

Trying to make for a smooth sail with my son who has autism. As with any of our vacations we're doing some major planning to prepare him as to what to expect. We're traveling on the freedom doing the western itinerary. Anyone have a recent itinerary for children's program or a cruise compass? Thanks for any information!

We may need to try this a couple mornings. Our son has autism, while he is usually really good about handling lots of people sometimes (especially if hes hungry) he gets to his breaking point (and really don't we all get tot aht point some days when we're really hungry) so this may be a better quieter option for us! who knows with 3 teenaged boys we may be spending lots fo time in the buffets...lol

We are sailing on the Freedom March 30-April6th and we were wanting to do a ruins tour in Cozumel. Any suggestions as to which one to take? We want to stick with the offered ones just so we make sure we make it back to the ship on time since it looks like the excursions are pretty long. We are traveling with 10 people ages 6 to 64 all in pretty good shape for walking. Also if anyone has a link to a compass for the Freedom for a western itinerary that would be great. Keep finding eastern ones or ones from a while ago. Thanks so much!

It's good to know that we won't be looked down on for not being dressed in tuxes and ball gowns on formal night. I was a bit worried about my son who has autism. He has a thing about clothing and buttons are especially troublesome for him. Although I must say he is getting much better with the clothing thing. My hubby and 3 other boys will all be in suits and ties and I will have some sort of dress on. I will try a suit for my other son but will probably go with dress pants with an elastic waist and a polo shirt, or try a button down shirt and tie. Just gonna give it a try but if he fights me on it I'm going with what makes him comfortable. Some things are not worth the fight, especially on vacation!

We were in the same situation. We chose the freedom because it was so much cheaper. Traveling with 6 tends to get pricey and we used what we saved on the cruise and are staying a couple extra days in orlando at universal studios. Kids can't wait. They are all pretty active though and are looking forward to the rock wall and flow rider. A little nervous about my 12 yo son who has autism (verbal, non aggressive and getting more and more social by the day) so we are trying to prepare him for what he can expect on board. At least he'll have 2 big brothers there too. We're pretty tight so I expect us to do a lot of stuff together.

All such great ideas. Thank you it will come in handy when we cruise with our son in march. I also sent them an email and they sent me a package of info about the ship, excursions, ect. So that we could go through stuff with him. Or best truck has been to prepare him about our trips. Thinking of trying to get there as early as possible to check in so we can take our time and explore the boat.

We will be traveling on FOS in march with my whole family (my family of 6 DH, myself and 4 boys 15,14,12,&6, my parents and my sister and BIL) we don't dress up much at home except for weddings, Christmas, Easter, ect. So I'm looking forward to everyone getting all dressed up. I Was a bit worried about my 12 year old who is autistic and has sensory issues with clothing but hearing about. All the non super dressed up people makes me feel better if all he'll put on is pull on dress slacks and a nice polo shirt. I think DH and I will get dressed up to go to a specialty restaurant one night, just because it makes it feel more special and I love the way he looks in a suit. .. lol