dbarazandeh

15 minutes ago, GarlicBread said:

You keep mentioning DCL. Yet you do realise they work to the same 1:25 ratio right? Only have a lot more kids in at one time and often go over that ratio so more chaos, more running and 100% of the time is free play....

 

Royal have their ratio and stick to it. Once its reached it's one out one in. So not understaffed. The first half an hour is free play so everyone can get checked in which is probably the crazy time you saw. Go back mid session and it would be way calmer than any Disney club...

 

I've worked in both so can truthfully say this...

Thanks for sharing that about DCL - good to know! Believe me, I’d never take our young children again, but certainly without knowing 100% what we are getting into. And nope, many have assumed we went in there right at the beginning but we went in there about an hour before lunch time on the 2nd day. And no, we didn’t go back because our kids were so upset! They are really fun kids that love all sorts of adventures and don’t shy away from much of anything but neither of them would agre e to giving it another try, no matter how hard we pushed. 

24 minutes ago, natrat959 said:

If there is a way for us to exchange info, please...

 

We were on our cruise during school days and it was NOT CALMER;  the cruise industry sells "kids sail free" when their numbers are down.  It was filled with children;  I replied to your post bc I understand exactly what you are saying and coming from;  I do NOT think that your expectations were unrealistic and never thought for a second that you expected a 1:1 or even 1:15 ratio but you expected your children that do not have autism or other sensory issues to feel safe.  

 

The problem is that parents that do not have a child with special needs have zero clue how much research we put into vacations and that this isn't our first rodeo.  Any cruise line or vacation that says they have autism friendly or certification should make it a priority to live up to it... we never expected the world, but we did expect the special needs department that we spoke with several times to actually have a relationship with their ships!!!  Guest services even agreed with me that this was a problem!!!  Please please please get your agent involved and make sure you write a thorough complaint to cruise line and that the agents follows it from delivery to follow up.  

 

In addition to this being the worst cruise I have ever taken (this was our 15th)... the food was terrible including their specialty restaurants.  I paid a lot of money to be in a suite so I would have the better service and the space for my child; I wasn't looking for excellence, not paying for it and then complaining... even the special restaurant for suite guests was awful.  It has been a month since our cruise and this is not me coming back being emotional...   😉

You are most welcome to find me on FB - Daria Barazandeh! I’d be happy to be in touch. Thanks so so much for way more clearly articulating all of this than I could! And yes - we also spent extra to be in a suite and told anyone and everyone we had needs and were largely just placated and it was just so so hard. At least 10 days out and I feel like we are still recovering.

4 minutes ago, natrat959 said:

First off LET'S MAKE THIS VERY CLEAR... Autism on the Seas is a travel group not something that RCCL has put together for their special needs guests; Autism on the Seas goes on every single cruise line as a special TRAVEL group and they will do specific things with children that are on the spectrum.  Let's also make it clear that you do not have to be part of this travel group in order to have a great vacation with your autistic children.  I have taken my children on NCL several times and have had a blast.  THE ONLY REASON we gave RCCL a whirl is because they advertise Autism Friendly ships that are Autism Certified... this is not shame on a travel agent or shame on a parent it is shame on a cruise line for cashing in.  This has nothing to do with whether Adventure Ocean club allows a special needs child in their club or not... this has to do with RCCL promoting this certification, docking in the nation's #1 populated state of autism and having zero people on board that know anything about autism.  It is about a cruise line that makes this special needs population fill out pages of paperwork on the child and the paperwork never making it to the cruise ship, it is about having a "kids sail free" cruise (which we found out later) and not appropriately staffing it for the regular children let alone the ones with sensory needs, it's about saying you have an autism TV channel or movies on board that don't exist but they play the show 7th Heaven/  episode "Rush to Judgement" on a loop for the week (if you haven't seen it please youtube it), it's about a cruise line that you spoke several times to their special needs department and was advised to speak with guest services onboard as everything including your disability rights would be observed and they weren't.  

 

I get you are trying to defend the cruise line, but unless you have a child with special needs you are speaking outside your lane.  Parents of special needs children aren't looking for a break or a "here's my child you fix it"... parent's want to be with their children and enjoy a vacation with their children just like everyone else. Parents want cruise lines that say they are autism friendly to have simple resources on board such as chicken nuggets in every dining room, not get yelled at by staff for waiting in line for your autistic child to ride a bumper car (yes, this happened because they want the people waiting in line not one person holding the spot), a muster drill in a conference room with the other parents of special needs adults and children at the same time as the drill or a different time (also not unreasonable as they told us this was available through the special needs department), a special play area for sensory and/ or children with autism (they have so many AO rooms and a huge playroom for typical kids; how can you be autism certified and friendly without these simple things)... OR how about this... we want the cruise line to actually provide the ship the paperwork they made us fill out about our child... perhaps they need to have a special needs department on board not just for autism but for every person disabled.  And yes, the children's rooms were completely understaffed for the regular children.  I think I can speak for every parent with a child on the spectrum that our expectations aren't grand... but don't shove this certification down our throats and then revert back to an Autism on the Seas program when you consistently underdeliver.  Perhaps that is why NCL does a better job, they happen to have the bar already set high without relying on saying they have a bogus certification to get passengers with these disabilities to spend their money with them.   

Thank you for this! I haven’t felt very heard by the majority of those posting on this thread so I really appreciate your voice! I’ve been feeling bummed out because the responses I’ve largely seen feel like I’m being accused of having high expectations for some one on one highly trained staff member to fully be able to meet the needs of my special needs child. That is NOT what I had planned and we didn’t get remotely far enough for that sort of impression. I sincerely appreciate the validation that non-special needs kids would not thrive in how poorly staffed they are. Thank you.🙏🏼

11 minutes ago, brillohead said:

What did you base your understanding on?

Did you talk directly to the Special Needs department about your expectations in advance, and did the Special Needs department promise things that they didn't deliver?

Hi,

it was based on reading things on their website, speaking with my travel agent who spoke with authority and confidence, as well as RCI folks. This thread is the first I’ve heard about a “Special Needs Dept” which is very frustrating because I can’t tell you what a big deal I made out of this even before we booked. The information I was able to gather was vague and confident. Even when we arrived and I registered the kids it was the same - vague and confident. But my older kids without special needs wouldn’t have been able to handle the chaos in that place.

3 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Sorry for your experience, won't Judge as know every Special Needs kid is different. Know mine and my Family always had good experience on Royal. Even in best case some kids have bad days and some kids situation may never be good in any Cruise Lines kids club Disney included. Cruises may not be for you, but if you do avoid Peak kid periods, Spring Break, Xmas. My kids were young we cruised in Feb and Sept/Oct, less kids but more attention on the few there. Sorry again...

Thank you for offering kind words. I feel like most of the people here have missed my message completely. I want to be sure that families know what the ratios are, at the very least, in case anyone thinks it's going to be fun to leave their kids in there, ESPECIALLY if they have special needs. Good to know your kids had a good experience...perhaps going in there during school days would be calmer. But we were there for our spring break, which isn't everyone's spring break, so probably better than summer or Christmas break. Thanks again for being kind!

1 hour ago, spookwife said:

You do realize there are classrooms with higher ratios than that, right?  One teacher for 40-50 kids.  The whole ‘special needs’ umbrella covers a HUGE variety of situations and no one should have expected a mass market cruise line to be well versed in every nuance of every kid  on every cruise.  

You are missing my point completely. First of all, it's horrible if there is a class anywhere that allows such a ratio you have mentioned. That's just wrong on many levels. Secondly, I did not at all say that the staff needed to be fully versed on how to meet the specific needs of my kids. What I am saying is that they clearly state they can handle special needs and they obviously couldn't handle ANY special needs I can think of with ratios like that. NOR WOULD I HAVE EVER LEFT MY NON-SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS THERE WHEN THEY WERE SMALL. It felt unsafe, chaotic and not fun. I didn't need one-on-one supervision, nor did I need any unusual kind of thing - just not a ratio that insane. Many of the kids in there looked worried, uneasy and just like you'd expect a kid to look if they were overwhelmed, overstimulated and disconnected. It was awful and had nothing to do with the special needs we had...it was far from being an environment to handle special needs, when they state over and over that they are all trained and welcome special needs kids.

Thanks to those of you who have weighed in on this. I think I have not communicated adequately...I'm not saying that I was expecting to just leave my child who has behavioral challenges with them all day, sight unseen. I had heard many people who have been on Disney cruises with children who have needs way beyond what we do, who say they do an excellent job and they had no worries, offering them time to themselves here and there. We had checked and our travel agent as well as several calls to RCI, kept telling us that the entire staff is fully trained to deal with special needs. They also told us this when we checked in the first night, as we discussed his needs, and again when we went to leave the kids there. We never went back because both of our kids were so upset after being there for only 45 minutes. If they can't handle special needs, then they should claim they can! That's my point. As I mentioned earlier, my first two children DID NOT HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS and I would NEVER have left them in there either! Come on! A ratio of ONE TO TWENTY-FIVE?? It was complete chaos. There were more than 40 kids in there with only one person tending to them while the other staff member was checking people in and out and talking to parents. My friends who don't have special needs kids have all been so surprised when I've shared this with them because they say they too wouldn't leave their kids with that kind of ratio....again WITHOUT SPECIAL NEEDS.  They need to tell people up front about the ratio. If we had heard about that part alone, we wouldn't have booked with them. I was unable to get any such information before booking or even getting on the ship, though I'd called multiple times. So for those of you responding who are telling me that I should have done this or that, either you didn't read what I wrote very well, or I failed to explain it well enough. I did do plenty of checking and was told repeatedly that all I needed to do was make sure that RCI knew we were a special needs family and all would be well. All attempts to even learn what their staff to child ratio was, was met with shoulder shrugs. That info was not shared until we were checking in to Adventure Ocean. Not cool.

I have to warn you...we have special needs and just got back from a trip on Adventure of the Seas that we had booked with the understanding that they can handle special needs. Parents need to know that the Royal Caribbean ratio for their children's program is 1:25!!! This would have been miserable for my two kids without special needs or sensitivities. It was complete chaos! I went all out to try to find out what we were missing since I'd heard RC does well with special needs kids but we just got a shoulder shrug and a "sorry ma'am but we can't offer one on one (I DIDN'T ASK FOR THAT!) and the Royal Caribbean staff ratio for children's programs is 1:25, but we will pass along your concerns to the appropriate department." WHAT?! We ended up on a 7-day cruise with no break from our two kids, who we definitely need a break from. Especially our son who has some big behavioral challenges. We got home totally exhausted, depleted and drained. Not what we had spent thousands of dollars and months planning for. Very very disappointed. And a letter to Royal Caribbean just got me a phone call from a customer service person who said they'll pass along my suggestions. Great. Thanks. Wish we'd gone on a Disney Cruise for fewer days.

I have to warn you...we have special needs and just got back from a trip on Adventure of the Seas that we had booked with the understanding that they can handle special needs. Parents need to know that the Royal Caribbean ratio for their children's program is 1:25!!! This would have been miserable for my two kids without special needs or sensitivities. It was complete chaos! I went all out to try to find out what we were missing since I'd heard RC does well with special needs kids but we just got a shoulder shrug and a "sorry ma'am but we can't offer one on one (I DIDN'T ASK FOR THAT!) and the Royal Caribbean staff ratio for children's programs is 1:25, but we will pass along your concerns to the appropriate department." WHAT?! We ended up on a 7-day cruise with no break from our two kids, who we definitely need a break from. Especially our son who has some big behavioral challenges. We got home totally exhausted, depleted and drained. Not what we had spent thousands of dollars and months planning for. Very very disappointed. And a letter to Royal Caribbean just got me a phone call from a customer service person who said they'll pass along my suggestions. Great. Thanks. Wish we'd gone on a Disney Cruise for fewer days.