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Travelling with children with Asperger's


nickykat
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I am looking to travel with my 3 children, 2 of whom have Asperger's (Autism spectrum disorder). They generally cope pretty well, go to mainstream school, scouts etc, but can get a but overwhelmed by crowds, noise, long waiting, lines etc. and need a fair bit of down time in between activities. I am based in Australia. Out of Royal Carribean, P & O, Princess and Carnival any good or bad experiences with them in terms of inclusion policies, kids clubs, waits for dining etc.? Thanks.

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I am looking to travel with my 3 children, 2 of whom have Asperger's (Autism spectrum disorder). They generally cope pretty well, go to mainstream school, scouts etc, but can get a but overwhelmed by crowds, noise, long waiting, lines etc. and need a fair bit of down time in between activities. I am based in Australia. Out of Royal Carribean, P & O, Princess and Carnival any good or bad experiences with them in terms of inclusion policies, kids clubs, waits for dining etc.? Thanks.

 

 

Suggest you also post on the Family Cruises Forum. Here's the link http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

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Are your children better off with active things to do, such as water slides and climbing walls, or quiet activities? If fairly quite, you might check out Celebrity Solstice. Since Celebrity doesn't have water slides and climbing walls, she often has fewer children on board. They do still have a kids club, and if there are not many children then yours will get more attention based 8 their needs.

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Thank you all. My kids LOVE active things like waterslides etc, just at times need downtime too. Due to time restrictions we are very limited as to the time we are able to travel so our only option is Carnival in June, so am relieved you say they are good Texas. Just waiting on annual leave confirmation from my work then I will book. Then contact them etc. Thank you for the Autism at sea info Sadie.

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We live in Australia and went in voyager of the seas with our 5 year old autistic son. The ship is huge. He really loved it. The cruises to New Zealand have less children and more older people than the cruises to the South Pacific ie fiji ect.

 

I found the South Pacific cruise we went on to have too many kids which ran the ship and filled the kids club and baby sitting services. I would rather go with less kids so that my son would have more of a chance to use the kids facilities without being over run by other kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also royal caribbean did what they could to help us out. Our son became so over stimulated he did not sleep for the entire cruise. They arranged for us to have the dining room menu on our balcony one night (amazing).

 

 

 

 

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Also royal carrribean has a policy for allowing priority boarding for those with additional needs such as autism. As soon as we arrived at the Sydney departure terminal we were assisted with quick checkin and boarding. We could also checkin at the time best for us and not our deck level checkin.

 

The safety drill prior to departure can also be a concern for these kids. We advised the staff and were shown our life boat and taken into the main fi in room where we could sit and listen and keep our son calm.

 

Royal Caribbean has a special needs department in the USA which you can email and they will advise the ship of your requirements.

 

 

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We've done a couple of cruises on Carnival with our AS guy, starting when he was about 7. He loved it!... Most of the time. The kids clubs were great, experienced friendly staff that really like kids and can work with what you need. When you register for the kids clubs, there is a form to fill out or you can write a letter explaining what they might need to know. Our son wasn't into all they do in kids club but we helped him work out a few options and then created our own routines.

 

Some things that worked for us were making sure to have a few things handy to help with sensory times - ear plugs/ ear phones to block out noise, sunglasses for bright sun, fidget toys, suckers/lollies for oral distraction, books or games for waiting times, etc.

 

We also worked out a reward system game to encourage our kids to try new things or whatever the issue is so that we could relax too. Points added up for a gift shop ship or whatever was helpful. Amazing what a little bribery will do!

 

Scheduled quiet time or a quiet bunk 'tent' gave us all a chance to recharge during the day. Have a familiar show or music for them and some lego for in-room play.

 

Good luck and enjoy. I'm sure you will all have a great holiday.

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Thank you elsilef. Unfortunately this time we are restricted and have to go on Carnival, though I will certainly remember your comments about RCI for the future.

 

Your comments about the sleeping made me think of something else- does anyone know if Melatonin is allowed to be taken through Australian customs? Both my sons take it for sleeping, and I don't have a current prescription (one has an out of date one). I buy it online from USA where it is over the counter- and SOOO much cheaper- unlike here in Australia. Should I declare it as a vitamin? Honestly, if this was taken away before boarding it would completely ruin the holiday as they would both be up until midnight and then cranky the next day.

 

Wainwill- great tips thanks. Lego and magformers at the top of the list! And ipads with known movies on them.

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Hi again. We traveled with a bottle of melatonin. It was the liquid form with prescription label and therefore the $70 price tag (why is this not covered under the prescription befit scheme and by the child's healthcare card?) we had no issue with taking it on board. No one ever seems to check medication & we normally travel with a doctors letter.

 

If you are concerned I would have your GP write a letter explaining your children's diagnosis and their medication. If questioned by the cruise line you can state you have a letter from your GP. If not used this time might be handy for other family outings.

 

btw we have moved our 5 year old on from melitonin onto Risperdril based on his behaviour on our cruise. This has calmed him down a lot making a huge change to his behaviour and his overall learning. This was done on the advice of a developmental peadtrician. Plus it's covered by his healthcare card at $6 a bottle ($160 non healthcare card price).

 

Our cruise had lights on all night so it over hyped his sensors. Plus his diet was way off norm. Keep these factors in mind. A balcony us the best cabin but there is light. An inside cabin is often complained about as being like a closet but the darkness has its benefits. We had no sleep for our 10 night cruise due to his over stimulation.

 

 

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carnival is meant to be a great cruise line. With the increase of cruise ships in our region they are all doing shot they can to get their share of the market. Americans seem to be very autistic friendly do I am sure that carnival will offer you the same assistance as royal. You can always ask for this when booking and get it all in writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thank you elsilef. Unfortunately this time we are restricted and have to go on Carnival, though I will certainly remember your comments about RCI for the future.

 

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Carnival will do fine. We have taken my severely Autistic son on their ships many times. About to go again in April.

 

Just make sure they know what your needs are. Getting on and off the ship without a big line is the best thing for us. RCI has more kid friendly things than Carnival despite what some silly man is promoting RCI is no more Autism Friendly than Carnival.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My son is about to go on his 6th Carnival cruise. If you were to ask (and I have) would you rather go on a cruise or Disney World he will tell you cruise. He has autism and is in a self contained classroom most of the day. Carnival has done amazingly well. I have learned to contact the special needs department just prior to the cruise (about a week) and ask them for such things as notifying the kids program (this next time he will be aged down so I let them know that) about his arrival and that he may need us to stay with him during the program. I ask them to forward to the staff that although we would love him to remain on his own that if the choice is we stay with him or we walk the ship with him for hours then we would rather stay. He needs whatever time he needs to get comfortable with the staff although with the exception of 1 cruise (rough seas for the first time affected him) the staff has been fabulous and handled him well. I have learned this trick of notifying them ahead of time because I've had an issue where they wouldn't let us stay (it is written into their policy that we can) and it turned out that they thought we should have a good time without him for part of our cruise. We ended up not being able to get him to stay in the kids program the rest of that cruise. Nice thought on their part. BTW it was fun learning how to do the towel animals.

 

Also the life boat drills can be a challenge and I would ask the special needs department to notify the Hotel Manager to make sure guest services has information as to the alternate muster drill (problem getting information on our last cruise) and elect that. The muster drill being noisy, confining, and at times too long for our kids just isn't worth the stress when they have an alternative option. I've tried everything I could during the regular drill (arrive early they make you get in the rows and you are in back - yes I have tried and tried to explain we need to wait, arrive late and it's just to crowded and difficult to handle if something sets your child off).

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Thank you elsilef. Unfortunately this time we are restricted and have to go on Carnival, though I will certainly remember your comments about RCI for the future.

 

Your comments about the sleeping made me think of something else- does anyone know if Melatonin is allowed to be taken through Australian customs? Both my sons take it for sleeping, and I don't have a current prescription (one has an out of date one). I buy it online from USA where it is over the counter- and SOOO much cheaper- unlike here in Australia. Should I declare it as a vitamin? Honestly, if this was taken away before boarding it would completely ruin the holiday as they would both be up until midnight and then cranky the next day.

 

Wainwill- great tips thanks. Lego and magformers at the top of the list! And ipads with known movies on them.

Not sure about Austrailian rules, but the US won't care if you have melatonin. It's in the vitamin department in regular stoes here. My kids take that too.

 

We have had two great experiences on Carnival and an iffy one on Royal with our son. We tend to have lots of room time so I always chuckle at the people who say your room doesn't matter because you'll never be there. We are! Be sure your cabin has all cabins above and below. No extra noises from public spaces, galley, etc that way.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you all for your replies. We're booked into a suite with a balcony and I'm sure we will spend a fair amount of time in there. And yes on the plans there are cabins above and below. I will definitely contact the special needs department before I cruise.

 

I'm starting to get quite worried about the noise my children make. Particularly my 2 year old daughter (not dx but with a big ? as to whether she will be in the future). She often wakes at night screaming and is inconsolable for up to 30 minutes. Has anyone has to deal with noise complaints from neighboring cabins?

 

Re Autism on the seas can you contact them after you've already booked with a cruise line or not? I've goubd their website quite confusing. Do they work in Australia at all or just the U.S.?

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I hope you all enjoy your cruise! I think most people understand that babies and toddlers have their inconsolable moments. But if your daughter is up screaming night after night, for 30 minutes at a time, you may have neighbors complaining. I'd be unhappy with loud noise from an adjoining cabin night after night, whether the noise was a child, an adult, or a TV. Obviously you can't turn your daughter off like a TV, and she's too young to understand that the noise might be disturbing others, but you might still get complaints.

 

Can she take melatonin like your other children do? I hope you can figure something out so she is happy, you are happy, and your neighbors are happy.

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Also I don't think you need to worry about getting the melatonin on the ship even if it is prescription in Australia. If you are coming to the U.S. to cruise, melatonin is OTC here and no one will care. If you're cruising out of Australia, you won't be dealing with customs when you board the ship (unless Australian customs works a lot differently from U.S. customs). Just pack it with your other medications and toiletries and I doubt anyone from the cruise line will care.

 

You might have trouble getting it back into Australia if you don't have a current prescription, so just take the amount of melatonin you think you will need, plus a few days' extra, in case it gets confiscated when you disembark. But I wonder how concerned about it the customs guys will be...if you can order it from the U.S. and have it shipped to Australia with no problem, maybe it's not something the Australian customs people care much about.

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Yes I am REALLY hoping she gets over it by then, it comes in waves, she will be fine for weeks, then have a few nights of screaming, praying that it's not while we are away..... She already takes melatonin. I wouldn't be too happy if there was that much noise right next to me either, so if she does I am expecting complaints :( Just hope they don't kick us off at the next port. Ah children, life would be so much simpler without them!

 

Re the melatonin, I am cruising from Australia, and do need to deal with customs apparently. I think I may go to a GP and get a prescription just in case.

 

Thanks all.

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I had the same question about my son screaming and having a meltdown and others complaining. Last time we cruised we were lucky that the gentleman next door worked with special needs adults and worked out that there was an issue with our son and told us not to worry.

 

Setting up a routine will be important. Does your daughter have a comfort item for bed? Would a weighted blanket help?

 

You must have a lot of personal strength to have 3 kids!

 

I struggle with 1.

 

Btw we nearly ended up on your cruise.

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