Camp Carnival Teen with Special Needs

[Pongo500]

Does anyone have any experience with a special needs child attending the camp programs? My DD 13 is legally blind, I am concerned with her doing not being included in activities or being lost during a scavenger hunt. Any advice? or real life experiences??

 

Thanks!

[A&Jfamily]

Does anyone have any experience with a special needs child attending the camp programs? My DD 13 is legally blind, I am concerned with her doing not being included in activities or being lost during a scavenger hunt. Any advice? or real life experiences??

 

Thanks!

 

You DD wil not be in "camp;" that stops at age 11. The 12-14 year olds are in a group called Circle C. They do not meet in the mornings, but rather afternoons and late into the evening, as is more typical of a "teen" sleep schedule.

 

While I have not had any personal experience, you can certainly contact the Special Needs Deparment and see if they have any suggestions. I know from reading these boards that they have handled a wide range of disabilities, so I am optimistic this would not be any different. Best of luck!

[MamaParrotHead]

We had a girl with some developmental issues cruise with us last fall. She was just barely in the Club O2 age range but maturity level-wise was more on the Circle C level. Her mom had a chat with the youth director and they had no problem with keeping an eye out and allowing her to drop down to Circle C. They were quite accomodating.

[Pongo500]

Thanks that is reassuring. She is so excited to hang out and not have to be with Mom & Dad all the time.

[warmplaces]

Hi,

Our daughter has Tuberous Sclerosis with developmental delay (maturity of a 5 yo in a 13yo body). She was allowed to drop down one age group on our Liberty 9/11-9/18 Western Caribbean cruise. During the day she loved going there where they had familiar characters in books (Basil the mouse from Disney's The Great Mouse Detective) and video games she loves (Sonic the Hedge Hog several versions). They gave us a phone to keep while onboard. She was really looking forward to going to the Rock On show with the other kids at Camp Carnival and wanted me to bring my camera so I could take pictures of her with them at the show.:D

 

My dh brought her up to camp after dinner for the show - so I could freshen up without any interruptions (it was my birthday that day) and when they got to gate the counselor said "I'm sorry Sarah we have nothing for you tonight - we're going to the show" :eek:- Sarah immediately started crying - my husband was so angry that all he could manage was a curt "thank you" and to bring her back down to our cabin.

 

She was so upset I heard her crying/melting down coming down the stairs from deck 12 - we were in cabins 1057 + 1055 right by the stairs. She couldn't understand why she wasn't allowed to go with the other kids when she had been looking forward to it all day. When I heard from dh what happened, I calmed her down and told her I wanted to go to the show and with her and daddy for my special birthday night and she brightened back up. We enjoyed the show and she was in the 3rd row and got to see the dancers up close and was absolutely enchanted by them and the singers. All was good in her world again. After the show we paid a little visit to the Guest Services desk. ;)

 

The gentleman who took the report immediately apologized and promised it was not Carnival's policy to exclude special needs children and that he would forward the report to the home office and I would certainly be contacted by them after we returned home (they still haven't contacted me after over a week of being home - I was truly hoping they would and show that the office cares as much as that gentleman seemed to). I explained that they need to ask the parents if the child is able to attend such activities - not to arbitrarily exclude the child with no heads up to the parent. That we the parents, would not put a special needs child (or typical child for that matter) in a situation that would either physically or emotionally hurt them.

 

The majority of Carnival crew members treated her wonderfully; they were friendly, welcoming and stopped to chat with her often during our cruise. Sarah thinks Carnival is "just great" - Mom thinks the vast majority of crew members are fabulous (Jens & Fransiska were awesome!!!!) but the counselors need to learn to communicate with the parents better.

[Pongo500]

Thanks for the warning. It seems like you handled it in stride, the momma bear in me may have not been as calm. I hope they follow up with you. Glad to hear your daughter liked the cruise! That is what matters

[warmplaces]

You're welcome :) - Sarah mirrors my emotions so if I let myself get more outwardly upset she would've melted down again and that wouldn't have helped anything. I'm sure you guys will have a wonderful cruise! My typical son (16 yo) had a blast and was always going to the O2 club to hang out with the other teens. He even won a ship on a stick for the scavenger hunt.

 

That's the great thing about a cruise - there are so many things to see and do if something isn't making you happy - move on there are always new things to taste, try and enjoy!

[Mack2]

Does anyone have any experience with a special needs child attending the camp programs? My DD 13 is legally blind, I am concerned with her doing not being included in activities or being lost during a scavenger hunt. Any advice? or real life experiences??

 

Thanks!

 

My eldest son is legally blind. He has juvenile macular degeneration, and his visual acuity is around 20/400. His central vision is obscured by a scotoma (blind spot), but his peripheral vision is intact.

 

He hasn't had any problems with any of the camp programs aboard RCI, Disney, Princess, and Carnival. He was diagnosed around his 7th birthday and he's currently 11 years old. We made sure to tell them of his blindness, and each program did an exemplary job of keeping his occupied and involved.

 

As a side note...

He just completed his second year in Space Camp at the US Rocket and Space center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Space Camp program blocks out a week for kids with blindness and visual impairments... it is such a great program.

http://www.tsbvi.edu/space/

[Galbraith]

I have a 9 yr old daughter and son, with the son having autism. Camp Carnival had no problems or reservations taking him and treating him to the same fun and activities that my daughter and the rest of their group had. Very kind and supportive and even though he wasn't much interested in playing 'with' the children, since that is part of his challenges, he was just fine playing by himself. Kuddo's to Camp Carnival. :D

[kitty9]

On my last Carnival cruise, they had a surprisingly high number of older kids with Downs Syndrome, and it was beautiful seeing how they were integrated into the activities and having an absolute blast.

[jaybeedee619]

I am a special education teacher and am always happy to hear how accommodating some people can and will be for our children; and upset when other people won't try to be accommodating. I wondered how cruiselines handled children with special needs. Sounds like there is some training (sometimes not everyone is trained/puts training to use) for counselors.

[Mack2]

I am a special education teacher and am always happy to hear how accommodating some people can and will be for our children; and upset when other people won't try to be accommodating. I wondered how cruiselines handled children with special needs. Sounds like there is some training (sometimes not everyone is trained/puts training to use) for counselors.

 

Every time we've gone cruising with the children, I try to make it a point to find out a little about the Counselors.

A lot of them are Canadian... and it was better for them when the US Dollar was stronger than the Canadian dollar... they have contracts like most of the other employees on the ship.

 

A lot of them seem to have some collegiate education for Education (or at least, that's what they tell me).

 

 

What I like to ask, is how many contracts have they done? If it's their first time, I need to tell them more about my kid. Like I mentioned earlier, my son is legally blind, so I want to know if they've also had blind kids in their program while they were counselors, prior to my kid, of course.

 

What's their educational background? It's so nice when I hear... 'Oh, I am taking a year to do this, but I'm going to university for an education degree'

Hey! They could be full of it! But that's gonna get them an extra tip! :o

 

 

 

My son has some functional vision. He sees peripherally, but his visual acuity is the E on an eye chart (20/400)... I don't think they have to adapt too many activities for him, but I'm sure they can if they needed to. A kid's program serves many different kids with many different issues every week... so they must have guidelines for the counselors for everything from hearing impairments through autism-spectrum and cerebal palsy... right?

[Pongo500]

That's a good point. My daughter is legally blind but has a very limited field less than 15% in her "good eye" no vision in the other. She mostly can not do any sports with hand eye coordination. She is great with hand held computer games. I think any scavenger hunt would be very difficult on board. We have never been on a cruise so I don't know if she will off balance due to the movement? She uses a cane for travel due to depth perception issues. I think I willl need to do a quick education with the staff, otherwise my dtr is very independent. I trust her to walk in the our local Mall with friends (of course I am in the building). Most people would never know she has vision problems especially when she forgets her cane!

[Mack2]

I mentioned Space Camp for Visually Impaired kids to you... I think this link should work... it's photos the program uploaded and I threw into Facebook.

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085114&id=1507726387&l=1f319c66d2

 

If you ever get the opportunity, it's a wonderful program for the kids. It really lets them know that they can truly accomplish anything regardless of their visual impairments.

 

 

 

 

My son actually has a good pair of sea legs. He doesn't seem to get seasick, but he goes fishing with my dad on a 26' fishing boat off the Jersey Shore... that gets ME sick sometimes.