Special needs daughter

[slhh]

We are cruising later this year on RCCI-VOS. I have a daughter, 14 with Down Syndrome. For lack of a better term, she is considered high functioning, but still not on the level of a non disabled 14 year old. I am planning on signing her up at AO in the age group with her sister, 10 years old. Any thoughts or experiences? I checked the disability cruising forum, didn't see anything that applied to us. Do I need to notify the cruise line prior to sailing?

 

Thanks!!!

[caribbean dreams]

Cruised with a friend that has a disabled daughter (13yo), she wanted to go with my daughter (9yo), on the first evening of the cruise all the parents fill out the age group forms for Camp Carnival (it will be anounced in the carnival capers of where to go and what time) we explained the situation to the person in charge of the 9 year old age group and it was no problem they put her name on the list for that age group.

[sea_u_onboard]

No problem at all - even if she wasn't special needs (I have a special guy myself). The cruiselines are pretty good about allowing you to put children into a lower group - but not as apt to let you move a child up a group.

[treachbear]

I would suggest contacting RCCL to see if they need any additional information. I would also suggest talking to your daughter's special ed teacher as to if he/she feels she would do better with younger children or closer to her age group. I am a teacher of mildly intellectually disabled students at an elementary school, but have no children of my own. I would also suggest doing some role playing of situations you think might occur on the cruise and how you want your daughter to respond. Don't worry to much and have fun.

[jtm1631]

We are cruising next week on Carnival with my 3 daughters. My 8 year old has Down's and we were also thinking about putting her in the younger group with her 5 year old sister.

 

We have thought about leaving the 8 year old in her age group, but I think both girls will have more fun together and the 5 year old will be able to help the conselor's etc., understand our 8 year olds speach.

 

I will try to remember to post our experiences here when we return, but feel free to send me a PM in a week or so to remind me. :)

 

JT

[slhh]

:)

Thanks a bunch, I will look back after your trip.

 

Have a great time!!!

 

slhh

[Arubalisa]

I just had to add that these kids club people do what they do because they love kids. Our special needs children I think receive even better treatment from the crew because they know just how special. :)

 

On Celebrity our dining steward and his assistant also went way out of the way to assist dd, as well as the cabin steward, his assistant and the butler. Their attitude, "Just ask and you shall receive" :)

[slhh]

Lisa

 

Thanks, I am hoping that is what will happen.

We are still months away from the cruise, but I can't help worrying a little.

 

Sharon:o

[Arubalisa]

Oh Sharon, don't worry, you will have the time of your lives! As a matter of fact my Mom's boss just returned from his umpteenth cruise on all different cruise lines. This one was on a Voyager Class ship and he said it was by far his best cruise ever!

[slhh]

Oh I know I will have a great time, this is just the first time I am taking the kids on a cruise, and I tend to worry a little bit. Especially with a special needs child. But I am putting my worry on the back burner, and planning for fun!!!

[kitty9]

Your daughter will be just fine. The counselors in the kid's clubs are great with special needs kids. I'm a former special ed teacher and taught many Down's children, and they are an absolute joy to work with---and the ship's counselors seem to love being with special needs kids. Your daughter will have a fun time, and they will allow her in the younger group with no problem.

[manitoba girl]

Our son 9 has Asperger's Syndrome( autism spectrum disorder) he is highly functional and I have to say our PVP has done a great job setting up our Dec cruise with RCCL.He has put my DS in the 9-13 AO and that is perfect since he is academically aged 15 so he will find lots of stuff to do.Now if I can get him over the titanic thing I'll be OK, he is petrified of going on the ocean.I think once he gets busy with new friends and all the great stuff they will have them doing he'll forget about where he is. I hope!!!

His consellor says he has a diability I think he has an ablity!forget the dis!!

[blueocean]

I have a 13 year old son with DS and we he has been on probably 10 cruises (Disney, Carnival and RCCL). We have never had a problem with any cruise line taking him into their organized children's area until 3 years ago when we were on RCCL. (I even had our travel agent notify them before that we were coming with our son.) He was 10 years old and unfortunately still in diapers due to a medical reason. They said that it was against the U.S. Health Dept. rules to let him in the children's area in diapers. We begged for them to let him in and to page us with any problems, but they said no. What difference would it be if our son was in any other public areas on the ship with a diaper, but not the kids area? We felt that they were discriminating against his DS. We even had them call Miami and the officials in Miami said no. We were so upset that it ruined our week cruise. Our younger son, who loves going in the children's area, would not go in. When we got home, my husband made many phone calls and it is not a U.S. Health Dept. rule. They did not follow the rules when it came to the Americans with Disabilities Act. My husband even followed with letters to RCCL and not one apology was given! When they got a new CEO last year my husband resent all his letters to him and the CEO, through his secretary, said that the matter was already looked into and that it was closed. We have sailed on Carnival 3 times since and they took our son in with open arms.

[jtm1631]

Sharon -

 

We just got back from our cruise and wanted to let you know our experience on the Conquest.

 

The first night of the cruise had an orientation for the kids club where the parents could register the kids. At orientation my wife spoke to Natasha about our daughter who is 8 and asked if it would be possible to keep her in the 2 - 5 year old group with her younger sister. Natasha said that would be OK but suggested we try our daughter in the 6 - 8 year old group.

 

At the orientation, they have the detailed schedules for the times Camp Carnival is open and what activity the kids will be doing by day and time. After my wife looked at the activities for the 6 - 8 year old group we knew that our daughter would be better in the younger age group. The 6 - 8 year old group was a lot of language based activities and our daughter is speach delayed.

 

Our first day at sea we went to Camp Carnival and told the counselor that we wanted our older daughter in the younger group with her sister. She went to get the paperwork for our daughter and came back and told us that there were no notes from Natasha that Casey could be in the younger age group and that they fell Casey should stay with the 6 -8 year olds. I told them that I did not feel she should. I was polite but made sure there was no mistake in our desire to have Casey with her sister. The counselor immediately agreed and signed in both our daughters.

 

The girls loved the Camp and everyone who worked there was great. I think it is important to go the night of orientation and speak to whoever may be in charge of the camp on your cruise and discuss your specific needs. It is than important to look at the activity schedule for each age group and decide which activities will be best for you and your family.

 

Have fun.

 

JT

[slhh]

Thanks very much for the info. I will definitely go to the orientation, and talk with the staff. Don't think I will have any problem sticking to my guns, unfortunately I have experience with that!

 

Glad y'all had a good time! I can't wait, December seems like a long time away, but we all know how quickly time passes.

[Couponluvr]

Our son 9 has Asperger's Syndrome( autism spectrum disorder) he is highly functional and I have to say our PVP has done a great job setting up our Dec cruise with RCCL.He has put my DS in the 9-13 AO and that is perfect since he is academically aged 15 so he will find lots of stuff to do.Now if I can get him over the titanic thing I'll be OK, he is petrified of going on the ocean.I think once he gets busy with new friends and all the great stuff they will have them doing he'll forget about where he is. I hope!!!

His consellor says he has a diability I think he has an ablity!forget the dis!!

 

Hey Manitoba Girl, we're in the same "boat" so to speak. I have an 8yr son with AS who is academically way above average as well, although the social and emotional needs are way delayed. We're booked for the GP 12/2 Western Carib and I'm concerned about the kid's clubs. We were on Disney 2 yrs ago and after an hour of being in the kid's club every day we were paged to come pick him up. How is he socially? Do you have any other concerns with him, like shore excursions, etc.? BTW, what's a PVP?

 

Julie

[Arubalisa]

:eek: Our dd has AS and we never had a problem with kids clubs or any other staff on either HAL or Celebrity. Everyone is extremely nice and could not do enough for our dd.

 

I am really shocked :confused: that Disney was not a little more, uh let's just say, accomodating. They could not try harder to draw your son out, assist him in socializing, just plain old getting him to participate in something which would interest him?

 

Celebrity kid's staff was fantastic. They were never told that dd was a special needs child, but they dealt with her quirks. They were usually able to get her to participate in activities. If dd couldn't deal with it there were other activities she could do on solo or if the staff was not busy, would play with her one on one. They even coached a very nice friendship between dd and another girl close to her age. Heck even I can't do that! :(

 

Heck, we all know NT adults who are worse curse for people in the service industry to deal with than our kids. The kids clubs I have seen dealt with all kids including those with special needs.

[CurtS]

Hey Manitoba Girl, we're in the same "boat" so to speak. I have an 8yr son with AS who is academically way above average as well, although the social and emotional needs are way delayed. We're booked for the GP 12/2 Western Carib and I'm concerned about the kid's clubs. We were on Disney 2 yrs ago and after an hour of being in the kid's club every day we were paged to come pick him up. How is he socially? Do you have any other concerns with him, like shore excursions, etc.? BTW, what's a PVP?

 

Julie

 

Hi, Julie. We were on the Magic in November 2004 with an AS child, who because of coming through the foster care system, also had some emotional issues as well, especially functioning in a social environment. However, the DCL staff was wonderful and never paged us--generally taking some one-on-one time to find things to help him stay entertained (video games worked very well). As long as we advised the staff of the situation (not social, sometimes acts out when bored) they were able to adjust their "routines" (if they had one). We really didn't have any major problems on shore excursions, but we limited ourselves to walking tours of towns and swimming. We're planning an RCCL cruise next year and are not the least bit concerned about taking him.

[wishingtocruise]

I am sooo glad that I found this thread!!! I've looked for something like this forever,but I was just looking in the wrong forum:rolleyes:

Our daughter is 12 with Down Syndrome. She's an only child so there would be no sibling for her to buddy with. However, she is extremely social,and would love to be with the other kids. She LOVES school, and any place that there are other kids. I have been nervous about the kids club as this will be our first cruise. We're going on the Enchantment in April. I know this will be a busy time.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Arubalisa]

In April I am thinking there will be plenty of children aboard. Also from reading this forum you will have no problems with the staff of RCCL.

[jamnvick]

I'm so glad to see this tread. DH and I are taking the whole family on Carnival Liberty in August of 2007. We are taking my stepdaughter, who will be 6 and has an anxiety disorder called Selective Mutism. It's sort of like extreme shyness, but she only speaks to certain people. I'm a little nervous with her going to Camp Carnival. She has no trouble socializing with other kids, and she will be grouped with her 6-year old stepbrother. The problem will be with the counselers that she probably will be too afraid to communicate with. She will speak to her mother, but has never spoken to her father or I. She basically will not speak to anyone between the approximate ages of 18-45. She has been in therapy for nearly 2 years, with not much progress. Does anyone have advice on what sort of reaction to expect from the CC staff?

[just4kixx]

I am happy to see that so many of you have had positive experiences with the Kids' Clubs while cruising.

 

I must be the exception. I have a 13yo globally developmentally delayed DS. He has several DXs, including symptoms part of the autistic spectrum. I have concluded that since he looks relatively "normal", the counsellors expect him to behave "normal". That just isn't how he is. For several cruises I tried the kids' clubs.Counselors always paged me... sometimes within minutes of drop off. They were always made aware of his special needs. I might point out, he was never physical with a counsellor or another child. He just tends to get loud and easily frustrated... especially when things are above his abilities. I have been denied (on RCL) allowing him to join in with the younger kids where he is socially, emotionally and academically more appropriate because he was too much bigger (they had to be referring to height, which is about average for his age, because up until puberty he was always thin as a rail) We tried on 5 ships... varying lines... to get the program to work for us, but have never had any luck... and the counsellors were NEVER anxious to keep on trying. After no luck last summer on the Navigator, we have stopped trying. We sailed the Miracle in November but never even checked out the kids' club. DS still remembers when he "escaped" from the kids club on the Disney Magic ... he had just turned 10yo (read about 5yo in "normal" terms) and didn't have sign out priveledges. Fortunately he came right back to the cabin where we happened to be at the moment... I marched him back down to the kids' club and they were like "oops"... probably should have stopped trying back then! Don't have to kick me in the head more than 4 or 5 times! ;)

 

Anyways, just wanted to point out that unfortunately they won't ALWAYS let your child move down in age group... regardless of their special needs... and that unfortunately not every experience is positive.

 

I am happy to see however, that ours is not "the norm" :D

 

Good luck and have fun no matter what! It certainly hasn't stopped us from cruising... and as it happens... RCL is our favorite line! We are sailing The Explorer next summer with kids and grandparents... and with DSs best buddy (also sp needs) and his family! Can't wait for the boys to experience the ship together! They willl have a blast!

A~

[Couponluvr]

Hi, Julie. We were on the Magic in November 2004 with an AS child, who because of coming through the foster care system, also had some emotional issues as well, especially functioning in a social environment. However, the DCL staff was wonderful and never paged us--generally taking some one-on-one time to find things to help him stay entertained (video games worked very well). As long as we advised the staff of the situation (not social, sometimes acts out when bored) they were able to adjust their "routines" (if they had one). We really didn't have any major problems on shore excursions, but we limited ourselves to walking tours of towns and swimming. We're planning an RCCL cruise next year and are not the least bit concerned about taking him.

 

Hi CurtS, thanks for the input. At the time of the Disney cruise we didn't have an exact diagnosis but we new something fishy was going on. I too wondered why Disney didn't do more, maybe they had too many kids to handle... at the time I didn't know what options were available so we just kept picking him up - we were asked once or twice to remove him because of aggression which we could understand. I think as far as shore excursions you are smart to suggest walking tours and swimming - something not too demanding, just relaxing.

 

Julie

[lucygirl]

We just came back from a 9 day cruise on the Explorer of Seas. My DD (12) has AS and ADHD. On the first night (orientation), I went to the Adventure Ocean counselors for the 9-11 group and explained the situation. They were very understanding and had no problem at all placing her in the younger group. She had the time of her life. Most of her time on at sea days was spent in the kids club.

Go, have a great time, enjoy and dont worry. Your children will have wonderful time.

I was the one who was worried and stressed, but after the first day or so, felt completely at ease. The counselors are wonderful and, as someone mentioned before, they work at the kids club because they like kids.

[Host Walt]

Because it may be of interest in this forum, I copied this thread from the Family Cruising forum.Posts made there after July13, 2006 will not appear in this thread.