Children's programs for special needs children

[Mickeefan]

Hi. I have tried to look through this board and have not found what I need. I have a friend whose son is 11 and had Down Syndrome. She's wondering about going on a cruise with him. Would he be accomodated in the children's programs on the ship? Are they even equipped to handle special needs children? There's a possibility that a friend of her's and her son, also with Down Syndrome, would be joining them. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[kitty9]

Cruise ships accommodate special needs kids all the time. While the counselors aren't usually specially trained in special needs, they do a nice job.

[happycruiser1964]

i been on 5 cruise and 3 of them had down syndrome kid on them od all age as i have one aswell and i cant wait to take mine just enjoy your cruise

[Mickeefan]

Thanks for the replies. I'll forward the information to my friend.

[Skruffy]

Hi - we took our 16 yr old daughter with Down syndrome on her first cruise last March. Your friend should contact the cruise line special needs department and they will advise the camp director of your arrival dates . Once on board arrange to meet the camp director and you can then decide if you want your child to be with same age group or younger. We put our daughter in the 11-12 age group as the teen group was not suitable for her. She is very shy so she didn't fully take advantage of the activities but the staff tried their best to get her involved. The water slide kept her quite busy.

 

Pierrette

[D&TTexasCruisers]

All I can say is be prepared to make other arrangements in the event the childrens programs will not take your child we were assured that they would take ours in the program in a younger group with no problem and when we got on the ship that was not the case at all they totally refused to take him at all so we had to change our plans to include him in everything we wanted to do which turned out ok but would have been better had we known ahead of time. Just be forewarned you might have to make other plans.

[flsunnymommy]

The counselors were wonderful with my son. They were advised ahead of time that they would have children on board with autism and what to expect. The children were allowed to move down to a younger age group. Even though my son is older, I was given a pager so I could be reached when he wanted to leave. He loved Adventure Ocean and participated more than I ever thought he would. They made sure to include him and even took him on the pirate parade around the ship. The staff was awesome and has even contacted us since we have been home.