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Autism on the Seas.....cruise in style with all your needs met!

If you've been looking to go on a cruise, but are concerned about bringing your autistic child with you, there's an awesome solution!

Autism on the Seas is an amazing cruise program put together by Alumni Cruises that puts together Autism group cruises. They specialize in travel for families and adults with autism.

Currently, Autism on the Seas is offering 4 upcoming cruises in 2008.

• January 2008 Bahamas Cruise
• March 2008 Mexico Cruise
• June 2008 Bahamas, St. Thomas & St. Maarten Cruise
• August 2008 Bermuda Cruise

What amazes me about Autism on the Seas is what they offer for features. Check this out:

                  - Professional Autism Staff for the Group
                   - Autism Awareness Cruise Staff
                   - Professional Medical Physicians and Nurses
      New!!   - Priority Boarding onto Ship
      New!!   - Priority Disembarkation from Ship
      New!!   - Private Muster Drill Area
                   - Special Dietary Accommodations
                   - Service Animals Permitted 
                   Access and Services for People with Disabilities
                   - Private Group Family Party
                  - Private Movie Showings
                   - Private Sea Animal Bingo
       New!!   - Private Adventure Ocean Activities
       New!!   - Private Ship Facility Entertainment Sessions
                   - Special Adventure Ocean Child Grouping
 New!!   - Private Group Karaoke
       New!!   - Pool (water related) Activities
                   - Flashlight Scavenger Hunt
                   - Adults with Autism Social Gatherings
                   - Teen Social Gatherings
                   - Sibling Activities
                  - Parent's Play Time
                   - Private Dining Room
                  - Early Dinner Seating with group (Early Dining)
                   - Special Gifts
                   -  Special Potty Training Provisions
                      - Special Children's Program Grouping Rules 
                   - Most "Special" Requests and Needs met 
                   - All of the regular services and activities on board
                    Royal Caribbean Cruises
                    ...and more

Autism on the Seas has a great page on their site that shares reviews from past cruisers and also lists many of the services and activities that were offered on their recent July 2007 cruise. This list alone makes the service worth every penny! Cruising with an autistic child or adult could never be easier.

Things like:

• Priority Embarkation - no lines, no waiting!!
• Private Muster Drill Area - no crowds, no commotion
• Priority Disembarkation - get off the ship first and find your luggage FAST!
• Hand Picked Dining Wait Staff - WHOA!!! Talk about special treatment!
• Special Menu Requests - For families with special dietary needs, this is HUGE!
• Reserved Seating and Section for Shows in the Theater - makes it a truly enjoyable experience for all

There's so much more....you can check out a larger list of perks, see pictures from the July 2007 cruise and read cruiser reviews by clicking here: Cruise Review

The Autism Calendar

Having your child diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum can be really overwhelming for a lot of people. For me, I could sense that there was something happening with Zach's development and after reading some information in a magazine and then doing a little bit of research, I had a gut feeling that what we were seeing were traits of an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Zach was 13 months old at that time. It took us another 5 months to find a program in our area that could work with him and point us in the direction we needed to go for support. Intervention and programs have come a long way in the past 7 years since that time, but it's still not an easy thing to know where to go or who to turn to when you're told that your child falls somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum.

A lot of parents find strength in connecting with other parents that are going through the same things (or similar things) they are. There are many adults with autism that are looking to meet with other people that live in "their world."

The Autism Calendar is a great resource if you're looking to hook up with other people in your area. Not all states have listings, but most of them do. There's even Canadian listings for our neighbors up north.

Click here ----> The Autism Calendar  to access this calendar.

Autism on the Seas......Autism centered CRUISES!!!

I'm part of a yahoogroup that provide free support to parents of children (all ages) with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Today, I got a post in my email inbox sharing a link to a group that organizes cruises for families and adults with autism. I got REALLY excited about this and wanted to share it with all of you. I'm sure there is someone else out there, like me, that will find this information exciting and beneficial.

The last 3 years, my husband and I have been on the Stampin' Up cruises. So many people ask us if we take our children with us. The answer has always been, "no." There's a few reasons for this. One of the biggest reasons is that it would cost a lot of money to take the kids with us on a 7 day cruise. These 3 cruises were something that we earned through my Stampin' Up business and were completely paid for by the company for each of us. What a blessing that was for us, since we would never have been able to justify the cost for us to go on these trips.

One of the other reasons that we didn't take our kids on something like this (if money was completely taken out of the deciding factor) was that it would be a difficult thing for us to take Zach on these kinds of trips. I think our daughter, Elise (AKA: Girly), would love a trip like this and would do very well on it. Zach is another story.

Zach is a curious little man. In some instances, he has NO FEAR whatsoever. But Zach is also a very dependent little man and we are fiercely protective of him.

One of the things about autism is that most of the time, when you look at an autistic child, there really isn't anything visible that would give away that there is a disorder. We've had many strangers try to interact with Zach in public places (in line at the grocery store, at the checkout desk at the library, building sandcastles at the beach, etc) and they're puzzled as to why he doesn't answer them right away, why he doesn't always acknowledge them or an answer the way they want him to and so much more. It's hard to leave Zach in the care of someone that is willing to be patient in communicating with him, that will take the time to understand him, or that is even willing to engage with him and connect with his world.

Because of this, we knew that taking Zach on a cruise would be a hard thing. The Stampin' UP cruises are wonderful and all, but there's a lot that goes on for demonstrators and their guests. There would be times that we would need to leave Zach in the care of someone else. While cruise lines have FANTASTIC programs for kids, we knew that the chances of them being able to meet Zach's needs would be close to none. The other thing that was made known to us as far as these programs on board go, is that the kids are not required to stay in the program. They have the freedom to leave at any time. The program workers can not hold these children in the programs against their will. That would be a major problem if Zach didn't want to be there and we weren't there to take care of him if he left in the middle of a program. There has also been times when Zach has needed light restraint in moments of frustration and communication breakdowns. We didn't want to leave Zach in the care of someone that might not be familiar with this kind of intervention.

So.......because of these limitations, we opted to go on these cruises as just a couple. I've often wished for a low cost cruise that wouldn't take up TOO much time, but would also cater to our needs as a family with an autistic child. WOW! It looks like they really DO exist!

After looking over this site, I am excited to start thinking about planning a family vacation like this!

Autism On the Seas offers cruises that meet just the needs we have! And for those of you with autistic children or adults in your family, I'm sure that they meet your needs, too! (We've cruised with Royal Caribbean before and they're AMAZING!)

          Autism Group Cruises
For families and adults with autism

Featuring

                        - Professional Autism Staff for the Group
                        - Autism Awareness Cruise Staff
                        - Professional Medical Physicians and Nurses
                        - Special Dietary Accommodations
                        - Service Animals Permitted
                         - Private Group Family Party
                         - Sea Animal Bingo
                         - Flashlight Scavenger Hunt
                         - Adults with Autism Social Gatherings
                         - Teen Social Gatherings
                         - Sibling Celebrations
                         - Parent's Play Time
                         - Early Dinner Seating with group (Early Dining)
                         - Special Gifts
                         - Most "Special" Requests and Needs met
                         - All of the regular services and activities on board Royal Caribbean Cruises...and more 

Wouldn't it be amazing to get a group together that could cruise with their families and not have to worry about needs being met, about who's taking care of the kids and if they're qualified for it, about the siblings of our autistic kids being left out of programs, etc?

I highly recommend checking out this site ------> Autism On the Seas. Let me know if this is something you're interested in! I'm all for putting a group together!