Traveling with Special Needs children

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this discussion, but I didn't see another option.

My DH and I just came back from a short cruise with our Special Needs grandchildren and the experience brought up several questions for us. The children are not physically disadvantaged but suffer from intellectual deficits and maturity issues (they are 14 y.o. twins who suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome).

They are too big (size wise) to participate in the 9-11 age group, however, this is where they belong according to their social and maturity level. They DEFINITELY would not fit in with the 12-14 age group, as there is very little supervision there and I saw that group roaming the halls at all hours causing a scene.

I'm just trying to figure how other parents have handled this situation. While I LOVE spending time with the grandkids (we care for them several days a week at home and they spend one night each weekend at our house), there are only so many things to do on a cruise ship to entertain them (we did mini-golf, the movies, the arcade, shore excursions, etc.) so we spent a lot of time in the cabin watching cartoons. We could have done this at home and saved lots of money :)

Any insight would be appreciated.

biological age is what the cruise lines go by and very rarely do they make exceptions. they had to after an 18 year old ( mentally much younger) got fixated on a girl and ended up damn near assaulting her. and this was during a cruise where the ship was full of special needs children.

you may want to look into those types of cruises, offered by Autism at Sea( they are also a good resource for just cruising with SN kids in general).

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this discussion, but I didn't see another option.

 

My DH and I just came back from a short cruise with our Special Needs grandchildren and the experience brought up several questions for us. The children are not physically disadvantaged but suffer from intellectual deficits and maturity issues (they are 14 y.o. twins who suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome).

 

They are too big (size wise) to participate in the 9-11 age group, however, this is where they belong according to their social and maturity level. They DEFINITELY would not fit in with the 12-14 age group, as there is very little supervision there and I saw that group roaming the halls at all hours causing a scene.

 

I'm just trying to figure how other parents have handled this situation. While I LOVE spending time with the grandkids (we care for them several days a week at home and they spend one night each weekend at our house), there are only so many things to do on a cruise ship to entertain them (we did mini-golf, the movies, the arcade, shore excursions, etc.) so we spent a lot of time in the cabin watching cartoons. We could have done this at home and saved lots of money :)

 

Any insight would be appreciated.

As the previous poster stated the kids proprams are all based on biological and there's no cruise line that will deviate from that.

Suggest the following :

• Also post on the Family Cruise Forum http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49 as most with special needs children do not post on the Disabled Cruise Forum
  
• Look into booking one of the group cruises through Autism at Seas https://autismontheseas.com/ The selection will be limited and the cost higher but they have their own dedicated staff that travels with the group and organizes its own activities.
  
• Consider about bringing someone the children are comfortable with that can watch them and keep them active when you and your spouse want some time to yourselves. Of course this option would be at your expense.
  

Thanks for the suggestions. When they were 12 we were allowed to put them into the 9-11 club and no sign-out privileges, but they are much to big, size wise now. This is the first cruise we have taken with them, without other family members also onboard, so it created a new kind of dilemma for us. I will post to the Family Board and see if anyone else has ideas.

Thanks again.