Texas4808

There's one on Broadway on the left hand side of the road headed toward the beach.   It's somwhere near 20th to 25th street, I think.

I wonder how they service 3 ships with only 2 terminals. It looks like the Freedom is docked away from the terminals

I was told when I called the terminal that the ships wouldn't be going back out today even if they make it in to port.

Not sure what that means for tomorrow

I wanted to say thanks to Royal Caribbean for the fine job they did with our group this past April. We had 129 people in our group of Autism families and RC bent over backwards to accommodate us.

We do charity work with Autism organizations outside the US and they allowed Autism Families to tour the Liberty of the Seas and attend a presentation where we donated money and classroom tools to the Autism Center there.

Here's a video that chronicles that event.

I wanted to say thanks to Royal Caribbean for the fine job they did with our group last week. We had 129 people in our group of Autism families and RC bent over backwards to accommodate us.

We do charity work with Autism organizations outside the US and they allowed Autism Families to tour the Liberty of the Seas and attend a presentation where we donated money and classroom tools to the Autism Center there.

Here's a video that chronicles that event.

We've done three cruises with Autism on the Seas (the group cruises with staff) and they are amazing--nothing out there like them. We have a now-14 yr old with autism, and the cruises with AoTS are the only ones we'll do. From evening respite time, to separate dining, to check in, they just make it so easy.

 

If you haven't checked them out, I'd suggest you do. We have had such life-changing experiences as a family through their service.

Actually there is something out there like AotS. Autism Adventure Travel which is owned and run by an Autism Mom. I've done by groups and my personal opinion is that AAT is better.

Autism on the Seas does a lot of cruises. Some might have as few as 2 families and others a couple of dozen. Out of a ship of 3-4 thousand people, you're not talking about enough people to slow down the boarding process.

Our families have priority boarding with the other special needs folks and do the same when debarking on the final day. As far as getting off the ship at a port, most Autism on the Seas families generally do their own thing and walk off the ship as individual families.

The group I run is a little different as there are as many as 150 of us. We generally do one excursion where we get off as a group but we wait to leave after all the other passengers have departed already.

As far as what you can do to help. A smile, a nod or a kind word of encouragement helps these families feel welcome by society. That's all they really want is to be part of the crowd and have their day in the sun like everyone else.

Take care and thank you for asking the question.

Hi,

 

We have never cruised before, & are considering booking our first with Autism on the Seas to make it easier for our 4 year old son with autism.

 

Our main concern is how autistic children do with the crowds & noise. Our son recently started preschool, & says it's "too busy" & hard work to be there. I am wondering if there are enough quiet areas to retreat to on a ship, or will we end up spending most of our time in our room? I see all the positive reviews of AotS & hope it would be the same for us, but am hesitant.

 

Andrea

I have a 19 year old severely Autistic child that on occasion has trouble with crowds. I also run a group that raises money to take Autism families on cruises. I think we are the largest group of Autism Families going as a group on these cruises. Most of the other cruises are individual Autism families traveling with others booking with the agency.

My own family has been on 14 cruises.

7 have been without a special needs travel agency onboard. Those are the cruises without our group coming with us.

5 were with Autism on the Seas

2 were with Autism Adventure Travel, which in my opinion is the best agency out there.

On our 6 group cruises, 4 with AotS and 2 with AAT, we have had as few as 4 families in our group up to the 33 families we will have in April 2016. As the leader of our group, before every cruise I get asked the same question that you are asking.

Our group runs the entire spectrum of Autism and it seems there’s always enough to do to keep the kids busy and happy. Going solo just means you will be the one keeping your kid busy. Our group’s best experiences have been with AAT and it’s generally because of the mature seasoned staff they always have onboard.

The really good thing about being on a ship with an Autistic individual is that room is close by and if the individual gets overloaded, you can retreat to the room. Once the individual calms down, you can return to many activities. For your first cruise try one of the bigger Royal Caribbean ships, they have a lot of activities to choose from and that will increase the odds that something appeals to your child.

The best part of our group cruises is when our entire group visits Autism Schools in one port of the cruise. We meet with other families in these countries for a fun day. Autism Adventure Travel excels at helping make our cruises fun and memorable.

Here a couple of videos from past cruises

I think your son and your family will enjoy the experience. My son always has a good time.

We are a part of the Buddy Cruise that will set sail from FLL on October 25, 2015. This will be our fifth Buddy Cruise and we are hooked! The ship crew, the Buddy Cruise families and most passengers are so accommodating to all of our children and adults with a very wide spectrum of abilities. There will be extra activities; dances, costume parties, carnivals, book readings, Buddy Walk and giveaways while onboard and I am constantly amazed at the number of ship staff and regular passengers who will take part in activities put on for our group! We welcome ALL to join us, regardless of abilities!

 

 

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NEcruisers????

Do they cruise out of multiple ports at multiple times of the year?

I have no patience for this type of thing. It also explains a lot about the response I got from AotS and also RC/Ron Pettit. To me this seems like false advertising, especially given our experience onboard. Is there any place a person can file a complaint i.e. in Florida if that's where the RCCL HQ are?

The response will likely be that they have resolved the conflict of interest between the agency and RC. I'd start with Adam Goldstein and work my way down. I will private message you his e-mail address.

It won't hurt to voice your concern regarding your personal perception of the legitimacy of the program. Myself, I'd put more stock in the certification if RC hired qualified external trainers and made it mandatory training for new employees that were coming in to contact with families living with Autism.

AAT is another option if you need help pre-planning a cruise. They have helped me on 3 non-group cruises with 3 different cruise lines (none were RC) and those cruises went off without a hitch. The cruise lines were aware we were coming and prepared to accommodate us.

I wish you and all families living with Autism the best of luck.

This video is from our group, Blue Skyes over Autism, when we visited our peers in the Bahamas. We sailed with Autism Adventure Travel onboard the Carnival Magic. There were 19 Autism Families in our group on this cruise. We will have at least 32 Autism Families in April 2016.

 

Prior to our trip, we knew of the Autism on the Seas (AOS) Autism Friendly certifications, & our ship had a Silver certification. After our trip, I have serious misgivings about this certification. My cynical side feels like this is a marketing ploy by the cruise lines, and an added income generator for the agency that provides the certifications/training. The certification on our ship dates back to early 2014. The issues we encountered were very basic– considering most ships in the fleet have been certified for a year & a half I can’t understand why these areas have not ALREADY been fine-tuned. The issues we encountered are covered areas of the base Bronze certification/training process on the AOS website.

 

Hopefully other families will have better luck with the autism friendly services. Just do not rely on what the CSR’s tell you – we did not find this to be an accurate representation of what we encountered. The ports on our cruise were spectacular and we enjoyed our time at port very much. Overall the cruise would have been much more of a success if we didn’t encounter so many roadblocks to basic services promised in advance of the cruise.

IMO....That certification is nothing but a self-serving award primarily to drive business to the travel agency. The big problem is that it sets up unrealistic expectations for Autism families. It's also not fair to cruise lines like Carnival who do just as good a job as Royal Caribbean.

Ron Petit was on the AotS advisory board until RC received feedback that there was concern over possible favoritism in favor of AotS. It's hard to complain to the guy at RC about the agency that he's personally connected to outside of his job at RC.

I have cruised without AotS or their competition, Autism Adventure Travel and received adequate service from RC. That said, I took my group's business from AotS in favor of AAT 3 years ago and we haven't looked back.

We have, since we started cruising about 3 years ago, always sailed with Carnival and almost always had a really good time (I say almost because there was an excursion problem on our last cruise that was really NOT Carnival's fault and they DID totally make it up to us in a very nice and totally unexpected way, so they do get points for that in my book). However, I'm not the kind of person who sticks with one thing forever and I've been poking around the Royal Caribbean website.

 

 

I don't know if it's me or if their site is being wonky, but I can't view any of the excursions and they are less than forthcoming (again, compared to Carnival) as to what kind of activities they offer daily on their ships, etc. I've heard (and I can't back this up, because I'm unable to find it on the website) that they really nickle and dime you as far as the onboard resteraunts (such as they have a nice hamburger joint, but it's not included in the price the way it would be on a Carnival ship for example) and things of that nature. So I'm not sure that as a typical Carnival cruiser (working class, not poverty stricken but not exactly middle class either) if we'd even like an RCL cruise or even fit in there because I get the impression that RCL is for "those" people. The middle class.

 

 

Which ain't us...not by a long stretch.:D

 

 

Still...I'm willing to give them a chance if I can find enough convincing reasons to do so.

When are you planning on going? I am the President of Blue Skyes over Autism. We have a very large group cruising on the Liberty of the Seas on April 10, 2016. Right now, we have 32 Autism families in our group. Autism Adventure Travel is going with us to help with the kids and to coordinate group activities. We have kids from all over the Autism spectrum. Like you, we are all from Texas too.

As has been our mission for the last 3 years, we are visiting Autism families in a port on the itinerary, this time in Cozumel. We will receive priority boarding and debarkment, group seating in the main dining room, an autism theme itinerary, reserved seating at shows, respite for the kids from trained staff and get togethers with all our families.

You are more than welcome to contact AAT and book with them to join us. We do Carnival and RC, they both do a great job. I'd say RC has more activities for the kids. Don't worry about the other passengers, you will be with your peers when traveling with BSoA. All the extra services won't cost you anything more than the regular cabin fare.

Here's one of the video's from last year's cruise (watch all the way through past the dance party AAT put on for the kids)

Let me know if this interests you.

There's another agency that does a fantastic job for Autism families as well.

Autism societies across the country? Where did you see this? We haven't tried RCCL sure to price and being happy with carnival so I can't speak to their program, but all I have seen is them being "certified" by a travel agency.

Exactly, the agency created a self-serving certification award.

Also make sure you ask ahead of time for a private Muster Drill. That's a huge help too.

Well I find it odd that you keep harping on every single word I say. My information is not here-say. It is directly from people who have used the service that are my friends. Real life friends that I interact with daily. You are bashing the company on here-say relying on a post from a person you do not know. I have never said that anyone was wrong. Not one of us on this thread were involved and were there and like I said multiple times I am not defending or saying what was told was untrue, I'm just saying that I do not think it is fair to bash a company based on here-say which is exactly what is happening.

 

And to answer another question from a different poster....I am not glossing over the issue of a person with autism overseeing children with autism. I have no problem with it at all as long as the person is capable. I also fully agree with peer led groups and I feel it helps children with autism to have role models who are also autistic. Before everyone jumps all over that, this is my general opinion on the matter and has nothing to with the man/boy this issue is about. I do not know him and can not say if he was capable or not to lead a group.

The boy and his father have moved on and are doing some good things. God bless both of them. To me, a person who has had multiple first hand experiences with the owner, it has always been about how the owner handles things.

With this incident, the owner chose not to make a public response and therefore put himself in the predicament of having 1 side of the story out there for the public to form an opinion on. No one should feel bad for him now or defend someone who won't defend himself. It's paramount that we are able to trust this man's judgment when his company is caring for our special needs children. Silence says a lot....

There are other controversial incidents that he chose not to respond to. Some were appropriate for him not to comment on and others not so appropriate to not comment on.

I actually like the owner from personal standpoint. I was his single largest customer having booked over 75 reservations with his company I just couldn't trust his word or judgment any longer. I know him as well as any of his customers.

We have cruised with an Autistic child last May 2014. My grandson was 4 yrs old and not potty trained. The Autistic Friendly Program that Royal started was a life saver for us. We read about it and immediately called for more information. We we very pleased with what was offered to us. To start things off, we were sent a "STORY BOARD." This book was perfect to personalize just for him and we could read it to him daily to prepare him ahead of time as to what to expect. Autistic children need to know whats next or whats coming. Our therapist helped us laminate the book so he could even take it on the cruise. We were given priority boarding which was great because he panics in large crowds and is sensitive to loud noises. One of m favorite things was coming into the dining room and finding his grapes, bananas and sweet tea waiting for him. Shortly after he was seated they brought out his broccoli, french fries and steak or grilled chicken. The only things he will eat for dinner. He never had to wait and things just flowed. We did bring his sensory items to dinner (iPad, DvD player or Leap Pad) We all could actually enjoy a meal. The nights when the singing took place one family member did have to leave with him due to his low tolerance to loud sounds, but the staff made sure the family member's dinner selection was sent to the cabin along with dessert. They went above and beyond to make sure we all had a nice dinner experience. The Adventure's Ocean program was equally accepting. The staff was trained and certified to supervise Autistic children. That in it'self was reassuring to us. Even though he wasn't potty trained, because of his disability he was still allowed to participate even thought the rule says no. If he needed to be changed we would be paged to return. We had no problem with that at all. My daughter met with the counselors and explained his quirts and what makes him happy. He was very happy and so were we.

We didn't use "Autism. of the Seas." We decided to go with Royals Autism Friendly Program and we are glad we did. They provided us with everything we needed. We didn't get to use one feature of the program only because we were so busy doing a lot of other fun stuff he likes too. They offer Autistic Friendly Movie viewing if they have at least 5 special needs children to do it. They will choose days and times to show a featured film with dim lighting (house lights on but low), low sound volume and the children are allowed to move about. This is great for my grandson, because it is very difficult for him to sit for extended periods of time. They can talk and play and not worry about disturbing anyone else while they enjoy a movie like other children. We are planning to take him again December 2016 and he will be 7 yrs old then. And Yes, we will call on Royal again for assistance to make this cruise enjoyable for him as well as his little cousins and other family members.

 

To make it easier we had a plan:

BEFORE THE CRUISE

1. Print out the Story Board

2. Call Royal & Contact Special Needs Department

3. Fill out and return Special Needs Form

ONCE ON BOARD

1. Go to Adventures Oceans to meet staff and discuss his issues

2. Speak with Dinning staff about dietary issues

ENJOY THE VACATION!!! :D

Nice post. It lines up with what I said about the cruise lines evolving and the need for a special needs travel agency being less critical for the families to use.

I mentioned that I was "around" when the story broke because someone mentioned in a previous post about the first reporting of the incident. I was reading the boards at that time and recall the initial post.

 

I have absolutely no ties to this company and I personally have not used them but I have sailed on cruises while they were working and I know a bunch of families that have used them. I am not defending the company because I can't as I was not there and can not say what happened. The reason I get defensive about the constant bashing is only because I know first hand how hard it is to travel with a disabled child and this company, as well as others, help families enjoy a much needed vacation. I know what a great job they do with the families that they are with because I have spoken to quite a few who have used the services.

 

As far as the changes Disney made, I am well aware of them. I actually agree that no adult should be in the children's clubs unless they were personally vetted by Disney themselves. I think that after they incident that happened, Disney realized that they are liable and having unvetted adults in a secured area is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Just because they changed the rules does not mean the situation with the girl was proven true. It just showed a flaw in the services Disney was allowing the group to do and they corrected it.

 

We are not going to agree on any of this so I am not going to comment any more.

You kinda glossed over how bad an idea it is to have an Autistic kid looking over other Autistic kids.....

Part of the purpose of the boards and the internet in general is to give feedback and evaluations of various groups/cruises/providers' date=' etc. My daughter won't buy a small kitchen appliance without looking up reviews on line. How much more important it is to know as much as possible about an agency that you are entrusting with your vacation.

 

The policy changes that DCL instituted after this incident have impacted every family with children who use the programming. These were not small changes and were certainly not confined to special needs kids. They were instituted to protect children from the actions of legal adults while those children were in the care of DCL programming. NO organization is permitted to place "staff" members in the secure programming. If a child is participating in "open house" hours, their safety is clearly defined as the responsibility of a parent or guardian. Special needs kids have far less flexibility than previously as far as what age group will suit them best.

 

Frankly, I would want to know the track record of any group before I throw my money in their direction. If a google search turns up incidents that cause people to question actions, they are able to do further researching as to what/why/how things happened. Frankly, contacting the agency is a great way to do that research. Their answers will tell the potential client a great deal about the people involved.

 

I LOVE the travel agency I use, and I'm sorry that I can't give them plugs on these boards...but those are the rules I agree to in order to post here. I'm glad to be able to name some other providers of services (such as limo/shuttle/rental car companies, hotels, etc.) who have rendered good service. Ultimately, the company is responsible for the actions of their employees. This applies whether they are a "staff member" supposedly working with their teen clients on a ship or a mentally challenged young lady hired to refill drinks and wipe tables in a casual dining establishment. And if there is a complaint or concern about an employee, not only the action, but how it is handled reflects directly on the employer. Decent handling of this episode and the employer accepting responsibility for the actions of his employee could have provided a totally different outcome and very different press on the boards. Unfortunately, per the reports of those involved, that is not what happened.

 

While this agency is still able to sell DCL cruises, they are no longer able to have their special staff working alongside DCL employees in the kid programming.

 

Part of the problem is that the "father of the boy" is also the employer of the young man. And he was NOT a boy--he was legally of age and wearing a staff shirt when the various actions took place. The responsibilities of the father of a mentally or socially handicapped son are very different from that of an employer of that same individual. And you can't have it both ways--either he IS competent to function as an employee apart from direct supervision or he is not responsible for his actions due to his handicap. (in which case supervision is needed).[/quote']

The last paragraph is exactly what I told the owner on the phone. The owner is not the father of the boy. The boy and his father no longer work for the travel agency. The owner no longer needed their services when he left his day job and did cruising full time. They were not let go over the incident, it was strictly a business decision by the owner to make cruising his primary source of income. As the owner of the business, it was his prerogative to make that decision.

The Autism Friendly certification means nothing but a company making up a self-serving award to give to a cruise line to draw attention to their own company.

Both special needs travel agencies that I know of, which includes the one that created the self serving award, do work with the cruise line to help them understand the needs of Autism Families that will be cruising on their ship.

I think as time passes, RCL and Carnival will evolve on their own and there will be less need for individual families to book through special needs agencies. The thing that these special needs agencies provide that hasn't been talked about much is the ability to travel with other families living a similar life.

I know that younger children get wristbands at the muster drill, so staff will know what station the child needs to go to if he/she gets separated from the family. I plan to take a sharpie marker with us and write our last name and stateroom number on the wristband for my toddler in case she runs off. Then the staff can look us up easily and page me. This is also a good idea for kids who are nonverbal or get confused/scared easily when approached by a stranger.

We approached AAT with a concern about a runner within our group and they purchased a GPS wristband for the family to use. One cool thing that Carnival did was to provide all the families in our group with a mobile ship phone. We could call each other and the AAT/Carnival staff. Another cool thing was Carnival security walking every one our families through the boarding process and on to the ship. Both were value adds that AAT went bat to get for us.

I liked the ship itself and they treated us well. We received priority boarding too.

I think for an individual family that isn't going to drop their kid off with the ship's staff, they are ok. They exempted us from the Muster drill so that was nice. It was a no frills Autism cruise for us, but we are ok with that. We use the special needs agencies when we travel with our group because there are some who wouldn't be able to travel without the extra non-cruise line help.

I don't think NCL or Princess would be good at handling a large group of Autism families.

We are cruising on Carnival Freedom on my birthday in January in a wrap-a-round balcony cabin. Kinda excited about that cruise.

What I find sad is that they have taken what would have been a really great way for families to experience a vacation, and with their poor choices ruined their reputation with internet readers and the cruise line. It didn't have to end this way.

I personally spoke with the owner of the agency after I read that post to express concern. His position was that the woman was crazy and that it was old news. It was 2 months after the incident when we spoke......

That lack of legitimate concern was one of the reasons that they lost my group's business.

If this is the agency I'm thinking of' date=' I would advise caution.[/quote']

 

Seconded.