Tiiiigergirl
<font color=red>Had to be rolled out of the restau
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2000
This is especially directed to those who have children on the Spectrum and who visit WDW repeatedly. This will seem like common sense but when you hear what I did, my hope is that I can save another family a similar experience. We have been taking our HF Autistic son to WDW since he was about 7 and we all love it! In the past we had always either taken a town car or done the rental car. When he was younger, I use to make picture cards of what would happen for each step of our trips. But as he got older and more verbal, we would just go over each step and make certain that he understood. This last time we decided to take the Magic Bus. We thought everyone would enjoy the cartoons and Disney Magic. We went over how that would happen instead of a car. But we forgot one detail. Luggage. Our son has always been a bit worried that his clothes will not be there and we always triple pack (meaning that I put some of all of our clothes in each of the 3 suitcases so that if they lost one bag, we would all have some clothes. Not all of them, but some of them.) But I had forgotten to tell him about that one little detail WDW picking up our bags. Because I had tagged them we didn't even have the option in the airport of trying to wait for them or of course we would have.
So there we all sat in the bus trying to make the best of it:
.
I felt sick that I had changed this on him. He felt bad that he couldn't just shake it off. And as you know, it takes a few days for him to feel back in control and to get his feet under him. It didn't ruin the vacation but it made it less fun for a few days than it should have been.
So, I guess my suggestion is this: if you have an established WDW routine think very carefully before you mess with something big. Now we have never stayed in the same place so changing that is no big deal for him. But it might be for your child.
As he has gone through the teenage years, I have found myself with a new gratitude that although he has his challenges, he is immune from so much of the other junk that goes on in the world. He will always love everyone in his own special way and as his mother that makes me truly blessed.
So there we all sat in the bus trying to make the best of it:
. I felt sick that I had changed this on him. He felt bad that he couldn't just shake it off. And as you know, it takes a few days for him to feel back in control and to get his feet under him. It didn't ruin the vacation but it made it less fun for a few days than it should have been.
So, I guess my suggestion is this: if you have an established WDW routine think very carefully before you mess with something big. Now we have never stayed in the same place so changing that is no big deal for him. But it might be for your child.
As he has gone through the teenage years, I have found myself with a new gratitude that although he has his challenges, he is immune from so much of the other junk that goes on in the world. He will always love everyone in his own special way and as his mother that makes me truly blessed.
