and it was lots of fun!
Our autistic 7 year-old did fairly well, though he had a few melt downs. Far fewer than I had feared, though. He absolutely loved the characters. We lost sight of him at AK at opening for a minute and panicked, but found him accosting Mickey. The poor handler and families waiting patiently in line to see Mickey weren't sure what to do with a red head boy jumping up and down and hugging Mickey excitedly who wouldn't respond to them at all.
Another time in MK he went right up to a stranger and started stealing her McDonald's french fries (his favorite snack). She was very gracious and understanding once we explained. The only other incident was when he screamed fairly constantly for a whole circuit of the MK railroad. We're still not sure what he was upset about.
We got the GAC, though we only used it 3 times. Lines were generally walk on or managable and we used fastpass whenever we could, so as not to abuse the priveledge. On both Space Mopuntain adn Rock N Roller Coaster the CM's asked him if he really wanted to ride (since he was vocally protesting). Once I explained that he was autistic and loved coasters and was just complaining about the wait, there was no problem.
Overall a very good trip, and I thonk we learned a lot and will be more prepared for our June trip.
Our autistic 7 year-old did fairly well, though he had a few melt downs. Far fewer than I had feared, though. He absolutely loved the characters. We lost sight of him at AK at opening for a minute and panicked, but found him accosting Mickey. The poor handler and families waiting patiently in line to see Mickey weren't sure what to do with a red head boy jumping up and down and hugging Mickey excitedly who wouldn't respond to them at all.
Another time in MK he went right up to a stranger and started stealing her McDonald's french fries (his favorite snack). She was very gracious and understanding once we explained. The only other incident was when he screamed fairly constantly for a whole circuit of the MK railroad. We're still not sure what he was upset about.
We got the GAC, though we only used it 3 times. Lines were generally walk on or managable and we used fastpass whenever we could, so as not to abuse the priveledge. On both Space Mopuntain adn Rock N Roller Coaster the CM's asked him if he really wanted to ride (since he was vocally protesting). Once I explained that he was autistic and loved coasters and was just complaining about the wait, there was no problem.
Overall a very good trip, and I thonk we learned a lot and will be more prepared for our June trip.
