The autism disney experience

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
The autism disney experience
14
Sun, 08-13-2006 - 2:13am

Well, I am in a better place to post about the trip now. I was truly exhausted the first couple days back which didn't help my outlook at all, lol. But now things are in a bit better of a light.

There was good and bad and as is typical in these situations, how different our family is from others kind of slaps you right in the face. And it is alot of hard work doing something that is supposed to be fun.

On the good side, everyone else had the time of thier life. The kids loved it. John seems to have had a great time and mine was probably at least 50% good memories. The kids were troopers and I was proud of them for many things. Cait was positively awesome for the majority. Helpful. Not complaining and whining. Ok with changing plans and not going on what she wanted to go on. This has been a problem lately since we hit puberty.

Mike tried his level best. He was really good about waiting outside rides for the other kids when he didn't want to go on. there were loads of rides he didn't want anything to do with but the other kids wanted to, so he would walk in with us and he and I would wait with his timer until they were off. The crew members were reall helpful about telling me how long rides were and letting him wait where he could see.

The disability pass was awesome and most of the cast members were awesome about it. Only got a odd look and questioned once. Most were really helpful and when Mike was having a hard time they were really flexible and tried to help.

On the bad side it was an autistic nightmare for the first day and a half, then on and off for the rest of the trip. Thank GOD for the special pass (my other kids particularly liked it, lol. talk about spoiled!).

The first day we just hung at the hotel so Mike could get used to being on vacation. We went to the pool. The kid had no less than 5 timeouts in the first 1/2 hour. I made DH go up for the time timer and after a few time timer time outs he did much better. Funny how it goes better when he can see the time. That thing got alot of use this week.

Soon he became obsessed with the jets in the jacuzzi. I felt bad for the poor guy that was in there. He was really great about it. Mike kept going underwater to have the jet spray straight on his face. But he insisted on doing it on all the jets which meant invading this other guys personal space more than once and not giving a care that he was. He was way out there. The jets were a great sensory thing though and after a good 30 minutes on and off of doing this he was much better and we went to a fancy dinner (ROFL, what were we thinking!). It was the hotel restaurant where kids eat free but it was still fancy. Fortunately there was only one other lady in the place. His "noises" scared her away fairly quickly.

Disney started with him having line trouble even before we got INTO the darn park. "Why don't these stupid people move!" "why are they so slow" "this is the stupidest place on earth", etc. escalating. Went to the line for the disabiilty pass and more of the same. They had no qualms about giving us the pass, lol.

We then proceeded to Pirates and to the exit gate (aka disability gate) and a really nice cast member led us in the back way to a special waiting spot. Mike started melting HUGE. Crying buckets, freaking out. Yelling he wasn't getting on. So I told the lady he needed a minute. It was his first ride. They were very kind and let us wait. He didn't calm and DH ended up on the ride with the other kids after 15 minutes. Mike started obsessing on when they would be back. Found out the time from the cast member and broke out old friend timer again.

Most of the first day at disney went like this. Use the disability pass to get to a ride, have son freak out deciding last second he wasn't getting on, I held all the junk and watched Mike while DH and kids went on ride. In between I was dodging the occasional anxiety punch and verbal abuse until I would set the timer and life was ok for 5 minutes.

Finally 1/2 way through the day he decides that snow white sounds safe enough and gets on. LOVED IT! So we went on a bunch of similar rides until the ride junkies decided they wanted to do the big rides again. Then the rest of the trip was a mix of mellow rides for Mike and us waiting outside all the others for everyone else with an occasional bout of anxiety or OCD to spice things up.

That night he decides to try pirates and loves it immensly (knew he would) and we were able to get him to try a couple more rides. DH convinced him to go on big thunder mountain (way tame not quite roller coaster roller coaster) and Mike starts to panic just as he is getting on. DH bear hugs him and gets him on. mike was ok as long as dad was bear hugging him and panics if dad lets go, but that was the last even close to fast ride he went on.

The last morning we had a character breakfast. Mike was way anxious at first but it ended up tons of fun. The characters kind of snuck up on him and interacted with him before he knew what was going on and that helped. After we took a walk to downtown disney and took a wrong turn and the end of the trip went down from there.

Over all it was way stressful and over emotional and I was the target of all mikes anxiety. I had to be "On" the entire time to try and keep him as regulated as possible. I was the target of yelling and the occasional aggression. No fun being hit in public. I was the one sheparding the kids together trying to keep up with leader dad through the crowds. And I was PMSing.

I am glad to be home.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 2:32am

Went to the zoo tonight. Best time ever at a park with him. He did pretty darn great over all. Lots of practice lately I guess between disney and autism camp (field trips daily).

We stayed at a disney good neighbor hotel. It was still really close (2 blocks). There was a shuttle that picked us up right outside our hotel and brought us to disney and back and was about 1K cheaper than staying at the resort. If you go to disneyland in california I recomend the doubletree. It was really great. We got our tix through costco travel and it came with continental breakfast each morning, a character breakfast/brunch, and lots of other perks. The double tree has a disney visitor center right inside the hotel and the shuttle stopped right outside. We had a 2 room suite with 2 tv's. There was a pool, jacuzzi, mini game room. It really was great. The resort hotels were nicer but the price didn't seem worth it.

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Registered: 04-07-2003
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 12:40pm

Glad you had a good time at the zoo. We did Colonial williamsburg and Busch Gardens 1st week of August in our pop up. It was way to hot. The one thing i have learned from all of our vacations was to build in down time.

Have at least one or 2 days where we had nothing planned except maybe some pool time or just bumming. I also learned not to do a hotel but to do a condo rental or camp in our pop up.Where we can cook or have easy breakfasts etc. Josh usually sleeps in a tent when we are camping. He gets to do his routine at bed and he has his alone time. We also learn to well ignore Josh sometimes when he gets too fixated on stuff, eating and time. Sorry but we give him choices and we are trying to teach him that life does not always go your way. he seems to get it most of the time. he knows we have days where there is no real schedule and he kind of handles it. i also know when he gets too tired or is not happy being in one too many outlet stores sometimes depending on where we are I will let him wait outside. Someties when we have gone camping we have taken the dogs and he will just sit outside holding the dog's leash

Busch gardens was good. Josh went on rides but usually the easy stuff. But he would avoid the roller coasters, fine with me. He was not too sure about the attractions where you had to put on the special glasses and they spray water at you but once he got in he was fine.
Again i guess him being with us for 11 years and well not knowing better, kind of helps.

The only true melt downs that occured was when we were coming back and had dinner at Cape May. it was way late and hard to find a parking spot. Josh just melted. I forget the exact reason but I did basically pyschally pulled him out of his chair so he coul dbe taken to the front of the resturant to let him cool down. Fortunately , fo rus josh will just cry and say no and just plant his but. No hitting or yelling. But I think we are learning no tto keep dragging things out sometimes.

Picking our battles and down time. On vacation it is also god because when we are at the park or pool and josh is playing with other kids, it is easier for them to deal with Josh in well small doses. Esp when listening to his life stories. Or when Josh starts to try too hard to fit in and he well over compansates

Rina

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2001
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 12:51pm
When ever we do a week at Disney we always stay at one of their hotels jsut so we have the easy of going back abd forth.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Mon, 08-14-2006 - 1:04pm

the 2xs we wento to Disney we stayed off grounds and stayed at rentals. We had a car to use,gave for good transition time. Also we didn't know Josh was Asperger's at that time. But when Josh was 7, he had broken his leg and had an external fixtion device that was in place. We used the handicap pass for him then. I also had my MIL for back up. But it was during the school year so Josh had to do school work before the park.

But it was helpful for Josh to have his own space to retreat to, even though he shared with someone else. It helped that breakfast was not thrown off also the down time,

I do know Josh was not too happy with the costumed people and really wanted nothing to do with them. He did not like rides that had too many surprises.

It is a learning process

Rina

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