Need Advise if we do Disney World
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| Sun, 03-04-2007 - 7:47am |
We are thinking about doing Disney World this spring/fall and ds will be almost/be 4 yrs old. I know Renee you took your gang and wrote a wonderful description of the trip. Mind you it's jut me-dh-ds and that's it.
I am freaking over the plane ride. We live in PA so a plane ride to Orlando is about 2 hrs. DH and I went years ago, just us and we stayed off the park and like to do the same again w/rental car.
Idea maybe hitting Sea World too has been on my mind.
The whole news story about the 4 yr old (NT) getting kicked off a Jet Blue flight cause she was disruptive has been plaguing me. I want to call the airline who I may want to book with and ask about special needs kids and if we could be one of the last ones on the plane. We have a portable DVD and kid loves candy and I am cool with that if it helps.
I am also going to contact the park on reguards to special needs w/rides.
We get our "pass" and DS surprises me and doesn't need it. We try to practise both to help him w/patience.
thanks
Nora

Hi Nora! I'm not Renee, but I did take my then almost 4 yr old, Lily, on an airplane for the first time this past summer. I was very worried about how she would handle it, but she did great. When we arrived at the terminal, we asked if we could be the last ones to board the airplane. They were very accomodating. We bought a couple of books about airplanes a month or more before the trip and started reading them to her. We even found one that had a little diagram about all the things that are on an airplane. She is somewhat obsessed with bathrooms, so when she saw that there was a bathroom on the plane, she was quite excited by that (I don't know why). Anyway, she talked about that constantly and of course, to my dismay, had to visit the restroom on the plane even though she didn't need to go. She is also obsessed with lights, so she loved the lights on the plane that are above all the seats. She was so focused on all the cool things that are on an airplane. I had no idea how fascinating those little plastic sliding window covers are! LOL She liked the cart that the stewardness had too. We brought a backpack full of her favorite books and treats and she did just fine. She still talks about the lights and bathroom on the airplane! I think the fact that we prepared her in advance helped somewhat. I was afraid she would yell or something, but she was just fascinated by the whole idea of it and so she was fairly quiet. Of course, I know all kids are different, but I hope this helps. I hope Renee has some more info about her Disney World trip because we would love to try that someday but aren't sure how Lily would handle all the sensory stuff on the rides. She would definetely benefit from one of those passes too because she doesn't handle waiting well at all. Good luck!
Amy~mom to Natalie & Lily
Anyway, all that to say, we have taken our children twice (once when son was 4 and again when he was 7) to Disney and had a great time both times. However, it is a sensory overload for a person with out sensory issues.... so you have to build in down time. Let them know as much in advance what to expect (that Disney with Kids book is a big help for that) and for pete's sake, skip the "It's tough to be a bug show" at the Animal Kingdom. Waaaaaaay too much sensory input. My son did every roller coaster in the place and said he loved them, but at the end of the day during his "down time" said, "I think I have a heart condition". So much for all those warning signs before the coasters. I think the biggest lesson I have learned from my Matthew is to enjoy things at the level he can accept them. It doesn't matter if we covered the theme park in record time or saw the most in a day, if it leads to a melt down. See what you can, build in rest and down time and enjoy yourselves.
kara
Nora, I know he's a bit little, but anyway you can find those hand held games for him to play with while you guys wait in line for rides? Or even the plane ride?
My kids are older, and we have game boys that we whip out just for the lines.
But when they were little we had something similar like a mr potatoe head game, and some sort of turtle game that they played with. Very 3 yr old age appropriate ones. I think they liked the sounds and the lights so much, they kept clicking.
It was a great way to keep them entertained during the times we needed them to be a bit distracted. You might want to look into a few of those, and take them along with you.
My dd was the same way, but back then it was those casino hand held games that kept her entertained. Sometimes those lines can be killers!
Well, Debbie is on her way there now. You can ask her Saturday when she is at my house, lol.
We found the disability pass for the lines to be invaluable. We couldn't have done disney without it. It was a pass where we didn't have to wait in line. This didn't always mean we got to skip the whole line (though they often took us quickly) but we did not have to wait in the long line surrounded by folks. That would have been a nightmare with DS. We would have made maybe one or 2 rides tops. Often it meant going in the exit or on the fast pass line then waiting to the side in our own area. It was good for up to 6 members of a party.
As for the plane, haven't been on one in a really long time. Last time we took one we did give the kids benedryl (Mike had bad allergies which would turn into asthma attacks then and it was recomended by the ped.) Anyway, my kids slept most of the flight and I got wonderful compliments on my kids ;-). But I think he was like 2 at the time. Literally we haven't taken a plane since then. We have driven instead.
Renee
Yup, the Disney passes absolutely rocked for our kids. Standing in long lines for over an hour with lots of other people is not a great lesson in patience, really, just ups the likelihood of big sensory overload upset by the end of the day. Plus as Renee said, there often still IS a line for the passes, just WAY shorter. We had so much fun at Disney!!!
Airplanes, our issues have been a period of time where landings brought about severe ear pressure no matter what we would try, I do think pilots have been making much steeper entrances into cities in last decades. Screaming, etc. NOW he has learned to manage clearing his ears, also I recommend hard lollipops to suck for those descents just in case. Gum and drinking water just never did do it, no matter how many kind flight attendants tried to suggest it.
Listening to music, books, gameboys, drawing, all pass the time. And even though Malcolm is so tall and halfway to 10 years old, the pilots always want to show him the cockpit, which he does get a kick out of.
Sara