The first autism friendly cruises.

I was speaking to a customer a few days ago who was looking for an idea of prices to take her granddaughter on a cruise next year. Her granddaughter has autism and she was saying that found a cruise to be the perfect holiday for her. Children with autism are often misunderstood as being rude an unsociable but this is not the case. Apparently there were other passengers on their cruise who recognised the condition immediately as they knew people with the same condition which made things much nicer for them on their cruise.

I know how this can affect families because my best friend of 36 years has a child with autism. She is the same age as my daughter but she struggles with friendships and finds it difficult to communicate and often prefers to be on her own. Because people don’t know how to handle them or probably don’t even realise there is anything wrong they jump to the conclusion that they are naughty children which obviously makes the situation worse.

I was really pleased to read recently that Royal Caribbean have announced all of their ships will be autism friendly cruises with immediate effect. All ships will be qualified at bronze level and will be at silver level by the end of this year.

Some of the benefits you can expect to see are sensory related toys, autism friendly moves, priority boarding, autism friendly youth activities and special diets.

This will make a huge difference to families with autism because their children will be able to go to specially trained staff in a safe environment with people who understand them and this will give the parents some quality time to relax and enjoy their time on board.

If you would like more information on this please give me a call and I will be happy to talk throught the options with you.