{"id":134,"date":"2015-01-12T16:15:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T16:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awaywego-origin.carnival.com\/?p=134"},"modified":"2017-10-05T15:53:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:53:45","slug":"cruising-with-a-child-with-special-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnival.com\/awaywego\/cruising-fun\/what-to-expect\/cruising-with-a-child-with-special-needs","title":{"rendered":"Cruising with a Child with Special Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Traveling with children is always an adventure, no matter their ages. And when traveling with a child who has special needs &#8211; it adds another level of preparedness. My youngest daughter, Molly has Down syndrome and while we don&#8217;t make a big deal out of it &#8211; I&#8217;m\u00a0always\u00a0a\u00a0bit\u00a0fearful when we travel.<\/p>\n<p>How will she\u00a0react to new surroundings? Will there be appropriate food for her\u00a0to eat? And most importantly\u00a0&#8211; will she\u00a0have fun?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscred.com\/43df3127ec87f54c8d9542a6adce4e71\" alt=\"test\" width=\"823\" height=\"618\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll never forget the first time we sailed on a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/carnival.com\/?cid=So_CM_NA_P_AWG#3_1109&amp;DMP=5019,6120,7036,,8003\">Carnival cruise<\/a>\u00a0with Molly. I was nervous, but extremely excited about it too. I couldn&#8217;t wait to explore the ship with my family and see how Molly reacted to being on the water. As soon as we boarded the ship, I felt at ease. There were so many smiling faces and everyone was truly excited to see us &#8211; Molly was busy making friends with everyone before we even pulled away from the dock.<\/p>\n<p><!--[random_promoted_video\/]--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Just Another Kid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When we arrived at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carnival.com\/onboard\/camp-ocean?cid=So_CM_NA_P_AWG#3_1109&amp;DMP=5019,6120,7036,,8003\">Camp Ocean<\/a>\u00a0for the first time, I could tell Molly was excited to play and have some time away with kids her own age. The staff was so great in accommodating Molly and our family, asking about her interests, dislikes, allergies and\u00a0such.<\/p>\n<p>We made sure to let them know that we wanted Molly to be a &#8216;typical&#8217; kid while she was there &#8211; no special treatment for her! They were fantastic and never made a big deal out of Molly&#8217;s disability.\u00a0Before we knew it, Molly was off making friends &#8211; again! In fact, she enjoyed\u00a0Camp Ocean\u00a0so much that she got mad each time I came to pick her back up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscred.com\/ec62e588f3315a6169aa27a2b2010964\" alt=\"test\" width=\"823\" height=\"611\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s Time to Eat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While Molly doesn&#8217;t have any food allergies or special needs when it comes to eating, I was thrilled to see our dining\u00a0room\u00a0waiter take extra precautions when it was time for dinner each night. On the first evening, he was quick to ask about gluten-free, allergies and\u00a0even foods that our girls particularly enjoyed. The kids menu included\u00a0all of Molly&#8217;s favorites &#8211; chicken, PB&amp;J, pizza and even some &#8216;new to her&#8217; dishes too. Plus, our server was\u00a0quick to give extra cookies each night after dinner\u00a0(with permission from mom and dad first).<\/p>\n<p>My favorite moment in the dining room\u00a0was on\u00a0Molly&#8217;s birthday &#8211; we pre-ordered a cake and the dining staff presented her with it\u00a0and everyone gathered around to sing. It was touching to see how sincere everyone was and nothing beats the look on her face &#8211; she knew she was the star of the day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscred.com\/0baa383cb52b0267c414ca80f3eefb2b\" alt=\"test\" width=\"823\" height=\"618\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Call Me, Maybe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The team at Camp Ocean was so great in easing our fears of leaving Molly in a new environment. We were able to receive\u00a0an onboard cell phone so we could call to check in on Miss Molly and they could call us at anytime with updates or concerns.<\/p>\n    <form action=\"\" class=\"learn-more-form\">\n        <h2 class=\"learn-more-form--title\">Plan a getaway<\/h2>\n        <label for=\"destination\">Where to<\/label>\n        <select id=\"ddl-destination\" name=\"destination\" class=\"wLarge\" aria-label=\"destination\" title=\"destination\">\n          <option value=\"any\">Any Destination<\/option>\n        <\/select>\n        <label for=\"depart\">From where<\/label>\n        <select id=\"ddl-port\" name=\"port\" class=\"wLarge\" aria-label=\"port\" title=\"port\">\n          <option value=\"any\">Any Departure Port<\/option>\n        <\/select>\n        <label for=\"duration\">How long<\/label>\n        <select id=\"ddl-duration\" name=\"duration\" class=\"wNormal\" aria-label=\"duration\" title=\"duration\">\n            <option value=\"any\">Any Cruise Length<\/option>\n        <\/select>\n        <input id=\"SearchCruise\" type=\"submit\" class=\"submit button\" value=\"Explore\">\n    <\/form>\n  \n<p>My husband and I were able to enjoy some &#8216;kid-free&#8217; time on our trip without feeling like we needed to check in all the time. There were a few times that the Camp Ocean team called to let us know Molly was ready for a nap or seemed hungry. One night, we stayed out a little late and we called to see whether Molly was ready for bed. They reassured us that she was having a great time playing with the other children, but she did seem to be winding down a bit. We made it back to pick her up before she fell asleep and we loved having a few minutes with her in our stateroom before we tucked her into bed for the night.<\/p>\n<p>The phone was such a great resource for us and it kept us from worrying during our trip. Molly had a fun experience, my husband and I were able to relax and then we all came together for family time too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscred.com\/78790da26468accf00e774d94da8df49\" alt=\"test\" width=\"823\" height=\"618\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fun\u00a0For\u00a0All<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was the first time we had truly taken a vacation together as a family where we could all relax. The staff at\u00a0Camp Ocean\u00a0truly enjoyed their time with Molly. I was thankful that the Carnival crew saw Molly as a typical kid &#8211; not just a kid with an extra chromosome.<\/p>\n<p>And as sad as I was to\u00a0see our trip come to\u00a0an end, I couldn&#8217;t help but smile as we were debarking the ship when a staff member ran over to give Molly one last hug and a high-five. It was the perfect way to end our trip.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post was created as part of my collaboration with <a href=\"http:\/\/carnival.com\/?cid=So_CM_NA_P_AWG#3_1109&amp;DMP=5019,6120,7036,,8003\">Carnival<\/a>. \u00a0As always, all of the opinions, thoughts, and ideas in this post are my own.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"nc_pixel\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.newscred.com\/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT03MTU0OGUyZjI2ZGY5MGRkMWUwZjlmYWJiZjE0ZmVjNyZwdWJsaXNoZXI9Nzc5YzgxZTNjMWE4MTU4Yzg5OGJmYTVjYjk4M2ZlZDE=\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Traveling with children is always an adventure, no matter their ages. And when traveling with a child who has special &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carnival.com\/awaywego\/cruising-fun\/what-to-expect\/cruising-with-a-child-with-special-needs\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"read-more\" aria-label=\"Read more of Cruising with a Child with Special Needs\"> read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,77],"tags":[28,14,22],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cruising-fun","category-what-to-expect","tag-camp-ocean","tag-family","tag-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cruising with a Child with Special Needs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carnival.com\/awaywego\/cruising-fun\/what-to-expect\/cruising-with-a-child-with-special-needs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruising with a Child with Special Needs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traveling with children is always an adventure, no matter their ages. 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