Life As We Know It with Autism and Apraxia: Spring Break Part 2....DISNEY

As a child my sister and I were lucky enough to take family vacations to Disney World. As many of you know it is known as "The Happiest Place On Earth!" In an autistic world it can be considered a sensory over-load. Lots of sounds, sights, smells, for the body to process. My parents are looking to book an entire family vacation in the future for our kiddos. Since we were vacationing in Clearwater this spring break we thought we would take Landon for a day to Disney to see how he would handle it. Nana and Quinn stayed back at the condo for the day while TT, Markie, Landon, and myself headed to The Magic Kingdom for a day of fun! We talked about Disney and going to see Mickey and Blue Mermaid (Ariel) and of course Landon was excited about seeing Blue Mermaid. I am not sure he knew exactly what he was getting himself into. I contacted Guest Services to check on the process and procedures for kids with Autism and what accommodations Disney had to offer.

When we arrived we registered Landon, received a passport for him, and were given the exact instructions on how this would work. If Landon found a ride he wanted to ride I would take his passport up to the employee at the Fast Pass Lane, get a time to come back, and then we were allowed to enter in with all the other Fast Pass customers. Landon wanted to ride the "train" or people mover so he and I rode that together while TT and Markie went on Space Mountain. From there Landon saw that their was a Cars ride and he said he wanted to do that. So we went over, got our Fast Pass time, and waited for TT and Markie to join us.

Now the Cars ride was a loud and very over stimulating at first. Once we approached the car he wanted noting to do with it. The attendant asked if we wanted to exit and I said "No," give me a second to get him adjusted. I knew this was something he wanted to do but just needed to experience the entire ride. I of course whipped out the magical "binky" told him to sit down and off the car went. By the end of the ride he was asking to "we do Cars again!?'" The next time around someone no longer needed the magical "binky" to get into the car.

When Landon needed a break he would sit in the stroller with my phone, his juice, and binky time. If he saw something he wanted to do we did it. What he DID NOT like was the small show in front of Cinderella's Castle that ended with fireworks. OF COURSE I never planned my walking right and we experienced two of these shows. He would scream, "NO FIREWORKS, NO CINDERELLA'S CASTLE!" And then try to run. Luckily I was able to calm him and continue on without to much of a meltdown.

Landon made it 12 hours and he even said he would go back!!! Let the planning begin!