We were very excited when we booked our cruise but also apprehensive about traveling with our 8 year old son, who has autism and is on a very difficult special diet (gluten free, casein free, soy free, corn free). He can also be loud and act impetuously and since he doesn't "look" handicapped, people are not always understanding. With lots of help, we ended up having a fabulous time! I never thought I would say this, but I came home refreshed! And my son, who is addicted to his home routine, did not want to leave the ship!

First of all, we contacted Mike at Autism on the Seas. Even though we did not book through them, he sent us a package to help us with boarding and dietary issues - pecs for getting my son prepared, a handicap card for the ship - even a T-shirt to help identify us at check in! I can't say enough about Autism on the Seas, their assistance really made a difference for us! I hope we can book through them in the future.

We live near Philly so we had a friend drive us to the port in NYC. It was easy to find and unload the car, porters were helpful and we were ushered to the handicap line when we showed our Autism of the Seas card. We got to the port later than we wanted (around 2pm), due to some issues at home, but still in plenty of time. The line was very long, but the handicap line was much shorter. To my surprise, it took us over an hour to be checked in, and by the time we got on the ship, the very long line of "regular" passengers was gone and we were some of the last people to get on the ship. I don't know what made the handicap/VIP line so slow - I would use it again just to save being crowded but would hope it would move faster. Read more