Let's see if I can get this typed out before my natives get restless again. I wanted to let you know about our vacation in case anyone else is planning a trip to Disney or Universal Studios here in Florida.
When I called to find out about the guest assistance passes that I heard about here on the site Disney was great, Universal was not. For those that don't know, GAP passes get you into the express line for the rides. Anyone can have an express pass. At disney you swipe your ticket through a machine and it gives you a pass that tells you what time to come back to the ride so you can stand in the short line instead of the long one. Universal has the same program or at Universal you can buy an express pass so you don't have to worry about return times. The cost of the pass is .50 per person, per park, per day. In our case, we spent 4 days at both Universal parks and there were 6 of us. If my math is correct, that would have been 0 for express passes for the trip. The problem w/ both these programs, (other than cost for the 1), is that you can only ride a ride 1 x every 2 hours in the express line. As you are all aware, some of our kids fixate on things which may cause them to want to ride a ride repeatedly. On these programs this is impossible unless you're willing to stand in the regular line for about an hour to get to ride it again. This is also nearly impossible for some of our kids. With a GAP pass you don't have to swipe your ticket for an express line time and you can ride repeatedly through the express line and they're free.
Anyways, with both parks I went immediately to guest services and at the mere mention of autism spectrum disorder both parks whipped out passes and issued them, no questions asked. It was fabulous. The pass covered everyone in our party.
There is a ride at Universal that doesn't have an express line and I did have problems there. It's the Pteranadon Gliders in Jurasic Park. It is a really cool looking ride that my son was desperate to go on but the line was 60 minutes. I knew he'd never make it. I forgot that this ride was excluded so asked the attendant. She was extremely rude! I tried explaining that the GAP pass was due to my child's asd which made it impossible for him to wait for 60 minutes. Let's just say that after dealing w/ her I walked away thinking some words that I could not utter in the presence of my children. The next day we did manage to get Nate on but it was also a mess because of very rude attendants. My 8 y.o. and I waited in line and Nate joined us at the exit after 45 minutes. They about had a fit. I would be really upset but I have to say that the excellent treatment we got everywhere else more than made up for that 1 ride. If I can go through an amusement park and only have trouble w/ 1 ride then that is an excellent park.
Lastly, if you visit disney you may want to avoid the Stitch ride. Nate totally flipped out on that one, it's dark, sometimes pitch black, there are flashing lights and one of the effects is that you feel as if Stitch, (a bad, evil, dangerous Stitch), is grabbing you from behind. Not good for Nate, wish we had known.
On a personal note, we did have 1 major problem w/ our 13 yr old. It's been tough for him dealing w/ Nate, he just doesn't understand why he is the way he is. Right before I left for vacation I read an article about explaining to your child that they have an asd. I skimmed it really, telling myself to remember to come back and read that later so I could start to prepare myself for the day I'd have that conversation w/ Nate. Nate didn't realize we were getting special treatment, just was happy we always got to go in the express line. He didn't know we had a different pass. Until my 13 yr old told him in the middle of the It's A Small World line. So there we are, waiting to get on the happiest ride at the "happiest place on earth" and my 9 yr old says to me, "Joel says we have this pass because of me, because I'm retarded." I wanted to die. I was scrambling for what to say, how to explain this situation to my son who doesn't always get what you're trying to explain to him while surrounded by literally hundreds of people. So I did my best to explain that yes, we had gotten the pass because of him, (looking back, maybe I should have lied, but I was caught so off guard), but that he wasn't retarded. I explained it all very briefly and w/ a smile on my face, hardest smile I've ever had to wear. You know, since Nate was dx'd I've envisioned the day we'd tell him several times, tried to imagine it and never once did I imagine it happening in line for It's A Small World. Needless to say, my 13 yr old is currently up for auction at ebay if you want to check it out... Ok, not really but I was so very angry w/ him. Nate seemed to take it all in stride and didn't obsess on it. I thought maybe we had made it through for now and we could pick the conversation up later. So eventually we got to a point where they did put us in the handicapped line and we're surrounded by people in wheelchairs. Keep in mind my son is not socially aware of the correct things to say, very uncouth. It was taking awhile because they were waiting for the specially equipped wheelchair boat for those in the wheelchairs to come around. Nate suddenly pipes up, really loud, "Hey! Hurry up! When ya gonna let some of us handicapped people on?!" Again, wanted to die, and I invoked my mantra in my mind, "I am invisible, you can't see me. I am invisible..." as every one of the hundreds of eyes and gaping mouths turned our way. I laugh about it now but it was quite the moment.
I did think we had made a breakthrough on the understanding idioms front but I was mistaken. We've picked the idiom, "It's raining cats and dogs", to work on w/ Nate. We use it often and explain it repeatedly. Our hope is one day he'll use them himself correctly or at least not be thrown off in a conversation when someone else uses them. It was starting to rain one day at Universal and Nate said to me, "It's almost raining cats and dogs." I was so excited! He used an idiom! He was getting it! We were making progress! Until he added, "But it's good that it's not because if it was we'd be crushed and there'd be tons of them running around." Ok, not quite there, yet. One day maybe lol.
There were many more exciting moments. Nate rode his 1st roller coaster and was extremely proud. Because of the level of anxiety Nate deals w/ this was so huge. Nate also went through an entire box of antacids during the week, I know, not healthy, but Nate is convinced he must have them if his stomach is upset and heightened anxiety makes his stomach upset... OH, this is great. We told the kids to fill up at disney one day because it was an all you can eat buffet. My 13 yr old told Nate, "Eat until you're going to puke, Nate." He didn't mean anything by it, but Nate is extremely literal. So that is exactly what Nate did, he ate until he had to vomit. Luckily he made it to the bathroom. His reason for doing that? "Joel said to eat until I puke. I thought it was a rule at Disney." Nate obsesses over rules. Nate barely slept at all all week because he wasn't at home and was plagued w/ constant nightmares so we both came home sleep deprived.
Believe it or not, we had a great time. These were some of the funnies and not so funnies of the trip, there's tons more but I already feel like I've written a novel. I wanted to be sure to tell y'all about the GAP pass, it made all the difference in the world. I'm sure other amusement parks must have it, I'd be interested in hearing from others where else they were able to get them and what impact it had on their trip. That was vacation, and Dorothy was right, there's no place like home!
Welcome back ....
Great to hear about the fun and trials you had *smiles* Nate sounds like a very sweet boy.... I would of still complained about the bad attendants .... but i used to work at Six Flags *laughs*.
Tia,
I am so glad to hear you had a wonderful time!! Also glad to hear you got the express passes for free!! A lot of parks in florida to include Sea World right now give military discounts. Actually at Sea World right now you can get up to 4 free passes if you are military and bring your family. Since the conflicts in the middle east we have been going more often to these different parks because of the great discounts, but this summer because of my pregnancy (and the fact that hubby's newer job keeps him at work constantly) we haven't been able to go. I do love all of those parks down there though and hopfully next summer we will be going again. Thanks for the update and all the information!!
Karrie
Tia~ boy some of that was very amusing...I needed a good laugh right now, am having a REALLY bad day, so thank you!
The story about your 13 y/o struck a cord with me as well, my older (not oldest) son is 12 and told Riley the exact same thing a few weeks ago, and has called him stupid a few times since (yeah, don't worry, I took care of that!). It's heartbreaking, because like Nate, Riley is very literal (and gullible) and if you tell him something, he believes it. Well he was in tears at being called stupid, and in complete agreement, because his struggles were real obvious to him this past year ... so, I too explained to him that he's not stupid, and that he's very good at "such n such" and eventually he'd be fine....as far as being called retarded, which really ticked me off, he simply said "Josh says I'm retarded...am I? What's retarded?"
How much did you price your son on ebay....I need to remain competitively priced for Josh!
If you find good literature for siblings...please let me know...I really do feel for Josh, but the "mean" has GOT to stop! Yikes...just found this under the Newbie post... http://www.autism.org/sibling/sibneeds.html
Glad you had a good vacation! Sounds like it was a blast!
~Lesley
We went to Disneyland a few years ago with Riley, didn't have to worry so much about lines, because there were lines to get into the lines, lines for food, lines for walking, lines for EVERYTHING! Apparantly we ended up there on the 2nd busiest day in the history of Disneyland! How 'bout our luck?!?!