Doing Walt Disney World with Autism

For my daughter in particular being in places with too many people and too much noise can cause her to get overwhelmed and over stimulated very quickly, which in turn can lead to meltdowns that include tantrums, needing to wrap herself in her special blankey, finding a safe space to decompress (for my daughter it’s in our stroller wagon “wonderfold wagon”, that we needed to get special permission to bring into the park) and using a Binky.

Thankfully Disney is extremely accommodating to children (and adults) with special needs. In our case it was getting a special tag that allowed our stroller wagon into the park and to be deemed a wheelchair for my daughter this way she never had to get out of her safe space even on the the different transportation systems (buses and skyliner) unless my daughter wanted to.

When it came to fireworks we avoided these at all costs as they are too overwhelming for my daughter. Which is ok because along with the loud noises comes large crowds. We did however, manage to get my daughter to sit through Fantasmic which has loud noises, fireworks and lights. In order to get my daughter to stay calm during the show we brought our stroller into the theater along with my daughters blanket and Binky. She was able to sit in her safe space with her sources of decompression and enjoy the show just like any other child!

Waiting on lines are super tough for my daughter and luckily Disney offered us a solution to that. 30 days prior to leaving for our vacation I was able to register my daughter with DAS. DAS is a disability service that Disney offers it’s guests with special needs allowing them to make reservations for rides once they have entered the park and then wait on a shorter line once it’s their time slot rather than waiting on the longer lines. Disney does offer a paid service called genie+ and lightning lane, but DAS is a free service and one that requires a pre qualification for prior to arrival on your my Disney experience account. It involved a quick FaceTime between my daughter and a cast member then some questions for me. Overall from start to finish the process took me less than an hour. The DAS service was a lifesaver for us! My daughter who would’ve missed out on so much had she had to wait on a line was able to do everything that she was tall enough for with minimum wait times! I can’t stress enough how wonderful the DAS service is!

If it was a masked character my daughter struggled to go near and take a picture. However, the face characters such as the princesses were a huge hit for my daughter! The princesses were extremely kind and patient with my daughter. They held her hand during the meet and greets, let her touch their outfits to help her with her sensory needs to build rapport with them and took their time with her. Each princess got down on my daughters level and made sure she was comfortable and wanted to take a picture. Each princess interaction was more heart warming than the last! This mama shed a few tears seeing the happiness from my daughter and the pure love and understanding coming from each princess!

As far as rooming accommodations went we stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation resort which gave us 2 forms of transportation to the parks; bus and skyliner.

The skyliners were preferred since just our family members would be in the vehicle whereas the bus was packed to the max with strangers which overwhelmed my daughter. Another reason why we chose to stay at AOA was for the pool! The Big Blue Pool along with the Finding Nemo Splash Pad were a huge hit for my daughter, especially since swimming/ water play rank number 1 on her favorite things to do list! We specifically stayed in the Finding Nemo Suite since it was centrally located to the main building which housed check in, food court, gift shop and arcade, as well as being a few steps away from both the pool and skyliner.

Our room had 2 full bathrooms, 2 queen beds (one in its own separate room and the other was a Murphy bed that turned into a table when not in use), 1 sofa bed, 2 tvs, and kitchenette with a sink, fridge and microwave. We’ve stayed at this resort 3 times now and will most definitely stay again! It is one of my families favorite!