Neurodiverse family holidays: cruise and stay

Deciding where you go on your summer holidays isn’t always easy but when you have a neurodiverse child in tow, there are even more elements to consider. 

Our cruise expert Julie took her son Josh over to Orlando and tagged on a new-to-them experience: a four-day cruise with Royal Caribbean. She shares her experience of a cruise and stay holiday from the game plan to the games themselves.

The destination decision

Josh is autistic and has ADHD, so trying a new destination has its challenges. We would usually pick a European country for our summer break. The flight is short, the sunshine pretty much guaranteed and the territory both familiar and comfortable. But with the summers getting hotter and the crowds getting bigger, we decided to change tack this year. This time, we should go big, go long haul and go to Orlando. We’ve visited before but Josh was just five, so he has very few memories of it; now was time to return but with the added twist of combining it with four-day cruise from Port Canaveral. Some would consider me brave for picking a new destination, a new type of holiday and travelling as a single parent!

The destination dilemma

It’s often the everyday details that can derail even the best laid holiday plans. Josh’s main marker when it comes to holidays is anxiety, especially when he doesn’t know where he’s going, where he’s sleeping, how to get to the pool – the list goes on. To combat this, we chatted about all the incredible things to do in Orlando, the fact we had been before, and that it will be slightly less busy as the American kids go back to school in mid-August. I even dug out some snaps of our last visit – he loved looking at photos of himself as a pre-schooler at Animal Kingdom.

The planning and the preparation paid dividends. We did Orlando slightly differently, spending our days poolside at our resort-style hotel, dodging the poster-child parks, and instead picking out some quieter attractions. The Crayola Experience Orlando and Island H2O get a special mention from both of us. The former for its amazing value and hands-on style – you can create your own colours and do some wax hand making – and the latter for its compact size and fewer guests. Josh went on all the rides and slides.

All at sea

In the run up to the cruise, the questions and comments came thick and fast: “what if it sinks? What if we hit a rock?”. Josh was still unconvinced just days before we boarded. I attempted to quash his fears by explaining the Star of the Seas is a brand-new ship, and there will be so many things to do. And after a bit of research I found a documentary – The World’s Biggest Cruise Ship, about the Icon of the Seas, the almost-identical sister ship to Star of the Seas, our home for those four fun-filled days. It really helped Josh understand every element of the cruise, from the on-board activities to what happens behind the scenes.

"Nothing was too much trouble. As for my 12-year-old, well, he's a cruise convert!"

Ship shape

When embarkation day arrived, we made our way to port – two hours from the hotel to stepping foot on the ship was seriously speedy. I hadn’t arranged any special assistance, but I chatted to a wonderful crew member on the gangway and explained our autism story. She immediately grabbed one of her colleagues (an officer no less) who took Josh aside to literally and metaphorically show him the ropes.

He told Josh about the anchors, how it takes an army of crew to operate a ship, how they use state-of-the-art navigation and even that they can ‘see underwater’. Everything every member of staff did for him, from showing him how his bed would be made to crafting him a mocktail, reduced his apprehension.

Help is on hand

It’s not until you start planning that you realise how much support is actually out there. It turns out Royal Caribbean have a programme that’s dedicated to neurodiverse guests, and they have autism-friendly ships. All youth staff are required to have a four-year university degree (or an equivalent) to work on board and they also have autism awareness training.

The best thing on board, and the thing that made the cruise as much of a holiday for me as it was for Josh, turned out to be the WOW Band, a new initiative that they are rolling out on their Icon Class ships. This $15 band connects to the ‘Find my Kid’ feature in the Royal Caribbean app and it gave me total peace of mind and him the real freedom to do what he wanted. I knew he couldn’t leave the ship, so after an hour of checking it every five minutes to see him move from the Adventure Ocean (the ship’s unrivalled kids’ club) to the arcade and the drinks station and back again, I relaxed and could enjoy my aptly named lifesaver cocktail.

On to a winner

Our holiday on Star of the Seas was incredible – nothing was too much trouble. And as for my 12-year-old, well he’s now a cruise convert. The latest Royal Caribbean ship to launch is Legend of the Seas and every day he asks, “have you booked yet”? He even followed the build progress in the shipyard in Finland.

I’m a great believer in travel both broadening the mind and being educational. It’s all about visiting destinations and learning even just the basics (the currency, speciality foods and cultures). Previously, it’s been a challenge to head somewhere new. But now we can visit new destinations easily: pizza in Italy one day, moussaka in Greece the next, all with the comfort of knowing the ship will be our home.

This article was created on 18th September 2025. The information is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication.