The trip where we went from maybe, to yes we can!

We are firm believers that travel offers some amazing opportunities for growth in children on the autism spectrum. So we try to go on a vacation every year. And we encourage the boys to be actively involved in picking our vacation destination.  But truth be told, so much of our trips consist of us saying "Maybe the boys can handle this." There are always concerns about crowds, noise, sticking to routines. It's part of coping with autism. But by the end of this trip, we went from "maybe" to "OMG, yes we can!"

This year, Nik and Noah both expressed a desire to visit New York City. Alex has visited a few times on business, but this would be a first trip for the boys and I. Being the thrifty person that I am, I went to http://www.travelzoo.com/ to see if there were any hotel deals. As luck would have it, they were running a special on The Manhattan at Times Square. It was formerly owned by Sheraton, so I figured it would be a decent place to stay. At $199 a night, and located at Times Square, it was a bargain. Then just two days before we left, I saw another deal that knocked off another $169 off our total.

Ok, hotel and airfare were booked. Next up was to plan the itinerary. Traveling with someone on the autism spectrum requires planning, planning, and more planning. First on our list was to pick a Broadway musical. We looked at youtube clips of Lion King, Wicked, and Spiderman Turn off the Dark. The kids gave Spiderman the thumbs up. I was very nervous about this. Noah suffers from anxiety, and loud noises and music are a major trigger for him. I researched the seating plan for the theater, and figured out the seats that were closest to the exits.

Off to http://www.travelzoo.com/ again. I went to the entertainment tab and found a deal on Spiderman  tickets. Tickets in the flying circle were on sale for $99 each (regularly $159). The filying circle is the balcony of the theater. In this particular musical, Spiderman would fly over our seats and land in the balcony. $400 is allot of money to spend for a show that we may have to walk out of. But we would never know if Noah could do it if we weren't willing to try. So I went ahead and bought the tickets.

I had a list of museums and attractions that we wanted to see. There are various types of passes you can buy that allow you to use one ticket for different attractions. Costco had the Explorers passes at a discount. I ended up paying $238 for 4 passes. I saved almost $100 there. I love a good deal.

Now that we had our tickets, I worked on creating the rest of our itinerary. Along with that, I created a social story. Social stories are short stories that describe in words and pictures different activites or events that will happen in a detailed way. Knowing what will happen and in what order helps to keep anxiety at bay. We went over this social story every day leading up to the trip.

The last day of school was spent packing and getting all of the last minute things taken care of. We always pack tons of snacks in case of emergencies. Good thing I did that, because we found ourselves running to make a connecting flight out of Chicago and had no time for breakfast. We survived on snacks until lunch.

Snacks and camera gear.

Enough with the pre trip planning. Next up, day one in NYC.