Looking for an alternative vacation site. For single mother and 15 year old son with Down Syndrome.?

Disney World is a special place for any child, regardless of age, or any mental or physical limitations. If he loves it dearly, then spend some time there. There is nothing more special than to see a child's face at Disney World. You know that look! In addition, I would bet that he would love to see and play in the ocean. Orlando is only about an hour's drive from Cocoa Beach. We took our kids there and they loved it. If you are uncomfortable with the waves of the Atlantic, then head over to the Gulf side. That is a little under two hours away. We have taken our children to both coast, but they love the Gulf more, as the water is more gentle.

Depending on your willingness to travel, I would take him to Venice, FL. It is a three hour drive from Orlando, and is on the Gulf side, south of Sarasota. If he is into sharks and dinosaurs, he will love it. The town is famous for the number of prehistoric shark's teeth that are found on the beaches and on the bottom of the Gulf. The city is small, friendly, and is not touristy. I go there several times per year to scuba dive and my children keep begging for us to move there (we live in Illinois). If you don't have any luck finding shark's teeth, you can visit the Chamber of Commerce. They will give him a small bag of shark's teeth.

I hope that you two have tons of fun.

If you love Walt Disney World maybe its time to give Disneyland a go. Disneyland is a smaller, more intimate park but you will find the same Disney magic. There are two parks right across from each other, you can get hopper tickets and walk back and forth between them. If your traveling to Southern California there is also a Universal here and Knotts, I believe you can book all 4 parks through Disney, 3-5 days Disneyland/California Adventure and a day at Knotts a day at Universal. If you want to travel south a bit San Diego has one of the best zoos in the country and a wild animal park. If you want a little slower pace try Santa Cruz/Monterrey California, Santa Cruz has a beach boardwalk with rides and Monterrey has a great aquarium, there is also Great America in Santa Clara, less than an hour from Santa Cruz and if you don't mind a walking tour, The Winchester Mystery House is in San Jose, I highly recommend it. From there you can always go to San Francisco and visit Fisherman's wharf and pier 39, china town, Alcatraz and Golden gate park has a natural history museum, the exploratorium and an art museum.

I absolutely ADORE going to Disney World. Every time I go on vacation friends and coworkers ask, "Where are you going?" When I reply, "Disney World", they always question, "AGAIN?" ....YEP!

(Last year we went TWICE!)

I'm sure you have been to this site: the National Down's Syndrome Society

http://www.ndss.org/

But if you haven't, there are discussion boards there and maybe they can make some good suggestions.

Best of luck to you and your son.

All the other Disney parks are nicer than the Florida version.. give California a try, I'm sure he will love it. If you can I would STRONGLY suggest Disney Paris or Disney Tokyo, those parks are so much newer and better.

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