Wow…you’re brave! How will you do it?

I’m currently driving home from our family vacation after a week-long vacay with my family circus. We are about 2 hours from tonight’s pit stop in New Orleans before finishing off our trek home to San Antonio on Sunday.

Where did my family of 7, including my 2 neuro-spicy sons enjoy their 2025 summer vacay? Universal Orlando, baby!

Yes, we packed into two cars and headed to the land of enchantment, entertainment, and (heat) exhaustion!

I knew booking this trip was going to be labor of love from the researching, planning, packing and prepping to the executing it over a full week, BUT….deep down I knew my men, big and little, would love it.

I also have this deep-rooted desire to build core memories with my children through travel like my parents did with me. And now that they’re both gone, I feel like I want them to still have a front row seat to what I am trying to build with my children in their honor. When I settled on Universal, I could hear my dad saying, “Good for you, Kate. You guys enjoy yourselves. You deserve it.” And in my other ear I could hear my mom saying, “Make sure you find time for you. This trip is for you too.”

Now, with all due respect to my beautiful and wise mama, this trip was NEVER going to be a vacation for me. What family vacation with young kids is?? She knew this full-well I’m sure, but she planned our epic vacations for the same reasons I do: she loved her children beyond measure and their happiness was her happiness.

I live to see my sons, especially my Nico, happy and smiling ear to ear. It’s truly my life’s mission, and travel is what makes my boys thrive. They live for flying and road tripping….oh, and staying in posh hotels!

I knew a trip to Universal Orlando would not be a relaxing one, but secretly I didn’t care because I really did want to experience all the different theme parks and see my boys jump out of their skin when we entered Super Mario World at the newest UO park, Epic Universe.

Spoiler alert: they did, but heat exhaustion was taking us all down by the time we entered that glorious rainbow-splattered mini-universe so our visit was brief.

I found a resort that covered all our family’s needs/desires:

1. Massive pool with waterslide

2. At least one resort restaurant that served chicken fingers and pizza

3. Poolside bar

4. Easy access to/from the theme parks

5. A grocery store and urgent care nearby

6. Accommodations and accessibility offerings for my autistic children

7. And as a bonus, pool view room offerings because my boys love to not only experience the pool, but want to see it 24-7 as well

We arrived with so few meltdowns during the 17-hour drive that I had a little extra pep in my step as I walked to the front desk. That was until I jinxed myself by thinking my Maximo wasn’t due for a rager, which he totally was, and that promptly began as he crossed the threshold of the hotel.

God bless my niece who is pretty darn good with distracting and consoling Max otherwise he would have sent the guests in the lobby into hiding for sure. The resort graciously assigned us incredible pool-view rooms on the main floor, close to the elevator, for easy pool access. This is truly to the benefit of everyone because when my boys are done and the sensory overload has hit its max, I need to get them into the room asap!

We grabbed a bite to eat, walked around a bit and then hit the hay. The following day—our first official full day—was spent at the pool and it was glorious!

Then our first rookie mistake was made…

We decided to visit one of the theme parks after already being in the sun and exerting a lot of energy in the pool. This caused all hell to break loose and Islands of Adventure quickly turned into Islands of Despair, Deprivation, and Desperation. Even with all the damn cooling towels and neck fans I bought, our four kids (and one parental unit) didn’t stand a chance against the late afternoon Florida sun. We were able to enjoy one family-friendly ride in Seuss Land, one of my Nico’s fave authors, before Max realized he would be walking way more than he wanted. He was useless right as we exited the ride and demanded to be carried if we wanted him to stay with us.

Now, carrying Max would not have been such a feat for me if I wasn’t already lugging a backpack that weighed as much as him. And no matter how much my husband begged to carry him, my darling child would only accept my tired, flabby arms as his vessel.

You see, as an autism mom, I have to travel with an arsenal of my sons’ preferred food and drink items (drink items that must be cradled in specific travel cups) plus their iPads and a host of necessities that could be needed or requested at any given moment. I basically walk around with a backpack fit for a combat soldier…and the PTSD-level stress of one too. But I digress…back to the adventure!

While Max was slowly fading away in my arms, Nico began to quietly whine for “fishies and juice,” and my nephew was melting in a pool of his own sweat, so we had to stop and triage. My husband shared one of the many “See, this is why we just can’t do things like this…these kids are just too much” scoldings I would hear over the course of the week as my sister-in-law tried to remedy as much as she could like she always does. God bless that woman. I got nothing but love for you, Jen.

We thought if we could make it to a water ride we could salvage this futile attempt at enjoying our first theme park and muster up our remaining strength to get to the exit. That did prove successful and the kids went from demonic spawn to the beautiful blessings who this vacation was planned and financed for.

We fueled up on some incredible Italian food while Max slept soundly, sprawled across the booth, and then took a lovely boat ride back to the resort. The boat was a godsend and one of the MAIN reasons I chose a Universal Orlando Signature Resort. Day 1 was officially in the books!

In total and over the course of our week, we had a million Maximo meltdowns, a gazillion requests from Nico for fishies and juice at the most inconvenient times; a few hundred refusals to bathe, brush teeth, leave the room, leave the pool, and be nice to each other; two dozen heat exhaustion episodes; and, a couple healthy crying fits (by me) in the shower, but God bless it…we had the BEST TIME! I swear we did!

We accomplished everything we set out to do, which included riding the VelociCoaster (twice!) in Jurassic Park, Incredible Hulk Coaster in Marvel Land, and Hiccup’s Glider in the How to Train Your Dragon mini-universe at Epic. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of Super Mario World, DreamWorks Land, and Minion Land. We took on some gnarly water slides and a raging river at Volcano Bay and stuffed our faces with some amazing food and dessert. My SIL and I began a love affair with the gelato at our resort and ate way more than any middle-aged woman, constantly on a quest to lose weight, should ever eat….but who cares!

We were on vacation with our precious and precocious kids and one amazingly fun, high-maintenance husband/brother!

We never felt rushed to do anything because we gave ourselves plenty of time in between excursions and set realistic expectations. When some families were conquering every bit of a theme park in one day, we did a couple hours in the morning then went back to the hotel for pool and nap time so we could feel refreshed and ready for an evening excursion back to a theme park or a sit-down dinner.

We also took turns staying back with either Max or Nico when they needed downtime. I learned long ago to pick up on the cues, and LISTEN to them, so that we could limit the number of unnecessary meltdowns that aren’t good for any of us.

The only thing that disappointed me was how poorly Universal managed our accessibility needs. I did everything I was supposed to do and I did it early. I applied for an IBCCES Individual Accessibility Card (IAC) for both boys by registering at AccessibilityCard.org and waited patiently for a Universal rep to call me for a consultation. When that didn’t happen, I went to the first theme park we visited with the hope of having the conversation before heading into the park. That never happened because their system is flawed. I had signed up for the IACs because I knew my boys would struggle with the insanely long lines, but still deserved to experience all that the parks had to offer. We were able to finally take advantage of the accessibility benefits on our last day and it was worth it, but we wanted this accessibility for the parks we were the most excited to visit. But, that’s my only complaint.

FYI: If you need help with this process or have questions, please reach out to me because now I know how to make sure there are no hiccups.

When I first told my friends and family we were doing Universal Orlando for our summer vacay this year, I was offered prayers and blessings, grimaces and woohoos, and my all-time fave comment, “Wow…you’re so brave. How do you do it?”

Well….like Nike says: you JUST DO IT because what’s the alternative?

I sit at home, paralyzed with fear that my special needs sons won’t survive it and it will be more work than pleasure?

I live with that level of anxiety, stress and fear on the daily so I might as well take it on the road with me and expose them to the beauty and wonder that surrounds us because they DESERVE it.

I plan each vacation with an endless amount of hope and optimism because I have no other choice if I want my boys to LIVE and THRIVE.

I plan each vacation with laser-focused precision so that I can be ready for almost anything that we may face. This is how I got so skilled at vacation planning and became a travel advisor as a side hustle! I can get you discounts and I love the ones I get too!

I plan each vacation knowing that it’s not really a vacation for me, but it is a chance to build core memories with my children. Core memories that will hopefully be imprinted in their mind and on their heart so that when I am no longer here they can reminisce and feel just as close to me as I feel to my parents when remembering all the fabulous trips we went on.

That’s HOW I do it.

I hope and implore all my fellow special needs parents to do the same. Our kids deserve nothing less and, I promise, it will make you stronger and braver and happier.

And make sure when you are in the throes of your next (or first) family vacation, you ask for that second glass of wine, take that extra scoop of ice cream, and stay in the pool until you’re kicked out. YOU deserve all of that and more.