That time the crew on Royal Caribbean made me cry…happy tears

In the third quarter of 2022, travel was slowly resuming post-Covid and I was planning our ‘return to travel’ trip. Japan, my favourite place on earth, still had closed borders so that was not an option, and flights to the US were prohibitively expensive so neither was Disney. We had travelled to Singapore briefly in 2019 for a work conference and were keen to see more of South-east Asia, so planned three weeks split between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

During the planning process, my son had been looking at pictures from a 2014 trip where we had gone on a cruise in China and indicated that he was keen to go on another ‘boat’. During the cruise in 2014, he was still too young to enjoy all of the amenities the ship had to offer, but now with him and his sister being a little older we thought it would be a great time to try again. So we booked four nights on Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas sailing from Singapore as part of that larger three-week itinerary.

Upon boarding, we noticed instantly that this was going to be a very different experience from what we had encountered in 2014. Spectrum is very large, much more modern and has way more amenities than what we had previously experienced. It has multiple pools, spas, bumper cars, rock-climbing, theatre spaces, activities, kids’ clubs, a surf simulator, a sky-diving simulator and even trampolines. We were also a different travel party.

Bumper cars at sea

Now to the event that gave me sweaty eyeballs. The first few days, we had spent our time doing everything except the rock-climbing wall and surf simulator. I had put these activities off because I was concerned about how the recreation staff would treat my son who has higher and more obvious support needs than my daughter or myself. He is beyond capable, with great motor skills but just requires people to ‘work with him a little more’. You know, not rush him, explain things really clearly and maybe demonstrate…..and also just exhibit a little patience. Most people we encounter in life sadly will not do this.

We got to the last day onboard and he had made it REALLY clear that he wanted to undertake both of these activities. We tried rock-climbing first because he is so awesome at climbing stuff, and I knew I would be able help him get harnessed etc. I explained to the instructor that he was Autistic and the instructor was just exactly the person you would want helping in this moment. He was clear, patient and didn’t try to rush him. As a result, little guy was able to participate fully and got two-thirds of the way up the wall and abseiled down.

Rock climbing

So….one activity down…one to go…

The Flowrider was the activity he wanted to do the most. After rock-climbing we had a little break and then arrived at the Flowrider. There was a long queue and the whole time we were standing there I was thinking about how we would get to the front and they would assume he wouldn’t be able to participate. When we got near the front of the queue there was a staffing change and the instructor from the rock-climbing wall had turned up to supervise the Flowrider! When it was our turn, the Instructor said he would do his best to help. He took the lane rope out and asked the other Instructor to get on to the Flowrider to help. The first Instructor helped show my son how to get on the board and enter the simulator safely, whilst the second rode a separate board next to my son to help him steer.

He was surfing! It was obvious to the crowd that had gathered what had transpired in this moment, and everyone was applauding. They could sense my son’s joy. They could see this was important. Not a single person in the queue was bothered that the crew had taken an extra couple of minutes to give this boy an equitable experience.

Surfing at sea!

This is something he desperately wanted to do. It’s something he could do. But most people would not have gone to this effort to help teach him. In an ideal world everyone would have equitable access to activities like this and this would be unremarkable. But this is not our experience. Most people are not this kind or inclusive, so my eyes starting leaking.

As a result of this and other moments of kindness and general inclusion, Royal likely has my business for life.

In January of this year, we cruised out of Sydney on Ovation of the Seas, and because of Spectrum of the Seas crew’s patience in teaching him, he was able to surf independently this time.

To book your Royal Caribbean cruise, click here.