My Children’s Magical Vacation

Written by Brenda Call

I would like to share my family’s wonderful experience with those families who have deaf or hard-of-hearing children.   It was in the year of 2000 when my husband and I decided to book a Disney Cruise going to the lovely island of Bahamas.  It was the most memorable family vacation we ever had in our lives.  You see, we are Deaf parents of two Deaf children and we were rather concerned about the lack of communication access.   We made arrangements in January 2000 and that allowed the company six months to make all the necessary arrangements to provide certified sign language interpreters!  The company indeed kept their word.

Before taking the four-day cruise, we spent three days on land.    We decided to go to Disney World.  While studying the amusement park’s map guide and event schedule, we noticed that few of the events were marked as sign language interpreted.  We decided to see the Sword in the Stone which was near the carousel and of course, we had no idea what was in store for us.   People started to gather as the time arrived closely just in time for the famous Merlin to come hobbling down to stand behind the stone facing the crowd.   When Merlin started to speak, there was an interpreter standing next to him that was signing away.   That was so awesome!   Merlin chose a hunky adult and challenged him to pull the famous sword out of the stone.  Of course, we all knew that he was going to fail.   Then Merlin was looking for a young child and he chose our son.   Our son (was 6 ½ years old) hesitated at first as he was probably worried about the communication part.    Merlin had no idea that our son was deaf in the first place and kept talking to him.   The interpreter continued to stand and sign next to Merlin wherever he walked and spoke.   He immediately recognized that our son was deaf. Our son was quite proud when he pulled out the sword!

When we boarded the gorgeous and gigantic ship, there was a certain time when all passengers are required to wear life jackets and report to the assigned deck area.   We started to worry as we would have no idea what the ship crew would be communicating about – we knew it had something to do with  emergency evacuation should the ship start to sink.   The yellow lifeboats were hanging just before us.   The interpreter was right there when the crew started to speak!   We had the same communication access as the hearing passengers did when it came to receiving instructions. What a sign of relief!

The cruise had nightly Disney entertainment and the two interpreters were right there.  We sat in the front row.   Our daughter at that time was 3 ½ years old and adored the Disney princesses that were the main characters.   The interpreters were professionals.  They rehearsed with the Disney cast members during the day time and performed with them during the evenings.   They signed with facial expressions and true emotions of each Disney character.    

They had a children’s program and it was awesome.  Some of the workers were from different parts of the world.   Few of them had some sign language skills.    The end product was especially exciting because the children got to show off their skills to their families by performing on the stage where the nightly Disney shows took place.   They sang different songs and one of the songs was done in sign language.   That brought happy tears to my face.  

We were honored to learn that we were the first Deaf family to experience this type of cruise with provided interpreters.  When you are planning to attend a certain amusement park or something, be sure to check with its guest relations or services to see what they have to offer such as sign language interpreting or captioning in advance.