Dublin Airport and queuing with Autistic children

Hi - just for anyone who is still to travel I thought I'd put my experience out there.

We travelled through Dublin Airport on 15 June, in the late afternoon. My son had the important flyer lanyard. When we arrived at Terminal 1 there was already a queue outside the short term car park bit - where the Spar is. We found two staff members at the top of the queue in the high vis vests, showed the lanyard, and were sent straight through.

We were flying Ryanair, so went straight to the bag drop. There was a massive queue there, but it turned out that it was for the Visa check, not the bag drop. We waited five minutes for a bag drop screen to be available, checked in our big bag and dropped it over to the desk. All done in less than ten minutes.

Make sure you download the Ryanair app and check in before you get to the airport. You can only use electronic versions of your boarding passes on the Ryanair app itself. It was so long since I had flown Ryanair I had forgotten how to do it!

We went off and had lunch landside - which turned out to be a good idea as airside, as we found out, was crazy and there wasn't a table to be had. There was a big empty space, mostly enclosed, beside the main restaurant, which we lots of running races so that he could blow off some steam.

We then headed up to security. Again, we showed the lanyard before we started queueing and were sent straight to the fast track queue (which we hadn't paid extra for). Now, the fast track queue wasn't all that fast track - we were certainly in it for 20 minutes but it was way better than the main queue. We had bought my five year old son a Trunkie, and he was happy to scoot up and down on that while the queue moved along.

Then we were airside. Now, I've flown a lot in my time. The worst time is 5am-8am in the airport. We were there at 3pm and it was bedlam. Long time since I've seen so many people airside. Every pub, coffee shop and shop full. It was noisy and crowded so if you kid is triggered with noise, now would be the time to put the earphones on. I wouldn't be stopping around the duty free or shops, so don't be banking on last minute stocking up of sun cream or snacks for the plane - just get through it as quickly as you can. My son loved the moving walkways, so the marathon to the Ryanair gate wasn't too bad.

The worst part of the waiting was at the gate. We had left so much extra time that we were there an hour before boarding. My son was excited about going on an airplane and couldn't understand why he had to wait. We had ipads and phones and that kept him mostly busy but that part was difficult. If you have time and the inclination, it might be a good time to use the sensory room. I had booked into it, but hadn't fully identified where it was and just wanted to get through the main shop area of the airport as quickly as possible. Maybe next time.

We flew to Faro and really that was a breeze when landing. On the way back, you can book their assistance which means you can skip queues, but you must do it at least 48 hours before you fly. We found the queues not to be too bad anyway, and the airport is smaller.

Hope all that helps!

J.

Hi all,

This is a long shot but wondering if anyone could help. I’m flying with my autistic son Monday week and I have applied for a lanyard but I was told over email that I needed to apply 40-60 days in advance!! I didn’t even book our trip that long ago.

Anyway, it’s his first flight (age 5) and I’m really nervous for him as he will be overstimulated and struggling.

is there anyone here willing to lend me a Lanyard and I could post it straight back once we come back?

I’d really appreciate any help on this.

many thanks

Hi. Just to put you at ease. I've flown a few times lately and there has been next to no queues in Dublin.

Unless you're on a flight first thing?

Thanks Sister Blister but I got sorted from FoxForce.

I appreciate all the support and advice, thanks all 👍🏻

Where can you get a sunflower lanyard in Ireland please?

In follow up to the above, the daa lanyard was great to get through the quick pass at security and I’d highly recommend booking the sensory room if flying through T2.