Dana Marie (00:00.534)

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Empowered to Advocate podcast. This is Dana Marie and I am really excited today. I am chatting with Amy Flores Young of Flow Yo Travel. If you are listening in today, we are at the beginning of our fourth season. So welcome back from the holiday break and welcome to season four of the Empowered to Advocate podcast. I'm going to jump right in. I'm going to read a little bit about, Amy's bio and then I'm going to shoot it to her and she's going to tell us all about herself and Flo Yo Travel and sort of what got her here. So Amy Flores Young is the founder of Flo Yo Travel and the creator of the Impact Retreat Roadmap. Amy is a specialist in planning travel for those with disabilities and chronic health needs. Not only does Amy have over 30 years experience in assisting those with disabilities, she is also the parent of a severely disabled adult and travels internationally as a family. This firsthand experience and understanding how travel deepens relationships gives Amy a unique ability to create spot on travel plans for her clients. I'm so excited about this conversation. Amy and I had a chance to talk a few weeks back, um, just the two of us offline briefly, so I heard a little bit, but I'm excited to dive a little bit more into FloYo travel today. So I'm going to ask you first what inspired you to start Flo Yo travel?

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (01:33.575)

So before I started my own business, I worked with families advocating, not just educational advocacy, but you know, if you're in, right, we're all in it, with the benefits and what I can do, and my social security, and am I even eligible, and kind of all of that navigation of systems. And even during that time, we traveled extensively.

And people, so being with other families or other people in the field, they all often said like, how do you do it? Number two, doesn't it get boring? Isn't it too much? Blah, blah, you know, all the things. And a lot of people said, my God, you should help people with this. And like I told you, it's very different offering advice or suggestions. It's a lot different than being fully responsible for someone's experience. But it, travel truly is a passion. For me, it's a priority for our family. I said this to you, I say it on all the time, that it truly is our travel experiences that helped us build our quote unquote, traditional family relationships. Because, as you know, if you're in a medical home, or have significant interruptions and needs and distractions happening throughout your day, as most of us do. It's really disjointed. Yes, we were all in the home and we were all doing our thing, but it was very disjointed. We weren't all together as that family unit unless we were traveling. That's when all the you know, the therapy, the equipment, the day to day, that day to day of being in it kind of, you know, cracks open. Of course the disabilities don't go away. The needs don't go away, but we're able to approach it differently. And really, especially when the kids were younger, we really got to see them and know them and create not just the memories, but the connections that happened.

Dana Marie (03:47.978)

That's such an interesting perspective and I never thought of it from that perspective as somebody who's obviously been inside homes that like you said are high medical needs or just high medical needs in general. And then thinking about some of our listeners, there are lots of parents and caregivers who work with us, but who also listen to the podcast, who really are in sort of full-time or close to full-time caregiver roles. And so what...

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (04:10.447)

Yes. Welcome to the club, everyone, if you're new here. Yeah, if you're new here, welcome. Yeah.

Dana Marie (04:13.81)

Yeah, so like you said, the, yeah, the sort of, and, you know, varying disabilities to varying needs, obviously, they're kiddos in varying ages, I should say, too, I know that you have an adult kiddo now, but a lot of the parents that we talked to talk a lot about how you can really get caught up as a full time caregiver and being a caregiver and can sometimes lose sight of like you said that family unit just enjoying each other, having fun together, experiencing new things together because it's like, okay, we have to make sure that we're up at this time and that we have somebody to shower and dress and do breakfast. And then right after that, we have our first therapy and so on and so forth. So can you talk a little bit about how travel sort of looks differently than that? You touched upon it a little.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (04:44.204)

That's it.

Yeah, we definitely, yeah, we definitely were in those cycles for so long. Um, especially again, because it's the routine of the, like, it's that home routine that saves your sanity, right? Like, especially again, not even the medical equipment and therapeutic needs, especially if you have sensory, behavioral, you know, other triggers, it's the routine that saves you.

And you work so hard, right? We work so hard, especially in school systems. And we work so hard to keep the routine and keep that we don't think, you just think like, oh, it's not even possible to travel because it's gonna be too disruptive, right? Like it's not, or it's not even that conscious of a thought because like you're not even thinking outside your next block, right? Your next schedule block. Yeah, to get through the day. So,

Dana Marie (05:52.483)

and get through the day, yeah. Get through the day, yeah.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (06:02.107)

It's, it is, and again, it's not easy, but it's worth it. And I think I used this phrase, and I did not come up with this phrase. I heard it at a conference somewhere, you know, 20 years ago, and it just rings true in every healthcare situation, disability situation that I work in. It takes an extraordinary effort to have an ordinary day.

So we often don't think beyond the ordinary day. Right? So how I really tune in and work with my travel clients is just that how do we take your day-to-day routine, everything that works for you, you know, and accommodate it the best we can and be proactive in all the things you're gonna need to do to travel.

Um, and honestly, once you do it, once you kind of get over that hump, those first few times, uh, it becomes so much, like anything else, right? It becomes so much easier when I travel individually by myself. I always forget something. I never like, I'm never organized. It's so funny, but I can pack the four of us up or two weeks in Europe in a backpack and go, like when it's us as a unit traveling.

I, it's just so funny. I'm like, how can I do this? I can pack all the stuff, get it condensed down, get it ready to go, you know, and there's four of us. When it's just me, I'm like, yeah, whatever. We'll figure it out. I throw a few things and off I go. Like it's, and I always forget something, which just is the irony of it all.

Dana Marie (07:49.394)

Oh, I think that sounds like all of us or most of us when we travel, you know, last minute trying to. It's a good point though. I think for parents listening, caregivers listening, I think one question would be sort of packing yes, right? So preparing, packing, and we, you know, have lots of folks who we work with and who listen, who we're talking about, not just packing clothes and shoes and so on and so forth. We're talking about packing medical equipment, we're talking about packing a wheelchair, a different chair for the plane, so on and so forth. So in addition to sort of those sort of tangible things in preparing for any trip or a flight or a longer trip, what are some of the other things you take into consideration that parents might not even be thinking about when they're thinking about traveling with their kid, regardless of sort of how old they are?

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (08:41.999)

Yeah, so there's so many things. I, you know, we kind of have a deep dive interview, depending on where you want to go or where you think you might want to go. Because I've actually, I have, you know, a good handful of clients where we have changed their destination once I learned about their needs and what they're looking to get out of the trip.

You know, like, you know, what, what do you want the outcome to be? What, what kind of memory do you want? What impact do you want this to have again? Cause travel is so much deeper than respite and a break. Cause it's not for us when we travel with our significant, right. Our care, our care givee, it's not rest and respite. So that's, that's another thing too. It's kind of that mindset. We talk about that. Like what.

Oh, we have somebody's wedding, blah, blah. We have to do this, right? So we figure that out. And then it's like, okay, well, now that you've made the trip and you're doing the thing, what are we gonna add to it? Again, for that fun, the relationship building. And it's also so helpful for the siblings, the parents, the individual themselves to get out of their own bubble and see how they fit in the world. And like I said, it's not always easy, create such an experience that stays with them long term. So we really get, again, we dive into what's your routine. So, and we obviously do a lot of Disney because that's, we work with a lot of younger families. So we do a lot of Disney and it's, you know, if your normal routine does not include early morning, like if that's your trigger time and not your good, like then don't plan on going to park opening. Like we help you navigate.

Dana Marie (10:21.315)

You have to. Yeah. You got it.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (10:37.535)

and kind of fit things in. And again, proactive, setting the expectation and the tangible above and beyonds. I think that I'm really good at what, because of my history in assistive tech and all the things is we're able to take your day-to-day needs, that day-to-day routine, the equipment, all the things and come up with low tech options, way to tweak things for travel.

I think I told you the example of the family that had to bring their rift and pacer on vacation with them and ship it down and the whole thing and it was like, okay, we will, we'll ship. I can tell you how to ship it, we can get it there, but you can take four days off from your gate training therapy plan. So again, just seeing things differently. We do social stories. We do kind of that pre-work to get ready for the trip, we talk about same thing, what to pack, what you can and won't need, what we can ship in advance, what we can get there, if it's equipment, enteral supplies, oxygen tanks, or just, yep, you don't wanna worry about all the things. There's a Walmart around the corner that you can do a ship delivery. That's a lot of what we do too is if there's dietary needs and special things and you want to make sure you have all these things available, it's like, okay, we can get a grocery delivery the day you arrive and have all that there. You don't have to pack a suitcase with your groceries.

Dana Marie (12:20.482)

That's such a good point too, because sometimes I think for parents and caregivers, sometimes there's overthinking. There's like when you've been a primary caregiver for so long, especially if you have maybe like elementary school age kids or even slightly older kids, you're so used to thinking about every possible circumstance that could ever happen in your day to day life. You're overthinking like the example of packing food for some parents, it'd be like, of course we're gonna pack food, right? We have a child with dietary needs and restrictions. We can't not have that.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (12:56.811)

and they only eat the XYZ chicken nugget from Whole Foods, like, or whatever, yeah, I get it.

Dana Marie (13:01.423)

Exactly. And so for a parent, that feels like a very sort of typical response, like okay, if we're gonna travel, we're gonna pack all those things, and it might take somebody like you to say, well, do you really need to, or can we just look in the general area and see if they're, like you said, as a grocery store or a meal delivery service or something that could actually make this even easier for you. I'm wondering, to that end, if you have any repeat clients and if you find that people once they've traveled a couple of times with their children or child, if it feels like it gets easier or if parents and caregivers get more comfortable or if there's any sense of sort of, you've been doing this for many, many years because you have an adult child, but for younger families or parents and caregivers with younger kids, I guess one of my questions is does it get easier? Does it get more comfortable? Does it get a little bit more intuitive as time goes on?

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (13:56.175)

I think that's the great way to put it. You get a little bit more intuitive and you relax a little bit. So you might get more, I don't wanna say it gets easier. I don't wanna, I'm not putting that out there. And I also don't wanna scare people away by saying that. But as some things get easier, some things get more difficult. I just had a repeat client the first time and their Disney clients and cruise clients. And again, that's another thing is with my ABCD.

Dana Marie (14:06.458)

Fair.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (14:25.147)

list of 4,000 considerations, which I totally get, because my daughter is, just so people know, she is severe, full care, not ambulatory, nonverbal. You know, so it's not just grab and go, it's literally pick her up and move her wherever she needs to be. So while we get more intuitive, like you said, more comfortable, this one family, again, they're kind of Disney cruise people because that's what works best for the physical side of the caregiving. So in the beginning, we were looking, again, they were getting comfortable with the travel, kind of learning the ins and outs of the locations, those kinds of things were great. Then the pandemic and they haven't traveled a bunch, and now they're going to Disney in just another month, they're doing the land and sea, which means you go to Disney parks and then you get on the cruise ship. So they're doing a land and sea.

But now he has a trach. He didn't travel with a trach before. And he's about 40, 50 pounds bigger than he used to be. So again, it's that same thing with my daughter. When she was little, we just threw on the plane and off we went. And off went the wheelchair we didn't really care about, you know, whatever, it was fine. You know, and as she grew, again, so that became, it was creating new systems for that process. And you know.

Dana Marie (15:35.554)

Pick her up. Yep.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (15:50.763)

what kind of seat cushion we bring and what kind of pillow we bring. And I will say that's a thing too, is bring what you need. The airlines, we have never had a bad experience on an airline as far as being rushed. They always let us on one of the first people, we wheel her down, she sits on the jetway. I go in with all the stuff, I put the seat cushion down, I put the back, because she's still too small for a real seat. So she, you know, anything over 20 minutes isn't comfortable, so yeah, we've got to do all the cushioning and the air pad and the whole thing. Then I bring her in, and never once have we been like, come on, let's go. Every airline is like, how can we help? And I'm like, really, the best way for you to help is just stay out of the way. They always want to help, and I'm like, just stay out of the way, like we got this.

Dana Marie (16:38.414)

Hahaha!

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (16:44.063)

Yeah, and it becomes, again, it becomes, you just become more comfortable, you become more comfortable in what you need to ask for, what you need to look for and be aware of. All those kinds of things, like you said, that was a great way to say it, it becomes more intuitive.

Dana Marie (16:59.438)

I think sometimes too, I even think of myself as somebody who's in the space but not a caregiver, per se, for my own child. I think we often hear the horror stories and then that's in our head about what's actually going on with travel for folks with disabilities. I think we see on the news, like somebody's filing a complaint or there's a lawsuit or somebody's chair was broken on a flight experiencing travel with our own kids, so on and so forth. We often just hear whatever is clickbait in the news and we hear the horror stories. And I imagine that's a turnoff for a lot of people. Like, ooh, that happened to that family. I don't wanna get into that. I don't wanna do that. I don't want that to be us. And that alone can probably be a barrier to folks even considering what it might be like to travel with their own child.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (17:53.699)

Yeah, absolutely. There are exactly. There are so many stories. But the flip side of that, it's not even the, I don't even want to say, you know, but that's the 1% versus the 99% that go fine, but it's also the, how prepared were they? And yeah, like, again, it happens, right? Glitches happen, airlines, you know, time delays, misflow, it's all the things I deal with day to day.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (18:23.415)

But again, I think working with a travel professional, and there are many certifications, classes, things we can sign up for. And I think I said, you know, I pay, I go to all the courses, I do all the things to maintain my quote unquote certifications and get my little badges. But honestly, which is all helpful, but you really wanna make sure you're working with a travel professional who is thinking outside the box.

And that's the, like, when people say, well, what about the chair? What about the, we don't usually travel with the power chair for my daughter. Yes, it gives her more independence when she's in the power chair. And yes, all right, all the things. But, is, it's like, where's your, where's your benefit differential? Right, exactly. That's what it was. The cost benefit. Yeah.

Dana Marie (19:15.758)

It's almost like cost benefit, right? It's cost benefit, right? Yeah, it's cost benefit. You're making different choices with travel than you would make at home, which everyone does.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (19:25.031)

Do not do not put ourselves in situations that might ruin the trip and think of this well again a lot of people they just got their power chair and they're moving independently and I know that feeling and I know how make like what a huge step that is But if they're traveling They're going they're somewhere where they are Not familiar with the train with the left. Usually it's kind of crowded all of like all those little things like

Dana Marie (19:39.31)

Amazing. Yep.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (19:54.415)

Do you really want them in a power chair? It's really gonna slow you down and make things more difficult. And if some people say, well, I only have the power chair, then okay, then we'll rent you, whether it's a rodeo, you know, conveyed rodeo or a full on quickie zippy. Like again, like we know all the things and we know where to get all the pieces. And that I think is important too, is like I said, not just working with a travel professional who may have helped some people, but again,

Me and my assistants we not only travel professionals or assistive tech specialists and I live it day to day in Know how to MacGyver Almost any low tech support that you may need but like I said in communication devices so we do we will make a Communication board for those of you who are in that know what I'm talking about But we will make one and laminate it so you can have communication down by the pool or at the beach or wherever you're gonna be. Like again, it's those little things you don't think of until you get there and you go, oh my God, he has nothing to talk because.

Dana Marie (21:03.398)

almost similar to the power chair, right? Like we have families whose kids maybe just got their AAC device, right? And it's like amazing, right? Because it's, now you have the independence, now you have your voice and they're getting used to it and so on and so forth. But, and but, when traveling, perhaps a low tech device is actually a better option for a lot of reasons. A, let's not break the device while we're traveling because then that causes a whole other slew of sort of expensive issues too and time issues and so on and so forth. But I like how you said one of the benefits obviously of working with somebody like you who has just a wealth of experience just in the disability space in general is thinking outside the box because quite frankly, not everyone's going to think outside the box, right? Not everyone who's a travel professional has experience with working with families who have kids who have varying needs for travel, whether they're physical needs or like you said, communication behavior, so on and so forth. So just that, first of all, I think being a special needs parent, you think outside the box all the time. Anyways, I think that you've been doing this for so long that that's kind of who you are. But I like that you said that when you're looking at these travel opportunities for families, you're not sort of looking at them through just one lens. You're looking at them through the lens of that particular family because everyone's family's needs are very different, everyone's child's needs are very different. So I like that idea of thinking outside the box, even when you're doing something hopefully fun with your family and getting to travel and explore new places. I have to ask you, as we sort of wrap up, this is the question that's been on my mind. For you and your family, what are the best places? What are your favorite places? What have you? And I know that The short answer is it's going to be different for every family and depending on needs, but for your family, you've now had many years of travel and accessible travel. And so when you think about some of the best experiences, the most accessible experiences that you've had as a family, I'm so curious to know, is Disney one of them?

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (23:01.923)

25, yeah 25 years of travel with that.

Yeah, so keeping in mind, again, that our disability list is wheelchair accessibility communication, right? Not, you know, she ain't gonna run away. Like, that's what I was gonna say. She's not going anywhere. She has a meltdown or whatever, she's right there. Like, she's not, you know, again, because she's not in her power chair, she's in a push chair, so we, you know, we don't, so again, the worries are different. So for us in that, cerebral palsy, travel.

Um, we do a lot of, again, a lot of Disney, a lot of cruising, but I would say her favorite trips are when we go international to see, again, to see her friends. So we were a host family for international students and international coaches that would come over for summers and things like that. So she's always, when are we going to London? When are we going to Italy?

When are we going like, which are the bigger, like you say, slightly more challenging, accessible trips for us. And I'm like, let's just go Disney again. We were talking about Disney again.

Dana Marie (24:25.838)

You could do your eyes closed though. You could do Disney with your eyes closed, I'm sure, now.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (24:28.167)

And that I do think is, I get that question all the time of why do you go so much? And again, for us, we know we're going again. So if we miss something or something happens, like we look at it very differently. Understanding that if that's your big every five years or once in a lifetime experience. And again, that takes a whole different type of planning and expectation setting.

We've, you know, we've been to Disney dozens of, I'm not gonna tell you the number, because we discussed it, dozens of times, and yet every time we go, we still experience that something new. Whether it's a new restaurant, obviously they're always opening a new ride, a new whatever. But I say that to tell people, you're never going to do it all. And you need to.

Like, so that's why we have that. That's where my social work stuff comes in, right? What do you enjoy? What are your priorities? What do you really want to get out of this? And then we can make sure we develop a plan of attack, you know, that you're hitting the right, that you have the best experience for that, that you're not, and you can't wing it. And again, if you're a family that needs to wing it, which I get, like, oh, we gotta do Disney, because I'm a horrible parent if we don't do Disney.

Right, that's what, like I get that. And I'm like, no, but you need to wing it. You can't wing it there. So that's not where you wanna start. So again, it's understanding those needs and balancing it. But yeah, for us, now that my kids are a little bit older, they truly enjoy the all-inclusive Mexico vacation. They ask for that one a lot too, like, let's go back to Mexico. So we are doing that a few more times too

Dana Marie (26:24.999)

Amazing. This, as we said at the beginning, I think it was maybe even before we came online, 20 minutes goes really fast, 25 minutes goes really fast. So I am going to stop, although I could talk with you all day about this. This is so fun. As somebody who loves travel too, I love hearing about people's experiences and where they go and so on and so forth. And I hope that we have some parents listening today who hear this think even if they just think to themselves, huh, maybe this is something I thought was out of my reach. This is something I thought wasn't a possibility for me and my family, given where we are right now. I hope it at least encourages people to think that it might be a possibility for them to travel with their particular kiddo and their family, and then hopefully reach out to you too, as the expert in this area.

I want to thank you so much for chatting with me now twice, but being on the podcast today and telling us all about Flow Yo Travel for anyone listening, I'm going to drop all of Amy's details in the show notes. So you'll be able to get her website, her LinkedIn, and her email, I'll drop everything in the show notes so that if you do have questions or if you're ready to take the step and plan a trip for your family, you will know where to find her.

Thank you again for being here.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (27:46.423)

Thank you, Dana Marie. It's again, you guys do great work and you support families in such a magical way that I'm so happy to be here.

Dana Marie (27:52.846)

Appreciate that. Appreciate that we learned from the best. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you everyone for listening. We'll talk to you soon.

Amy Flores Young FloYoTravel (27:57.764)

Thank you.