How will my kids survive on macaroni and chicken nuggets for 9 days?

[sandymandr]

I'm looking through ddp and menus. OMG! They all seem to have the same choices for kids, meaty macaroni, cheese pizza, hot dog, or chicken strips! I am in trouble!! My dneph 8 likes real grown up food, ribs, steak, shrimp, vegetables! What am I going to do?!?!?! I guess a lot of buffets? What are the best places for variety in kids menus?

[Tiger926]

We have eaten pretty much everywhere and our kids hardly eat this kind of food. We eat very well at home, and continue to do so at WDW. Here are several tips I have for you:

1. Choose your restaurants with the kids in mind. Buffets are good for a variety as kids can eat any food they want - they are not restricted to child food at all.

2. Share your adult food with the kids.

3. Ask the server for alternate foods or substitutions.

4. You can purchase appetizers or side dishes for the kids to eat - a bowl of soup, salad or dish of rice is a minimal cost. Or, use snack credits too.

5. Many of the Epcot restaurants have some great kids choices such as: steak, grilled fish and grilled chicken. Le Cellier, Coral Reef and Teppan Edo are great as they have some really good kids`meals.

Best of luck to you and happy eating, Tiger :)

[Ted in Halifax]

That what we do ... Buffet it. That way they can pick what they want ... worked well for us.

[chocolateMinnie]

As above, we have a son who at 11 is now an adult according to Disney so that is a whole new set of problems. DD is 7 and a typical picky eater, loves meat and fruit but not food that has been 'messed about with' so that pretty much excludes most kid's table service meals.

We find that if we eat mainly buffets (especially breakfast) she gets exactly what she wants, we also love Crystal Palace and Boma. Alternatively Akershus and Ltt are good as they serve family style so the kid's starters and desserts are the same as adults.

For counter service meals EPCOT is definitely the best but also places like the Flame tree bbq at AK and we are going to try picnic in the park this time around.

alternatively we go to a counter service such as Gasparilla's, Contempo Cafe or Pepper Market and let her have a burger (she'll eat the meat but not the bun or fries LOL what kind of kid doesn't like fries?) or meat shared with an adult then buy a side salad or carton of fruit in addition.

We are hoping on the DDP this will still work as we will share three adults CS between the four of us and let her add fruit cups etc with snack credits if no decent kid's CS avaiable.

I do think Disney needs to wise up and offer one or two decent half-portions of adult food for kids at each restaurant.

[TDC Nala]

There is also the option to register the child as age 10 on your reservation and buy the adult DDP for him. The catch to that is that if you say he is 10, you also have to buy him an adult park ticket. If you are an annual passholder or a DVC member, you don't have to worry about that; if you are on a package reservation, then you might want to check the difference between an adult and child ticket and see if it's worth it for you to pay it to enable the child to order whatever he'd like from the regular menu everywhere.

My guess is that as long as the child's dining plan is so inexpensive, you will not see restaurants offering half portions of adult meals for the children.

[chocovrdmicears]

Tiger92 gives some great advice!
Some of the TS that we found to offer some yummy choices for our kids:
San Angel Inn- Kids had chicken and cheese quesidillas and virgin marguaritas.
Coral Reef: Creamy lobster soup and grilled fish.
LeCellier: steak
Teppan Edo: grilled chicken and/or shrimp - yummy veggies and noodles. Just a note..DS6 LOVES shrimp as well and he couldn't get enough of the grilled shrimp here...ate his and much of mine..:rolleyes1
Ohana: lots of grilled meat, sticky wings, veggies and a yummy salad.
50's Prime Time - my kids did get the chicken nuggets here but they were the best of the week - maybe it was the Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake on the side that made them taste so good? :rolleyes:

Buffets obviously are a great way to go - Tusker House for breakfast was our favorite.

For CS Sunshine Season had really nice choices for kids. :)
Flame Tree: OUr kids enjoyed the baked BBQ chicken legs.

HTH! :goodvibes

[sandymandr]

Thanks!! I know have Teppan Edo, Coral Reef, Le Cellier, and 50's prime time added to my list!! Thanks everyone!!!!

[brymolmom]

My 6 and 7 year olds did it without ANY mac n cheese and not too many chicken nuggets.

Here's what we did:
Shared almost all CS meals...Often shared 2 adult meals plus a couple of snacks.
Used kids credits for breakfasts and/or at POP food court - lots of variety - pasta, stir fry....
Chose restaurants based on kids menus (or lack thereof): Main St bakery, Sunshine Seasons, Wolfgang Puck Express.
Had 'ice cream lunch' on a couple of occasions using snack credits at Fountainview in EPCOT. 2 scoops - plenty filling!

DD ended up with pizza a few more times than I would have preferred - but she loved it and I let her as it's vacation.

It is NOT necessary for them to have it too often - just plan ahead!

[sandymandr]

yummy, ice cream lunch! That is the best idea I have ever heard! :dance3:

[TillyMarigold]

The kid at the table next to us at Kouzzina was eating the grilled fish of the day kids' meal and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it. He was about 5. They also have a grilled chicken breast option as well as cheese pizza and meaty macaroni.

[Faldred]

At TS restaurants, ask if you can get a child-size portion of an adult meal. Depending on the restaurant, you might just be able to. We only found out about it late in our week, getting fish & chips for the critters at Rose & Crown, but then again, they're happy just having chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and pizza all week...

[SmallWorld71]

DD6 would eat mac & cheese til the cows come home, but DS10 likes the more adult type food. On our last 2 trips he was on the kids' plan (ages 8 & 9) and we were quite successful at avoiding the items on your list. Some of the things he enjoyed:

TS -
Teppan Edo - Shrimp meal
CRT - salmon meal
Grand Floridian Cafe - salmon meal
Coral Reef - Mahi Mahi
WCC - the skillet (the kids' skillet is more limited now, but if any adults in your party are ordering then you can share)
Biergarten and Boma are good buffets if you are looking for some interesting choices.
We also enjoyed 'Ohana and character buffets.

CS- Bratwurst in Germany; Fish and Chips in England; spaghetti at WPE

I do recommend sometimes sharing adult CS and using kids ones for breakfast if you don't see something good on the kids' CS. We also found that our resort food courts (POR and ASMo) had a much better selection for the kids than many of the places in the parks.

And, of course, the snacks are the same on both plans. He enjoyed his Dole Whip floats etc... along with the rest of us.

HTH

[Kris74]

Those are all great ideas!!
Even though I'm not the OP, I appreciate all the tips as well :)

[pudge the fish]

kids menus from various places:

Mama Melroses:Grilled Fish of the Day served with whole-grain pilaf, veggies and yogurt parfait

50's Prime time: Garden Salad & Meatloaf

Brown Derby: Grilled Chicken Breast - with barbecue sauce, red potatoes, and green beans and carrots
Tempura Fish Strips - with steamed broccoli and dipping sauce
for CS in Epcot -try any countries or Sunshine seasons

Tony's town square
Cheeseburger Calzone
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Multigrain Pasta Primavera
Mickey-shaped Cheese Ravioli w/ alfredo sauce

the Wave- Linguini with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese
Chicken Nachos

the grand floridian cafe:
Grilled Chicken Breast
Grilled Salmon
Grilled Steak -
they have *worms in dirt* here and it is well loved by all kids :)

Cali grill :Roasted Salmon - with Basmati Rice and seasonal vegetables

Oak-fired Steak - with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables

Grilled Chicken Breast - with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables
the sushi rice treats here are a big hit too :)

most of your counter services only have the mac & cheese or hamburgers..even for adults :)
buffets are the way to go with a kid who wants to eat as a grown up

[momimouse27]

I agree with what's been said above...Buffets! Your child can eat absolutely anything on the buffet and many times there are some pretty sophisticated foods there. I love the Crystal Palace buffet, but our favorite hands-down is Cape May's Clam bake at Beach Club. It's awesome!!

[nascarcheshirecat]

as an adult, I was able to substitute the carrot sticks or apple slices for dessert, with no problems.
lots of places had them.

I saw lots of folks getting them for their kids.

hope this helps a bit. :goodvibes

[Brygida]

I'm looking through ddp and menus. OMG! They all seem to have the same choices for kids, meaty macaroni, cheese pizza, hot dog, or chicken strips! I am in trouble!! My dneph 8 likes real grown up food, ribs, steak, shrimp, vegetables! What am I going to do?!?!?! I guess a lot of buffets? What are the best places for variety in kids menus?

Other than buffets, Chefs de France and Raglan Road has smaller portions of real food.

[momejay]

I don't know what menu you are reading but my son eats like a pig & I was able to find him enough food. He ate roasted chicken legs, mashed potatoes & rice Sunshine Seasons in the Land in EPCOT. He had salad, steak & sweet potato in Le Cellier. He had grilled chicken on a salad at Pecos Bills in MK. He had ribs in AK at Flame Tree BBQ. He ate a harvest salad at Columbia Harbor house & my DD ate the nuggets. We had chicken & black beans in HS. The kids burger at Rosies in HS was great & you can get it with a side salad. These are just counter service places!
Even when you order the chicken fingers they are hearty. You can tell it is chicken, if you know what I mean.

[scojos]

we have wimped out and upgraded our dd7 to the adult ddp. it cost me about $10 per day to upgrade, so it was worth it , for me, for peace of mind. dd is not a difficult eater, but she does eat "proper" food, and i would not consider the food at disney "real" food. yes im a food snob, and shoot me down in flames, but dd would not survive for 14 days on that. id rather not have to worry about paying oop for her when we arrive. ds last year was just on the child plan, and we ended up paying for loads of bits for him oop, so at least i know we have room for manouevre.
that said, the 5 adult meals we now have also gives us the option of sharing meals, esp bfast, to leave cs meals for the kids later in the day if they are hungry.
hope the op works out what is right for them:goodvibes
tx

[vinotinto]

We shared a lot of our food. I brought healthy snakcs (fruit, nuts, cheese) from home. the buffets were uninspiring for adults, but at least the kids got their best meals that way.

[bjgrazi]

We booked a lot of meals based on childrens choices, Coral Reef, Teppan Edo, Raglan Road, a buffet and The Wave.

My 3 year old eats real food, not mac & cheese & chicken nuggets. I guess because he's in a world of adults and we're food snobs too. I had a hard time deciding on where to eat.

Also I found out that CS aren't separated by adult child. I will be splitting many of my meals with him. I'm not a huge eater and almost never eat dessert. We're hoping that in a few places we'll be able to switch dessert for an appetizer. I heard it's been done. We'd give up 3 desserts for 1 appetizer.

[DjdBrit]

we have wimped out and upgraded our dd7 to the adult ddp. it cost me about $10 per day to upgrade, so it was worth it , for me, for peace of mind. dd is not a difficult eater, but she does eat "proper" food, and i would not consider the food at disney "real" food. yes im a food snob, and shoot me down in flames, but dd would not survive for 14 days on that. id rather not have to worry about paying oop for her when we arrive. ds last year was just on the child plan, and we ended up paying for loads of bits for him oop, so at least i know we have room for manouevre.
that said, the 5 adult meals we now have also gives us the option of sharing meals, esp bfast, to leave cs meals for the kids later in the day if they are hungry.
hope the op works out what is right for them:goodvibes
tx

Can you explain how to upgrade a child to the adult plan.... my 9 year old would be SO happy if I did this. Also how does this affect your Park Admission?

[TDC Nala]

To upgrade a child to adult for the dining plan, you must register that child as 10 years old and pay the adult dining plan price if you are paying for the plan. If you have a package with tickets, you must also buy them an adult park ticket.

[scojos]

To upgrade a child to adult for the dining plan, you must register that child as 10 years old and pay the adult dining plan price if you are paying for the plan. If you have a package with tickets, you must also buy them an adult park ticket.

yes, we have free ddp, so the cost increase is the admission cost for us, not the ddp cost. i really could not emphasise enough if you have a child who eats proper food, how much better your life will be if you upgrade, my ds has ASD, and he was not eating the "c**p" (his words not mine!) that wdw served to kids, i ended up eating lots of his meals, thanks to my research we ate at places that had "good" kids choices, SS FTb etc, but he ended up eating half of alot of my TS meals, as well as CS issues.
we spent alot OOp on "sides" too.... dd7 is not a massive eater, but again, i feel that for small children the volume is fine, but pushing it for an 7-8 yr old with a normal appetite.
we were there during TS faye last year, and be it becasue it wasnt hot, or whatever, we all ate like pigs:rotfl:, i hoping we ll eat less next year when its hot!
hth
Tracy

[chocovrdmicears]

We booked a lot of meals based on childrens choices, Coral Reef, Teppan Edo, Raglan Road, a buffet and The Wave.

My 3 year old eats real food, not mac & cheese & chicken nuggets. I guess because he's in a world of adults and we're food snobs too. I had a hard time deciding on where to eat.

Also I found out that CS aren't separated by adult child. I will be splitting many of my meals with him. I'm not a huge eater and almost never eat dessert. We're hoping that in a few places we'll be able to switch dessert for an appetizer. I heard it's been done. We'd give up 3 desserts for 1 appetizer.

hmmm....Are you sure about the CS meals not being seperated by adult/child? I could have sworn it showed our balances on the bottom of our receipts from June and they were listed as kids/adults. But it was 120 flippin degrees so my mind may have not been working properly. :upsidedow
I also wish they would let you trade a dessert for appetizer...I didn't think they allowed that anywhere. I would love to know where it has been done at so I can try in Dec.:santa:

ETA: Just noticed your ticker - looks like we will be there the week after you!

[TDC Nala]

Whether the CS meals are separated or not, children 9 and under on the dining plan (whose credits cost more than three times less than adult credits), according to the dining plan rules, should order from a children's menu where one exists.

Some CS will allow trading the dessert for something like a bag of chips or a bottle of water, but there is a very strictly followed rule that if you are on the basic dining plan you may not swap a dessert for an appetizer at TS for any reason, including medical conditions. Since 2008 we've had exactly two reports from persons who said you could swap the appetizer for a dessert, and one was a third-party report (repeating something someone else told them), the other apparently was brought about by a server who either didn't know the rule or consciously violated it for some reason.