1 year old meals

[misslissa]

My little guy will be 1 1/2 yrs when we travel. He is quite the eater. Do we feed him off of our plate?

And, any tips/tricks you can tell us for a little one this age. We are doing the 3 night Dream.

 

[kcashner]

You can if you choose..but they have lots of plates on the ship and will be happy to bring him his own with whatever you'd like on it. They will puree food for him if he is still at that stage, cook things without seasonings, and make whatever you'd like if the kid menu is not to your liking. Pasta with butter or plain, veges with no sauces, puree of you name it, whatever you'd like him to have is manageable for the crew!

 

[Melissa S]

Whatever you are most comfortable with. He can eat of your plate, you can order from the kid's menu for him, or you can request something for him to be made. We have done all three lol.

Regarding tips/tricks, if he is going to eat with you in the MDR's put a request for a highchair on your reservation (if they haven't already). The meal is very long so on our first cruise we told the waiters to rush the meal and took dessert to go. The next cruise when she was older we would put her in the nursery from 6-7pm. That way she would eat with us, go play in the nursery, and then back for a mickey bar.

The food is one of the reasons we love to cruise with our baby. We never have to worry about packing food, drinks, or snacks. It's always available and there is such a variety.

 

[deanimal]

We cruised in January with a 20 month old, and I had to say I was a bit frustrated and disappointed in the options for toddlers. (Although we had a picky eater, so you might not have as much trouble) There weren't a lot of finger foods like fishy crackers or Cheerios. He liked the cream and fruit soups from the adult menu, but we had to make special requests for things like yogurt, bananas, etc in the main dining room. A couple time we went to the buffet to pick up some food for him before we went to dinner. He ate a lot of applesauce, and that was really hard to find too. One time a waiter offered to have some made specially and came back with some lovely applesauce...for an adult. It was quite chunky and full of cinnamon and unfortunately our little guy wouldn't touch it. If I were to do it again I'd bring a lot more of the foods he's used to along to just save the hassle.

 

[SurfBug79]

If you communicate with your servers, dining room manager the first night, they will do their best to accommodate for you! Our son just turned 2 at the time, and was so picky! The servers knew he loved grapes, so every night as soon as we got to our table, the grapes and chocolate milk were there. One night they brought the bread basket from the previous night's restaurant because our ds liked playing with it. They are happy if your kids are happy... so they will do anything they can to keep it that way! Good luck!

 

[kcashner]

We cruised in January with a 20 month old, and I had to say I was a bit frustrated and disappointed in the options for toddlers. (Although we had a picky eater, so you might not have as much trouble) There weren't a lot of finger foods like fishy crackers or Cheerios. He liked the cream and fruit soups from the adult menu, but we had to make special requests for things like yogurt, bananas, etc in the main dining room. A couple time we went to the buffet to pick up some food for him before we went to dinner. He ate a lot of applesauce, and that was really hard to find too. One time a waiter offered to have some made specially and came back with some lovely applesauce...for an adult. It was quite chunky and full of cinnamon and unfortunately our little guy wouldn't touch it. If I were to do it again I'd bring a lot more of the foods he's used to along to just save the hassle.

You can get yogurt, applesauce, etc. from the breakfast buffet and keep some in the fridge in your cabin. If you are on the Magic or Wonder, put a cup of ice in the cooling box and it will stay very cold--the ice typically didn't melt in a 24 hour period. They also have Kellogg's brand "cheerios" and other cereals that many little ones like to munch on. Bananas and other fruits are readily available at pool deck outlets also.

 

[lugnut33]

If it's been frozen it might still be OK to eat.

 

[Betsy82]

We sailed with a 21 month old but he ate off the kid's menu.

He had shrimp (checked with the pediatrician before we left) several nights, steak tips, chicken fingers, peas, etc... he loved the grilled chicken/steak/shrimp nights the most but it almost always had some strange sauce on it. All the pictures of him eating he's covered in a red-ish (tomato?) type sauce.

He's not the average toddler, I admit, as even his older brother is pickier than him. But no issues finding plenty of options for him to eat, we just made sure to cut everything up into very tiny pieces.

 

[RedxPanda]

Our DD was 15 months at the time of our cruise and she ate anything and everything! We ordered her a kids meal each night, just so her food would come sooner. She didn't eat the whole thing, but there was plenty she was willing to try.

The only problem we had was she would fill up on bread in the MDR because it did take a while for food to show up. I might hedge that next time and have something more nutritious to hold her over. Or what we should do is ask that the fruit portion of the kids menu be in place when we arrive and order her meal ASAP.

 

[lodge]

Good eater already! Good for you! If our kids eat at all we're lucky!

 

[KingRichard]

Everyday we had a plate of pineapple and grapes waiting for our little one.

Just tell them on the first night and it made things so easy.

We would grab a few boxes of cereal and bananas in the am and keep them in the room and never had to look or wait for any snacks.

 

[TinksMomma]

We just sailed with our then 16 month old. We ordered her own meals and they were so good about everything! We never had a problem with options for her.

 

[misslissa]

Thanks for all of the advice! I guess the biggest thing I am worried about is the timing. My little guy hates sitting in his high chair and really gets impatient about waiting for food or waiting for anyone else to finish eating. Any tips on that?

I have heard that not sitting down and walking around until the food comes out is a good idea, but not sure if that will work in the MDR.

Also, he USUALLY is a good eater but goes back and forth. Sometimes he'll eat everything, sometimes nothing.

 

[TDluvsDaisy]

Thanks for all of the advice! I guess the biggest thing I am worried about is the timing. My little guy hates sitting in his high chair and really gets impatient about waiting for food or waiting for anyone else to finish eating. Any tips on that?

I have heard that not sitting down and walking around until the food comes out is a good idea, but not sure if that will work in the MDR.

Also, he USUALLY is a good eater but goes back and forth. Sometimes he'll eat everything, sometimes nothing.

Perhaps you could get up and walk him around outside the MDR inbetween courses? You can receive calls on the wave phone when the food arrives.

 

[Ccann]

DCL brought out my sons (18mo) food about the same time as apps. If he was finished before we were done with the main course, I had a bad of tricks with me, sometimes it was a portable DVD player volume down, or some cars something that would give us 20 more minutes with out bothering others around us. There was one meal where I really wasn't hungry and when he was done I just left my family and took him around the ship. Which was fine with me.... And it gave us some one on one.

 

[travelgirl06]

Will DCL do small portions of adult entrees or sides?

We took DD on another cruise line this past fall when she was 16 months, their kids menu was lacking in fruits, veggies, etc. (in my opinion). We struggled to get her kid-sized portions of "real" food (and I was not going to let her at chicken nuggets and pizza every night). We usually make her a little plate off of our plates, but if we were ordering something she wouldn't like, I wanted another option for her (and something that would come out fairly early so we could enjoy our courses while she worked on her meal). They always were happy to bring out an adult entree for her (and bring it out early in the meal), I just felt horrible sending most of it back every night.

What should we expect on DCL? Any tips or tricks for getting toddler-sized portions of healthy food in the MDR?

 

[kcashner]

Most of the adult items are already plated in adult sized portions, but you are welcome to order one for the child. That's not a problem at all.

 

[travelgirl06]

Thanks! I actually just pulled up a few kids menus to look at, and they look pretty good. I appreciate the non-fried/burger/pizza options and that there are kids appetizers . I think between these menus and sharing off our plates we should be in good shape, and of course we can order her an adult meal as needed, I just hate seeing all that food go to waste.