Can anyone please help?

[ktlm]

I can't help, but I can tell you I really feel for you and know where you are coming from. We have been preparing DD (4 1/2) for months for the fact that the McDonald's in DTD will no longer be there when we go back later this year. She is NOT happy about that at all and doesn't even want to go to DTD at all this trip if McDonald's isn't there (huge for her as she apparently inherited shopper genes). I can't imagine how upsetting it would be for a kid with autism to face that type of change.

I'm a bit worried too. DD is a picky eater. She loves chicken nuggets and she won't eat burgers, PB and J, mac and cheese, or cheese pizza (she only eats pizza if it is pepperoni or sausage), so her CS options on the kids menu at WDW are extremely limited. She won't touch the kids chicken nuggets at WDW. One bite and she is done. Very strange for a kid that until WDW never met a chicken nugget she didn't like. I tasted them and I don't blame her- they are nasty. We have had 3 trips to WDW since 2008 and each time I have heard other parents complain about the kids nuggets. Aside from the TS restaurants (which we usually do once a day and which have better food selections for kids- pasta, grilled chicken, etc), McDonald's was pretty much the only time we got her to eat anything on our first trip. The DTD McDonald's has been a needed stop on each of our 3 trips with her.

It is a matter of your son needing the familiarity of the tastes and look of McDonald's or is it him being unhappy with the WDW nuggets and fries? I did learn a trick from another Mom at WDW though. They don't feed the adults the same stuff they feed the kids. The adults' chicken strips are much better quality than the kids nuggets. Her kids wouldn't touch the kids nuggets, but would eat the adult strips. We found that if we got an adult chicken strip meal instead of the nuggets, we could get her to eat some of that. More expensive, but with the nuggets we were just throwing money away as she wouldn't eat them and they all wound up in the trash can.

If it is the familiarity and taste he needs and you are worried about the cost of cabs, maybe you could take WDW transport to Allstars and then take a cab from there the short trip to McDonalds? Maybe that would cut down on cab fare?

 

[Tykels]

Thanks everyone. Deep down I know that any 'impostor' burger or fries will never work, but I am desperate and disappointed. I appreciate the 'wrapper' idea. Very clever, but he is a McDonalds expert! (Once when they left onions off the hamburger I tried to mince some and trick him - the burger went right in the trash).
The dining plan does not work for us because he literally sits and waits for us to finish eating - he will not eat one bite. At DD we ate at Earl of Sandwich so everyone was happy.
There will be no trip to DD because he will never understand where McDonalds went.
Hopefully we will find a place with nice thin fries and maybe he will give them a try. Sounds like we will end up eating a lot of food brought from home.