Dining with an autistic preschooler?

[MBW]

Its now 15 days and counting, and I've only made a handful of PSes (namely for DD's 5th b-day, at CP for breakfast, CM for dinner, and then Tony's before Spectromagic the following night.) We're staying at OKW, so don't need to do breakfast any other days, but I need to get on the ball and get our other PSes done, as both DD (nt, 5) and DS (mild autism, 3) have food allergies, and youngest DS (also suspected PDD and 21 mos) can barely sit still for 10 seconds.

So the question is, what are the best restaurants, for young children w/ developmental disorders? Criteria would include good (attentive and quick) service, ability to produce special food (DS has gluten allergy), engaging atmosphere (Characters are always a plus.)

Right now, I have on my maybe list:

Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner (Character)
Sci-Fi Dine-In (Video always a good distraction)

Other suggestions? I'm hoping this might also help other parents, and perhaps we could also forward the suggestions to Deb's page on taking autistic children to WDW.

TIA,

 

[BuckeyeBelle]

Hi! When we took our son (autistic, 5 at the time) we had lots of great dining experiences! Most of the places were very happy to accommodate his special needs. For special dietary requirements, call the restaurant a day or two ahead of time and tell them what you will need. Most places are happy to oblige.

One tip is to make your PS for off-peak times. You will get better, faster service that way, and the restaurant will be less noisy and stressfull. This is especially true of character meals. We used to love the Pooh breakfast at the WL, because it was quieter and we got tons of character interaction, but unfortunately that meal has been discontinued. Another one I am thinking of for our next trip is the Garden Grill in Epcot. The booths there are high-backed, good to cut down on extranneous stimuli, and I've read the characters spend a lot of time at the table. Please let us know how you like Liberty Tree because it is on our maybe list for December too!

Another tip is to explain to your server that your son is autistic and might not be able to wait though the meal. Let them know it would be helpful if they could speed up your service. We had great luck at most full service places doing this. The servers appreciated it too because it allowed them to turn their tables more quickly (more tips for them!) The Coral Reef was wonderful in that respect! They brought my son's meal early with my salad, and brought his dessert while I was still eating my meal. The server checked back often to see when we were ready for the next item. It worked out great! The atmosphere was very engaging too with the fish, but pricey. At MGM we at at Mama Melrose and they had our food to the table in three minutes (no kidding!). I've read they are hit or miss, but they were a definite hit with us. I've also read that at character meals they *might* send all the characters to your table early if they know your son is autistic and will have a hard time waiting at the table. No guarantee on that, though.

Other places we tried were:

'Ohana: Great food and games, but the atmosphere was a little noisy and overstimulating for our son. We were there at 7:30 and the restaurant was full. We made it though OK though.
Rainforest Cafe: OK, cute atmosphere, but after 20 minutes we had seen it all. The food took a long time too.
Bonfamilles: closed now and he slept throught it anyway!
Marrakesh: Very loud and hectic, we were stressed out by the time we left.
Teppanyaki: Entertaining and not pokey, but the hot grill could be a hazard for very active little ones.

The only restauarants I would avoid if we did it again would be the more exotic ones in World Showcase. The food was different, and sometimes we had a hard time understanding the servers, and they had a hard time understanding us. That would be OK under normal circumstances, but might not work so well if you are making special requests.

At MK and AK we ate mostly fast food. We liked the places with outdoor seating the best because they offered more to watch and more room for the kids to squirm if they need to . But watch out for the birds as they can be aggressive!

Good luck with your choices and have a great trip! Please report back on what worked for you.

 

[teri]

Actually, I always avoided the louder, more boisterous restaurants with my son... the combination of being in a new place, lots of visual stimulation and waiters coming in and out of our personal space always set my son off when he was that age. We usually chose quieter restaurants. Akershus, in World Showcase, is excellent - calm atmoshere, interesting variety of food, great desserts. Biergarten, on the other hand is NOT calm -- loud and tinny and very difficult to get around with a stroller. Same for the Morrocan restaurant. The Garden Grille is one of our favorites, although it does not appeal to everyone. It goes around a diarama inside the Land Pavilion and there are characters, but it is not 'over the top' and it feels comfortable. And the Coral Reef is very good, as mentioned.

I would avoid Whispering Canyon in Wilderness Lodge - never again with my son, who is very sensitive to noise. Artist Point is better there. Olivia's, at Old Key West, is pretty good. The food court at Port Orleans French Quarter is out - overstim -- but the one on the Dixie Landings side is much better. Too bad they closed Bonfamilles, that was perfect. Avoid the food court at Coronado Springs - way overstimulating and noisy. Chef Mickeys was a mixed bag for us - actually it worked better than many other places. The Crystal Palace was good, the chef was very accomodating on no notice at all -- be sure to ask for a corner table.

They will accomodate special diets at any of the sit-down restaurants, with advance notice.

Those are a few additional suggestions! Good luck with your planning. Be sure to check the FAQ for information about the GAC and about traveling with sensitive children -- just click on the link in my signature.

 

[SueM in MN]

You got a lot of good advice already. I don't have an autistic child, but my physically disabled child with ADD and some diffcult to deal with tendencies; she's very impatient and has all these "rules of conduct" that she expects us to abide to, like who can sit where, etc.

We do very few full service, sit down restaurants. We have been to the Coral Reef and felt it was quite relaxing with those fish swimming by the whole time. We were at Garden Grill before it was a character meal and found the environmnet to be pretty good. We also ate at the Sci-Fi Drive in. It's cute and the movies are interesting, but they are short preview clips of 1950s and 60s movies, many old (but not scary) horror movies. The quick clips may be too stimulating for some kids. The food was sort of strange, so you may want to look at a menu for that one before you go. The desserts were yummy.
There was a discussion not long ago about food allergies at WDW. Here's a link to that thread. There is a phone number for the chef's office at WDW. I think it's in the third from the last post.

 

[suzysezso]

Translation please?
I am still relatively new to this board, and I have been able to figure out most of the acronyms, but can someone lead me to a post or thread with a list of the most used?
Example: DH, PS, OKW, nt.....

Also, could you help me find the site you referred to as "Deb's page" on your post?

Thanks bunches!

(And sorry to get slightly off topic...)

 

[MBW]

Originally posted by SueM in MN
There was a discussion not long ago about food allergies at WDW. Here's a link to that thread. There is a phone number for the chef's office at WDW. I think it's in the third from the last post.

Hey, Sue - that was me who posted the number Yes, the executive chef's office has been great, and supposedly the head chefs from all our PS restaurants will be calling us in the next week to discuss Sam's needs, likes and dislikes. So I guess I'd better hurry up and figure out what those are (I added 'Ohana's yesterday - Sam should enjoy the entertainment.)

And thanks as well to Belle and Teri - fortunately (at least in this instance), Sam is hypo-sensitive (versus hyper-sensitive) and so doesn't seem to get overstimulated by his surroundings very easily. But like most 3 year olds (autistic or not), when he's finished eating, he wants to get down and get on with things, and like most autistic kids, he doesn't have much patience if we're not ready to join him. So it would be good to have some form of entertainment to distract him so that the rest of us can scarf down our meals . I wish we could depend upon fewer sit-down restaurants, but then we wouldn't be able to request foods be gluten-free for Sam (and he'd be stuck eating hot dogs for every meal.) His diet at home right now is so limited, as I've been demolishing, I mean, renovating, our kitchen, and haven't been able to do much cooking (so lots of toasted cheese sandwiches made on our George Forman grill...sigh...) It would be really nice for him to be able to experience new foods while at WDW which are safe for him - and maybe give me some new ideas for when our kitchen is back together.

And here's the key for the abbreviations I used (I guess I've gotten too used to Disney-speak)
OKW - Old Key West
CP - Crystal Palace
CM - Chef Mickey's (or Character Member, if you're talking about a person)
NT - neurologically typical, i.e., not autistic

And Deb's page is at www.wdwig.com - she has a page dedicated to tips for taking an autistic child to WDW.

I think that he's going to do okay, as he's made such great progress in the past year with the help of intensive ABA therapy. But he'll have just returned to school after a two week break, and I can see that he's beginning to slip after only one week off. Guess I need to do some intervention this week on my own to try and stabilize the situation so he'll be at his best when we go.

Thanks everyone - keep the recommendations coming

 

[BuckeyeBelle]

Hi MBW, your son actually sounds a lot like mine! I usually refer to him as "not tantrum-prone" because he tantrums less than a typical child, and he does benefit from a more stimulating environment. The key though for him is having the stimuli be coordinated. I think that's why WDW is so great -- the music, visuals, even tactiles are all put together in such a smooth way. Being exposed to all that really seems to stimulate him mentally!

The problem for him happens when he is exposed to a lot of confusing stimuli like sudden noises, people coming and going too much, and irregular type noises like clanking silverware and too many people talking at the same time. He won't tantrum, but he will sort of "shut down" and become less communicative and cooperative. It can be like having a 40-pound ragdoll to feed and move around -- he is much harder to handle and we know he isn't having any fun. That's one of the reasons we try to hit the restaurants at less busy and noisy times, so he can enjoy the designed stimulus of the restaurant without the the bad stimulus of the background noise. You would be amazed at the difference it makes! (This might be more of a sensory integration issue than an autism issue, although he is very autistic in the areas of communication and play. He has some severe object fascinations - OY!.) Anyway, I'm not sure if this applies to your little one but thought I'd mention it anyway.

I think your oldest will enjoy 'Ohana, and the lobby with the rainforest and parrots is closeby in case the younger ones need a wiggle break. Another fun thing is to time your supper so you can watch the MK fireworks and the electric water pageant from the Poly beach afterward. The view is beautiful and there's plenty of sand to keep the kids occupied.

 

[teri]

Suzy... many acronyms have multiple meanings, must be evaluated in context

DH = dear husband DS = Dear son DD = Dear Daughter DW = dear wife
CM = Cast member (usually)
OKW = Old Key West Resort -- a Home Away From Home Resort
PS = Priority Seating

Feel free to PM (private message) me if you have any more you want translated.

 

[SueM in MN]

Sorry I gave you a link to your own post (it is useful anyway though, since the phone number had been mentioned by another poster, someone would have been asking for it sooner or later).
Another restaurant that I thought of is the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We have never eaten there, but some friends of ours have and thought it was a fun place. Each booth is set up as a kitchen table with a TV set playing at the end. Your mom (your waitress) comes over to serve your food and encourage you to eat. Apparently they sometimes do pretty silly things, like "here comes the choo-choo train" with people's vegetables.

 

[Prezli]

Here is a link to the Disney restaurants menu page http://www.wdwig.com/menu/menus.htm
It may be helpful in deciding where the best place to eat may be. At least from an allergy standpoint.