HELP! Husband is a picky eater....

[NZMUM]

My teenage DS ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries every night. It was a decent size burger, not tiny. He placed his order with our server the night before. It was made in the MDR kitchen, they didn't go up to the quick service counter to get. Our server had no problem getting it made for him. So your husband can tell your server that's what he wants.. And neither of you should feel bad or different or embarrased about it.
DS also really only likes ice cream for dessert, no sauces. And he likes a particular flavour which isn't usually an option in the MDR (it is on the ship though). He got that every night too.

 

[dprincessmom]

OP - one question; one suggestion:

Is he willing to have the conversation/state what he really wants to the server? Prehaps he doesn't want to discuss it with you as a matter of pride. Might be worth a shot if he's willing to have the conversation.

Suggestion: Try something in the Main Dining Room with the understanding that Room Service or on deck food places are available if the "meal he chooses" isn't filling enough.

Good luck and have a great trip

 

[cruisehopeful]

Just as an FYI, on one cruise, my adult daughter ordered chicken strips and fries every night in the MDR. Actually, I think she tried the bland chicken on the light menu once, but went back to chicken strips. It was a non issue. You can also just avoid the MDRs altogether if you want to. I usually do that on my really short cruises because I don't want to spend 2 hours sitting at a table.

 

[buddyjo143]

Just as an FYI, on one cruise, my adult daughter ordered chicken strips and fries every night in the MDR. Actually, I think she tried the bland chicken on the light menu once, but went back to chicken strips. It was a non issue. You can also just avoid the MDRs altogether if you want to. I usually do that on my really short cruises because I don't want to spend 2 hours sitting at a table.

Where does one eat if they want to avoid the MDR? Is there a buffet?

 

[belac]

Room Service, quick Serve on pool deck, Cabanas but it is a sit down with various entrees from MDR.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

I would say the last place a picky eater would have a problem would be on a Disney cruise, they seem to be the most accommodating regarding food issues.

 

[NewsMom]

A girl at our table on our last cruise had a large plate of just french fries every night, chased with plain vanilla ice cream.

 

[birdmom]

When I read your post I had to laugh. your husband is just like me. While my husband loves to watch food network and try everything, I do not experiment at all! On my first night I just ask my waiter if he can get me [insert choice here] for me the next night. I typically ask for something like fettuccine alfredo and a plain garden salad. I hate to say it but I always lose weight on the cruise because I flat out dislike the food.

 

[Oregongram]

My DH is not a picky eater but he takes F O R E V E R choosing what to order. He can hold up a wait staff person several minutes asking questions about food based on descriptions, flavor, preparation, etc. Inevitably some of the questions can only be answered by the chef which means waiting foodless for the answer. For me, this situation takes all the fun out of dining, so we rarely eat out.

First DCL cruise is next year. I don't want to hold up service at our shared table because of DH asking questions about ingredients and food description details. BTW, DH doesn't have any food allergies or sensitivities. DH has trouble making food choices at home - to the point he will stare inside refrigerator for several minutes and decide not to eat because the decision is too difficult. He gets so upset over food choices. I didn't know about Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder until I read missnikki411 post but DH may suffer from this, also.

I've read some good food selection strategies.

I wish DisneySunPrincess the best of luck.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Where does one eat if they want to avoid the MDR? Is there a buffet?

We usually get stuff on the pool deck. It can be tricky as some areas have limited hours such as the place with the salads and sandwiches. Room service is another option.

 

[DisneySunPrincess]

Hi OP. I honestly did not mean any offense. In your initial post, you referred to your husband as "juvenile" and like a "kid," and you sounded very frustrated about it. I understand that, as all of our spouses do things that drive us bananas. Since you brought it up, I responded with how I would handle the situation in a way that would minimize that frustration you seemed to express. I was simply suggesting to put it in his hands so that you don't have to stress over it, since it sounded like that stress would put a damper on your vacation. I also offered a specific suggestion for a way your husband could get his dietary needs met.

I apologize for making you feel bad. That was certainly not my intent.

No worries....all is forgiven. It is hard with forums sometimes to know people's tone and I know that. I have had an insanely hard last two weeks. We sail in 37 days and my son just broke his hand and my father just underwent a heart cathaterization to see if he was going to have to have open heart surgery before the cruise, which would have forced them to cancel the cruise. I am sure that I was short tempered and overly sensitive and for that, I too, apologize.

 

[darnheather]

A girl at our table on our last cruise had a large plate of just french fries every night, chased with plain vanilla ice cream.

I haven't had real carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice, or bread) in three months. This sounds so good right now!

 

[GBBTomorrow]

No worries....all is forgiven. It is hard with forums sometimes to know people's tone and I know that. I have had an insanely hard last two weeks. We sail in 37 days and my son just broke his hand and my father just underwent a heart cathaterization to see if he was going to have to have open heart surgery before the cruise, which would have forced them to cancel the cruise. I am sure that I was short tempered and overly sensitive and for that, I too, apologize.

I am so sorry you are having a hard time! I am sending all kinds of good thoughts your way. Hang in there!!!

 

[over50visits]

I'm going to be in a minority here...I think when we eat in the MDR we should choose from the menu. The waiters are incredibly, and I mean incredibly, busy trying to serve many folks quickly and efficiently. If we ask for something different, or want to talk with them for a long time about the menu, we are impacting the experience of others they are serving. These folks are wonderful, and very accommodating, so they will try to do whatever you ask, but it seems to me unfair to pile even more on them than they already have. The MDR menu is wonderful, and for those who aren't willing to eat specialty food, there are steaks and chicken on the menu. For those who want pizza or a hamburger, there are places on deck to get such food, and there is always room service.

I'm not saying take or leave it in the MDR, but please consider these fine servers who are busting their chops when you want them to take extra time to serve you something they aren't set up for.

 

[Dug720]

I'm going to be in a minority here...I think when we eat in the MDR we should choose from the menu. The waiters are incredibly, and I mean incredibly, busy trying to serve many folks quickly and efficiently. If we ask for something different, or want to talk with them for a long time about the menu, we are impacting the experience of others they are serving. These folks are wonderful, and very accommodating, so they will try to do whatever you ask, but it seems to me unfair to pile even more on them than they already have. The MDR menu is wonderful, and for those who aren't willing to eat specialty food, there are steaks and chicken on the menu. For those who want pizza or a hamburger, there are places on deck to get such food, and there is always room service.

I'm not saying take or leave it in the MDR, but please consider these fine servers who are busting their chops when you want them to take extra time to serve you something they aren't set up for.

Amen!!

In February, our servers on the Magic were great, but they were not quite as present as other servers had been in the past. It wasn't an issue - just something I noticed.

The final night, I was seated in such as way as to be able to learn why. Our servers seemed to have two 3-person tables (ours and the one next to us) and one mega table (like a couple had been pushed together to make one super large one). The mega table was being uber demanding of both of the servers - as in the kids would want ketchup on their plate...EVERY SINGLE TIME they dipped a fry they wanted their Mickey re-done; the adults were each ordering drinks, but not all at once...one would come to the table and someone else would order one or a refill - I even overheard the assistant ask if anyone else wanted a refill while he was going to get one and everyone said no only to have one go "Oh, you know what...?" the moment he came back. They were pulling their attention even when the servers had plates for their other two tables in their hands. It was really ridiculous how much attention that table was demanding - and at the expense of every other diner in that section. (It didn't help that our regular server that night was sick so we had our regular assistant and someone he was not accustomed to working with. AND it took the head waiter forever to figure out something was going amiss in our section.)

My parents are pretty straightforward order off the menu people, and being gluten-free I got my order in the night before, so we are probably the least demanding table anyone could have - and it seems that being that easygoing *can* make you susceptible to being badly affected by a "squeaky wheel" table.

 

[DLgal]

I'm going to be in a minority here...I think when we eat in the MDR we should choose from the menu. The waiters are incredibly, and I mean incredibly, busy trying to serve many folks quickly and efficiently. If we ask for something different, or want to talk with them for a long time about the menu, we are impacting the experience of others they are serving. These folks are wonderful, and very accommodating, so they will try to do whatever you ask, but it seems to me unfair to pile even more on them than they already have. The MDR menu is wonderful, and for those who aren't willing to eat specialty food, there are steaks and chicken on the menu. For those who want pizza or a hamburger, there are places on deck to get such food, and there is always room service.

I'm not saying take or leave it in the MDR, but please consider these fine servers who are busting their chops when you want them to take extra time to serve you something they aren't set up for.

Yes. 100% yes. The servers deal with enough when it comes to allergies and other legitimate dietary restrictions that I feel it is rather entitled and immature for an adult who is simply "picky" to expect special food to be prepared off menu.

My kids have food issues due to autism and even with that, I felt so bad on our Disney Cruise the one night my son wanted pizza and we found out the server had to go up to the POOL DECK to get it. OMG! He was SO sweet about it, but we felt awful. Honestly, if I had known that was the case *I* would have gone up there myself to get the pizza. It's just that my son had had it the night before and we simply assumed it would be on the kids menu every night in each restaurant, but it was not. This happened on the second night of our first DCL cruise so we didn't know better. We gave him a huge tip at the end of the cruise because of how gracious he was about our kids "issues" and peculiarities (like, to leave off the veggies from one son's plates because apparently veggies are the stuff of nightmares).

I think if an adult cannot find SOMETHING to order off the menu in the MDR, then don't eat there. Grab something from the pool deck before dinner and join the group for a drink and maybe just dessert or bread service. Don't make extra work for the entire staff just because they will be nice about it. That's taking advantage, IMO.

FWIW, for the rest of our dinners, we made our kids choose items that were on the kids menu, no exceptions. A few times, we fed them from the pool deck and they only ordered dessert in the MDR.

 

[Marcelyry]

I hope you have enough information to give him some options! As the planner in my family, I would probably do the same thing you did- find out what is available, and then let him deal with it once you are on the ship so you can enjoy your vacation too. Have fun!

 

[Starwind]

OP: Some ideas that may help...

While I have food allergies that limit what I can eat, my sister is very particular about what she eats, along with a couple food allergies.

For our upcoming cruise, she went online and found the Fantasy's menus and went through each one for each night [understanding that they may change] and has already chosen what she will likely order. This way she has had plenty of time to think about it, research, ask others, etc.

Neither of us like really fancy food, prefering more basics, but we have decided that each dinner we will order an extra entree to share and try. Worst case, if we don't like it we dont finish it. But we figure it is a safe place to experiment, and we will have our main entree anyway so no fears of going hungry because we didnt like an entree.

One thing we like to do the first day is browse the DCL Navigator app on our smartphone or tablet and take a look at all the menus for each meal for each day. This helps us out too when it comes to actually ordering -- we will have already browsed the menu earlier that day so we know what we are going to order, so ordering is quick. Also, since we pre-order our meals the night before due to allergies, by knowing what is in the other MDRs, we sometimes order something from there instead [eg a soup from another MDR menu also available that night].

SW

 

[BruinEd03]

I'm going to be in a minority here...I think when we eat in the MDR we should choose from the menu. The waiters are incredibly, and I mean incredibly, busy trying to serve many folks quickly and efficiently. If we ask for something different, or want to talk with them for a long time about the menu, we are impacting the experience of others they are serving. These folks are wonderful, and very accommodating, so they will try to do whatever you ask, but it seems to me unfair to pile even more on them than they already have. The MDR menu is wonderful, and for those who aren't willing to eat specialty food, there are steaks and chicken on the menu. For those who want pizza or a hamburger, there are places on deck to get such food, and there is always room service.

I'm not saying take or leave it in the MDR, but please consider these fine servers who are busting their chops when you want them to take extra time to serve you something they aren't set up for.

The great thing about Disney Cruises is that each person can cruise his or her own way.

I don't think it's unfair at all to order something off menu. So long as they are willing to do it and people are reasonable, then go for it. One of the benefits of a Disney Cruise is that they cater to situations like this all the time. For example, my wife has to have gluten free food. Sometimes what she wants isn't on the menu. They will work with her to get her what she wants. They even say, if it's on another menu we can get it. It's also nice that she can pick the food that day instead of ordering it the night beforehand because how will she know what she feels like that day? It makes it more of a vacation if she can choose what she wants that day. It's really nice that they bend over backwards to help her out, when she has to constantly wonder if people even understand what "gluten free" means at restaurants back home. (Example: We once had a server claim to know what gluten-free means, then offer her normal bread.) Heck for Castaway Cay they get her a special plate of food from the ship (that one she does have to order the night beforehand).

For those with people who want just burgers/fries, what about the other spouse? Are they not able to eat together then? Again, it's part of what makes Disney, Disney.

Certain people will get special service one way, others will get special service another way. I'm sure some people order off the menu on the MDR, but then get some sort of special treatment at the kids clubs. Or, they get some sort of special treatment during check-in, or during excursions. It's what makes Disney, Disney.

I know I've asked my wife if she wants to try a different cruise line (which are cheaper) and she refuses partly because of the amazing service she's gotten so far for her food allergy.

So yeah, if someone wants to be a picky eater and order whatever - so long as the crew is fine with it, go right ahead. Make it your vacation, cruise your own way.

 

[birdmom]

I'm going to be in a minority here...I think when we eat in the MDR we should choose from the menu. The waiters are incredibly, and I mean incredibly, busy trying to serve many folks quickly and efficiently. If we ask for something different, or want to talk with them for a long time about the menu, we are impacting the experience of others they are serving. These folks are wonderful, and very accommodating, so they will try to do whatever you ask, but it seems to me unfair to pile even more on them than they already have. The MDR menu is wonderful, and for those who aren't willing to eat specialty food, there are steaks and chicken on the menu. For those who want pizza or a hamburger, there are places on deck to get such food, and there is always room service.

I'm not saying take or leave it in the MDR, but please consider these fine servers who are busting their chops when you want them to take extra time to serve you something they aren't set up for.

It all depends on how it is handled. At the end of my first nights meal I ask if I can have (example) pasta with only butter the next night for my meal. It is written down and the next day when all the food is being grabbed from the kitchen, my pasta is sitting there to be grabbed. I am so sick of some people on this board that have something nasty to say on EVERY POST!! (if you don't know who you are... trust me everyone else does. Go back through your 11k post and see how many of them are negative. Its gotten to the point I hate to even read threads you have replied to!

Edited to note I am not talking about over50visits