Warning: New Menus for Kids at Some TS Restaurants

[beattyfamily]

Since this thread was posted in the Disney Dining Plan board, I'm just wondering are these child's menu changes for DDP guests only??

 

[lkjasd]

Since this thread was posted in the Disney Dining Plan board, I'm just wondering are these child's menu changes for DDP guests only??

No, they were the kids menus for everyone. I just posted here since I was on this board when I realized no one had mentioned it.

 

[janets]

We are going in about 4 weeks and we do a lot of TS in EPCOT, most of which I believe are not Disney owned restaurants. We were there from Sept. 9-16 and ate at LeCellier, Coral Reef, Kona, Concourse, MM, Boma and San Angel. DS had the steak at Concourse (is this now gone?), the pasta w/ cheese sauce (really mac 'n cheese when he was done but he could have had marinara sauce) at Coral Reef, quesadilla in Mexico, chicken parm at MM. The others he had either a burger something more kid like (can't remember). But in most places he passed on the appetizer (will not eat anything remotely resembling greens or veggies) but he loved that Coral Reef offers the lobster bisque as an appetizer choice for kids. For DS4, we're lucky that he eats at all.

I guess we'll have to just wait and see if anyone is able to bring home kid menus and scan them for viewing before we go. I guess I'm not understanding this new policy correctly and am not sure how this will affect our choices for the next trip. And I certainly hope that they aren't simply giving the same thing they offer as a kids lunch meal at counter service. Where is the incentive for TS dining if it's going to be exactly the same thing?

We're also going in February for ds's 9th birthday and will be at LeCellier, Concourse and Coral Reef. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the real scoop is. I wish Allears would get new menus up, even for adults.

 

[beattyfamily]

No, they were the kids menus for everyone. I just posted here since I was on this board when I realized no one had mentioned it.

Thanks! I'm not on the dining plan so I just wanted to make sure.

You might want to also post on the regular Restaurant board for those who aren't on the dining plan....I came across this by accident.

 

[pigletforever]

i had heard there were changes for Free Dining but I didn't think they were going to be permanent. Is anyone there now who can fill us in?

 

[cybrkitn]

Great,. I have a kid who lives on chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers. thank goodness he will share with me part of the time. I am glad I have 3 buffets scheudled at this point. I agree that there should be some healthy choices but for the truly picky less adventurous kids this is not good news. who wants chicken on pizza?

My DS4 is a very picky eater. When he started eating solids we couldn't get him to eat anything but chicken. He's added a few more items since then (thankfully). He still likes chicken and will eat it, but he definately does not like salad; yet. I'm all for healthy eating, but it looks like Dis needs to add more choices to their "limited" child's menu. We leave on the 25th for 8 days.

Chicken on pizza? I chicken on my pizza, but I'm from Long Island, NY and we have many specialty pizzas here. Chicken being one of those options (even chicken parmisean <sp?>). Trust me, they look very appetizing and are delicious!

 

[bicker]

This does sound like they're trying to craft a fair compromise between what two diametrically opposed sets of guests want.

 

[catherine]

I sure hope that this is not going to be a permanent change. We have booked the DDP for our 14 day trip next year. DD is going to be pretty fed up if that is all that she has to choose from for 14 days. There's no way that she will eat that stuff day in and day out. I think if it's a permanent change we're going to have change our booking!

 

[lkjasd]

I posted this same info on the general restaurant board at BeattyFmaily's request and someone posting there found a copy of the menu on AllEarsNet. Here it is from the Turf Club Restaurant (with my comments in parens):

Pita Pizza (was able to order without the chicken) - with diced chicken and mozzarella cheese, served with shredded vegetable salad and cinnamon-sugar apples $6.99

Chicken Strips (not fried, they are baked) - served with barbecue sauce, sweet potato sticks, green beens and carrots, and yogurt parfait $6.99

Just Dip It - assorted fruits, vegetables, chicken salad and yogurt $6.99

Kid's Picks - 1 appetizer, 1 entree and 1 dessert $6.99 -- Appetizers: Vegetable Salad OR Chicken Noodle Soup; Entrees: Macaroni and Cheese OR Hamburger with fries; Desserts: Fruit Salad OR Ice Cream Sundae

It seems the Mac and Cheese is one of the A La Carte itmes at all the restaurants and the one other item changes from restaurant to restaurant. It seems thsi will be the standard menu for kids at all?/most?/many? before too long. Hopefully you can prepare for your trip more accurately now.

 

[janets]

As a result of this thread, I called both Disney Dining and general reservations. I asked if there had been a recent change to the childrens' menu choices at a number of Disney table service restaurants. I said that I had heard from people who had just returned that the menu had been changed across the board for all restaurants and that there were now limited choices, including certain "set" items that included appie, main course and dessert, with no substitutions allowed.

Both people told me (and the DD person put me on hold several times) that as far as they knew, there were no changes made park wide. The reservations person told me that if there had been a park wide change to the kids' menus, they would have heard about it. She checked and told me that the kids menu at Concourse (one of our choices for ds8) still had the steak as an entree. She told me (and I'm sure this is true) that menus are subject to change at any time and that individual restaurants might change their offerings, but nothing had been implemented park wide.

So frankly, I don't know what to make of this. I guess until someone comes back with a selection of kids menus from different restaurants (Disney owned and non owned) I'll just have to sit tight and hope that we can find some choices for our kids. I don't use the word "picky" because that's not what they are. DS8 likes certain items more than others. He doesn't like salad, veggies, any dips. He likes burgers, pizza, chicken fingers (really doesn't like grilled chicken breasts), steak, pasta. We found on our most recent trip (9/9-9/16) that he was able to have something different most nights at our selections (we were able to limit burgers to only 2 nights). He enjoyed the dessert choices. DS4 just doesn't enjoy food the way the rest of us do. He doesn't eat on a schedule, so if he's hungry earlier, I get him a CS meal and he skips dinner. Or I make a selection for him and figure he'll eat it if he wants. So I don't worry as much for him as he likes chicken nuggets, m&c, pizza. And being so skinny, I don't worry if that's his diet for a week on vacation.

I wish ds8 were a salad/veggie eater. But he's not, so I work with what I have. We limited our desserts at lunch, choosing grapes or fruit if available as a swap out, just not taking the cake if not. Our snacks usually are popcorn and water. And we walk a lot.

So if anyone is heading down in the next few weeks and can snag kid menus from a variety of places, we'll get more accurate info about all the restaurants, rather than just a couple of Disney owned ones.

Just reporting my conversations w/ DD and reservations. YMMV.

 

[lkjasd]

Both people told me (and the DD person put me on hold several times) that as far as they knew, there were no changes made park wide. The reservations person told me that if there had been a park wide change to the kids' menus, they would have heard about it. She checked and told me that the kids menu at Concourse (one of our choices for ds8) still had the steak as an entree. She told me (and I'm sure this is true) that menus are subject to change at any time and that individual restaurants might change their offerings, but nothing had been implemented park wide.

YMMV.

Your conversation is eerily similar to the one my DW had with Reservations also. We didn't know if we were going to eat at Tony's or not so we swung by on the way out of the park and saw the "new" menu for kids. My DW called Reservations to try and change the ADR since it looked the same as PT and also asked if this was happening at all the restaurants. She was told Tony's menu had not changed. She said she had the menu in her hand and was told they had no record of this. They read her their menu which still had raviolli on it.

She was put on hold several times also and was finally told they had no record of any changes at PT or Tony's and they would have to look into it. I'm not sure if they have been updated yet. Your best bet is to find someone who has been recently and ask them specifically.

 

[anne1456]

The kids menu reported in post #49 is the same we had at Liberty Tree on 9/29 and Sci Fi on 10/1. We also ate at Rose & Crown, Narcossee and Cap'n Jacks and did not have the new kids menu. The server at Sci Fi said it was the first day they had used it, so it might be being rolled out a few restuarants at a time.

Anne

 

[NMW]

This does sound like they're trying to craft a fair compromise between what two diametrically opposed sets of guests want.

I suppose this is true. I mean you can't please all the people all of the time. However, I can see lots of kids (and their parents) getting sick of these same choices night after night dining plan, or no dining plan.

 

[triplefigs]

The food was good, and I liked having a healthy choice. But the same menu for every meal got old very quickly. Thank goodness we did several buffets to break it up!

 

[COmomof2]

We're just back from WDW on 9/30. We were on the DDP, and the only time we saw this "new" kids menu was on 9/30 at Sci-Fi. It's just as originally posted...set combo meals for the kids. I didn't realize it was going to be introduced at all restaurants...we had eaten at LeCellier and 50's earlier in the week, and I never saw one of these "new" menus until Sci-Fi on the day we left.

Here's the interesting part....we were just about out of credits (2 left) so we ordered alacarte for the kids. We ordered a drink for them to share (along with our milkshakes) and asked to purchase a cheese pizza OOP. The pizza came on the Mickey shaped plate with the shredded veggie salad and apples. I think we still paid about $5 for the kids meal...I guess the kids meals automatically come with these sides? I didn't question her about the combos for the DDP, because we thought we wouldn't be getting an appy or dessert for the boys because we were out of credits. This was our first visit to the Sci-Fi, so I thought the "combo" idea was unique to this restaurant. It will be interesting to see what others experience in the next few weeks.

 

[cybrkitn]

Both people told me (and the DD person put me on hold several times) that as far as they knew, there were no changes made park wide. The reservations person told me that if there had been a park wide change to the kids' menus, they would have heard about it. She checked and told me that the kids menu at Concourse (one of our choices for ds8) still had the steak as an entree. She told me (and I'm sure this is true) that menus are subject to change at any time and that individual restaurants might change their offerings, but nothing had been implemented park wide.

...I don't use the word "picky" because that's not what they are. DS8 likes certain items more than others. He doesn't like salad, veggies, any dips. He likes burgers, pizza, chicken fingers (really doesn't like grilled chicken breasts), steak, pasta. We found on our most recent trip (9/9-9/16) that he was able to have something different most nights at our selections (we were able to limit burgers to only 2 nights). He enjoyed the dessert choices. DS4 just doesn't enjoy food the way the rest of us do. He doesn't eat on a schedule, so if he's hungry earlier, I get him a CS meal and he skips dinner. Or I make a selection for him and figure he'll eat it if he wants. So I don't worry as much for him as he likes chicken nuggets, m&c, pizza. And being so skinny, I don't worry if that's his diet for a week on vacation...

...Just reporting my conversations w/ DD and reservations. YMMV.

LOL Sounds like your DS4 is similar to mine . He likes everything you mentioned except steak. There are times where he can be really hungry and be a "bottom-less pit" and times where he is not that hungry at all. And yet he manages to stay skinny

Based on what you had said though, it looks like the restaurants are not communicating with Disney Dining in a timely fashion when changing their menus. I hope they get on the ball soon. I've been checking allears every week to see if there are any changes to the restaurants we have ADR's with.
We are heading down in three weeks.

 

[DizzKneeGeek]

I'm glad they're switching over to healthy foods for kids. Maybe these kids won't end up fat, unhealthy and out of shape like me. I lived on nuggets, burgers, fries, hot dogs and mac and cheese for most of my young life and look at me. Why parents are content to let kids live on this stuff is beyond me. I wish my parents had forced more fruits and veggies into me at a young age; I'd surely be doing alot better right now. kudos to WDW and their new kids dining choices!!

 

[kj2mom]

I am glad I stumbled across this thread. We leave in the morning and have ADR's at some of these restaurants. I will try to snag as many menus as I can and post when I return.

 

[castleri]

My DD4 will probably not want dessert unless it is ice cream (strange child, I know) - but in those cases I think I can offer my dessert up for her and make do without - or we will share. She would eat carrots and not be concerned that there was no appetizer, and then again, there will be too much adult food for DH and me, so we can share that too. I am more concerned about the limited meal choices, Mac & Cheese will do most every day, if she had her way, but I need to be able to change it up a bit.

was happy to see I was not the only one who feels this way - with the quantity of food available to not be able to work out something to share with children to supplement the child's menu is beyond me. We were on the dining plan for 10 days and I don't know how many desserts did not get eaten completely. There was always at least one adult who didn't want dessert or who would share with a child. We ordered child desserts using adult credits if that was what someone wanted. The waitress at Kona brought an extra dessert - the ice cream cone and put it in the middle of the table since we had one or two adults who didn't order one. The kids loved the cotton candy and sprinkles on that one. We also sometimes used our non alcoholic drink credits for them as shakes or smoothies were sometimes considered desserts. Whether you are on the DDP or not the children's menus are the same. At some of the TS places we ate I don't think there were more than 7-8 choices for adult entrees so 5-7 for the kids is not that bad if there are truly different entree ones as well as the standards.
We paid a little $1500 for the meal plan and the total for our TS meals alone was over $1700. That means our CS and snacks were free. Our main problem was that we were eating at 5-6 pm for dinner(young children and an adult with low sugar issues) which made is essential to eat lunch early and even then it would have been better to spread the meals further apart.
The good thing about Disney is you have choices - your don't have to do the meal plan and if you don't you can order anything from any menu for your child - you just have to be willing to pay for it.

 

[akalittleeva]

The kids menu reported in post #49 is the same we had at Liberty Tree on 9/29 and Sci Fi on 10/1. We also ate at Rose & Crown, Narcossee and Cap'n Jacks and did not have the new kids menu. The server at Sci Fi said it was the first day they had used it, so it might be being rolled out a few restuarants at a time.

Anne

My daughter was especially looking forward to the turkey dinner and poundcake dippers at LTT - unfortunately, our plans can't change to make a dinner ADR... Any chance they would let my ds10 share with his sister? Depends on the many things, I guess...