How easy is "on the side" in the MDR?

[monkeydawn]

One other recommendation is to look at the kids menus. On my last cruise, I asked the server to bring me a kids menu each night in addition to the adults menu. There were some nights when I liked the items from the kids menu better. They are usually a little more basic, but still really good.

Happy sailing!

Thanks! I have already been eyeing the kids menus. My palate is oftem more in line with a 4 year old rather than a 40 year old.

@monkeydawn I think you'll be fine. You have the right idea to communicate your situation with the head server and your personal servers. They will do their best to steer you in the right direction and take care of you as best they can. And pre-ordering the night before gives the kitchens ample time to make accommodations without disrupting their hectic dinner time routine.

I have an allergy to Sage - can't eat it. And that is listed on my reservation. However, I have issues if I eat Bell peppers. Hot peppers are fine, but red and green peppers will give my heartburn for days, even in small amounts so the first day I tell my servers that I really do not like peppers. (they don't usually understand the difference between hot and bell LOL) and ask them to please warn me if there are peppers in anything on the menu so I can avoid it. Have I gotten things with peppers, yes, I've had dishes where the sides had peppers that they missed and I just push that part aside or give it to DH.

I don't have kids, but I have seen some of the kids meals come out at nearby tables and they usually look like they have little or no sauces. I always say I want to ask for kids sides - they get steamed veggies, and plain salads which I love. I'll have to write that down on my reminder list for the next cruise.

Peppers and onions are the big triggers for me. I actually love the flavor that they add to a dish but unless theyve been really cooked (to the point of what most would call over cooked) I cant really digest them so they need to be obvious enough that I can pick most of them out.

And I can certainly see for you how just avoiding all peppers would just be easiest. For me I generally just wet my fork with the sauce or dressing this way I am getting some of the flavor but none of the chunks, usually that works for me. Thats why a simple "on the side" is easiest at most places. Thank you!

 

[msmama]

Thank you for offering your experiences. This is exactly what I was wondering about. I know they cant serve me a sauceless lasagna for instance but I was hoping I could get a spaghetti with sauce on the side. Or salads with dressings on the side.

There was a kid (tween/teenager?) at the table next to me once who ate an enormous bowl of plain pasta at every meal so that it definitely something I've seen them do.

 

[bakerworld]

Towards the bottom of the menu selections are options that exclude sauces. I will often order from those selections.

 

[monkeydawn]

I wanted to update with the happy report that "on the side" was super easy for me in the MDRs. On my first day I went to my assigned MDR before my seating and spoke with a Head Waiter. He made sure to put in my order of Tangled Pasta, no scallops, pesto on the side even though he wasnt my HW. He continued to check in with me throughout the trip. My HW and servers were also great with my special requests. Most nights I just did a very large Cesar salad (2-3X size) with no dressing (so just romaine and croutons) and then either a pasta with sauce on the side, black bean cakes or another salad. The first couple of nights the servers seemed to doubt me but once they saw I was happy there was more confidence in my strange orders. LOL No one ever made me feel mocked, which I had read several times had happened.

All in all I was very happy with my MDR experiences, fairly happy with Cabanas. One question I have is what in the heck do they use on the omelets that makes them bitter tasting? I assume its whatever grease they use, this was both in Cabanas and the MDR for breakfast. It tasted kind of like that bitter stuff that you can use to keep you from biting your nails. It didnt even taste like any grease gone rancid or anything like that. I varied what I had in my omelet so I dont think that was it. The only other possibility is what they use as egg whites since that is what I always get. Does anyone know what that was?

 

[YawningDodo]

I'm glad to hear it went well for you! Not sure about the omelets, though. I didn't much care for the eggs from Cabanas; I'm fine with a lot of foods that have been under heat lamps, but for some reason eggs just don't work for me in that context.

ETA: I am hesitant to "officially" list the things trigger me with DCL, because its largely situational...how many other things have I had that are rough on me, how well are the items cooked, really a lot of variables. And it seems that once you have something listed as a sensitivity with Disney they are real sticklers about letting you have the item. Which is great for those with severe allergies since it does protect them but isnt so great in situations like mine. Of course the needle should always tilt towards protecting those with life threatening allergies so I understand these precautions, I'd just like to make as little fuss on board as possible so I dont accidentally cause myself more trouble (especially in the future if I really like cruising on DCL and decide to stick with them). I hope that makes sense.

I mostly wanted to reply here to say that yeah, I absolutely get this! I get severe indigestion (like...my-next-five-hours-will-be-hell indigestion) when I eat corn...but corn in some forms can be okay if I don't eat huge amounts of it on an empty stomach, while other things made from corn wreak instant and absolute havok on my stomach. I know which is which is from years of living with it, and I know cross contamination generally won't cause me problems, so I generally don't note it on my Disney dining reservations and I did not tell my serving team about it on DCL. I don't want them to go to tons of trouble eliminating corn from absolutely everything for me when a.) that's not really necessary and b.) I don't want anyone to side-eye me if they spot me chowing down on a bucket of popcorn later in the cruise. That popcorn won't hurt me, but if someone slips up and gets me a regular Coke instead of Diet, the HFCS in it will make things very painful for me.

It's one of those things where I really appreciate Disney's commitment to allergy-safe dining (it's much, much easier to get your hands on an ingredients list at WDW than most places), but it's also a little uncomfortable because their standards go above and beyond what I actually need. But yeah, overall I think it's great that their focus is on keeping allergy sufferers safe.

 

[monkeydawn]

The first HW that I encountered was great. He noted my issues but that I also wanted to self manage. So basically my serving team had a heads up that I had issues and what they were so that they might alert me to hidden ingredients but I could also make the final call as to if I got to try something that might be iffy.