Rant: Kids Menu= Horrible Diet

[Ava]

The complaints then would be "These menus are way too complicated. It's taking people too long to decide what they want to order. The lines are horrendous. Disney should simplify things."

That is the truth.

As many people have said before in this thread, if you don't like the kid's menu choices don't buy them. Problem solved. If a majority of visitors stop buying the kid's meals, Disney will do research & change them to fit what their guests want to buy. Until then, if they are selling well Disney has no reason to change them.

 

[robinb]

Is your whole family vegetarian? My daughter is leaning that way and we have always been a house of happy omnivores.

Oh my goodness, no! My DH and I are TOTAL carnivores. My DD never ate meat as a baby. Never. And unlike the OP I had no desire to force her to eat something she literally spat out each and every time I tried to feed it to her. Her vegetarianism is not something worth me fighting her over . Especially since my DH and I love good, complex & spicy foods and we didn't want to dumb down our own diet to a kids' palate. Yes, that means I feed my DD her own meal about half the time. The other half we eat the same basic meal but she eats beans or tofu and we eat beef or chicken.

 

[C.Ann]

That is the truth.

As many people have said before in this thread, if you don't like the kid's menu choices don't buy them. Problem solved. If a majority of visitors stop buying the kid's meals, Disney will do research & change them to fit what their guests want to buy. Until then, if they are selling well Disney has no reason to change them.

Exactly.. I don't know a whole heck of a lot about marketing, but it seems to me that common sense would dictate that Disney keeps track of what sells and what doesn't.. (Or in the case of free dining, how much of the children's food offerings are served and/or consumed..)

If people stop purchasing what they consider unhealthy choices for their children - and the numbers drop - then (and only then) will Disney make changes to the menu.. Let's not forget Disney is more than "magic" - their bottom line is to make money..

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Oh my goodness, no! My DH and I are TOTAL carnivores. My DD never ate meat as a baby. Never. And unlike the OP I had no desire to force her to eat something she literally spat out each and every time I tried to feed it to her. Her vegetarianism is not something worth me fighting her over . Especially since my DH and I love good, complex & spicy foods and we didn't want to dumb down our own diet to a kids' palate. Yes, that means I feed my DD her own meal about half the time. The other half we eat the same basic meal but she eats beans or tofu and we eat beef or chicken.

That is where we are. I keep quinoa, tofu and beans with rice in the fridge always. It has been interesting, lol.

 

[ilovepete]

I am with you. Most of them are horrible and it is the number one thing I hate about our trips to Disney (usually 3 times a year or so). I have found some decent ones there though and we try to eat there.

 

[Nahanni]

We do some of our WDW tour planning based on the kids meals available rather than hoping the nearest eating place will have something we want for the kids.

In comparison, we went to Busch Gardens last week and could only find milk available at 2 large locations (Zambia smokehouse and Zagora Cafe) and not a bottle of juice on site.

 

[grafxgirl]

Neither of our kids are picky eaters and prefer more grown up meals, lots of fruits and veggies. We order from the kids menu, but also give them some of our items since neither of us ever eat everything.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We just got back yesterday from a week at the World. On Thursday as we were leaving Epcot, we were stopped by a CM and asked to take a survey about the food we had eaten that day. I almost passed on it because we were running a little tight on time to get DD to the Neverland Club that evening, but I was wondering what they might ask about. Interestingly enough, there was a series of questions regarding the options for kids and whether I was satisfied that there were enough healthy options for kids. Unfortunately, they wanted me to confine my answers to just the locations we had eaten at that day in Epcot, which was only Chef de France. So I didn't have the opportunity to comment on the counter service meals. But I'm wondering if they are getting a lot of comments from parents on the kids' menu options and that's why they were surveying guests.

There was one meal when the meal offered to DD really bothered me. We were at 50s PTC for lunch. DD ordered the side salad for an appetizer. The salad was limp shredded iceberg lettuce and carrots topped with one cucumber slice and a cherry tomato. The lettuce looked really disgusting. DD just picked at it, and I couldn't blame her for that. I had ordered the fried chicken and asked to sub a small side salad for the southern greens since I'm not a big fan of greens. My salad came with my entree, rather than before it like DD's. When my meal arrived, my salad was very fresh romaine lettuce with shredded parmasean cheese and croutons. It looked like they just gave me a tiny bowl of the salad they give to people who order the ceasar salad. The contrast between the quality of the two salads was disheartening. I seriously don't understand why they couldn't offer the fresher, better lettuce to kids. I offered my salad to DD but she had decided at that point that she wasn't going to eat anything. I should have complained right there, but since DD was struggling with her moods, I just wanted to get the meal over and get out of there before she had a meltdown. We succeeded with that so I counted it as a successful meal, but I do think I will be writing WDW to tell them how disappointed I was.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Did you consider taking the salad back? I would have gone up and asked for a fresh one. i hate crappy salads.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Did you consider taking the salad back? I would have gone up and asked for a fresh one. i hate crappy salads.

When we only had DD's salad, I assumed the shredded iceberg was just what the restaurant carried and there wasn't another choice. I didn't know they had romaine available until my salad came, and DD will usually only eat romaine. If she had agreed to eat mine, I would have asked for another. But DD had fallen into a down cycle that morning, and it was one of those days when I know to not push her on eating. She drank a little bit of a milkshake at that meal and that was it. I was having enough trouble getting her to look at me and speak to me. Trying to coerce her into eating would have guaranteed a meltdown. At that point, it wasn't worth it.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

fair enough. i wouldn't push it either at that point. glad she had some shake. my sil once gave us a huge lecture about feeding our children when we gave my son a shake instead of making him eat. she had no understanding that we had to get something into him to raise his blood sugar enough that he could make a decent lunch decision.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We had temps in the mid-90s and heat indexes above 100 all last week. The heat was really affecting both of our eating. There were a few meals when I let us both just eat ice cream because we couldn't stomach an actual meal. DD did eat a decent dinner later that night once the temps had cooled off a bit.

 

[Evi]

So here is my solution to this problem. When I made my reservation I asked about dinning plan for kids and explained that my nieces don't eat nuggets and applesauce often and are accustomed to home cooked meals by their grandmother (this is true she feeds them everyday)(The girls eat salads and tons of veggies and rarely eat anything fried) and we will be doing table service plan. I was told my the Disney rep to put the girls in as being 10 yrs old. This would allow them to order off the regular menu or the children s if they wanted. So I did and the grand total was $50 more for both of them over the course of 9 days. I think its worth it and I don't think its a lot. So if you don't like what Disney offers on their meal plan for kids upgrade your kids to the adult package. I know the girls will not consume an entire adult portion so I'll just ask them to make a child size plate for them when we order.

 

[powellrj]

So here is my solution to this problem. When I made my reservation I asked about dinning plan for kids and explained that my nieces don't eat nuggets and applesauce often and are accustomed to home cooked meals by their grandmother (this is true she feeds them everyday)(The girls eat salads and tons of veggies and rarely eat anything fried) and we will be doing table service plan. I was told my the Disney rep to put the girls in as being 10 yrs old. This would allow them to order off the regular menu or the children s if they wanted. So I did and the grand total was $50 more for both of them over the course of 9 days. I think its worth it and I don't think its a lot. So if you don't like what Disney offers on their meal plan for kids upgrade your kids to the adult package. I know the girls will not consume an entire adult portion so I'll just ask them to make a child size plate for them when we order.

The problem is most people don't want to have to buy the adult tickets for their kids under 10. You really have to pay twice, once for the adult dinning plan and once for the adult tickets.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

The problem is most people don't want to have to buy the adult tickets for their kids under 10. You really have to pay twice, once for the adult dinning plan and once for the adult tickets.

I think the PP was talking about doing this during the free dining plan offer. The difference in the ticket price between adult and child would be about $50. The difference in the cost of the dining plan between an adult and a child would be about $30/day. That would add up and it might be better to pay OOP if it isn't during free dining.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I think the PP was talking about doing this during the free dining plan offer. The difference in the ticket price between adult and child would be about $50. The difference in the cost of the dining plan between an adult and a child would be about $30/day. That would add up and it might be better to pay OOP if it isn't during free dining.

at that point, complaining about free food is a bit ridiculous.

 

[Jessica14]

I haven't read through everything since I posted a while back on this thread, but I see that it has gotten quite heated! I have one very picky eater who is milk allergic(no mac and cheese, limited pizza) and one who will eat anything. DD will certainly eat grapes at ever kids meal, no problem. I am concerned about so many nuggets, but we also have several buffets planned just for this reason. I know a lot of people don't care for them, but it really works for us. We have FD which saved us a bundle so essentially we are going to just go with it for a week. I did a lot of research before making my ADRs and taking the plan, so I know exactly what my options are. We are bringing oatmeal and boxed milk for breakfast in the room and maybe some fruit of some kind that we pick up there. Although the prospect of cinnamon rolls from the MK bakery sounds great, its just not a good way for us to start our day. I'm aiming for a little balance, not all the way one way or the other.

And if the majority of people were not letting their kids eat nuggets, et al all the time, Disney wouldn't be selling them. My guess is that while many people are heath concious on behalf of their kids, many more could care less, which is why we have an childhood obesity problem in this country. How many people get refillable mugs for their kids to drink soda all day? Probably plenty. Disney is appealing to what the majority want. It's not really up to them to change the eating habits of families. I think that the efforts they have made towards heathier options is postiive though.
Jessica

Update-I just told DD7 about this thread and that some were unsure about the grapes with every meal. Well, she smiled and said, "Oooooo!", and got very excited about the prospect of grapes 2x a day! To each her own!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

at that point, complaining about free food is a bit ridiculous.

True, but people will complain anyway.

Then again, free dining isn't exactly free since you have to pay rack rate for the room. It always works out better for DD and me to use a 40% off room discount and pay for the dining plan.

 

[maxiesmom]

And if the majority of people were not letting their kids eat nuggets, et al all the time, Disney wouldn't be selling them. My guess is that while many people are heath concious on behalf of their kids, many more could care less, which is why we have an childhood obesity problem in this country. How many people get refillable mugs for their kids to drink soda all day? Probably plenty. Disney is appealing to what the majority want. It's not really up to them to change the eating habits of families.

I don't agree that so many people could care less what their kids eat. I think that people do tend to be more relaxed with their rules on vacation, and that includes what they will or will not let their child eat.

If a kid wants chicken nuggets for 7 days in a row, there isn't any harm in it, as long as that is not their normal diet.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I don't agree that so many people could care less what their kids eat. I think that people do tend to be more relaxed with their rules on vacation, and that includes what they will or will not let their child eat.

If a kid wants chicken nuggets for 7 days in a row, there isn't any harm in it, as long as that is not their normal diet.

absolutely. As long as we keep everyone hydrated, and sugar levels even so they aren't crabby, that is what vacation food is all about.