Warning: New Menus for Kids at Some TS Restaurants

[lkjasd]

Just wanted to warn everyone (and I may be late but my search turned up no disucssion of this yet and the old menus are on Allears) that some of the kids menus have changed at TS restaurants. We were at 50's Prime Time Last Thursday and was told that they now had a "new healthy menu" starting that day. Everything my kids planned on eating was now gone. Luckily, the waitress was very good about it and let the really picky ones get a child's portion of the fried chicken. Two days later at Tony's Town Square we encountered the same menu. We were later told "all" disney restaurants were going to this menu for kids.

I'm sorry I can't remember the menus off the top of my head but I know there were three "set" combos that you could change and two "a la carte" choices on each menu. The three combos were the same on all the menus that we saw while the two a la carte items changed depending on the restaurant.

All combos were served in Mickey head shaped trays with the entree in the big area with the appetizer and dessert in the ears.

Three combos were, I think, grilled chicken breast (not fried) with a side salad and fruit cup. A veggie dipper entree with salad and fruit cup, and chicken pizza entree with salad and apple wedges. When you order these you do not get any other dessert.

I am probably way off but it was a week ago and I can't remember exactly what was on the menus. All I remember is our huge dissapointment in the "value" of these meals on the dinning plan and after making ADRs based on the old menus.

If your kids aren't picky and like the a la carte items you probably won't care. For my picky eaters it was horrible. Other parents there were complaining also and were told that they were not allowed to make any substituions from the menu. Disney Dining was called and they were unaware of any menu changes and were still showing the old menus on their system.

Just a warning.

 

[akalittleeva]

My adventurous 8 yo dd will not be happy to see her parents and 10yo brother eating from a wide variety of choices while she has pretty much the same choices day in and day out and I know DS will not want to switch a meal or two with her now and then as planned with the choices you listed - he wouldn't eat any of that. I'd love to hear more info and what restaurants are doing this. If WDW doesn't allow kids to share with parents or pay OOP (not sure if they are doing that ot not, but understand why they might need to), it certainly takes the fun out of dining, at least for my daughter, who has enjoyed perusing the menus almost as much as me.

 

[Stimpy]

Thanks for posting about the changes! Not sure how I feel about this. I am glad that they are finally trying to give healthier choices!

I have a picky eater (& a great eater) but he is picky in that he does not like kid food. (Except Mac & Cheese) So I'm glad they are offering the grilled chicken. He still would not touch a lettuce leaf though and quite honestly neither would the "good eater". I wonder if they would allow the salad to be substituted with apple sauce or fries or anything else?

Also, it's going to be hard to tell him he can't get the dessert he wants. He would definately not eat a fruit cup for dessert, esp if the adults are eating chocolate cake

I also kind of find it weird that they are using the same kind of Mickey "trays" they use at CS. I don't really know why I find it strange but I guess I'm just used to my children eating off real plates at a sit down meal.

 

[lkjasd]

Sorry I can't be more help but my memory isn't what it used to be. Maybe I will have my DW chime in this evening as she probably remembers. Maybe someone else who has been recently can chime in. We were just really dissapointed that they changed it in the middle of our stay.

We were told that it was the "Disney" restaurants. We took this to mean the ones not run by outside groups (i.e. the Epcot Restaurants).

Also, all the menus were on a "Suite Life of Zach and Cody" child menu/game sheet. It takes the kids about two seconds to finsih the maze, etc. They then see the exact same sheet at the next restaurant. Not much fun for them.

 

[Lila95]

I am so glad we booked a lot of buffets and places like LTT and O'Hana where we all get the same food. DD9 would not be happy eating the kids dinner while the rest of us have a wide variety. DS7 would have been fine with the old menu, but with this it looks like he'll be eating mac and cheese every day. That's going to get old. I see a lot of OOP meals in my future

 

[tinan]

Oh no! I hope this is not the case! I can see offering healthier choices, but forcing them? My dnephew will be with us on our trip in Dec. and I swear that boy lives on chicken nuggets. My SIL planned that is what he would eat most meals. I sure hope he can still get that!

 

[lkjasd]

As I mentioned, each restaurant also has two a la carte entrees in addition to the three standard ones. I remember at Tony's Town Square that one of them was spaghetti with a meatball. The other was Mac and Cheese. At 50's it was the chicken nuggets and (I think) Meatloaf. They offered a salad or hicken noodle soup as the appetizer and fruit cup or ice cream as the dessert at both restaurants (If my memeory is working right). At 50's the ice cream was faily generous and had some "make your own sundae" typ of toppings. At Tony's, it was a skimpy single scoop of ice cream.

So, essentially at each restaurant, you get three fixed offerings combos, and two very limited a la carte choices.

As I said, at 50's we got lucky and the waitress was flexible. At Tony's we found other things to eat so didn't need to change. Other people told us that they had waitresses who were not flexible.

 

[lkjasd]

I made a mistake. The other standard meal is NOT Mac and Cheese. It was a Chicken Pizza. Tony's and 50's let us take the chicken off. Mac and Cheese was the other a la carte meal at Tony's.

Sorry for the confusion. I will edit my earlier posts.

 

[AnnetteF]

Chicken Pizza? I wouldn't eat that myself much less expect my DD to eat it. I'm not liking the sound of this at all. Thanks for the warning though.

 

[Lewisc]

Disney can't win with kids meals. Make them too good and adults want to order them. Offer traditional kids meals and parents complain it's not healthy. Offer healthy meals and parents complain their kids want to eat fun food on vacation. I'm not sure how many different kids menu items restaurants can offer. The meal plan costs around $11 for a kid. The snack is worth around $3. That leaves $5-$6 for the TS (including drink, tax and tip) and $2-$3 for the CS meal. Parents want to know why Disney doesn't offer kids a dessert that has a menu price of $5. It's a shame Disney can't vary the menu a little. Offer at least one menu item that's unique to the restaurant. I guess that's what the a la carte items do.

The best deal for kids are the buffets. Kids can eat whatever they want. Alternately parents may consider just paying out of pocket to supplement what's covered by the dining plan.

Disney has too many kids to do this but it almost sounds like the kind of kids menu you'd expect to see if a restaurant was offering a kids eat free promotion. I guess we know why Disney didn't raise the price of the meal plan for kids for 2007.

 

[Pooh Bear Hugs]

I would love to see at least one healthy childs option on all disney menus.

 

[kimberh]

My SIL just returned from a week and her picky grandchildren ate chicken nugetts every night. I do hope Chicken nuggets are on the DDP. We go next week and are taking our grands.

 

[maxsmom]

Well that stinks for those of us who don't use the dining plan also. Are the prices the same then as they would be at the counter service restraunts? They need to be if that's all their giving them. And how many preschoolers eat sald? Or even younger ones. When we bought DS meals we would never order him salad. UGH!
I do think they should have them as an OPTION.

 

[golden1]

Honestly it sounds great to me. There are two "regular" options which I think they had before and three standard healthy options, which is a great idea.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

Two weeks ago, before this change we had noticed less options for children at TS and CS locations. It was hard to find any variety in vegetables, very few salads, and we were sick of fries and applesauce by day 3. If this change provides some variety in healthy options that is good, but the overall variety still seems poor. We won't use DDP again because of the poor child options especially in Epcot where we expected variety - there was no ethnic child meal in Norway or Morocco. We didn't look to see if the Chinese or Japanese pavillions still had ethnic child meals. The kids liked the Mexican child meal and their CS in France because without a child meal they got a croissant sandwich and pastry. Perhaps when DS is 10 if the price is right we'll try DDP again and share with DD while we ignore her child "meals." I wish they would offer a premium/gourmet dining plan to children (and adults?) at a premium price who want higher end options rather than decreasing menu options for everyone just to keep DDP costs down

 

[Lila95]

I don't think people are upset that the kids menu has more healthy options, I think it is still the lack of variety. Three choices for 7 days is not very good. I like that they are offering fruit or salads now, but it would still be nice to have the option of french fries. Most places we eat in our home town offer 5-6 kids meals and you then have the choice of fries, veggies, or fruit on the side. No one wants to eat the same thing over and over the entire vacation.

 

[disneyjunkie]

CHICKEN PIZZA

I think they should offer both healthy options and kid friendly options.

I'm sure most families will be willing to mix and match. Cheese pizza and a side salad, nuggets with carrot sticks and/or apple slices.

It's the all or nothing (all healthy or all kid friendly) that drives most of us nuts.

 

[jenjersnap]

I don't think people are upset that the kids menu has more healthy options, I think it is still the lack of variety. Three choices for 7 days is not very good. I like that they are offering fruit or salads now, but it would still be nice to have the option of french fries. Most places we eat in our home town offer 5-6 kids meals and you then have the choice of fries, veggies, or fruit on the side. No one wants to eat the same thing over and over the entire vacation.

We've found we have to do two buffets/family style for every regular TS to maintain variety and for me, the mom, to feel like my kids were hitting all the food groups on a regular basis.

 

[Disney with Triplets]

Disney can't win with kids meals. Make them too good and adults want to order them. Offer traditional kids meals and parents complain it's not healthy. Offer healthy meals and parents complain their kids want to eat fun food on vacation. I'm not sure how many different kids menu items restaurants can offer. The meal plan costs around $11 for a kid. The snack is worth around $3. That leaves $5-$6 for the TS (including drink, tax and tip) and $2-$3 for the CS meal. Parents want to know why Disney doesn't offer kids a dessert that has a menu price of $5. It's a shame Disney can't vary the menu a little. Offer at least one menu item that's unique to the restaurant. I guess that's what the a la carte items do.

The best deal for kids are the buffets. Kids can eat whatever they want. Alternately parents may consider just paying out of pocket to supplement what's covered by the dining plan.

Disney has too many kids to do this but it almost sounds like the kind of kids menu you'd expect to see if a restaurant was offering a kids eat free promotion. I guess we know why Disney didn't raise the price of the meal plan for kids for 2007.

I think the issue is in variety - if they offered children's portions of the adult meals, or just more choices - my kids get sick and tired of eating the same three things all week so we end up getting adult meals for them or eat at more buffets.

 

[mickeymousemom]

Honestly it sounds great to me. There are two "regular" options which I think they had before and three standard healthy options, which is a great idea.

I agree with this. My 3yo can eat a salad as well as she can eat chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger. She asked me earlier to make her a salad, so no biggie. This trip we'll be doing 3 buffets(1900 Park Fare, CP, Boma), one family style(Ohana x 2), LeCellier and Raglan Road. I'm not at all worried about her getting tired of the same "meals". She's a good eater, and the choices at WDW don't sound bad, esp. when we get to choose off the buffet for her at a few places.