Weird question about kids menu

[KatieBug28]

This is a weird question, but when dining with kids in the MDR, can you request that your party not receive kids menus? And if so, is this something they could make a note of so you don't have to tell them every night?

 

I'm hoping to get my girls to order things like pasta, chicken, steak, soup, etc. off the regular menu for dinner, because I know they'll be eating tons of "kid food" during the day. They like the offerings on the adult menu just fine, but of course would pick chicken fingers or a burger first because it's cool to have a kids menu. Just don't want them living on chicken fingers and burgers for a solid week!

[hillbilly cruiser]

I'm sure you could ask and they would be glad to not bring them, but I always get one even though we don't have our grandkids with us. here are items on there that are not on the adult menu.

[GUT2407]

This is a weird question, but when dining with kids in the MDR, can you request that your party not receive kids menus? And if so, is this something they could make a note of so you don't have to tell them every night?

 

I'm hoping to get my girls to order things like pasta, chicken, steak, soup, etc. off the regular menu for dinner, because I know they'll be eating tons of "kid food" during the day. They like the offerings on the adult menu just fine, but of course would pick chicken fingers or a burger first because it's cool to have a kids menu. Just don't want them living on chicken fingers and burgers for a solid week!

 

 

Should be no problem.

[springs741]

I understand that you want to encourage and expand your children's food knowledge and develop their taste of different foods. A cruise is the perfect place. They can explore new food options and learn good table manors. My question is why do you need the already overworked staff to remember no kids menus. Can you not just say the wait staff and children, "we are ordering off the adult menu tonight"?

[linbobky]

you can, but, the banana split is on the kids menu.:)

[SteelerCruiser]

love the mac n cheese and banana split on the Kids Menu but I would say just ask your server to not bring it. Usually we have to ask for one if my Son wants one.

[cruizinisthebest]

Actually on our last cruise, our wait team only brought us kids menus after asking if they wanted them or not. The head waiter pretty much recited what was on it anyway, so we never even saw one. And if I remember right the little one only ordered off the kids menu once.

[KatieBug28]

I understand that you want to encourage and expand your children's food knowledge and develop their taste of different foods. A cruise is the perfect place. They can explore new food options and learn good table manors. My question is why do you need the already overworked staff to remember no kids menus. Can you not just say the wait staff and children, "we are ordering off the adult menu tonight"?

 

That is a good point. I guess I'm trying to avoid an argument, because if the kids know that kids menu items are an option, they are going to want them. And while they won't have a full scale meltdown if I tell them no, there will be whining involved. And I want to try to avoid whining while I'm on vacation.

 

Sounds like for quite a few people, the kids menu has only come when they actually asked for it, which would be perfect! I couldn't remember if that was the case on our last cruise or not. Mostly all I remember from that time was my DD was in a shrimp phase and ate shrimp cocktail every single night. Which is funny, because she loved shrimp at 3, but now at 5 she won't touch them! But my youngest will seriously eat ANYTHING. We call her "the Garburator". It will be her first cruise at age 2, and I'm SURE she will be trying some new things!

[CruisingSoon88]

My kids are 5 and 8 and have been on 5 cruises. They have never ordered off of the kids menu. They wouldn't like it anyway so our circumstance has been different. I applaud you for making your kids step out of their comfort zone. In our experiences, the hostess has asked discreetly about the kids menu and after 1 or at the most 2 nights, they know not to ask. You can always find an excuse to get to the hostess stand first and tell them not to offer the kids menu. They try so hard to accommodate so I don't think it would be an issue. Good luck!

[momof3cruisers]

That is a good point. I guess I'm trying to avoid an argument, because if the kids know that kids menu items are an option, they are going to want them. And while they won't have a full scale meltdown if I tell them no, there will be whining involved. And I want to try to avoid whining while I'm on vacation.

 

Sounds like for quite a few people, the kids menu has only come when they actually asked for it, which would be perfect! I couldn't remember if that was the case on our last cruise or not. Mostly all I remember from that time was my DD was in a shrimp phase and ate shrimp cocktail every single night. Which is funny, because she loved shrimp at 3, but now at 5 she won't touch them! But my youngest will seriously eat ANYTHING. We call her "the Garburator". It will be her first cruise at age 2, and I'm SURE she will be trying some new things!

With my kids who are older, we have always told them ahead of time that they have to look at the adult menu first and really try to find something they think sounds good. It's only been a couple of times, that they have ended up ordering off of the kids menu. One night, the youngest was just tired and wanted something simple and another night, the oldest really wanted the Mac and cheese. She was 15 at the time. LOL

 

My boys did order a few fruit cups every night too.

 

But my kids as I say are older. With kids at 2 and 5 I would just ask them not to bring it. There is always steak and chicken if nothing else appeals.

[Athankfulheart]

I showed my kids a picture of the kids menu before their first Carnival cruise. I explained that they could order from there one night of the week and the rest from the regular menu. That worked really well and they budgeted their kids menu night well LOL. We don't eat most of those foods at home but rarely, and I didn't want them feeling yucky on vacation from eating poorly.

[KatieCharlotte]

 

Sounds like for quite a few people, the kids menu has only come when they actually asked for it, which would be perfect! I couldn't remember if that was the case on our last cruise or not.

 

It has varied from ship to ship whether we've had kids menus brought automatically. The kids only ordered dessert from them because they preferred the adult menu and wanted to feel like grownups, but I can see why you'd want to avoid the kids menus. I would wait to see whether they are brought, and if they are instruct the waiter that you don't need them. I can't see a problem with a polite request. Our waiters have always voluntarily gone out of their way to make the kids, especially the adorable littlest one, happy, including bringing her a big bowl of ice cream when she refused to eat her entrée. :D Fortunately, we're pretty relaxed on vacation and didn't mind too much.

Edited October 20, 2014 by KatieCharlotte

[hirent]

If you request them to not bring a kids menu the first night, I'm sure they will remember it.

As far as I know, the wait staff takes down notes about a guest's preferences.

We had 'Any Time Dining' on the Valor but we sat at the same table nearly every night with the same excellent wait staff. The head waitress (Monica from Romania) was the best! She asked for and noted down our preferences the first night and remembered it every time we came in, to direct her assistants.

I'm not sure if they note it down on a centralized computer system or just a personal notepad.

Edited October 20, 2014 by hirent

[tkportersat]

If you go to set dining I am sure the waiters will remember your request just like they do when they find out you like Ice tea and have it sitting at the table waiting when you get there. Or maybe before you go to dinner the first night you could mention it to the Maitre D your preference?

 

Just be careful with experimenting....my tween daughter years ago did away with the kids menu and ordered some sort of smoked salmon. A couple hours later I was having a blast dancing in the club and security was coming to get me because my daughter had puked all over her bed. :eek: If they aren't real food courageous at home, vacation may not be the place to experiment. I know there are certain things that don't settle with me after a bunch of activity, sun, drinks, etc. Sometimes I just want something plain not fancy.

 

Good luck either way ;)

Edited October 20, 2014 by tkportersat

[cruizinisthebest]

If you go to set dining I am sure the waiters will remember your request just like they do when they find out you like Ice tea and have it sitting at the table waiting when you get there. Or maybe before you go to dinner the first night you could mention it to the Maitre D your preference?

 

Just be careful with experimenting....my tween daughter years ago did away with the kids menu and ordered some sort of smoked salmon. A couple hours later I was having a blast dancing in the club and security was coming to get me because my daughter had puked all over her bed. :eek: If they aren't real food courageous at home, vacation may not be the place to experiment. I know there are certain things that don't settle with me after a bunch of activity, sun, drinks, etc. Sometimes I just want something plain not fancy.

 

Good luck either way ;)

 

 

I was thinking the same thing as you. While I get wanting them to try new foods, I don't know that I would push the idea - or basically force it - while on a cruise vacation. Actually unless we're in familiar parts, I don't even allow my kids to try fish items they've never had before. My son tried a curry dish one time when we were on vacation in South Florida and wound up with a wicked headache all night. I encourage them to try new foods, but I really don't care what menu they eat from so long as they don't waste it.

 

And I totally agree that not everything goes with a full day's activities, sun, fun, pools, beach, etc.

Edited October 20, 2014 by cruizinisthebest

[jkneern]

Just want to add...some of the food on the "adult" menu may be a little heavy for a 2 & 5 yr old. They still have the basic chicken and steak but I agree save the burger, chic fingers, pizza for lunch.

[cruisinmeme]

you can, but, the banana split is on the kids menu.:)

 

 

Also the good brownies and cookies and we add some ice cream !

[stargate fan]

This is a weird question, but when dining with kids in the MDR, can you request that your party not receive kids menus? And if so, is this something they could make a note of so you don't have to tell them every night?

 

I'm hoping to get my girls to order things like pasta, chicken, steak, soup, etc. off the regular menu for dinner, because I know they'll be eating tons of "kid food" during the day. They like the offerings on the adult menu just fine, but of course would pick chicken fingers or a burger first because it's cool to have a kids menu. Just don't want them living on chicken fingers and burgers for a solid week!

 

Definitely you can. The dining room staff members are so good at remembering things, like who drinks what every night.

 

But be warned...you are setting yourself up for when you get back home. ;) After our boys' first cruise, on which they only ordered off the adult menu, they decided to continue and TRY to eat that way at restaurants at home, where we had to pay! :eek: (Please know that this is tongue-in-cheek.)

 

Good for you for expanding your kids' palates. We were fortunate in that our boys were very adventurous eaters. We now have a girl-in-law who is a somewhat fussy eater and it's killing us.

[CrusinCyndi]

I love the kids menu....I could order off it all week...LOL

 

Especially love the chicken nuggets....very good actually..real chicken

 

 

And the deserts............YUM

[KatieBug28]

I was thinking the same thing as you. While I get wanting them to try new foods, I don't know that I would push the idea - or basically force it - while on a cruise vacation. Actually unless we're in familiar parts, I don't even allow my kids to try fish items they've never had before. My son tried a curry dish one time when we were on vacation in South Florida and wound up with a wicked headache all night. I encourage them to try new foods, but I really don't care what menu they eat from so long as they don't waste it.

 

And I totally agree that not everything goes with a full day's activities, sun, fun, pools, beach, etc.

 

I agree with both of you. I won't be forcing them to try anything new. In fact, eating burgers and mac and cheese for lunch every day will be outside the norm, so that's part of why I want to try to make dinner "normal". We don't do "kid food" and "grown up food" at our house, it's all just food. So they are pretty good at eating a wide variety of things. And my husband lived in Mexico City for 2 years, so I'm sure he'll drag us all off to some little shack to get street tacos while we are in port :p So far we've done it on every trip to Mexico and never been sick, so we'll cross our fingers that it all goes well once again!

[rarasnake]

I completely agree with the other cruisers in that you are setting yourself up both on the ship and when you get back home...

 

#1- you are on a cruise, having them eat foods that they don't normally eat, be it more greasy, consistency or heaviness and then having them on a swaying boat all afternoon is a receipe for disaster. Kids will get sick and I wouldn't want to be the one staying in my room for 2-3 days while my child is quarantined due to illness (because if they see them getting sick, they will block them access to the ship until they can rule out any contagious illnesses and chop it up to new foods)...

 

#2- yes, they will decide that once they are back home that, "I am big now, I don't need a kid's menu at ___ establishment... Oh yes, the lobster really looks good.." because that is what you are telling them on the ship...

 

I would suggest this, read them the menu, if they hear something that sounds good, order it and if they still want something on the kids menu, order that too! Yes, you can order one of each meal and have it brought out for them. My kids are very picky and only ordered off the adult's menu twice but guess what, every night, they had an adult entree placed in front of them, along with their kid's meal. Some nights, we would order them an extra plate but sometimes, the waiters actually had a speciality dish made up for them. It was a hit and miss and the waiters never balked that they didn't finish their food. They got to try new things but weren't push to eat it or go hungry.. We did have 1 night of a slight stomach illness with 2 of our kids also. We chalked it up to that they both had the same thing and it was something new for both of them...

[KatieBug28]

I completely agree with the other cruisers in that you are setting yourself up both on the ship and when you get back home...

 

#1- you are on a cruise, having them eat foods that they don't normally eat, be it more greasy, consistency or heaviness and then having them on a swaying boat all afternoon is a receipe for disaster. Kids will get sick and I wouldn't want to be the one staying in my room for 2-3 days while my child is quarantined due to illness (because if they see them getting sick, they will block them access to the ship until they can rule out any contagious illnesses and chop it up to new foods)...

 

#2- yes, they will decide that once they are back home that, "I am big now, I don't need a kid's menu at ___ establishment... Oh yes, the lobster really looks good.." because that is what you are telling them on the ship...

 

I would suggest this, read them the menu, if they hear something that sounds good, order it and if they still want something on the kids menu, order that too! Yes, you can order one of each meal and have it brought out for them. My kids are very picky and only ordered off the adult's menu twice but guess what, every night, they had an adult entree placed in front of them, along with their kid's meal. Some nights, we would order them an extra plate but sometimes, the waiters actually had a speciality dish made up for them. It was a hit and miss and the waiters never balked that they didn't finish their food. They got to try new things but weren't push to eat it or go hungry.. We did have 1 night of a slight stomach illness with 2 of our kids also. We chalked it up to that they both had the same thing and it was something new for both of them...

 

Thank you so much for your advice. I really think we will be OK. Both kids eat a wide variety of foods and while fast food isn't something we eat often, they have certainly had their fair share of burgers and chicken nuggets over the years. My whole goal here is to give them a varied diet like the one they experience at home, with maybe a few extra slices of pizza thrown in since we are on vacation.

 

I really don't understand the concern regarding the menus when we get home? They will be 2 and 6 at the time of cruising, I doubt they will come home and start telling me they need to order the 16 oz. ribeye every time we go out. Then again, we don't really order off the children's menu much as it is. We often share entrees, because portion sizes are so large, and while my kids will get pizza or a hot dog if it is offered, they are perfectly happy to share whatever I am eating most of the time.

[sanmarcosman]

 

We did have 1 night of a slight stomach illness with 2 of our kids also.

 

Oh no, were they quarantined to the cabin until the source of illness was confirmed as you mentioned happens in these situations?

[tkportersat]

Well, like most parent posts you know your kiddos better than we do and what their normal MO is. I think it is great to broaden their horizons!

 

I agree with both of you. I won't be forcing them to try anything new. In fact, eating burgers and mac and cheese for lunch every day will be outside the norm, so that's part of why I want to try to make dinner "normal". We don't do "kid food" and "grown up food" at our house, it's all just food. So they are pretty good at eating a wide variety of things. And my husband lived in Mexico City for 2 years, so I'm sure he'll drag us all off to some little shack to get street tacos while we are in port :p So far we've done it on every trip to Mexico and never been sick, so we'll cross our fingers that it all goes well once again!

[Remus2010]

OP, I am sorry that no one listens or reads. I understand on long posts you don't have time to read them all the before you reply, but you stated several times, that your kids eat normal adult food at home daily. Why people assume that you don't know what foods your own kids can handle? You were asking about a menu. Ok, sorry for the rant, just got on my nerve.

On the other hand. My niece ate what everyone else at the table was eating for dinner, end of story. My nephews (Oy) may at have a full body shut down if they had to eat (home cooked) not

pre-packaged, processed food or any fruit or vegetables. And french fries & gummy fruit do NOT count. Lol

 

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