Cruisers with kids, Food tips

[codeyell0]

While cruising recently on MG
Shaq's chicken is awesome BTW.  
On the last 2 nights of the cruise, my kids were tired of pizza and Shaq's was closed. (I wish they stayed open later)

The buffet has no kid's options.  

We ordered room service because they had items my kids would eat.
I asked guest services about this and they said Go to the main dining room and order to go.
I wish I had known this prior.   It's still annoying to have to go to another restaurant to get kids' food.  (just offer this on the buffet)

If you have some other tips please let me/us know.   

I truly wish there was something more, I don't know what's available you seem to have to ask for a lot. I always find out too late

[staceyglow]

My kids ate the "adult" food on the ships, just like they did at home. I guess I am lucky they are not picky eaters. 

[mz-s]

The dining room isn't set up for to go. In fact I don't think they will let you take the food out of there. My understanding is JH has reported that on his facebook page. They probably just told you that to get you out of line.

 

Time to broaden your kids horizons from pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets it sounds like...

Edited February 26, 2023 by mz-s

[Joebucks]

Sounds like you were only eating at the buffet. The MDR has a kids menu. I'd eat there vs getting it to go. 

[codeyell0]

10 minutes ago, mz-s said:

The dining room isn't set up for to go. In fact I don't think they will let you take the food out of there. My understanding is JH has reported that on his facebook page. They probably just told you that to get you out of line.

 

Time to broaden your kids horizons from pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets it sounds like...

I didn't eat in the buffet much.  The food choices were blah. 
I have children with food allergies, and we do not like seafood. the buffet was not kid friendly for dinner.
 

[ruready]

Hmmm… I never had issues for food on any cruise line when my kid was young and he was picky.  However, I also did not just cook things my son liked, so he had to sometimes “figure it out”, lol.  He never went hungry 🙂

[mz-s]

8 minutes ago, codeyell0 said:

I didn't eat in the buffet much.  The food choices were blah. 
I have children with food allergies, and we do not like seafood. the buffet was not kid friendly for dinner.
 

 

Talk to the "Menu Mate" desk, available fleetwide at every dining location, for help navigating food allergies.

 

If you and your kids don't eat at the buffet and ran out of dining options on Mardi Gras, you have no business sailing Carnival ever again because Mardi Gras has by far the most non-buffet dining options in the fleet.

 

And for what it's worth I agree Carnival's buffets are largely blah to disgusting. It used to be so much better it's actually sad.

Edited February 26, 2023 by mz-s

[maintain242001]

My 13 and 16 year old are pretty simple, they eat at Lido for breakfast, shouldn't be an issue for most at that time.  The rest of the day they ate Shaqs and Guys, had pizza around 8 or so and they were good to go.  The oldest would go to pig and anchor a few times for brisket.  I think the new ships have plenty of decent options, not sure we even tried the street eats even though some things looked decent coming from there.

Edited February 26, 2023 by maintain242001

[EngIceDave]

Sometimes I think that while Carnival a the family cruise, kids still are a minority and people forget that. My wife asked at the kids camp about better kiddie food options and got the total 411

 

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by EngIceDave

[havanadaydreaming]

Hard one here, im afraid.  If the MDR and buffet dont have enough items or variety its gonna be a real challenge. 

 

And i say this as a parent of 2 (of 3) adult kids with food allergies.  Fortunately ive never experienced them being too bored of selections to finish a meal.  

[Thenagers]

I have read that they will do a standard grilled cheese at the Panini place?  Maybe someone can comfirm? Also I think they have fries?

Edited February 26, 2023 by Thenagers

[starstruck05]

I have gotten my dinner to go in the dining room several times. Never been a problem. You can't just walk in and order. They still seat you at a table and you just inform your wait staff that you would like to take your meal to go. Never had a problem except balancing plates lol. But if allergies are the main problem, you should check in with the Menu Mates team. They can accommodate whatever you need. Also the deli will make grilled cheese. You have to ask of course since it's not on the menu.

[clairebearinaus]

What do you mean by 'kids food' though?

 

When mine were younger, they just ate smaller portions of what we ate.  (Now, much bigger portions!)

 

Understood yours don't eat fish but would they not eat some meat from the carvery, pasta or rice, potatoes or fries, vegetables?  Some bread and butter?

[staceyglow]

A cruise is actually a great place to introduce new foods to kids. There is a big variety, and if they don't happen to care for it, no big deal. They can get something else. 

[john91498]

The mdr has a kids menu and you can request items to go. We ate at the buffet a few times instead of the mdr, but still called the mdr for burgers and chicken tenders to go. They put the food in the same containers as room service when we went to pick it up.

[dlphn501]

19 hours ago, clairebearinaus said:

What do you mean by 'kids food' though?

 

When mine were younger, they just ate smaller portions of what we ate.  (Now, much bigger portions!)

 

Understood yours don't eat fish but would they not eat some meat from the carvery, pasta or rice, potatoes or fries, vegetables?  Some bread and butter?

I never found pasta on any Carnival cruise I've been on, other than mac n cheese on the kids MDR menu (which is AMAZING, and I always order for myself lol).  It's been my only food complaint bc I love pasta!  Most kids don't eat vegetables, and the ones they do, are not available.  I sometimes struggle to find veggies that I like because the ones offered are always a little too fancy for my palate.  My picky 11-year old will eat french fries and bread n butter all day long if I let her, but I won't.  

I didn't know they had grilled cheese in the deli; that is promising!

It didn't sound like the OP's kids went hungry, just that they were disappointed and maybe had the munchies a few times with nothing they wanted.

[kristinp36]

45 minutes ago, dlphn501 said:

I never found pasta on any Carnival cruise I've been on, other than mac n cheese on the kids MDR menu (which is AMAZING, and I always order for myself lol).  It's been my only food complaint bc I love pasta!  Most kids don't eat vegetables, and the ones they do, are not available.  I sometimes struggle to find veggies that I like because the ones offered are always a little too fancy for my palate.  My picky 11-year old will eat french fries and bread n butter all day long if I let her, but I won't.  

I didn't know they had grilled cheese in the deli; that is promising!

It didn't sound like the OP's kids went hungry, just that they were disappointed and maybe had the munchies a few times with nothing they wanted.

Many of the ships have a pasta bar and even more have the paid Italian restaurant 

[dlphn501]

Just now, kristinp36 said:

Many of the ships have a pasta bar and even more have the paid Italian restaurant 

I've never been on any of those ships 😞  It was one of the things I was most looking forward to on Magic in June of 2020...then in August of 2020 ... and I am still waiting for my moment, lol.

[JenCruise710]

We have a super picky eater, so I've taken to trying to encourage her to try more new things leading up to the cruise. She gets a stamp/sticker for each new thing she tries and if she fills the whole card before our cruise this summer, we told her we'd take her to the fancy restaurant to get whatever she wants, even if it's just every dessert on the menu. lol. She's 6, so if it even gets 1 new thing on her regular rotation, I'll claim it as a win.  We're already seeing less drama around new things. Just a thought. 

 

[4hunters]

Maybe it's just me, but when I was a kid my parents didn't cater to my tastes.  I was offered whatever was being served and if I didn't eat, I went hungry. 

 

As a kid I would have been ecstatic to be offered free roam at a buffet so I could choose exactly what I wanted. 😉

[Mic101680]

2 hours ago, 4hunters said:

Maybe it's just me, but when I was a kid my parents didn't cater to my tastes.  I was offered whatever was being served and if I didn't eat, I went hungry. 

 

As a kid I would have been ecstatic to be offered free roam at a buffet so I could choose exactly what I wanted. 😉

This was us too growing up. If we didn't want what mom made for dinner, we could make a PBJ or a bowl of cereal. We also had a rule that any new food, we had to take 3 bites (even if they were small) - one to get over the initial shock of the new flavor/texture, one to taste, and one to decide if we actually liked it or not.

[staceyglow]

21 hours ago, Mic101680 said:

This was us too growing up. If we didn't want what mom made for dinner, we could make a PBJ or a bowl of cereal. We also had a rule that any new food, we had to take 3 bites (even if they were small) - one to get over the initial shock of the new flavor/texture, one to taste, and one to decide if we actually liked it or not.

Kids don't know that certain foods are "kid" foods or "adult" foods unless they get cues from other people. My kids ate fish, broccoli, peas, whatever we ate, and they never knew they weren't supposed to like it. They ate off the adult menu every night in the MDR. I remember one cruise we sat next to a set of parents who asked the servers to bring thair daughter a plate of buttered noodles every night, and that was all she ate for the entire 8 days. My kids were astonished that parents would actually do that, and actually expressed some concern about her nutritional health. 

[nwo4life]

On 2/28/2023 at 5:42 PM, dlphn501 said:

I never found pasta on any Carnival cruise I've been on, other than mac n cheese on the kids MDR menu (which is AMAZING, and I always order for myself lol).  It's been my only food complaint bc I love pasta!  Most kids don't eat vegetables, and the ones they do, are not available.  I sometimes struggle to find veggies that I like because the ones offered are always a little too fancy for my palate.  My picky 11-year old will eat french fries and bread n butter all day long if I let her, but I won't.  

I didn't know they had grilled cheese in the deli; that is promising!

It didn't sound like the OP's kids went hungry, just that they were disappointed and maybe had the munchies a few times with nothing they wanted.

There is a pasta option every evening in the MDR. 

[dlphn501]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

Kids don't know that certain foods are "kid" foods or "adult" foods unless they get cues from other people. My kids ate fish, broccoli, peas, whatever we ate, and they never knew they weren't supposed to like it. They ate off the adult menu every night in the MDR. I remember one cruise we sat next to a set of parents who asked the servers to bring thair daughter a plate of buttered noodles every night, and that was all she ate for the entire 8 days. My kids were astonished that parents would actually do that, and actually expressed some concern about her nutritional health. 

My sister and brother-in-law still cruise with their grown sons (in their mid-30's), but on the mouse-line.  My younger nephew orders buttered noodles in the MDR every night.  In NOW time as a grown adult.

[TravelE]

On 2/26/2023 at 11:47 AM, codeyell0 said:

While cruising recently on MG
Shaq's chicken is awesome BTW.  
On the last 2 nights of the cruise, my kids were tired of pizza and Shaq's was closed. (I wish they stayed open later)

The buffet has no kid's options.  

We ordered room service because they had items my kids would eat.
I asked guest services about this and they said Go to the main dining room and order to go.
I wish I had known this prior.   It's still annoying to have to go to another restaurant to get kids' food.  (just offer this on the buffet)

If you have some other tips please let me/us know.   

I truly wish there was something more, I don't know what's available you seem to have to ask for a lot. I always find out too late

 

Those are good tips! It's tough because when kids are hungry they are "right now hungry."

 

It would be nice if Shaq's, Guy's or even Blue Iguana were open later. The buffet might have been able to help you if you mentioned the kid's allergies. I know when my kids were younger that they occasionally ate dinner in the buffet with the kids club. The menu looked like chicken nuggets, fries, etc. You can call the Special Needs department before your next cruise to find out who to talk to for each ship.