Dining at Disney post bariatric surgery

[igrsod]

First, don't view the loss of food as a negativity. That mindset will drag you down. Yes there are plenty of food options that you might have to weigh if it is worth the price for so little food? I was sleeved 2+ years ago and have to make this call when booking dining reservations for my family. I try to not think of it negatively. Instead I remember if the food was decent and a good value. If not then no loss. If it was good food then I know that there may be waste and a high price, but it's for quality. Otherwise I share a meal with another member of my party when possible.

DH and I or DD and I often share meals at both QS and TS restaurants just like we do locally. We now skip most buffets where before we would be all over them, even if the food quality was low. Now if we do a buffet we think about which is the better option (characters and food options) and only do one if at all. WDW has so many great places to eat that even a small portion will suffice and not detract from the experience. I still indulge in snacks while at the parks, but not as many and again I share them. I don;t need the whole Mickey ice cream bar or box of popcorn.

I don't know that she was trying to be negative. Because she is pre surgery, I think she is trying to imagine what her life will be like post surgery. And because Disney is a big part of our family vacations... and the food is one of the things we enjoy while at Disney... she was just worried that it would detract from her enjoyment of Disney. I'm confident that it will still be great. Anyways, I just appreciate reading all the posts.

 

[Lisa F]

My 20 year old daughter is in the process of having this surgery. One of her concerns, is how am I going to go to Disney and still enjoy the eating experience? (as sill as it would be for others who wouldn't understand).
This thread has been very informative. Thank you everyone for your advice and information. I'm sure we will make it work with a combination of sharing, eating an appetizer or kids menu item... and being ok with some food waste while on vacation.

I just had this surgery on July 11th so I am very new to it all but I will say one of my biggest mental struggles was planning my upcoming february trip while planning the sleeve. It was just sad to me how it would impact my vacation. I don't care about home, work, even parties... I'm happy to sit and eat my 2oz meals. BUT Disney is the one place we truly truly enjoyed dining. I travel solo with my now 9 year old son and our disney trips are the most precious thing to us... it is also where my son has most expanded his food choices. A lot of stuff is wrapped up in food and you don't even have to have a "food addiction" or have an unhealthy relationship with food to feel it.

I will say this... there is a majorly difficult adjustment period that lasts I would say a month to 6 weeks... basically until you can start to eat real food. Once you can, it gets both a lot better and a lot easier. Once it becomes your new normal it is not such a weird and scary thing and now that I am doing it on a regular basis, I am once again looking forward to dining on my next disney trip, just under the new rules.

And I rarely share with my son really at restaurants because he is a very plain eater and I am not. I am doing a few breakfast buffets because he is in the sweet spot for characters and they are the cheapest character meals. I know I won't eat my money's worth but then who can eat $30 worth of breakfast anyway? I figure for that price before I was able to have breakfast, be satisfied and see the characters without long lines. Same end result now. Breakfast food is cheap, I am not going to blow a hole in my plans or disappoint my son over what amounts to $5-$10 at most worth of ingredients I can't shovel in my pie hole.

we are going to do california grill and I will order an entree and bring the rest back to the room to nibble on for breakfast the next day. We're going to do via Napoli, they have more than one appetizer choice which would be great for me and the kid would love the pizza. We're going to do liberty tree for lunch because there are good (not junky) kids meal options there. We're going to do BoG for dinner because I just want to! Maybe we'll share here (adult steak for him and he won't eat the veggies so I could take my 2oz off of his and the veggies and he could have most of it and have the fries and we'll be good!) or maybe I will order an app, or maybe I will order what I want, eat part and discard the rest. It will be fine but I will say before I had the surgery and before I adjusted (very recently) it didn't seem like it would ever be fine. I went through a mourning period for my vacations the way they used to be. It may sound stupid and shallow but sometimes you just need to give yourself permission to feel what you are feeling and work through it rather than feeling even worse that you shouldn't be feeling what you are feeling.

It is an adjustment, and a major one. But she will make it. It's also a tough emotional time due to the surgery and hormones etc and I had a very very hard time with that as well but I just hit 6 weeks this past tuesday and turned the corner on all that at around 5.5 weeks. Good luck to her!