Dining Reservations with a 2.5 Year Old

G

gstonelake

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Planning a trip with our 2.5 year old grandson (first trip for him). We will be doing all 4 parks, with pool days between each park days. Hotel has breakfast included with our room package. Will be packing lunch on park days, non-park days will do lunch in hotel. Looking for places that are toddler friendly for 4 dinner meals ... other dinner days will be at hotel. Plan would be early dinner ... around 5:00pm, then back to hotel.

Saana
T-Rex
Chef Mickey
Mickey's Backyard BBQ

Thoughts?
 
Personally, if I had Chef Mickey, I would cancel Mickey's Backyard BBQ. If your toddler is not going to get up and dance with the characters, I think it may not be worth the money.

I have not dined at Sanaa, but my family did and they thought it was a wonderful meal. Book this one early and perhaps you can watch teh animals on the Savannah. You coudl also make time to visit Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is stunning and the little one would love it.

I would plan Crystal Palace on your Magic Kingdom day. Winnie the Pooh and the Gang are a lot of run!

I also would consider Garden Grill or Coral Reef on your Epcot day. Chip and Dale are wonderful and teh meal is AYCTE, so uyou do not need to leave the table for your food. Coral Reef is hit or miss in terms of service and food quality, but that aquarium is worth the price of admission, IMO.
 
It looks like you are only interested in booking resort or DS restaurants for dinner, is that correct? If that is the case, I would keep Sanaa. The food and atmosphere are wonderful and 5 pm is a great time as hopefully the sun will still be up and some animals will pass by the windows. I would recommend stopping at Jambo House while at AKL to see the lobby, the gift shop and the public animal viewing areas. It's beautiful.

While the food at Chef Mickey's isn't great, the atmosphere is a lot of fun and it's really neat to watch the monorail go through the resort.

I agree with Nancyg56, if you do Chef Mickey's, no need to do the BBQ too. However, Ft. W is a lot of fun to visit. I would recommend going to Trail's End instead at Ft. W instead. When you visit, your grandson can also take a pony ride and play at the Ft. W playground. You could also do the Chip and Dale sing-a-long while there.

I'm not a big fan of T-Rex for little ones. It's quite loud and the moving dinosaurs can be scary (they scared my DS when he was 3). Rainforest Cafe is a little tamer or, in DS, you may want to try the new Planet Hollywood Observatory.
 
DisneyWishes14 said:
It looks like you are only interested in booking resort or DS restaurants for dinner, is that correct? If that is the case, I would keep Sanaa. The food and atmosphere are wonderful and 5 pm is a great time as hopefully the sun will still be up and some animals will pass by the windows. I would recommend stopping at Jambo House while at AKL to see the lobby, the gift shop and the public animal viewing areas. It's beautiful.

While the food at Chef Mickey's isn't great, the atmosphere is a lot of fun and it's really neat to watch the monorail go through the resort.

I agree with Nancyg56, if you do Chef Mickey's, no need to do the BBQ too. However, Ft. W is a lot of fun to visit. I would recommend going to Trail's End instead at Ft. W instead. When you visit, your grandson can also take a pony ride and play at the Ft. W playground. You could also do the Chip and Dale sing-a-long while there.

I'm not a big fan of T-Rex for little ones. It's quite loud and the moving dinosaurs can be scary (they scared my DS when he was 3). Rainforest Cafe is a little tamer or, in DS, you may want to try the new Planet Hollywood Observatory.
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I think Chip and Dale sing-a-long would be a lot of fun for a little one. Between the campfire, the smores kit that the OP could buy and the movie...well it would be a blast! I have never eaten at Trails end, but I have not seen many negative reviews either, and that is pretty amazing for Disney dining.

I also do not care for T-Rex.
I noticed the resort dining options, but I think that there are fun character meals in the parks, and if you are already there, it is a shame to discount them.
 


With so many good choices at DS, I would skip T-Rex. My kids thought it was too loud and my son cried at the Rain forest Cafe. My kids love the Boathouse and it is loud enough in there that you don't have to worry about your grandson being out of place. We tried the new Mexican place at DS, but I thought it was pricey for what you got. I would definitely go to Trails End at FW over Mickey's BBQ. Another good choice is Ohana at the Poly if you can get a reservation. We enjoyed Saana and exploring AKL!
 
gstonelake said:
Planning a trip with our 2.5 year old grandson (first trip for him). We will be doing all 4 parks, with pool days between each park days. Hotel has breakfast included with our room package. Will be packing lunch on park days, non-park days will do lunch in hotel. Looking for places that are toddler friendly for 4 dinner meals ... other dinner days will be at hotel. Plan would be early dinner ... around 5:00pm, then back to hotel.

Saana
T-Rex
Chef Mickey
Mickey's Backyard BBQ

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
are you planning on driving to Mickey's BBQ? if yes something to think about is you have to take bus from parking lot to other end of campground and the BBQ is outdoors in large tent if I remember correctly
 
T-Rex is very loud and chaotic. It's hard to have a conversation in there. I'd replace that with something else.
 


I have a two and a half year old daughter. I would probably do Chef Mickey's or Mickey's Backyard BBQ. Both might be a bit much. Keep in mind it takes some time to get to Ft Wilderness if you go with Mickey's Backyard BBQ. You could make an afternoon of it with a pony ride and then the campfire after dinner. Chef Mickey's is ok. We did CM the last two trips. In my opinion it used to be better. I think T-Rex is really loud for a two year old. Unless he LOVES dinosaurs, he may be frightened given his age. I've not been to Saana but I hear it is very good. Keep in mind that traveling to these different resorts not just Ft. Wilderness will take time. I'm not sure where you are staying or if you will have a car.
 
DD was 2.5 last year, and her absolute favourite was Biergarten. She loved the show and getting to dance on the stage. We are going back there this year, she talks about it constantly !

She also loved Raglan Road (for the music and dancers), Sanaa (for the animals) and Be Our Guest (for the castle and cupcake for breakfast ;) )

She didn't like Chef Mickey's, she was afraid of the characters which surprised me.

We also did Liberty Tree, which was fine but nothing special.
 
Not to hijack the thread, I'm kind of in the same situation and wanting some advice. My daughter is 2.5 as well and our reservations are:
Teppan Edo
Be out guest (breakfast)
Crystal Palace (dinner )
Tusker House (dinner)
Sci FY (lunch)
50s prime time (dinner)
Beirgarten (dinner)
Chef Mickey (sadly dinner)
 
Just got back with our 2.5 year old... her favorite by far was Garden Grill for lunch. Also loved 1900 Park Fare breakfast and Biergarten. We've done the bbq and chef mickey in the past... I would definitely recommend the bbq. All my kids had the absolute best time there. We were not fans of chef mickeys.
 
Chef Mickey worries me because it gets such "meh" reviews but I feel like it's a must with a young child. Are there any good alternatives for chef Mickey? still looking for characters but better food, and for dinner.
 
Atrain13 said:
Chef Mickey worries me because it gets such "meh" reviews but I feel like it's a must with a young child. Are there any good alternatives for chef Mickey? still looking for characters but better food, and for dinner.
Click to expand...

I really wanted to love Chef Mickey's. I have the most fondest memories going there as a child myself and wanted to recreate it with DD. But the food was so meh and the massive ice cream sundae bar that used to once exist is gone. The atmosphere is still fun, though.

We are trying a different character meal this year. We are doing Tusker House, but also considered Garden Grill and Cape May.
 
Minniemoo15 said:
I really wanted to love Chef Mickey's. I have the most fondest memories going there as a child myself and wanted to recreate it with DD. But the food was so meh and the massive ice cream sundae bar that used to once exist is gone. The atmosphere is still fun, though.

We are trying a different character meal this year. We are doing Tusker House, but also considered Garden Grill and Cape May.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm most afraid of. thank you
 
Thanks for all the great responses. We are staying at the Shades of Green, so plan is to park the vehicle and take the Disney Transportation [bus, boat, mono] to all locations. With that said, relooked at all your recommendations and made lots of changes to my dining reservations ...

- Breakfast each day at hotel will stay the same [included in package price]
- Lunch each day will be a pack lunch [something small like PB&J]
- Early Dinner in the Parks/Resort Hotels/DS -- then home to bed
-- Saana [arrival day]
-- Harvest Grill [Mickey and Gang] -- EP Day
-- ? -- Pool Day
-- ? -- AK Day
-- Crystal Palace [Pooh and Gang] -- MK Day
-- Trails Inn -- Pool Day
-- ? -- HS Day
-- Departure Day [early]

Any other suggestions? Still on the fence about Chef Mickey, RainForest, T-Rex [Grandson loves Cars, Monster Trucks, Monster Inc and Dinosaurs]. Thought about the Shades of Green Dinner Buffet, but haven't heard any good things about it.

Thanks again!1
 
gstonelake said:
Thanks for all the great responses. We are staying at the Shades of Green, so plan is to park the vehicle and take the Disney Transportation [bus, boat, mono] to all locations. With that said, relooked at all your recommendations and made lots of changes to my dining reservations ...

- Breakfast each day at hotel will stay the same [included in package price]
- Lunch each day will be a pack lunch [something small like PB&J]
- Early Dinner in the Parks/Resort Hotels/DS -- then home to bed
-- Saana [arrival day]
-- Harvest Grill [Mickey and Gang] -- EP Day
-- ? -- Pool Day
-- ? -- AK Day
-- Crystal Palace [Pooh and Gang] -- MK Day
-- Trails Inn -- Pool Day
-- ? -- HS Day
-- Departure Day [early]

Any other suggestions? Still on the fence about Chef Mickey, RainForest, T-Rex [Grandson loves Cars, Monster Trucks, Monster Inc and Dinosaurs]. Thought about the Shades of Green Dinner Buffet, but haven't heard any good things about it.

Thanks again!1
Click to expand...


If you are going to Garden Grill, I would skip Trails End. I think Fort WIlderness is noce, but woudl not make a special trip just for dinner.

GG is Chip and Dale as the feature characters, so if the campfire M&G at FW was the draw, you can see them at GG.

I think CP is a great plan with a young one. My DGD loved every meal there, as did we. The character interaction is really nice.

AK day, if you want some more characters, I would choose Tusker House. Personally, I would move Sanaa to this day, and go to Chef Mickey on your arrival day. I know it does nto get rave reviews, but my family has always enjoyed it. It is classic Disney and it really is a nice way to kick off a Disney Vacation. WE do this one every time we bring young ones, and have never left disappointed. Fair warning, buffets in DIsney are buffets in DIsney. You are pretty heavy on them, and after a while I think they are all pretty much the same.

On HS day, we like Mama MElrose, but if you are choosing for your child, H&V is a good option. If you have already made ADR for classic DIsney characters, be sure to book lunch so you get DIsney Jr characters.
 
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