Any tips on Disney Dining with a 2 year old?

[2ndstar to the right]

Hi All!
My husband and I are taking our almost 3 year old to WDW for her very first visit in May (and celebrating her one year home with us) and are looking for advice on dining with a little one. We have the Disney Dining Plan for my husband and I and since she is under 3 we did not have to purchase this for her. Since we will be eating at many character buffets, how does this work? We were told we would not have to purchase a dining package for her.
Thanks in advance for any tips!!

 

[mkla2015]

Since your DD is under 3, she gets to eat for free from your plate- at buffets it's free and at a la cart places, she can eat free as long as she eats/shares what you or your DH are having. If you'd like to get her a kids meal then you'd have to pay for it.

My kids are now 5 and 4 but we still prefer to eat at buffets in Disney with them. It seems to work better when the wait for food is minimal with the younger kids.

 

[joanjett1976]

We just came back from WDW with our almost 3 year old. He's a good eater so buffets and family style restaurants were quite the good value for us....

 

[mzsarah10]

Agree with buffets. It was perfect for our 18 month old. Free and characters!! Saves us time later in the day and we start the day off with a great meal.

 

[oceanmarina]

Yep to the character buffets. When my kids were that age the character buffets always kept them content, - and also the pictures I got were adorable.

 

[Jessica527]

Taking my DD1 (will be 2) in November -- best tip I got was either buffet or entertainment. So making sure there is music at like Biergarten or Teppan Edo Hibachi show.

 

[TravelingTotMom]

I want to second Biergarten. The band is entertaining, and the kids can all go down and dance in front of the stage.

 

[ptlohmysoul]

At Cinderella's Royal Table, they will bring out a meal for your child, even though she is non-paying. And at all sit-downs, they will at least bring a plate for her. (I was confused about the eat off of your plate thing, so clarifying for you ).

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Check your bill at the end of the meal. Our DD was 2 on the trip, turning 3 on the last day. We were surprised how many times she was charged on the ticket. We addressed with the servers and had it taken off.

 

[ssmurphy28]

We were last at Disney World when our son was almost three. It was a good age to do the buffets, because of the fact that we did not have to pay.

That being said, my only recommendation based on our experience would be to not over schedule ADRs. The temptation is to plan every minute of your time in the World, especially since you have to book ADRs and FP+'s in advance, but do leave some credits for quick service meals/meals at the resort as well. We were at Disney for 9 full days and had one ADR each day. We found it to be a little to much, because sometimes we just wanted to be somewhere else or deviate from our plans a bit. However, the ADR's really force you to be somewhere at a specific time and reduce the flexibility that you need with a two year old.

That is just my opinion. Pick a select few ADRs and stick with them, but don't stress out about booking all your meals in advance, because sometimes you will simply want flexibility.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We went twice when our younger child was 2. She did so much better with TS dining...to the point that we skipped QS altogether for her second trip as a 2 yr old. There was something about knowing when we were going to eat that helped us prep in advance and something about being tucked away inside a TS spot offering a calmer environment than QS that helped her with the sensory overload from the parks.

Buffets and family style meals are the obvious $ savers since they are free for under 3 children and as others have noted, CRT and Akerhsus will usually offer complimentary food. We liked character meals in general since we were killing two birds with one stone, which gave us more time to ride rides in the parks. i.e. the characters at the meal kept them from begging to do M&Gs. Beyond that, interesting meals were also good for her at that age. I know not everyone would take their 2 yr old to a signature spot, but California Grill timed with Wishes was one of both kids' faves from that trip. Mind you, they are very good when dining out, but our server also helped make it a bit cheaper. She warned us that the portions for kids were very large and she strongly suggested we split our just turned 5 yr old's food with the 2 yr old. Beyond that, you would have to order food for any of the other traditional menu meals and we have done that just for sanity. We usually just gauged how much food the rest of us would be getting to see if we needed to order more. Ex. at Le Cellier lunch, we ordered the 2 yr old a pizza since it just made sense.

 

[got15]

QS was a nightmare for us! Lines, finding tables, juggling trays...I was so glad we did the DxDP! It gave us the necessary breaks for AC, was a nice decompress from sensory overload, and DS did much better at TS than at QS. We varied meals- did some 2Pt (Narcoosee's, CRT, Le Cellier), lots of character meals, and non-character meals that were hits (The Plaza, Biergarten, Whispering Canyon). We learned that while character meals were AWESOME- sometimes we were too focused on the characters to pay attention to eating- so a nice mix worked for us. We did breakfast in the am/or early lunch ADR and early/mid evening dinner and then some time at the park at night. Large break during the heat of the day.

 

[lorenni]

We were last at Disney World when our son was almost three. It was a good age to do the buffets, because of the fact that we did not have to pay.

That being said, my only recommendation based on our experience would be to not over schedule ADRs. The temptation is to plan every minute of your time in the World, especially since you have to book ADRs and FP+'s in advance, but do leave some credits for quick service meals/meals at the resort as well. We were at Disney for 9 full days and had one ADR each day. We found it to be a little to much, because sometimes we just wanted to be somewhere else or deviate from our plans a bit. However, the ADR's really force you to be somewhere at a specific time and reduce the flexibility that you need with a two year old.

That is just my opinion. Pick a select few ADRs and stick with them, but don't stress out about booking all your meals in advance, because sometimes you will simply want flexibility.

To add to this, be flexible about ditching your plans. I can tell you from experience, for instance, that Coral Reef will not charge you the $10 per person when you check in with your tired two year old and let them know you can't stay for your dinner reservation because he is in meltdown mode.

Also, look into options that are off the beaten path. On the Coral Reef night we ended up at Olivia's at OKW where we were staying. Was a terrific meal, quiet vibe, and a couple of glow cube drinks later the small person was happy happy. Just to clarify - we got the drinks; he got the glow cubes