Are ADRs a good idea for families with young kids?

[bumbershoot]

With the changes you've made my suggestion is this. Pay attention to them. Figure out their "getting hungry" signals and head to the counter service place then. Don't wait to full hunger to hit or it will be misery.

I personally can go quite awhile into hunger before anyone else picks up on it. DH and DS canNOT. Except they won't say they are hungry; instead they just get cranky and annoyed and they start arguing. Finally figured that out a few years into dlr trips. Way too many trips until I worked it out actually. Once they eat they forget all about it but I don't!

So get to the restaurant before they are THAT hungry. Save everyone headaches.

 

[PrncessA]

We went on the DxDDP when our kiddos were 2 and 4. We enjoyed sitting down and relaxing with them, although we did cancel the one on our last day, because we were all tired, and just wanted to eat something easy and move on.

DD was 2 and only ended up sleeping through one meal (Chef Mickey's) on our first full day there, Disney wore her out! But she made it through all of the others. We had 2 per day!

 

[ah1126]

You should eat at Via Napoli! It was tied for the best meal we had at Disney! We ordered the huge pizza and it was plenty for 3 hungry adults and 1 pizza loving kid! My other child has allergies, so he had a special pasta dish that he loved! We didn't have an ADR, but only had to wait about 5-10 min for a table. The food came super quick and the service was great.

Our other favorite meal was at Be Our Guest! Our travel agent was able to get us a fast pass for lunch. It is quick service at lunch and the food was so good!

 

[mm1971]

We are taking our first trip with our 2 and three year old and I've made a bunch on ADR, but I'm questioning if it's a good idea, with the unpredictable way little kids are. I decided to get a meal plan so that we could go to a lot of buffets (that we either wise wouldn't go to) so that our 2 year could eat for free. I'm starting to think that is might be best to eat quick service meals so that we can deal with things as they happen and not be dictated by making reservations and trying to break even with the dinning plan. Any thoughts?

We never made a lot of ADR's when the kids were young, maybe 1 or 2 for the week. We always ended up eating at different times and allowed the kids to kind of run the vacation somewhat. Having to be in a certain place at a certain time was hard. Now that they are older it is pretty easy and we do more. I would say to book a coupe that you really want to do and wing the rest. You may be limited on where you can eat, but at least you won't have to stress about missing a reservation.

 

[MandiC]

I wouldn't do a TON of ADRs but I did enjoy many of ours and honestly sitting down for dinner was a nice treat after a day in the parks. I wasn't a fan of the days we did early breakfast ADRs but I did love the safari buffet breakfast in Animal Kingdom.
That said, if the only reason you have ADRs is to save on not paying for the 2 year old, I'd skip them. After factoring in the increased price of food in table service restaurants and tipping 18-20% you will save money at counter service even if you buy the 2 year old their own kids meal

 

[SweetMissy]

How much is a bunch? We do 1 per trip...well last year we did 2. That's it. IMO, they're too expensive and a waste of time. For us, it's more important spending that time on rides and taking in the sights, not sitting down eating. Your kids are young and I wouldn't want to do a sit down meal that many times during a trip with toddlers. Our youngest is 2 and I know how he can get, lol.

 

[ClendeninHouse]

We're taking our DD3 and DS2 for their first trip in Nov/Dec and we're only doing two ADRs. There's no way either of mine could handle a sit down restaurant every day. Plus I don't want to be tied down to rushing around to get to those ADRs all the time. I'm going in with a plan but being very flexible. We're letting the kids set the pace for this vacation.

 

[kboo]

Hm... this thread is making me rethink my ADR plans. Our almost-3-yr old loves restaurants and is a bit of a foodie, so I *think* we should be ok. The added complication is that I'm a vegetarian, so there is a certain amount of planning involved anyway - while I like veggie burgers and pizza, I don't want to eat them at every meal!

When we were there last summer, DD was 21 months and we did ADRs (but NOT the dining plan) at Crystal Palace, Marrakesh, Sanaa, Boma, and Tusker House. She did great at them all. We did a few counter service meals but she was more easily distracted at those and actually ate worse. Not to mention, she wasn't really a fan of the kids' meals. (Like I said, a bit of a foodie...)

Also, the sit down and eat time was a good wind-down time (even with the characters).

The buffets are helpful for us because of the vegetarian options and also because it enables us to skip lunch, which overall does save us some time. (DD can just have a snack in her stroller.)

Again, I think it depends on the kid, for us, DD likes to go to restaurants and the ones at WDW usually have something interesting for them in addition to the food, so it's as much a part of the experience as the attractions.

 

[Disneyaddictz]

Every family is different, for us we have dd10 & Dd4 and table service is a must and just as important and park time. We usually do a sit down breakfast and dinner and skip lunch.

 

[jiminykrikkit]

We've always had ADRs every day with our son, who has been when he turned 1 and when he was 2.5. It has never been an issue, but our kid is fairly laid back and goes with the flow well. There have been times that he has slept through the meal.

A quiet sit-down in a cool restaurant can sometimes be what a kid needs to re-charge.

You know your own children, if they don't do well in table service restaurants at home, maybe limit your ADRs. If they get cranky when they don't eat at a certain time, try to get your ADR scheduled for right before that so they don't have a melt-down in the restaurant.

 

[wallskm]

Last time we went we had 1-2 ADRs per day (most days 2) and it really got to be too much. My 16 month old was so tired of eating at restaurants and got very cranky by the end of the meals. He also was asleep during 2 of them and missed the meal. We still love the restaurants though so for our upcoming trip we kept it to just one a day. We expect now that he'll be 2.5 when we go he will do better. We eat at restaurants frequently and he is well behaved.

 

[chrismb22]

We need them. We usually do two -- breakfast and a somewhat early dinner. We don't take park breaks so we find that the sit down time is necessary for both my son and us.

Granted, as much as I would love to, I don't think sitting though Le Cellier or California Grill with him would be smart with him knowing what's right outside the door but that's just what works for us.

THIS year, I am going to attempt to do sit-down breakfasts in my hotel, this way we can get to the park and start touring. We'll see ...