Baby and Toddler friendly dining

[Paticake]

As we approach our 180 day mark I am starting to plan some of our dining. We are me, DH, DD, DSIL, DGS, 2yrs, DS, DDIL and DGS, 8 months. We are staying in a GV at SSR and plan to do some dining in our villa. We are tentitively planning breakfast or lunch at Crystal Palace, dinner at Chef Mickey's. DH and I are planning on doing Le Cellier alone one evening and we will babysit to allow DD, DSIL and DS and DDIL to each have a dinner alone as well. Please give your suggestions for TS and CS that have worked well for you and your little guys. TIA

 

[Pumbaa_]

Sounds like a trip! We did a family of 9 trip last Sept for my parents 45th anniversary.

Since I live here I did the planning for everyone. I tried tp plan something for everyone plus enough separate family time so we all had some down time (I know my family )

Day 1 Dinner at Cape May followed by an Illuminations cruise. The family arrived via ME about 4:30 and we had 5:15 dinner ressies. We were also staying at the BCV so it was easy and non stressful for everyone

The cruise was great and we all got to see Illuminations and not use a park ticket.

Day 2 was MK day. We had lunch ressies at 11:30 and we all met there. Some of us were there at opening and some of us a little later, all about touring styles. Had a great lunch, wore matching shirts and got a great family picture

(get the photopass!!! Have everyone take tons of pics and at the end load them all together, add backgrounds, crop, cut and get the dvc. you will own the pics and they will be well worth the $99 charge)

another day i sent my parents with my DB, DSIL and niece to lunch with jo jo and friends. A special lunch with the grandparents and they all had a blast. Next day special lunch with other niece and grandparents in Norway.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that and we hooked up here and there. Our last full day was lunch at Coral Reef (we liked lunch better. Mom needs to take an afternoon rest and a nice TS meal worked well for us). I had the custome menus done for my parents. I stole pictures form their wedding and 25th anniversary and 40th anniversary at disney. mom was thrilled

so that is how we planned our trip. We did not tour together every day all day, too many different ages and wants. We had a great time and less than 4 years til their 50th

 

[Paticake]

Thanks for the info. We will be celebrating our 35th anniversary on this trip. 5 of us will be celebrating birthdays within 2 weeks of our trip although we will not be there on an actual birthday, but i thought it would be nice to all celebrate togetherwith a cake of some sort. I know that especially with the baby, my DS and DDIL will be doing little park time. With our 2 yo DGS we will be doing AK and MK. We will probablly do mornings and meet for lunch somewhere. I am thinking table service lunch would be easier and more relaxing. We will probably do the Turf Club or Artist Palette on our arrival day. Just looking for some ideas.

 

[bangzoom6877]

In July we went with our 2 sons. At the time, the older one was 3 and a half and the little guy was 14 months. We were on the dining plan so we decided to do a CS lunch and TS dinner everyday. We also did 2 character breakfasts and paid OOP, and had cereal in the room the other mornings. We kept to their regular dining times, as close to normal bedtime as possible, and gotr to the parks each day before rope drop. No major meltdowns happened on our 5-night trip, happy to report! I think that was definitely due to afternoon breaks, regular mealtimes, naptimes and bedtimes, and their usual routine overall. We did no nighttime entertainment this trip, plenty of years to enjoy that when they are older! Here were our meals and they all worked out very well (delicious food and very kid-friendly):

Day of arrival: lunch at Pop Century food court; dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern at MK

Day 2: lunch at Tangierine Cafe in Morocco at Epcot; dinner at biergarten in Germany at Epcot

Day 3: character breakfast at Hollywood & Vine at DHS (Playhouse Disney characters); lunch at Toy Story Pizza Planet at DHS; dinner at 1900 Park Fare at Grand Floridian (Cinderella, Prince Charming, stepmom and stepsisters)

Day 4: lunch at Flame Tree BBQ at Animal Kingdom; dinner at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Day 5: lunch at Cosmic Ray's at MK; dinner at Crystal Palace at MK

Day of check-out: character breakfast at Chef Mickey's in Contemporary resort

We took an afternoon break everyday, except for arrival day when we first got to MK at 1:30PM. The latest we left a park was 2 PM. We only went back to the park if we had a dinner ADR there, so only on the Epcot day and the second MK day. Worked out very well after the afternoon naps! Kids had some down time before heading to a restaurant, we still got to do many attractions, and had a wonderful time.

The key to enjoying a Disney vacation with small children, toddlers and babies is to still go at their pace, and only do what they can handle. If you have something planned but it seems as though they cannot handle it at the time or it would cause a major meltdown, then skip it and you will not run into any problems! Enjoy your trip and your romantic dinner alone as well!!