Best TS restaurants for infants?

[Fall1]

DH and I are hoping to bring our 6 month old twins in December for their first trip...does anyone have any suggestions for where we can eat with them. I know character buffet meals would be pretty easy, but any other ideas. Thanks!

 

[dawnball]

In my experience, it doesn't matter where you take them. If you have babies who usually sleep through dinner, they'll sleep through dinner. If you don't usually manage to get through dinner, you probably won't at a character meal either.

Personally, I'd go for somewhere that isn't very fancy and isn't a buffet. Table service is much easier with babies, IMO. Lots of counter service and lots of room service if it's available to you.

Liberty Tree Tavern
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Nine Dragons
Plaza Restaurant
Beaches and Cream
Grand Floridian Cafe (maybe.. I wouldn't have taken my 6 month old.. but she wasn't typical)
Kona Cafe
Rainforest Cafe (lots of white noise, from what I recall).

I would try to schedule meals at some approximation of nap/sleep times, instead of when you expect feeding times to be. I found that at 17 months, my DD was pretty overwhelmed by WDW and slept more than usual - she'd usually conk out in restaurants because they were the least thrilling places to be. On other other hand, at 6 months we would have been less successful - much depends on your babies.

 

[disnut8]

I agree with the table service being easier with infants because you know once you are called, you are going to have a table ready. Any place is perfectly fine with infants but you might want to not go to the signature restaurants that have dress codes. Adults who go there are usually looking for a nice adult meal. Infants are still welcome, of course, but the atmosphere is generally more upscale.

For counter service, it's more difficult because you really don't want to all have to go through the line to get your food and saving tables is such a hot topic, although I'll set myself up for flames by saying in your case that's exactly what you need to do. A really nice compromise is to get a place outside the counter service place to "set up shop" and then have one adult go inside and get the food and bring it out.

At Epcot, Liberty Tree Inn outside seating area is very rarely crowded so "saving" a table there is easy. Also, if you don't really want burgers and fries, get your food somewhere else to go and take it over there to eat together. We sat next to a party of twelve and each person brought something from a different country and all twelve shared everything.

At Animal Kingdom, the Flame Tree BBQ seating area is rather large and all outdoor so setting the infants up with an adult while the other goes to get the food is easy.

At MGM, try the Flatbread Grill seating at the back end of the park.

 

[Honeymooner04]

I'm going to have to disagree with the PPs that say table service is easier than buffetts at Disney, at least in our experience. With buffetts one parent can feed/enterain the babies and the other can eat a hot fresh meal and then you can switch. There's nothing I hate worse than paying $$$ for a meal and by the time I get to eat it two handed it's cold and yucky. At least with buffetts even if you do get distracted with a baby you could go and get a fresh plate. Also, if your kids are old enough to actually eat off of the buffett (which I realize at 6 months they are not but for future reference) one parent and quickly run up to the buffett and grab the kids plates so they can start eating immediately and you can avoid the typical fussiness while waiting for the food to arrive. The other type of restaurant we enjoy are the ones that serve family style. These are nice because even though you have to wait for the food it's usually not as long since there is a limited menu and you can always get more food which solves my hot food problem! These strategies have worked well for us in Disney. We are not normally buffett people but we really like the buffetts at Disney, that being said we normally try and do other table service restaurants as well. And our strategy at counter service is one parent goes and finds a table and sits with the kiddos while the other parent orders and brings the food out. Some of the restaurants we go back to year after year and are a favorite with our family are:

Crystal Palace
Garden Grille
Hollywood and Vine
Ohana's

Not buffetts or family style but we like them anyway
Raglan Road
Turf Club at Saratoga Springs

Have a great trip! If your twins love it half as much as my daughter did when we took her at that age you will have a BLAST!