Character Dining with 18 month old

[Jonathan Friedman]

In 3 weeks my wife and I are going to spend a week at Disney with our 18 month old and have the following reservations...
Tusker House lunch
Garden Grill dinner
Be Our Guest lunch
1900 Park Fair dinner
O’hana Breakfast
Storybook dining dinner
Boma Breakfast (no characters I know)
Crystal Palace breakfast

any feedback or thoughts? I know it’s a lot but we are taking everything super easy and no pressure or expectations. Anyone go with an 18 month old? Anything you’d switch?

 

[Jacq7414]

Be our guest lunch isn’t character. Not sure if you know that but Beast is only there for dinner.

We did Garden grill dinner and wasn’t a fan of the actual dinner but did like the character interactions. Lots of people love it there though.

Crystal Palace breakfast is our favorite breakfast. It’s actually on my husband’s must do list every trip. The Puffed French toast is sooooo good.

Storybook dining was really fun! We went when my daughter was under 3 as well and they gave her a lot to eat and we didn’t pay for her. It was pretty much a meal.

Those are the ones we went to. We also really liked Akershus breakfast. The princess parade is so adorable. We took our daughter our first trip and she was in awe of them.

 

[Jonathan Friedman]

Good to know and yes! I do know that BOG lunch has no one but we wanted to at least try it.

 

[Kae]

At 18mths I would not do so many buffet or characters meals. I would pick some place with better food and where you get served and can have a more relaxing meal.

Kae

 

[Dakota731]

Does the baby like Mickey and Minnie? Our two year loved Hollywood & Vine, and we all enjoyed the food there. Akershus was so fun too with the parade of characters that the kids could participate in. We did almost all the character meals last trip and the only one none of us liked was Tucker House.

 

[Jonathan Friedman]

He loves Mickey but we are skipping Hollywood Studios due to Star Wars. Also, we felt buffets or all you care to enjoy was better due to timing and his patience lol

 

[KMarston]

We take our grandson every year and that was actually the easiest age! He had so much fun. My only suggestion is to bring a baby wearer for the lines! Saved our backs when he decided to nap in a long line! He was mesmerized by it all! Loved CP, TH, GG (breakfast is really good) ‘Ohanas, he wasn’t much into the face characters at that point! Have an awesome trip!

 

[Nvrgrowup]

I would.not do so many character meals. That's a lot buffet food and some of them can be loud and overwhelming for a little.one. when my son was that age and even older we did one character dinner and one character breakfast. For us and him it was more than enough. But you know your child. What ever you decide have a great trip!!

 

[Jonathan Friedman]

Thanks so much! We are so excited and have zero expectations. Either way, we are so excited!

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Just my opinion, but it seems like overkill with an 18 mo. We'll be taking our daughter for the first time in December. She'll be 16mo, and we didn't book any character meals. I have no clue how she will react to the characters, and it's a lot of money to spend on long hour+ meals that she might get bored and fussy at and will never remember anyway. However, we go so frequently that it's alright if we don't do character meals for several trips. If this were our only trip for a while, I probably would have booked one. But only one.

 

[Jacq7414]

It really just all depends on your kid. If you think your kid can handle the character meals, I would go for it.

We brought our daughter when she was 23 months old for the first time. We did a lot. Akershus, the garden grill, Mickey’s backyard bbq, be our guest dinner, and crystal palace. We were only there for a long weekend (Thursday - Sunday) - so we definitely piled it on. She was fine. But we would take her to restaurants all the time at home and she was always good there. We liked getting out of the sun and sitting down and having a meal. People cautioned me against it, but I knew she would be ok. If you feel your child would enjoy it, then totally go for it. It’s cheaper now because they are still free lol

 

[MrsDuck]

Also, we felt buffets or all you care to enjoy was better due to timing and his patience lol

This is certainly true for my 21 mo. He's been going since 3mo and we've found that buffets or all you care to enjoy are MUCH better for all. He can eat whatever he wants ASAP then, if he doesn't want to sit, someone can run with him while the other eats and no one's food gets cold. We rarely do TS with our son because he just simply won't sit still but when we do, it's always buffet or AYCTE.

Your reservations look great as long as you are happy doing so many TS. You may be content with some quick serves, especially depending on the baby's temperament/nap schedule/etc that day!

 

[PollyannaMom]

We liked buffets when DS was that age as well. - It was nice to able to get him something right away when we got there!

And for character interaction, you're not waiting in lines in the sun!

 

[lahobbs4]

Be sure to take time to look around AKL while you are visiting Boma! Go outside and see the animals. Your child will love that! Tusker and Crystal Palace have been our fave character meals for that age.

Enjoy! I understand wanting to get food quickly for that age. Do what you guys want to do and take lots of pics!

 

[Missyrose]

Have fun! We booked a bunch of character meals for my daughter's first trip at 7-months-old. We were prepared to cancel 'em all if she didn't do well with the characters at the first one, but she loved them! She's been again at 13 months and 16 months and still loves character dining, so we have plenty booked for our trip next month for her second birthday! The nice thing with buffets and family-style meals is you can stagger eating a little better (one parent eats, while the other tends to the kiddo and then vice versa).

 

[DisneyWishes14]

At 18mths I would not do so many buffet or characters meals. I would pick some place with better food and where you get served and can have a more relaxing meal.

Kae

I agree with this. With little ones at buffets, there is a lot of up-and-down to get food and, I found, I couldn't relax and enjoy my meal. After a long day in the parks with a toddler, it was nice to sit and have someone bring my food to me. Garden Grill, 'Ohana and Storybook will fit that bill. The buffets are really chaotic, IMHO. You don't mention if your child has ever met characters before. All children react differently, but I've known several children to be terrified of the characters at that age. I would just be prepared to switch plans should your child have a negative reaction to the characters.

 

[sullyfam]

Where are you staying? I ask this because you've got some resort dining in the morning and in the evenings which with a little one, can be a travel pain to get from one place to the next. I know when my youngest was that age, the buses were hard as she did not want to sit still. Just something to keep in mind. The Minnie Van service might be an option as they have the car seats in them.

Character buffets are definitely a smart way to go. There's entertainment with the characters coming around, you can pace the meal yourself, and you can get up and down as much as you want which can keep busy feet happy. But, it can get to be over kill if you do a lot of them in one trip plus, you are meeting the same characters multiple times (Tusker, Garden Grill and Ohana will have repeats) and you also don't know how your child will react to the characters.

You do have some sit downs (BOG, Ohana, GG and Storybook food will come to you) however, I might consider swapping out a few of the buffets. I find 1 maybe 2 sit down breakfasts are good per trip. The rest of the time we tend to eat quick service at the resort or pick up something when we get in the park. So maybe Boma for instance is a good one to consider dropping as it's not character and unless you are staying at AKL, it's out of the way for sure. Crystal Palace is definitely a keeper as the little ones tend to love the fluffy Pooh characters. Plus, you are right in MK afterwards which is convenient.

You can always keep everything and play it by ear and cancel what you need to depending on how it goes. I would look at the timing too and not planning anything too late in the day/evenings as that tends to be the cranky/tired time for that age. Good luck and have fun!

 

[SillySallySews]

When our middle son was about 18 months old we did a similar trip where we only did only character meals and buffets. We had a similar list. No Storybook because it didn’t exist. No Garden Grill because my husband gets motion sickness and I couldn’t convince him the spinning was really slow and almost unnoticeable lol. We did Chef Mickey and H&V. Our motivation behind this was that our son wasn’t a very big eater, and didn’t particularly like to sit, so we figured between the characters and hustle and bustle of the buffet it might keep him occupied enough that the rest of us could eat. It worked out great and he actually ate A TON lol. It was on that trip that we figured out he really likes buffets and the variety of being able to have one or two bites of lots of different things. As an added bonus the rest of our kids got their character fix at meals and we didn’t have to spend any time waiting in lines at the parks to meet them.

 

[TinkBink]

We just did Tusker House, Garden Grill, Be Our Guest and O'hana with our little one in January. She was 17 months old at the time and absolutely loved it! Our biggest problem was getting her to let go of the characters so they could move to the next table! It sounds like you have the right attitude for expectations with a toddler so I think you're going to do just great. Have a magical trip!!

 

[Kae]

He loves Mickey but we are skipping Hollywood Studios due to Star Wars. Also, we felt buffets or all you care to enjoy was better due to timing and his patience lol

I'm just thinking it would be nice to have some good food and be served. The staff is used to families so you get good service and they understand having a kiddo with you. I would look at menus and maybe even disneyfood blog.com and allears.net. When our kiddos where little a few of our favorites were Chefs de France, GF Cafe, Kona, Wolf Gang Pucks Express (yes counter service)

Kae