Deluxe dining with 2 kids?

[mickeymomm]

deluxe dining with two kids age 2.5 and 5? Have I lost my mind, or can it work? Looking for TR or dining reviews of someone who has done this...

 

[Faldred]

Absolutely it can work. The kids will likely be able to share meals, and if you go to buffets/AYCE, you don't even have to worry about sharing. The copious amount of snacks will help as well. We went with 2-year-old twins and a 4-year old, and it worked out fine.

 

[mickeymomm]

I am worried that it will be too difficult/too much running around for ADSs. I really really want to do the deluxe because I love to eat and can't narrow the selection down to one TS a day!

 

[Faldred]

I am worried that it will be too difficult/too much running around for ADSs. I really really want to do the deluxe because I love to eat and can't narrow the selection down to one TS a day!

Well, that's where the DIS helps. Become an obsessive park planner and life becomes a lot easier. Check out my trip report to see lessons learned.

Presuming you will not need to take a mid-day break for the 2-year-old (ideally, the child will sleep in the stroller), my general "game plan" for young kids + DxDP is:

• Pass on park hoppers. You're going to be tight enough on time that park-to-park transit isn't really worth it. (Exception: if you're staying in the Boardwalk area and want to have a lot of dinners at Epcot, then park hoppers might make sense.)
• Early to bed, early to rise. Assuming you're doing 3 meals a day, start with a pre-open breakfast. Plan your day to end with dinner, and then return to the resort for quiet time and sleep.
• TS lunches don't take that much longer than CS, especially if you're eating at peak times (and keeping most children "on schedule" is a good thing). But they're generally a lot more relaxing, and can serve as a "recharge" for you and the older child. (And even the younger one!)
• Have a touring plan, and be aggressive in the morning. You will get more done by 11:30 than you could do in the rest of the day on most days. Just in time for a relaxing lunch, too!
• Use FastPass and Rider Swap to your advantage. Know that you can use FastPasses after their "window" (just not before), and collect them in the morning to use in the afternoon. That's also a good time to hit the lower-demand attractions and shows.
• Plan your meals around your park day, or vice-versa. For in-park ADRs, time your touring so you're not crossing an entire park to make a meal. In any event, don't have yourself scrambling from park to resort to make an ADR, or vice-versa. Generally, give yourself an hour to make an out-of-park ADR. Longer if you're using resort transportation or if you want to go back to the room to freshen up.
• Character meals are great for the kids to meet lots of the characters without standing in lines in the park. Coincidentally, in-park pre-open breakfasts are all character meals.

 

[Mom of 2 Pirates]

We did Deluxe Dining with our 2 and 5-year old in June 2009. We then did it again in March 2010 when they were 3 and 6 and are planning to do it again in December 2010 when they will be 4 and 7. Obviously we enjoyed the experience. Our reasons for choosing Deluxe are:

1. We enjoy eating at the restaurants at Walt Disney World.

2. We do not enjoy the counter service experience very much. We haven't found very many where we are big fans of the food, and we tend to go at busier times, which involves standing in long lines to purchase food and then walking around with a tray in an attempt to find a table (which can be very difficult during the busy times).

The most common complaints I hear about the Deluxe Plan is that it is too much food and it takes too much time.

Yeah, it's a lot of food, but you don't have to eat all of it. If we were paying out-of-pocket, we would probably order appetizers and desserts, even though we know we would not completely clean our plates. Even doing an analysis assuming my husband and I shared an appetizer and dessert (as opposed to each having our own) and drank water at every meal, we would still come out better by purchasing the Deluxe plan. By the way, you don't have to order every single item entitled to you under the plan to break even or come out ahead with it.

As far as the amount of time involved, our experience is that the naysayers way overestimate the time to eat under this plan. We have found most 1TS places to have us done in about an hour. The signature places do take longer, but this should be expected. I do think that in order to not spend too much time on meals, proper planning is ESSENTIAL. Here would be my pointers:

1. You don't mention which hotel you are staying at. At Deluxe or Moderate resorts, you have TS restaurants in your own hotel where you can have breakfast before the day begins or dinner as the day ends without having to travel to get there or to get back to your hotel. We have done Deluxe dining staying at the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. Both allowed access to many restaurants without much travel. Being on the Monorail or staying at an Epcot resort would make things easier, as you have access to many restaurants nearby to your resort. I have not tried the plan while staying at a value resort, but I do imagine that it would be more time consuming, as you must travel farther to get to TS restaurants.

2. Decide what park you are going to visit each day and make your ADRs around that. I have read ADR lists where a person will have an ADR in three different parks on the same day. I agree that if this is the approach someone takes, you would spend a lot of time traveling to ADRs.

3. My kids enjoy Character meals, so we schedule quite a few of those for them. My children don't have any problems staying relatively quiet and still when a favorite character is across the room and slowly making the rounds to our table.

If you want to know what my ADRs were on my Deluxe trips or what my children's favorite non-character meals are, just let me know and I'll post those too.

 

[wizzzzzard]

My kids were a little older than yours when we went, but we did the Deluxe plan with our kids. They were 9 and 6 when we went over Christmas 2008/9. We have been to disney so many times, that while the TS meals take time, we were never rushed to anything. We figured to see it next time, or whenever.

It was a lot of food to eat, and while we do enjoy our eating while on vacation, we probably would not do Deluxe again.

 

[mickeymomm]

We are staying at the wilderness lodge villas in December. Mom of 2 pirates, I would love to know your adrs and kid pics. I'm not that concerned about the 'value' of the plan, it's our first family vacay. I don't want the deluxe plan to add more stress

 

[Mom of 2 Pirates]

Mickeymomm,

My older son's (almost 7) favorite character meals are:

Chef Mickey's - He loves it. My husband and I are not huge fans of the food (although we have only done dinners here). I don't find the food bad, but there is much better at Disney. When I have so many credits, I don't mind using them on restaurants that aren't necessarily my faves but that my kids love.

1900 Park Fare - Tigger, Pooh, Mary Poppins, Alice and the Mad Hatter. I enjoy the food here as well and enjoy the character interaction. My younger son was very excited to meet Alice and her character handler noticed. He whispered something in her ear as she approached our table, and she actually sat down next to my son and talked to him for quite a bit. The Mad Hatter is hysterical.

'Ohana Breakfast - Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto.

Garden Grill - The restaurant slowly rotates over the Land ride at Epcot. Chip and Dale are pretty funny. Once again, my husband and I didn't believe the food was the best, but the atmosphere was fun for the kids.

His favorite non-character meals are:

Teppan Edo (Epcot) - This is a hibachi-type place, so watching the chefs prepare the food at the table provides a show to entertain the kids. The staff is incredible! They made "kid" chopsticks for my older son while my younger was sleeping. My younger son woke up, saw his brother's treasure, looked upset, and before he could open his mouth to complain, a waiter was at our table making him a pair. A waiter also made origami for my kids. My kids are pretty picky eaters, but they love the food here. They get the chicken and dip it in what the chef refers to as the "Japanese Ranch" sauce.

Sci-Fi Dine-In - The tables are actually in cars, and they have cheesy old sci-fi clips playing in a dark theatre. I could see that some kids might find this a bit scary, but neither of my boys were even remotely bothered by it. They thought it was a fun atmosphere.

California Grill - We had a table by the window looking down at the Magic Kingdom. My kids loved looking down at the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed getting to have steak. The signature restaurants provide more unique kids meals and kids desserts other than the typical sundae. My husband and I love this one as well.

Artist Point - Our waiter was great with the kids. Once again, a unique dessert where they got to paint (with a brush and edible paint) a white chocolate Mickey puzzle. My 2-year old wasn't on the dining plan and they brought him his own mini-puzzle to paint free of charge. This is my husband's favorite restaurant on Disney property so far.

'Ohana Dinner - There is entertainment for the kids, and we got to view the fireworks from our table. My husband and I have found the meat here to be a bit over-cooked in our 2 experiences here but many absolutely love it.

My kids pretty much love all the character meals, but my favorites would be Akershus at Epcot (have only had breakfast here), Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom (awesome food), and the 1900 Park Fare Breakfast at the Grand Floridian. You didn't mention what gender your kids are, but my two boys really enjoy the princess meals. (CRT, 1900 Park Fare Dinner, Akershus). Despite being "all boy", they both enjoy the princess movies and enjoy meeting the princesses and getting to actually talk with them.

Some of my husband and my favorite non-character meals are:
Liberty Tree Tavern (the pre-plated dinner is good but we love lunch here)
The Plaza (great sandwiches and awesome ice cream desserts)
Kona Cafe Breakfast
Tutto Italia (my husband thought this was the biggest surprise of our last trip - he was expecting Olive Garden but thought this was delicious and I agree!)
Yak and Yeti - this is my husband's favorite table service within a park and this is his one "must-do" each trip
California Grill
Artist Point

I'll post our ADR schedule in a bit.

 

[Mom of 2 Pirates]

Mickeymomm,

Below is our ADR schedule from our past two trips on Deluxe Dining and then what I am planning for our December trip. The general rules we try to follow (for how we like to tour are as follows):

1. Plan our ADRs around the park we are visiting that day.
2. We always schedule lunch in a park. Breakfast we can do before we visit the park and we can do dinner once we are done with the park, but it takes a lot of time to leave and return to a park for an ADR.
3. Animal Kingdom closes early, and for our family, we are typically done with Hollywood Studios by late afternoon (we haven't seen Fantasmic yet), so if we are going to schedule an ADR at a resort or Downtown Disney, it will be on the night we visit these parks.
4. We typically stay later at Magic Kingdom and Epcot, so we will typically schedule a dinner in these parks as well as lunch. If we are scheduled for 2 days in these parks, we might do a resort or Downtown Disney dinner on one of the 2 nights and dinner in the park on the other.

June 2009 - Wilderness Lodge Trip

Arrival Day
Dinner - Liberty Tree Tavern
Magic Kingdom Day
B - Cinderella's Royal Table
L - The Plaza
D - Chef Mickey's
Hollywood Studios Day
B - Hollywood & Vine
L - 50's Prime Time Cafe
D - Artist Point
Magic Kingdom Day
B - Counter Service at Resort
L - Crystal Palace
D - Tony's Town Square
Epcot Day
B - 1900 Park Fare
L - Chefs de France
D - Teppan Edo
Animal Kingdom Day
B - Counter Service at Resort
L - Yak & Yeti
D - 1900 Park Fare
Departure Day
B - Counter Service at Resort
L - Counter Service at MK

March 2010 - Polynesian Resort Trip

Arrival Day
D - Chef Mickey's
Animal Kingdom Day
B - Tusker House
L - Yak & Yeti
D- Hoop De Doo Revue
Magic Kingdom Day
B - 'Ohana
L - Liberty Tree Tavern
D - Cinderella's Royal Table
Hollywood Studios Day
B - Counter Service at Resort
L - Sci-Fi Dine-In
D - California Grill
Epcot Day
B - Kona Cafe
L - Teppan Edo
D - Tutto Italia
Epcot Day
B - Akershus
L - San Angel Inn
D - Raglan Road
Magic Kingdom Day
B - 1900 Park Fare
L - The Plaza
D - 'Ohana
Departure Day
B - Counter Service at Resort

Planned for December 2010 - Grand Floridian Resort

Arrival Day
D - Mama Melrose
Magic Kingdom Day
B - 1900 Park Fare
L - Counter Service or Snack
D - The Plaza
Animal Kingdom Day
B - Counter Service or Snack
L - Yak & Yeti
D - California Grill
Epcot Day
B - Akershus
L - Counter Service or Snack
D - Tutto Italia Candlelight Processional Package
Magic Kingdom Day
B - Counter Service or Snack
L - Liberty Tree Tavern
D - Counter Service
Hollywood Studios Day
B - Counter Service or Snack
L - Counter Service or Snack
D - Brown Derby Fantasmic Dinner
Epcot Day
B - Counter Service or Snack
L - Biergarten
D - Artist Point or Narcoossee's
Departure Day
B - Crystal Palace
L - Counter Service or Snack

Some of the restaurants above I would recommend and others I would not, although I've never had a meal at a Disney table service that I would not eat. I have changed how I do things over time as I have learned what works for us and what doesn't. This upcoming trip, I plan to schedule fewer table service meals. With what is scheduled above for TS, we would break even if we used no other meal or snack credits. We decided that if we felt like TS for a meal not scheduled, we could try to walk up to less popular restaurants(going Dec 12-19 so hopefully lower crowds) and if we can't do a walk up, we will just do counter service. I also have found that after a couple of days, I am waking my kids up to go to breakfasts when they were dead tired and wanting to sleep. This time I have scheduled only 2 breakfasts. If we are up and want a TS breakfast, we will try to walk up to Grand Floridian Cafe or Kona and if we can't, we'll just do counter service. My approach might be different if it was a busier time.

 

[mickeymomm]

Thank you so much for the great info. It looks almost identical to what I am planning. It looks like we are gonna be there at the same time in Dec =) How did you like WL? I really wanted BLT but no 1BR villas are availiable...DS5, DD2.5, DH 32, and me 31. Thanks again to everyone!