Dining Plan with Toddler

[Muppetfan3]

How does this work? Our son will be 20 months old when we visit WDW. We got the regular plan - 1 QS, 1 TS and 1 Snack. Since he's under 3, I understand he will not be technically be participating. However, does he eat off of our plates, do we buy him a side dish, how does that work exactly? Also, is whole milk readily available? Can we tote around his sippy cups or do they have good cups with straws? We also have a 10 yo but have not been in 5 years. Excited for our trip. Thanks for any advice!

 

[BeHappyNeverSad]

My daughter was almost 2 when we went and had free dining. She ate off of our plates at TS restaurants or we served her own plate if it was a buffet. For quick service we subbed our desserts for side dishes to have more to share. For example, Columbia Harbor House in MK has veggie chili that you can get instead of dessert so we fed her that and we each had our entree. We ordered milk for her but were only charged for it in Disney springs. Disney provides a straw, but she wasn't very good with straws so we carried our own cups. It was such a fun age to take her! I hope you all have an amazing trip!

 

[aaarcher86]

You can take sippy cups, share, or order something for the baby. You'll pay OOP if you order something separately.

You can bring snacks and food in, too.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

When we took our son at 20 months we were on the Deluxe plan, any buffet we took him to was basically free, and he drank water from his sippy cup. Any TS meal that wasn't buffet we just ordered him his own meal off the kids menu and paid OOP for it. He has a hefty appetite and when it comes to food sharing is not in his vocabulary, LOL. Basically if you are doing TS make sure you do buffet, that way its free for him to eat, bring your own snacks, and when doing QS just pay OOP for his meals or have him share off your plates.

 

[Muppetfan3]

Thank you very much!! I appreciate the great advice!!

 

[wilkeliza]

One thing to consider is how much does your 10 year old eat? The 10 year old will be able to order adult sized meals since they are adults to Disney. So if your 10 year old doesn't eat big meals usually then have the 10 year old and 2 year old share.

 

[Crystal824]

My daughter was 20 months during our last trip. At that age they can eat from the buffet/family style meal without an additional cost. Every place we went brought her a drink for no additional cost. I"m sure they probably could have and maybe even should have charged us but no where actually did. For TS where you order from the menu and quick service places, they can share with you or you can order a meal for them. A few times, we ordered our daughter her own meal and a few times we shared with her.

 

[maxiesmom]

The Animal Kingdom does not have plastic straws. They have paper ones which get a little weird after a few sips. So make sure you bring your sippy cups to that park!

 

[willwork4cruise]

It depends on how much/what your child eats. At that age, my kids really just nibbled on stuff. We leave tonight (!!!) for our trip and my youngest is 23 months. We have travelled when each of our kids were that age. They always ate off of our/siblings plates. Plus I bring those baby food pouches and the cups they are used to. (Comfort thing). I never paid anything extra for them. Personally, I find the dining plan plenty of food.

 

[pixie08]

One big thing for us was that at buffets and kids under 3 eat free. We used this a lot and it worked nicely because there was variety for him. If not we either gave him something we were eating or ordered a kids meal or side of veggie sand just pay oop. It works out cheaper because I know in my lo's case he won't always eat a full kids meal. We ordered groceries and had milk, fruit o's etc to bring with us as well.