Dining vs Quick Service Plans for Young Kids

[jasonumcp]

We are planning a trip with our 3 very young kids. At the time of the trip our twins will be 2 years 4 months, and our 3rd child will be about 11 months. We are planning a 10 night trip in the early December (value season) time frame.

My wife and I have been a number of times and have used the standard Dining Plan (1 TS, 1QS, 1 Snack). This will be our first trip with children.

I know that children under 3 are free and that they eat off the parents plate / from the buffet depending on the restaurant. My question is whether or not we should get the standard plan, or the Quick Service Plan. We love eating at all the various sit down restaurants, be we don't know if 10 nights of sit-downs will be too much for the young kids?

Does anyone have any similar experience or recommendations? Should we do the quick service and pick a few sit-downs that we really want to eat at and pay out of pocket? Should we keep the standard plan and pick more of the buffet / louder restaurants that might keep the kids entertained better (Germany / Boma / Chef Mickey's)?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[2Tiggies]

Welcome to the DIS!

A lot will depend on the kind of routine you have for your little ones. I would personally be doing very early dinners if you would prefer dinner to lunch or breakfast. Lively restaurants may be great but I wouldn't do it too near to bed time as it may be too much stimulation.

Heat isn't a big issue in December, which is one way many justify not doing CS only so you have a bit of flexiblity there. If structure and routine is very important and well adhered to in your home you may want to consider keeping something along similar lines there. It also affords you a break to rest and settle the kids. Not to say you can't sit down and do the same at a CS restaurant if you so choose.

It's a tough call. Thinking back to when DD was so young I think I may rather do the regular plan. Sharing is a whole lot easier with little ones at a buffet and you don't have to struggle around a QS place if it's busy looking for a table.

 

[squirrel]

I go for 14 nights and take my niece. We do free dining with the DDP. I mix it up and do some TS breakfasts and some TS dinners.

The buffets/family style are great as you don't need to wait for the food. Some of the TS takes a while for the food. I would try to do mostly buffets/family style as your children will eat for free and it's easy to feed them right away.

Last year we did 4TS meals that were not buffet/family style. I usually do one 2TS credit meal each trip. Last year and this year it's HDDR.

Character meals are good as you will not have to line up to get autographs/photos.

Will you be doing the Free Dining?

 

[twoplustwins]

We did all breakfast TS except for one dinner TS. My kids eat pretty well for breakfast and then horrible the rest of the day. Breakfasts also worked well for us because we could then head to the parks for however long we wanted and did not have to worry about making it back wherever for an ADR TS.

btw - we have twins too!

 

[jasonumcp]

Thanks for all the information. I think we will definitely consider keeping with our tradition of the full Dining Plan. My wife and I never even considered doing the Table Service for breakfast or lunch. We always thought about Table Service as something like a big dinner. So, we will try doing mostly the buffets and look at breakfasts and lunches.

 

[2Tiggies]

You could easily mix in a few dinners. In your situation though, I think practicality rules and you should consider the time/s of day when a break and a sit down meal are going to feel like a welcome break - preferably a time of day when the kids are relatively content. It's hard doing this so far in advance when kids are so little though because just when you think you know what's going on they change it up on you You will have a great time anyway.

 

[ccgirl]

I will be the voice of dissention here. I was just there in May with my DS2 and DD7. My DS2 doesn't sit well at restaurants at home; I don't know why I thought WDW would be different. Oh wait a minute, I didn't my DH did. Anyway, how do your children do at home at a restaurant? At home, anything past 5pm is what we call the witching hour. The children get CRANKY!!!! In December we are doing the QSDP so we have two snacks per day plus the refillable mug for drinks. We will pay for 2 character breakfasts OOP. I just didn't want to be tied down to reservations with the kids. Their schedule and moods are so unpredictable. I tried breakfast ressies with my DD when she was younger and found she just didn't want to get up in the morning. It can take up to an hour if you are using WDW transportation to get somewhere. Maybe a late character breakfast would work??? Good luck with your decision.

 

[DCDisney]

I think you would do so much better just paying OOP since your kids are all free anyway. That way if you plan an early dinner and kids are napping you can just cancel and get a quick bite somewhere. Even when my kids were a bit older it was very unpredictabel when they would be tired or hungry and I felt like a good bit of our dining plan went to waste with meals not eaten in restaurants and then other meals needing to be purchased later. If you are using buffets as an adult then usually the dining plan doesn't really save you much money. I'd make a variety of breakfast and lunch ADRs and then just cancel what you don't need. Dinners are really tough because if they are up they wanted to eat at 5ish and not wait and other times we were cutting naps short to get somewhere by 5ish. Without the DDP you don't have to worry about losing money by not eating meals you've already paid for. You will also have better flexibility at QS where you may find 1 adult meal works best for the little ones to share or a fruit cup and yogurt and you won't have to think about what items are and aren't covered on the plan and if they are a good value etc.

 

[Anthony1971]

I would say pay cash and hit the Buffets for lunch since the kids are all free for now
TS Lunch is a better option for young kids as they get to sit for a while mid-day and they should be awake. Dinner+TS= cranky

 

[brooklynnbaby]

We're doing a combination of TS for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for our three little ones. In fact, we only have one TS for dinner during out week long trip... a later ressie on our "rest" day, so I'm only assuming we will all have napped and will make it through a later dinner reservations, lol.

That's just what's going to work for us - and I'm totally fine with it all. We got some hard-to-get ressies because we were flexible. Maybe as we get more seasoned and the kids get older, our palates and schedules can get a little pickier. But for now, it's what works for us!

 

[hart6066]

and we have always gone with it--but we started going when DD was 4 and DS 7. With your kids that little, I'd make some ADR's (that you can always cancel that day if things get nutty) and just do what seems to work best. I think you "get your money's worth" from DDP if you go to the more expensive restaurants and really sit to enjoy the meal and dessert. If you need to rush because everyone has had it, I don't think it'd be much fun!! Plus, you'd feel like you couldn't cancel because you had already prepaid for the meals.

At TS, you and your wife could order a meal and then a kids meal to share with the 3 kids, do same thing at CS and I think even if you did that every day (which you may not), you'll still come out ahead.

Maybe book a few breakfast character meals (maybe for one of their last seatings so that it could serve sort of as lunch for the adults) and then all the kids can have a full meal at no charge. IMO the food at the buffets--especially the character ones--is VERY mediocre so pick and choose--don't know if I'd do more than 2.

I think the parks will be much more quiet when you go, so doing CS might be a nice way to go. Epcot has some really nice ones that offer much more than burger and fries so you and your wife could have a nicer meal and just eat when you need to and not worry about needing to make and ADR.

Your resort may also be a good place to eat. If some of the kids need to go back early to sleep, you could take turns going down to food court, or even TS with the older ones if you want.

Good luck!

 

[4HppyCamprs]

I am not sure if anybody mentioned this or not but the other day when I called to change Dining plans from QS to DDP I mentioned that we hadnt planned to do the DDP because of how long we had to spend in restuarants and the CM told me that we could always use a TS credit as a QS meal. That might give you more options

 

[squirrel]

I am not sure if anybody mentioned this or not but the other day when I called to change Dining plans from QS to DDP I mentioned that we hadnt planned to do the DDP because of how long we had to spend in restuarants and the CM told me that we could always use a TS credit as a QS meal. That might give you more options

That can be done and is done quite a bit during free dining. However if you are paying for the Dining Plan then it won't save you any money.

OP are you booking with the Free Dining?