Dining with a 2 1/4 year old

[pickers1982]

Does anyone have any tips for dining out with a 2 1/4 year old. We re on the dining plan so will have a lot of credits to use.

 

[Woodmnky]

Take things for entertainment. Schedule your ADRs slightly before your normal dinner time as there can often be a wait. Have an exit strategy should your LO be having a not so happy time (example, one parent take the LO on a walk). We took DS on a cruise for his 2nd birthday. He was great in all of the restaurants. Fast forward 5 months to another Disney cruise and we couldn't get him to sit for more than 10 minutes. It became pretty miserable for both DH & I. We had to eat in shifts and take DS for walks while the other one ate. Before this point DS was awesome in restaurants, so this was pretty unexpected. I only tell you this to warn you to expect the unexpected and have some back up plans.

 

[Shelby109]

We brought a lot of fun things from the dollar store that we packed ahead of time: stickers, coloring books she had not seen before, also- in extreme cases we let DD look at pictures on our phones.

 

[maplevale]

We will be dining in February with our 2.5 year old.... same as above - have a plan and have things to do!

Some other thoughts...
Practice - how far until your trip? Start going out for meals now, start with really kid friendly places like McD's/Subway and work your way up to Denny's type family restaurants. Our kids eat out a lot with us and they can behave not bad.. but if your kid has never eaten out you will have a tricker time.

Where are you planning on eating? - Our Disney reservations are for very kid centric restaurants... mostly Character meals that keep things moving! We are trying Teppan Edo as well as I have had several people tell me it's entertaining. Buffets can also be your friend because there is little to no waiting!

What time? - Like mentioned above if you aim for off peak you can likely be in a less busier place and get your service quicker. But also think about when your kid is happy! We do early AM breakfasts because our family is morning people. We tend to do a 'lunch' at 11am and dinner at 4pm because if we get over hungry we get cranky!

If all else fails - get your food to go (or at least your childs food to go!) and let them eat it in the stroller!

 

[pickers1982]

Thanks everyone!!

 

[pickers1982]

Ps we re coming from uk so in disney a while. Booked a good range of restaurants and staying next to epcot. Booked teoan edo too as we loved and hoped they ll be so much to see he ll be entertained!

 

[pickers1982]

Sorry just saw we re going fen 2914 too. Hope weather is ok

 

[EagleScout]

Related to bringing entertainment, please ensure your smartphone still has charge for dinner, or even bring an external battery/remote recharger (like we did). That way, when all else fails, u can put on a show (worked for us).

 

[set1208]

We eat out a lot with our kids. One thing we try to do is review the menu ahead of time so that when the waitress comes for our drink order, we already know what we want to eat so it can be put in immediately. Saves us a big chunk of time. If DH and I aren't sure, we ask that she at least put the kids food in first and get it out ASAP so they're not waiting too long.

Things I've brought in my bag were books, crayons, coloring book pages, stickers. The kids get a kick out of looking at old pics on our phones. Sometimes we use our camera phones to take silly pics of ourselves while we wait.

 

[travelgirl06]

We take DD out to eat a lot and did a cruise with her (read: 2-hour-dinners every night) when she was 16-months old. I usually order her food when we order our drinks so it an be brought out sooner - she loves to eat and will happily graze for a long time. I also kept my purse stashed with dollar store type toys that I would bring out one at a time and crayons/coloring stuff. She's really into stickers right now, so I'll probably bring several sheets and let her have a sheet if she gets bored (she sticks them all to her shirt usually).

I agree with having an exit strategy. Most of the time our DD does really well, but there have been meals where one of us has to take her out and walk around for a while. As long as this is the exception and not the rule we'll keep taking her to restaurants.