Dining with a 3 year old

[hauntedcity]

Food-wise, taking a 2 year old to WDW rocks. Character buffets? No problem, because the kid eats free. Granted, they don't eat much, but at least you're not paying extra, right?

Soooo... on our next trip, our daughter will be 3 years old. Breakfast with Cinderella? Our daughter wouldn't eat $5 of breakfast food, let alone $30. The princesses at Akershus? You could have Princess Kate herself there, and I wouldn't pay $24 for our little girl to eat half an egg.

We have always enjoyed buffets and character meals, but that seems almost impossible when bringing along a 3-year old. Does anyone have any suggestions on handling the huge bump in pricing from 2 to 3 (other than bringing along a forged birth certificate)? Are we just doomed to a week of counter service meals and long lines to meet characters in the parks?

Doug

 

[cluvsdisney]

I would budget/save up to have one or two favorite character meals instead of doing all counter service or consider the dining plan.

 

[Hopefully]

Food-wise, taking a 2 year old to WDW rocks. Character buffets? No problem, because the kid eats free. Granted, they don't eat much, but at least you're not paying extra, right?

Soooo... on our next trip, our daughter will be 3 years old. Breakfast with Cinderella? Our daughter wouldn't eat $5 of breakfast food, let alone $30. The princesses at Akershus? You could have Princess Kate herself there, and I wouldn't pay $24 for our little girl to eat half an egg.

We have always enjoyed buffets and character meals, but that seems almost impossible when bringing along a 3-year old. Does anyone have any suggestions on handling the huge bump in pricing from 2 to 3 (other than bringing along a forged birth certificate)? Are we just doomed to a week of counter service meals and long lines to meet characters in the parks?

Doug

It seems that your 3 y o is now considered a child on the DDP. So at TS restauarants you will need to purchase a child's meal for her. Those are the rules, even though you don't like them. Either that or eat CS. You could also eat breakfast in your room.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Food-wise, taking a 2 year old to WDW rocks. Character buffets? No problem, because the kid eats free. Granted, they don't eat much, but at least you're not paying extra, right?

Soooo... on our next trip, our daughter will be 3 years old. Breakfast with Cinderella? Our daughter wouldn't eat $5 of breakfast food, let alone $30. The princesses at Akershus? You could have Princess Kate herself there, and I wouldn't pay $24 for our little girl to eat half an egg.

We have always enjoyed buffets and character meals, but that seems almost impossible when bringing along a 3-year old. Does anyone have any suggestions on handling the huge bump in pricing from 2 to 3 (other than bringing along a forged birth certificate)? Are we just doomed to a week of counter service meals and long lines to meet characters in the parks?

Doug

Absolutely nothing you can do about it except take your lumps and deal or not go to those restaurants.

Unfortunately it's no different than the bump from kid to adult. I just had to pay ridiculous prices for my 10 and 13 year old who cannot even eat a full kids meal let alone an adult meal. At CRT my 13 year old ordered off the kids menu since he is the lightest and pickiest eater and I made my 10 year old and 8 year old order the adult filet meals instead of the kids ones because I paid for adult meals. The server brought out kid portions. Nope - take them back and bring me what you made me pay for please... The server was not happy but I made it clear when ordering that we paid for 4 adults and 1 child and I expected meals portioned for 4 adults and 1 child.

 

[HunnyJar]

My two year old (almost 3) is not a great eater, she has some slight sensory issues so finding something that she will eat can be tricky. Some days she won't even take a bite of something on her plate other times she finishes her plate and wants more. Little kids can be a challange at times.

My suggestion to you to maybe do one or two character meals so that the character portion of your trip is a little smoother than waiting in lines. Yes, you will be paying for a meal for your little one, but at a character buffet you might be surprised to find out there is something she wants to eat. If you know she tends to be a better eater for say breakfast book a breakfast character meal. The one nice thing about breakfast is that they generally are cheaper, so you might not be so disappointed about the price. And if you book an early ADR for a character breakfast (like Tusker House or Crystal Palace) you get that early entry to the park.

Another thing I might suggest if you aren't doing the DP is to maybe order sides for your daughter. As I said, my daughter is not a great eater. We found a side of macaroni and cheese to be extremely inexpensive and just enough for her for that particular meal. You don't need to just have CS meal, but it might take a little thinking outside the box to make it work for you and your family.

 

[minnie mum]

Try to go during free dining?

I think the idea by a PP about just ordering sides for her when going to a TS restaurant is a good idea. I realize that the character meals are expensive; a lot of the cost is in the characters and not in the meal itself. So perhaps limiting these meals to just a couple per trip will help minimize the pain. She can still see a lot of these characters in the parks.

 

[melifeld]

Our son is 4 years old. When we went last January he was only 3. We had the same sticker shock. We decided to go during free dining (we actually changed our dates to accommodate this). If we hadn't we would have avoided the character buffets last year. We are fortunate in that our son is a pretty good eater most of the time. But he also has days when he won't eat anything you offer him.

If you can, do the free dining plan. Otherwise I would do as a PP said and order sides or apps for your DD, that way you can just get her what she wants and only pay for that. Save the character buffets for when she is a little older. She can still see the characters in the parks!

Good luck and have fun, whatever you decide.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

The way I try to look at it is that the last few years it's been free. So now it's paying for what she ate before!

The prices are rough. My kids are 2 and 4. That bump kills you. But on the other hand, do any adults really eat $35 worth of eggs at CRT? I mean how much does coffee and eggs cost?

Try to keep in mind it's not about the food they eat it's about the experience with the characters. The dining plan does help substancial (even when not free) when you look at the child's price per day verses the price of the buffets. That also helps me. I am willing to pay $15 a day for my child to eat all day.

 

[dimndgal1]

when DD hit 3, we cut out character meals and spent the extra time stalking princesses and character M&G. I figured we spent an hour or so at character meals so the time evened out and we could go do other restaurants and save $$$.

... of course, all that went out the window when we were invited to a lunch at Club 33 and I spent more on DD's meal than I ever expected. But, for that, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Anyway, if you look at the cost as being wasteful because DD won't eat, then maybe you can make this next trip a M&G trip with cheaper food until DD is old enough to make the character meals worthwhile again.

 

[pixarmom]

Hi Doug,

We have three boys, ages 12, 11 and 4. As previous posters have mentioned, it's the transition from 9 to 10 that really gets you! We don't mind the transition from 2 to 3 so much!

In any event, as others have mentioned, a change in strategy can help. For example, we don't do the dining plan anymore. We usually schedule two ADRs per day at non-character, non-buffet TS restaurants. That gives us a much-needed break during the day, we can all order ala carte, share entrees or order appetizers instead of entrees, and finish our meal within an hour or so. We don't have to stand in CS lines, look for a table, juggle trays with the kids, etc. We've even added lots of signatures into our dining rotation - and those are far less expensive for us than character meals and buffet or fixed-price restaurants. (Two of our kids always select kids' meals and our oldest and I usually choose appetizers instead of entrees.)

We do throw in few character meals here and there, but we're far more selective. We usually do Garden Grill for dinner and Ohana or Tusker House for breakfast.

 

[aubriee]

My husband and I are taking our 3 y/o grandson to WDW Feb 4th-11th. I go several times a year, but this will be his very first trip. We are so excited. I purposely booked every character meal and every fun restaurant I could, so we are looking at at least 2 TS meals a day and three most days. This trip will be based strictly around him. He does very well in restaurants and usually enjoys eating out. We figure the TS meals will force us to take it nice and slow and will be a nice break, plus he'll get to meet the characters without having to stand in long lines. I have the TiW card, but after figuring the prices three ways (OOP with TiW, basic DDP then paying OOP for the extra TS meals, and DxDDP), to go with the DxDDP. This kid is ridiculously tiny and eats next to nothing. My D-I-L tells me he is healthy, but is not even on the growth chart. He has a cousin six weeks younger than him and another cousin 17 months younger than him. Both are bigger than he is. However, he is extremely well spoken. Most people are shocked when he starts chattering in full sentences and uses some of the big words he does. Talking to him you know he's over two and sounds much older than three, but size wise he looks maybe 18 months. His parents eat out alot and he has a picky but rather sophisticated palate. This kid does not care for hot dogs, hamburgers, Mac & Cheese, french fries, peanut butter and jelly, pizza or anything else that's on the WDW kids menus. He loves lobster, calamari, steaks, broiled fish, any green veggies, ceaser salads, sushi, etc. Even though he may only eat a few bites at a time, I booked alot of buffets hoping to find something this kid will eat. There is no way he's going to touch any of the kids stuff. Other than maybe at Mexican food restaurants, he never orders off a kids menu. He either orders off the adult menus (and then mom takes the left overs home) or he eats off his parents plates and always has. He'll eat very little, but I still went with the DxDDP and just figure the price paid for him will be for the character interaction.

 

[hauntedcity]

Thanks for all the replies!

I think we'll be okay with some table service, because our littlest can share with her sister, and I loved the idea about "side item meals." We're just going to bite the bullet for two character meals: one at Crystal Palace and one at O'Hana.