Disney Meal Plan (with toddlers?)

[Mamapapa]

Just looking for opinions on whether or not it's worth getting the meal plan with our 4 year old. I'm just worried that making reservations may be too hard as we will have no idea when he'll be hungry (the day we have a reservation at 5pm will end up being the day he ate popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream at 4pm!). I'm just wondering if people found it easier to grab a quick lunch in your hotel room instead of having everything planned...

 

[Hootch]

with a 3.5 year old by himself and a 3 and then 4 year old with a sibling four years older. Kids act differently, but I can only relate my experience.

With the 3.5 year old we only did a few sit downs over four days in the parks. If memory serves me right we did Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's which have great character interaction for young kids. There is also a pretty good selection of food for kids. We also did the Plaza Restaurant in MK. It's pretty quick with a view of people going around the park and ice cream treats. The last was the Concourse since we were staying in the Contemporary. The mono rail provided some distraction. This may not be useful in the future depending when you go.

The next trip with a three year old we decided to do more sit downs. That was a mistake with my kids. Their moods were a bit unpredictable and their patients not great. (I can't blame them.) The waiter at Primetime had just started to get into his character when my 3 year old had a breakdown. He took it in stride and got us through the meal pretty quickly. For our family, this didn't work too well. The kids didn't work too well with such a structured schedule. (Part of the issue was this trip was an add on to a week at the beach so we only had three days in the park and we, the parents, felt rushed.)

The next year we visited for a longer period but had about the same number of sit downs. A lunch before the afternoon break or dinner right after the break worked best for us. Others really like to start with a breakfast before the parks open. I can see the utility in this but it doesn't mesh with our eating habits.

Besides Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace (my personal fave), we found Liberty Tree Tavern, Garden Grill and of course CRT (second child is a daughter) as good restaurants to keep the kids entertained and fed.

 

[hart6066]

The only thing I'd add is that whether or not you get the DP, you should think ahead about whether or not you want to go to a sit down. If so, I'd make some ADR's even if you end up canceling them. Depending on when you go,you could have a very hard time walking in to a sit down place, and that's the last thing you need when you have hungry children! The first time we went I was pregnant and DS was almost 3--we didn't do the DP and only ate at counter service. That was fine for us--we had bagels and little cereal boxes for him for breakfast, ate lunch at the parks, and then did food court at POFQ for dinner--but we were only there 3 or 4 days. The DP may not work out best for you, but do think about making some ADR's if you think you want to do a buffet or sit down--you can always cancel them. Have fun!

 

[Colleen27]

DD was 4 on our first trip, and we loved the dining plan. We eat out pretty often and she was fairly used to restaurant behaviour, and we used our TS meals for kid-friendly meals like 1900 Park Fare and such.

 

[mkycrzy1971]

Our 9 year old is sometimes like this and when we went in May there was at least 1 or 2 times (in 8 days) that she did not want to eat when we had our TS meals scheduled...the rest of the family went ahead and ate as normal...she usually picked at one of our appetizers and just ordered a drink (which they usually did not even charge us for)...but remember, you cannot do this at buffets...toward the end of our trip we had a couple of kids TS meals left and I inquired about having them converted into CS meals...we used them on the last day of our trip (since you do not actually have dining credits for that day)...worked out wonderful and, in my opinion, nothing was wasted. Just an idea...