Do you do TS ADR's w/ your little one's?

[DisFam95]

We're going for a week w/ our 2 and 5yr old. We used to do a lot of TS before the kids and pretty frequently w/ the oldest DS (he's my easy child).

It's stressing me out right now to think about planning meals 100 days out w/ a finicky fussy 2.5 yr old. I cannot even fathom planning food. He'll be almost 3 when we go so I guess I'll wait and see how he changes.

Just wondering what you all do w/ your little ones and meal times.

 

[irene_dsc]

Buffets and all you can eat are great for finicky eaters, imo. Much less stress than ordering off a menu - they can change their mind, and you just go get something else! I also tried to stick with interesting places, whether it was a character meal, Marrakesh with the belly dancer, or 'Ohana with activities. We also got pizza from the food court one night, which was planned from the start, because I knew a week of eating out was a bit much for our kids. I'm lucky that my older one is more rambunctious than my younger, so as he has gotten easier to take places, she is at about the same easiness for outings, iykiwm.

 

[tjmw2727]

We always did at least one ADR a day - usually for a late breakfast, or late lunch so we had the option. Most of the time we used them other times we stopped by or called to cancel. Our usual MO is breakfast in the room, main meal for lunch and counter service/quick food for dinner. We often end our days at Epcot so the counter food is varied and IMHO quite good.

Even now but especially when my kids were toddler/preschoolers late lunch was always our big meal of the day at Disney. Its a nice break from the parks, the food is as good as dinner and the prices are a little better Another plus was that the kids were usually more into sitting for a while than they would be at 7-8pm.

We look at park maps, go over our autographs, plan the rest of the day, play with stickers and I always had a few "table toys" in my mommy bags of tricks.

Haven fun planning,
TJ

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We always do a sit down, sometimes two if we have had a breakfast character meal. We usually eat breakfast in the room. I have found all TS to be kid friendly. We even do one signature meal a vacation. My kids love them because of the fancy desserts. I always schedule it 5:30 or 6:00 so we are out before anyone gets too tired. We eat at nice restaurants with my parents about once a month so my kids are used to it. If you don't mind spending the money, go for it. I leave much more energetic!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Here is my thoughts. 1) as the previous poster mentioned...stick to a lot of buffets. They work great for picky eaters. 2) don't assume that your child's schedule at home will work at Disney. I found out the hard way last year after making a bunch of 6pm dinner ADRs (because that's when we typically eat at home). However, at Disney our days are longer and DD took naps later in the afternoon than she did at home. So she would fall asleep around 4pm and then we would have to try to wake her up to get dressed and get on a bus for dinner ADRs. We are going to mix it up more this year and do some breakfasts and lunches. We are also going to make later dinner ADRs (probably 7ish) since that will give her time to take a decent nap and recharge!

 

[Ella's Mom]

On our last trip, my DD was 2 1/2 and we did one ADR a day, always at dinner. She really enjoyed Chef Mickey, Crystal Palace, LTT, and WCC.

 

[TheDizMom]

We do them all the time. My kids are older. When we took ours for the first time our youngest was 5, so not quite as young as yours, but it was still fine. You should make your ADR's ASAP so you can get a time that is appropriate and around when you would normally feed your kids. We have just always stuck to feeding them at their normal dinner times, even on vacation, and have found we rarely have problems. A hungry child isn't going to behave well and if they are eating much later then they usually do it will just be worse. If you wait to long to make ADR's it will be harder to get the time you want, and when you get closer to your trip you decide it just isn't going to work, you can simply cancel them. I will be much easier to go that route then to wait and find you can only get in at 8pm, never a good thing with small children unless of course this is the norm for your family. If you won't be in a park all day and going to one of the TS places within the park (therefore not having to carry things around all day) bring some things to entertain them to make your life easier. If worse comes to worse and you have some behavioral issues don't stress out about it. Your kids wouldn't be the first kids to act up at a WDW restaurant and they won't be the last. I also think that it would be a shame not to let them experience at least one character meal.

 

[DisFam95]

We're going to do Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, WCC etc. I have no fears about those for some reason.

It's the nicer places like LeCellier that stress me out. I think I'll stick w/ lunches on our non- big breakfast days.

Guess I can always cancel last minute if he's not into it at the time.

I'll get over it.

 

[tjmw2727]

We're going to do Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, WCC etc. I have no fears about those for some reason.

It's the nicer places like LeCellier that stress me out. I think I'll stick w/ lunches on our non- big breakfast days.

Guess I can always cancel last minute if he's not into it at the time.

I'll get over it.

No stress - its VaCaTion Remember even at the nicer restaurants like LeCellier - esp in the parks the restaurant will be full of kids. I always go to the Disney store prior to a trip and stock up on light up toys, and small trinkets that would cost 2x as much in the parks. These go in the "bag" for such emergencies

If need be you could always take a walk outside for a few minutes. Some of the restaurants have nifty light up ice cubes and they all have menus for kids to color.

But yes, you can always cancel if you get that Mommy gut feeling that it isn't a good time to try and sit for a meal.

I say book the ADR's because if you don't and you get hungry and want a TS break you may not be able to get what you want later.

TJ

 

[abcboys]

You will be there around the same time as us and I also have a 2 1/2 year old. We are doing one buffet (chef mickeys) and one other sit down and that is it. Personally I don't like a lot of sit downs. I guess I'm impatient but I hate sitting at a table waiting for food or needing more drink and never having a waitress come back. I like a more laid back get it yourself kind of eating. Buffets would be great but they are pretty expensive so we are just doing one. Plus I didn't want to plan my park days around where we were going to be eating.