Entertaining children at Disney restaurants

[wheredreamsbegin]

Does anyone have any unique/fun tricks for entertaining children at mealtime while at Disney? We will be traveling (and dining) with our three children: DD5, DD3, and DD15months. Most of our table service meals are character meals. I do not anticipate much trouble keeping the kids enteretained at those meals. We have booked a few meals (Le Cellier, Tutto, and San Angel Inn) that might be a little trickier. Our kids are generally well-behaved. They do well with coloring and activity books. I was just wondering if anyone does anything different/special while dining at Disney.

 

[jm106]

I keep pipe cleaners in my bag- they can be made into so much, small enough to take with you and cheap. I also have small doodle pad, stickers and paper. LOok at party city, they have so many small cheap toys that are goody bag fillers, all great for on the go things.

 

[all4fun]

Those little containers of play dough are also great. If they like to color, you can put a few crayons in a small zip top baggie to hand to the kids along with some coloring sheets your bring along. The kids menus also have some activities for kids (or they can just scribble on it). The sheets the menus are printed on are pretty much all the same and they are on colored paper, so you may want to bring your own along just so they have something different to draw/color on at each meal.

hth!

 

[laughinplace199]

I usually let the kids buy a new coloring book in the resort gift shop, and then we bring the new coloring books (and our own crayons) to the restaurants. The kids menus have activities/pic to color, but they're pretty much the same at every restaurant, which gets old after a few days.

 

[leaffan]

My grandkids love the playmobile figures. I always keep some in a ziploc with some of the accessories and they play with them while we're waiting for meals etc. Keeps them occupied for ages.

 

[callahandisneyqueen]

The gift shops everywhere have these small packages of disney figures and for your son Star Wars disney ones too. My children DS 5 and DD 2 1/2 love playing with them at restaurants. Since there's a surprise it makes is extra fun to see what we've gotten.

Stickers is another great thing to keep them occupied. You can find great little inexpensive coloring books at Target (Princess, Cars, etc) and then I take small crayons and extra stickers.

We started collecting pressed pennies with my son - that's another great time to look through them and of course look at maps or autograph books.

The dining plan now offers appetizers for the little ones again - so that should help with wait times as well.

HAVE FUN!

 

[minnie1012]

the small etch a sketch and magna doodle are good too

 

[hopesmommy]

I agree with play doh and pipe cleaners. My DD also likes to play with the sugar packets at restaurants. She hands them out like cards, stacks them, and plays follow "this" packet (kind of like which cup has the ball under it). We make sure she does not open them and we pick them up before we leave.

 

[tiggerx3]

Our last couple trips we took a portable DVD player for our DD. We took Lady and the Tramp to Tony's in MK. She and the waitresses enjoyed it!

Books - We found some small books (3x3) at a dollar store. They fit nice in a diaper bag.

 

[3goofyboys]

The dollar spot at my Target has a ton of Disney/Pixar stuff right now. I got the boys some small notebooks, sticker books, special pens, and some tattoos. We'll put all this in special backpacks for them to carry at the parks to keep them occupied in line and at meals. My kids are also huge fans of Safari, Ltd tubes (http://www.safariltd.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=toobs_megatoobs). They are easy to carry and my kids can play with the animals in them forever without getting bored.

 

[Miss LD]

We sware by lego.
We bought little packages of lego and keep them with the instructions in ziploc bags. They are only for restaurants. DS, 4, loves them.

 

[amyngary]

Check out Wikki Stix. I'm too new to post links apparently, but the url is just the name with '.com'. They are perfect for restaurants, especially the smaller packs. I even use them at home for 'emergencies'. They are creative and sensory like play doh without the mess

 

[Grendalynn]

Another parent here for disney figurines, little yet unseen gadgets from the dollar store and a supply of gold fish or pretzles to keep little bellies in control. The wait staf is usually very kid and family friendly and are helpful. Good luck!