Feeding toddlers at WDW

[Jubaby]

Our grandbaby will be 19 months old on our trip to WDW in March 2011. I was wondering if there were any tips and info on feeding a toddler in WDW. She is a good traveler, happy baby, and likes people - so I'm not overly worried about her behavior.

I haven't decided if we should get the dining plan or not. We have done the dining plan in the past, but wasn't sure how it would work with a child that we are not paying for - especially at the table service restaurants. Does the child just have to eat off your plates only? Is it possible to get a'la carte items like mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, etc?

Would buffet style meals be better versus ordering off a menu? What about character meals? We will definitely be careful and introduce her slowly to the big characters, but wondered if something like Cinderella's Castle would be okay?

What about high chairs - are they readily available everywhere?

I know we will be taking alot of our own snacks and drinks, but just wondering how others handle it.

 

[TDC Nala]

Would buffet style meals be better versus ordering off a menu? What about character meals?

With an infant, yes. The infant can eat anything available there, as much as they want, for free. There's no guarantee you won't have to pay for a drink for the child but you most likely will not.

All character meals are either buffet, all you can eat family style, or fixed price fixed menu so the above applies to all of them.

Is it possible to get a'la carte items like mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, etc?

Yes, of course - but if you are at an a la carte restaurant or a CS you will have to pay for these items if you are purchasing them for the infant.

 

[Jubaby]

I don't mind paying extra for items for the baby - just wondering how convenient that is, and how often other people are doing that. Will the servers be frustrated with us, and will it be overly complicated paying the bill?

We usually eat at a table service place every day, but wondering if we should just plan mainly for counter service on this trip?

 

[LoveKermit]

We generally eat how we want and have DD conform. Though DH would not agree with me. He'd say I am always concerned about appropriate restaurants. I guess I wouldn't take her to Cali Grill, but we had her at Flying Fish at 20 months and at Kouzzina's at 3 years old.

We did not do the dining plan. However, we felt the kids menus have been rewritten to accomodate the dining plan. We had to specify with the waitress that all we wanted was the entree, not the app or dessert. I think we even got charged the full meal price once--total pain. Then, we learned to specify.

Just something to watch for.....

 

[PirateKate]

When we were at Disney with my fifteen month old and six week old, we did the Quick Service Dining Plan and were really happy to not have any table service meals. It would have been way too much pressure for us to make it on time to an ADR everyday. We sometimes bought Carter a kid's meal, depending on whether or not we thought he would like whatever we were eating. It was never a problem paying for his meal out of pocket and ours with the dining plan. It was really nice, too, to be able to leave as soon as we wanted to and not wait around for a check.

 

[kandls momma]

High chairs are readily available- we never had a problem getting them for our 10 month old. Buffets are easy, since you can get her food from the buffet and there is a wide variety typically if she is picky. I don'y really think it is any big deal to order extra sides for her as far as the cm's are concerned, they seem to handle that type of thing all the time.

You might prefer akershus over crt. It's cheaper, has the princesses, and only 1 ts credit on the dining plan.

Another option- Liberty Tree Tavern dinner- served family style so easy to feed the baby.

 

[MonkersMama]

Our DD was 17 mo on our last trip, we had a couple of buffet meals, which were perfect for picking foods for her, but mostly DH, DS and I shared our meals with her. DS was happy to share his veggies

 

[MSLRAC]

My DD is 19 months old at the moment and I would suggest buffets or family style meals providing she does well at restaurants at home. My little one can put away some food and would need her own kid's CS meal so it's just not cost effective for us to go CS or menu TS (depending on the serving sizes).

A buffet is good because she can have a variety of foods almost immediately upon being seated. Family style is also good because if she's used to eating with the family and having what the family has, it keeps her in her meal routine. I would also suggest that you try to eat as close to her normal eating times as possible.

 

[badblackpug]

Our little girl was 20 months old last trip. She is a good eater. e did a combo of buffets, where we didn't have to pay for her, and paying OOP for a kids meal. It was never a problem in any of the restaurants in which we ate, including signature. High chairs were always readily available at all restaurants. As for characters, my little girl wasn't too thrilled with them at 20 months. The servers were very helpful and put us at the back of the restaurant with her at the back of the table. She frantically waved and called "bye-bye" to the characters and they mostly kept their distance.

 

[Eliza'sMom]

We took DD when she was 20 months, and she is a big eater, and she was fine to eat off our plates pretty much everywhere. We sometimes ordered an extra side for her (like a side of mac and cheese at Chefs de France), but we really had plenty of food. We were not on the DDP, so when we wanted to get her something different, we just paid for it. We did sometimes pack a cup of mandarin oranges or something and add that so we knew she was getting something healthy that we knew she'd eat.

At CS places, we occasionally got DD a kids' meal, but lots of places we could share. In particular, I know we had more than enough food at Cosmic Ray's (great because they had green beans), Flame Tree Barbecue and Sunshine Seasons. The biggest problem we had was finding vegetables for her. Like I said, at Cosmic Ray's we got green beans and at Sunshine Seasons we had carrots. She typically inhaled the veggies when we did find them like she'd been starving for them.

Also, a lot of menus have a three-course meal for kids. Our server at Mama Melrose's told us that anytime we saw that, we could order just one portion of it, so at times we ordered the entree alone for her, and sometimes we ordered the fruit cup (which was supposed to be a dessert) and let her have some of our entree. They also often have chicken soup as a kids' appetizer that would probably make a full meal for a toddler.

Our DD LOVES the characters. We have done character meals on both trips with her (we've done Garden Grill, Tusker House breakfast and Crystal Palace) and they are a highlight for her. She definitely preferred the furry characters at 20 months to the face characters, but now she is getting into princesses.

 

[Jubaby]

Thanks so much! That was exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I think we will try the Dining Plan, since we like to sit down and take a break at mealtimes, and we will probably plan a few of the buffets. Liberty Tree Tavern was one of my favorites when they had characters. I wish they still did!

 

[Mississippianna]

I highly recommend buffets in general and family style meals, your 19-month old can eat free at those. If you order from the kids or a la carte menu at a table service restaurant you will have to pay out of pocket for that portion of your meal.

Yes, there really are high chairs and boosters everywhere! Dining at Disney is the most kid friendly experience EVER! Love it!

We have been twice with our DD, when she was 18 months, and again at 2 1/2 years. At 'Ohana (family style) they brought her mac and cheese at no charge. At Garden Grill, in the Land pavilion at Epcot, (family style and our new FAVORITE) they gave her all the kids selections from the menu for free. You can read my review with photos here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2403651

 

[southern_belle21]

Well, looking over this thread I have a question: Do they charge extra for accommodating food allergies? We are traveling with a friend of mine who has a 2 year old that has food allergies to a LOT of different foods (eggs, dairy, wheat, soy, peanuts) and we are eating at 2 different buffets (1900 Park Fare for dinner and Tusker House for breakfast). When I made the ADRs online it gave a list of several food allergies to check off, which I did. It said to send an email about the special dietary requests 2 weeks prior to our arrival. Has anyone else done this? If so, how did they accommodate you? He is under 3 so I know they usually just allow children to "nibble all he wants" off of an adult plate, but I am afraid to let him eat much from a buffet where we don't know what other foods that he IS able to eat may have come in contact with. I've wondered about calling the restaurants directly. Any thoughts?

 

[gigi1313]

we've taken ds at 6mos, 11 mos and 18mos and found that CS meals were more trouble than most TS meals... there were very limited choices for him at CS meals (no mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, etc) whereas we had better luck feeding him from our plates at TS meals... we also did an order from garden grocer with some fruit cups, baby food, cheerios, etc that we brought a small supply into the parks with us for "just in case" and it worked out well...

for our next trip (he'll be 2.5yo) we are doing mostly buffets or family style meals because of him... including 'ohana, whispering canyon, garden grill, crystal palace, hoop dee doo, and teppan edo...