Help me with my restaurants

[FSU Girl]

I’m not sure if I should drop a bunch of the dining I have and wing it/quick service it or keep what I have. It’s my 17 month old baby’s first Disney trip so I want it to be as fun and stress free as possible. Right now I have a sit down dinner for every night

Tusker house, yachtsman steakhouse, be our guest and citricos

I’m thinking of dropping maybe 2 of these? The food at Tusker house doesn’t really appeal to me but there are so few character meals and I was only able to get chef Mickey for breakfast so this would be the only other experience. I’m thinking a character meal would be easier than waiting in a long line inside the park.

Be Our Guest I love the food and have it on my birthday. The baby also loves the movie, but I’m a little worried she’ll get scared of him. But if it’s done like before it’s just at the end of the meal so wouldn’t be a big focus for her. Also a little worried since it’s a set meal and she’s under three she won’t have anything to eat there.

I have no lunches planned except on our last day at cinderellas Royal table. I was on the fence about this originally but she’s become my baby’s favorite character and I believe Cinderella meets downstairs before the meal so I’m keeping this one.

For those with a baby did you feel like it was easier having no plans and just winging it? Would it be easier to do just quick service instead of sitting down? Or is sit downs easier with a baby?

Edited to add: my baby has gone to Disney resorts before. We did a quick weekend trip and didn’t go into any of the parks. This will be our first big week long vacation. Going into the parks for the first time for her. Longest trip we’ve done with her is 2 nights so this’ll be an adventure

 

[sponica]

Be Our Guest I love the food and have it on my birthday. The baby also loves the movie, but I’m a little worried she’ll get scared of him. But if it’s done like before it’s just at the end of the meal so wouldn’t be a big focus for her. Also a little worried since it’s a set meal and she’s under three she won’t have anything to eat there.

I dined at BOG with an under 3 for lunch, she was not thrilled with beast but he only walked through twice. She got a complimentary bowl of mac and cheese. At CRT, she got a complimentary waffle and stole eggs from my husband.

We ate in all sorts of sit down places with my 5.5 year old and 20 month old (BOG, CRT, LTT, Sanaa, Narcoosees, Tiffins, Tusker House Breakfast, Garden Grill lunch, Toledo, 50s Primetime, Kona, Steakhouse 71, Space 220) and the pool bar, and did quick service for breakfast a few days.

We bring coloring books and crayons to keep the kiddos occupied. I will say in hindsight, I would drop the table service lunches and do more quick service, so if they got hungrier earlier than we expected we could just grab something then.

 

[SirDuff]

Wait, didn’t you do a dining report about your baby’s first Disney trip earlier this year (or maybe late last year)? How can this be your baby’s first Disney trip?

 

[Schneewittchen37]

When my kids were babies, we definitely did the character meals. DS12 did his first character meal at 15mo at Crystal Palace. And he loved every minute of it. I felt like the best mommy on earth that day.

I agree the food at Tusker House is garbage, but AK is hotter than the sun, so just have a cool place to spread out and sit down with characters makes up for that. Really, the baby will love it. It's too bad it's family style right now. It's easier to deal with gross food when you can just eat off the kids buffet, right?

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking baby to Citricos or any other signature.

BOG should be okay for baby. You can always test run characters with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

I always do sit-downs for dinner though, just to give everyone a rest. We're more likely to QS lunch these days.

 

[BrianL]

I used to love Tusker House, but form what I hear it is not what it used to be. That's too bad. I am not sure if they are back to buffet, or if it's still family style. The breakfast buffet was always a high point on trips for me, but I will say my last visit was not quite as good because they replaced the corned beef hash with a salmon dish (which was very good, but I missed my favorite!). Right now, it might not be the best choice, which is too bad.

BOG has always been a great experience for me! Some people complain, but I have always found it to be fabulous, with great food and service. Plus, the ambiance - I mean, come on!

 

[FSU Girl]

Wait, didn’t you do a dining report about your baby’s first Disney trip earlier this year (or maybe late last year)? How can this be your baby’s first Disney trip?

First trip into the parks. We took her for a resort only trip. Was still a little nervous with Covid to go into the parks and it was a quick weekend trip. This time we are going into all the parks and staying for a week.

 

[FSU Girl]

I dined at BOG with an under 3 for lunch, she was not thrilled with beast but he only walked through twice. She got a complimentary bowl of mac and cheese. At CRT, she got a complimentary waffle and stole eggs from my husband.

We ate in all sorts of sit down places with my 5.5 year old and 20 month old (BOG, CRT, LTT, Sanaa, Narcoosees, Tiffins, Tusker House Breakfast, Garden Grill lunch, Toledo, 50s Primetime, Kona, Steakhouse 71, Space 220) and the pool bar, and did quick service for breakfast a few days.

We bring coloring books and crayons to keep the kiddos occupied. I will say in hindsight, I would drop the table service lunches and do more quick service, so if they got hungrier earlier than we expected we could just grab something then.

That’s great they gave your baby food at the set meals, was a little nervous for that. She’s usually pretty well behaved when we go out to eat I think because she gets so excited to see people everywhere. Problems with being a baby in a pandemic she hasn’t gone out much.

 

[FSU Girl]

I used to love Tusker House, but form what I hear it is not what it used to be. That's too bad. I am not sure if they are back to buffet, or if it's still family style. The breakfast buffet was always a high point on trips for me, but I will say my last visit was not quite as good because they replaced the corned beef hash with a salmon dish (which was very good, but I missed my favorite!). Right now, it might not be the best choice, which is too bad.

BOG has always been a great experience for me! Some people complain, but I have always found it to be fabulous, with great food and service. Plus, the ambiance - I mean, come on!

I’ve never been to tusker house before. I tried to get a breakfast for it since that’s usually a safer food option but they had none available and haven’t seen any dropped. Dinner seems to always pop up probably because it’s not as sought after I guess. There’s just so few character meals now. I love BOG it’s so pretty and I know some don’t like the food but I’ve always liked it.

 

[FSU Girl]

When my kids were babies, we definitely did the character meals. DS12 did his first character meal at 15mo at Crystal Palace. And he loved every minute of it. I felt like the best mommy on earth that day.

I agree the food at Tusker House is garbage, but AK is hotter than the sun, so just have a cool place to spread out and sit down with characters makes up for that. Really, the baby will love it. It's too bad it's family style right now. It's easier to deal with gross food when you can just eat off the kids buffet, right?

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking baby to Citricos or any other signature.

BOG should be okay for baby. You can always test run characters with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

I always do sit-downs for dinner though, just to give everyone a rest. We're more likely to QS lunch these days.

We did a resort only trip for a weekend with her and went to character dining so I know she’ll love the regular characters. Not sure about beast just because he’s so big and can look intimidating.

Sounds like the food is really terrible at tusker house lol. Do you think it’s still worth going to see the characters?

 

[BrianL]

I’ve never been to tusker house before. I tried to get a breakfast for it since that’s usually a safer food option but they had none available and haven’t seen any dropped. Dinner seems to always pop up probably because it’s not as sought after I guess. There’s just so few character meals now. I love BOG it’s so pretty and I know some don’t like the food but I’ve always liked it.

Tusker Breakfast used to be a staple for me, and I don't even much care about character meals - it's just that the food was that good. Breakfast did have the typical bacon, eggs, & Mickey waffles, but also a selection of African dishes, like the aforementioned corned beef hash, some beef bobotie, carved ham with a special sauce, and even this rice and coconut type thing - I found all that stuff delicious. I gather more people shied away from it, but that left more for me!

 

[FSU Girl]

Tusker Breakfast used to be a staple for me, and I don't even much care about character meals - it's just that the food was that good. Breakfast did have the typical bacon, eggs, & Mickey waffles, but also a selection of African dishes, like the aforementioned corned beef hash, some beef bobotie, carved ham with a special sauce, and even this rice and coconut type thing - I found all that stuff delicious. I gather more people shied away from it, but that left more for me!

I like those dishes, I think they have those at Boma have you gone there for their buffet breakfast?

 

[BrianL]

I like those dishes, I think they have those at Boma have you gone there for their buffet breakfast?

I know that they did share some things with Boma - I don't know if they were exactly the same. I haven't acutally ever gotten out to Boma or AKL, but have always wanted to. It's tough though because I am a rope-drop type person, so I usually skip breakfast or do an in-park option.

 

[FSU Girl]

I know that they did share some things with Boma - I don't know if they were exactly the same. I haven't acutally ever gotten out to Boma or AKL, but have always wanted to. It's tough though because I am a rope-drop type person, so I usually skip breakfast or do an in-park option.

You should try it, it was really good, I’ve only gone the one time but enjoyed it. We did a late reservation I think the last one for breakfast so you could maybe do that for a small break from the park. It’s a quick bus ride I think only five minutes

 

[Marthasor]

I’m not sure if I should drop a bunch of the dining I have and wing it/quick service it or keep what I have. It’s my 17 month old baby’s first Disney trip so I want it to be as fun and stress free as possible. Right now I have a sit down dinner for every night

Tusker house, yachtsman steakhouse, be our guest and citricos

I’m thinking of dropping maybe 2 of these? The food at Tusker house doesn’t really appeal to me but there are so few character meals and I was only able to get chef Mickey for breakfast so this would be the only other experience. I’m thinking a character meal would be easier than waiting in a long line inside the park.

Be Our Guest I love the food and have it on my birthday. The baby also loves the movie, but I’m a little worried she’ll get scared of him. But if it’s done like before it’s just at the end of the meal so wouldn’t be a big focus for her. Also a little worried since it’s a set meal and she’s under three she won’t have anything to eat there.

I have no lunches planned except on our last day at cinderellas Royal table. I was on the fence about this originally but she’s become my baby’s favorite character and I believe Cinderella meets downstairs before the meal so I’m keeping this one.

For those with a baby did you feel like it was easier having no plans and just winging it? Would it be easier to do just quick service instead of sitting down? Or is sit downs easier with a baby?

Edited to add: my baby has gone to Disney resorts before. We did a quick weekend trip and didn’t go into any of the parks. This will be our first big week long vacation. Going into the parks for the first time for her. Longest trip we’ve done with her is 2 nights so this’ll be an adventure

TS are much easier than QS and plated meals are much easier than buffets. When we took DS as a baby, I found lunches worked better because he got completely off his nap schedule and would fall asleep at random times sometimes for hours. I ended up canceling a lot of evening plans on those trips (this was before the no-show fee). I would definitely do 1 TS, per day and schedule it at the optimum time for your baby. I really like TH breakfast - I think the the food is good (better than CM). For BoG, you could position your baby's chair so she won't see the Beast. Citricos is my fave restaurant in WDW!

 

[Schneewittchen37]

We did a resort only trip for a weekend with her and went to character dining so I know she’ll love the regular characters. Not sure about beast just because he’s so big and can look intimidating.

Sounds like the food is really terrible at tusker house lol. Do you think it’s still worth going to see the characters?

Disney food is never worth what it costs. Good or bad. I have no interest in going to Tusker House again, I'm more likely to try for Chef Mickey, Garden Grill, Hollywood & Vine, etc.

But if this is your only chance to see Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, maybe it's worth it to you.

 

[FSU Girl]

TS are much easier than QS and plated meals are much easier than buffets. When we took DS as a baby, I found lunches worked better because he got completely off his nap schedule and would fall asleep at random times sometimes for hours. I ended up canceling a lot of evening plans on those trips (this was before the no-show fee). I would definitely do 1 TS, per day and schedule it at the optimum time for your baby. I really like TH breakfast - I think the the food is good (better than CM). For BoG, you could position your baby's chair so she won't see the Beast. Citricos is my fave restaurant in WDW!

It is so hard planning with a baby’s ever changing schedule lol. I am nervous about night time meals because if she doesn’t go down for her nap when she normally does she’ll probably be exhausted and fall asleep super early or take a really late nap which messes with all the dinner times. Was one reason I was thinking of cancelling some. Breakfast is the only ones that would be a sure thing that she’s up and hungry lol. Just sucks how hard it is to get into restaurants at Disney so planning on the fly isn’t easy to do.

Good to know sit downs will be easiest. I haven’t been to citricos in a few years, but I really liked it when I went and have heard good things. I don’t think I’ll find a tusker house breakfast, so far I’ve never seen one dropped. Chef Mickey is just really convenient since it’s in our hotel. I have it booked twice for our trip but I’m thinking I’ll cancel one since it’s a lot of that place lol. Was really hoping to replace one with topolinos but that’s just not happening

 

[FSU Girl]

Disney food is never worth what it costs. Good or bad. I have no interest in going to Tusker House again, I'm more likely to try for Chef Mickey, Garden Grill, Hollywood & Vine, etc.

But if this is your only chance to see Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, maybe it's worth it to you.

Won’t be the only trip for us, we already booked at trip in November for our baby’s birthday lol. I guess a lot will depend how she does with going on rides if we take a break or go more. And I agree Disney prices are crazy. I just felt the character dining made it easier with a baby. She doesn’t like to stay still so standing in a long line will be difficult she’s a fast runner lol

 

[Disneylover99]

I may be in the minority, but I’d drop all TS with a 17 month old.

Stress free to me (for that age) is eating on the go. I can’t imagine trying to plan ADR’s around the needs/schedule of a baby/toddler who probably won’t want to sit still for more then 5 minutes.

We did our first character dining when our youngest was 4 years old. It was the perfect age for us. I think quick service and bringing snacks at that age is the way to go.

 

[FSU Girl]

I may be in the minority, but I’d drop all TS with a 17 month old.

Stress free to me (for that age) is eating on the go. I can’t imagine trying to plan ADR’s around the needs/schedule of a baby/toddler who probably won’t want to sit still for more then 5 minutes.

We did our first character dining when our youngest was 4 years old. It was the perfect age for us. I think quick service and bringing snacks at that age is the way to go.

Her schedule is sporadic and probably will get disrupted on the trip so this is a definite concern. Ideally I’d like to book stuff on the fly knowing when she’ll be up from her nap but chances are anything good wouldn’t be available. She liked the character dining before so I want to keep that. Would just be easier if I could do those for breakfast but hard to find availability right now.

 

[Aimeedyan]

At 17 months, my toddler was a nightmare at restaurants so we mostly stopped all table service spots. He was much more interested in walking around and sitting for more than a few minutes was a no-go.

So my vote is keep what appeals to you and be ready to roll with it if she isn't at all interested in sitting.

We successfully did Topolino's at that age, but I had to stand on the terrace with him until the food came. We both ate fast because once he was "all done" we were done. He was/is obsessed with Mickey but it didn't hold his interest long after the characters left the table.