help... signature dining with a 4 yr old??

[amyrella]

so i am seriously considering the delux dining plan for my trip next year.. but ive read its only worth it if you do signature dining...

are all the restaurants kid friendly.. or i'll ask this way.. which signature dining restaurants aren't "kid" friendly?

i love to eat... and the basic disny dining plan doesnt give enough table service (i'd rather TS over QS)...

ahhhh what to do?!?!?

 

[kwdancer26]

I wouldn't worry one bit. With the exception of Victoria & Albert's, every single restaurant at WDW is kid friendly. In other words, you can go anywhere and find a kid-filled environment.

If you want the signature restaurants, go for it. No matter where you go there will be kids running around, screaming babies, etc. that will surely be acting worse than your child

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

I find that yachtsman and jiko are more "kid friendly" than narcoossee and citricos that seemed super stuffy to us. Jmo

 

[cbg1027]

Any of the signatures, other than V & A's, are ok to bring kids to. I wouldn't go so far as to call them 'child-friendly'. But the staffs are used to kids, there are kids menus, and you won't get any weird looks for bringing kids of any age.

There aren't really things to keep kids occupied like characters or themes, so its like dining at a regular restaurant in that sense. Bring a coloring book and some crayons or something if needed.

 

[catne]

one thing to seriously consider...is your 4 year old used to sitting quietly in a restaurant for 2 or more hours? The signatures are much more "sedate" service, even on the regular dining plan. And if you're doing the deluxe plan, remember there will be an extra course, too (the appetizer) so can just about guarantee your dining experience will fall in the 2+ hours category.

Just for an example...we ate at the Cali Grill...and told them we actually were in a bit of a hurry because the teens with us had concert tickets. Even though we did not get appetizers or separate beverage orders, and the waiter said he'd see what he could do about getting our food out quickly: "Quickly" was 1.5 hours...with no dithering about what to order, no delay on the tab, etc.

As for the Dx being "worth it" without signature restaurants...we actually have done the deluxe without doing signature places...we'll "stretch" the plan out to cover arrival & departure day, and will do 3 table service meals a day on some days. So like if we arrived on Friday afternoon for a 2 night/3 day stay, we'd have 6 meal credits. So we'd do a table service (1 credit) meal Friday night, then a character breakfast on Saturday before a park opens (like 8:00 am at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom), then a late lunch table service (like at 2:00) & then a late dinner (like 7 or 8 p.m.) again at a table service place for 1 credit. Then on Sunday, we'd do character breakfast again, and a late lunch or early dinner at table service.

One other thing to consider...table service restaurants do take a lot of time, even the non-signature ones. And unless you're eating at your resort or in the park you're at, there will be a lot of travel time to get to a variety of restaurants so you might want to stick with one table service a day, especially if it's your child's first trip...

 

[mrs_noopie]

If you have a restaurant-friendly kid, the signature restaurants are totally kid-friendly.

 

[robinsegg]

We're on dxdp and no signature dining. just eating a lot of ts.
If looking for 2 credit meals, why not do the Hoop De Doo, Backyard BBQ or CRT? I think the luau at Polynesian is also 2.

 

[shellybaxter]

All of the signature restaurants on the dining plan offer kid friendly menus and will treat your child great. However, it is appreciated by the other diners, who a paying for a fancier, special, more upscale, dining experience that your child be "restaurant friendly". We've eaten in every signature restaurant in WDW several times and we've always seen wonderful children behaving appropriately and families enjoying the experience. We've also seen horribly behaving children with parents who do NOTHING to control or remove them and worse; parents who are causing the inappropriate behavior in the first place. Those families don't usually look as if they are enjoying thier meals at all.

Quick story - We took my four year old neice to Jiko. She behaved fairly well (went under the table once and came out when asked, but sat nicely the rest of the meal - no loud noises) for the 2.5 hours we were eating. The waiter was great - even brought her the phone and let her "talk" to Goofy. She got the puzzle dessert and seemed to enjoy it. Fastforward three years when we were getting ready to return. I asked her where she wanted to eat and she said, "anywhere but that bird restaurant". Jiko was the bird restaurant (birds on the ceiling) and she had really hated sitting quietly all that time. She behaved but still remembered how much she disliked it three years later. I wish I hadn't made her sit through such a long meal.

 

[madalex]

one thing to seriously consider...is your 4 year old used to sitting quietly in a restaurant for 2 or more hours? The signatures are much more "sedate" service, even on the regular dining plan. And if you're doing the deluxe plan, remember there will be an extra course, too (the appetizer) so can just about guarantee your dining experience will fall in the 2+ hours category.

It has not been my experience that meals at the signature restaurants are "almost guaranteed" to take 2+ hours. During my 20 trips to WDW, almost all of my evening meals have been done in the signature restaurants. I have found that the length of the meal is usually in the 60 - 90 minute range. Sometimes, when I am trying to stretch the meal out and lingering over coffee, the meal will take more than 2 hours, but this is the exception, not the rule. Just another data point.

 

[Hopefully]

I wouldn't worry one bit. With the exception of Victoria & Albert's, every single restaurant at WDW is kid friendly. In other words, you can go anywhere and find a kid-filled environment.

If you want the signature restaurants, go for it. No matter where you go there will be kids running around, screaming babies, etc. that will surely be acting worse than your child

I totally disagree. It is attitudes like this that result in so many "anti Kid in restaurant" threads. Yes you will see children in all Signature restaurants, but running around, screaming and being generally disruptive is not acceptible.
I agree with everything Catne said so well. It really does depend on your child and their ability to sit quietly for 2 hours during a meal. Only you can judge that.
Good Luck

 

[ibela]

We ate in Narcoossee's with the kids this past Feb, dd was a few months shy of her 4th birthday and ds is under 2. We go out to eat often so they're used to sitting and behaving in restaurants. That said, it was my birthday dinner and we did linger a bit over the delicious fresh brewed specialty tea and dh did take her out for a few minutes to walk outside to blow off some steam.

 

[bangzoom6877]

I totally disagree. It is attitudes like this that result in so many "anti Kid in restaurant" threads. Yes you will see children in all Signature restaurants, but running around, screaming and being generally disruptive is not acceptible.
I agree with everything Catne said so well. It really does depend on your child and their ability to sit quietly for 2 hours during a meal. Only you can judge that.
Good Luck

I agree with this...and I have 2 small children. We take them out to eat every weekend, sometimes more than once a week, since they were babies (2 months old for my older one and 1 month old for my little guy!). They behave very well in restaurants, and we get tons of compliments from people around us, but they are still children and they have both had times when they were either being too loud or getting up out of their seat and so DH or I would take them for a walk. One time with my older one (he was about 20 months old, and I was pregnant with the little one), we had to just leave the restaurant because he wouldn't stay still, from about 10 minutes after we got there. We had met up with some cousins of mine, and when we had to leave they completely understood (my parents and sister were there too and they stayed). We ended up getting some take-out on the way home. With children, you do what you have to do as a parent, simply stated.

We booked lots of TS meals on our trip for next month. No signature restaurants yet though. My boys are now 3 and 5, and we want to do the "regular" restaurants and save the signatures for when they are older and would appreciate them more. That time may come in a couple of years, or in several years, we have to play it by ear. Every child is different, so someone else may think their children can handle a signature, and that is why they welcome children in those restaurants. I know that in 2 years when we go back, DH and I will be going to a signature restaurant alone and put the boys into the kids' camp for the evening. Right now my little one is too young to do that.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

In 2009, DS had recently turned 4. We dined at California Grill, Narcoosees, Citrocos, Jiko and several other regular (no characters or entertainment) restaurants like Liberty Tree Tavern.

DS 4 was fine at all 4 signatures. Liberty Tree was a problem... in NO way did he want to stop the fun to sit in a restaurant. We just had lunch there the day before so he knew it was a boring place compared to riding Haunted Mansion just a few feet away..... I dealt with that temper tantrum and eventually he gave in....

But, here's what I learned.... DS4 was fine at the signature restaurants for dinner because (1) he was tired and (2) there was nothing else competing for his attention. We usually left the park and went to the room first, then to dinner.... and the bargain was usually "After we eat dinner, we will go to (park, swim, fun thing)".

For lunches, he had no problem stopping the fun to go to Crystal Palace, Sci Fi Diner, and fun places like that. So, this next trip, we will do more fun places for lunch or have lunch back at the resort.

We do the deluxe dining plan because I think there's not much difference in cost compared to the Plus Plan (plus you get appetizers, more snacks, and the refillable mugs with deluxe), we do all table service because it's easier to accomodate food allergies, and table service is just fun. We enjoy all the different places to eat especially with characters and themes and entertainment. We have meals on our arrival and departure day. On the few days we have 3 meals, the meals are spaced apart like breakfast 7:30am, Lunch 1pm, Dinner 6:30 or 7pm.

All of our signature restaurants were about 60 to 75 minutes but we had no wait to be seated. Actually, Mama Melrose was the longest - 90 minutes. While at the table, we look at pictures from earlier in the day with DS (on our digital camera) and talk about our day. It seems to keep him from getting bored.

If kids have not been out to eat much, I'd 0practice..... or even practice at home by eating more meals at the table.... instead of in front of the TV.

 

[amyrella]

thanks for everyone's replies... with that being said... we do go out a lot... i'm not worried about her acting up as much as her eating anything..

anyways... is the deluxe a good way to go... I;m planning an 8 night trip so that means 24 meals... 2 days will be at waterparks and 1 day i'd like to go to seaworld...

i mean to those who use it and HAVENT done a majority of Signature dining... is it worth it??


its approx $80.00 per person a night correct??

 

[tinacaplan]

I'd make a spreadsheet in Excel or something and literally plan out where you want to eat. We prefer TS to CS, as well, and I am flirting with the idea of going Deluxe when we go with our son in February. That said, when it just DH and I we thought it was a lot of food and we generally did the early lunch/late signature routine.

Of course, if you go with the DDp you might want to factor in the base cost plus any appetizers and other OOP expenses you would incur going that route. It really is confusing and you just have to play with numbers and what you really want to do.

As for meals at signatures taking 2+ hours, that wasn't our experience at all. We actually felt somewhat rushed at Flying Fish, Jiko, and Citrico's. Cali Grill was the longest meal and it did clock in at over two hours, but we had Wishes in the middle of that!

Happy Planning!