How do you keep little ones occupied during dinner?

[JAN ENOS]

I just read a thread talking about the fact that the dinner usually takes about 1 1/2 hours for early seating and 2 hours for late seating. We have late seating because we were unable to get early. We will have three little girls 2,4, and 6. How do you keep them occupied during the long dinner. I am sure they don't give them crayons and books like they do in some restaurants and I
can imagine how you keep them happy for that long of a time.
Does anyone have any suggestions because this is sounding really scary!!!
Thanks
Jan

 

[ducklite]

I hate to say it, but my bet is that you end up taking at least desert back to your cabin each night.

Hopefully you'll be able to switch to early dining once you board.

I'd suggest bringing your own crayons, little PVC toys, Game Boy for the older one, etc. Buy all new things, and bring them out only at dinner time to keep interest the longest.

Anne

 

[Michelle]

Hi Jan! Actually they DO give you crayons at dinner and the children's menu has coloring items and a few games on it. When my daughter was younger we brought our "restaurant bag" with us to keep her occupied. It had some scratch paper, small games and the like in it...plus we play a lot of hangman and tic tac toe with her.

The servers do a great job of interacting with keeps and trying to keep them entertained and they will rush the kid's meals out if necessary if the little ones are getting too restless.

Enjoy!

 

[TartanFan]

Actually, they do give out crayons - no books but the kids menus have games and pictures to color. And you can get dinner over with in an hour without taking dessert back to your room. The servers (in my experience) are wonderful at keeping the kids amused at table too (although a Game Boy or some easy games wouldn't go amiss!).

It'll be fine - don't worry!

 

[TartanFan]

Hey Michelle - great minds thinking alike again! Almost identical responses!

 

[Michelle]

LOL, TartanFan! We've both been there, done that, it seems!

 

[wovenwonder]

Hi Jan!

You will be surprised how fast that 1 1/2 hours goes. The servers are great at keeping the little one's occupied. But, I would still bring some extra goodies that will be just for dinner to occupy the kids. Maybe even wrap a few small gifts. It will also be a plus on your side that you are 4 adults to 3 kids -- at least they don't have you outnumbered YET! If they get too restless, you may find that they'll want to eat their kids meal while you are having your appetizers and then head off to the kids clubs. I've even seen people bring the stroller to dinner for very little one's to fall asleep. Don't forget that this is DISNEY and this is a kid friendly cruise - if your kids get restless, they won't be the only one's.

Be sure to check out all of the newcomers that we have on 'our thread'. Kids of all ages -- and more grandparents too! I also added a section looking for ideas on 'meets' and such plus some 'get acquainted questions of the week'.

 

[Lyneigh P]

When we went in Dec 01 we had the late seating, my kids were DS9 and DD4. Our server named Tino was great with our kids. He always bought their food out while we were eating our appetizer. He would use the crayons to make trivi games for my kids to solve. He would place three or four crayons in a certain position and ask them how they could make a triangle out of the crayons by only moving one. He had at least 6 six or more fun mind games like that. Only on one evening did my kids get cranky, of course it was the day we had spent the whole day at Castaway Cay.

 

[Lyneigh P]

When we went in Dec 01 we had the late seating, my kids were DS9 and DD4. Our server named Tino was great with our kids. He always bought their food out while we were eating our appetizer. He would use the crayons to make trivi games for my kids to solve. He would place three or four crayons in a certain position and ask them how they could make a triangle out of the crayons by only moving one. He had at least 6 six or more fun mind games like that. Only on one evening did my kids get cranky, of course it was the day we had spent the whole day at Castaway Cay.

 

[CamColt]

The servers are wonderful with the kids. We had late seating and DS was 8 months old. Even though he was perfectly content(he was a wonderful baby, but is making up for it now at age 2 ),our waiters would always stop to play with him. Iggy even carried him around with him one night while he waited on other tables. For weeks when we came home, I would say "wheres Iggy?" and DS would look around and laugh.

 

[cgajdzisz]

We had late seating and my DD was 3. The first night she fell asleep at dinner I guess it waqs too much excitement but we had no problems after that. Our waiters were wonderful. She wore a Princess hat the whole cruise and by the end they had her really believing she was a princess. SHe cried on the last day when we were saying our goodbyes and wanted them to come home with us. Don't worry you will all have a great time the whole staff goes out of it's way to assure that.

 

[cgajdzisz]

As soon aas you board the ship go and see if you can switch you seating. I'm not sure where you go but we had early and wanted late seating when we went on our cruise in 2000. We had no problem our DD was 3 at the time and the waiters were really great. I think they only wait on a few tables so they really give your table plenty of attention. By the end of our trip she felt as if they were part of the family and wanted them to come home with us. I woudn't worry you will enjoy yourself. As the other post says you will be surprised at how quickly the time passes.

 

[johnf]

We are taking our first cruise on 3/9 and we have a 5 year old son. We have late seating and we would NEVER dream of taking him to the main restaurants. He would never sit through dinner without getting antsy (the only exception is that I'd like to take him to Animator's Palate). We're planning on either taking him to Topsider's ourselves for casual dinner early, or letting him go and eat with the kid's club, take him to the early show, drop him off back at the club and then go to dinner ourselves. I would be MUCH to stressed out sitting through dinner in a nice restaurant with him to enjoy myself.

johnf
Palm Harbor, FL