If you have toddlers and Infants Please help me w/ this DDP!

[HELPDESKGUY]

I have a 4 year old and 2 year old.

I'm afriad if i do the DDP I won't get my moneys worth because my little ones will not be able to sit through a meal. I can't forsee the future sometimes they have no problem sitting at the table and other times we have meltdowns.

Can you take doggybags? I'm staying at OKW so i'm hoping if we have meltdowns we can just take it to go....

 

[GC&S]

We went in Oct when dd was 3 and did a lot of character dining so it was buffet (which went faster than sit down). We only did a couple of sit down and dd surprisingly did very well. I think the trick is to have meals early in the day or later after naps. We also took stuff for her to do. The worst time we had with dd was a meal at 5:00. She didn't take a nap, she was tired and cranky. It was a miserable meal and even our cm felt sorry for us. I felt sorry for the people around us. We ended up taking turns walking outside with her so the other one could finish dinner. You can get things to go, we never did because I knew we would just end up throwing them away.

It's always hit or miss with kids that age. We still don't know how dd is going to be when we go out to eat at home. She can be the best child ever or the child you really don't want to admit you are the parent of.

 

[WantToGoNow]

I would think you should be fine. My children are 4 and 2 now (will be 5 and almost 3 when we go back to WDW). We do go out to restaurants fairly often and they are used to the environment but I have no problem with them at all. Maybe take along something to entertain them like crayons and paper or a quiet video game.

 

[Mike N Kathy]

We did plenty of ts meals Mommy and daddy have to have some fun too just bring something to entertain them

 

[shondad]

When we went our ts meals were: Chef Mickey's (breakfast) after sleeping in kinda late, Ohana (dinner) same day as CM on our free day, so no extreme fatigue; Donald's (breakfast) after a good night's rest, Whispering Canyon (dinner) after a small amt of time in Magic Kingdom and a nap, as it was just so hot, Shutters after a day at MGM, DS2 at the time was just plain tired and cranky, thankfully he went to sleep, got some much needed rest, and slept through the entire meal. He later had a personal pizza from the food court.

I believe the key is to have them take a nap during the day, go for breakfast, and/or have early dinners, esp. if they are accustomed to eating/going to bed early. DD was great, although it was nearly impossible to get her up in the mornings.

 

[shondad]

I have a 4 year old and 2 year old.

I'm afriad if i do the DDP I won't get my moneys worth because my little ones will not be able to sit through a meal. I can't forsee the future sometimes they have no problem sitting at the table and other times we have meltdowns.

Can you take doggybags? I'm staying at OKW so i'm hoping if we have meltdowns we can just take it to go....

Sorry, did not address your question in my previous post. Of course, I'm certain that as long as your meal is not at a buffet or all you care to eat, you should have no problem getting your food to go. At such dinners at Disney and at home I almost always, about 98% of the time, take my leftovers, as I just can't seem to eat more that 1/2 of my food. They may not have bags (for your containers), but they do have styrofoam containers.

 

[tinkamom]

Something I wish I had thought of on my last trip:
Bring along an insulated small foldable "cooler" to store your leftovers. Something that woln't take up much room until you fill it up, about a six pack size!

Try to visit restaurants that have a lot of kid appeal, Ohannas and WCC come to mind. They have entertainment and games for the kids so they don't get too bored. And if they are not afraid of the characters, character meals are great too!

WCC was my 3 yo favorite and she still asks almost every day "when are we going back?"

 

[HayGan]

We were worried about the same thing with our kids on our last trip but it worked out fine. We took some activities for them (leapsters, the invisible ink coloring books, etc.) and they were fine.

So many of the restaurants at Disney are true dining experiences and I would hate to see someone miss out on them!

 

[Jen D]

Make sure you bring paper or notebooks for the kids. My kids love to draw and all the restaurants have crayons but the paper kids menus have a couple puzzle and almost no blank space for freestyle drawing, and the blank space is really dark.

 

[idreamofdisney24/7]

I have a 4 year old and 2 year old.

I'm afriad if i do the DDP I won't get my moneys worth because my little ones will not be able to sit through a meal. I can't forsee the future sometimes they have no problem sitting at the table and other times we have meltdowns.

Can you take doggybags? I'm staying at OKW so i'm hoping if we have meltdowns we can just take it to go....

We have a 2 year old too. We go out to eat all the time at home and her new thing is to scream as we walk into the rest.!! We're hoping the characters will calm her down and make our dinner more enjoyable for us all!! Usually we can bribe her with the crayons (markers are her favorite now!) and even M&M's.. anything to get her preoccupied till dinner comes!! I hate the thought of not being able to go out to dinner..that's an important part of the whole vacation. Plus, we're getting the dining plan..there'll be a lot of walking around till the dinner arrives too!