Is anyone planning to do the 2008 deluxe plan with little kids? (more chrar. meals?)

[DCDisney]

Day 4:
BF: Hollywood & Vine
L: Sci-Fi
S: 50's Prime Time

Day 5:
BF: Ohana's
L: Kona
S: 1900 Park Faire

Day 6:
BF: Tusker House
L: Yak & Yeti
S: Boma

Day 7:
BF: Akershus
L: Marrakesh
S: San Angel (or Le Cellier)

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out not only how anyone will be able to eat 3 full meals a day plus how to get kids to sit through meals and how to have any decent stretches of time in the parks Best case scenario with little ones and timing of meals is breakfast at 8. Typically if it's buffet you'll be done by 9:15. Then in order to have dinner not to late you'll have to do lunches probably 12ish. So you can tour from 9:15-maybe 11:45 depending on walking/travel time to lunch. Sit downs take usually 1.5 hours which puts you leaving lunch at 1:30. If you take a nap/break from 3-5 and then get back somewhere for dinner at 6 you'll be done at 7:30 (if you have no wait). My kids go to bed by 9 except for a few special nights. So your only touring time would likely be 9:15-11:45, 1:30-2:30, and 7:30-bed. 1.5 hours per table service is total best case scenario as even in Value season we had plenty of waits pre meal and probably half our meals took closer to 2 hours unless they were scheduled for off times (like 4:30). My kids do enjoy character meals but for a long trip they do get less exciting especially 2 or more a day and the food at WDW gets very repetitive for kids. I can see doing the DDDP if you want to do 2TS things like CRT, Hoop, etc but even then I don't think the values of those would add up to the cost of the plan. I see the DDDP being much more for the frequent traveller who is into deluxe dining. I think with little kids and doing 3 TS a day you'll be running from 1 meal to the next not even being hungry by day 2 but obligated to go or lose money. Doing the regular plan and then maximizing it by paying OOP for cheaper meals I think would work much better with little kids because then if you don't feel like getting to breakfast one day you can just cancel it. We are doing the reg plan but some days are doing 2 TS to get in a few favorite char breakfasts. On those days we often end up eating B and D because we never even get hungry enough for a CS lunch just eat a snack somewhere mid day. It's easy to get rid of a few extra CS at the end of a trip but I'd hate to pay for the DDDP and then have to use a bunch of extra credits for CS.

Yvonne

 

[asmit4]

Yvonne- I think that a family could make it work if they book 2credit restaurants for 1/2 the days at least.That way you get 2 meals a day plus 2 snacks instead of 3 meals and 2 snacks.

For instance- Family wakes up at 6am, showers, goes to CS place to grab 2 snacks (1 OJ, donut). Then they get to the parks at 8am rope drop for EMH.

Lunch is a sit down meal at LeCellier around noon. Then dinner is Narcoossees at 7. That leaves lots of hours left and all your credits are used.

Also, eating a meal at a CS for those days when you don't have a 2 TS credit meal planned will also save time. If you make it a "high end" CS then you can get your $$$'s worth.

If we did a TS breakfast, went to Cosmic Rays for lunch (13.99 ribs/chicken combo) and did a 1TS credit dinner, they would still "make out" financially I bet. With kids, it's much easier I think to make out financially on the plan. I think that 2A/2C will be able to save more $$ than 4A on the DDDP. I haven't done the math though so maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Tiger926]

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out not only how anyone will be able to eat 3 full meals a day plus how to get kids to sit through meals and how to have any decent stretches of time in the parks Best case scenario with little ones and timing of meals is breakfast at 8. Typically if it's buffet you'll be done by 9:15. Then in order to have dinner not to late you'll have to do lunches probably 12ish. So you can tour from 9:15-maybe 11:45 depending on walking/travel time to lunch. Sit downs take usually 1.5 hours which puts you leaving lunch at 1:30. If you take a nap/break from 3-5 and then get back somewhere for dinner at 6 you'll be done at 7:30 (if you have no wait). My kids go to bed by 9 except for a few special nights. So your only touring time would likely be 9:15-11:45, 1:30-2:30, and 7:30-bed. 1.5 hours per table service is total best case scenario as even in Value season we had plenty of waits pre meal and probably half our meals took closer to 2 hours unless they were scheduled for off times (like 4:30). My kids do enjoy character meals but for a long trip they do get less exciting especially 2 or more a day and the food at WDW gets very repetitive for kids. I can see doing the DDDP if you want to do 2TS things like CRT, Hoop, etc but even then I don't think the values of those would add up to the cost of the plan. I see the DDDP being much more for the frequent traveller who is into deluxe dining. I think with little kids and doing 3 TS a day you'll be running from 1 meal to the next not even being hungry by day 2 but obligated to go or lose money. Doing the regular plan and then maximizing it by paying OOP for cheaper meals I think would work much better with little kids because then if you don't feel like getting to breakfast one day you can just cancel it. We are doing the reg plan but some days are doing 2 TS to get in a few favorite char breakfasts. On those days we often end up eating B and D because we never even get hungry enough for a CS lunch just eat a snack somewhere mid day. It's easy to get rid of a few extra CS at the end of a trip but I'd hate to pay for the DDDP and then have to use a bunch of extra credits for CS.

Yvonne

This all depends upon many variables, such as how you normally eat, how you tour parks, etc. For instance:

1) My DD4 has been eating out in restaurants since she was born. We don't eat fast food, so she is used to sitting down for meals. We also eat supper together every night, and on Sundays, we have big meals with my dad's family of 20. She loves to eat out, but in all fairness to her, she has also been taught how to sit, order, etc. as she has been immersed in it since she was born. We are lucky that it works for her.

2) We are DVC members who travel to WDW frequently, so we don't do commando trips at all. We have no problem sitting for meals, as it gives us time to rest and meet characters. This has always been a big part of our trips. We aren't on any type of rigid touring schedule, whereas you may be, so for us, we have no problems fitting in 2-3 TS meals per day.

3) We need to eat 3 meals per day (sometimes more) due to low blood sugar, so for us, we have to sit and eat our meals. We don't like CS meals at all, so we plan accordingly in our days for TS meals. We have no issues with hunger, as we have to keep our bodies regulated, so we have many snacks during the day, such as fruit, popsicle, etc. and we only drink water, juice or milk with meals - we don't get filled up on junk all day long, so for us, we have no issues eating our TS meals, as we only order what we can eat so none goes to waste.

I think I touched on all of your points above. Basically, we are used to this type of eating, as I have grown up in a restaurant family, and, we need to eat this way due to low blood sugar issues. We make ADRs well in advance, and find this is necessary in order to ensure that we eat at our regular times. We have eaten at almost every restaurant on property, and our longest meal was at Chef Mickey's (waited forever to be seated, despite our 6 month ADR, and dinner took long as well). Normally, we can get in and out of character buffet meals within the hour - we have only had 1 child (new son will have first trip soon), and so with more kids, it may take longer. If this is an issue for you, then mix it up with CS and TS, or 2 TS credits as you mentioned. You may not be able to do what we normally do, so be prepared to change plans, or, combine your credits (Signature or dinner shows) if you really want to do the Deluxe Plan. You know your kids best, so if they can't normally sit through sit-down meals, it's probably going to be very hard for them while surrounded by Disney Magic all day.

I wish you luck in your decision. Happy eating, Tiger

 

[Colleen27]

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out not only how anyone will be able to eat 3 full meals a day plus how to get kids to sit through meals and how to have any decent stretches of time in the parks Best case scenario with little ones and timing of meals is breakfast at 8. Typically if it's buffet you'll be done by 9:15. Then in order to have dinner not to late you'll have to do lunches probably 12ish. So you can tour from 9:15-maybe 11:45 depending on walking/travel time to lunch. Sit downs take usually 1.5 hours which puts you leaving lunch at 1:30. If you take a nap/break from 3-5 and then get back somewhere for dinner at 6 you'll be done at 7:30 (if you have no wait). My kids go to bed by 9 except for a few special nights. So your only touring time would likely be 9:15-11:45, 1:30-2:30, and 7:30-bed. 1.5 hours per table service is total best case scenario as even in Value season we had plenty of waits pre meal and probably half our meals took closer to 2 hours unless they were scheduled for off times (like 4:30). My kids do enjoy character meals but for a long trip they do get less exciting especially 2 or more a day and the food at WDW gets very repetitive for kids. I can see doing the DDDP if you want to do 2TS things like CRT, Hoop, etc but even then I don't think the values of those would add up to the cost of the plan. I see the DDDP being much more for the frequent traveller who is into deluxe dining. I think with little kids and doing 3 TS a day you'll be running from 1 meal to the next not even being hungry by day 2 but obligated to go or lose money. Doing the regular plan and then maximizing it by paying OOP for cheaper meals I think would work much better with little kids because then if you don't feel like getting to breakfast one day you can just cancel it. We are doing the reg plan but some days are doing 2 TS to get in a few favorite char breakfasts. On those days we often end up eating B and D because we never even get hungry enough for a CS lunch just eat a snack somewhere mid day. It's easy to get rid of a few extra CS at the end of a trip but I'd hate to pay for the DDDP and then have to use a bunch of extra credits for CS.

For us (with 2 not-quite-so-little kids, 6 & 9), we don't do afternoon breaks. We didn't even on our first trip, when DD was 3 - if she got tired, she napped in the stroller. That makes a big difference in how practical three meals a day is, I think, because that's 3-4 hours you aren't spending leaving the park, waiting for/riding buses, and relaxing at the resort. But I know that schedule wouldn't work for everyone with little kids - mine travel well, sleep anywhere, and aren't prone to meltdowns or acting up even when they're tired.

As far as character meals go, I don't think they'd get boring over a typical trip of a week or so because there are so many with different characters at each - Park Fare breakfast with Alice & crew, dinner with Cindy & the stepsisters, Chef Mickeys with the classics, Ohana with Lilo & Stitch, CRT for the fun of eating in the castle, Akershus for different princesses... You could do one a day and not have much repetition in the characters or the experience.

And when it comes to money, it isn't as hard as you might think to come out ahead on the deluxe plan. We're mainly using it for signature dinners, and when I did the math, I came up with a 20%-ish savings without taking into account the snacks or the mugs. I only have one 3 meal day in the plans and will probably only have a couple shared counter service meals, and we might even have some unused meal credits at the end of the stay, but by my math, we'll save about $450 with the plan.

We like eating more sit down meals and will gladly skip counter service entirely. And since we're going for a longer trip (11 nights, with nearly full arrial and departure days) during a slow time of year and this will be our 4th trip in 3 years, we don't feel any need or desire to do the park commando thing this time. So the deluxe plan is a perfect fit.

 

[faindrops27]

Hi everyone!

I am so debating doing Deluxe! But, for some reason. I just cannot get my mind to wrap around it easy enough.

Ok, now it will be myself, and my 4 year old little munchkin princess. We will be there for 9 nights. I looooove to eat, and can pretty much eat anyone, under the table. But, for some reason. I just cannot fathom, eating a 2 TS everyday. Which in my calculation would be the only way to really use up the credits in the deluxe plan.

My thoughts are would I feel like taking a break from the parks everyday, to go freshen up. To put on pretty clothes to go eat? How is everyone else with little ones going to handle this? Obviously, I dont want to walk around the park after dinner in our nice dinner clothes. So, that means another trip back to the hotel, to rechange back into park gear.(I love to stay for EMH) It just seems like so much running around.

I looked at places I really would love to eat. I came up with this for the 2TS meals.
California Grill, i could do twice.(Does anyone know, if the sushi, is considered an entree here?)
CRT
Jiko
Narcossee(sp)
Fulton's if on the deluxe dining plan
So, I have 6 possible meals listed that require 2 TS credits.

I was thinking I want to go to breakfast @
CP
Boma'
Kona'
Chef Mickey'

I want to repeat dinners@
Boma
Wolfgang Puck'
Leciellier
Ohana
Would also like to try
Tokyo Dining
Italy
Maybe Yak & Yeti??

Can someone help me please make sense of it all. I think I still will not be using all my credits. Is this true? Can this work, and how, what would you add, or suggest??
Thanks in advance!!

 

[pilferk]

Hi everyone!

I am so debating doing Deluxe! But, for some reason. I just cannot get my mind to wrap around it easy enough.

Ok, now it will be myself, and my 4 year old little munchkin princess. We will be there for 9 nights. I looooove to eat, and can pretty much eat anyone, under the table. But, for some reason. I just cannot fathom, eating a 2 TS everyday. Which in my calculation would be the only way to really use up the credits in the deluxe plan.

My thoughts are would I feel like taking a break from the parks everyday, to go freshen up. To put on pretty clothes to go eat? How is everyone else with little ones going to handle this? Obviously, I dont want to walk around the park after dinner in our nice dinner clothes. So, that means another trip back to the hotel, to rechange back into park gear.(I love to stay for EMH) It just seems like so much running around.

I looked at places I really would love to eat. I came up with this for the 2TS meals.
California Grill, i could do twice.(Does anyone know, if the sushi, is considered an entree here?)
CRT
Jiko
Narcossee(sp)
Fulton's if on the deluxe dining plan
So, I have 6 possible meals listed that require 2 TS credits.

I was thinking I want to go to breakfast @
CP
Boma'
Kona'
Chef Mickey'

I want to repeat dinners@
Boma
Wolfgang Puck'
Leciellier
Ohana
Would also like to try
Tokyo Dining
Italy
Maybe Yak & Yeti??

Can someone help me please make sense of it all. I think I still will not be using all my credits. Is this true? Can this work, and how, what would you add, or suggest??
Thanks in advance!!

First up, let me add a couple of 2TS experiences that you might like (and DON'T require clothes changes):

Hoopdedoo
Polynesian Luau
Mickey's Backyard BBQ

In addition, I've been to Jiko's, Narcosees, Yachtsmans Steakhouse, Hollywood Brown Derby and Flying Fish (all 2TS places) basically in (clean) theme park clothes...so that after dinner we can just head back to the parks with no changing.

I'm counting Fultons, but not sure if it's on the plan.

By my count, you have 5 credits left, each. Add in one of the dinner shows (I'd suggest Hoopdedoo...my personal fav) one night and you have 3 credits left. You could scatter 3 CS meal lunches over your trip and still (IMHO) show a good sized savings....and you'd actually be 3 credits SHORT for meals.

Here's what I plonked in (in no particular order:

Breakfasts:

CP (1)
Boma's (1)
Chef Mickey's (1)
Kona (1)
CRT (2)
Snack credits the other 4 days (for bagels or whatever)

Breakfast credits: 6

Lunch:
Tokyo Dining (1)
Wolfgang Puck (1)
Italy (1)
CS (1)
CS (1)
CS (1)
3 days "open"

Lunch credits: 6

Dinner:
Jiko (2)
Narcosees (2)
CG (2)
CG (2)
Fultons (2)
HoopDeDoo (2)
Boma (1)
LeCellier (1)
Ohana (1)

Dinner Credits: 15

Total Credits: 27, which, for a 9 night trip, would be exactly what you get.

And you still have a refillable mug, and 14 snack credits to use.

 

[Colleen27]

Hi everyone!

I am so debating doing Deluxe! But, for some reason. I just cannot get my mind to wrap around it easy enough.

Ok, now it will be myself, and my 4 year old little munchkin princess. We will be there for 9 nights. I looooove to eat, and can pretty much eat anyone, under the table. But, for some reason. I just cannot fathom, eating a 2 TS everyday. Which in my calculation would be the only way to really use up the credits in the deluxe plan.

My thoughts are would I feel like taking a break from the parks everyday, to go freshen up. To put on pretty clothes to go eat? How is everyone else with little ones going to handle this? Obviously, I dont want to walk around the park after dinner in our nice dinner clothes. So, that means another trip back to the hotel, to rechange back into park gear.(I love to stay for EMH) It just seems like so much running around.

What I did was to plan out our park days, and then do our meals around that. So on one MK day we have the Plaza for lunch and Chef Mickey's for dinner. On another, we have CRT for lunch and Cali Grill for dinner. In all, I have 23 ADRs which account for 29 of our 33 allowed meal credits. The rest we'll use for CS here and there, or maybe not even get around to using. I did the math and for us, we don't have to use every credit for the plan to make sense financially. Right now, on ADRs alone and with no value assigned to likely CS meals (we are at least going to hit Sunshine Seasons and Main Street Bakery) or to snack credits and without taking the mugs into account, the numbers for our 11 night trip for 4 are: $1980 plan cost, $2341 likely meal value, $361 savings.

There is a spreadsheet and chart in the link in my sig to show the math I used to decide whether or not to do the plan - the spreadsheet has all the formulas to do the math yourself, if you just input your likely menu choices. It figures plan value including tax as well as OOP tip budget. So if you want to try doing the math for your specific choices, it might make the process easier.

As far as the dress code at the nicer restaurants goes, it is lax enough to include our typical park clothing, so we aren't concerned with having time to change. But it helps that we're going at a cooler time of year, where the sweaty/sticky factor isn't likely to be an issue.

 

[faindrops27]

Pilferk, thank you very much!! Are you telling me,
I would still be short 3 meals. Or ,
I would have to pay OOP for 3 meals? I am still confused. When you tell me I have 27 credits, The set up you outlined, adds up to 27. How would I stlll be short??

Thank you for telling me that I could wear clean park clothes, at the other 2 credit establishments. This eliminates the running back to change, for all but the 2 dinners at CG! I just do not want to feel out of place!

Again, I know you worked hard on doing this outline for me. I so much appreciate it! The more I think about it. The more I want to do Deluxe!

 

[pilferk]

Pilferk, thank you very much!! Are you telling me,
I would still be short 3 meals. Or ,
I would have to pay OOP for 3 meals? I am still confused. When you tell me I have 27 credits, The set up you outlined, adds up to 27. How would I stlll be short??

Thank you for telling me that I could wear clean park clothes, at the other 2 credit establishments. This eliminates the running back to change, for all but the 2 dinners at CG! I just do not want to feel out of place!

Again, I know you worked hard on doing this outline for me. I so much appreciate it! The more I think about it. The more I want to do Deluxe!

I mean you still have 3 lunches "not payed for", so you'd need to either pay OOP for them, or use snack credits (and you've got loads of them) to put them together. The outline I provided above gets you 24 "meals" (9 breakfasts, 6 lunches, and 9 dinners), but uses 27 credits.

Glad I could help out!

 

[NMW]

Personally I think with little kids it's just too much sitting time for all the sit down meals. My kids can handle one long meal per day but beyond that I think is pushing it. We have had occasional 2 sit down days on each trip and it's been fine for a few days but we could never do 3 in a day and even 2 per day is too much beyond a few days. To make it worth it in terms of money we'd have to do lots of 2TS meals and there just aren't that many my kids would be interested in plus the time for those meals is so long it would wipe out every evening.


It may work better for you financially having a 2 year old eating free but based on eating what we want not maximizing the plan financially we are way better off doing regular plan and paying for a few extra meals OOP (usually breakfasts).

Yvonne

I disagree with this, at least for our family. My kids like TS meals. DH and I have taken them out to dinner since they were babies. They like character breakfasts. They have their favorite TS lunch spots (Sci-Fi for example). And we all love a TS dinner every day. It's a nice break during the day to sit and have lunch. To be fair, we are not "go back to the hotel in the afternoon to nap/swim" kind of people. Sitting by the pool while at Disney-UGH. We do that during our summer vacation at Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks, and my kids can sit by the pool at our house all summer if they want to. We just don't go to Disney to do that. We are in the park all day, so a TS is a nice break for us.

Also, you can never tell what kind of restaurants or food your kids will be interested in until you try them. My oldest tried sushi last year for the first time and now he wants me to get him containers of california roll to eat before football practice every day. They have all loved Flying Fish since they were very little. My sons asked me if we can do Yachtsman Steakhouse this trip (we havn't done it in the past 3 trips/years) because, they claim to remember really liking it there. I told them "sure, why not." My daughter loved Portabello Yacht club as a 2 year old. The waiter was so kind to her and she ate great there. I remember her eating almost an entire piece of cheesecake for dessert. I would never not try a place because of my kids ages, or because they already ate a TS meal that day. My kids just go with the flow.

 

[Tiger926]

I disagree with this, at least for our family. My kids like TS meals. DH and I have taken them out to dinner since they were babies. They like character breakfasts. They have their favorite TS lunch spots (Sci-Fi for example). And we all love a TS dinner every day. It's a nice break during the day to sit and have lunch. To be fair, we are not "go back to the hotel in the afternoon to nap/swim" kind of people. Sitting by the pool while at Disney-UGH. We do that during our summer vacation at Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks, and my kids can sit by the pool at our house all summer if they want to. We just don't go to Disney to do that. We are in the park all day, so a TS is a nice break for us.

Also, you can never tell what kind of restaurants or food your kids will be interested in until you try them. My oldest tried sushi last year for the first time and now he wants me to get him containers of california roll to eat before football practice every day. They have all loved Flying Fish since they were very little. My sons asked me if we can do Yachtsman Steakhouse this trip (we havn't done it in the past 3 trips/years) because, they claim to remember really liking it there. I told them "sure, why not." My daughter loved Portabello Yacht club as a 2 year old. The waiter was so kind to her and she ate great there. I remember her eating almost an entire piece of cheesecake for dessert. I would never not try a place because of my kids ages, or because they already ate a TS meal that day. My kids just go with the flow.

Cute story, and reminds me of our princess as well! We ate at Portobello for first time when she was a 2 year old baby as well, and she still loves it! Unfortunately, they don't participate in the Dining Plan, and that is a bummer as their food is fantastic - we love walking over there when staying at SSR.

Our daughter is quite the little foodie - loves watching Food Network, takes cooking classes, loves ordering her own meals, plays restaurant/kitchen playtime all of the time, has her own cooking utensils/aprons/cookbooks and cooks with daddy/grandpa/uncle all of the time (the men are the chefs in our family - we are a restaurant family). She constantly mentions her favourite WDW restaurants each day, and gives people little reviews of them (she is always talking about the wacky chefs at Teppanyaki and the belly dancer at Marrakesh). She is a very passionate Disney & food lover at age 4, and can't wait to take her new baby brother for his first trip in April to try her favourite restaurants! We have pretty much only eaten 2-3 TS restaurants each day since she was born, and eat like this at home, so for us, TS meals are a very important part of our WDW experience!

As this thread shows, all children are different, and it's great that Disney provides many different dining experiences for all of them!

Tiger

 

[NMW]

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out not only how anyone will be able to eat 3 full meals a day plus how to get kids to sit through meals and how to have any decent stretches of time in the parks Best case scenario with little ones and timing of meals is breakfast at 8. Typically if it's buffet you'll be done by 9:15. Then in order to have dinner not to late you'll have to do lunches probably 12ish. So you can tour from 9:15-maybe 11:45 depending on walking/travel time to lunch. Sit downs take usually 1.5 hours which puts you leaving lunch at 1:30. If you take a nap/break from 3-5 and then get back somewhere for dinner at 6 you'll be done at 7:30 (if you have no wait). My kids go to bed by 9 except for a few special nights. So your only touring time would likely be 9:15-11:45, 1:30-2:30, and 7:30-bed. 1.5 hours per table service is total best case scenario as even in Value season we had plenty of waits pre meal and probably half our meals took closer to 2 hours unless they were scheduled for off times (like 4:30). My kids do enjoy character meals but for a long trip they do get less exciting especially 2 or more a day and the food at WDW gets very repetitive for kids. I can see doing the DDDP if you want to do 2TS things like CRT, Hoop, etc but even then I don't think the values of those would add up to the cost of the plan. I see the DDDP being much more for the frequent traveller who is into deluxe dining. I think with little kids and doing 3 TS a day you'll be running from 1 meal to the next not even being hungry by day 2 but obligated to go or lose money. Doing the regular plan and then maximizing it by paying OOP for cheaper meals I think would work much better with little kids because then if you don't feel like getting to breakfast one day you can just cancel it. We are doing the reg plan but some days are doing 2 TS to get in a few favorite char breakfasts. On those days we often end up eating B and D because we never even get hungry enough for a CS lunch just eat a snack somewhere mid day. It's easy to get rid of a few extra CS at the end of a trip but I'd hate to pay for the DDDP and then have to use a bunch of extra credits for CS.

Yvonne

I can see what you mean with your time frames. My kids are now 11, 9, and 5 1/2. So, obviously, they don't nap. We honestly never went back for naps. Even when DD was a baby or a 2 year old she napped in the stroller. We did many TS lunches with the stroller right up to the table that she completely slept through. Also, we do relatively late dinners while at Disney (7:30-8:30). As my kids have gotten older, the later they have become. We did bedtime around 10-10:30 or later last trip. So, eating breakfst at 8:30 AM, lunch at 12:30, and dinner around 7:45, my kids are hungry for 3 meals. I can see how if I gave them lunch at 12 PM and then tried to give them dinner at 5PM, they might not be all that hungry. But, that's not something we would do. Also, my kids are used to eating in restaurants, especially on vacation for all 3 meals, so that's not an issue for us.

 

[NMW]

Cute story, and reminds me of our princess as well! We ate at Portobello for first time when she was a 2 year old baby as well, and she still loves it! Unfortunately, they don't participate in the Dining Plan, and that is a bummer as their food is fantastic - we love walking over there when staying at SSR.

Our daughter is quite the little foodie - loves watching Food Network, takes cooking classes, loves ordering her own meals, plays restaurant/kitchen playtime all of the time, has her own cooking utensils/aprons/cookbooks and cooks with daddy/grandpa/uncle all of the time (the men are the chefs in our family - we are a restaurant family). She constantly mentions her favourite WDW restaurants each day, and gives people little reviews of them (she is always talking about the wacky chefs at Teppanyaki and the belly dancer at Marrakesh). She is a very passionate Disney & food lover at age 4, and can't wait to take her new baby brother for his first trip in April to try her favourite restaurants! We pretty much only eaten 2-3 TS restaurants each day since she was born, and eat like this at home, so for us, TS meals are part of our WDW experience!

As this thread shows, all children are different, and it's great that Disney provides many different dining experiences for all of them!

Tiger

That's funny. My daughter loves the food network too. I'll be doing laundry or something and she calls me to come into the room immediately so she can ask if we can have what Rachel Ray or someone is making for dinner that night. She looks through Giada's cookbooks and picks out things she wants me to make. I really think the food network has made her a much more adventureous eater. Since she's only 5, I thought it was a little odd. I'm glad to hear there are other kids out there that love food too!

 

[Colleen27]

I disagree with this, at least for our family. My kids like TS meals. DH and I have taken them out to dinner since they were babies. They like character breakfasts. They have their favorite TS lunch spots (Sci-Fi for example). And we all love a TS dinner every day. It's a nice break during the day to sit and have lunch. To be fair, we are not "go back to the hotel in the afternoon to nap/swim" kind of people. Sitting by the pool while at Disney-UGH. We do that during our summer vacation at Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks, and my kids can sit by the pool at our house all summer if they want to. We just don't go to Disney to do that. We are in the park all day, so TS lunch/dinner is a nice break for us.

Also, you can never tell what kind of restaurants or food your kids will be interested in until you try them. My oldest tried sushi last year for the first time and now he wants me to get him containers of california roll to eat before football practice every day. They have all loved Flying Fish since they were very little. My sons asked me if we can do Yachtsman Steakhouse this trip (we havn't done it in the past 3 trips/years) because, they claim to remember really liking it there. I told them "sure, why not." My daughter loved Portabello Yacht club as a 2 year old. The waiter was so kind to her and she ate great there. I remember her eating almost an entire piece of cheesecake for dessert. I would never not try a place because of my kids ages, or because they already ate a TS meal that day. My kids just go with the flow.

Mine are the same way. We don't do mid-day breaks, because the kids hate the interruption. When we tried to follow the conventional wisdom and took a break, the kids were upset about leaving the park to go back to the resort, and then got upset about leaving the resort/pool to go back to the park. And we all hated the travel time involved. So now we just plan for a pool/resort day, and do the parks all day on our park days. TS meals are a far better break for us - we plan ADRs at restaurants with little/no travel from where we'll be that day, for times when the kids will probably be starting to get hungry, and they never complain about sitting down to a good meal.

And I totally agree about kids discovering new foods. DS9 is getting to be quite the little foodie, and it is so much fun having a partner in looking over menus and deciding where to try! He discovered sushi and teppan grill style cooking on one of our winter vacations a couple years back and he just loves both, so he requested Teppan Edo and California Grill for this trip. He hasn't seen the menu yet for Tokyo Dining, but if it is on the plan for 2008, I'm definately going to find time to fit it in! He's also developed a curiousity about wild game, thanks to a few dinners at the club where he & DH shoot, so he really wants to try Artist Point. He loved Kona so much on our last trip that he requested we go back for his birthday dinner... I've never worried about trying new restaurants with him!

DD6 isn't quite as adventuous as her brother, but she likes to try new things as long as she has something "safe" like plain chicken or fish in front of her, so she's happy with her kids meal and a few bites of whatever DH, DS & I are eating. And she's a total nut for character meals. She asked after our last trip if we could just eat with all the characters, so we don't have to wait in line for them at the parks, and that's what we're doing - Akershus, CRT, Ohana, Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. That pretty much covers the biggies, so we can save our character-spot patience for characters like Marie and Captain Jack and Peter Pan that we can only meet in the parks.

 

[Tiger926]

That's funny. My daughter loves the food network too. I'll be doing laundry or something and she calls me to come into the room immediately so she can ask if we can have what Rachel Ray or someone is making for dinner that night. She looks through Giada's cookbooks and picks out things she wants me to make. I really think the food network has made her a much more adventureous eater. Since she's only 5, I thought it was a little odd. I'm glad to hear there are other kids out there that love food too!

That is hilarious - it sounds like your DD and mine would get along wonderfully! It really is fun to watch them discussing their favourite chefs, isn't it? My DD loves: Giada, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay and one of our Canadian Chefs named Rob - he is the grill master!

It's cool that so many of us have kids who love to eat well (no fast food for us!) as it makes Disney so much more fun!

Tiger

 

[Tiger926]

Mine are the same way. We don't do mid-day breaks, because the kids hate the interruption. When we tried to follow the conventional wisdom and took a break, the kids were upset about leaving the park to go back to the resort, and then got upset about leaving the resort/pool to go back to the park. And we all hated the travel time involved. So now we just plan for a pool/resort day, and do the parks all day on our park days. TS meals are a far better break for us - we plan ADRs at restaurants with little/no travel from where we'll be that day, for times when the kids will probably be starting to get hungry, and they never complain about sitting down to a good meal.

And I totally agree about kids discovering new foods. DS9 is getting to be quite the little foodie, and it is so much fun having a partner in looking over menus and deciding where to try! He discovered sushi and teppan grill style cooking on one of our winter vacations a couple years back and he just loves both, so he requested Teppan Edo and California Grill for this trip. He hasn't seen the menu yet for Tokyo Dining, but if it is on the plan for 2008, I'm definately going to find time to fit it in! He's also developed a curiousity about wild game, thanks to a few dinners at the club where he & DH shoot, so he really wants to try Artist Point. He loved Kona so much on our last trip that he requested we go back for his birthday dinner... I've never worried about trying new restaurants with him!

DD6 isn't quite as adventuous as her brother, but she likes to try new things as long as she has something "safe" like plain chicken or fish in front of her, so she's happy with her kids meal and a few bites of whatever DH, DS & I are eating. And she's a total nut for character meals. She asked after our last trip if we could just eat with all the characters, so we don't have to wait in line for them at the parks, and that's what we're doing - Akershus, CRT, Ohana, Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. That pretty much covers the biggies, so we can save our character-spot patience for characters like Marie and Captain Jack and Peter Pan that we can only meet in the parks.

My DD loves Teppanyaki too! She loves watching them cook in front of her - we are going to try Tokyo Dining next time though, as I showed her photos of the refurbished restaurants yesterday, and she immediately recognized that we hadn't eaten there yet, and requested this ADR be made! She also loves Kona Cafe too!

We are lucky that our kids are so much fun when eating out, as I hear so many horror stories from parents in regards to eating out.

Happy eating, Tiger

 

[bweagle]

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out not only how anyone will be able to eat 3 full meals a day plus how to get kids to sit through meals and how to have any decent stretches of time in the parks Best case scenario with little ones and timing of meals is breakfast at 8. Typically if it's buffet you'll be done by 9:15. Then in order to have dinner not to late you'll have to do lunches probably 12ish. So you can tour from 9:15-maybe 11:45 depending on walking/travel time to lunch. Sit downs take usually 1.5 hours which puts you leaving lunch at 1:30. If you take a nap/break from 3-5 and then get back somewhere for dinner at 6 you'll be done at 7:30 (if you have no wait). My kids go to bed by 9 except for a few special nights. So your only touring time would likely be 9:15-11:45, 1:30-2:30, and 7:30-bed. 1.5 hours per table service is total best case scenario as even in Value season we had plenty of waits pre meal and probably half our meals took closer to 2 hours unless they were scheduled for off times (like 4:30). My kids do enjoy character meals but for a long trip they do get less exciting especially 2 or more a day and the food at WDW gets very repetitive for kids. I can see doing the DDDP if you want to do 2TS things like CRT, Hoop, etc but even then I don't think the values of those would add up to the cost of the plan. I see the DDDP being much more for the frequent traveller who is into deluxe dining. I think with little kids and doing 3 TS a day you'll be running from 1 meal to the next not even being hungry by day 2 but obligated to go or lose money. Doing the regular plan and then maximizing it by paying OOP for cheaper meals I think would work much better with little kids because then if you don't feel like getting to breakfast one day you can just cancel it. We are doing the reg plan but some days are doing 2 TS to get in a few favorite char breakfasts. On those days we often end up eating B and D because we never even get hungry enough for a CS lunch just eat a snack somewhere mid day. It's easy to get rid of a few extra CS at the end of a trip but I'd hate to pay for the DDDP and then have to use a bunch of extra credits for CS.

Yvonne

Thanks for your opinion. However, I think parents know their kids best, and know what they can handle. My kids did great on a 15 day car trip from Ohio out to Yellowstone and back this summer. Most people thought I was crazy for even considering it, but my 4 year old still talks about it almost daily. The DxDDP may not be what your family prefers, but for my family, I think the DxDDP is a great option. We will have 9 day hoppers, so no need to feel that we have to race through the parks at warp speed to experience everything. Also, with the ages of my children (4 & 2) we will be passing by many of the more popular rides with height restrictions that we have experienced on previous trips. For example we have 2 days scheduled at MK. Even with our meals planned out, I believe that leaves plenty of time to experience the attractions that will be age-appropriate for our kids. We are planning on revisiting Disney every 3 years or so, so the kids can have different experiences as they grow. When they are older I can see that the DxDDP may be scratched off of our list, because their interests will be different and the cost to feed all 4 will be considerably higher.

 

[jenniferma]

HI Everyone-- thanks again for all of your advice on using the deluxe plan with kids. I have been trying to look through allears menus and other guidebooks and figure out where we could go during our trip. Please feel free to give any advice or opinions... a lot of my choices were made around kids' menus, unfortunately! I was trying to eat at plenty of character meals and not to do too many sit downs in one day. My problem day is Wednesday-- I want to try and eat in MGM and wasn't sure where to go for dinner (one credit)

Anyhow-- we have three kids-- who will be 20 months, 5 and 7-- 5 year old is right now the pickiest eater on the planet... 7 year old loves pizza, fried shrimp, calamari, chicken nuggets and both will eat pasta and grilled cheese. (they do not like red meat/hamburgers or grilled chicken.. so that really limited a few of the restaurants)

We are staying at CSR and will have a car-- thanks again for your opinions-- my DH was very impressed by all of your knowledge!
jen


SATURDAY
L either Cap'n Jacks or Wolfgang P Express 1 credit (do any of you have opinions on this one!?)
D Chef Mickeys 1 credit

SUNDAY AK- MGM eve.
B Tuskerhouse new Donald Buffet 1 credit
L Flame Tree BBQ 1 credit
D Narcossees 2 credits-- or California Grill??

MONDAY MK
B- snack credits for quick B
L CRT 2 credits
D Whispering Canyon 1 credit

TUESDAY EPCOT
B- snack credits for quick B
L- late breakfast at Akerhaus 1 credit- or early lunch Akerhaus
D- Le Cellier 1 credit

WEDNESDAY MK/MGM
B- Crystal Palace 1 credit
L- Tony's 1 credit
D- Mama Melrose (1 credit) -- Any suggestions would be GREAT-- I am afraid Tony's back to back with MM-- too much Italian for DH?

THURSDAY EPCOT/MVMCP
B- snack credits for a quick B--possible Maya Grill breakast buffet? (with extra credit)
L- Coral Reef 1 credit
D- LTT before MVMCP 1 credit

FRIDAY
B- OHANA 1 credit

We have one credit left-- not sure exactly how to use the snack credits for bfast, but trying to not have more than 2 sitdowns per day-- for the kids' sakes

 

[Colleen27]

WEDNESDAY MK/MGM
B- Crystal Palace 1 credit
L- Tony's 1 credit
D- Mama Melrose (1 credit) -- Any suggestions would be GREAT-- I am afraid Tony's back to back with MM-- too much Italian for DH?

Looks good. As far as this day goes, how about the Plaza for lunch instead of Tony's? Or Sci-Fi for dinner? Both have really basic food - burgers, sandwiches, etc., so your picky eater should be able to find an acceptable choice, and you won't be eating two big Italian meals back-to-back.

 

[jenniferma]

thanks! I just looked at the Sci-Fi menu and it looks really great-- have you been there? I have to really nail down the whole MGM schedule.. I am afraid it is our least favorite park.. I always am hoping then next trip we'll like it more than the last.

About Tony's.. this is nerdy, I know-- but have always wanted to eat at Tony's since I went to MK for the first time in the fifth grade..in 1984!! We've been back quite a few times, but never put it on our list of places to eat.. I figure with the deluxe plan I should try it this trip. Plus our kids really love Lady and the Tramp, so I am hoping that adds something for them.

thanks for your advice
Jen