Regular Meal times for toddlers?

[twins4me]

We will be traveling in May with our 2 yr old twins and I am trying to plan our meals at the moment. At home we eat at 5:30pm pretty much every single night and they are asleep by 7 - 7:30.

In your experience, do you reserve dinner at your usual time while at WDW or do you make adjustments? Also, do your toddlers go to bed later or about the same time? Thanks!

 

[soontobewed07]

I tried to plan everything for the same time that we usually eat. I figured he usually eats around 5:45-6pm so I booked for 5:15 to 5:30. I only booked one odd time and that is Mama Melroses for 3:50pm. I am hoping to eat a good breakfast a snack and then dinner and while we are at Fantasmic I will get him something to munch on. I am keeping my fingers crossed he will stay on his schedule.

 

[pooh4evr]

You can try to get them but your times may not be available - our kids are usually so tired the schedule doesn't matter- so we kind of take what we can get! Good Luck!

 

[Karlzmom]

We had the added challenge of a 3 hour time difference, as we are on the left coast. We put our meals at the proper time for Karl, but used the FL clock and kinda forced a quick switch over...

He went to bed at or close to his normal time, and was up ready to go in the morning. I did find him to be much more flexible in the mornings, with a definate taper off in the mid to late afternoon. Frankly, if I could have done it again, I would have booked the dinners that I really wanted as lunches, because we skipped a number of our ADRs b/c the boy was just to tired/fried/overstimulated. Ya gotta laugh, DH asked if they put keep a "bad ressie" list that will cause us a problem on our next trip for skipping so many.

 

[disny_luvr]

We will be traveling in May with our 2 yr old twins and I am trying to plan our meals at the moment. At home we eat at 5:30pm pretty much every single night and they are asleep by 7 - 7:30.

In your experience, do you reserve dinner at your usual time while at WDW or do you make adjustments? Also, do your toddlers go to bed later or about the same time? Thanks!

We are going in May with our two-year-old twins too. When are you going and where are you staying?

To answer your question, I'm planning on trying to make our dinner reservations around the same time we eat at home. We usually eat dinner by 5:30 and no later than 6:00. I have one ressie for Chef Mickey's at 5:40 so that should work perfectly. I think I can push my boys to eat later, but they won't eat before 5:00ish for some reason. We've tried several times and it just doesn't work. As far as sleeping, my boys are usually in bed by 8:30. I know there will be some nights when we aren't back by that time, so I don't know how things will go. We are planning on just taking it day-by-day. We'll just have to be flexible.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[RACHELSMOM1]

While at WDW, it is Disney time. We are in a different world, and on a different time schedule. We schedule each day so that we can have our afternoon nap, and then later ADRs for dinner after we have had our naps (not optional, everyone is required to take the nap, even mom and dad, we just go to the hotel about 2:30 or 3pm, take off our clothes, put on our jammies, and crash). After 25 plus trips, this is what works for us. We actually look forward to the afternoon naps. We wake up (after a wake-up call, usually for 5pm) and get ready for dinner ADRs. We find we are relaxed and refreshed. No meltdowns during dinner, and we all have a pleasant meal. Works like a charm!!

 

[perkinsrose]

I stick to our meal & sleep schedultes as much as possible. I don't even push bedtime much more than 1/2 hour late in WDW.

Well rested kids and even blood sugar (we try to do somewhat healthy morning and afternoon snacks & 3 meals) make for a pleasant trip. WDW meltdowns are not necessary!

I feel sorry for the ones I see when peoplewatching--probably lots of them can be avoided with food & sleep.

 

[twins4me]

We are going May 13 - 20th and staying at the WL. I am such a control freak that plan can get me stressed out. I am just looking forward to some warm weather and some time in the parks and pool.

For the other mom of twins - where are you staying?
Jenn

 

[mmcphee]

We always stick to our home scheduel as much as possible. We took the kids out late one night during our last trip and regretted it for the next 3 days. There will be time as the kids get older to stay out late, but for now kids on their schedule are happier kids and that makes for a much nicer vacation for everyone.

We do stay out late on our last night, we find they nap more in the car that way.

 

[kjbrown]

While at WDW, it is Disney time. We are in a different world, and on a different time schedule. We schedule each day so that we can have our afternoon nap, and then later ADRs for dinner after we have had our naps (not optional, everyone is required to take the nap, even mom and dad, we just go to the hotel about 2:30 or 3pm, take off our clothes, put on our jammies, and crash). After 25 plus trips, this is what works for us. We actually look forward to the afternoon naps. We wake up (after a wake-up call, usually for 5pm) and get ready for dinner ADRs. We find we are relaxed and refreshed. No meltdowns during dinner, and we all have a pleasant meal. Works like a charm!!

I second this!! Our first trip I tried to stick by our regular schedule with DD (she was 2.5 at the time). I just didn't work! We REALLY needed our afternoon break of nap and swim, which made it necessary to make dinner a bit later than she was used to.

Our next trip (she was 4 and DS was 18 months) worked MUCH better since I made slightly later ADRs, allowing for naps, "get ready" time and travel to dinner.

 

[ireland_nicole]

We definitely keep our usual schedule at Disney! We wake around 7am; eat breakfast, go to the parks at rope drop, have lunch at 11-11:30, enjoy parks until 5, have dinner at 5:30, and then back to bed at 7. We did change this one night for MNSSHP; the next day we didn't go to a park until lunch time. My kids need their schedule, and we find that we still have plenty of time to enjoy the parks. Plus, we brought grandma, so two adults could leave in the evening if they chose.

 

[disny_luvr]

We are going May 13 - 20th and staying at the WL. I am such a control freak that plan can get me stressed out. I am just looking forward to some warm weather and some time in the parks and pool.

For the other mom of twins - where are you staying?
Jenn

We are staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort from May 2-12. I just added an extra day to allow for more "down-time". I'm a little worried that by the end of the trip our boys may be monsters due to being off of their schedule and away from home for so long. We'll just have to hope for the best - at least we'll be in Disney World!

You'll love the WL. DH and I stayed there a few years ago and it's our favorite resort.

 

[scape1224]

I worried about this last year and all went fine. The big boys were 5 and 2 1/2 and I was pregnant with the baby. The boys are in bed by 7:30 here at home. But at Disney there was not one night we were back in the hotel by that time. As someone put it you are on Disney time and that was so true for us. I am such a scheduled person to as are the kids but it worked out just fine. We did plan dinners for 5ish we usually eat by 5:30 here at home so that worked out perfectly then would just have another snack later. We however never did an early morning and let the kids sleep in until they woke.

I am not sure how things will go with the baby this year. We will see I guess.

 

[WDW08]

We really go with the flow. Our dd is 2 now and has been twice. Some days the schedule is the same as home, other days it's not. The only thing I won't do is schedule an ADR for after 7:30 or so. We would ALL be cranky if we didn't eat 'till 8 or so

We try to do afternoon naps, but if we don't, we try to wrap the day up early. But, I would tell you to just go with the flow. Sometimes kids will be ok, sometimes they won't. Just trust your instincts and follow their leads....and don't stress...it's vacation!

 

[puffkin]

Our schedule gets thrown off a bit in Disney. Usually morning/lunch is about the same. We do try to get back for an afternoon nap/swim. However at home he may sleep 2 hours but at WDW he will sleep 3-4 hours in the afternoon if we let him. We usually wake him in time so we can go eat dinner about our usual time )5:30-6 ish.......then he is pretty much good to go through park closing. At home he is in bed around 8, but in Disney he will go until at least 10.

Our meals seem to be about the same time in Disney (except we skip the afternoon snack since he naps so long) but we do adjust his napping/bedtime a bit.

 

[sparkyboy]

This will be our 3rd trip with twins who will be 4 in January and we pretty much adhere to their daily routine and eating times. We all go back to the resort and hav afternoon quiet time/naps. On one or two evenings we have been out late but then try to schedule the next day with later start time so that they are able to sleep later and no melt downs. You know your family the best and just make the adjustments that are necessary to keep everyone stress free.

 

[barnaby1]

When dd was younger I used to stick as much as possible to regular times as she wouldn't cope with a late night but from about 18 months I have pushed her schedule by an hour or 2 (meals / bedtime etc). As long as she is sleeping later in the mornings that is OK. We are not rope drop people so we don't need to be up early.
See how they go, you will know quickly if it is not going to work.

 

[rocio]

I'm new to the boards and have been reading non-stop but your post made me sign up. I'm traveling with 2 year-old twins in May too! That's too funny that there's three of us. For the OP, we'll be there the same time (12-19). I'm going to try to keep meal times as close as possible to what we do at home....with maybe few dinner exceptions, but I wouldn't push it past an hour or so. I'm curious how this is all going to go. I'm celebrating my b-day while there and am trying to find a good place to eat dinner.

 

[DRS_Are_Best]

We will be traveling in May with our 2 yr old twins and I am trying to plan our meals at the moment. At home we eat at 5:30pm pretty much every single night and they are asleep by 7 - 7:30.

In your experience, do you reserve dinner at your usual time while at WDW or do you make adjustments? Also, do your toddlers go to bed later or about the same time? Thanks!

I'm in a similar situation as you -- my twins will be 2 when we make the trip and then we have their 3 year old brother -- we made reservations for breakfasts (around 8) and dinners (around 6) and made sure they were at times that are consistent with what we do at home (with one exception). Lunches we will make sure that we find a counter service (most days) meal around noon. Then (hopefully) all 3 kids will nap (or at least the twins will nap). Then we plan to go directly back to the resort to put the kids to bed and get ready for the next day (normal bedtime is between 8 and 8:30).

We LIVE on schedules normally so we figured that a week is too long to go without. That's just our thing though.....

Good luck!!!!!

 

[arielmomma]

We usually try to keep our reservations close to our children's normal schedule. They are little and we have never had any difficulties with them since as we keep the routines as best as possible.