Restaurants with a sleeping child

katie111

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 1, 2006
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We leave for Disney this week. We have a couple of "late" reservations at CRT (8:20pm) and Ohana (7:50pm). I have a 4 year old that gets very tired & is usually asleep at home by 8. I plan to try to get him a nap on those days but he doesn't nap anymore so I know that might be tough to do. Also I'm going to be there alone with 3 kids so its going to be tough to get everyone to lay down at once & be quiet for a couple hours. I'm really hoping he just sleeps in the stroller.

Anyways, my question is...if he's asleep when we get to the restaurant & stays asleep (this kid can sleep through anything once he's out for the night!) will they charge me for him? I'm really hoping that he's awake but just curious if he's not.
 
CRT you have to prepay for, so not sure about that. Ohana may be more understanding, but I think it would be up to your server.
 
More than likely you will not be able to take the stroller into the restaurant while you eat. I don't know if they will charge you for him at CRT if you are using the DP and he doesn't wake the entire meal but at Ohana they probably will since it is a family style and everyone is charged whether you eat or not.
 
I don't know if they'll charge you for the sleeping child, but we've always been able to take our (small) umbrella stroller into restaurants (they would remove a chair) if our DD is asleep. She's just turned 2 though, so that might have something to do with it. She was 12 months, 18 months and 23 months when we went. She was asleep at at least one meal for each of our trips. These were not buffet meals, however. For us, the hostess did not want to wake up a sleeping "baby." I think the same should apply for a toddler.
 

More than likely you will not be able to take the stroller into the restaurant while you eat. I don't know if they will charge you for him at CRT if you are using the DP and he doesn't wake the entire meal but at Ohana they probably will since it is a family style and everyone is charged whether you eat or not.

During our last trip Ohana would not allow us to bring in our stroller with sleeping DS...he slept in DH's arms the entire meal. They also charged us for him and he slept the entire time. But, our server did ask what he would eat when he woke up and boxed up salad, noodles, broccoli and dry bread pudding for him.
 
. . . if he's asleep when we get to the restaurant & stays asleep (this kid can sleep through anything once he's out for the night!) will they charge me for him? . . .


1) As mentioned, at CRT, you prepay, so the answer is "Yes".
2) At non-buffets (all-you-can-eat), no problem.
3) At buffets (all-you-can-eat), in most cases, "Yes".
4) They simply do not know if the kid wakes and eats.
5) And, waitresses can't watch the whole time you are there.

6) As for the stroller, about half the places DO NOT allow strollers.
7) There is simply not enough room.
8) If the stroller extends into an aisle, it is a trip hazard.
9) I hope you under stand that.
 
I just wanted to add that for CRT you have to go upstairs so I see no way to leave a child in a stroller even if they'll let you.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I am aware that many restaurants won't allow a stroller and expected that Ohana & CRT would be ones that would not. He's a kid that can sleep anywhere once he's out. I can easily carry him upstairs & place him in a chair & he'll stay asleep for the duration, he's done it quite a few times on vacations. No problem that it looks like I'll have to pay for him anyways, seems kind of silly, but what can you do.
 
Can't speak to CRT but as others have said since you prepay....

But we took a sleeping child in the stroller to 'Ohana. They allowed the stroller and didn't charge for the child. Another time we took our daughter who was a little under the weather (getting over a cold and tired) and the waitress noticed she was quiet and asked if she was Ok. After we explained she said they wouldn't charge for her even though she nibbled on some bread and a bite or two during the meal.
 
My nephew fell asleep on us one year at Teppan Edo. Nothing, but nothing was waking that kid up!

The staff was great! We couldn't bring in the stroller, but they put together a few chairs together - we laid him down and he slept while we ate.

Teppan Edo was not pre-pay and they did not charge us for him.
 
We leave for Disney this week. We have a couple of "late" reservations at CRT (8:20pm) and Ohana (7:50pm). I have a 4 year old that gets very tired & is usually asleep at home by 8. I plan to try to get him a nap on those days but he doesn't nap anymore so I know that might be tough to do. Also I'm going to be there alone with 3 kids so its going to be tough to get everyone to lay down at once & be quiet for a couple hours. I'm really hoping he just sleeps in the stroller.

Anyways, my question is...if he's asleep when we get to the restaurant & stays asleep (this kid can sleep through anything once he's out for the night!) will they charge me for him? I'm really hoping that he's awake but just curious if he's not.

Just wanted to add that our youngest (also a 4-year-old) is exactly the same way! He's been to WDW seven times, and sleeps through dinner at least once per trip! He's never fallen asleep at Ohana or at CRT, but he has slept throughout entire meals at Garden Grill and Liberty Tree. Garden Grill didn't have space for the stroller, but Liberty Tree invited us to bring it in. In both cases, the CMs said that they would only charge us for him if he woke up. He didn't wake up, so no charge for him at either meal. I'm not aware of official policy, but that's been our experience.

Have a great trip! :)
 
In august ohana offered to put 2 chairs together for my sleeping dd. She woke up quickly though and ate very little.

At CRT there is an elevator in case you have to carry him all the way up.
 
We've never had a Disney restaurant tell us we couldn't bring in a stroller when we had a sleeping child (and I travel with 2 daughters who have 5 children between them). A couple of times we had to wait while they reconfigured tables and chairs to make it safe and keep it out of the aisle. We even brought a stroller into Le Cellier.

Maybe we've been very, very lucky.

We've also never paid when we had a sleeping child if they slept the entire meal. Even at the all you can eat buffets. At the end of the meal we just said "he/she never woke up" and that was enough.

Not sure about CRT but that is my least favorite place to eat in the World. Atmosphere is great but we all hated the food - both at breakfast and dinner. And you can see we tried it twice - in case we had had one bad experience.
 
When we went to Biergarten last month, DS3 was sleeping in the stroller. They not only let us bring the stroller in, but led us to what I believe is one of the only tables for 4 there which allowed us to put the stroller so it wasn't blocking anything. He slept the whole time we were there and they didn't charge for him.
 
It looks like it may just depend on the restaurant and the waiter. We were charged at Crystal Palace a few years ago for my sleeping grand daughter.
 
The general rule is that at this type of restaurant, if you are there, you are charged for the meal. It would be at the restaurant's discretion whether or not to charge for a child that obviously sleeps throughout the meal.

CRT is prepaid...I would think it is doubtful they would issue you a refund. But you can ask.
 


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