Struggling with how to make ADRs with 2 toddlers?

aheaviside

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Mar 11, 2011
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I need help! I just can't figure out how to make my ADR's for January 2012 trip when traveling with a 4 and almost 3 yr old because I don't know if we will take breaks, if they will nap, how long they will nap, will we return to parks after attempted nap time, etc!

My kids are both very scheduled children at home but I'm just worried that I don't know how they will do at Disney, will they be too overstimulated to nap, will they nap more because so tired, so I have no idea if dinner should be at 5 or 8 pm.

My "plan" is to do Rope Drop as they are early risers, then go till 1230 or so. Return home on monorail and break from 1-4 if they will nap, then go back to parks from 4-7 (if it's not too cold). If they don't nap, then we probably can't go back to parks late and thus can't eat any TS dinners as my kids will be terrors! They aren't the best restaurant eaters even at home (1 very picky child).

So, do most people make ADR's with toddlers or do you just do CS restaurants? Do you make your ADRs and then just cancel if the kids are having an off day? It just seems so hard to predict 6 months in advance how they are going to act and what time we are going to eat. Anyone else have this dilemma? If we don't make ADRs, any recs on where to eat that will not be burgers, nuggets, fries as I just can't eat that for a full week! Thanks!
 
Your best bet is to keep the same schedule they have at home.

If they nap/eat at a certain time, make sure to follow that and it makes life much easier.

Have a good trip.
 
You can also try and schedule your TS meals at lunctime. That way you won't have to worry about how they will act if they do not nap.

If you know where you are going to be on each day (what park) then I would try and make a reservation for that park so you are not needing to leave before you are ready. When lunch is over you can judge if your kids need to go back and rest or if they can keep going.

The last time we went my DD was just 3 and we did a combo of lunch and dinner reservations. It was typically easier for us hen we had a lunch reservation to decide what to do after and it seemed like a more "natural" break time.
 
Character breakfast and TS lunchs. And I'll try to wing at least 1~2 TS dinner. But would not do TS dinner everyday. Kids can be very tired and would not enjoy the meal at the end of the day.
 

Thanks. I think I will go with your recs and make TS lunch ADRs in the park we visit each day. I'll know soon our schedule just waiting on Jan. park hours to be released and then we will do 1 park each day. No park hoppers. Maybe I could make an early lunch ADR at 1130 in the park and then can evaluate if we need to go home for naps or if we can push longer. Since they aren't great TS eaters at home, I think ya'll are right not to push dinner TS at night. We are staying at the CR so I"m sure we could grab Contempo Cafe, Wave or room service if we can't venture out for dinner.

I"m still conflicted on these pre park opening character breakfasts. They sound awesome but I'm worried we wouldn't make an 805 in park ADR. May try 1 and see how we do since I don't want to feel like we are rushing out the door every am.
 
One thing we have found we needed was a "down" morning every 3 days where we did not rush to the parks for rope drop (we are firm belivers in RD to get things done-that is what works in our family and is not for everyone). We also see what morning we are going to sleep in and plan to stay out late the night before. If we are getting up for EMH we do not stay late for fireworks the night before.

It is all about balance and being able to read your kiddos. We plan commando style. And although anybody looing at our plans would think we are GOGOGO folks, the truh is once we get in the parks we decide what is going to work and what isn't-if we see a character we want to visit we do so, and we change our plans as needed.

I am sure you will have a great trip!
 
What are their favorite meals?

You can book late breakfasts (10:30am) and use them like lunch. You can also book lunch before heading back for a nap.

I does depend on what your touring plan schedule is like. I try to keep dinner time at around 5pm for my niece as that is when she usually eats dinner. Some days it's later as that was all I could get.

I have a few breakfasts before the park opens and the rest are later breakfasts.

I pack some snacks, so if she is hungry she can eat. That will help tide her over until the later dinner or later lunch.
 
We have an 8mth old who will be 11mths when we go. We booked 3 meals a day that correspond with his schedule at home with the time change. How ever every other night we made an extra early reservation for dinner so we could head in early as he is not a night person. Then when we get there are philosophy will be to go at his pace hoping to make are reservations but not worrying if we can't do a couple. (except for the ones we get charge if we don't show up but that is 2 breakfast so it shouldn't be a problem)
 
We took our 3 year old in October and what worked best for us was to schedule breakfast and either do a late lunch or an early dinner. We mostly ate counter service for lunch because that is normally DS' naptime.
 
I have 4 yo triplets that are schedule oriented like yours. every afternoon we got back to our room for nap and I mean nap. the ran all morning and had so much fun that they actually fell asleep real fast. they napped also the same as home except they stayed up longer at night. we did characer breakfast before rope drop, snacks for lunch as they weren't hungry, nap at about 1-4pm and dinner at about 5:30pm.
 
Did you have any trouble making it to pre rope drop ADRS with 3 kids to get ready and out the door?
 
In the morning, Dh and I would get up before the girls and get ready and then right before it was time to leave, we would wake them up and dress them and get their hair ready. All our clothes was already out from the previsou night so it was easy.
 
Did you have any trouble making it to pre rope drop ADRS with 3 kids to get ready and out the door?

I have 2 kiddos and what worked for us was to have the clothes in ziploc bags by day for all of us. I had the big bog ziplocs but it may be easier to have the kids' clothes seperate in a "kids" bag. I included socks, undies, hairbows, etc. Everything was ready to go. My DH would go get drinks and I would shower and get dressed, hen wake the kids and get the kids dressed. By then my DH would be back with bananas for the kids and they would eat that anddrink milk in their lidded cups while I finshed getting ready and my DH showered and we were out the door. We are pretty low maintenance folks so within 45 minutes we were ready to go (only 2 kids). If the kids did not finish their bananas we took them with us to the car (we drove) or to the busstop when we used Disney transport.

I also brought with us the mini boxes of cereal we call "vacation cereal" and they would munch on that in the strollers or walking-easy to snack on and not messy.
 












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