Table Service, Signatures, and kids

[Tygerlilly]

So, as the title says... I'm loosely planning meals for our November trip. At that time, it will be myself, hubby, 6 and 4 year old daughters, and a 4 month old.

Ideally, we're looking at doing a breakfast character meal, snacking or splitting some QS meals for lunch, and then a TS dinner.

Our last trip we didn't do any TS and Signature would never have happened, but we're looking to splurge. My concern is the kids. I know people will side-eye kids in a nicer sit down. And the menu isn't always accommodating.

Are there any TS or Signatures that are maybe more relaxed and family friendly? Prefer not a character or buffet type for dinner since we are doing them for breakfast. Also not interested in the dinner show type meals.

 

[FCDub]

The only thing that’s off the table is Victoria & Albert’s. Other than that, I’d go on the website, look at menus, and figure out what your family would like the eat.

It’s Disney World. Bring your children, even to signatures, and have fun.

 

[Engineman02]

From my point of view, kids at signatures are fine as long as:

You don’t have to have a movie blaring such that the tables on the other side can hear it, you don’t practice your lightsaber skills in the middle of the restaurant, maybe a few others. Yes it is disney, and there are kids, but people are paying a pretty penny to have a nice dinner, and having interruptions is not what they were expecting.

 

[Bjkandma]

It's Disney and kids are welcome everywhere but V& A which allows either age 10 or 13.

even lounges allow children, some til 8 pm and some with no time limit. b o Ok what you think your family will enjoy.

 

[martikus]

We find one table service is all it is fair for the kids a day. and my kid is really good in restaurants but it’s still a lot of time. We do counter serve the other meals. A lot of days it’s a easy dinner by the pool.

Table service lunch was our preferred as our
Son was up early we rope dropped. Sit down lunch was a great break.

Pre covid our favorite was garden grill.

 

[happymommy]

Kids are fine anywhere but V&A, but two TS meals a day would have been too much for my kids. One, at most, was really enough. That being said, we rarely eat much breakfast. We’ll grab something in the room, and long as we’ve had our coffee (now that my kids are older, they enjoy it too), then a nice sit down lunch gives us a break. Mostly, for dinners, we’ll have something back at the resort like a QS.

We kept our plans very loose when our kids were young. We just never know when we’d decide we just needed a break, and there are so many CS options that we enjoyed with them. Sometimes, someone has had enough and just needed to chill at the pool a bit.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Your kids are going to be exhausted by dinner time. They are little kids and doing parks all day will wear them out. A tired cranky kid(s) at dinner are fun for no one

skip the nice dinners til the kids are older. Grab qs and head to the pool. Get delivery and head to the pool.

a ts lunch can be a great midday break and let everyone recharge a bit.
whatever you decide, enjoy!

 

[Leight19]

I’m going in one week also for first time really with young ones (my 1 and 3 yr old and sisters 5 and 7 yr old, been with the older kids before but first time with mine at age to cause trouble lol). Leveraging our previous experience and advice here I think it may be more important how you do the rest of day then specific restaurants.

For most part signatures are not off limits for kids but like any restaurant you should try to setup kid to do well there. Pre-covid I followed recommendation to practice dining out leading up and see how kids are there. Once at Disney, we planned day around the meal so the kids go into it with right mindset. Our kids do terrible when really tired so we made most of our dinners by 5 and picked meals we think menu works for them and have some draw to get them bought in. Stuff we want to do which we think kids may not like we do closer to lunch or early morning where our kids handle it better. We also booked less meals and plan to try walk up list flexibly if kids are in good mindset for it so I’d also second feedback doing 2 meals a day may be tough for kids. Every kid is different so think what would work for you and plan with that in mind but don’t try to force it.

Regarding specific places for dinner, we love character dining but sounds like your looking for other options. For our kids we booked Sci fi dining as draw for our kids (50s prime time was also in mix for HS day but didn’t fit in). Raglan road is another we booked for Disney springs day as we think kids will love the dancers. We considered rainforest cafe and trex as well but were slightly worried if younger kids would get scared so went with other options.

 

[kwdw]

As long as your kids have reasonable restaurant behavior, I wouldn’t worry about having TS meals with them.
However, I’ll second what others have said and suggest that two TS meals in one day should be an exception, not the norm. That can feel like too much time dining.

I’d also suggest some TS lunches vs. dinners, especially if you don’t plan to go to the resort for a break in the middle of the day. Even as an adult, I’m often wearing down by dinner and don’t feel like a nice meal. And for dinners, consider them early, before the kids have reached their limits. As a person without kids, I have a lot more tolerance for kids acting up in restaurants at 4-6 pm than I do from 8-10 pm. And even though I say that, I do still know if I opt to travel Disney, then I’m the one that needs to remember that it is a family destination and cranky kids are normal.

 

[Tygerlilly]

The girls are actually really good in restaurants. We don't get to go out to eat much so for them, it's a really big treat. They are huge breakfast eaters which is why we chose to do the character meals for breakfast.

Having an infant with us, we absolutely will be taking a mid-day break at the hotel, which is another reason why a quick lunch somewhere instead of a TS lunch is the plan there.

I'll review the menus again. But I was really hoping for a nod in the direction of which TS appealed to both adults and children in both menu and atmosphere.

 

[RanDIZ]

If you’re looking outside of the parks, I’d try Sanaa at Kidani or Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. Both excellent TS restaurants and kid friendly.

 

[kwdw]

The girls are actually really good in restaurants. We don't get to go out to eat much so for them, it's a really big treat. They are huge breakfast eaters which is why we chose to do the character meals for breakfast.

Having an infant with us, we absolutely will be taking a mid-day break at the hotel, which is another reason why a quick lunch somewhere instead of a TS lunch is the plan there.

I'll review the menus again. But I was really hoping for a nod in the direction of which TS appealed to both adults and children in both menu and atmosphere.

In terms of appeal to both, it’s really about the menu and what your kids will eat. In the same trip, my niece refused to eat anything on the menu at Skippers, but tried lots of stuff at Boma. I would say a couple are dark and it depends on how your kids like eating in the dark. For those that dark is fun/cool for, Sci Fy is fun. My other half, as an adult, hates the gimmicks of the serving staff at Prime Time, but others think that is fun, hence a cool atmosphere. I think Brown Derby might feel too formal for kids? Mama Melrose is a safe bet for Italian as kids can get pizza or spaghetti and it’s a traditional Italian restaurant feel so it feels comfortable. The old fashioned thing at Liberty Tree can be fun for kids, but there I think the lunch menu is much better. Kona and Ohana are interesting decor wise if seeing Polynesian stuff is new to the kids, but again, my niece refused to eat at Kona at that age. Jiko might feel a bit formal for kids, but Sanaa, especially if it is going to be light out when you eat and you can get a window view can be entertaining for kids and adults because you can see the savannah. Coral reef has an aquarium view, but make sure everyone could find something to eat there. I think the chance to see the Grand Floridian for breakfast makes Grand Floridian Cafe a winner for a non character meal breakfast. Garden Grill is both a fun character meal at breakfast OR dinner and it’s fun. If dark is okay, San Angel is cool for kids in terms of atmosphere. The Wave has great food for the price, but does feel like a generic hotel restaurant in terms of atmosphere, so not fun for kids and tends to be quieter so noisy kids would be noticed more. Citricos is probably a boring setting for kids, that place is more about the food, which kids aren’t going to appreciate.

 

[loves to dive]

As others have said, other than V&As there is nowhere you can't take kids. It depends on how well your kids behave in restaurants. Again, as others have said there is nothing worse than trying to have a nice-ish adult meal and having kids screaming near you. I was a single mom so where I went my son went but he was very well behaved in public and used to eating out. One example of what not to do - a few years ago we were eating at Chef Paul's, a signature and semi-expensive place. It was toward the later end of the evening, I think our ADRs were for 8:30 or so. They sat us in a corner table/booth (one side was booth seating running the entire length, the other side chairs). Right next to us they sat a family of parents and two kids, probably around 8 or 10 years old. The kids were rolling all around the booth seating, coming over to my side and kicking me even though there was at least a good 4 or 5 feet between our table and theirs. They were being those kids who didn't like anything on the menu and the parents were being those parents that felt like the wait staff should go find something their kids would eat. When the kids wouldn't eat what was found, they parents were those parents that begged, pleaded and bribed the kids to eat something. The wait staff were going out of their way to try to entertain and please that family to the extent that they were all but ignoring us. It was my adult son and myself. It made for a very uncomfortable and bad experience that even had the food been the best we had ever had (it wasn't) and the price was just regular TS price (it wasn't) we still would never go back there again.

 

[Lilsia]

This is what we did. We eat dinner early. It's actually more of a late lunch/main meal. We would get up, have breakfast at the resort, go to the parks, have a small, shared snack like meal for a lunch and then have our main dinner between 4-5. By that time, we would all been up for quit a while and are ready for a good, healthy meal. That is when we did our buffet or nice sit down restaurant. It wasn't so late that the kids are tired and cranky, nor was the restaurant so busy that we had to wait forever for our food. We got served quickly and everyone was full and happy and not too tired. We would then continue on with our touring and get another snack a bit later on. We never had any issue with the kids at the restaurants, but we made it clear on what proper behavior in public should be. There are not too young to learn that. Kids go to bed early and we tried not to have too many late nights because we are all happier if we get our sleep. It's OK to not go from open to close, or to spend an hour watching the ducks if that is what makes the little ones happy. That is what a vacations is supposed be, everyone enjoying themselves. Have a fun trip.

 

[Dug720]

To be fair with Skipper Canteen, if you get past the title it's really not all that exotic (the "tastes like chicken" IS fried chicken) - the whole fried fish being the primary exception. (And I still say they should have an area for people who will NOT order that so we don't have to look at it. Little is more appetite killing than seeing the peeling on the eyes on that thing.)

 

[eeyoreandtink]

DD has been eating at nice restaurants pretty much since the beginning. We have never hesitated to take her, at Disney or otherwise. With that came the understanding that if she became a disturbance to other diners it was our responsibility to mitigate that or leave. Only had to do that once. She always enjoyed a restaurant.
if it are me I would pick out a menu that appeals and go for it. I honestly don’t think there anywhere you couldn’t find something to feed them, and maybe something new.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

Your kids are going to be exhausted by dinner time. They are little kids and doing parks all day will wear them out. A tired cranky kid(s) at dinner are fun for no one

skip the nice dinners til the kids are older. Grab qs and head to the pool. Get delivery and head to the pool.

a ts lunch can be a great midday break and let everyone recharge a bit.
whatever you decide, enjoy!

We found this not to be the case when DD was little. We started doing Disney when she had just turned 5 and always rope dropped. We did a sit down dinner most nights and it was the best decision we ever made. It was a great recharge for us to sit down to a nice meal, then hit the parks again for fireworks or EMH.

 

[2minny]

From my point of view, kids at signatures are fine as long as:

You don’t have to have a movie blaring such that the tables on the other side can hear it, you don’t practice your lightsaber skills in the middle of the restaurant, maybe a few others. Yes it is disney, and there are kids, but people are paying a pretty penny to have a nice dinner, and having interruptions is not what they were expecting.

Disney has a lot of kids and I appreciate the poster asking, kids are great! I think as long as your kids can eat and visit and just be regular kids, all is good anywhere at Disney. But, we had a SCREAMING child at Le Cellier, the parents ignored him, it continued for thirty minutes until we hurridly finished our meal and left. SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. Waiters didn't know what to do. I will NEVER understand that in any restaurant - take the kid outside and take turns eating your meal as parents lol, don't punish the rest of us! OK, sorry for venting, that was 5 years ago and my family still cringes when Le Cellier is mentioned.....not their fault but we won't go back. I took my kids to TS restaurants when they were little, with the understanding that if they were loud, we would leave. Most places are great with kids and little kid noise is understandable!

 

[Aimeedyan]

We have a 14 month old who has been visiting Disney since he was teensy (we're semi-local and go a LOT). While I realize the signatures are still at Disney, and considered family friendly, I also get super anxious if he starts acting a fool and other tables are paying $$$ for a nice dinner out. It stresses me out. It's usually pretty quiet in those places, too.

So, we have done just one - Topolino's for a birthday dinner. We booked an early time (5:30) and there were 2-3 other tables with children but by and large, all adults. He did start fussing about being in the highchair but thankfully, I was able to take him out on the terrace until the meal came.

Mine is a big eater so table services at dinner work out fine as long as we are feeding him something from the time we sit down. Whispering Canyon was a great option for us recently because we did the skillet and it comes out almost immediately. Since he can eat more than me right now, I also prefer the AYCE option so I get to eat something, too!

 

[Tygerlilly]

I definitely would take them out if they started acting up. We have pretty strict rules when we go out and have actually taken a child out of the restaurant if one had a meltdown just to not cause a scene.

It's just so hard to try and balance a family friendly vacation with still wanting to eat the delicious food that Disney has to offer. I'll definitely check out all the suggested places.