Would you bother with the DDP with a 1 year old?

[minniebride]

We are at the beginning stages of planning a trip with a 1-1.5 year old baby. It will just be me, my DH, and the baby. Trip will be 4 nights.

Would you bother with the DDP with a baby that young? We will want to do character meals 2x in our trip-likely Crystal Palace and either Chef Mickeys or Garden Grill. Its our first baby and I am not sure how a little baby will be in a sit down restaurant and we dont want to stress out the baby, ourselves, and surrounding guests if she cant handle the duration of a TS, so we were thinking the rest of the meals will likely be CS.

What do you think? DDP or no DDP?

 

[POOHsie]

When my DD was very young it was hard to be at TS restaurants. She would be upset and acting up. I always thought it was because of all the stimulating food smells and decorative atmosphere. I think my DD wanted our food, not her tasteless stuff. IMO, your baby won't get much out of the character meals at such a young age. I think it's a waste of money for you. Maybe when the baby is 3-4.

When our baby was under 2, it was an awkward time. We wanted to do things as a family, with emphasis on our baby's interests, but the baby was not quite ready for it.

 

[arielmomma]

We did the DP when our daughter was was 1. While she didn't like the characters (except the human ones) we were able to keep her back to them and still get some nice pictures of her while our son enjoyed them. Actually, the TS meals were fine. She usually ate her food and fell asleep in the air conditioning, then the rest of us enjoyed a long, quiet lunch. For us, the DP was a blessing on that trip.

 

[PictureJumpr]

The first time we took my younger nephew he was 18 months old on the day we left for the trip.

We were on DDP, did lots of character meals (his older brother was 4 1/2), he had no problems with the characters but he was an awfully outgoing kid.
Eating at buffets made it easy to get him a little bit of something he liked, like mashed potatoes or mac and cheese, fruit, a little bit of chicken, without giving him something off our plates which may not interest him as much. Many non-buffet TS did bring him his own mashed potatoes or something, and at others we could always order him a side dish, but buffets are generally louder and brighter and full of interesting lights and people and characters, so he seemed more entertained in those.

On a related note, when travelling with any small children, it can be a godsend to be able to get room service (or pizza delivery, depending on which resort you are in) in exchange for TS credits, for that day in the middle of your trip when the fatigue hits everybody and a quiet hotel evening is needed.

 

[angieand3rs]

My first DD was 2 weeks past her first birthday when we took her to Disney. We used the DDP. We didn't do any character meals, and she did very well. We always brought her plenty of snacks and requested her meal come first (we paid for her OOP). The only problem we had was she ate a lot of grilled cheese, pizza, and Mac n cheese... Which aren't on my list of preferred meals, but you're only on vacation every so often!

We're going back in December with a one year old and two year old, and hoping we have several melt down free meals!