Dining with the under 3 crowd? Expectations at TS restaurants?

danikoski

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 1, 2014
We are going to WDW in June with our then 19 month old son. I have been to WDW many times, but never with a toddler. What should we expect at TS restaurants? Right now we have booked for TS: Sanaa lunch, Crystal Palace lunch, Prime Time Cafe lunch (maybe), Hoop Dee Doo Revue, Tusker House breakfast, Akserhaus breakfast, Biergarten lunch (maybe), Storybook Dining (maybe, might switch to Whispering Canyon).
 
we took our son and duaghter at 18-24 months to many TS restaurants for their first trip to WDW. Be sure you have snacks and plenty of games, etc to keep them busy. At every restaurant, the staff was awesome to bring them snacks or their food early. The key is to keep them busy with something.
Personally, at WDW, i expect to see kids at ALL the restaurants, even the signature ones. i have no issue with the kids making noise, they will be kids. I do object to the parents who let the kids run throughout the restaurant and terrorize the guests and staff. Unfortunately, have seen this too often at many restaurants. We were at CG, most recently, and watched 2 tables let their young kids literally run around the restaurant and bother other diners and the servers.
 
They will all have highchairs for you to use, just make sure you let them know you need one when you check in. Some restaurants provide a coloring page/menu and crayons, though I'm not sure if all do. Consider packing a small playpack for coloring or some wikkisticks or a small toy he can play with to keep him occupied while waiting for the food/waiting for everyone else to finish eating. He will eat free at CP, TH, HDD, Akershus, and Biergarten. At the other restaurants, he can share off your plates for free or you can buy him his own meal. Many restaurants will provide an under 3 a free beverage, but it's not guaranteed. The restaurants do have kids cups with lids, but at that age, you might want to still bring his sippy cup in. Bring baby wipes! At the character meals, you should be able to tell when a character is getting close. Take a moment to clean his hands and face so he looks good in the pics and isn't getting a handful of Mac and cheese in Tigger's fur!

Enjoy your trip with him. Little ones are a blast and it's amazing seeing the parks in a different light through their eyes.
 
We are going to WDW in June with our then 19 month old son. I have been to WDW many times, but never with a toddler. What should we expect at TS restaurants? Right now we have booked for TS: Sanaa lunch, Crystal Palace lunch, Prime Time Cafe lunch (maybe), Hoop Dee Doo Revue, Tusker House breakfast, Akserhaus breakfast, Biergarten lunch (maybe), Storybook Dining (maybe, might switch to Whispering Canyon).
You should expect a highchair if needed and the service understanding that comes with eating at venues popular with families.
That's it in a nutshell:).
 


You should have the same expectations at any WDW restaurant that you would have at home, with the addition that you may be waiting a bit for your ADR. One more thing to consider is travel time. It takes time to get from resort or park to the dining venue, so I would factor that into the wait time. Other thn that dining in WDW is the same as dining anywhere.

We included our DGD whenever the family dined out, and my DD made sure that she had little things to keep her occupied. Had she been a toddler in WDW that practice would have been the same.

There will be lots of kids in most WDW restaurants, so no worries about that, however keep in mind that if you book signature restaurants your meal may take longer that you expect.
 
My daughter was 20 months when we went. Honestly as long as your son is used to dining out (and you're used to dining with him) it shouldn't be a problem. The key is in having a good strategy. Make the ADRs EARLY than you would eat at home. Our lunch reservations were always for around 1130 and dinner was always around 5.
We ordered meals for her because she can eat like a horse, but I think she rejected most of them or only picked at them. The heat really did a number on her appetite and she chose to eat teddy grahams and gold fish throughout the day. I only did character dining that was family style because I did not want to deal with a buffet but everyone has their own preference on that.

I really didn't think it was all that different than eating out at home, although the first couple times we went out for breakfast after we got back she was very disappointed that Mickey wasn't there...
 


Not really any different from eating in any restaurant, other than they are much louder and hence mask the noise better when they’re unimpressed. :rolleyes1
 
we have been to Disney twice in the last year with our two kids, first time they were 2 / 4 second time 2.5 / 5. All of the restaurants offer highchairs. All of the restaurants provide a free cup of milk for the under 3 kid. At buffets (like crystal palace and tusker house) the kid can eat anything he wants off the buffet for free and you can get them their own plate of food.

At the other table service menus, he can share food with you, but if you want to order him his own food you will have to pay for it; the only exception to this for us was at CRT and Akershus, both of which gave my 2yo a free kids meal.

All of the restaurants offered crayons/coloring sheet, but we found it was good to also have some stickers and small hand held games to play. We saw quite a few families break out the ipads/iphones to entertain kids during meals, and while that isn't our style, it didn't seem to be an issue at any of the restaurants. We also sometimes up between ordering and awaiting the food and took kiddo to check out the resort lobbies / pool view, as all of the resorts are spectacles unto themselves.

Plan for 60 mintues at table service, 75 minutes at character meals, and 90 minutes for signatures.
 

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