dining plan with children under 3

[ewasilau]

What happens if you get the dining plan and you have a child under 3 in your party? From what I've seen, the kids' version is for ages 3-9 and I'm not sure what happens to the under 3 crowd. We will have 6 in our party - 3 adults, one almost 5-year-old, a 2 1/2+ year old, and an almost 1 year old (who would likely eat a combination of baby food and stuff off of our plates). Do you have to buy food separately for the 2 year old? He would then end up costing more that his sister as he eats just as much and would demand a snack whenever she redeemed her "snack" dining credits, etc . . .
Thanks for any input!

[Goofy4TheWorld]

From what I have read on Intercot, you will have to pay out of pocket. There is no dinning plan available for kids under 3.

The only way to have a dinning plan for a kid under 3, is to "register" that child as 3 or older, which would give them their own set of dinning credits, but would also force you to pay for park tickets for that kid (which would have been free for a child under 3).

There is no way to separate the age classification for the purchase of the dinning plan from the age classification for purchase of park tickets.

[gerald72]

Go to buffets. They are free.

[biodtl]

Yep - at buffets, they eat free. Everywhere else, you can feed them from your plate or pay OOP.

[wdw_bound]

At TS meals, I'd recommend buffets - the under 3 crowd is free. At non-buffet TS restaurants, you can share from your plate, or order a separate meal.

Snack credits make no differentiation between adult and child, so you can get both kids an ice cream and use 2 snack credits. Trust me, you will probably still have snack credits to burn by the end of the trip. As for CS, you can either share from your plates, or get a meal (child or adutl) out of pocket. Our DD is not a huge eater - many times she and I would share my CS meal (and still have food leftover), and DS (2.5) would eat her child's meal.

[green ranger]

We went when my daughter was 18 months and 2 1/2, and both times there was enough food between my husband and me to share with her that we never paid out of pocket for her.

[cal5755]

I have to agree that when not at Buffet dinners there will be enough food to share without anyone being hungry. The portions at most places are super huge. I shared with DD 9 a lot on the last trip and in the end we had extra meals that I gave away because of the huge portions!

[ewasilau]

Thanks! I did not know that kids under 3 eat free at buffets. Very helpful information. I'm wondering if the DDP is going to be worth it to us . . . this may need to be a separate post . . . .

[kathiep]

Some of the kids meals that you'll be ordering for your 5 year old will probably provide too much food for a kid that age. When our littlest one was under 3, she did just fine sharing the kids meals with her older brother and eating from our plates.

[MelXThree]

We have a 5yr old and (will be) 2 yr old twins. We got the dinning plan because of my twins. If we wanted to "go cheap" we figured out 4 TS credits (the twins would share), for three meals a day pretty much works out the same as the dining plan. So for all my ADR's I booked buffets or family style dining. For some people this is not the kind of dining they like but for us we just want a place to sit and eat. We are doing 4 character meals and my kids are going to LOVE it! Hope this helps :mickey:

[javamama]

Same boat here I had a 4 year old last year and 1 1/2 year old, so they shared at TS meals my 4 year is somewhat picky. This year will be harder since thye both eat more at 2 1/2 she's actually a better eater than him at 5 1/2 (when we go), but honestly they is tons of food on the DDP. We stay in Club level so they pick all day when were at the resort so they don't go hungry, but even on the DDP you eat tons--our first year at the WL we had tons of snack credits leftover the last day.

[TheRustyScupper]

"KIDS EAT FREE" can be tricky, as there is no policy that kids eat free everywhere.

1) At buffets and all-you-can-eat locations,
. . . they can graze the buffet
. . . they can eat/drink anything for free
2) At regular sit down eateries,
. . . they can eat from your plate for free
. . . anything ordered for them is charged
3) At CS locations,
. . . they can eat from your plate
. . . anything ordered for them is charged