Dining with 3 year old

TinkerBeth21 · #1 10-13-2011, 10:06 PM

We are going to Disney the beginning of January and will have our 3 year old son and 7 year old daughter. What restaurants are recommended and what ones are recommended we stay clear of? We really like character meals, but I know that some are quite costly, which ones are worth it?

mydisneygirls · #2 10-13-2011, 10:29 PM

All of the buffet character meals are great for kids your age. Never had a bad meal at one of them. We were just there and I couldn't believe the prices now. For the 3 of us, the meal was over $100. Are you staying on property and have the dining plan?

CosmicRay · #3 10-13-2011, 10:48 PM

1900 Park Fare
Chef Mickeys
Crystal Palace
Akershus has a princess meal
Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine

If you would like to know some counter service type restaurants:
Cosmic Ray's
Pizza Planet

Those are just to name a few off the top of my head.

TinkerBeth21 · #4 10-14-2011, 07:31 AM

We will be staying on property, but we will not have the dining plan. We thought about it, but with our current reservations (we have 4 of the 5 you named already, not 1900 Park Fare), and the fact that we need a ticket for the day before we check in, it was cheaper (by about $170) to stick with paying for everything. If it weren't for the one day of tickets that my husband and I would need before we check in, we probably would have booked a package, but we can't get the tickets a day early.

If anyone has any suggestions for this we might still go with a package.

minnie-mouse · #5 10-14-2011, 09:28 AM

Definitely Chef Mickeys for that age. I would suggest Crystal Palace in MK too.

mudpuppysmom · #6 10-14-2011, 11:14 AM

My DS2 very much enjoys charater meals (even at 9) and we were just there last week.....

Two our family usually does are Chef Mickeys and Crystal Palace. This trip we tried a new one -- Cape May Cafe, which I thought was much like Chef Mickeys.

DS2 (who is 3) wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with characters -- at meals or in the parks, so keep this in mind unless they are fine with the characters.

As someone else said -- the prices have really gotten high and for us meals for four of us were over $100, which is something we will def re-evaluate next trip.

TinkerBeth21 · #7 10-15-2011, 08:14 AM

Thank you all for your advice. We currently have ressies at Akershus, Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Whispering Canyon (can't have everything for just the kids!), Play N Dine at Hollywood and Vine, and 'Ohana. We've eaten at most of these, but we have never done Play N Dine or Akershus, and my family has never done 'Ohana (I have). We'll see how this trip goes! It'll be a lot of money, but hopefully worth it!