Subsonic Radio

We are planning to be at WDW for my son's 1st bday. Well, technically it will be 2 weeks before his bday but it is less expensive to celebrate a little early because his bday is the 29th of Oct. Of course we realize that he is not going to remember anything about the trip but the grown-ups thought it would be a great reason to plan a special trip.
Our trip dates are 10/10 to 10/17 and we are starting to plan our meals. We will be on the dining plan and would like to plan at least one table service meal for our group in which we celebrate my son's bday. Which restaurants do you recommend for this? Again, he's only a year old but I'm sure there are some places that are more fun than others....and I'm sure we aren't the first family to celebrate a 1st bday at WDW. Looking forward to the responses!
THANKS!!!

hmmm a special birthday for a 1 year old....
I would pick somewhere that has character dining for dinner... at least you can take pics of your kid with Pooh or Mickey and have a nice souvenir from the occasion...

Other than that, it's what kind of food do the adults want to eat...
Magic Kingdom:
Crystal Palace has tigger, pooh and friends

Cinderella's Royal Table
Cinderella of course and Fairy Godmother acknowledges Guests' special celebrations like your son's birthday

There are other character dinners in the other parks and at the resort hotels (1900 Park Fare at GF for instance or Ohana's at the Poly)

My suggestion: be careful on the character dining. Some kids at that age can be frightened by the large character suits and will burst out crying. Test your kid with a Disney character in the park first. If he has problems with the characters, you may want to then consider non-character dining family dining options.

Good idea about "testing out" my son's reaction to characters before confirming a reservation.

Is Crystal Palace open again? I know it was under construction last year but I'm sure it is open again.

I was thinking Polynesian resort is fun and the food is good.
You are right: it is about what the ADULTS want to eat!

How exciting!!!! I would agree with mindflipper, my first suggestion would be character dining but then that might scare a little kid! Geez! Those big characters coming at you! What about Coral Reef and sit right by the aquarium window?! He might enjoy watching the big fish swim around? Just a thought!

Oh Coral Reef would be exciting! I do like that idea especially since I've never personally eaten there! Others in our group have dined there and say it is great.
I wonder how photos would turn out inside that restaurant? I imagine the glass of the aquarium would cause a lot of glare?
As you can see, I'm thinking of everything. I'm just having fun thinking about it all the options.

With a flash, yes, the glare will be a problem off the glass of the aquarium. But if you have a mini tripod and use the non-flash setting on the camera with the longer exposure, the photos come out very well.

I will have to check this out tonight with my DW, but I believe we did a 1st birthday party at the Crystal Palace with one of my boys and they did a whole Birthday Parade wih Pooh and Friends. They brought him a cake and sang and they gave a special Pooh card signed by all of the Pooh characters that were there. It was pretty nice and we were impressed. I'll see if I can get more details tonight.

As of now, we have reservations for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show and the Liberty Tree Tavern. The Liberty Tree reservation takes place just before MNSSHP. If the LO doesn't get a good nap in his stroller then Grandma 1 or Grandma 2 will take him back to the room.

Since we will be on the dining plan, we still need to plan a few more table service meals but the bday celebration will take place at the Liberty Tree since that was the best place/time for each family's schedule. Oh, and they informed us that Liberty Tree will not have characters at the time we are dining. They did have characters in Halloween costumes the last time we ate there during MNSSHP, but that was a few years ago.

But of course, we will let each of the restaurants know we are celebrating my son's bday, just for fun.

We took our son when he was 13 months old. He loved the characters, but each child is different. Moreover, he was less receptive to the characters when it was nearing naptime, so you may want to consider a character breakfast or dinner instead of a lunch that's nearing naptime.