Toddlers at meal time?

Mrs. Evans · Post by **Mrs. Evans** » Jun Fri 01, 2007 8:14 am

Ok so we are planning our first trip to Disney with our 2 little ones ( 2 1/2 and 1 1/2) We have the meal plan and made reservations for all the character meals. Now, my husband and I have a bet. He says they will be fine, I say it's going to be a disaster. ( dinner at home is like a 3 ring circus) Any advice for us newbie parents?

JWG · Post by **JWG** » Jun Fri 01, 2007 8:40 am

Will the 2 1/2 year old be scared of the characters... That's my question!
Good luck! Its near impossible to eat while feeding you children in any environment, so I don't know how this will be worse than any other day.

Mrs. Evans · Post by **Mrs. Evans** » Jun Fri 01, 2007 2:48 pm

Well, my husband thinks the kids will LOVE the characters, I say otherwise. The good thing is, the winner of this bets gets to have a nice cold beverage by the pool while the loser stays in the room with the sleeping kids. I'll have a pina colada please!

Post by **rdeacon** » Jun Fri 01, 2007 3:24 pm

Hmm enjoy that pina colada!

HAHAA

It really depends on your kids. Most kids are terrified of the characters. Since they don't expect the characters to be that large and imposing in person.

Here is my advice, from experience dealing with my 2 1/2 year old niece, who was scared of Goufy and Donald, but was kinda ok with Mickey and Minnie.

I would temper them to the characters by first going up to them casually in the parks. This way you can gauge their level of fear.

The character dining environments are not the best place to introduce your kids to them. The dinners are loud, other kids whooping it up and other screaming in terror, and often in enclosed spaces with makes the characters even bigger.

Good luck.

Rich

AKLRULZ · Post by **AKLRULZ** » Jun Fri 01, 2007 5:21 pm

We've been taking out kids since they were 2 - never any problems per se with the characters. I'm sure you know your kids better than anyone else in terms of planning meal times around their typical schedules back home.

Still, you might be enjoying that frosty drink - everyone has their fair share of meltdowns.

Good luck! I personally wouldn't stress out too much about it.

PudgetteD · Post by **PudgetteD** » Jul Fri 13, 2007 5:07 pm

DS was scared of characters @ 2, however we found that if WE interacted with the characters first, then he warmed up to them rather quickly.

FlatlandMounty · Post by **FlatlandMounty** » Jul Sat 14, 2007 6:53 am

Go to the character spot in Epcot....that would be a good test. The characters there are in a very big, open environment, and you get to meet like 5 in a row. Usually Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and one other.