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Fun Family dining in Orlando

GeraldineT

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While we are in Orlando we will be celebrating my sons second birthday. Wanted to do something special for him. We are not doing Disney so the in park dining is not an option. My oldest wants to go to Rain Forest but we have been there a bunch of times. Thought about the Shark Tank at Seaworld or maybe The Breakfast Buffet at Disney Beach Club Cape May Cafe.

Thoughts, ideas?
 

ronparise

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I was at the Portifino Bay Hotel (Universal) with a 2 year old last year. We ate at Trattoria del Porto

they have a play area for the kids, Character dinners on Friday nights (Shrek and Scoobie Doo visited our table) and also on Friday nights an all you can eat Pasta Buffet (you pick out the fresh ingredients and the chef sautes them and adds them to the sauce of your choice) they also have a breakfast buffet
 

SOS8260456

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Even though you are not going to the parks at Disney, you could always take a ride over to Villas at Wilderness Lodge and eat at Whispering Canyon Cafe (someone can correct me if I have the name not exactly correct). It's hard to describe, but it is a crazy place to eat for children. Every so many minutes they have the children ride horse sticks around the restaurant. My niece asked for a refill on her soda and they brought out this like 2 foot tall glass with straw. and they do other crazy antics like that.

When you said children's birthday, that is the first place I thought of. For disclosure purposes, we rarely leave Disney so I have no knowledge of other places.

Lisa
 

cindi

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He might enjoy T-Rex. It is in downtown Disney.

Pretty darn cool inside and he can "make" his own dinosaur.
 

Dori

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I would second Cindi's recommendation for T-Rex in Downtown Disney. It is a great place for kids.

Dori
 

GeraldineT

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Thanks for the responses. I had passed over T-Rex because I thought it might be too "dark/scary" for a just turning 2 little guy. I may have to check it out further.

@ Ron - Had looked into those Universal restaurants because the kids love those characters and liked the play idea but not sure if it would work for us. Kids are just 2, 3 & 5 so is that play area separate like a play place at McDonalds. I could not imagine letting my kids go into (especially the younger 2) a play area while I sat across a restaurant and ate.
 

Debbyd57

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The Garden Grove at the Swan and Dolphin has a character buffet every evening. It was good and had good character interaction.
 

SuzanneSLO

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Disney has character breakfasts outside the parks at Contemporary (Chef Mickeys), Polynesian (Ohana Best Friends), Grand Floridian (Supercalifrragilistic) and, as alreayd noted, Beach Club. They also have character dinners outside the parks at Contemporary (Chef Mickeys) and Grand Floridian (Cinderella's Happily Ever After).

My neice loved Chef Mickeys at 3 and 4, especially when combined with a ride on the monorail (no park admission requried). Enjoy! -- Suzanne
 

MichaelColey

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I would second any of the Disney resort character meals. Those would be a blast to most 2-5 year olds.

T-Rex, perhaps, if none of them are afraid of dinosaurs. It's basically a dinosaur-themed Rainforest Cafe. A bit dark and noisy/scary for some little ones.

Most other things I can think of would be better for older kids.
 

spencersmama

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GeraldineT - Does your son like characters? I know a lot of kids are scared by the characters at his age. I'd hate for you to plan a special meal for him and have him be terrified the whole time.

Did you know they have a breakfast with Elmo at Seaworld? I don't know what days they have the breakfast, but every kid I know about to turn two is Elmo crazy.

I thought of Arabian Nights, the Pirate dinner show and Medieval Times, but I think he is too young to enjoy those. I know most kids that age won;t be entertained by that kind of thing because the stage area is so far away. I bet in a couple of years he'll be gaga over the knights. (At least my knight and pirate obsessed son was at 4 or 5.) It's pretty loud though - would probably scare most 2 year olds.

The shark dinner looks nice, but I think it is more upscale. not very interactive. I don't know how fun it would be for him just sitting there and observing.

What I would probably do instead of going to a fancy dinner, use the money to take the kids to SeaWorld for a day to see all the animals. Your kids are the perfect age for that, IMO, and you can get better ticket deals at SeaWorld than Disney.
 

GeraldineT

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GeraldineT - Does your son like characters? I know a lot of kids are scared by the characters at his age. I'd hate for you to plan a special meal for him and have him be terrified the whole time.

Did you know they have a breakfast with Elmo at Seaworld? I don't know what days they have the breakfast, but every kid I know about to turn two is Elmo crazy.

I thought of Arabian Nights, the Pirate dinner show and Medieval Times, but I think he is too young to enjoy those. I know most kids that age won;t be entertained by that kind of thing because the stage area is so far away. I bet in a couple of years he'll be gaga over the knights. (At least my knight and pirate obsessed son was at 4 or 5.) It's pretty loud though - would probably scare most 2 year olds.

The shark dinner looks nice, but I think it is more upscale. not very interactive. I don't know how fun it would be for him just sitting there and observing.

What I would probably do instead of going to a fancy dinner, use the money to take the kids to SeaWorld for a day to see all the animals. Your kids are the perfect age for that, IMO, and you can get better ticket deals at SeaWorld than Disney.

My kids are Seaworld fanatics. They love, love, love it. Actually prefer to go there than "the mouse". According to my 5 year old "disney is okay but there are too many lines and we always have to wait. All we do all day is wait".

Can't wait till the kids are older to do the dinner shows.

Definitely going to look into the Breakfast with Elmo. He would love that.
 

spencersmama

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My kids are Seaworld fanatics.

Can't wait till the kids are older to do the dinner shows.

Definitely going to look into the Breakfast with Elmo. He would love that.

A lot of the preschool-aged kids I know would rather do SeaWorld than Disney. It is a much easier and low stress day.

Make sure when you go, you check out coupons on the internet and in coupon magazines. I've found buy one- get one free coupons for the dinner shows, making it very affordable.

I wish they had the Elmo breakfast when my kids were little! May have to borrow my nieces to experience it!!
 

IslandTime

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We live in Orlando and while we don't make it out to the theme parks area as often as we used to, O'hana at the Polynesian Resort is one of my all-time favorite places to have dinner. Our kids are now young men, but this is such a great restaurant for all ages. The little kids around us always seem to be having so much fun. You can see the menu in the link below, and that site has a wealth of information about all Disney restaurants.

http://allears.net/menu/menu_oh.htm
 
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