Second thoughts about small children at Citricos

Chris in CLE

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 15, 2019
Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old and with our trip 7 days away, now having second thoughts about our first night dining reservation at Citricos. If I'm being honest about our chances, there's at least decent odds my 2 year old will be too rambunctious for my family to enjoy a fine dining experience at Citricos. Shelling out a couple hundred bucks or more for a dinner that we'll have to rush thru suddenly sounds like bad planning on my part.

However, it's too late to reserve other more child friendly restaurants like Park Fair or Ohanas. Hoping to get some advice from Disney veterans on last minute alternate dining plans. Please and thanks!
 
Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old and with our trip 7 days away, now having second thoughts about our first night dining reservation at Citricos. If I'm being honest about our chances, there's at least decent odds my 2 year old will be too rambunctious for my family to enjoy a fine dining experience at Citricos. Shelling out a couple hundred bucks or more for a dinner that we'll have to rush thru suddenly sounds like bad planning on my part.

However, it's too late to reserve other more child friendly restaurants like Park Fair or Ohanas. Hoping to get some advice from Disney veterans on last minute alternate dining plans. Please and thanks!
1900 Park Fare and Grand Floridian Café both have dinner availability a week from now. Further afield places like the Rose and Crown and Biergarten are other more child-friendly places that have dinner openings. Good luck!
 
Where are you staying? If you're looking at non-park options, it might be fun to head over the AKL and try Sanaa or Boma. If you go early, the kids can see the animals outside of either restaurant. It a pretty resort and the both of those restaurants are pretty kid friendly.
 
Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old and with our trip 7 days away, now having second thoughts about our first night dining reservation at Citricos. If I'm being honest about our chances, there's at least decent odds my 2 year old will be too rambunctious for my family to enjoy a fine dining experience at Citricos. Shelling out a couple hundred bucks or more for a dinner that we'll have to rush thru suddenly sounds like bad planning on my part.

However, it's too late to reserve other more child friendly restaurants like Park Fair or Ohanas. Hoping to get some advice from Disney veterans on last minute alternate dining plans. Please and thanks!

I’ll say this ...we had a nice dinner lessened by a young child(not ours) at Citricos. I blame the parents, not the child. It was a short trip for us and we wanted a nice night out so we booked it around 8:30. The child was running all over -into the kitchen at one point with the wait staff trying to control him. I felt bad because the mother was taking care of an infant while the father could give a crap. I have kids of my own so don’t have any issues with a night out with the kids ...but all I would ask is be considerate of the others in the restaurant dropping $300. If you think that your child might act up, look for other options ...Citricos isn’t the place for that.
 


For children friendly options in MK resort area:
- Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge
- Trail's End at Fort Wilderness (for the restaurant, the area with animals around, and the boat ride... also great ratio quality-price).
 
Try Touring Plans Reservation Finder! It worked so well for us for our last minute trip, even for hard to get ADRs.
 
I've eaten at Citricos many times. Never with kids that young, but, Citricos isn't your typical "quiet" fine dining atmosphere. When we've gone, it's ALWAYS been full, somewhat noisy, and bustling. Also with lots of kids.

But you know your kids best and if you think it's going to be awful for the youngest (and you), then switch to something that isn't going to be a stressful "wasting" money on. You don't say the total size of your group, but I imagine that 24 hours outside your dining time, you'll be able to get anything you want unless you are a huge group.

I'll be at Citricos on Nov 2nd, with 16 people including a 4 and 3 year old. Not sure how it will go!
 


If you have a child unable to deal with table service dining, this may be the year to forgo table service dining. Everything has a season, and there's no sense driving yourself nuts on a vacation b/c you feel like it has to be done on vacation.

Instead, especially if it's your travel day, so you'll have been in a car/plane all day, hit the pool and order a pizza and make everyone happy. Let them run out the energy and have loads of fun while you get to relax poolside with a drink (or head to Disney Springs after pool time for the same)...just a thought...

I had a period where we did not eat out b/c I refused to spend the money to have a miserable experience. It passes...and we had very fun vacations even without TS type of meals...
 

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