Dining at Disney's Polynesian Resort with a Toddler
We recently took our toddler on their first magical trip to Disney World, staying at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort. It was our first time experiencing this incredible resort, and we absolutely loved its diverse dining options. From Ohana to Capt. Cook's and Wailulu Bar & Grill, here are our favorite kid-friendly meals and how we kept our 18-month-old, and ourselves, happy and fed.
This post is broken up by mealtime and includes some thoughts on the various restaurants we ate at. Also, please keep in mind that this list is by no means comprehensive. I'm only covering our personal experience. You can totally get snacks at Capt. Cook's for example, we just didn't. Likewise you can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Kona Cafe and many people love it! We just didn't have the opportunity to eat there this trip, so I have no personal take on it. 👍
Table of Contents
Breakfast
Grab'n'go Rope Drop Breakfast at Wailulu Bar & Grill
Typical price: $5 per person; toddlers can piece off of fruit/pastries
If you want to maximize your morning at Disney you've got to get there before the park officially opens and line up. This is known as rope dropping. On these days you won't have time to sit around and eat a long breakfast. You've got to "go go go" as our daughter says. So on days where we wanted to get to the park ASAP, we ended up getting "grab and go" breakfast from Wailulu Bar & Grill. Here we were able to get a fruit cup and coconut bread (the same that they serve in Ohana) to quickly scarf down with our morning coffee. Our daughter loved the pineapple and melon that came in the fruit cup.
As far as coffee went, we typically didn't use our refillable mugs these days because we didn't want to lug the mugs around all day or waste time taking them back to the room. We just had some passable K-Cup coffee in the room and waited until we got to the park to have more.
Relaxed Breakfast at Capt. Cook's
Typical price: $11 per adult; $7.50 kids
On days when we didn't attempt Rope Drop and our final travel day we had breakfast at Capt. Cook's. Our toddler loved the Mickey waffles and we were partial to the Tonga Toast. On these days we did use our refillable mugs to grab some delicious Joffrey's coffee.
Tonga Toast and Mickey Waffles
Character Breakfast at Ohana
Typical price: $53 per adult, $33 kids; toddlers under 3 eat free
We had a character breakfast at Ohana on our second day at the resort. It's a popular spot so we booked our reservation 60 days in advance of our stay. We didn't want to waste a park morning, so we booked a late reservation at 11:40 am. Breakfast is served until 1:00 pm, so this allowed us to visit Magic Kingdom first thing and then take the monorail back for brunch. I think this worked out really well because it meant we had worked up an appetite for the meal.
Ohana is served family style and is "all you care to enjoy." You get a skillet of scrambled eggs, pineapple ham, sausages, biscuits as well as coconut bread, Mickey/Stitch waffles, and fresh fruit. The best part of all? The POG (passionfruit-orange-guava) juice flows freely. Maybe I was just dehydrated after a morning at Magic Kingdom, but it was delicious.
Surprisingly, Ohana was out of high chairs when we went, so she had to use a booster seat for the first time. Fortunately that worked out just fine. 🙂
The food was pretty good. Not necessarily any better than what you can get at Capt. Cook's in my opinion, but if you have kids that are fascinated by characters it can't be beat. I'm not a huge fan of buffets generally, so I appreciated that it was served family style. Our daughter enjoyed the fruit and absolutely loved her first ever Mickey waffle here.
Lunch
Mobile ordering lunch at Capt. Cook's
Typical price: $12 per adult; $8.50 kids; portions big enough that toddlers can share with an adult
When we ate lunch at the resort we typically picked Capt. Cook's quick service. We could use our refillable mugs and it takes mobile order, making it a very convenient option.
For our toddler we always ordered the kids meal Chicken and Pineapple Skewers. Basically skewers of grilled chicken and pineapple that comes with either a small salad or fresh fruit. She loved this one and we felt it was a reasonably healthy option for her.
View from Capt. Cook's and Grilled Chicken + Pineapple Skewers
Since it was our first time staying at the Polynesian we tried to have something new with each order. Some of our favorites:
- Thai Coconut Meatballs
- Pulled Pork Nachos
- Pan-Asian Noodles and Vegetables
The meatballs had a strong coconut flavor. They were good, provided you enjoy coconut. The nachos were probably my favorite. I'm a huge fan of the "wonton chips" and the fresh pineapple provided a nice contrast with the pork and cheese. And the noodles were a good way to sneak in some much needed vegetables.
All of these options came in very generous portions – perfect after a busy morning at the parks.
Dinner
Dinner at Wailulu Bar & Grill
Typical price: $25 per adult; $12.50 kids
This is the one meal at the Polynesian that we ultimately regretted. It had nothing to do with the food and everything to do with the fact that after a long day at the parks our 18-month-old was in no mood for a lengthy sit down meal. Oh well. 😪
The food though was pretty good. We shared a Wayfinder Burger and the Teriyaki Chicken Sliders. Although lots of people rave about the burger, I felt it was just alright. It kind of tasted like a double double In-N-Out in my opinion. Which is not a bad thing by any means – I love In-N-Out. But a double double is like $6.50, not $23. 😅
For our daughter we got the grilled teriyaki chicken kid's meal with steamed carrots and steamed broccoli. Since she wasn't in the best of moods she just picked at it and I ended up eating it. Pretty good, but I'm not sure it was better than the pineapple and grilled chicken skewers from Capt. Cook's.
Wayfinder Burger, Teriyaki Chicken Sliders, and Teriyaki Chicken Skewers are Wailulu Bar & Grill
Service was a bit slow because you're supposed to relax and enjoy some cocktails and appetizers with your meal. Not rush through because you have a cranky toddler. But that didn't help matters.
All in all if we were to do it again I think we would have just ordered it to go. Wailulu supports mobile ordering and you can just take it to go back to your room or to a table by the pool.
Dinner at Polynesian Pool Bars
Typical price: $14 per adult; $8.50 kids
I may have just been hungry, but my favorite meal at the Polynesian may have actually been at the Oasis quiet pool (same menu as the Barefoot pool bar at the main Lava Pool).
I got the grilled fish tacos, and for $13 they may have been the best value of all my meals at Disney this trip. Generous portions and delicious fish, I think these were some of my favorite fish tacos of all time. Jessica enjoyed her grilled chicken just as much and our daughter loved her grilled chicken strips.
The Oasis pool bar even had mug refill stations so I could rehydrate on Powerade to my heart's content. Service at the pool bars is also pretty fast so this is definitely a valid spot for a quick midday lunch as well.
Best part of all? You can enjoy the pool afterwards!
Late Dinner at Capt. Cooks
Typical price: $12 per adult; $8.50 kids
Capt. Cooks is open until midnight most nights (maybe every night?) so you if you get back after a long day at the parks and are hungry, it's an excellent option. One night I was still hungry and ordered a Hawaiian Flatbread which is essentially a ham and pineapple flatbread pizza. It definitely tasted good, but gave me a bit of a stomach ache since I tried to go to bed immediately afterwards. My own fault!
Snacks!
Snacking at Wailulu Bar & Grill
Typical price: $15 per snack
As I mentioned earlier, you can mobile order from Wailulu Bar & Grill and get your food to go. We did this once while swimming at the new Cove Pool at the Island Tower. I ordered some of the Spam Musubi and really enjoyed it. Our toddler wasn't a huge fan, but she was more interested in swimming anyway.
The portions weren't huge, so it wasn't super filling or anything, but it did hit the spot as a light snack between meals.
Night-time Dole Whip at Pineapple Lanai
Typical price: $6 per snack
Last, but definitely not least, is Pineapple Lanai. A Dole Whip stand at the resort! We love Dole Whip and were pleased to learn our daughter loves it as well. It's probably not the best for toddlers, but hey we were on vacation. 😁
They offer classic pineapple Dole Whip, vanilla soft serve, or a pineapple-vanilla swirl which I discovered I may like even more than the original! Pineapple Lanai is open until 10 pm so we'd grab it as an after park snack. 🍦
General Tips
In general I recommend purchasing the refillable mugs which can be used for soda, tea, and coffee and refilled for two weeks from date of purchase and bringing a water bottle/sippy cup for your toddler. Kids meals come with milk, apple juice, or mini water bottles so you can supplement the cup with those.
And for toddlers I recommend focusing on Capt. Cooks and ordering grilled chicken and fresh fruit. It's filling and one of the more nutritious options available at Walt Disney World.
Toddler Dining Gear
We found the following toddler gear handy to help make mealtime go smoothly:
- Munchkin 360 Cups - These are easy to clean, unbreakable, and very spill resistant. Dishwasher safe!
- Owala Insulated Cup - Slightly less spill resistant than the Munchkin cups, but insulated and still easy to clean. Perfect for hot and humid Florida weather. Dishwasher safe!
- Bumkins Bibs - Foldable, waterproof, and easy to clean when on the go. Just rinse them off with some soap and water! Machine washable!
- Munchkin Snack Catcher - Our daughter carries this snack cup with her every where. We filled it with some organic generic Cheerios and it helped keep her satisfied while we waited for the real meals to be ready. It keeps the snacks contained for the most part. They only really fall out if you hold it upside down and and the lid gets pressed in. Dishwasher safe!
Anyways, I hope you've found this post interesting, and maybe even helpful, so I'll leave you with some links to the restaurant menus. Cheers! 🥂
Disney Menu Links
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Tim
Tim
Tim