Need help! Question re: Child menus

disneyfanatic1

I Boo'd myself with a cheap imitation
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
We are planning our second trip to WDW in Oct but this will be the first on the DDP.

I have a DS who is 9 and can be a BIG eater. I have started to read posts about people not being happy with the kids menu. I have also read the menu's on All ears and now I am more nervous! For those who have used the DDP for kids, should I upgrade him to an adult? Can I do that? Can I change my package now that we are only 39 days away??:confused3 :scared: :headache:
Thanks for any help in advance!!
 
I don't think you can do that, unfortunately.

We actually had the opposite problem--- DD11 who only wants to get things from the kids menu. Sometimes, the server would let her and we would just pay OOP, and other times she would order an adult size portion of the kids menu item. It really depended on how hungry she was. All of the servers were accommodating.

There are definitely ways to get around your problem. One is to eat at the buffet or family style restaurants. We ate at Boma, Crystal palace, Chef Mickey's, and Ohanas. But there other other family styles ones that we didn't hit like Garden Grill, LTT... There your son could eat the same foods that the adults eat.

Other restaurants like Le Cellier or Concourse Steakhouse offer steak for kids for a nominal add-on fee.

At the counter service places, as long as you and your wife order separately, you can order your son an adult meal. They do not keep track of children and adult counter service credits, but will not let any one person order more adult meals than listed on your key to the kingdom cards. For instance if your card says you have 2 adults and 1 child in your party, you can't order 3 adult entrees and pay for it with the DDP. There are many on this board who will flame me for telling you this, but I know how rough it can be with picky eaters. In fact, I ordered the kids meal on a few occasions because I wanted something small and I was in the mood for the kids' offering...Also, try to find counter service places that don't have a kids' meal--I know all my kids had the same meal at Pizza Planet in MGM, and it was way too much food! Since our DD11 was more of a kids' meal kid, we ordered more kids' meals that adult meals in the long run despite paying for adult meals.

Speaking of way too much food, you may find that you are splitting more counter meals than you thought. We ended up having many counter service and snack credits left on the last day.

The children's dessert options were kind of a bummer after 9 days! In the beginning my DD8 didn't mind her little cookie and actually loved the "make your own sundaes" at the sit down places. After a while DD8 definitely noticed that DD11 was having more interesting desserts at both the counter and table service places. DS4 had no idea!! The manager at Captain Cook's at the Poly, seeing that I had so many credits left on our last day, allowed all my kids to get Dole Whips as their desserts. I often would just swap with the kids so they could try the adult options.

I found that the servers and managers will definitely accommodate you-- at least they did for us. We were never demanding and were always respectful and appreciative of their efforts. In fact, other that one server at Kona Cafe, the servers were wonderful!

Good luck. Try not to fret about it too much. Your son may surprise you and love the Kids' Menus!!
 
You can change it. They may charge you a $50 fee for being w/i 45 days. Plus you have to pay for his ticket & meal upgrade. Honestly, though, he should be fine.

1, Buffets & Family Style- he can eat everything
2. Go to Counter Services such as Pizza Planet and he can get a regular meal. At most places the servings are so large anyway- you'll probably wind up sharing with him. At Cosmic Rays the chicken and ribs combo is huge- trust me he could share and have plenty- same thing with the double cheeseburgersn at Pecos Bills.
3. I usually order my dessert for the kids anyway..
 
The menus are not as bad as some people seem to think. Check this post http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=20600913&postcount=8

There's actually a lot more variety, and there are more options, than people think.


But if the OP does want to change her child to an adult, Disney will likely not charge the change fee because the OP will be paying more money anyway - she'll have to upgrade her son's park pass to an adult ticket (and remember that Disney does keep track of our information, so she may have to pay the 'extra adult in room' charge a year earlier than expected, but not for eight years).
 


We are planning our second trip to WDW in Oct but this will be the first on the DDP.

I have a DS who is 9 and can be a BIG eater. I have started to read posts about people not being happy with the kids menu. I have also read the menu's on All ears and now I am more nervous! For those who have used the DDP for kids, should I upgrade him to an adult? Can I do that? Can I change my package now that we are only 39 days away??:confused3 :scared: :headache:
Thanks for any help in advance!!

I think one issue you may have--at the counter service places, anyway--is that the kids meal portion size may not be big enough. The kids meals come on a little plastic Mickey-headed shaped platter. The middle part contains the "entree" (mac and cheese, PB and J, chicken nuggest, etc), and then the "ears" of Mickey contain the two sides--grapes or applesauce, and I think you can get a cookie now instead. It was plenty of food for my pre-schoolers, but for a 9 year old boy--maybe not enough? The adult meals are HUGE however--so you can always share some of your meals with him. I consider myself a big eater, and I never once eat an entire adult counter service meal on our trip last year. So sharing with him your counter service meals is a good option.

For table service, I would recommend buffets, and family style meals. That way he can eat whatever he wants. Plus the kids's desserts at the order-off-the-menu TS places seem kind of lame (IMO), especially for an older kid. I'm pretty sure my pre-schoolers would be content with ice cream while I had a chocolate torte, but an older child might not be.
 
I made my 9 year old son 10 also and had to buy him adult tickets. Was worth it for us. I have a 7 year old son to feed also. He can eat even more than the older one. He is going to be ticked when he sees his meals. I just know it "That mickey plate is for babies!" From the pictures I have seen, they would have made them happy when they were three or four, but certainly not now. We should have enough with my nine year old ordering adult meals, though.

We eat out a lot so they are used to us all sharing appetizers and meals at least.
 

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