10 year old order from child's menu??

[tink fan]

Our family (me, DH, DS 10, DS 8, DD 6) will be in WDW in September on the Dining Plan.

I just made our ADRs and realized that we will have 4 adult TS credits left (my husband will be missing a few meals with us).

We would like to go use them at a signature restaurant with the kids where we could see Wishes, but we obviously won't have enough dining plan credits for everyone.

I'm assuming we could use the four dining credits for meals for my husband and me, and pay out of pocket for the kids. Is this correct?

Could my 10 year old order from the kids menu, or would he have to order from the adult menu?

We are considering California Grill or Narcoossees.

 

[dawz1026]

up to 9 is the age now I believe.

 

[ChelleinNC]

If you pay OOP for your 10 yr old, he can order from the kids menu. If he uses his adult TS credit, he'd have to order from the adult menu.

We paid OOP sometimes for my DS in December (he was 10 at the time). Some places he wasn't interested in the adult meals, so we "saved" his TS credits for later in the week.

 

[Amy&Dan]

My experience has been:

I have always been able to order a kids meal for my kids when they were in that age of say 10-12. Beyond that I wouldn't partly because they eat more as they get older obviously so a kids meal won't cut it. I have never had a server at WDW tell me I couldn't do this. Now if its a fixed price buffet, I don't fudge on the age, I pay adult price for my 10 and up aged kids. But I feel fine paying for a kids meal and getting a kids size portion for my 10 or 11 year old. This is all when I am paying out of pocket.

When I am on the DDP I HAVE ordered a kids meal, using an adult ts credit a few times. My dd was 10 the last time we did the DDP and she got way too full and sometimes a menu just didn't have anything that suited her. In that case I asked the server if I could use her adult credit to purchase a kids meal. They always said yes. They usually gave me a double sized kids portion. She still got her dessert and appetizer in that case alhtough a few times she didn't want them since she was full. Believe me, WDW servers are used to "adult" paying 10 year olds who want to order kid friendly food in kid friendly portions. If you have a server refuse, ask for a manager. Again, you paid for the credits, they will work with you to use them in a way that works. They are used to this, happens all the time. And I have rarely if ever heard of someone on the dis who tried to order a kids meal for a kid (10 and 11 are kids imho) and not be able to whether on or off the DDP (again this is for menu items not buffets where you have to pay that adult price and in that case they will check if they think you 9 year old looks older). If you opt to use a DDP credit, having it be a better deal for Disney than you is the worst that will happen. And given your scenario, you will pay OOP and have TS credits left for something special someplace else in the same trip.

But I was definitely able to use adult ts credits for kids meals and I know others have too. Its a great deal for Disney, they never pass that up! I simply didn't have need to save ts credits for a special meal that trip so I went the other route of getting a kid meal for my 10 year old adult!

 

[MAKmom]

My DD 11 was not intereseted in most adult meals. She still wants Chicken fingers in WDW. The only place that did not let us do this was Le Celliar.

Now if your child does not like a meal. You can just order them soup or an appetizer or desert & feed them later.

 

[Melora]

My 12 year old son is such a picky eater that he mostly orders off the kids menu. If we are someplace for him to get a regular adult burger thats what he will get but when we are someplace that has more exotic food (like Morocco for instance) we just order something for him off the kids menu and they never have a problem with it.

 

[Poohbeck]

My 12 year old son is such a picky eater that he mostly orders off the kids menu. If we are someplace for him to get a regular adult burger thats what he will get but when we are someplace that has more exotic food (like Morocco for instance) we just order something for him off the kids menu and they never have a problem with it.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!
I had asked a similar question previously and was pretty much told this is not possible. I am glad to hear from all of you that it is possible.
My 11year old can definetly eat and I don't mind spending the extra money on him to eat, although you'd think he starves by looking at him. My other son will turn 10 only 15 days before we leave. He is a picky eater and will want to order a kids meal.
Thanks again.

 

[momma4v3]

My 12 year old son is such a picky eater that he mostly orders off the kids menu. If we are someplace for him to get a regular adult burger thats what he will get but when we are someplace that has more exotic food (like Morocco for instance) we just order something for him off the kids menu and they never have a problem with it.

My DDs are 10, 11 and 12. They will eat just about anything but sometimes the adult portions are too much. Many times at WDW, they would order from the kids menu. When we visited in January we had no problem except for the waitress in Jiko. She asked my 12 year old "how old are you?" But she wasn't a very friendly waitress anyway. She brought the child's menu item.
You should have no problem with ordering off the child's menu.

 

[MAKmom]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!
I had asked a similar question previously and was pretty much told this is not possible. I am glad to hear from all of you that it is possible.
My 11year old can definetly eat and I don't mind spending the extra money on him to eat, although you'd think he starves by looking at him. My other son will turn 10 only 15 days before we leave. He is a picky eater and will want to order a kids meal.
Thanks again.

I think if you have any problem it will be in Signature dinning restaurants...but that is just my gut. We have not tried a signature since the age went to 9 for a child's meal.

 

[allaboard]

We just got back from WDW and we have an 8 yr. old, 10 yr. old, and a 12 year old. We were on the Dining Plan. Our oldest ate from the adult menus all the time with no problem. Our 10 yr old was also considered an adult, and he would look at the adult menu first, then look at the kids menu from his 8 yr. old sister. Every place we ate let him choose from the kids menu if he wanted too, or they adapted the item off the adult menu. Since we paid an adult Dining Plan price for him to begin with, it shouldn't make a difference to anyone if we aren't getting our money's worth!! Everyone was very accomodating! In fact, one time when we didn't ask for the steak to be plain, they brought him his plain with all the dressing/butter on the side in case he wanted it. I thought that was extra nice!

 

[Dizneydaz]

As previously posted, you shouldn't have a probelm ordering a kid's meal and paying with an adult TS. It would be trying to do the opposite that they wouldn't allow.

On a side note, a few trips ago my family was eating at HBD and some of the adults didn't want to order anything off the adult lunch menu. We were not on the DDP this trip. The server had no problem letting us (3 adults) order off the kid's menu. The only thing we had to do was pay for the drink (which is normally inc. with the kid's meal) We didn't have a problem with this. He even suggested that we could order a double serviing meal if we thought we wouldn't get enough to eat. We decided that we would order the single meal and see how full we were. After having the meal along with the delicious bread and butter, we were full (full enough that we had room saved for a snack later!). I've always found the wait staff to be pretty accomodating. (both on, and off, DDP) I've found that it never hurts to ask-all they can do is say no, and you're no worse off.

I'll probably be faced with the same situation in just a little over 1-1/2 yrs. My DD is currently 8 1/2 and is a pretty small eater. She'll turn 10 in Sept. 2009, so depending on when we go that year, and if we get the DDP, we'll probably have alot of adult TS credits that will get used for kid's meals. In fact, if I had to pay for the plan, after she turns 10, I may opt not too-it wouldn't really be cost effective for us, unless of course we pay OOP for her meals, and use her adult TS for signature meals, for us! See, it just gets so complicated when they get older!

Have a great trip.