10 year-old ordering child meal with dining plan?

[Hillaryone]

I have a strange question and can't seem to find the answer on the disboard. We are taking a week vacation and staying at Pop Century next month. I have a 10 year-old and have paid for the dining plan at adult rate for her. When we dine, is she still permitted to order a child's meal? She is a picky eater and does not eat much. She simply would prefer the food for children. The second area where this weights in, is that tips are not included with the dining plan. Thus, the more the tab, the higher the tip.
Please, no flames. I really do not want to lie about her age, and I did pay the full adult rate for the dining plan for her. She just does not like 'adult' food. Even with the quick service, she will want the child meals so Disney wins on that one!

 

[LaneOT]

Great Question, I was thinking the same thing.. I have two kids 11 and 13 and they are not necessarily too keen on eating roast lamb... can they order from the kids menu?

 

[Faldred]

You have a couple of options.

1) Yes, an "adult" can order off of the child menu and use a DDP credit to do so. It's obviously not an "optimal" use of credits, but reports say that the "adult" child will generally receive a larger portion of the kids' meal food than a normal kids' meal. The "adult" child should still be able to order dessert off of the adult menu, which may be the best of both worlds for a 10-year-old.

2) Pay OOP for a kids' meal for the "adult" child. The credits belong to the reservation, not the individual, so you can save the "adult" child's unused credits and use them for another meal down the road (e.g., if you do this twice, you'll have 2 extra TS credits that the parents could use for an extra TS meal, paying OOP again for the "adult" child). Obviously, you can't do this at "admission" meals (buffets, dinner shows, CRT, etc.).

 

[TDC Nala]

You won't be able to do any of the above at buffets, all you can eat family style restaurants like 'Ohana, Liberty Tree dinner or Garden Grill, fixed price restaurants like CRT or Akershus, or dinner shows. Anyplace where the price is per person rather than per item ordered, you'll need to pay the adult price for her (use her adult DDP credit) no matter what she eats.

 

[2Tiggies]

I haven't eaten there to be able to report first hand, but one or two posters discovered that Le Cellier doesn't allow it, although you pay per menu item.

 

[DCDisney]

They will prepare the adult food without sauces if you ask which was a good option for my kids and plain pasta was always ok too. The kids meal food is generally awful and is a very small quantity even for a small eater like 4 chicken nuggets, 1 chicken leg, half a small chicken breast grilled. At QS especially the adult food has many more kid friendly options like burgers, pizza, chicken strips (which are actually just big nuggets). The kids food at qs is often mac and cheese or a mini pizza. My kids were picky at that age but they were thrilled with the adult qs options. The ts we mostly were able to cobble together adult options that worked and perhaps 1 kids meal at Akershus but still pay adult price there because it's fixed price.