10 year old ordering off kids menu - restaurants that won't allow this?

[mullysisters]

My sister and I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich from the kids menu at Typhoon Lagoon and then a beer each! There was no problem.
Now, being 50 something I wish they had a senior plan. I prefer TS but hate wasting food!
At buffets you can eat what we want, from kids or adults section? If they will make me special veggie meals then I can't think how Disney loses by letting any age order off the kids menu?

 

[Reddy]

when my youngest was 7 he would eat more than me - so ordering off the kids menu was crazy
preteen/teen boys tend to eat alot (growing)
I can understand the age limit for that age since you can't say girls 13 under & boys 9 & under - that is being unfair so they had to set one age
I wish they would have a light menu for OOP but then more people would not do DDPs

 

[ksc37]

Wow, I shut down for the night and just came back to check on my thread...

I'm not sure how it's mooching - it's not like I'm trying to get something for nothing. I'm trying to find things that my child will eat so he won't be hungry.

I'm okay with it if he wants to order an adult meal - I just think in most places he won't. And I'm paying adult price for him at buffets (it's not like I'm lying about his age). They're going to make a good margin on him at the buffets, he's a very light eater. I guess it's made up for in my 7 year old... he eats anything and lots of it

Either way, it's good to know they're pretty good about it.

 

[bicker]

I don't like the practice, because, in part, I worry that it drives restaurants to make kids' meals crappier, to discourage teens and older adults from ordering those meals, but as long as guests 10 and older, who are asking to order off the kids' menu, are willing to amicably take "no" as an answer, then I wouldn't label it with such a negative label such as "mooching". An important distinction is that this action doesn't directly take something away from another guest: It is not like there are a limited number of kids' meals to be had, and this overage patron ordering one means that there is one less available for patrons who are under 10, or it'll take extra-long for the next patron under 10 to get their meal because some overage patron ordered a kids' meal.

 

[bicker]

Wow, I shut down for the night and just came back to check on my thread...

Threads are like love: Once you put it out there, it isn't really "yours" anymore.

I'm not sure how it's mooching - it's not like I'm trying to get something for nothing.

See above, with regard to my opinion about the word "mooching", specifically. However, with regard to the mechanics involved that may be the foundation of folks using that term: Note that consumer marketing, especially with regard to entertainment and recreation, vacations and such, tends to recognize serving children as a loss-leader: If you make the cost of bringing children along less, that tends to break through the resistance to making the purchase that is often thicker with parents worried about feeding more mouths than DINKs would have to concern themselves with. This situation is much clearer with hotel rooms: The third adult in a room doesn't generally incur anymore direct cost on the hotel than a child, yet the child is often "free". (For some reason, many older patrons of restaurants seem to have no compunction about trying to "pay the child rate", as compared to at hotels, so that's why the offerings at restaurants seem to be so badly "crippled". Again, see above.)

So, effectively, a overage patron ordering a menu item intended to be a loss-leader is getting more than the eatery was strictly intending to offer. Of course, they could say "no", and the fact that they don't is a reflection of how much they want to avoid the disaffection that would stem from appearing to be such a stickler for the rules, etc.

 

[Hemlock]

My mom goes out for lunch once a month with her aunts at a local restaurant. Most of her aunts are in their 80's and they do not have large appetites, so they all order off the kids menu without issue.

With regards to the DDP, if an 80 year old (or a 10 year old) is paying the adult price for the DPP, they should be able to order whatever they want IMO.

 

[laughinplace199]

OP, I haven't taken kids to the specific restaurants you mentioned, but I had no problems with my DD ordering off the child's menu when she was 10 (we don't do the dining plan). We ate in every park and in several resorts as well. She will be 11 this year. There are some places where the adult menu appeals to her, but if we are at a place where she prefers to order from the kids menu, I don't anticipate having any problems doing that.

 

[ksc37]

OP, I haven't taken kids to the specific restaurants you mentioned, but I had no problems with my DD ordering off the child's menu when she was 10 (we don't do the dining plan). We ate in every park and in several resorts as well. She will be 11 this year. There are some places where the adult menu appeals to her, but if we are at a place where she prefers to order from the kids menu, I don't anticipate having any problems doing that.

Thanks for getting back to my question and for the information, I was curious about paying out of pocket - I can see where they wouldn't care as much if it was DDP.

 

[Mary T in PA]

I've not had too many problems, we don't use the DDP and DD11 looks more like a true teenager due to her height.

I think we only encountered problems one time and that was about 18months ago at LC. When we went back to LC in December, we had no problems.

 

[maggiew]

My DDs (17 and 14) ordered from the kids menu at Coral Reef. Nothing on the adult menu interested them, so they decided to get the kids pizza. No problem at all. (Except for the fact that they didn't think the pizza was very good!) We were paying OOP - not the dining plan.

We often share adult meals at places too, because none of us has a large appetite. Sometimes my younger DD will get an appetizer. For example, at Yak and Yeti, DD17 and I shared the steak and shrimp combo and my DD14 got the potsticker appetizer as her meal. (OOP, not dining plan)


Maggie

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

HI- I mentioned Tutto in an earlier post.. I have to state that THIS is the only restaurant that there has been a problem.. I have 2 sons - now 13 and 15. We have been to WDW about 8 times in last 5 years.. The younger one has had some serious eating issues the last few years and even getting him to finish a kids meal is a challenge...SO, he has ordered a kids meal almost every where.. We have done this with the DDP, the DxDDP and just plain cash.. THe only place that there has been a problem was Tutto.. And this was surprising since he was using and ADULT DxDDP credit... We ended up getting him and Adult entree that he stared at..LOL He did enjoy his dessert though.

 

[Cupmom]

HI- I mentioned Tutto in an earlier post.. I have to state that THIS is the only restaurant that there has been a problem.. I have 2 sons - now 13 and 15. We have been to WDW about 8 times in last 5 years.. The younger one has had some serious eating issues the last few years and even getting him to finish a kids meal is a challenge...SO, he has ordered a kids meal almost every where.. We have done this with the DDP, the DxDDP and just plain cash.. THe only place that there has been a problem was Tutto.. And this was surprising since he was using and ADULT DxDDP credit... We ended up getting him and Adult entree that he stared at..LOL He did enjoy his dessert though.[/QUOT

I was going to book Tutto for our trip in Aug. now I am second guessing myself. We doing FD and hoping my DS10 could just get a bowl of pasta with a marinara sauce. I would expect to use a TS for him but not for food he won't eat!!

 

[bicker]

Tutto seems to have the widest dispersion of reviews of service of any restaurant at WDW. One might be able to conclude that their servers act substantially capricious.

 

[bookgirl]

At what age do you all feel the cut off age should be to order off the kids menu? If it was bumped say to 14, would you still try to mooch if your child was that age?

There should not be any age limit. I'm in my 40's and not a small girl and I often order off the kids menu at resturants. I do so because either I want a small portion or because of my own food issues I'm happier with something simple.

If they told me I could not I would leave. And I have. What they need to do is do away with "kids menu" and just have some smaller simpler items on the regular menu or offer half portions for those who want them.


However I'll tell you that your use of 'mooch' is offensive and argumentative. They were planning on paying for what they ordered, how is that mooching? If someone had the nerve to tell me I was 'mooching' for ordering off the kid's menu, I'd tell them to their face that you need to get a life, up your meds or back the heck off before I handed your unwanted opinon back to you.

 

[nilseks]

I'm laughing because I signed on to make this exact same thread, and here it was, lol. My son will also be 10.5 when we go and he is definitely very picky. For him it is more of a picky thing than a portion thing, but he will be ordering off the kids menu for sure.

I don't know whether it's worth it to get the DDP or not. DS 8 is also a picky eater and eats very small portions. But mostly my concern is there is NO WAY that DS10 will eat $45.99/day worth of food. The only way the bill might approach that much is on the days when we do character meals or something, and he's charged as an adult. I might have to sit down and do the math after we make our ADR's. Especially since we'll be doing one day at Sea World and one day at Universal, I just can't envision how the DDP could possibly save us money. Any thoughts?

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Ah curious....I have heard that many adult vegetarians often choose to order off the kids menu when dining out. Often they are nearly the only vegetarian choice. I find it curious that a professed vegetarian would object to the concept. What do you do if you are a vegetarian and the only veggie choice is a kids' meal?

As for me, I'd love a small portion, but I want to eat something more than a fat+starch: grilled cheese, cheese quesadilla, mac and cheese, french fries, ravioli, cheese pizza. That pretty much all you see. I've even seen places that serve kids pizza WITH fries! How crazy is that? Not a small portion, a HUGE portion of fries that takes up half a large plate. No child ever needs to eat so many fries.

We usually end up splitting an entree. I've rarely been denied that option - though some places charge for plate sharing. (not so much WDW)

But I also have looked at some of the menu choices at WDW TS places, and felt bad for juniors. The restaurants seem to forget that folks at WDW are a captive audience - essentially guests who use ME are stuck at WDW. Some folks - especially those in the 10-18 range, and those on a restricted diet - prefer relatively plain food. The buffets have afew, but not menu places.

 

[DCDisney]

When we have paid OOP it has been no problem ordering kids meals at TS for our kids at 10 and 11 year old. On the DDP it's 50/50 if they will allow it. Some places may want to double the kids meal and charge you an adult price. It really depends on the server. When we dine out it seems like most places now have a line on their kids menus that say Only for children whatever age and under that I vaguely also remember being on WDW kids menus at least it was when my kids were that age. If they ask that we not order from the kids menu we don't and usually they would split an adult meal or order an app or side. For the most part the kids meals at WDW were not enough food for my kids at 10 though as the serving of protein is too small like 4 nuggets or 1 chicken leg not heaping plates of food like chain places. The places the kids ordered kids meals when they were older were places where we usually did some sharing or they wanted an adult dessert like 50's Primetime we got so much chicken for the adults there was plenty to add to the kids meals or Le Cellier where they wanted to get the moose or smore desserts. I do agree with Bicker that the more teens and adults that order kids meals seems to drive WDW into offering things they won't order hence the proliferation of the awful kids pizza, mac and cheese, and PBJ uncrustables. I think if they put one tween appealing meal on every adult menu they would have less of an issue because most don't want smaller quantities they just want basic bland food. Luckily my kids like the adult menus now and like the same things so if they aren't super hungry they can just share a meal which is not a problem except in some cases on the DDP.

 

[Wendy31]

This has me a little worried for our upcoming trip because I have an ADR planned for Tutto Italia.

I'm not so much worried for my DS (who will be 10) who is more adventurous & enjoys food but for my 11 yr old DD who is pickier w/ a smaller appetite.

I was planning on trying to "tweak" the adult choices a little - like asking for sauce on the side or leaving off things she doesn't like (like mushrooms or onions) or subbing french fries (not at Tutto)... things like that. And, for places where she won't like any of the appetizers, asking if she can have something else like fruit or raw veggies (one of the kids' appetizers).

Will that work ok?

 

[lovesdumbo]

I've done DDP & non DDP trips with DD when she was 10, 10 1/2 & 11. All trips I was always able to order off the kids menu for her. I did pay out of pocket when we were on the DDP and still never had an issue. I always paid adult prices at buffets. She ordered off kids menus at Coral Reef, Flying Fish, California Grill, Mama Melrose, Sci Fi, Tony's, Le Celier, and Tutto lunch was she was 11.

I don't know whether it's worth it to get the DDP or not. DS 8 is also a picky eater and eats very small portions. But mostly my concern is there is NO WAY that DS10 will eat $45.99/day worth of food. The only way the bill might approach that much is on the days when we do character meals or something, and he's charged as an adult. I might have to sit down and do the math after we make our ADR's. Especially since we'll be doing one day at Sea World and one day at Universal, I just can't envision how the DDP could possibly save us money. Any thoughts?

I haven't paid for DDP since DD turned 10. I prefer to just pay OOP. I find I often prefer to get a salad and appetizer rather than entree and dessert.

 

[bytheblood]

I have yet to run across this issue. I have a 13-year-old that still orders from the kids menu unless she is having filet mignon. We have never been denied the ability to do that. As a matter of fact, I have gone with another adult who ordered from the kids menu.

Some people just have small appetites and Disney knows that.