11 year old = Adult prices?

[PRmamiDEdos]

Quick question. I know that my daughter is no longer able to use the children's menu at WDW while on the DDP, but if paying out-of-pocket, do we need to pay the adult price for her?

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

Forget it, found the answer. I can't believe they consider an 11 year-old an adult when it come to dining. Ugh. Don't most places let you use the children's menu until you're 12??

 

[ancestry]

I believe if you are not on the dining plan that she can still order off of the children's menu unless at a buffet. Even adults can order off the children's menu if paying out of pocket, or at least that is what has been reported here on the boards.

At buffets or family style meals the price is set based on the age and she will have to pay the price associated with her age.

 

[conandrob240]

It really is dumb especially given most kids will not be too excited about the offerings on many of the adult menus. My 11 yr old nephew had no issues ordering off the kid's menu whenever he wanted on our last trip. A few times he wanted something off the adult menu so he ordered it but most of the time, the kid's options were what he wanted.

 

[gigi1313]

if your dd opts for a children's meal, you are welcomed to pay for it out of pocket and save her credit (do it twice and you've got another sit-down for you/spouse)... we've done it when my kids were just on the cusp of kids/adult meals...
of course, this is at menu restaurants, not all-you-care-to-eats or buffets or family style...

 

[bicker]

Think about it this way: It make little sense to charge the same for a meal for a 3-4 year old as for a meal for an 11 year old.

Child meals can be considered loss-leaders - offerings that exist solely to make the dining experience more attractive to parents with young children, based on the premise that the vast majority of parents would be far too reticent about going to restaurants if they were expected to pay for a regular meal for their 3-4 year old. Viewed in that manner, child meals make a lot of sense, but the restaurant needs to determine under what conditions will their reason for offering child meals no longer be applicable - there needs to be a line drawn somewhere.

5 year olds? No - they eat only a scant amount more than 3-4 year olds, and so most parents would still be practically just as reticent about going to restaurants if they had to pay for a regular meal for their 5 year old. 6 year olds? Ditto. And so on. At some point, it gets to the point where parents are sufficiently "less reticent" about dining at the restaurant, that the offering of the loss-leader child meal is no longer serving its purpose. At that point, it just represents, on average, a loss to the restaurant.

That underlined word "parents" is important: This isn't about the child's behavior, but rather is all about the parent's (purchasing) behavior. It's about how the offering of the child meal for their child makes or breaks their decision to patronize the restaurant (versus walking out). And nothing ever depends on 100% of anything - it is just a matter of at what point enough of the parents are "sufficiently less reticent".

In the past, it's been pretty consistent that Disney restaurants would allow older children (and adults, for that matter) to order child meals at full-service (i.e., not buffet) restaurants. That may not always be the case.

Buffets are another story. There is no practical way of policing compliance with restriction to the child portion of buffet. Even if it was worth having CMs patrolling the tables making sure only people who paid for the full buffet are consuming items from the full buffet, it wouldn't be practical, because a CM calling a guest out for violating the rules is as likely as not to end up with the guest causing a scene or otherwise disrupting the restaurant until the full-price charge applied to them, no matter how justified, is dropped. Even though they're a small minority, there are enough exploiters and abusers that trusting guests to police themselves is a non-starter. Transgressors have ruined things for everyone, in that regard (and with regard to a lot of things in our society; not just this).

I wouldn't worry about your 11 year old not finding anything good on the regular menu/regular buffet. Generally there are choices available aimed at adults with non-adventurous palates, and if not Disney is typically very good at handling special requests for less adventurous food options at all their restaurants.

Have a great time.

 

[conandrob240]

Wow.

I disagree on your last point- after just coming back from a trip where we ate at many 2 point signature restaurants- MANY had very adventurous menus with nothing at all that appealled to my 11 yr old nephew. Buffets were always fine even Boma.

 

[kamik86]

See we have an 8 year old coming in October with us and are worried about the opposite problem. The 8 year old is probably about as adventurous and eats as much as I do... definitely much more adventerous then my husband. I'm afraid she will want the adult food and hate being stuck to the kids stuff.

 

[bicker]

Generally there are choices available aimed at adults with non-adventurous palates, and if not Disney is typically very good at handling special requests for less adventurous food options at all their restaurants.

Wow. I disagree on your last point- after just coming back from a trip where we ate at many 2 point signature restaurants- MANY had very adventurous menus with nothing at all that appealled to my 11 yr old nephew.

I think you missed the second-half of the sentence you replied to.

Buffets were always fine even Boma.

Yeah, Boma is pretty bland, actually, for a restaurant that presents itself as adventurous.

 

[DaniB]

See we have an 8 year old coming in October with us and are worried about the opposite problem. The 8 year old is probably about as adventurous and eats as much as I do... definitely much more adventerous then my husband. I'm afraid she will want the adult food and hate being stuck to the kids stuff.

Will you be on a dining plan for your October trip? My understanding is that if you upgrade the child's park ticket (for the 8 year old) to an adult ticket - then the dining plan will be upgraded to adult as well for that child.

 

[Rylee]

As far as I know... an 11y/o CAN order off the children's menu, even when on the DP. Obviously, if you've paid the adult DP price, it would be a waste of money, but it is allowed. Plus, you always have the option of paying out-of-pocket and saving the credit.

On our April trip, our 24y/o didn't want anything on the adult menu at Cali Grill. The server said she could order from the children's menu. He then asked if we wanted to pay oop or use her DP credits. He even pointed out, it would be cheaper to pay oop, (we knew this.)

 

[TDC Nala]

At any restaurant where you pay per person and not per meal (buffets, all you can eat family style, fixed price restaurants, dinner shows) yes, you will need to pay the adult price for her. At a la carte restaurants, they may allow her to order a child's meal and pay the child's price for it. Even obvious adults are often allowed to do this.

There are often reports of persons also being allowed to order a child's meal in an a la carte restaurant and pay for it with an adult DDP credit.

 

[dopeyluvsgrumpy]

See we have an 8 year old coming in October with us and are worried about the opposite problem. The 8 year old is probably about as adventurous and eats as much as I do... definitely much more adventerous then my husband. I'm afraid she will want the adult food and hate being stuck to the kids stuff.

We have this problem too with our kids. The kids menus in disney leave much to be desired. how many days can I really expect my kids to be satisfied with cheese pizza or chicken nuggets. We try to work in as many buffets as possible just so the kids have a bit of selelction.

 

[3BoysRDisneyFreaks]

My soon to be 12 year old is so picky. We visited DL in June and ate at Ariels Grotto for World of Color. This was a fixed price menu. Thankfully we have an 8 year old who loves everything so we ordered his kids meal to suit the 12 year old and the 12 year old ordered for the 8 year old and we swapped plates.

Worked great.

 

[madalex]

I disagree on your last point- after just coming back from a trip where we ate at many 2 point signature restaurants- MANY had very adventurous menus with nothing at all that appealled to my 11 yr old nephew. Buffets were always fine even Boma.

I think that says more about your 11 year old nephew than the Disney menus. My 10 year old rarely has a problem finding something on the menu she likes at the signature restaurants.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

It's not a point of what DD will eat, it's the fact that the price jump from child meal to adult meal is so high and that's just for someone her age. That's how I'm looking at this. DD will eat ribs, steak, doesn't like anything too spicy, but she pretty much eats what she's given so that's not my problem. I think the only place where I really don't see anything that will thrill her is Anadapur Yak & Yeti, and we might pay OOP there so that I can save the xtra TS for the CLP pkg.

 

[bicker]

Step-function pricing is not unusual. Just think about the change in pricing between carrying a two year old on-board an airline flight (given how little room they take up) as a lap-child, versus when you have to pay for a ticket for them once they reach a certain age.

 

[gigi1313]

It's not a point of what DD will eat, it's the fact that the price jump from child meal to adult meal is so high and that's just for someone her age. That's how I'm looking at this. DD will eat ribs, steak, doesn't like anything too spicy, but she pretty much eats what she's given so that's not my problem. I think the only place where I really don't see anything that will thrill her is Anadapur Yak & Yeti, and we might pay OOP there so that I can save the xtra TS for the CLP pkg.

yak & yeti has fabulous baby back ribs on their menu... ds13 (who was 11 when we ate there) loved them!

Step-function pricing is not unusual. Just think about the change in pricing between carrying a two year old on-board an airline flight (given how little room they take up) as a lap-child, versus when you have to pay for a ticket for them once they reach a certain age.

i completely concur w/your posts on this subject... however, 2yos cannot be lap-children... under 2 (up to 23mos, 29days) they can be, but once that 2nd bday hits, they are required to have their own seat...

 

[dancin Disney style]

See we have an 8 year old coming in October with us and are worried about the opposite problem. The 8 year old is probably about as adventurous and eats as much as I do... definitely much more adventerous then my husband. I'm afraid she will want the adult food and hate being stuck to the kids stuff.

We upgraded our DD, she was 9 at the time, to age 10 on our ressie so that we could get her the adult DDP. Yes, we did have to pay the little bit extra for her park ticket but she was much happier having the freedom to order whatever she wanted for her meals. I would say that about half the time she ordered from the kids menu. There were a couple of times she ended up with the most expensive meal on the table. She does like to have her chicken nuggets from time to time but being stuck with that everyday was not a happy thought.

 

[clutter]

Wow.

I disagree on your last point- after just coming back from a trip where we ate at many 2 point signature restaurants- MANY had very adventurous menus with nothing at all that appealled to my 11 yr old nephew. Buffets were always fine even Boma.

I'm with Bicker. The adult menus are easy to cater to a less adventurous eater. No sauce please, fries instead of au gratin potatos, plain pasta with butter, etc.

When my dd was 8 I upgraded her to the adult DDP. She wasn't that adventurous an eater, but she preferred more authentic foods. I credit our trips to disney for expanding her adventurousness!