9 yr old BIG eater

[SPOERLX3]

We are bringing 3 of our grandkids to Disney this year. 2 x DGD and 1 DGS. All are 9 yrs old. We will have the QS dining. I know it will be fine for the DGD since they eat like birds and if they want something besides chicken fingers or PB&J they can nibble off my plate. My concern is my 9 yr old DGS.....he eats like a horse. I have read through alot of the blogs and several suggested that they were going to register their "big eaters" as being 10 so they can eat off the adult menu. WOW that seems like a great idea so I am debating back and forth whether to do the same for him. I priced it out and I believe it would cost about $185 to do this since it will also upgrade his park ticket too.

Before I do this I was wondering if upgrading to him as a 10 year old.....does that give him any other "perks" beside the benifit of the QS dining meals? My brain is overwhelmed and I don't think there is any differences in adult park perks vs. kids.....correct me if I am wrong????

Also will I need to show any id at POP? parks? restraunts?

I just would not want my 9 year olds DGD to feel like the DGS is getting special treatment over them

Thank you all for the insight on this one.

 

[worm761]

There will be no difference other than he gets to order from the adult menu. Other than that everything is the same. Adults need to show ID but not kids that "Disney Adults".

 

[pharmgirl69]

We do this for our DD8. She has a very wide palette for an 8 year old and absolutely will not stand for Mommy and Daddy to be eating sushi etc., while she is relegated to pizza or chicken fingers. If we didn't upgrade her, I would be stuck with the chicken nuggets and she would end up with my dinner. So we always upgrade her to the adult plan. Yes, it up charges her tickets as well but it is worth it to us. No one ever asks for ID, actually no one really cares how old she is. They have asked us if we want a childrens menu for her and we simply say "No thank you, she has the adult plan" and that is the end of it. (then they are stunned with kind of food she orders LOL).

If you have a GS that is a big eater or won't like the kids menu I would upgrade him. We have never had an issue

 

[MPHARJ]

I did this last year for my son, because he is also a big eater and he was tired of eating the same thing, well maybe I was more tired of it. I would only be concerned that your DGD might feel they don't have as many choices as he does, just don't want to see them get upset over the dessert options he will get when at some places, most of the ones we ever ate at for CS the dessert is set with the kids meals. As long as you don't see any issues with them since they don't eat as much I would do it. It worked great for us my son is 10 now so no more concerns.

 

[susieq76]

I did it for all 3 of mine this year (two 9 year olds, one 7 year old). They eat "like men" according to my friends with children with smaller appetites. They also would not be happy without a variety... Last year I ate lots of kid meals since they stole my meals

 

[jen42002]

Just curious..If I upgrade my almost 9 year olds to adults (it's free dining for us so would cost less than $100 for the week), can they still order off of the kids menu if they prefer those choices?

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

In this case, it may make sense to not do the DP at all and to just pay OOP. The younger ones can easily share an adult CS in many places and then they can get the good desserts and better choices as well. One thing I have noticed especially of you have chicken nugget lovers is that there is a huge difference at CS' between the adult versions and the kids versions. The adult chicken nuggets are nice white meat nuggets- the kids get these nasty little nuggets that are just pressed parts.. Or for instance, at Starring Rolls- the only choice kids have is the Uncrustables but an adult meal you can get those huge sandwiches with the amazing cupcakes etc...

 

[TDC Nala]

Before I do this I was wondering if upgrading to him as a 10 year old.....does that give him any other "perks" beside the benifit of the QS dining meals?

No, no other perks to being an adult. It is possible the rest of the party will be able to share meals with him if you don't want to pay the difference between dining plans and tickets to "up" his age to 10.

The only way the other kids might think he's getting "special treatment" is if they would prefer the adult meals or desserts (some have reported it's hard for their younger kids to watch the older kids eating cake when they are stuck with a cookie or some apple slices.) If that's the case you may consider upgrading all three of them, switching to the basic dining plan where you can do some buffets (where everyone eats the same thing no matter how old they are) or going without a dining plan and just ordering what each kid wants.

 

[dd50]

In this case, it may make sense to not do the DP at all and to just pay OOP. The younger ones can easily share an adult CS in many places and then they can get the good desserts and better choices as well. One thing I have noticed especially of you have chicken nugget lovers is that there is a huge difference at CS' between the adult versions and the kids versions. The adult chicken nuggets are nice white meat nuggets- the kids get these nasty little nuggets that are just pressed parts.. Or for instance, at Starring Rolls- the only choice kids have is the Uncrustables but an adult meal you can get those huge sandwiches with the amazing cupcakes etc...

Last summer my grandson (6) wanted the "big peoples" chicken nuggets because they taste so much better. We weren't on the plan but were the year before.

 

[SPOERLX3]

THANK YOU ALL for all of the great advise. One of my DGD's is a chicken nugget fanatic. The other loves anything.

After reading all the great input, I sat down today with each of them and did a "trial run" having them look over some of the menu's for some of our favorite places that we have eaten in the past and ask them to look it over and tell me what each of them would pick if they were eating there. 90% of the time, they picked something off of the adult menu and only 10% of the time, the 2 DGD's picked the same thing to eat (so much for sharing) So tomorrow I will be making a call to Disney to upgrade them all to 10 yrs old so they can choose exactly what they want and no one will feel more special than the other

What I do expect is that instead of ordering a full meal for myself, I will eat what they don't. Looking at the bright side of it all......we should have some left over credits to be able to eat lunch on our last day at WPE in DD AND pick up some sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich to take to the airport and eat them while we are waiting for the plane.

Sounds like a plan to me!

 

[heatherbynum]

I was actually thinking about doing this for my son. He just turned 8 but has a big appetite and he likes to eat things besides burger, chicken, etc and he would really love to have the desserts us adults get instead of what you get for the kids.
My other child, doesn't eat that much and would be happy with pb&j, chicken, burgers, etc.

 

[3pletprincesses]

I haven't noticed is someone mentionned it but if you upgrade him to a 10 yo to have adult meals, you will have to pay the adult price for the park tickets. So if you are booked under the kips play free, you will end up payingfor his ticket as he no longer will be considered a kid.

 

[heatherbynum]

I just called Disney today to upgrade my son. I had paid off our balance a few weeks ago so when I upgraded him, all it made our balance was $24.97. Now that is paid off too. It wasn't really that much more to upgrade him

 

[dntd]

I would upgrade my son who is almost 10 but we are on the kids stay and play deal. If I upgrade him I would have to fork out way too much $$. To compensate we are on the reg DP so we can eat at buffets where he chooses. I had the kids look over the menus and he was weirded out the kids pizza's at pizza planet are just cheese, never have we aten just cheese, he hates fried chicken(chicken nuggets too!) it makes in want to puke. I have actually seen him gag on just the smell of kfc! I promised him I'll sare my meals with him as he's not huge eater, he just likes normal food. I figure if we are still hungry we can share a turkey leg

 

[Mom_Rides]

My DSS was 9 last year when we visited and we had the QSDP. DH and I were very worried about him getting enough to eat on the childrens plan. He eats more then I do most of the time and will be hungry 10 minutes later. We figured that we would need to suppliment him at times and would just pay OOP for that or that I would eat the kids meal and he could eat mine.

Not one time our entire trip did he complain about still being hungry. The only thing that he ever complained about was the desserts and I think that was only once or twice so I just traded mine with him. He did eat what was leftover from his sisters plate a few times but it was minimal amounts of food.

We used our dining plan a few times for breakfast and I would get the bountiful platter and give him a few things off of my plate to help suppliment his meal.