Adult dining plan for younger child?

[KTSMOM]

Does anyone know if I can purchase the adult dining plan for my 7yr old. She has more sophisticated tastes than what is offered on the children's menu. I don't mind paying for the adult dining plan for her if that is a possibility. TIA!

 

[Sandi]

Yes, you can purchase the adult dining for children. You just need to explain what you need when you buy your package.

My DD sounds like yours. She had her first taste of lobster at 18 months and hasn't looked at peanut butter or mac 'n cheese since! She's also a Food Network fanatic.

 

[KTSMOM]

Thanks for the info Sandi! My DD enjoys such "exotic" things as crushed red peppers on her spaghetti and banana peppers on pizza. She has always liked guacamole, salsa and other oddities that children her age normally don't like and she to enjoys watching the Food Channel. She even has her own "cookware" by Emeril! LOL! Good to know there are others like her out there!

 

[aubriee]

You will have to also purchase her an adult park ticket, however,

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

You might want to take a look at the menus before you do this (try Deb Willis site, she has them all!). Many of the table service restaurants offer entreee choices for kids that go beyond mac and cheese or chicken tenders. It's your nickel, but when you figure the cost of the adult plan, plus the cost of adult tickets for her, it gets to be a lot. I would look also at the quantity of food she eats--would that make it worthwhile for you? On our last trip, we had to pay for DD(now)12 to eat as an adult when she hardly eats a thing. But we figured we made it up on DS(now)10, who eats every meal like it's his last and leaves a table visibly fatter.

 

[MzGemini]

I also wanted the adult dining plan for my son, who is 7, for the same reasons but I found the cost a lot higher than I expected. My TA told me it was because the whole package was charged as if 2 adults were going, instead of 1 adult & 1 child. So that meant I would be paying for adult theme park tickets for my child as well. So I decided against upgrading my son to an adult.

But to solve my problem, I researched the menus and picked restaurants that have chicken, fish, etc on their child menus instead of the regular chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, & pb & jelly. I also found restaurants that didn't have a kids menu because that way my son can order from the regular menu. Try looking into buffets so your child will have more option to pick from. I have also heard, that at some sit down restaurants, they will allow children to pick from the adult menu and they will bring your child out a child sized portion of it.

 

[disneysuncat]

I had inquired about the same thing for my 8 year old daughter, as she eats shrimp, steak and the like. I've never restricted her to a child's menu, and I find most of the Disney children's menus don't have a thing she'd eat. I did the same thing as the above poster, and researched restaurants that have a fish or steak selection for children, as well as buffets.

 

[everest]

We have the same problem DD7 does not care for the traditional children’s fare food choices and we had to pay OOP at several places to satisfy here. So I explained this to Disney reservation while booking our next trip and they suggested to list her as an adult. I don’t mind paying more for her as I know at least she is eating when we are being very active. Yes I do dislike the waste of food as she is very small for her age (weight wise) and tend to only eat about a 3rd of her choice. So it’s either she will go without eating on the children’s choices or pay extra to know that she is eating something.

 

[Sandi]

You will have to also purchase her an adult park ticket, however,

We were not required to purchase an adult park ticket for DD. That was a few years ago. They were very accommodating when we explained we wanted to pay for the adult dining plan for our 8 year old.

 

[Muushka]

You will have to also purchase her an adult park ticket, however,

We were not required to purchase an adult park ticket for DD. That was a few years ago. They were very accommodating when we explained we wanted to pay for the adult dining plan for our 8 year old.

Thank goodness. That just did not seem right.

 

[kacaju]

I was told here too that we'd have to pay an adult park ticket for our dd7.
I just did as others looked for places that had a better selection of food.
She LOVED the Wolfgang Pucks Cafe Kids salmon meal!!

I also though have 2 other kids 13 and 11 so once they gave dd7 the adult menu and they are off the kids menu.

 

[Muushka]

Wow. I'm stunned that Disney would do this.
Can anyone think of a logical reason why they are doing this?
I have no children so this does not affect me, but it just seems very unfair. If the parent is willing to pay the extra $$ for the adult meal, why should they have to pay the additional $$$ for the adult ticket?? What is the logic for this?

 

[asmit4]

The DDP can only be bought with the MYW package. The cost of that package is for the ENTIRE package, so you can't "pick and choose".

Basically if you "age" your child for food, you must also for tickets....HOWEVER- there is a loop!

Buy your family the MYW package. Buy 1 base ticket per person plus the DDP, plus the room. Age your child for the pkg.

Then when you get to the park- Upgrade your tickets. Upgrade your tickets. Then buy your child a 6 day pass...(don't upgrade your child's pass) Just buy them a NEW pass.

 

[Muushka]

That makes sense, but I still think it is unreasonable!

Thank goodness for loopholes!

 

[timmac]

The DDP can only be bought with the MYW package. The cost of that package is for the ENTIRE package, so you can't "pick and choose".

Basically if you "age" your child for food, you must also for tickets....HOWEVER- there is a loop!

Buy your family the MYW package. Buy 1 base ticket per person plus the DDP, plus the room. Age your child for the pkg.

Then when you get to the park- Upgrade your tickets. Upgrade your tickets. Then buy your child a 6 day pass...(don't upgrade your child's pass) Just buy them a NEW pass.

1 Day Adult Base Ticket = 75.62
6 Day Child Ticket = 192.77
Total Cost = 268.39

7 Day Adult Pass from the Get-Go = 233.24

The "loophole" costs you $35.

Honestly I'm amazed (and I don't mean this in an arrogant or flaming way at all, or against anyone in particular) at how many people I've seen, who are looking to find some way to use multiple sets of tickets or some combination of discount tickets, or whatever, with the expectation that they will save money that way.

Giving exception to the "no expiration" tickets intended for use on multiple vacations (and note that the price gradient on these tickets doesn't give such steep discounts for additional days as the expiring tickets), the pricing structure is set up the way it is for a reason. It works out easiest from Disney's perspective, and pleasantly it's also easiest for guests, too, that the best option is simply to buy a single ticket for what you need. Even discounted tickets through 3rd parties (including AAA, etc) aren't nearly enough to make the more complicated purchases worthwhile.

 

[asmit4]

I stand corrected. As stated above, you are better to buy an adult ticket for your child for the entire trip right off the bat.

Doing this for a week long trip will run about 40 extra bucks or so. If you do it the way I described myself, you end up losing $$$.

I admit that I have never done the math before, someone else posted the idea on another thread a few months ago and I took it as correct without checking the #'s.

So all in all- upgrading your child for a week costs the increase cost in food, plus the increase in ticket costs which is around 40 bucks I believe.

 

[Muushka]

We booked the free dining and also bought 3rd party 10 day non-exp PH plus tickets. For the free dining, we got the mandatory 1 day non-php. At the time we did it, the 3rd party tickets were about $75 each cheaper than the same type of ticket from WDW. About the price of the ticket we had to buy to get the DDP.

So, why did we bother to get the other tickets? Because now we hold 2 tickets that can be applied towards an AP AND the price of the tickets went up before we went on our trip and we saved an additional $100. So we saved $250 (75 + 75 + 100). Worth the trouble! It's a game!

 

[NMW]

Wow. I'm stunned that Disney would do this.
Can anyone think of a logical reason why they are doing this?
I have no children so this does not affect me, but it just seems very unfair. If the parent is willing to pay the extra $$ for the adult meal, why should they have to pay the additional $$$ for the adult ticket?? What is the logic for this?

It's really just because it's a package. If a child is an "adult" in the package than, he is an adult for every aspect of that package. At least with Disney's MYW packages you can choose how many days you want tickets, what options, etc. With Disney's prior package (Dreammaker) everyone in your party got the same "deluxe" sort of ticket for every night of your stay. I forget what they were called, but you couldn't buy them seperatly with out a package and they expired at the end of your trip even though Disney's other tickets (at the time) did not expire.

One of the big promos about the MYW plans was just that, it's "your way." However, an adult is an adult, for all aspects of the package.