Can my 10yo choose off the kids menu with the DDP?

[threekidsandasheltie]

We are going over the menus to see where we would like to eat. My 10yo who of course got the adult DDP will not eat much of the choices from the regular menu. Can she order off the kids menu with the DDP or will we have to pay OOP?

 

[karibritt01]

I have heard it both ways, but don't know for sure. I know they will serve a child-sized portion of an adult meal, so I would think the reverse would be true as well. If you choose buffet restaurants, the kids and adults eat off of the same buffet.

 

[LisaBi]

In Sept. 2005, DS was an "adult" on the plan, but preferred the kid's menu choices. He was able to order an appetizer from either menu, the kid's entree, then dessert from the regular menu.

Only one server gave me a hard time, but he was a jerk anyway, and I think at first he thought I was trying to get an adult appetizer on a child DDP instead of a child entree on an adult DDP.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

We've done the dining plan twice now with our 10 year old "adult." Her tastes definitely still fit the kid's menu (mostly mac & cheese). Several times we ordered her an adult appetizer, a child's entree (and asked for an "adult" portion of mac & cheese) and whatever dessert she wanted. Each time, she received a HUGE plate of mac & cheese (which her 14 year old sister usually shared from ).

Only one time did I have trouble with a server. It was at Coral Reef and our server didn't seem fluent in English. So I repeated what I wanted a few times and he said he didn't know if that could be done, but they did it.

When we've had good service with this, we have left like $5 extra for a tip though as the server's tip is based on your total bill and if you order an "adult" a kid's entree, their tip is lessened.

 

[Albertan mom]

I was wondering the same thing. My dd11 did this a few times on our last trip, because there was sometimes nothing she wanted on the adult menu.
My son will be 9 before our next trip, and can't imagine him wanting some of the adult choices, so I hope places will be flexible. If he could eat a burger and fries every meal he would be happy!!! (just like his dad!! )

That is why buffets work so well!!

 

[TheDizMom]

I don't see why not, if you think about it, it is saving D money. One of the reasons they use this plan is that they assume you will not use all your meals and that you won't be going to their high end restaurants every meal so it all comes out even in the end. If you have a server who makes it difficult, ask to speak to the manager. When we ran into a service issue like this we had our entire meal refunded and got an extra meal in which to have a nice breakfast we otherwise wouldn't have had . We didn't complain one of the other employees saw how frustrated we were and got the manager on her own. The manager came over to apologize and asked for one of our cards and came back with it to tell us he had refunded it . D prides itself on their service so if you aren't happy they want to make it right for you.

 

[klynn]

We ate at Olivia's tonight. The server told us that an Adult on the dining plan CANNOT order off the children's menu. Not that I was going to! For some reason the server thought my dd9 was an adult wanting to order off the kids menu. I had to expain that she was a child and we had paid for the child ddp.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We did for my 10 year old dd in December. If your server says no, ask to speak to a manager. It would be ridiculous for them not to since they are in reality saving money by serving you cheaper food when you paid a higher price. The time we did it the server/chef were nice enough to give my dd a double kids portion. We also several times had them specially prepare something off the adults menu (e.g. leave off the sauce, sub fries for a different side) for our dd. But again, ask for a manager if the server says no, Disney seldom wants to displease their customers, especially when they might make money off the deal!

 

[Amy&Dan]

We ate at Olivia's tonight. The server told us that an Adult on the dining plan CANNOT order off the children's menu. Not that I was going to! For some reason the server thought my dd9 was an adult wanting to order off the kids menu. I had to expain that she was a child and we had paid for the child ddp.

Thats interesting because this is about the third or fourth time I have read something about Olivia's taking a hard (and stupid) stand against a kid getting what they want from the DDP/their menu. Not that you were even trying to, but really why do they care if you want to use your ts credit for a cheaper child's meal?

 

[jillyjoey]

We did for my 10 year old dd in December. If your server says no, ask to speak to a manager. It would be ridiculous for them not to since they are in reality saving money by serving you cheaper food when you paid a higher price. The time we did it the server/chef were nice enough to give my dd a double kids portion. We also several times had them specially prepare something off the adults menu (e.g. leave off the sauce, sub fries for a different side) for our dd. But again, ask for a manager if the server says no, Disney seldom wants to displease their customers, especially when they might make money off the deal!

Us too. And totally agree.

 

[threekidsandasheltie]

thanks, everyone

 

[HayGan]

Honestly, if you see that happening at a couple meals why not pay OOP for her meals and then enjoy another table service meal or two using her credits?

 

[Amy&Dan]

Honestly, if you see that happening at a couple meals why not pay OOP for her meals and then enjoy another table service meal or two using her credits?

I can tell you that from our experience we could barely use the credits we had before we left. With two adult/kids, one who was 12 the other 10 that was so much foor that had we saved credits and paid OOP we would have lost the credits. We had 36 snack credits and 30 of them were used for water bottles because we weren't hungry for snacks, let alone more ts credits. It was a great deal and it worked well but there were a few places where my dd in particular just didn't find anything on the menu to please her 10 year old palette. So we asked them to sub a kids meal which they did. She still ordered the adult appetizer and dessert I might add. But paying OOP and saving a credit would not have been an option for us.

 

[HayGan]

I can tell you that from our experience we could barely use the credits we had before we left. With two adult/kids, one who was 12 the other 10 that was so much foor that had we saved credits and paid OOP we would have lost the credits. We had 36 snack credits and 30 of them were used for water bottles because we weren't hungry for snacks, let alone more ts credits. It was a great deal and it worked well but there were a few places where my dd in particular just didn't find anything on the menu to please her 10 year old palette. So we asked them to sub a kids meal which they did. She still ordered the adult appetizer and dessert I might add. But paying OOP and saving a credit would not have been an option for us.

We have the opposite problem. There are so many places that we like to eat and or try that we would love to have extra TS credits. Our first trip on the DDP we were able to stretch our credits by paying OOP for some meals and that was great. I just try to do some careful planning of meals and use our credits for the most expensive and pay OOP for some other meals.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We have the opposite problem. There are so many places that we like to eat and or try that we would love to have extra TS credits. Our first trip on the DDP we were able to stretch our credits by paying OOP for some meals and that was great. I just try to do some careful planning of meals and use our credits for the most expensive and pay OOP for some other meals.

If it was just my husband and I or our kids were older and actually able to eat those adult sized meals we would have done that. I would probably have booked a couple of 2TS places like CG or Jiko and paid OOP for some other things like Prime Time or a buffet. But since dh and I often ended up eating some of the kids food they couldn't finish and given the age of our kids we ended up almost not using our last TS credits the last night. But we did and ended up coming home with five cs meals from the grab n go at the CBR foodcourt.

But right now my son is 12 and 75 pounds and dd is 10 and about 10 pounds lighter. So there was just a physical limit on what and how much they could eat! It was still a great deal and we enjoyed dining at some nice restaurants we would normally not want to spend the money on.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We found every place we ate so willing to work with my picky 14 year old. Two different places they fixed a simpler version of a pasta dish that was on the menu. Just pasta ,sauce and chicken or shrip. They will also do a plain, chicken breast or steak. DS also ordered a child's desert at alfredo's and there was no issue at all. Most places will be so willing to work with you. Just ask for what you need.

 

[twinscandc]

This is us also, but we have two 10 year old DD's who are not adventurous eaters!! They would be fine with mac and cheese all week. We've went over the menus on allears.net and although we would probably spend less if we did not do the DDP we like the idea of budgeting for meals ahead of time and not worrying about how much the meal is going to cost, etc.

We are planning on having the girls share many of their meals (except for the buffets, of course) or paying OOP for a kids meal and saving their TS credits. That way we can have an extra character B-fast!!

Truely, I wish Disney would raise the kids age limit to 12!!