Dining plan with 9 year old - Big Eater? Worth it?

[stephv3]

Trying to decide whether or not to get the DDP. My 9 year old is a huge eater and the kids meals are not usually enough for him. We usually order off of regular menus at most restaurants. If we purchase the DDP is he limited to only the kids menu when ordering? Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[DaParkers]

If you're willing to do buffets, then it is definitely worth it. My son was on the dining plan twice before he made 10 and we had no problems figuring out what to order for him. But, it also depends on where you'll be eating. Look at the menus of the places you would probably eat at and make your decision based on that. You can make it work for you with some planning.

 

[canopynut66]

Trying to decide whether or not to get the DDP. My 9 year old is a huge eater and the kids meals are not usually enough for him. We usually order off of regular menus at most restaurants. If we purchase the DDP is he limited to only the kids menu when ordering? Any thoughts?

Thanks

Isn't he considered an adult on the DDP at 9? If so that would work out well for you. If he on the childs then yes he would have to order from childs menu. Since he a big eater just tell them need adult DP for him as well.

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

TOTALLY agree with previous poster... Go with the Buffet's if that is the issue...

H&V, Cape May, etc.

If YOU eat light... then maybe you can just purchase the regular dining plan and Share...

I couldn't finish my CS meal at Cosmic Rays... could have certainly swapped with a kids meal....

Another previous poster mentions purchasing the ADULT dining package for your 9 year old... I suppose that's an option but they will charge the Adult price....

The Dining plan came out after my kids were "adults" (10 or over) and it's always been MORE food than we could ever eat. In fact we usually had many snacks left over that I'd cash in the day we left... ALBEIT... we ALWAYS bring breakfast food because my rule is "NEVER" leave the room unless you've had a snack.. EVER... cuts down on the morning "CRANKYS"

Hugs,
Mary

 

[summerlady]

Trying to decide whether or not to get the DDP. My 9 year old is a huge eater and the kids meals are not usually enough for him. We usually order off of regular menus at most restaurants. If we purchase the DDP is he limited to only the kids menu when ordering? Any thoughts?

Thanks

If he's listed as age 9 and you pay for the kids DDP, then he is limited to the kids menu. However, you can upgrade him to age 10, you'd have to pay the higher price for park tickets and the dining plan but then he'd be allowed to order from the adult menus.

I'm having the opposite problem, DGD eats like a mouse but she's 10 this year, its going to be way too much food for her on the adult menus so I'm sure she'll be wanting to order from the kids menu now and then and DH will be more than happy to be the "clean up crew".

 

[DaParkers]

Don't forget that all meals come with a dessert. My son is a big eater. He was the size of a 10 year old at age 7. We had no problem filling him up. Like I said before, you'll be fine if you do your homework. All kids options aren't bad. Kids' French toast - with sausage and
Children's Selection - Sweet & Sour Chicken and Beverage are a couple of options at Sunshine Seasons. Yorkshire County Fish Shop has no kids menu.
You can also fill up on a few good snack choices. There are no "kids" menu for snacks. The giant cinnamon roll at the Main Street Bakery is a good one. We've even shared one between 3 people. Chicken fried rice in Ak and a sweet cream cheese pretzel in MK at the lunching pad is another. Maybe I'm just an optimist,but I think you'll be fine if you're prepared. Good luck.
Check out this thread.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2381706&highlight=confirmed+snacks

 

[septbaby]

I am planning a trip with my 9yo nephew whose appetite is growing and will probably be pretty big by next August. Here is my plan:

We will use all of our TS credits at buffets, some character some non character. Snack credits are treated the same for children or adults.

CS meals might be the hardest. We will either trade/share. If I need to supplement his meal I'll pay cash or use a snack credit for some thing. There used to be a few CS restaurants that only had one menu ie. no childs menu, check to see if those places still exist.

Really look at menus before you go. Try to identify places with items he'll eat and make sure have some options at each park, not just one place.

 

[DCDisney]

The kids meals are supposedly sized (by calories) for a 5 year old and they definitely didn't work for my son at 9. The biggest problem was the amount of protein was tiny like 1 chicken leg or 4 small chicken nuggets and I didn't want him to just get filled up with junk food. We ended up doing a number of buffets for dinners. For CS we used almost all his credits for breakfast except for places with no kids menu because the breakfast was actually decent size--2 mini mickey waffles, breakfast meat, apple sauce, and juice or milk. Then we just paid for CS lunch OOP. It really didn't end up costing that much because he liked pizza and burgers which were pretty cheap and we'd order them without sides or desserts because we had enough side stuff to share. I'd drink free water so we were set on drinks too. I think we spent about $6 a day doing this and it made everyone happy.