Dining plan with 9 year old

[Murfee17]

Any suggestions and help would be so appreciated.

We are taking DD Dec 15-21st. She will be 9 when we go. She is a pretty picky eater, but eats alot of what she does like. We got free dining.

Here is my dilemma. Looking at all our TS ADRs, I think she would only eat things off the kids menu. However, the QS poses a problem. I don't think she will fill up. She can eat a 20 piece chicken nugget meal. The chicken nugget child's meal looks pitiful. I don't mind paying OOP for things, but I am pretty sure that I am going to be paying for an extra meal everyday bc she eats 3 meals.

Would it be possible if I upgraded her to an adult plan, that she could still order off the kid's menu for TS?

Thanks so much!!!!

 

[cyndi-rella]

We will be doing exactly that on our trip in Nov. Our DD will be 9 also when we go and we upgraded her to an adult park ticket with free dining(about $22.00). She doesn't eat a lot of food, but is picky about the food that she does eat.

We will pay OOP for any TS meals where she does decide to order off of the kid's menu. We can use the TS credit for another adult meal.

 

[Phatoomch]

Our daughter is 10 and we didn't have a problem as Disney will always try to accommodate - for instance at the Hollywood Brown Derby ... it is a very 'upscale' menu that kid would go at but they were wonderful - for her starter they took out all the 'fancy stuff' so that she ended up with a basic turkey salad, for the main she had steak which came with fingerling potatoes & asparagus etc and even though there wasn't a frie in sight on the menu they did fries and brocolli for her then for dessert she got good old ice-cream and chocolate sauce which again, wasn't on the menu.

We didnt have any problems ordering off the adult menu for her and when needed the restaurants helped us put together a meal she would like that wasn't kiddie size and not once did we see a chicken nugget LOL

 

[Phatoomch]

BTW - what restaurants do you have booked?

 

[Murfee17]

Thank you all so much!

We were hoping they might be able to accomodate her if she didn't see anything on the adult menu she was crazy about.

We are going completely kid approved restaurants/atmosphere. Not some of mine and my husband's top picks, but this is her trip.

We have two buffets, so those shouldn't be a problem. Niether is Via Napoli or Ohana. But she might eat a burger once. So I figure Sci Fi is okay too.

Here are our ADRs.

Chef Mickeys
CRT Lunch
Sci Fi
Via Napoli
50s Prime Time
LTT
Ohana Breakfast

The only three that I am worried about is LTT,CRT, and 50s. Especially CRT.

 

[Phatoomch]

I'm not good with abbreviations LTT is Liberty Tree Tavern I assume? We ate there - they serve family style a huge plate of meat (beef, pork, turkey) mash potatoes and veggies like green beans.

My daughter isn't keen on mash or veggies so she basically ate meat (she loved it) and bread and had ice-cream for dessert so she didn't go hungry.

CRT I don't know what that stands for lol and Prime Time we didn't eat there but don't they serve like burgers and stuff? I am sure they will accommodate you - all restaurants were more than happy to work round our daughter.

 

[brymolmom]

I know it SEEMS like there won't be enough food - but it is a LOT of food.

We have done DDP several times - recently upgraded DS to an adult for it - but honestly, we didn't even get our money back.

We always bring a box of cereal in our luggage for a quick breakfast on the go. The chocolate, chocolate-chip muffins from Main St Bakery are ENORMOUS and will fill any 9 year old (or 30 year old's) stomach for sure - check out these and similar places for breakfast items using your snacks.

We are a family of 4 and very rarely get 4 CS meals - we split 2 or 3 (maybe using an extra snack or two for a drink & extra side). So I think between the adult meals in your group plus your dd's kids meal - there will be plenty to go around.

I would pick CS places purely for size and/or variety of kids meals - ones she would like. ANd/or places with good things to split and share.

Don't forget every CS comes with a dessert - so even when my ds isn't 100% full right after his kids CS, after he eats his chocolate cake or similar - he usually is. And, if not, we just grab a soft pretzel or Mickey ice cream bar an hour later. And he is a good eater - 3 full meals a day at home. He was NEVER hungry at WDW. And 90% of the time got kids meals.

We stay away from the nugget places...Use kids CS at our resort, anyplace with pizza (pizzafari), places without kids menus (main st bakery).

I highly doubt you would end up buying a meal a day (unless you prefer to) - but even if you buy one or two - you're getting the rest for free - so still awesome deal!

 

[canadianmom2three]

I had the same worry about my 9yo DS. He is a pretty picky eater, but when he likes something, he can eat a LOT of it. He does like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and pizza, but only when they are the 'right kind'. He does much better at accepting a wider variety of adult foods like ribs, chicken, meat and veggies than he does accepting kids food that isn't the type he is used to. Anyway, I upgraded him to the adult dining plan for our trip as well, as I know he would be unhappy with the kids food for 9 straight days, and probably hungry too.

 

[haddybaby]

Google the restaurant menu's for the places that you are going to be eating. This will give you a good idea as to which menus would be best (kid or adult). Some of the restaurants have much better kid options then others. Ordinarily I would say it's not worth the extra money, but since you're getting the free dining plan and it's only $22, it seems like that's worth not having to stress about it while you're on vacation.

 

[Dizneydaz]

My DD turned 9 on our trip in 2009. I was going to ask them to upgrade her to an adult (and pay the ticket price difference from kid to adult for free DDP) but the CM had already done it. I was a little surprised since I know she could have been a kid during the whole trip. But whatever

Anyway it worked out really well for us. This way she could order anything she wanted. Sometimes she wanted to get the kid's meal (and I paid OOP-out of pocket) while other times she wanted an adult's meal. Then we found out that some of the TS locations have what they call Junior meals. They are a larger version of the kid's meals. They are not on the menu.

Here's the difference at Kona where first night she had kid's ravioli, and about a week later she had the Junior sized meal.

Regular Kid's Ravioli at Kona Cafe. I think there's maybe 4 raviolis

Junior sized Ravioli at Kona Cafe. Looks like about 12 raviolis.

By contrast, here is the adult sized ravioli at WPC (Wolfgang Puck Cafe at DTD)

Adult Ravioli Wolfgang Puck Cafe.

An added benefit of having them on the adult plan is they get their choice of desserts. Whatever they want.

We were also able to get a Junior meal at 50's PTC-chicken nuggets. Not very tasty but there were a lot of them.

 

[Murfee17]

Thank you! Thank you! To all of you!

I think I am just going to bite the bullet and upgrade her. Atleast then she will have more choices. Maybe I can even get her to venture out and maybe try something out of her comfort zone(like a vegetable) She is actually my stepdaughter, but I love her like she is mine. Her eating habits aren't the best in the world and I try to put something healthy infront of her when she is with us. I keep having thoughts of her turning into a chicken nugget.

The kids menus are pretty atrocious.

My husband and I went on our honeymoon. It was his first time. I have been lots of times. It is her first time going and we are suprising her, so she is not going to be able to look at the menus like I have before we go. I know this trip isn't going to be perfect, they never are, but I wanted to make it as close as possible. Planning with kids is alot different than adults, and I am am such a planner, but I don't want to overplan with her. This trip is all about her, so she should atleast be able to eat what she wants

Thanks again!!!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Thank you! Thank you! To all of you!

I think I am just going to bite the bullet and upgrade her. Atleast then she will have more choices. Maybe I can even get her to venture out and maybe try something out of her comfort zone(like a vegetable) She is actually my stepdaughter, but I love her like she is mine. Her eating habits aren't the best in the world and I try to put something healthy infront of her when she is with us. I keep having thoughts of her turning into a chicken nugget.

The kids menus are pretty atrocious.

My husband and I went on our honeymoon. It was his first time. I have been lots of times. It is her first time going and we are suprising her, so she is not going to be able to look at the menus like I have before we go. I know this trip isn't going to be perfect, they never are, but I wanted to make it as close as possible. Planning with kids is alot different than adults, and I am am such a planner, but I don't want to overplan with her. This trip is all about her, so she should atleast be able to eat what she wants

Thanks again!!!

Sounds like a good plan! Have fun!

 

[NOLA08]

I tried upgrading my 9-year-old son to an adult and was told that it wouldn't be possible.

This was on the dining reservations line.

Anybody done it recently with success & have any advice?

thanks!

 

[Murfee17]

I'm trying tomorrow. I will let you know how it works out. I also heard if you call back you might have a totally different response and can upgrade no problem.

Different CM, Different outcome. I know people do it all the time, so we should be able to too!

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I tried upgrading my 9-year-old son to an adult and was told that it wouldn't be possible.

This was on the dining reservations line.

Anybody done it recently with success & have any advice?

thanks!

You don't do it through the dining reservation line, you call 407-w-disney and talk to a regular CM, and when it prompts you to ask why you are calling saying "resort reservation changes" to get to the right type of CM and just tell the person straight up, I want to upgrade my child's age in my reservation to 10 so they can be an adult for the dining plan. I know the ticket price will increase to an adult price and I am ok with that, so if you could make the change for me I would appreciate it" They do that for ppl every day so don't let the dining CM's tell you that you can't do it.

 

[NOLA08]

For anyone reading this in the future, just wanted to say that I was able to successfully upgrade my 9 y/o son to a 10 y/o on our dining plan.

Followed the advice above and called the regular resort reservation line. It was done without any difficulty at all and the CM couldn't have been more helpful.

And, since we are on free dining it only cost about $20 extra for our entire trip!

Hooray for pixie dust, and thanks to the above posters for the advice!