Free dining - can a child upgrade to adult plan

[pinkhart]

Hello,
We are planning a trip for August 2011 and want to take advantage of free dining. My youngest DD will 9yrs and 10months and will not be happy eating from the childrens menu. Is it possible for her to eat from the adult menu by maybe buying her an adult park ticket or paying for an upgrade somehow?
We have not yet decided whether to book a package or go DIY. The last twice we have been with Virgin Holidays and if we book online we would obviously have to enter her date of birth so I guess would automatically be given a child park ticket. I also imagine having huge problems if I tried to explain to call centre staff what I want!!
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Dimplenose]

Have a look at this thread - it looks like the answer is no.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2423699

 

[Elise79]

If you book DIY and book through Disney UK - just book her as 10 and pay for an adult ticket and she will get the adult credits. The problems start when you get flight inclusive packages.

Disney won't check her age at all.

 

[wayneg]

As said book DIY and you should be OK, book a package it will probably be difficult. Packages are stuck to what computer says.

 

[scojos]

for once i hate to contradict our guru, but you can upgrade the package, we have for dd who ll be 7 when we go.
wdw are used to this, the cm told me people do it all the time, there was a fee, cant remember how much, sorry, but worth it as we would pay more oop for extras as she is not a nugget and burger sort of girl.
HTH]:hug
tracy

 

[wayneg]

for once i hate to contradict our guru, but you can upgrade the package, we have for dd who ll be 7 when we go.
wdw are used to this, the cm told me people do it all the time, there was a fee, cant remember how much, sorry, but worth it as we would pay more oop for extras as she is not a nugget and burger sort of girl.
HTH]:hug
tracy

Have you booked flight inclusive?
As always I think it depends which tour operator you use and which member of staff you get. I have read a few not found it possible to do. It is an easy thing to do but for some reason its not always straight forward. So not saying its not possible as a package but it should be easy doing it DIY.

 

[2Tiggies]

Have you booked flight inclusive?
As always I think it depends which tour operator you use and which member of staff you get. I have read a few not found it possible to do. It is an easy thing to do but for some reason its not always straight forward. So not saying its not possible as a package but it should be easy doing it DIY.

That seems to be the general consensus. The way the upgrade is done is by changing the child's date of birth (usually just the year they were born) to make said child reflect as 10 years old at the time of travel. For example, my DD was born in 2002. I would have to put her date of birth as 2000, making her 10 at the time of travel. The trouble with flight inclusive packages is that the tour operator has to submit correct details to the airline. If a passenger's date of birth is different on the flight system to on the passport, they will be denied boarding. For this reason, if you booked flight inclusive, I would not even attempt it in case you never get to Orlando - even if the travel consultant says its okay. They told me it was fine when I asked. I was the one who queried the airline details and they again confirmed it was not a problem. 5 months later a supervisor advised me that had this change been left on my booking I would have been denied boardingm, despite that I had been told differently in November. So dont assume because someone wears a badge that they know the whole story. Disney is only one of hundreds of destinations and probably has the most variable factors of any holiday destination. The TA staff may not know and wouldn't think to check if they hadn't had some experience with it in the past.

So as the OP rightly suspected and Wayne confirmed: DIY, no problem. Package, don't do it.

If you decide to stay with the child meals and post to update us I am happy to give you my solutions which I applied in the past and will do again, to get around the pathetic (or in my case unusable) kids menu choices.

 

[pinkhart]

Thank you for your replies.
It seems booking DIY is the way to go. She would be very unhappy having to pick from the child's menu, particularly as her 11 year old sister will be picking from the adult menu! The child's menu is so limited and virtually the same things are offered in every restaurant which could be kind of boring 14 days in a row.

 

[2Tiggies]

Thank you for your replies.
It seems booking DIY is the way to go. She would be very unhappy having to pick from the child's menu, particularly as her 11 year old sister will be picking from the adult menu! The child's menu is so limited and virtually the same things are offered in every restaurant which could be kind of boring 14 days in a row.

I think your problem would be that she would not get dessert with her meals (try telling a child that grapes and applesauce is dessert )!!! when her 11 year old sister will have a pick of anything she chooses twice a day. I would go the same route if I were you. All the very best with your plans. I hope you get some great deals

 

[PChef]

Just to say we are upgrading our 9 yr old to the adult plan, we also have an older one who will be getting adult meals and the thought of the fuss that would ensue would put me off the whole idea of DDP. We have booked DIY using Disney UK, staying 6 nights at the Beach Club. Hopefully it will all work out OK for you and us too!

 

[scojos]

Have you booked flight inclusive?
As always I think it depends which tour operator you use and which member of staff you get. I have read a few not found it possible to do. It is an easy thing to do but for some reason its not always straight forward. So not saying its not possible as a package but it should be easy doing it DIY.

as usual wayne, i bow before your better judgement, we have booked room only, so the extra cost was for the ticket upgrade rather than the ddp upgrade (the 2 are tied) but we got the cheap AA flights into miami, so they are independant of the WDW booking.
tracy

 

[2Tiggies]

as usual wayne, i bow before your better judgement, we have booked room only, so the extra cost was for the ticket upgrade rather than the ddp upgrade (the 2 are tied) but we got the cheap AA flights into miami, so they are independant of the WDW booking.
tracy

That seems to be the trick. I would love to hear from all of you how your AA flights are and get all the details as I will consider all options next year. If we go during free dining next year, I will definitely book DIY and will make sure before committing to booking that it is possible to upgrade DD. The following year she turns 10 at which point it won't make that much of a difference as she will be getting the adult plan anyway.