Kids using adult tickets + dining plan

[Hipster Meg]

Hi

I'm busy doing research into our holiday to Florida in a couple of years time and having had a look at the menu's for kids it seems like there's rather limited menu choices for them, even at the sit down restaurants What I'm wondering is whether or not it would be possible for us to buy him an adult ticket which would then qualify him for free adult dining, allowing him pick whether he'd rather have a kids meal or order from the adult menu.

Thanks for any advice people can give!

 

[mackay_j]

Not sure if you can or not, however, you may find that you do not need to.
Years ago we traveled with our dd one of whom was on the childs plan we just shared out the food and used the childs food as a top up (I agree that the childs menu id pretty useless for kids who enjoy good/ unusual food.

We have done the plan several times since and both dd are adults now. We are very good eaters but find the amount of food just way way too much- unless you want to spend the whole holiday eating. We always come back with unused meals and have to use up the snacks and the end getting gifts for home.

 

[scottish mum]

yes you can do, if you are booking direct with Disney and accommodation only then just put his age down as 10 and pay for the adult ticket. You will then get adult DDP.

Not sure how it works if you are booking a package as you need DOB for flights etc

 

[Elise79]

You can book and put him down as age 10 however you can only do this if you book the hotel/tickets/DDP separate to the flights.

If you want to book a flight inclusive package its not possible.

Most of the TS restaurants have a least one more adult option. As for CS the resorts are better than the parks but we usually find there is more than enough for us to share 2 meals between the 3 of us.

Also if ordering adult meals at TS remember you will have to pay a tip on the increased price and buffets they will have to charge the adult price which is usually considerably more.

 

[Sencybil]

We are doing this for our upcoming trip. For the buffets / set price things we will pay oop for our daughter as a child, and save her adult credit to subsidise some of our signature meals / 2 credit requirements. Also at some of the restaurants I expect to order an appetiser oop and use a credit for entree, and share them both between her and me (because both she and I will enjoy eating the appetisers such as calamari). With QS meals I'm expecting that mostly we'll share 2 adult meals between 3 of us, so we'll have spare credits that we can use for breakfast too (not the best use of credits, but better than not using them at all).

It looks like its going to work great for us - we'll see how it goes in practice!

When I started researching the restaurants (over a year ago) I was quite shocked at how poor the selection of kids food was. It is gradually improving, with most TS offering at least one non-fried, non-burger option, but the prevalence of mac and cheese and peanut butter jelly sandwiches is astounding! [BTW - I don't mind her eating nuggets / burgers / fires - just not everyday for 15 days]

Good luck

Sency xx

 

[Hipster Meg]

Thanks for the responses. We'll almost definitely be booking everything separate as this seems the most economical way to do things.

Elise79 I completely forgot about tips - thanks for the reminder!

Sencybil I know what you mean, I fully expect him to have typically kiddy food some of the time but having the option to have something more grown up would be nice.

As I expect we'll be doing a fair few character meals which all seem to be buffets I guess it'd make more sense to either pay for those OOP or just keep him as a kid and pay for the odd adult meal OOP. I guess I'll just have to pull the spread sheet out and do the maths

 

[Elise79]

If you are doing a fair number of buffets or fixed price you might as well keep him as a child as you will save a lot on tips - most dinner buffets are about $20 more expensive for adults so that's an extra $4 tip each time.

Also the signatures have better kid choices.

I would rather just pay for the odd adult meal if DD really wanted it.

We pick restaurants that have a mix of options. Teppan Edo serves small portions of the adult meal for example.

LeCellier and yachtsman both have kids steaks.

Other places she has had chicken, pasta etc. I don't very often let her have burgers etc for dinner.

Buffets are good as they get to chose from the whole buffet.

 

[dixonsontour]

We keep DD who is 7 as child.

QS credits are not split into child and adult - we share 2 adult meals between 3 of us usually.

For Table service we do some buffets and family style where kids can eat the same as you if they want eg ohana dinner and garden grill.

For TS places the non disney owned places like teppan edo, raglan road etc have decent kids options which are smaller portions of adult food.

DD also loved thefood at signature places - they have some decent kids options and great kids desserts.

 

[tinkerpea]

We have 3 boys who are 8,8,10 we upgraded our boys on the last 2 trips to adult DDP,
It worked amazing for us!

We did do character buffets and just paid extra for the tip, as paying for 3 kids each time oop would have been insane,
For non buffets the twins shared a TS meal and so did my oldest son and I as he eats quite a good range of foods,
That meant we had extra credits that we used to do signature meals or extra TS meal,

For the QS meals we would always split 3 credits for lunch meaning that breakfast was covered! The meals are so big that a breakfast mickey waffle platter fed the 3 kids and then DH and I would share one too,

I really think its worth it to upgrade and was really simple, I spoke after doing it once before to a CM who said it couldn't be done, she argued on the phone a lot, so all I did was call back and tell them I'd looked online at my booking and I noticed the children's ages was down wrong, they immediately changed it, so easy so just explain that if they already have your child's age down.