Meal plan for 3-9 year olds

[060103]

my 7 year old has a very big appitite and won't be satisified with the kids meal. i also know my 4 year old is a very picky eater and will not what i have seen as the kids menu's. she does not eat pizza, pb&j, chicken legs, jello, applesauce etc. when we went to the world 2 years ago (last year we went to disneyland) they pooled all the table service credit's together so if there was nothing they would eat from the kids menu i would by an adult meal for my 3 children to share ( my oldest is now 10) .is that still possible or do they track them individually now?

 

[goofy4tink]

The dining plan is tied to your room reservation. So, they will know the ages, and number of people that should be on the dining plan. So, you would have 2 adults, 2 children as needing the dining plan. But, you could perhaps try to buy an extra adult dining plan in addition to those that you have to buy. But, I would think that it would make more sense to just make do with the offerings on the children's menu and then buy some additional stuff from the menu, and pay of it OOP. That seems to be more cost efficient than paying an addtl $38 a day...on top of what you are going to have to pay for 2 adults, 2 kids.

Oops, I may have made an assumption here... I assumed you were traveling with the kids, no other adult. That may not be the case. Sorry. If there are three adults and two kids, I would think that the other two kids could share a bit of the adults meals. Sorry for the assumption.

 

[Princess Stitch]

Well your oldest will now be considered an adult, and will get to choose adult meals. As for the rest, they now separate credits between children and adults, so I doubt you will still be able to combine things. I would explain this to the server if your'e at a TS restaurant and they will probably let the younger ones share from the adult meals. Since all the adults will get an appetizer, entree and dessert, there should be enough to go around. They may also be able to make them a little something that they WOULD want to eat. I've heard of this being done many times. As long at they don't want steak or anything, you should be fine.

With the counter service, since your oldest is an adult, you can order the adult meal and she can share it with her siblings if that's still an option. Also, check out the Dining FAQ thread at the top of the forum. There's a couple counter service places that don't have a separate kids menu, so the little ones will be able to order anything they want.

 

[bicker]

Here's a link to the Dining Plan FAQ with the list: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=16079998

 

[n2mm]

The restrictions are much tougher now than in the past. They no longer pool TS credits (adults and kids). The server will tell you upfront what your options are. Kids TS must be used for kids meals. You will get two receipts, one showing how many Adult TS are left and another telling you how many kids TS are left. As far as CS, they are pooled, but you can not exceed what your card says. (Yes we watched this first hand last week). If your card says 3 adults and 2 kids, you can not buy more than 3 adult meals during your purcahse. The server can not ring more than the card allows during the purchase. Same thing with snack credits too. My card said 2 adults and I got 2 snacks. The first thing the CM asked to see is my card to see how many he could ring. Hubby got 4 pieces of fudge and had to ring the order twice.

 

[brymolmom]

Check the menus on allears before you get too worried. I would be very surprised if most 7 year olds wouldn't be satisfied with a child's TS appetizer plus meal plus dessert. If you're worried about it - do all buffets - then you can all eat as much as you'd like.

And for CS...if the 7 year old is still hungry afterward - a snack credit could be used for something 'extra' at the end of a meal - a dessert, some fruit, some fries....I would think that should be enough.

I was a little worried with all the recent Child's plan changes, so I went and actually mapped out all/most of our meals. Now I'm not worried at all. For TS: my kids are having: pasta at Tony's(large portion from what I remember), shrimp or chicken with rice at Teppanyaki, burger or canyon skillet at WCC, and 3 buffets. For CS - it is a little more limited - but you can still find options - mine are eating burger, pizza, burrito, turkey sub, grilled chicken wrap and the occasional nugget .

Unless they have changed portion sizes, I would be VERY surprised if two kids meals is not equal to or more food than one adult sized meal. So, if your main concern is size of portions, I'm thinking you'll still end up way ahead if you order each of your little ones their own kids meal - ESPECIALLY if in the past you ordered one adult meal and had 3 kids splitting it - I'm certain the kids meal size is larger than a third of an adult meal.

So just try studying the menus and hopefully it will set your mind at ease.

 

[THERESA522]

Let me tell you my experience since I just returned from a stay @ ASMovies.

The counter services are pooled. Two cashiers told me they have no difference in their system for counter service meals for adults and children. Although I did it only a few times, I did get my 2 children meals from the adult menu at the resort food court (chicken fingers for adults were MUCH tastier than the nuggets offered for the kids). We had 2 adults in our party and at times I ordered 4 adult counter services.

I can't see how any cashier would question how many adult meals you were ordering at once since there is no limit on how many meals you can order in one day. As I understand it, if you want to use all your counter services in one day you can. So how can they question that you're using 4 counter services at once if you only have 2 adults in your plan?

Also, on the last day of our stay, we had 6 snack credits left. I bought 6 snacks at once and they were all rung at once. We never had a problem ringing as many meals and/or snacks than the supposedly "allowable" # in our party (2 adults/2 kids).

 

[Princess Stitch]

Let me tell you my experience since I just returned from a stay @ ASMovies.

The counter services are pooled. Two cashiers told me they have no difference in their system for counter service meals for adults and children. Although I did it only a few times, I did get my 2 children meals from the adult menu at the resort food court (chicken fingers for adults were MUCH tastier than the nuggets offered for the kids). We had 2 adults in our party and at times I ordered 4 adult counter services.

I can't see how any cashier would question how many adult meals you were ordering at once since there is no limit on how many meals you can order in one day. As I understand it, if you want to use all your counter services in one day you can. So how can they question that you're using 4 counter services at once if you only have 2 adults in your plan?

Also, on the last day of our stay, we had 6 snack credits left. I bought 6 snacks at once and they were all rung at once. We never had a problem ringing as many meals and/or snacks than the supposedly "allowable" # in our party (2 adults/2 kids).

While it's true you can use alll your credits in one day if you want, it's possible CMs are being watched more closely now, and maybe moreso at the park restaurants then at the resorts. At the most, a CS place might have to ring in two separate receipts, otherwise a manager might say "How come you rang in 4 adult meals at one time when there are only 2 adults listed as being on the reservation?"

 

[THERESA522]

While it's true you can use alll your credits in one day if you want, it's possible CMs are being watched more closely now, and maybe moreso at the park restaurants then at the resorts. At the most, a CS place might have to ring in two separate receipts, otherwise a manager might say "How come you rang in 4 adult meals at one time when there are only 2 adults listed as being on the reservation?"

To which you can reply "there are no restrictions on the amount of meals I can order in one day."

 

[Momof2J's]

OK, just so I get this straight....

When using a CS credit (we'll have 2A 1C) I don't have to specify which credit to use? I ask this since my DS loves Toy Story Pizza Planet, but DH and myself do not care for the food, so if I was to order a combo for him I don't have to ask it be taken from his child CS credit? I just didn't want it to be taken from one of ours then when we try to purchase an "adult" entree we will be short???

Thanks!

 

[illiniowl]

OK, just so I get this straight....

When using a CS credit (we'll have 2A 1C) I don't have to specify which credit to use? I ask this since my DS loves Toy Story Pizza Planet, but DH and myself do not care for the food, so if I was to order a combo for him I don't have to ask it be taken from his child CS credit? I just didn't want it to be taken from one of ours then when we try to purchase an "adult" entree we will be short???

Thanks!

Actually, Pizza Planet doesn't have a child's menu to begin with. There are a few other places like this around WDW (see the FAQ for the list). At these places you can essentially get an adult meal for a child's CS credit. As others have said, Disney doesn't "track" adult vs. child CS credits; you are essentially on your honor not to use more adult CS credits than you received at check in.

 

[Connor' Dad]

Actually, Pizza Planet doesn't have a child's menu to begin with. There are a few other places like this around WDW (see the FAQ for the list). At these places you can essentially get an adult meal for a child's CS credit. As others have said, Disney doesn't "track" adult vs. child CS credits; you are essentially on your honor not to use more adult CS credits than you received at check in.

Just had to add a big Oskee Wow Wow!

 

[Momof2J's]

Actually, Pizza Planet doesn't have a child's menu to begin with. There are a few other places like this around WDW (see the FAQ for the list). At these places you can essentially get an adult meal for a child's CS credit. As others have said, Disney doesn't "track" adult vs. child CS credits; you are essentially on your honor not to use more adult CS credits than you received at check in.

So then on a receipt will it show a total of adult and child CS credits remaining? I didn't want to order a meal that was for my child and then the receipt would show 1 less credit for an adult CS.

I think I'm getting more confused!

 

[illiniowl]

The receipt is just going to show CS credits remaining. Every time you get a CS meal, whether from the adult menu or the child's menu or at places with only one menu, 1 CS credit gets subtracted from your total.

In your case, you are 2A and 1C; let's say you are on the DDP for 5 nights. In theory, you start out with 10A and 5C CS credits (and this is probably what you'll be told at check in); in practice, you start out with 15 CS credits. You're basically on your honor not to use more than 10 of those 15 credits for adult CS meals (at places that have both an adult and a kids' menu) during the course of your stay.

Because there are CS places at WDW that don't have kids' menus (such as TSPP), Disney cannot (or has chosen not to) police how many "adult" CS meals you get, other than to (as many posters have reported, although some have not experienced this restriction) limit the number of adult CS meals you can get per ring-up at the cashier to the number of adults coded on your card.

 

[Momof2J's]

THANK YOU

It's been a loooong day today!

 

[shananv]

There are very slim pickings for kids on some counter service menus. I plan on visiting cs that do not have kids menus as much as possible. Everything I've read states how unfair it would be to use children's cs credits for adults, but what about using children's credits to by adult meals for the children to eat? I do not plan to do this often, but my children will not eat chilled chicken, pbj uncrustables or some of the other gross offerings. Some of the hotdog restaurants do not have hotdogs on the kid menus, and some pizza places don't have pizza. I do not want to do anything that is wrong or illegal. If necessary, I will buy my ds and dd adult meals OOP just often enough to give them some variety.

 

[K9pal]

I agree with above poster, kid's meals are pretty bad. On every CS menu I've checked, they have TWO choices. Plus a choice of sides including carrot sticks and grapes. Obviously the people who came up with these menus don't have small kids.
While it's great to have healthy choices, how about some 'kid friendly' food while they're at Mickey's house? Chilled chicken???

 

[bicker]

You get just about what you should expect to get for $10.99 per day for two meals and a snack. I think if they were charging $20 per day, then the concerns would be more understandable to me.

 

[K9pal]

I'm talking about the selection of food, not the quantity or anything that affects cost. Hot dog, slice of pizza, spaghetti, cookie, etc. are all more kid friendly (at least to my grandsons) and cheaper than chicken, grapes, carrot sticks and sugar free jello. I think they should have more than 2 CS selections, especially when one is meat and the other is mac and cheese.

 

[brymolmom]

You can find that on kids DP, you just have to be more selective with the restaurants you choose. My kids are getting hot dogs, pizza for CS and speghetti and burgers for TS. Agreed - the dessert options aren't great for CS, but my kids will already be getting 2 desserts a day (for TS and usually we get a snack of a dessert-type food) - so I'm not worried about them not getting 3 desserts per day.

Have you looked at all the menus? Kids can get hot dogs at Casey's and pizza at Pizza Planet and grilled cheese at my resort's food court. All very kid friendly and all very available on the kids DP.