Not much variety. This is what my kids will be eating:

[Katiebell]

We were concerned about this also on our last visit. But the manager at our WDW Hotel let us in on a little loophole. While its true your TS meals are divided as Adult and Child, not so for CS. The only way they know is by the number of adults and children listed on your ticket. Soooooo... The manager at our WDW Hotel told us to make two trips through the line when ordering CS food. Sure you have to wait in line twice, BUT your child can order WHATEVER he/she likes from the menu and it was worth it for us.

Once we were told we could do this, we did every time without fail. We did not feel as if we were doing anything wrong since we were told about the loophole from a WDW employee.

Wow, I am honestly surprised that a WDW Hotel manager advised this. Which hotel was it, out of curiosity? The reason I'm surprised is because using kids' TS credits for adult meals became so costly for Disney that they actually paid to upgrade their computer systems to separate kids' and adults' TS credits and stop it from happening. The average kids' CS meal is $4.50, the average adult CS meal is $12.50; the dining plan for kids is $11.99/day, so the cost of one adult CS meal would exceed the cost of the kids' plan for the whole day -- and that's not even counting the kids' TS meal (approximate value $8.00 w/tax and tip) or the $4 snack.

However, Disney hasn't seen this is so costly that they feel it's necessary to upgrade their computer system again to separate the adult/child CS credits. The only way they are trying to prevent it is to limit the number of CS meals you can order for adults at one time to the maximum number of adults shown on your card. I've heard about CM's at the counter suggesting this, but if a hotel manager advised you to do it...then apparently Disney really does not care about it at all

 

[KCMiller]

This is a sidebar, but:

I have a better idea- instead of telling them that at a counter service the 11 year old gets to pick a dessert and your 7 year olds dont, why don't you say "between the 5 of us we can pick THREE deserts to share" Nobody in my family ever gets their own dessert anyway and that way you all get to try new things...

Don't make the plan about "this is yours and this is yours" make it about "this is what we can get total between the group. How are we splitting this meal up??"

Hooray!! What a great parenting tip!! Kudos to you - from reading about picky children all the time on the DIS, I thought I was the only one who emphasized this with my kids. We taught them to share, not by being negative, but being positive and caring about each other, and it sounds like you're doing the same - BRAVO!!

KC

 

[TruBlu]

This is a sidebar, but:




Hooray!! What a great parenting tip!! Kudos to you - from reading about picky children all the time on the DIS, I thought I was the only one who emphasized this with my kids. We taught them to share, not by being negative, but being positive and caring about each other, and it sounds like you're doing the same - BRAVO!!

KC

I agree, that is a fantastic way to handle it!! Since both of my boys are underage for the good stuff , we'll either share ours with them or let them choose one to share. (DS has a tree nut allergy, so we can't always share everything.)