Possible to opt-out of dining plan for g-tube fed child?

[jducarme]

I asked this in the general forum and it was suggested folks here might have more experience.

My wife and I are planning a WDW trip for us and our three girls. We were considering one of the dining plans but it appears that its an all or nothing for all guests in the family. Our 5-year-old is fed by g-tube only and we'll be bringing her formula with us. Has anyone had any luck with Disney allowing to have one in their party excluded from the dining plan for medical reasons?

We do have other options of course (don't buy a plan, or pay for all 5 and try and make use of the extra meals across the rest of us), but were curious how flexible WDW might be on this.

Thanks,
JD

 

[bookwormde]

WDW has never done it that I know of but if someone wanted to "push the issue" under ADA WDW would likely find they are on shakey ground (unless they want to buy the special formula that you use).

 

[DizNee Luver]

I'm going to watch this thread too, as we have a daughter (who will be 5 on our Dec. trip) that is 100% g-tube fed.

She's also autistic & character meals are totally lost on her. Disneyland was gracious enough to make special arrangements on the character meals, so we weren't paying for a meal that wouldn't be touched. We've never been to WDW, so I'm looking for all tips, help, etc I can get from these threads & friends that have gone.

 

[mdvlprof]

They wouldn't let us opt-out. Just used his extra meal credits to buy road food for the trip home.
There's not a uniform policy on whether buffets will charge or not. Some charged him as adult [he's 21], some charged as a child, others didn't charge.

 

[dclfun]

This topic comes up frequently and thus far, I know of no one who was able to exclude a family member from the DDP. If you're not using DME you could always leave her off your ressie and then add her as a room-only guest when you arrive so she has a KTTW card for EMH and passes. This way she's not on the "package" which has to include everyone, but will be staying with you w/o the package components.

 

[jducarme]

Thanks everyone for the responses and suggestions. As I suspected, it sounds like there likely isn't an easy, or commonly used, solution to this one. We'll just factor this all into our decision on whether to even add the DP.

We're not interested in pushing the issue with WDW as its difficult for them to design programs that can accomodate every unique family situation, and we respect that. We were there when our daughter was 2, and hooked up to her feeding pump 24x7, and we were more than pleased with how accomodating WDW was to our family.

 

[Bete]

as snacks to share during parades and so forth or having a breakfast at the food court and sharing it. You'll have extra snack credits, too which can be used for a muffin, bagel and so forth for breakfast. If you are thinking about quick service this will be a easy way to go and everyone can share a breakfast.

At table service meals maybe you can get a to go box for later. I just wouldn't order a meat entree in this case. A grilled cheese sandwich or peanut butter sandwich should last long enough to eat later on. Also, a child's portion doesn't add up to too much and maybe you can share the meal right then and there depending on everyone's appetitie.

I think my best answer to you would be to take a vacation when free dining is offered as a promo. There have been some deals this way already for 2012 and hopefully there will be more free dining offers to come. Then if you don't get full value off the DP it's not so bad.

You can do the math, too and see how you would fair with a paid dining plan. There are sites that offer menus to look at; so, you can tell what it would cost out of pocket. For us now unless the plan is free it's not worth it anymore. We have a vegan in our party and a picky, small eater. This just doesn't lend itself to good value for us. We could easily skip dessert, too. Often time we have given our dessert to someone else. I still may consider it if it's free, but I wouldn't pay for it.