So conflicted on whether to upgrade 9yr old?!

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Okay, so I went through the whole thing with calling and getting my 9yr old upgraded to an adult for our regular DDP. He is a big guy, and can eat as much as me,but now he tells me he wants his kid choices(he is definitely a chicken nugget kid)- especially his grapes! lol Anyway, this upped our cost almost $300!! So I'm not thinking it is worth it anyway considering almost all of our TS are buffets! Should I change him back and just supplement OOP if needed??

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Does anyone have any experience personally with upgrading or not upgrading a child that's almost 10 (as far as portion sizes etc)?

 

[darthminnie]

In my experience, an upgrade is not needed, if your kid likes the kids choices - that's great. Disney seems to have expanded the kids choices and the serving size is really good.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

In my experience, an upgrade is not needed, if your kid likes the kids choices - that's great. Disney seems to have expanded the kids choices and the serving size is really good.

Thanks..I have been looking for pics of kids meals but haven't found many compared to pics of adult meals. I just want it to be simple and not have to be buying him extra food the entire time..but for $300 more?!

 

[marivigi]

If youre doing mostly buffets, I dont think its worth it, since he wont be limited from ordering from the kids options ate buffets

if you were to suplement oop, I doubt it would amount to 300

 

[carmelhp]

If youre doing mostly buffets, I dont think its worth it, since he wont be limited from ordering from the kids options ate buffets

if you were to suplement oop, I doubt it would amount to 300

Ditto, total waste of money. We did buffets specifically so our 9 year old foodie daughter didn't have to eat only chicken nuggets for a week. Do buffets and supplement non-buffet days with good counter service locations.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Yes, we are doing all dinner buffets for TS except two out of the seven days. All lunch will be counter service. And the only table service days that I will worry about are the non-buffet ones- that would be BOG and T-Rex. I imagine the portions and choices will be fine at T-Rex though since we have been there before.

 

[iheartMagicKingdom]

Yes, we are doing all dinner buffets except two out of the seven days. All lunch will be counter service. And out of the two table service days the only one I will worry about is BOG since I imagine the portions will be fine at the other one (T-Rex).

Uhmmmmm.......probably shouldn't say this but when we go to disney with my 3 children and we do our QS I have my husband sit down at the table with the kids and I order all adult meals. There is no way that my kids will eat chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly everyday. No one ever questions it. I order the good and tell them how many credits I want to use. Hopefully this helps if the only other meals you are doing are QS. BOG QS I did the same thing, just ordered all adult meals. The kids loved all the goods they were able to eat.

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[smiths02]

2 adult TS meals OOP and extra counter service won't cost $300! Also, the amount to tip at buffets will be more (assuming you tip a %age of the bill).

ETA: You can use kids CS as a snack if portions are too small and just pay OOP.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

2 adult TS meals OOP and extra counter service won't cost $300! Also, the amount to tip at buffets will be more (assuming you tip a %age of the bill). ETA: You can use kids CS as a snack if portions are too small and just pay OOP.

Yeah, the amount seemed crazy to me. I went and looked and my total was $4585, then went up to $4854 after upgrading him!

 

[2Tiggies]

Does anyone have any experience personally with upgrading or not upgrading a child that's almost 10 (as far as portion sizes etc)?

I upgraded my DD at 8 and 9, but for the choices, not the portions sizes.

I think the kids portions are pretty small while the adult portions (especially the CS meals) are on the other extreme. Remember he gets a regular snack with the kids plan just like you do.

I'd take the advice by the previous posters on considering the buffets and keep him as a child and pay OOP for extras. I don't think I would have upgraded DD for portion sizes. I only did it for variety as she was never a nuggets/pizza/PBJ kid.

 

[maxiesmom]

Uhmmmmm.......probably shouldn't say this but when we go to disney with my 3 children and we do our QS I have my husband sit down at the table with the kids and I order all adult meals. There is no way that my kids will eat chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly everyday. No one ever questions it. I order the good and tell them how many credits I want to use. Hopefully this helps if the only other meals you are doing are QS. BOG QS I did the same thing, just ordered all adult meals. The kids loved all the goods they were able to eat.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Yeah, you are not supposed to do that. If you are on the dining plan and have kids, they are supposed to order kid's meals where offered. It tells you that in the terms of the dining plan. Don't be surprised if Disney closes this loop-hole because of abuse.

 

[davedmaine]

Okay, so I went through the whole thing with calling and getting my 9yr old upgraded to an adult for our regular DDP. He is a big guy, and can eat as much as me,but now he tells me he wants his kid choices(he is definitely a chicken nugget kid)- especially his grapes! lol Anyway, this upped our cost almost $300!! So I'm not thinking it is worth it anyway considering almost all of our TS are buffets! Should I change him back and just supplement OOP if needed??

If you're debating this, you'd be better just dumping the plan and paying OOP

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

I realize it seems crazy to even be conflicted when the price is so much higher bit I just wanted an all in one prepaid deal for our first onsite stay, and instead I will probably be standing in line deciding how much extra food/drink he needs for each meal (eg. if they still have those tiny Mickey milks he will probably need about 3!) But obviously to save money I guess that's what I need to do!

 

[carmelhp]

Yeah, you are not supposed to do that. If you are on the dining plan and have kids, they are supposed to order kid's meals where offered. It tells you that in the terms of the dining plan. Don't be surprised if Disney closes this loop-hole because of abuse.

We were told just the opposite at several CS places. They told us it applies only to TS, and at CS, they can order whatever they want and we did. If it's a "loophole" then they haven't even told their own people about it.

 

[maxiesmom]

We were told just the opposite at several CS places. They told us it applies only to TS, and at CS, they can order whatever they want and we did. If it's a "loophole" then they haven't even told their own people about it.

It states right in the information for the dining plan that children ages 3-9 must chose from a children's menu, if one is available. Not all quick service restaurants have children's menus. If that is the case then the credit is used for whatever meal the child wants.

It is only an issue because the quick service credits are all pooled together, unlike the table service credits, which are sorted between adults and children credits. For quick service Disney relies on the honor system.

Here is a link to it:https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/vacation-packages/2014/quick-serve-dining/

 

[carmelhp]

It states right in the information for the dining plan that children ages 3-9 must chose from a children's menu, if one is available. Not all quick service restaurants have children's menus. If that is the case then the credit is used for whatever meal the child wants.

It is only an issue because the quick service credits are all pooled together, unlike the table service credits, which are sorted between adults and children credits. For quick service Disney relies on the honor system.

Here is a link to it:https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/vacation-packages/2014/quick-serve-dining/

I'll say it again, if it is a "loophole," then they're not even effective at communicating to their own servers how it works. WPE has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Riverside Mill has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Pecos Bill has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Y&Y Cafe has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. We asked at early CS from which we ordered. Regardless of what WDW puts on their webpage, the actual people who are serving are saying something completely different.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'll say it again, if it is a "loophole," then they're not even effective at communicating to their own servers how it works. WPE has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Riverside Mill has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Pecos Bill has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. Y&Y Cafe has a children's menu. They said you do not have to order off the children's menu, we asked. We asked at early CS from which we ordered. Regardless of what WDW puts on their webpage, the actual people who are serving are saying something completely different.

And unfortunately that does happen. Their training seems to be lacking. You can ask 4 CMs the same question and get 4 different answers. Not any guest's fault. But you can clearly see what their actual posted policy is. If CMs misunderstand or just don't care to enforce it, that is another thing.

 

[carmelhp]

And unfortunately that does happen. Their training seems to be lacking. You can ask 4 CMs the same question and get 4 different answers. Not any guest's fault. But you can clearly see what their actual posted policy is. If CMs misunderstand or just don't care to enforce it, that is another thing.

That illustrates my point, we asked 6 different CMs the same question, and consistently got the same answer. If Disney was as priggishly concerned about this as some may believe then I would expect the training to be more consistent and or, at least, some variance in the answer. None said you have to order off the children's menu. It appears to be a non-issue to them.

 

[maxiesmom]

That illustrates my point, we asked 6 different CMs the same question, and consistently got the same answer. If Disney was as priggishly concerned about this as some may believe then I would expect the training to be more consistent and or, at least, some variance in the answer. None said you have to order off the children's menu. It appears to be a non-issue to them.

Which is why I referred to what their written policy is, instead of what a random CM may say or do. The policy is in black and white. If they always enforce it is another thing. And it is best to know what the policy is and not expect it to always be ignored.