Unusual ticket upgrade question

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I would assume and adult....sorry I have not read thru yet, I am going to in a minute.

I too have a ticket question and didnt want to get started reading here and forget to post my question..... So can you buy water park tickets seperately? I have looked but cant find anything?

Yes, you can buy water parks separately. They are $47.93 for adults and $42.54 for children (3-9), including tax. Or you can add WPFM to your tickets for $55.38 per ticket. If you are going to the WP once, it is cheaper to buy a one day ticket.

 

[5boyz]

Thank you! I really dont like the water parks but my dh and son really want to go I dont like them. Anyway I dont know if it is worth it to spend $220. to go the park for 1/2 a day.....

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Yes but not every child wants to eat off the childrens menu... yes most kids are happy with PB and J or chicken nuggets every meal BUT some kids actually like to eat other stuff besides that and allowing a child to eat off the adult menu shouldn't be the end of the world.. when the whole party in the party package has to have the same package making a family pay OOP at meals for a child who won't use a childs dining point is not fair to that family

Which is why the DDP is not a good fit for every family. I have a DD10 who likes to eat off the adult menu (which is fine - she is a Disney adult). When she was 9, she still liked to eat off the adult menu. Instead of buying the DDP, we paid OOP for all of our meals so she wouldn't have to eat chicken nuggets and PB&J for a week. As long as we are paying, Disney lets us order what we want.

I also have a DD7 who would prefer to live on PB&J and chicken nuggets if only I would let her. Since she is 7, it is no big deal since she wants to order off the kids' menu anyway. When she is ten, she may still want to order off the kids' menu. She will pay the adult price for buffets and character meals even if she eats two chicken nuggets and a plate of grapes - those are the rules Disney sets, so we follow them. It doesn't matter that she probably won't eat $25 worth of food at Crystal Palace - if she is 10 or older, she pays the adult price. But if we are eating at a CS restaurant or a TS restaurant with a menu, Disney will allow her to order off the kids' menu, and we will pay the menu price.

DDP works great for some families, and free dining works great for some families. For others, DDP is not a good fit whether it is free or paid. Disney doesn't require anyone to buy the DDP - it is not an all-incusive resort. If the OP's child wants to order off the adult menu, their family should look into a room only discount and either paying OOP for meals or paying for the adult DDP for anyone that they want to. Besides, Disney doesn't require kids to stick to the kids' menu at buffets or character meals - kids can get whatever they want and only pay the kids' meal price (or one child's credit). Those credits don't have to go to waste. But expecting Disney to pay the difference between a $10.99 steak kids' meal and a $34.99 filet at Le Cellier just because the 8-year old doesn't want chicken nuggets is a bit of a stretch. Disney allows you to book a room at a discount and pay for your own food - no one is forcing a child to live on chicken nuggets for a week. It's just cheaper for the OP to count the child as an adult as long as Disney is paying to feed him.

 

[Bill and Jen]

I am extremely offended by some of the responses in this thread.

First, from what I have read on these boards DISNEY allows a child to be upgraded to the adult dinning plan. The way I understand this is done is by paying the adult price for admission and the Adult Dinning plan.

If Disney does not allow this, a simple no this is not allowed would suffice. If I am wrong about this being allowed by Disney may I be the first to apologize for being misinformed.

Next, there is nothing sneaky or underhanded I am planning. If I was to upgrade my youngest son, I would have to request this through CRO to have our reservation changed to reflect that. For this to be done I would be explaining this to the CM on the phone, no lies, misdirection, etc..

IF we all agree that Disney does allow this practice, the fact we have a bounceback free dining trip makes no difference at all. The promotion is free dining with a package at full price, nothing I have heard says that you can not upgrade a child. It is not stealing or cheating if it is allowable for Disney. If Disney does not allow this for free dinning so be it. I would not even be upset, because it would be Disney policy that does not allow it.. If they do allow it, once again its not cheating it would be Disney Policy that allows it.

Now we get to my question about the AP. Would i have to upgrade the package ticket to an adult ticket or would Disney policy allow me to upgrade it to a childs AP.

Either way if Disney allows me to upgrade my younger son I will, I need to know what to budget for our AP upgrades, no matter if it is the adult price or the childs price.

No where in this scenario am I trying to break a Disney rule or policy, and am being fully up front about what I plan on doing with Disney.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I am extremely offended by some of the responses in this thread.

I'm sorry if I have been one who has offended you. That was never my intent. I have tried not to presume your intent - we all all trying to save money on our Disney trips, and it seems that you are intending to be upfront with Disney rather than trying to get away with something. If it gets the OK from Disney, it will be a great benefit for your family.

I have only heard of them allowing the upgrade when the price difference has been paid, such as upgrading a non-free dining DDP for the cost difference, or upgrading the free QSDP to the regular DDP by paying the difference. All you can do is explain the situation and ask.

The posts I have read on the DIS where a family has upgraded the child to an adult for DDP purposes, the difference in dining plan costs and ticket costs has been paid. I have no idea what that means for upgrading to an AP, which is the question you still need answered. I'm not sure calling Disney will get you the right answer - the people who answer the phones are call center employees, not ticketing CMs.

 

[doconeill]

I am by no means a DDP expert, but I know you can upgrade the free DDP offer to a higher-level DDP by paying the difference. So my guess in this regard is that for a child 3-9, you would get a child's DDP free. If you want to upgrade to the adult DDP for the child, you'd pay the difference between the child and adult cost.

Edit: Having come late to this, I can see that StitchandPooh'sMom already said the same.

The correct way to upgrade the child's DDP is to pay the difference on the DDP. It's independent (AFAIK) of the ticket. How Disney would actually handle it is another matter.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I am sorry if I understood your question as an attempt to cheat the system.

I know that if you do your booking online the system does ask for the ages of the children. If you put in "9" (or less) you will get charged the child price for tickets and dining; if you put in "10" (or more) you will get charged the adult price for tickets and dining.

So if you do it online, and get the free dining, you are cheating.

If you make your reservation by phone through WDTC and tell the agent that "my child is only nine but I would like to get him treated as an adult for the dining plan" you will find you will have to pay the difference between the child and adult dining plans but the ticket will still say child. Although the KTTW will state "child" and the ticket will not ask for biometrics when going through the turnstiles, the dining plan indicators on the KTTW will show adult.

So, if your son's ticket says "child" you will have no problem upgrading to a Child AP. If your son's KTTW says "Adult", you will have a real problem and will usually get a response similar to what I mentioned in my first post.

My original interpretation was that you were planning to lie about his age to get a benefit he was not entitled to (free adult dining). If this was not your intent, then I apologize.

 

[vicki_c]

[deleted part of my original post since CF was posting at the same time]

I agree that it is a complicated or unique question and I don't know the answer. Of everyone who has answered, I'm guessing Cheshire Figment might have the right answer due to his extensive experience in ticketing. [deleted]

But to the OP -- numerous people have stated that they realize you were just asking a question and weren't trying to be sneaky. Some of the more heated or terse answers weren't actually directed at you, but to others throughout the thread as people debated what would/wouldn't be okay. That's just the nature of the DIS - you shouldn't take it all so personally.

 

[seashoreCM]

There was no Disney World when I was growing up but it was quite common for the family to order child meals for the younger members and we cut up the entrees into small pieces and shared.

If you came to my window and wanted to do an upgrade from an adult ticket to a child AP I would ask for proof of birth date. And then your dining plan would be messed up beyond belief for your cheating the company.

An unused standard ticket may be traded in towards another ticket of any kind sold at the ticket booths using a value roughly what Disney originally sold or wholesaled it for.

It is possible that when upgrading a room key ticket to annual pass, that the link to the dining credits gets corrupted. This can be fixed back at your resort. So that the whole family not be crippled in the restaurants for the rest of that day, it is a good idea not to upgrade everyone's tickets to AP all at once, if possible.

I didn't read anything that forbids booking a child (3-9) as a junior (10-17) or adult so he can choose from the adult restaurant menus although all junior or adult rules and charges would apply with respect to the package. He could certainly use a child ticket purchased elsewhere and save the ticket that came with the package. (Then, I haven't read all the brochures thoroughly).

If the same end result including final price tag (example: upgrading a child to free adult dining) might be achieved using a different order of steps over the phone versus on line, if one way is cheating, then the other should also be disallowed.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/dispass.htm