upgrade child 7 to adult on dining plan

[parman]

Have room/ticket/dining pkg at POP in June. We are reservations for 3 adults & grandson 7yrs old. I know he will get tired of the child's menu quickly and would prefer some of the adult type appetizers and desserts. Can his dining plan be upgraded to adult while his park ticket is still a child? Has anyone else had this problem and how was it handled? I wanted some insight before we arrived. Thanks for any help.

 

[powellrj]

while I am not sure of the answer to your question, could you check out the menus before you go and make some ADRs at places that offer things he would like and maybe add a few buffets and family style meals so he can eat what he would like?

 

[Pedler]

Have room/ticket/dining pkg at POP in June. We are reservations for 3 adults & grandson 7yrs old. I know he will get tired of the child's menu quickly and would prefer some of the adult type appetizers and desserts. Can his dining plan be upgraded to adult while his park ticket is still a child? Has anyone else had this problem and how was it handled? I wanted some insight before we arrived. Thanks for any help.

I don't think you will be able to do this. Two problems. First you would have to upgrade his park ticket to an adult as well, in essence change your reservation to 4 adults. The dinning plan is priced and directly tied to the reservation which of course determines your ticket price. Second the dinning plan credits are pooled. There aren't any child / adult credits. If a child uses a dinning plan credit they have to order from the children's menu regardless of how much was paid for the credit so even if you could pay the adult price for the dinning plan for your grandson he would still have to order from the kids menu.

Parman reccomendation is a good one. Check out the menus at the TS places. Many of them have pretty decent kids menu's and of course the buffets offer a variety of food. Kids can get anything on the buffets, they don't just need to eat from the kids food section. The counter service places are where you will have the biggest issue. The kids menus at counter service places are very limited. An option here would be to share adult meals with him. The adult CS meals are pretty large and between the three adults you may not have a problem sharing with your grandson.

 

[headoflife]

While I understand your concern about the limited kids menus, you really can't pay for just the dining as an adult. Your tickets would need to be at the adult rate and the room would add an extra adult charge. In addition, Disney does keep track of the information you provide, so if you were to travel to WDW again, the incorrect info you would provide would be in the system, resulting in at the very least some questions on how the child in question got younger. Now if only I could figure out a way to get younger!

I would recommend checking out the menus, and considering some buffets since at those the children can eat anything that is avaiable. When we did the dinig plan we discovered it provided so much food that we often shared our adult meals with my DD, if she didn't like what was on the kids menu.

 

[LAWalz23]

We are going to have the same issue with my niece and nephew who aren't big on kids meals anyway in August. You can try places such as the Concourse, Coral Reef and LeCellier, they all have more than the usual kids fare. DIS home and allearsnet.com both have menus that you can check out before you go. Good Luck!

 

[Letsbgoofy]

I would call and ask. There is a thread about somebody purchasing the DP for a 2 year old and not having to purchase a ticket for the child, so why not let a 7 year old purchase the adult plan?

If you did, your card would say 4A, so the child would not have to order off the children's menu as mentioned in another post.

I know my son would never have been able to eat off the children's menu for a week at that age. Buffets are an option if you can't upgrade his plan; at least he would be able to pick what he likes.

Good luck. Please post and let us know what happens.

 

[gigi1313]

in addition to buffets are the all-you-care-to-eat meals (i.e. LTT, Garden Grill, skillet @ WCC, etc) which serve a nice variety of food that would please most palates...

also, my ds is picky but has some "adult" tastes and i would just swap appetizers and that satisfied him (i.e. at mama melrose he had my fresh mozz and tomatoes and i had his garden salad)... also, the kids' menus are "expanding" as far as selection goes and some TS restaurants are still offering adult appys to kids...

 

[Lesley]

There is not an extra adult charge for the room for a child who is considered an adult by Disney standards (10yo+). Children who are 10yo+ are expected to order from the adult menu and are counted as adults for dining and tickets, but there is not an extra adult charge for the room.

If you were just saying your 7yo is 10yo....you would have to pay for an adult park ticket and for adult dining....I don't know that there would be a way for you to just pay the extra for the dining and not for the park ticket. You could call and ask....

 

[SELLINGINNJ]

We are going in August with free dining. My 9 year old really doesn't like kids meals anymore. I just said she was 10 and wound up paying for an adult park ticket for her as well as the adult dining plan. The difference in price(between child and adult) was not that much.

 

[parman]

Thanks again to all that responded with help. I'll post with whatever results I get when I return.

 

[Palendat]

I would just take the $27.00 per day that you would have to pay extra to upgrade him and buy him an entree OOP at the table service places that you go to that aren't buffets. AND, if on even 2 of your days, you eat at buffets, then you will probably be money ahead with this plan. Unless, of course, that you are going during free dining. If that was the case, you could simply share a few of your adult entrees. There is usually LOTS of food when you include the appetizer.

 

[PolynesianGrl]

if you haven't done the dining plan yet, let me just tell you.... it is ALOT of food. You'll be surprised. You can probably get away with sharing appetizers and things with him that will help to give some variety and "grown-up" things to eat. Have fun!!!

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I don't think this will be as much of a problem as you anticipate. The adults in your party are probably not going to be able to eat 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and 3 deserts. You can probably share 2 appetizers among the 3 of you and "donate one" to your DGS. Or you can "trade" with him. For example California Grill has a delicious hearts of romaine salad that's on both child and adult menu -- I'd be happy to order that and let my DS6 pick something off the adult menu. As for desert I never had room for it (and I'm a big eater!) on the DDP, so DS got to choose whatever he wanted.

In addition to the buffets and other "all you care to eat" style restaurants, there are a number of restaurants that have interesting choices for children -- Teppanyaki is one that comes to mind. My guess is that you aren't going to need to order him an "adult" entree that often and if you do it a couple of times it will just be cheaper to order OOP. Just tell the waitress that you want to pay OOP for the cheapest of whatever 4 entrees you order.

 

[kcrew]

I have sons 8 and 9 that eat like grown men. I was up front with my travel agent and I listed them both as 10 on the reservation. I did have to pay the adult park price for them. Seeing that I paid the upcharge, I am paying for what I am receiving and therefore don't feel its unethical. I have no intention of playing "credit games", we'll just all order what we paid for.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

kcrew,

Did you check to see if you could buy the adult DP for them and still get them children's park tickets?

 

[Gillian]

I have heard of people doing this, or upgrading a 2 year old to a child, BUT those people were all staying in DVC resorts on points, where tickets are not tied to the room. The dining plan is a separate add on for DVC members.

I really think you'll be fine with the kids meals.

 

[patsal]

Last December my DD was a child on the plan--she has very grown up food tastes. The children's plan still worked out but I did have a few places where I paid OOP. By paying the then 10.00 for her I still saved with additional OOP rather than an upgrade to the then $35.00. She didn't care for many of the CS options granted to kids in the parks--of course not --why would she want mac and cheese while others are having pizza, or cold chicken chunks when others are having cheeseburgers and don't even get me started on the weenies and beans . What we did was order three CS for the adults and one hot dog(or chicken fingers or cheeseburger or whatever) OOP--always more than enough fries to share and under $5.00. Her snack credit could be used for dessert though she and I would usually share my CS dessert. For TS we always ate at places that had what I would consider the better children's meals--grilled chicken and veggies, etc. when we did not eat at buffets. there was always mroe than enough food and she was happy. Her CS credits were used for Mickey waffles except for the one time when I was helping my sister with her kids and sent my kids to grab their own food at the American Pavillion--DS is 14 and wanted a bacon cheeseburger so DD went with him and came out with a chicken finger combo meal and dessert--I asked her why she used her own money to pay for her meal and she said she didn't; she said she just ordered what she wanted and the CM gave it to her. SO I guess we were cheaters, but not intentionally on that one!

 

[TONNIE]

dd9 ,ds8 went in November on the DDP and my daughter is a big eater and didnt care much for the kids menu. I had no problem ordering cs. I ordered 2 adult cs and 1 childrens no problems the CM didnt care and sometimes even let my son order the adult chicken fingers ( he ate chicken fingers and fries the whole trip lunch and dinner ).


For ts we ate at character buffets so it wasnt a issue neither was Snack credits

 

[Priorityonecb]

Our 9 year old also has "adult" tastes. We plan to let her order from the kids menu, then "embelish" her dining experience by allowing her to sample the three appetizers, entrees and desserts from the three adults in our party. I know she is looking forward to sampling her sisters shrimp cocktail at LeCellier, and my mushroom filet from there as well! Oh, and you know we will *all be sampling her chocolate mousse!

 

[Sammie]

Ok this is where I don't think the way the plan is set up is fair.

You've got adults eating adult meals from the family pool of credits and regardless of how you want to candy coat it, some of those were paid for at a child's cost.

And you have these families with 9 year olds that are as hungry as some adults and they are forced to eat from the child's menu. If Disney truly does not care that adults are pool credits and getting adult meals at children's costs why is this child not allowed to do the same as adults are doing.