upgrading 6 yr old to Adult DDP?

[jsgrand0]

Ok, I know I'm ALLOWED to, but just wondering if anyone has upgraded such a young child to adult DDP....I will already be upgrading my DD9 to the adult plan, as I know she won't like the kids choices everywhere..and I can't blame her! However, if FD comes out, I will most likely upgrade my DS6 as well, for the small price of $25 or whatever it is now. Just wondering if anyone else has done this and how it worked for you? I know it would be a TON of food for the 4 of us...would probably share CS meals once in a while, as far as TS, well, would prob have good amount of leftovers, and would feel bad wasting so much food..but DS loves salad and other types of choices NOT on kids menus. Would hate to let his sister pick whatever she wants from a menu, but tell him..."you get chicken nuggets or a hamburger" (yes, I know many places have more choices, but many don't as well). However, we are also staying at AS Sports and the fridge (from what I've seen) won't be big enough to hold leftovers (along with juice and milk that we plan keeping). Any ideas/tips? Thanks so much for all your help!

Also, figure we could easily split some CS meals, being they'd all be adult, and then have enough left to use for breakfast towards the end (when the donuts and poptarts run out in the room!)

 

[mommyrosa2]

I personally wouldn't. We find that a lot of the restaurants (especially the QS) offer some huge portions and I think unless your 6 yr & 9 yr old for that matter, can eat adult portions at every meal, you'll be wasting a lot of food & $$ for nothing. When my kids were 7 & 11, we ended up going thru a lot of menus on allears.net to try & find places that offered more than just the burgers & chix nuggets and we were quite successful. We ended up doing a lot of character buffets, & tried some other resort restaurants such as cape may at the BC...they have a great dinner buffet (no characters but a great selection of food options). More often than not, we found that my youngest would end up picking off all of our plates b/c many times the meals were huge and we couldn't finish them ourselves. With that said, I do believe the DP in general is a personal choice and no one knows your kids better than you. If you feel it's worth upgrading, then no matter what anyone says, you should do it.

 

[jsgrand0]

At a TS meal...if we upgrade both kids..do we HAVE to use a TS credit for everyone at the meal? What if we order only 3 TS meals between the 4 of us and share...is that possible?

 

[havoc315]

At a TS meal...if we upgrade both kids..do we HAVE to use a TS credit for everyone at the meal? What if we order only 3 TS meals between the 4 of us and share...is that possible?

That is typically permitted, according to reports. But, there are reports that the practice has recently been prohibited at Via Napoli, which requires everyone at the table to use a credit. (As they are not Disney-owned, this may be the exception).

 

[TDC Nala]

Sharing also cannot be done at any buffet, any all you can eat family style restaurant, the fixed price, fixed menu restaurants (Akershus or CRT), dinner shows, or for the skillet entree at Whispering Canyon.

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought that in order to upgrade to an adult DDP, you also had to have adult park tickets.

 

[TDC Nala]

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought that in order to upgrade to an adult DDP, you also had to have adult park tickets.

Yes, because you have to register the child as 10 years old. The OP was asking about upgrading if free dining came out; under the free dining offer, the only thing you pay more for is the tickets, which for her trip would be about a $25 increase for the six year old to have adult credits.

 

[Dis_Dreamin]

Ah...okay, now I get it...thanks for the clarification.

 

[bumbershoot]

I would almost certainly just take that $25 per day, plus the difference between adult and child tickets, and use that *cash* to buy him a salad*, etc, if she's still hungry with the kid's meals.


The normal dining plan doesn't cover appetizers, FYI, so unless there's an entree salad I'm not sure your plan will help with that, anyway.

 

[havoc315]

I would almost certainly just take that $25 per day, plus the difference between adult and child tickets, and use that *cash* to buy him a salad*, etc, if she's still hungry with the kid's meals.


The normal dining plan doesn't cover appetizers, FYI, so unless there's an entree salad I'm not sure your plan will help with that, anyway.

The $25 is total... not per day.


But I would feel odd upgrading a 6 year old.

 

[Sandisw]

I think it really depends on your child but we have found that having the adult dining plan for even my family, where everyone was really dining adults was a lot of food and ended up having snack credits and/or meals left.

But, with free dining, and the cost only being $25 for the trip, I would probably do it to give yourself the flexibility. At the very least, you will feel comfortable at each place getting your child something from either menu.

 

[sharonabe]

If you decide to do it, I'd definitley do a bit more "pre-planning." With 4 adult credits, you can probably do three meals a day and eliminate the need for your breakfast food in the room. Remember, you also have 4 snacks a day to use.

Example: everyone uses their TS allotments at each TS meal, use 2-3 CS for lunch, then have 1-2 CS credits for breakfast and fill in with snack or two if needed.

OR share 3 TS credits just two times and then have 2 TS credits for breakfast to share one day.

There are a lot of possibilities, but it would take some planning to make it work. You wouldn't have any food wasted and it would be less OOP for the things you're bringing from home or ordering from Garden Grocer for the room.

 

[JulieBarlow]

We have booked with free dining for next year and I wanted to upgrade my DD to the adult plan as she turns 10 while we are there. I asked the travel agent if we could do it and they said no because the airline tickets need to have the date of birth that matches her passport and therefore they can't upgrade her park tickets and dining plan as the computer knows she is 9 when we fly out. Does anyone know if there is any way I would be able to contact Disney and get them to apply the upgrade for the park tickets and dining plan rather than doing it through the travel agent? If so who do I call and when do I need to call (i.e. 2 months, 2 weeks or 2 days before we go)

 

[havoc315]

We have booked with free dining for next year and I wanted to upgrade my DD to the adult plan as she turns 10 while we are there. I asked the travel agent if we could do it and they said no because the airline tickets need to have the date of birth that matches her passport and therefore they can't upgrade her park tickets and dining plan as the computer knows she is 9 when we fly out. Does anyone know if there is any way I would be able to contact Disney and get them to apply the upgrade for the park tickets and dining plan rather than doing it through the travel agent? If so who do I call and when do I need to call (i.e. 2 months, 2 weeks or 2 days before we go)

Book the airfare separate from the Disney package. There is no reason the age on the Disney reservation has to match the airline reservation.

 

[WrenNCuckoos]

I've booked my will-be 6 year old as a Disney adult (a 10 year old) for our trip in February. He eats a ton and a wide variety of food, so we didn't want to restrict him to the child's menu everywhere, or to restrict our choices to only those restaurants with a more varied kids' menu. My daughter will be in heaven eating chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese every day, but he would not.

We did book our airfare separately, so the age on his passport is not an issue.

 

[TDC Nala]

Book the airfare separate from the Disney package. There is no reason the age on the Disney reservation has to match the airline reservation.

The person this reply was given to is from the UK...I have heard of international guests having this problem. If they book through a British travel agency in a package including their air travel, I think they do have to have the child's age match the birth date on their passport, which is why British guests have had difficulty upping their children's age to get adult DDP.

 

[KittyKitty]

I wondered if you upgrade a child to adult if it will change the # of adults staying in the room, which may cause additional daily room charge?

 

[TDC Nala]

I wondered if you upgrade a child to adult if it will change the # of adults staying in the room, which may cause additional daily roomcharge?

"Adults" for the room charge are 18 and over. So registering a child as 10 years old will not result in an additional adult room charge.

 

[smiths02]

Ok, I know I'm ALLOWED to, but just wondering if anyone has upgraded such a young child to adult DDP....I will already be upgrading my DD9 to the adult plan, as I know she won't like the kids choices everywhere..and I can't blame her! However, if FD comes out, I will most likely upgrade my DS6 as well, for the small price of $25 or whatever it is now. Just wondering if anyone else has done this and how it worked for you? I know it would be a TON of food for the 4 of us...would probably share CS meals once in a while, as far as TS, well, would prob have good amount of leftovers, and would feel bad wasting so much food..but DS loves salad and other types of choices NOT on kids menus. Would hate to let his sister pick whatever she wants from a menu, but tell him..."you get chicken nuggets or a hamburger" (yes, I know many places have more choices, but many don't as well). However, we are also staying at AS Sports and the fridge (from what I've seen) won't be big enough to hold leftovers (along with juice and milk that we plan keeping). Any ideas/tips? Thanks so much for all your help!

Also, figure we could easily split some CS meals, being they'd all be adult, and then have enough left to use for breakfast towards the end (when the donuts and poptarts run out in the room!)

AS Sports doesn't have a fridge in each room does it?

And if you get free dining at All Star it would probably be QSDP which you would have to upgrade to DDP and pay that cost differential per night for both kids.

And how many meals will you eat that aren't family style or buffet

If your 6 year old orders as an adult, I would also assume your bill and therefore tip amount would be higher...that can add up!

CS meals are definitely big enough to split or go to CS places w/o kids menus

 

[hannahdrewmom]

Personally I'd do it and use the extra meals for a few more ts meals for the family. Then just pay oop for the kids meals. For us that would be a win win. The dxdp can be a lot of food but we always need more TS than we get with the regular. So it would work perfectly!