What is the age that kids must order off adult menu??

[fun2bmomof3]

I have a 12 yr old daughter who eats very little. She doesn't even finish a McDonald's cheeseburger kid meal. I cannot imagine paying for an adult meal for her. Can two children share a meal? I know that at character meals you're paying for the characters as much as you're paying for the food. But at other restuarants could she share the adult meal with her younger sister? Then there wouldn't be as much wasted food.

Thanks

 

[DawnCt1]

Officially 10 but I have no doubt that she will be able to order from the children's meal without anyone batting an eye lash.....unless its buffet.

 

[mef78]

I just read somewhere (allears?) that the age was just changed to 9 yrs.

 

[eeyore0062]

Unless you are eating at the all you can eat buffets or character all you can eat table service, anyone may order from the kids menu. My grandmother does all the time... she eats like a bird!

As for the above mentioned buffets, character meals, etc. They recently have adjusted the ages from 3-11 to 3-9 to correspond to the tickets to the parks. Many people have a problem with this, as most kids in the 10 and 11 year old age group don't have sophistocated palattes, and don't eat enough to warrant paying an adult price.

 

[fun2bmomof3]

You must be kidding me! Paying adult rates for a 9 yr old! My 8 soon to be 9 yr old. eats less than my 12 yr old. The two of them can usually share a kids meal from just about anywhere and both be full, sometimes with food left over. With my family of 6, children ages 9,11,12 and 14 monthes this makes character dining not worth the $$. Character Breakfast would cost 89.95 and $134.95 for dinner. That is alot of money for them not to eat anything. It's going to be a tough decision since I had promised them a character meal this time, our first trip wasn't very well researched so we didn't know about character meals and our trip last year was cut short because of a hurricane. Someone please tell me if it will really be worth it.

 

[msmayor]

I guess my questions is along these same lines...my kids are 11 and 14, both adults in the eyes of Disney. We have the free dining plan, so the cost of the meals isn't an issue...but I just need to know that if they want they can both either order off the kids menu OR eat the kid's choices at the buffets.

They don't have very sophisticated palates...I think my 11 year old would turn into a chicken finger. I just want to make sure that if we go to a table service that has nothing on the adult menu they'll eat, husband and I can still enjoy the choices while the kids feast on grilled cheese or burgers.

As for the character dining being 'worth it', I've always thought it was. It makes a great memory. We still have incredible memories of our breakfast at CRT five years ago, even though back then it was an $85 meal that would have cost less than $30 at the food court. For my family, the breakfasts were really the best deal when we were paying $ because my kids are always starving at breakfast, and they can almost always get lots of pancakes and bacon.

 

[crisi]

And my soon to be seven year old outeats his mom, who has been trying to drop a few pounds and doesn't want to regain it all on a buffet. And my soon to be six year old doesn't eat but six bites, but wastes an incredible amount of buffet food while we figure out which six bites she is willing to eat today.

As to if its worthwhile to you, I don't know. It sound like you've been going pretty regularly. To ME, it is worthwhile to go less often, but spend more on each trip doing what we want to do. If that means going every other year, but we get to do a few character meals, eat some expensive sitdown, see Cirque, send the kids on the pirate cruise, we think that is worthwhile.

 

[fun2bmomof3]

oops ok I misunderstood that ..... my 9 yr old is still a child ... ok well that is an $8 and $15 dollar difference for the meals. I'm sure the character experience will be worth it. Right? Chef Mickeys... Breakfast or Dinner???

 

[Christine]

I had two teenage girls with me on my trip in June (13 and 14 years old). They also don't eat much. They always ordered off the kids menu. One night when we went to Marrakesh, they decided they were just SICK, SICK, SICK of chicken fingers. So they ordered an adult entree of chicken kabobs over rice and split that. They were fine and no cared.

Now, we were not doing the dining plan so I'm not sure how that works since your 12 year old is counted as an adult on the plan.

 

[fun2bmomof3]

Actually this is just our 3rd trip. We went 4 years ago for the first time. We didn't even know about character meals but would have happily paid for one at any price. Last year's trip was delayed due to a hurricane so we got only 3 days at disney.. not much time for a Disney Trip
We just bought into dvc a couple monthes ago and will make our first dvc trip this fall. It's not that I don't have the budget for the character meals... it's more of a value for the experience type thing. This year's trip is taking a more careful buget because we are bringing our daughter's 12yr old friend at our expense. This will be her first and probley her onlyDisney trip during her childhood. We want this to be a magical trip for her, but we do have to stay within our own budget. So yes I do want to be sure the character meals are worth the extra $$. If we walk out of there and they are thought it was a great experience then it was worth every penny even if they ate only 3 bites. But if we walk out of there and it was just something else we did at Disney then I should spent that same amount somewhere else that would have the "awe" effect.

 

[crisi]

We think the value/experience is pretty good....but our kids are younger. However, by the time they are the age of your kids, we probably will skip character meals for a few years - but ours will have already gone.

Go. Do it. If you spend $20 or $30 more than you want (and can afford it), well, it probably won't be the first time you blew $20 and said "what did I do that for"

 

[disnut8]

I don't eat that much myself. ANYONE can order off the kid's menu. The only place you'll have to worry about the age limits is at buffets. And even there, you have lots of kid friendly options. At Boma, my 21 year old son focused on the kids section and ended up rolling out of the place. We were always hesitant about sharing meals but Disney makes it so easy to do it. In fact, we now will go to our trivia nights and split a meal. But, unlike Disney, we have to request a second plate and split it ourselves. Disney usually will do all that for you.