Child considered an Adult

[Diane Hughess]

My daughter is 10. She eats off the childrens menu, and sticks to pizza, chicken nuggets, etc. We are going on the free dining, and with DDP she is considered an adult. Does she HAVE to order off the adult menu, or can she order off the childrens menu?
We have 2 real adults, and 2 children. Since there are no more appetizers offered, if the other real adult & I order a 3rd adult meal to share (kind of use as an appetizer), can I pay cash for an extra child meal (we have 3 AD credits, 1 CH, and would order 3 AD meals and 2 CH)?? Does anyone know if this is allowed? Thanks.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Never used the DDP - but my wife and 16yr old usually order from the childrens menu without any problems

 

[Master Yoda]

It is up to the restaurant but you should not have a problem unsung an adult credit for a child's meal at a TS restaurant. It can get a little more complicated at a CS restaurant but you should still not have an issue. Just explain the situation to the CM when you are ordering and they will do everything they can to accommodate you.

 

[tampabrad]

For a money concious company like disney, I think they would be happy to give you something off of the childrens menu instead of a steak off of the adult menu.

Have a great trip!

 

[Lucky]

You can do that, but with 5 meals you'll have boatloads of food.

An alternative would be to save an adult credit each meal and schedule an extra meal or two.

 

[Herdman]

This is one of my pet peeves with Disney. My daughter was 10 when we visited in June. I agree if they are tall enough to ride all the rides (as most 10 year olds are) you should have to buy an adult ticket for park entrance. But I think they should at least go to 12 for the dining plan. She eats like a bird, and we did not do it because I knew we would have a lot of wasted food and expense.

Sorry for venting.

 

[disneynut4u]

On 3 previous trips we used the dining plan. We had no real issue at the time, because all the kids were 9 & under. However, before the plan was offered, we did have adults eat from the children's menu at Coral Reef. They are VERY picky eaters and would not eat anything from the adult menu. The CMs were very understanding. We also were able to split some meals. That was helpful.

Our trip scheduled for May 2010, we decided not to use the dining plan because 2 of my nieces who are 10 & 11 don't eat enough to feed a bird! I could not justify paying for the adult price on the dining plan. At CS restaurants, I could easily order on the kid menus for all of us. Who's going to check me? Buffets are no problem either. TS options we'll just have to play by ear.

 

[Diane Hughess]

This is one of my pet peeves with Disney. My daughter was 10 when we visited in June. I agree if they are tall enough to ride all the rides (as most 10 year olds are) you should have to buy an adult ticket for park entrance. But I think they should at least go to 12 for the dining plan. She eats like a bird, and we did not do it because I knew we would have a lot of wasted food and expense.

Sorry for venting.

Thank you for all of your responses! I agree with 12 being a good age to be considered an adult. She would cry is she couldn't just have pizza!
Also, the extra entree thing--I was specifically thinking Cellier, a filet each and split the Diver Scallops!! Yumm!
I didn't think they'd let you 'save' an adult credit? I thought everyone at the table had to use the same plan, 1 credit each? I guess it depends which restaurant you are eating at!
Thanks again!

 

[Atomicmickey]

We're in a similar situation with my 12 year old daughter--she
doesn't eat much, and would sometimes just prefer chicken nuggets.

We were there on the Dining Plan last year, and NO you don't need to
use the adult credit. Just order something off the kids menu and
pay for it. Then, you've saved a credit to use elsewhere.

They are sorta/kinda/mostly accommodating of stuff like this.

We also ordered an adult meal and my wife shared it with her,
thus saving a credit.

We always made sure to ask, we weren't trying to cheat or pull a fast
one.

So take it one meal at a time and see what happens.

We ended up with three extra meal credits, so we found a restaurant
to go to (Biergarten) and just paid for two people, so we squeezed
in "an extra" table service meal doing this.

 

[Phonedave]

This is one of my pet peeves with Disney. My daughter was 10 when we visited in June. I agree if they are tall enough to ride all the rides (as most 10 year olds are) you should have to buy an adult ticket for park entrance. But I think they should at least go to 12 for the dining plan. She eats like a bird, and we did not do it because I knew we would have a lot of wasted food and expense.

Sorry for venting.

No problem with the venting

The thing is, Disney has to pick an age. They picked 10. I am sure there are just as many bird like eating 12 y/o as there are people like my 10 y/o daughter who I have watched polish off a Porterhouse steak and baked potato by herself (and no, she is not overweight either)

She now takes great pleasure, whenever we go out to eat, in sending back the kids menu and asking for a "real" one.

So whle for some kids 10 is still kids meal age, for others its not. You are not going to satisfy everyone, so they just picked 10.

-dave

 

[rkelly42]

No problem with the venting

The thing is, Disney has to pick an age. They picked 10. I am sure there are just as many bird like eating 12 y/o as there are people like my 10 y/o daughter who I have watched polish off a Porterhouse steak and baked potato by herself (and no, she is not overweight either)

She now takes great pleasure, whenever we go out to eat, in sending back the kids menu and asking for a "real" one.

So whle for some kids 10 is still kids meal age, for others its not. You are not going to satisfy everyone, so they just picked 10.

-dave

I totally agree with you here, if they said adult was 12 and up there would be people who would complain that their 11yr and 10yr old kids cant eat off the adult menu. I understand where everyone else is coming from with the 10yr olds having to order adult meals, but like previously stated you should not have a problem with substituting a kids meal for an adult one.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

No problem with the venting

The thing is, Disney has to pick an age. They picked 10. I am sure there are just as many bird like eating 12 y/o as there are people like my 10 y/o daughter who I have watched polish off a Porterhouse steak and baked potato by herself (and no, she is not overweight either)

She now takes great pleasure, whenever we go out to eat, in sending back the kids menu and asking for a "real" one.

So whle for some kids 10 is still kids meal age, for others its not. You are not going to satisfy everyone, so they just picked 10.

-dave

This is soooo true for us, too. My oldest, now 13, has been eating off adult menus for several years and does some serious damage. Our youngest, just shy of 12, rarely wants anything more than a kids bowl of pasta with butter. It's crazy how vastly different these boys are with some things. :shrug:


To the OP, a friend of mine is a server at LTT & we talked about the age thing. He said when parents come in & he can tell they're lying about their kid's age it really irks him and he's more likely to make you stick to the rules. If parents go in & are honest - Yes, Little Johnny is 11 but he'd really rather have the children's food - he's more than happy to help ya out and just charge you the kid's price. We've done this a lot with our youngest and have had very few experiences where the wait staff were unable or unwilling to work with whatever request we had. Just be honest. They appreciate that. Oh! And whenever a waiter/waitress "helped" us out we left them a bit extra on the tip as a thank you.

 

[amaley01]

This is great info, we are in the same boat and for our next trip we're considering not doing the DQS/DDP (which we have done both in the past). Our DD 10 usually order from the children's menu or split an adult meal with her sister & DD 7 picks from everyone plate. We can't justify the cost for the plan. :veryconfu