Dining Plan with a 10 year old

[g8rgirl29]

We have always gotten the Disney dining plan but this will be the first year our daughter will be 10 and not on the children's plan. She is not a big eater and as we sat down today to look over choices on the menus, let's just say she is less than happy. Now I am trying to decide if we should just skip the dining plan and let her just choose off the kids meals or a la carte. What do you guys do for this age when they aren't really adult diners yet but are above the 3-9 dining plan age?? I am not trying to cheat the system here, I would pay as adult for our buffet reservations.

[VWL Mom]

I would forego the dining plan if she's only going to get kid's meals. OOP would probably work better.

I noticed you you stay DVC, are you a member? The reason I ask is you may be better off getting a Tables In Wonderland card. It gives 20% at most TS locations and lounges. May be worth looking into.

[g8rgirl29]

We aren't DVC members but rent points. I think we will probably need to pass on the dining plan. I love having everything but tips taken care of before we go but I know she will never eat all that is on the adult meal. Plus, at most of the restaurants we picked there isn't much that she even likes on the adult menus. We could make it work with substituting this for that and leaving a lot of food behind. But what I see happening is paying the adult plan price and her ordering off the child meal list at 80% of the meals. I really wish they had a junior plan!!

[Arielfan98]

Disney is really good with making accommodations as far as offering simple and basic options. I would consult a Disney rep because I know in the past a woman was able to get the kid's DP for her husband who had a surgery and couldn't eat much. Maybe if you ask a Disney rep if you could opt for the kids meal but pay adult price? I would also book a ton of CS places to get kid's meals a la carte.

[chefmickey3]

Skip the dining plan and save a lot of money! My 12 year old still eats off the kids menu at most Disney restaurants - for both his tastes and portions. The dining plan would be a waste for my family.

You could use an adult credit to by a kids meal but then you are giving Disney the money. Doesn't make any sense. Even if it was "free" dining - take the room discount instead and save money.

[disneynarula]

You could also consider using her dining credits for the adults to use at signature restaurants and then pay out of pocket for your ten year old. Since we have free dining we are going to do that. Obviously it won't work at a buffet since you have to pay the adult price for a ten year old anyway but it would be fine at other-order off the menu type places.

You can also just let her choose off the children's menu anyway.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We took our then 11 yr old Godson with us once on the DDP (free) and the next year without the DDP- there was no free deals that time. I worked out how much his food would have cost on the DDP. I'm really glad we didn't pay for it! He averaged $18 a day. Not worth the DDP!

I was loathe to give up paying in advance and having it all taken care of. So I came up with a strategy. As I saved money, I bought Disney gift cards. I figured out roughly how much we would spend on meals- being conservative. At the end of the trip we had $110 left on the gift cards. We had fun shopping for souvenirs with our "found" money! Plus it was nice not having to make sure our snack was on the DDP. There was some freedom to ordering whatever we wanted!

As an aside, I figured what we would spend on tips and had the cash sorted out in little envelopes so that I only had to grab it everyday- no thinking required. I'm a little type A I guess

Enjoy your trip!!