Kid's meals on DDP

[bicker]

Healthy shouldn't mean gross!

I think folks should be careful about making generalization like this. The child meals aren't "gross". You and/or your child may not like them, but from what I saw, someone likes each one of them. As a matter of fact, the only concerns I saw expressed were regarding the child-meal desserts -- not one parent I spoke to had anything bad to say about the child-meal entrees their children were eating.

Some are saying that these meals are made to deter adults ...well let's be sure about one thing if they deter adults, they most definitely will deter children!

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Many children will eat food that adults would find too dull and boring, and indeed many child won't eat food that adults enjoy specifically because the food isn't dull and boring.

I don't have the option of not doing DDP for my kids

Keep in mind that every family has the option of not doing the Dining Plan. If it isn't right for your family, don't purchase it.

 

[bicker]

There are plenty of kid meal options at most fast food places today.

There is also a lot of competition: The fast-food joints don't have a choice. So the fast-food joints' situation is exactly opposite: They have to offer what they offer in order to achieve their optimal result, while Disney's optimal offering is affected by different forces and different mechanics.

 

[Disneyolic]

I think this is kind of strange. I don't think that most of the kids meals choices, be it TS or CS, are really that bad. Some places are better than others, of course, and that is totally an opinion.

The only change I would like to see is another option for dessert at the CS. I know almost everyone agrees with that. Even if it is a cookie, it would be nice to have a choice.

Otherwise, after viewing many, many menus, I'm pretty positive my kids won't starve and will be satisfied most of the time. And, I believe that the cost you pay per day for each child is really pretty good considering what you get for the entire day!

 

[bicker]

I also don't believe that Disney was losing $$ from selling kids meals to the small minority of adults who wanted to buy one. ... how are they losing $$?

Hopefully I can help you understand it: The way things are now they get 75% of a certain set of people to pay $15. The way you would have them operate, they get 95% of that certain set of people to pay $8.

0.75 * 15 = $11.25
0.95 * 8 = $7.60

Which would you prefer? Using the alternative approach, Disney would lose lots of revenue.

 

[englishrose47]

I don't have the most healthy eaters for grandkids but they all love salad, the plain regular type,they like apples and bananas, they like peas,yoghurt, plain pizza, baked chicken, mac & cheese, they don't like chilled chicken or chicken on pizza they would like a sugar free pudding but not jello. There are so many differnt healthy options that Disney could have picked that would heve been Kid friendly. Finally it should be the parents deciding what is healthy not Disney. Fries and better desserts should be an option!!

 

[otoole]

Quote from bickier:
I think folks should be careful about making generalization like this. The child meals aren't "gross". You and/or your child may not like them, but from what I saw, someone likes each one of them. As a matter of fact, the only concerns I saw expressed were regarding the child-meal desserts -- not one parent I spoke to had anything bad to say about the child-meal entrees their children were eating.

I disagree, it seems that plenty of parents on the DIS have complained that the stouffer's mac and cheese, PB&J (which is one of the few things my kids won't eat) and the chilled chicken are in fact GROSS albeit not to everyone but certainly to many! I have been scanning all of the menus trying to find alternatives for CS and there are few. Not all kids are picky eaters and certainly if Disney wanted to offer healthy meals where are the choices of fish or chicken with vegetables? How is PB&J or mac and cheese healthier than a pizza? Why couldn't they offer a healthy adult meal in a child-sized portion?



Quote:
Originally Posted by otoole
Some are saying that these meals are made to deter adults ...well let's be sure about one thing if they deter adults, they most definitely will deter children!
Quote from bicker:
Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Many children will eat food that adults would find too dull and boring, and indeed many child won't eat food that adults enjoy specifically because the food isn't dull and boring.

Read all of the posts from parents that switched with their kids to allow them to enjoy a meal only to find that they too couldn't stomach the meal.


Quote:
Originally Posted by otoole
I don't have the option of not doing DDP for my kids
Quote from bicker:
Keep in mind that every family has the option of not doing the Dining Plan. If it isn't right for your family, don't purchase it.

True, but we all know that adults save a lot of money on the dining plan and with my mother coming as well (3 adults) it doesn't ake sense not to get the dining plan. My concern is that there is a huge gap between what is being offered to adults and that which is offered to children. Like I have posted earlier, I can have steak, seafood... and no one questions how much money it is costing Disney, while my child has a choice between mac and cheese and chilled chicken (for many meals with little variance) and now it becomes an issue?!

 

[bicker]

I disagree, it seems that plenty of parents on the DIS have complained

That's often what happens on online discussions forums. What matters, however, is what the entire set of guests actually do -- their actual purchasing behaviors. From those I spoke with and observed there last week, I don't believe the problem is as bad as you're making it out to be. We can agree to disagree about that, if you'd like. I'm sure we each had our own experiences.

Why couldn't they offer a healthy adult meal in a child-sized portion?

This question has been answered perhaps a half-dozen times in this thread already.

True, but we all know that adults save a lot of money on the dining plan

As they do if they have children who enjoy the child meals. By the same token, folks who enjoy haute cuisine don't save much money, because they use their Dining Plan credits for all signature meals, and therefore doing get a good value. Other guests don't enjoy taking up so much time at sit down meals, so don't get a good value because they have TS credits left-over at the end. For still others, even with the child credits being left unused, they still save money. Each family will have their own situation. The Dining Plan is only good for SOME families. Other families should simply not purchase it. That's all I was saying.

 

[englishrose47]

Hey I hopr Disney is not using PeterPan Peanut butter!!! My DGS wouldn't order that anyway!!I'm really glad Disney still thinksMac & Cheese is healthyshush don't tell 'em about Trans fats etc..!!

 

[Katiebell]

Even if your child hates the counter service meal selections , if you do one TS meal a day, the DDP is an excellent value.

Per child, the cost of the DDP is $10.99/day. Here are the prices of some of popular character meals or buffets:

Donald's Breakfastosaurus: $10.99
Akershus Princess Story Book: $12.99 breakfast, $13.99 lunch or dinner
Biergarten: $10.99 lunch, $11.99 dinner
Crystal Palace: $10.99 breakfast, $11.99 lunch, $12.99 dinner
Chef Mickey's: $10.99 breakfast, $12.99 dinner
Boma: $9.99 breakfast, $11.99 dinner
Hollywood & Vine: $12.99 breakfast, $13.99 lunch, $11.99 dinner (no characters)

TS entrees for kids at other restaurants aren't as expensive as the buffets and character meals -- but they can be even more expensive once you add in the appetizer, entree, dessert, and beverage that are included in the DDP. Some of the TS choices look really good. Check out the kids' menus for the Epcot TS meals, Sci Fi, 50's Prime Time, Liberty Tree, Tony's Town Square...

Add to that the snack valued at up to $4, and you are way ahead, not counting a CS meal at all.

As for CS meals...some look awful, others look much better. If your kids aren't picky and will eat anything, or if they won't eat anything anyway, then it doesn't matter. If your kids only like certain entrees, then research the menus and figure out what CS restaurants are the best in each park. Use the CS meal credits for whatever your kid will eat from them, even if it's more of a snack than a meal. Throw away the jello if you don't want it and buy your kid a Dole Whip instead! Make good use of the snack credits. Share some of your adult meal. If you order a double cheeseburger, I have read from several sources that you can order a second bun for less than a dollar, and split the burger that way. There are a lot of options, you've just gotta be creative

 

[Disneynut4ever]

ITA!!! I wasn't trying to take advantage of the DDP, but we noticed that CS wasn't split between adult and child so their were a few times that I ordered pizza or a hamburger off the adult menu for my girls to split. Shame on me, I know.

What do you mean, exactly? Did you use an adult meal ticket for your child?

 

[beth_cam]

What do you mean, exactly? Did you use an adult meal ticket for your child?

there are no meal tickets adult child or otherwise. symantics here sorry. Hope this helps with understanding. I'm in a bit of a hurry and may not make sense.

What there is is your keycard to your room, on which is stored not only your room 'key' but also your park tickets and your dining plan information. When you get the dining plan at this point it will show by using that card that when you check in you have 1 table service, 1 counter service, 1 snack for each member of your party for each night of your stay..'loading' the card with a total of those credits. The card will also state how many adults/children are in your party. Further it will break that down some of the child verses adult credits showing if say you are staying 3 nights and you are a party of 1 adult and 1 child - it will say 3 adult table service, 3 child table service, 6 counter service, 6 snacks. There has been much discussion/debate on using adult for children or children for adults. You pay 10.99 for a kids day on the plan but you are purchasing adult food with it etc. Disney has decided that they do not want to allow this accross the board and that is why the table services are specific as to how many adult/child there are. They have yet to do this with the counter service meals. To pay for meals you give them the card and they take off the appropriate credits. Well when the credits arent separated for child/adult a lot of times people will order all adult meals especially in the counter service (or sharing the adult meal with the child, then using the 'child' credit to gain extra for themself people did this alot before table services were separated were even encouraged to do wo by cm's during the first year of the plan)...for in the above example where you have paid for 3 days adult and 3 days child you are acheiving 6 adult meals.

So the other poster was saying that instead of ordering an unwanted kids meal for each of her 2 children she ordered an adult meal and let them split it. There is no way for the casheir to really prevent this. There is nothing to tell the cashier that you have so many adult counter services and child counter services only the total number of services left available.

 

[frannn]

What do you mean, exactly? Did you use an adult meal ticket for your child?

On the DP, children's credits are meant only for children's meals. From what I understand, though, adult's and kid's credits are still pooled for CS. As long as you don't order more adult meals at one time then you have on your room reservation, you may still be able to (working outside the guidelines of the plan) get an adult CS meal for a child's credit. For example, if there 2A, 1C in your party, you would not be able to order 3A meals at one time. No one knows if/when Disney will close this loophole. I am not chastising, flaming or condoning, just stating the facts. Can't believe I got here before Bicker though...as he is the DP guru.

 

[Disneyolic]

As long as you don't order more adult meals at one time then you have on your room reservation, you may still be able to (working outside the guidelines of the plan) get an adult CS meal for a child's credit. For example, if there 2A, 1C in your party, you would not be able to order 3A meals at one time. No one knows if/when Disney will close this loophole. I am not chastising, flaming or condoning, just stating the facts. Can't believe I got here before Bicker though...as he is the DP guru.

One problem with this is that there a FEW counter service places that do not have child specific foods. In that case, you can order all adult meals. One place in particular I know is Pizza Planet.

 

[englishrose47]

So let me see if I understand this. We will have 4 adult ddp and i child .So I could order 4 adult meals at C.S. and share with childand I will just have 4 cs credits deducted and they wont know if the 1 remaining for that day is Adult or child. So on last day I would have all these c.s. credits left to order c.s. meals adult or child. I realize it is a loophole and I'm not saying I will do that ,but I could???

 

[srdipert]

So let me see if I understand this. We will have 4 adult ddp and i child .So I could order 4 adult meals at C.S. and share with childand I will just have 4 cs credits deducted and they wont know if the 1 remaining for that day is Adult or child. So on last day I would have all these c.s. credits left to order c.s. meals adult or child. I realize it is a loophole and I'm not saying I will do that ,but I could???

Yes the way it is right now you could.

I also second the yogurt sticks...my kids would choose those for dessert everytime and would even OOP for extras throughout the day!

 

[belle2594]

I agree the children's menus are not very good. I did a lot of research before we left last August to make sure my 7 year old could get a comparable meal to my 12 year old. It ended up being in vain though, because we stayed at Coronado and the first day we went to lunch at Pepper Market they said she could have any entree. We all even had ice cream for dessert. Everyday after that we just ate there. My husband even found out he could get a cappicinno ( I don't think that's spelled right) for dessert. Maybe it is because they get a tip, but I did not complain. I do not think it is to much to ask for Disney to offer the main item at each restaurant in a kids portion, and shame on them for expecting a parent to eat a brownie or cookie while they are stuck with sugar free jello.

 

[bicker]

I do not think it is to much to ask for Disney to offer the main item at each restaurant in a kids portion

Read back a bit in the thread for an explanation of why they don't do that. Also, keep in mind that they're aiming to keep the price of a child meals low, since young families often are strapped for money. A quarter-portion of an $25 adult meal could reasonably be priced at $18, rather than less than $8 the child meals.

 

[Katiebell]

If you are on the DDP, you will only be charged 10.99/day for your children 9 and under, vs. 38.99/day for any "adults" 10 and over. Some people are unhappy with the quantity, quality, and limited selection of children's meals, and that their kids have to order from the kids' menu.

Maybe look at it this way -- you are paying $11 a day instead of $39, which you MUST pay once your child turns 10 if your family wants the DDP. That's $28 less every single day of your trip. So if you go ahead and use the child's TS and CS credits, you can pay OOP for a few extra things to make sure your child is full and gets things they like to eat, and it will cost a lot less than $28 a day. Or you can share part of your meals with them -- everyone keeps saying there is just too much food, much more food than the adults can eat with all those appetizers AND desserts at TS AND some of those huge CS meals you can get (like the chicken and ribs combo at Cosmic Ray's). Or, lots of people say they have leftover snack credits they have to rush to use at the end of their trips -- use those for your kids before the last day. Or eat several of your TS meals at buffets where your children can eat as much as they want of anything they like -- they will get an "adult" meal for less than half the adult price.

It's true, several of the restaurants (especially CS) have very limited, or even unappealing choices (I'm sorry, "chilled chicken and cheese" does sound horrid -- I certainly wouldn't order it!) But a lot of them aren't so bad. Look at some of the kids' choices in Epcot: sweet and sour chicken, turkey subs, burritos, burgers, pizza, kabobs, shepherd's pie, teriyaki chicken, tempura...

If your kid doesn't like/is tired of/is allergic to/isn't allowed to eat sugar-free Jello, then throw it away; buy the kid a cookie or some ice cream and go have fun. Maybe if the Disney quality control people see enough unopened cups of sugar-free Jello in the garbage, they'll get the hint and start offering something else I'm more concerned about the grapes and carrot sticks that are a choking hazard for toddlers. If it was my child, I'd eat the carrots and grapes myself and give him some of my french fries, maybe buy him a banana or some pineapple chunks. And then take him to Chef Mickey's for dinner so he can eat whatever he likes.

 

[NMW]

We had lots of dissapointing meals for our 8 year old this past Oct. He watched his older brother eat steak, chicken and many other adult appetizers and entrees. To make matters worse, Disney had just launched its new "healthy" table service meals with no subs. Weeks later they did change the meals again and made them better, but it didn't help us. My DD was 4 and could live on mac and cheese, so she was happy! I think the TS meals are fine for younger kids but not that great for older kids.

Our solution for our next trip in Dec 07 is to buy him the adult plan. For a DVC stay, it's not tied to tickets, so it's not a big deal. We have recently decided to go to Disney again in May 08. We plan to stay at the POLY and do the meal plan package. We have decided to "age" our middle child (he'll be 9) one year, so he's 10 and an "adult" in Disney's eyes. We have to buy him an adult park ticket too. The CM I spoke to said that people do this often with older kids. It's $300+ more but as my husband pointed out, totally worth it. Especially if they start seperating adult/child Cs credits. Our 9 year old would be miserable watching his brother eating bacon double cheeseburgers at CS places while he had a choice of PB&J or chilled chicken. TS dinners would be a similar issue. He likes adult food. So, if I was to pay OOP for adult CS lunches and even some dinners, I'd be getting close that $300 anyway.

I know this won't work for every family, but it's our solution.

 

[always on vacation]

I really don't understand why they don't have food specific to the restaurant type on the kids menus. What's the point of taking your child to a special restaurant if they only have a choice of the same items at every restaurant. We were looking forward to Kona Cafe & Spoodles with our 8 yr old but now I'm considering changing our reservations to the Buffets at Boma & Beach Club so there will be more for him to eat. Of course we were looking forward to the sit down dinner & food at Kona & Spoodles but not if he'll only have pizza & mac & beef to choose from....I'm really disappointed! I hope there's still good kid's choices at Le Cellier & Wolfgang Puck's Cafe.