Enough food for kids on DDP?

[Pocahontas]

My husband, daughter, and I are heading back to WDW and this time get to bring along our niece and nephew (5 and 9 years old)! I just made reservations with the dining plan, but a little concerned about the 9 yr old eating off of the childrens menu. You wouldn't know it to look at her, but my niece is a big eater and I'm worried about the childrens portions. She has typical kid tastes, but she can put a lot away.Should I change and get her an adult meal package and if I do would I have to pay adult price for her park ticket too?
Anyone with children of this age (who are big eaters), I could use some advise. Thanks!

[Strmchsr]

My DS9 does okay with the child's portions. He's a growing kid and can eat like most kids. What we generally do is bring snacks in our backpacks to supplement, because it's REALLY not worth doing the adult DDP for him (if you can. I'm not 100% sure of that). That has worked fine for him.

[Disney4us2]

My DD is like that too. She is now 10 and I would need to pay the adult price for her.

The buffets are great so they can eat until they are full. If you are at a off the menu TS you can always order a little something extra if she is still hungry. It has been a few years since we were there so I haven't seen the child portion recently.

I think the tickets and the dining plan have to match for everyone in the reservation. Adult ticket/meals... child ticket/meals.

Have fun planning:mickey:

[ljgirl]

We just returned last week and had the DDP. I have a 10 YO DD so she is considered an adult from this point on.I also have a 7 YO DS. My DD would not have been full after eating a kids meal. They are small portions. If your child likes the kids menu items, I would just pay out of pocket for an extra one at the TS restaurants. At the CS restaurants, all meals are considered the same so your child can order off the adult menu. We did this with our 7 YO last week and we were able to share food at many CS restaurants.

[jonahbear2006]

I guess it really depends on how sure you are that she is going to need this for table services. If you book mostly buffets or family style dinners then it wont matter because she probably will stay full most of the day and you can get her a very good snack and not just a soda. Opt for a funnel cake or cinnomin roll at magic kingdom or a slice of cheesecake in france, instead of a cookie or rice krispy treat. Then choose the better counter services. The problem with this is that when you book menu type restaurants, this child may not want to eat the stuff on the menu. We did this with our 9 yr old last year and she was so excited until she actually started ordering off the adult menu and by day 3 of a 2wk trip she no longer would order off the adult menu for dinner and we had to pawn the food off on my 7 year old who was amused that she could order lobster....so, it just depends on the kid and how well you know the variety of food she will eat. Def. look at menus if you decide to do it.

[Pocahontas]

Thanks for the comments. I think I'm going to stick with the childrens dining plan. As others have said, she would probably prefer the childrens menu to the adult menu and if she wants more we can always buy her more. I wasn't thinking about all the snacking we usually do at WDW, she may have so much fun snacking she may not even want her meals! I already have permission from the parents that we don't need to worry about 'balanced diets' since they'll be on vacation. Disney is all about fun on all levels!:party:

Thanks again. Looking forward to a trip with children, it's been awhile.

[SuzieN]

We used to go to a lot of the buffets when our kids were all on the kids DDP. Then they are not limited to the kids menus and can eat as much as they want.