DDP worth it if both kids are 10 or older?

[Disney Yankee]

Trying to decide whether it is worth it for July. We have two DS who will be 10 or older, which means we will need to pay for 4 adults. Is it worth it?

[ElenitaB]

I think it depends on how much your 10 year olds eat and/or if they'll still be wanting to order from the kids' menu.

At 10, my son was fairly adventurous but in a few restaurants he still ordered from the kids' menu. However, all in all, it still worked out in our favor.

[mom2morgan]

My gut instinct is probably not. We went when my daughter was just a few weeks shy of her 10th birthday and she hardly ate ANYTHING. It was worth it then, but it sure wouldn't have been if I'd been paying adult prices! She likes variety - she just wasn't all that hungry. Something about the heat and constant physical activity really dampened her appetite. For that matter, I doubt my 16 year old ate enough to be worth it! (but her dad ate her share, so we probably came out even ;-)

[Strmchsr]

I agree with Ellen that it depends, but definitely not in our case. I have a hard time eating all the food on the DDP without feeling sick. My DS10 definitely doesn't come close. It's much better for us to order OOP and share meals and eat less. We save considerable money that way/

[Basket Mommy]

Totally agree with the other posters. I have 2 older kids (12 and 9) and 2 younger kids (6, 8). The 9 YO will be 10 on our next trip and he's really looking forward to it because he will be able to order off the adult menu. Both of my older kids like trying new foods, so the adult DDP is worth it for both of them. The younger 2 love the kids' menu and are a little more picky and eat less. I'm not sure the DDP will be worth it for them once they reach age 10.

[forever a child]

I don't think it would be much of a value. You will feel forced to order 4 meals to use your credits and I think you will find you end up throwing away a lot of food. Paying out of pocket you can order a few meals to share and some appetizers and have more flexibility for the meals you are really hungry at and order less food for the meals you are not.

DD16 and I used if for our last trip and although she is a huge eater because she is a swimmer, I still found that we could have shared on many meals.

[kakn7294]

It's not worth it in our case either. Our 15 yo eats like an adult but our 11 yo doesn't - she loves steaks and will try new things but she just picks at her meals. We're better paying out of pocket.

[KennyandKim]

For us it's worth it but my kids are also older. If they were younger I believe we would pay OOP for them

[crltkcagle]

I think it depends on the child and their appetite. My oldest eats like an adult so its worth it for him. Now my middle son is a different story. But he's only 7 so I will deal with that when we get there.

[VWL Mom]

I don't think it would be much of a value. You will feel forced to order 4 meals to use your credits and I think you will find you end up throwing away a lot of food. Paying out of pocket you can order a few meals to share and some appetizers and have more flexibility for the meals you are really hungry at and order less food for the meals you are not.

DD16 and I used if for our last trip and although she is a huge eater because she is a swimmer, I still found that we could have shared on many meals.

:ditto:
I agree, eating patterns play a part in the decision. My 2 boys (16 & 19) are both into athletics and have quite the appetites. We still have found that DDP is not for us because when it comes to vacation, all bets on balance are off. Breakfast is a granola bar or similar, lunch could be a funnel cake and popcorn one day, CS the next, salad with dinner but no dessert....you get the idea.

What I did a while back was go through the menus and get an idea what they would eat and then priced it out. For us, many items were OOP and meal credits were not fully used. So we end up spending about the same as the DDP would cost but we are eating what we choose.

[Hair_Razor]

I think beyond eating patterns it's worth it for us because we will do some of the nicer dining that we might skip otherwise. We usually stick to CS if we don't do DDP...boring but cheaper.