Ageing up a 9 year old to get adult dining plan

[WestYorkshireUK]

I am really hoping someone can help me. I will start by saying that I am in the UK so don't know if that will make any difference.

We went to Disney for the first time last year and absolutely fell in love with the place so we are booked to go back in 2016.

The problem I have is I have 2 sons one of whom is over 10 and the other will be 9 3/4 when we go. He will be just 1 month off his 10th birthday. We cannot amend the dates we go and in the UK you are fined for taking a child out of school during term time. Killjoys!

We got free dining last year but my youngest son was upset about his cookie dessert compared to his brother's cupcake. We kept having to swap out our desserts with him as we could see how unfair it was in his mind. Personally I am sick of cookies and grapes.

We have booked to go back next year as a package, so all flights, tickets, POR hotel etc are booked through Virgin holidays. Again we get free dining. We wanted to age up our almost 10 year old but because we have flights from the UK booked his true age has to be shown to match his passport. We only want the tickets and dining part to be altered but they cannot do it as it is a package.

They have a holiday rep in Florida who they emailed and they have said they cannot do it at their end either but I got the feeling that it could be done but it is a hassle.

Is there any way I can visit a guest relations place and upgrade my son's Disney child ticket to an adult ticket, and pay the difference?

I know that we can use the loophole of the child/adult credits but we would rather it was all above board.

Thank you.

 

[sharonabe]

I don't have an answer for you, but someone over at the UK forum might. Surely someone has done this and will be able to help. Scroll down on the DIS home page and post over there.

 

[TDC Nala]

You should check with the UK forum, apparently there were some difficulties doing this with UK reservations, possibly because of the package flights and the passport tissue meaning you have to have the child's correct age on all package components. Maybe someone there figured out how to get around it.

You will not be able to change the reservation after you arrive.

 

[WestYorkshireUK]

Thanks for replying, I didn't even realise the Dis had a UK section I shall repost there.

 

[wdwrule]

We've upped our kids' age for several years now so they had a nice variety to choose from. They're big steak eaters and they loved the more elaborate desserts. They also got tired of the bagged chocolate chip cookie. Each year we've had free dining so it only cost less than $50 total for the whole week to upgrade their tickets to adults. The CM on the phone said she would've done the same.

 

[lovndisney12]

Not sure on the UK issue - but we did the exact same thing for the exact same reason. We were on the free dining plan and just paid the difference between the adult price and child's price - wasn't very much. Well worth it. Not fun when younger brother gets another boring chocolate chip cookie and older brother is enjoying a chocolate lava cake oozing with goodness! I know his age was not "officially" changed on Disney's side as his age has always been correct moving forward for other trips.

 

[WestYorkshireUK]

Thank you so much for this. I have emailed the travel agent to ask how their system works in terms of choosing Disney tickets ie I think they look at the child's age and then choose the appropriate ticket, I don't believe their system automatically selects the correct child/adult.

I posed the question to them that we are booked into Universal Hard Rock hotel first and then we transfer to POR the day free dining kicks in for us which is Sunday 3rd April. If my son flew out aged 9, then turned 10 before we checked into POR then his ticket and dining plan would be an adult one.

This isn't far fetched as last year he flew out aged 7 and spent his 8th birthday having breakfast at Chef Mickeys!

I know I have read it on the Dis in the past about children having the adult dining plan I just didn't know how to do it.