Welcome to planDisney, Tara!
Visiting the Walt Disney World Resort with teenagers is such a fun experience! My three are now all teens (18, 18, and 15) and they love to visit the Disney Parks!
Check out the podcast video, linked with this answer, for some great tips on visiting with teens and tweens! My fellow planDisney panelist, Heather, and I had a great time with this podcast! We offer all sorts of tips on having a great experience at the Walt Disney World Resort when visiting with teens!
Allowing teens to order from the children’s menu is something that our family has had success with over the years! Some restaurants will allow non-child-aged Guests to order directly from the menu, while others will offer a larger portion of the children’s menu items and charge a corresponding rate for the larger portion. Disney Dining locations always want to work with Guests for a good experience! We’ve always been able to find ways for our “pickier eaters” to have a good meal! In the end, the final decision lies with the restaurant, but it’s never been an issue for our family during our visits. You can always inquire at the check-in to verify that a member of your party will be able to order something different.
Tara, one PRO TIP I’d like to offer is that my teens have really loved visiting the Disney Water Parks! We visited the water parks when they were younger but then stopped to focus more on the four theme parks. A few years ago, we went back to one of the water parks. We got a, “Why haven’t we done this more often?!” reaction from all three of the boys! Needless to say, the water parks have become a vacation highlight for us over the past few years! I highly recommend visiting either
Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park or
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park!
Dreams do come true!
Jonathan