Prior to this year, kids that turned 3 mid-trip were considered “Mickey’s guest” and were free for the duration of their stay.
Example as recently as Feb 2022:
https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/child-turns-during-trip-free-489700/
This summer though, that appears to have changed:
Has anyone had recent encounters with this apparent rule change this year?
I have a family trip planned for next August and my nephew will turn 3 on day 7 of 10.
That has never been a thing.
I would have assumed there would have been some kind of announcement about that change as it’s significant
PlanDisney/Mom’s Panel is notorious for providing misinformation.
Note that “Jonathan from PA” answered 2 of these 3 questions.
The third answer does discuss a different hard-ticketed event and that would be the only instance in which it might make sense since.
I saw someone in a trip report probably earlier this year, possibly late last year, say that a CM gave them a hard time because their little one had turned 3 during the trip and had no ticket.
A good point about the panel, but Jonathan noted that “My fellow planDisney panelists and I recently inquired with the Walt Disney World Resort about this same question”. If true, he’s at least not going off his own idea about the answer.
Can his birth date just be…altered slightly to eliminate the worry? It’s just a few days. I’m not suggesting months or anything.
Disney is going to tell you what the rule is according to the letter of the law.
So I would say this:
If you have a package and purchase tickets and the child is 2 but turns 3 in your trip you’ll be fine.
If you have a room booked, but no tickets, and you go to the park on a day when the child has turned 3, even though hwne you arrived they were 2, you’ll be buying a ticket for a 3yo. This is why the Halloween Party ticket question felt different.
When you build a kiddo’s profile in MDE it asks you for the child’s DOB so the system would be able to calculate that.
But you’re not going to be forced to pay for half a ticket if you purchased the ticket as part of a package with a start date that makes the child 2.
Am I explaining this well?
All this to say - I would be shocked if this changed and you had to buy a ticket at the gate for a 2yo-turned-3yo mid-trip.
Not a feasible idea unless you want to create an entirely new profile for the kid the next time you go.
Why would a new account be needed though? I would just continue ahead with the profile as is, assuming there even is a return trip.
I guess I assume that at some point the kid would want to take control of said profile. Granted that’s not, like, tomorrow or anything. But eventually if they did want to the details would need to be accurate.
Oh yeah that makes sense. I know the other issue with sliding the date is that kids love to announce that it’s their birthday. 
I think I would most certainly play dumb in this specific situation. That being said with the idea of a “stay” or “package” being much more fluid that perhaps 10-15 years ago I can see why this policy might change. The MSSSHP is a great example of the newer nuance here.
I know that I saw the video of a 5 year old huddled in a car seat covered in blankets trying to be smuggled into the park not that long ago. It’s a shame that some folks have to ruin it for everyone.
In our case, we have booked a DVC rental and will be buying our tickets separately (from the cheapest reputable broker that TouringPlans’ wonderful ticket calculator suggests).
We were not planning on buying a ticket for my nephew, as he will be 2 for the majority of the trip (including the MNSSHP night we are considering).
At what points do CMs look up the child’s birthday in the profile? When I have entered the parks with a 2-year-old, no one has ever questioned me. In fact, the one time I have been questioned is when we scanned my barely 3-year-old in, and a CM implied that she was small enough she could have gotten by as a 2-year-old.
I remember the story that @missoverexcited referenced - the child was wearing a birthday button and the CM asked how old the kid was. The kid proudly said they were 3 and then the employee started to question why they didn’t have a ticket. It soured the chat users experience. IIRC, this was at Hollywood studios.
Oh man this is icky.
Yeah, this is about the only way I could see this issue coming up lol. Maybe we just leave those buttons off when entering the parks
We just went to WDS this past week to celebrate my son turning 3. We told the entrance CM that it was his 3rd birthday when we entered Magic Kingdom on our second park day; no one batted an eye or said anything about him needing a ticket.
FWIW you can change a child’s birthdate in their profile. Just saying. In the past, when you entered age (rather than BD as now), they had to be manually updated.
I have always heard and gone with the idea that a child’s age at beginning of their trip is their age for the trip. Beyond that, I would not skip buying a ticket for a 3 yo. However, I would consider fudging at the 9-10 yo threshold for prix fixe dining for my 10 yo who is super picky, if there was a meal we really wanted to do and she would not eat the adult options. Sorry but 10 is ridiculous for adult pricing especially if alcohol is also included in the cost. At a buffet in DLR, where I knew she would eat something, we did declare her as 10 but the server kindly downgraded her to child after seeing what she ate. More likely however we will just skip prix fixe for awhile. I may have also neglected to update a young adults (18 yo) age for purpose of room count.
Disney could be a lot more guest friendly by eliminating extra guest room fees (the more people the more tickets and food, isn’t that enough?!) and raising the age for kids to be charged as adults for dining purposes. Or, having a separate 10-16 or 10-20 rate depending on if EtOH is included.