How does adrs work when staying at shades of green & realities of dining with littles

[Juliemomma]

I am so overwhelmed trying to figure this all out. Planning our families first trip-I haven't been since I was 12 and we didn't do adrs.
So, I know I have to do them 180 days out but did I read if you are staying on property, you can do it an additional 10 days earlier? If so, does that include the military hotel shades of green?
Second, I have a 5 year old and an almost three year old. I really wasn't wanting to over structure this trip. So, in reality-what is a good amount of ADRs to do? And if only do say 3 adrs total over the four days, are we going to find it hard to eat anything but hamburger/pizza type food?
Thanks so much!

 

[strollerfreak]

I'm in a similar boat...haven't been since I went as a Senior in HS for a band competition!

We have the dining plan, and I figured it doesn't hurt to make ADR's and then cancel them if we decide that we don't want to rush around...my thought was that it was better to have them and decide not to use them than to wish we had them and not be able to get them, KWIM?

Because I'm planning like that we have an ADR for nearly every day for dinner...one for lunch because we wanted to book one to see Remy at Les Chefs...but again, no pressure if the kids decide they don't want to eat at that restaurant we'll cancel it.

You'll be able to eat non-burgers & fries anytime you do an ADR...the kids, meh maybe maybe not...but they are kids, and if they are anything like my kids they could eat PB&J for 18 days in a row and be happy as a clam. You'll wind up with more burgers & fries type stuff at the counter service places (to get a variety in there one day go to Earl of Sandwich!) but the sit-down places you'll get more choices.

Most of all...remember...it's a vacation, to have fun...so don't stress out about it!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

I can answer the kids question:

1) There is plenty to eat outside of typical hamburgers. You just need to do your research. Check the menus on allears.net. Epcot is a great place to find alternate foods (Sunshine Seasons in the Land has a ton of options, plus the countries).

2) We were there for 2 weeks and did the dining plan for the first week. So we had an ADR every day that first week. I'm surprised on how well it worked out, honestly. If you are planning on taking a break every day, then I'd schedule either breakfasts at the beginning of the day, or dinners right after break time. You aren't worried about being stuck in a line or taking the kids away from something fun to get to an ADR. A lot of people suggested lunch ADRs in case they were crabby by dinner time, but it ended up that the little ones were falling asleep in the stroller or tired/crabby at lunch time so I'm glad I didn't go that route. If they didn't nap any more then it may be different. Most days I grabbed a quick early lunch for my youngest to eat before he fell asleep (some days I succeeded and others he was asleep by the time I got to a place to get him something).

 

[bdcp]

I am so overwhelmed trying to figure this all out. Planning our families first trip-I haven't been since I was 12 and we didn't do adrs.
So, I know I have to do them 180 days out but did I read if you are staying on property, you can do it an additional 10 days earlier? If so, does that include the military hotel shades of green?
Second, I have a 5 year old and an almost three year old. I really wasn't wanting to over structure this trip. So, in reality-what is a good amount of ADRs to do? And if only do say 3 adrs total over the four days, are we going to find it hard to eat anything but hamburger/pizza type food?
Thanks so much!

No, you cannot make ADR's farther than 180 days out if you stay at SOG. We always stay there and I've never had any problem getting the ADRs I wanted 180 days out. I just go online each day and grab the one for the day that's at 180. When our DS were 3 and 5, we did 1 ADR and it was for a character breakfast we had to cancel because our oldest DS got sick (food poisoning I think) and that was in 1989. Even now, DH and I only make 1 ADR a day and the other meals we eat CS.

 

[Juliemomma]

No, you cannot make ADR's farther than 180 days out if you stay at SOG. We always stay there and I've never had any problem getting the ADRs I wanted 180 days out. I just go online each day and grab the one for the day that's at 180. When our DS were 3 and 5, we did 1 ADR and it was for a character breakfast we had to cancel because our oldest DS got sick (food poisoning I think) and that was in 1989. Even now, DH and I only make 1 ADR a day and the other meals we eat CS.

But you can do the online reservation? I figured I was out of luck on that too. I just use the SOG reservation number?

 

[siskaren]

But you can do the online reservation? I figured I was out of luck on that too. I just use the SOG reservation number?

You don't need to have a hotel reservation at all to use the online system, you just need to be within 180 days of when you want to make an ADR for.