questions about reservations if not staying on Disney property

[jackiep9]

This is the first Disney trip we're doing where we're staying at Shades of Green which is not a Disney property. We're also going in January of 2018 so we aren't buying tickets yet until we find out if the military 4 day park hopper ticket will be available again (usually they don't release that info til October). So I'm not sure if I'll be able to make ADR 180 days out from my trip if I don't have tickets or a Disney hotel to link to my disney experience. Anyone know?

Also, any tips on doing Disney without a meal plan? We've always had one before so this is very different for us!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Anyone can make ressies at 180 days

 

[maxiesmom]

The difference will be that you can't make ADRs for your whole stay. You will have to do them one day at a time, as you hit 180 days out from that individual day.

 

[OasterP]

You can do reservations at 180 days. If I am understanding correctly, if you are staying on site, you can do 180 days + the number of days of your reservation (up to +10). If staying off site, then just one day at a time.

I've done Disney both with and without a meal plan. If I'm getting it "free", I'll do the standard dining. If not, then we skip it and just eat our normal way. I do like it both ways, even though it costs me much more for "free" dining. On a typical non meal plan trip we eat breakfast in our room, and grab quick service for lunch/dinner. Sometimes we will get a snack. And I'm fine with that and will be less bloated , but sometimes I do enjoy sitting down at the TS, especially when the kids can see characters. Just depends how you like to eat. I also like the snacks, b/c if I want caramel corn from Epcot (and I will) I will use a snack credit with no guilt rather than wondering if I really need another bag of caramel corn (and the answer is always yes). It's just a different way of doing things.

 

[disneyvoice]

Just wanted to chime in and say you will LOVE Shades of Green. We stayed there a few years ago on a trip with my parents and I was a bit concerned that we wouldn't like it since we were so used to staying at a Disney resort. It was fabulous! The rooms are HUGE compared to Disney resorts and we had a great view outside our window. We joked that it was just like staying at AKL because we had all kinds of "wild life" outside our window. We didn't eat there because we didn't hear the best things about the restaurant but you are really close to the Poly and all of its restaurants. We ended up just walking to the Poly every day to either get the monorail or a bus. My son loved the pool and it was really nice to walk around the resort.