Food options if staying off-site

[niccig]

MIL stayed off-site when she went this summer with the other cousins. She's suggesting we do that next year. We'll need to rent a car as doing universal as well. She got a AAA parking discount that let them park close to gate and said preferred getting in car and driving a few mins than waiting for shuttle as she could leave when she wanted to, then she drove back and picked up other family members who stayed longer. Anywho, we may do this as also cheaper accommodation options.

Finally my question - if off site, what do you do for food in the parks. Can you still book some restaurants. DS doesn't want to do character meals, so don't need to worry about that.

[klwa]

For Table Service restaurants, anyone (on-site/offsite)can make reservations 180 days out. The only advantage you get as an on-site guest is that you can make reservations for your entire trip (up to 10 days at least) when your first day reaches 180. Off-site would need to call in each morning if they wanted to try on the first day available. (Unless you're trying to reserve one of the hard to get ones like Be Our Guest, I wouldn't worry about calling/going online until you're within your 180 day window for the last day of your trip.) If you want to just do counter service, those are open to everyone.

[niccig]

For Table Service restaurants, anyone (on-site/offsite)can make reservations 180 days out. The only advantage you get as an on-site guest is that you can make reservations for your entire trip (up to 10 days at least) when your first day reaches 180. Off-site would need to call in each morning if they wanted to try on the first day available. (Unless you're trying to reserve one of the hard to get ones like Be Our Guest, I wouldn't worry about calling/going online until you're within your 180 day window for the last day of your trip.) If you want to just do counter service, those are open to everyone.

Thanks. DS isn't interested in Be Our Guest, it's about a princess! I'll mark calendar for 180 days out.

[georgiegirl]

We always stay off site and rent a car. We eat breakfast in the condo and bring snacks. Usually we do lunch at a quick service place (quicker and easier with kids), and we did make some reservations for a few dinners. We really enjoy the Biergarten in Epcot. It's lots of fun when you are with a group of people. We were sometimes done with the parks by dinner time (since we get there at rope drop), so we would eat at downtown disney or back at the condo (take out.)

[niccig]

We always stay off site and rent a car. We eat breakfast in the condo and bring snacks. Usually we do lunch at a quick service place (quicker and easier with kids), and we did make some reservations for a few dinners. We really enjoy the Biergarten in Epcot. It's lots of fun when you are with a group of people. We were sometimes done with the parks by dinner time (since we get there at rope drop), so we would eat at downtown disney or back at the condo (take out.)

Thanks. This sounds like a good plan. I think we'll like Epcot. I looked through the restaurants and none jump out at me as must-dos for DS. He wants to eat at Leaky Cauldron at Harry Potter World, so that may be our reservation dinner for the trip and we'll do counter service, downtown disney or takeout at the condo.

[KrisM]

We really liked Sci Fi at Hollywood studios. The food was good and it was really fun sitting in the cars and watching the movie clips. DS1 liked it. He also like Tusker House, which is characters, but we did breakfast and he loves breakfast foods. He also did like those characters although he could have skipped them. They were the only ones he posed with.