have not really thought about dining..not sure as to what parks we will do on what day while at WDW. we will be there Nov 8-19..we are NOT on the dining plan. however it seems that people on the dining plan make all there ADR's.. so....for us stragglers...we will be out of luck in terms of getting a table?
Since you are going well after free dining, you will probably be able to get same day / day ahead ADR's - with a few caveats: Not necessarily at really popular restaurants; Not necessarily at character meals; Not necessarily in the Magic Kingdom; Not necessarily at prime dining times; Not necessarily on the week-ends. When we went in last Nov/Dec and this past May, I had no trouble switching a few of our reservations but there were at least a couple of restaurants that were unavailable (Le Cellier, Garden Grill and Ohana's come to mind). If there is a meal you truly want, book it and then plan your day around it.
It depends on where you want to eat. Alot of the popular restaurants do fill up quickly, but if you are willing to eat at an "off" time or if you can be flexible you should be able to make your reservations without any problems. I just made my reservations for my upcoming trip 11/20-12/5. I was able to get either the time I wanted or close enough to the time I wanted so it was not a problem. Do you have an itinerary? If you have an idea of what park you want to visit on a given day then decide where you'd like to eat and call dining and make your reservations. If they do not have the times you want, see what they have and see if you can work around those times.
