I would make reservations if you have specific times and places you want to eat and depending how busy of a time you go. We just got back today. We were there 4 days. We didn't have reservations the first day and decided we wanted to eat at Minnie and friends breakfast we just walked up and got seated right away with a party of 8 no problem. We did have reservations the next day at Ariel's Grotto that I made us a week before. In our experience we have had the best character interaction towards the end of the character dining time. We are usually the last ones in the restaurant with our kids having tons of fun playing with characters.