We do summer season and have never had a problem getting a ressie there. ALthough you may be limited to only a certain cat the later you book. You have to give a CC #, but they never charge it if you pick up your tickets within a certain time frame. I honestly don't know if there are any bad seats. We have sat if quite a few area's and thought they were all wonderful.
I reserved HDDR in Nov. for our trip in May. I am paying OOP so that I can get Cat. 1 and they charged my credit card the full amount when I made the reservation. I think if you are on the DDP, and reserving cat. 2 or 3, they will take your CC info but will not charge it unless you no show.