If we wanted to walk from the contemporary to MK early in the am but aren’t staying at the Contemporary....could we Uber or Lyft there be dropped off and walk over?
Depends on the day and who is in the guard shack....to be honest. It never used to be an issue, but now sometimes they will only let you in if you have a dining or hotel reservation. We went to see Christmas decorations a few weeks ago and told the guard we were coming to see the Christmas stuff and he had no problem, but it was a Wednesday, so not busy at MK. I think on a busy day, you need at least a dining reservation.
The last two times we've gone to CR in the morning for ADRs, the guard had to scan our magic band to ensure we had a reservation. YMMV, but I think it's prudent to assume right now that if you don't have an ADR, then they won't let you through.