Hi there, Jodie!
I'm so glad that you asked this great question because you will be required to provide a credit card guarantee when you make Advanced Dining Reservations at just about every one of the
Table Service restaurants at Walt Disney World. Each restaurant has its own cancellation policy so you'll want to read it very carefully prior to confirming your reservation. Some restaurants require you to cancel within 24-hours while others require 48-hours to cancel.
One way you can keep good track of which reservations you have and when is by logging into the
My Disney Experience application and linking all of your reservations there. When you're at the Parks, you can access that app on your smart phone. If you are far away from the restaurant where you have a reservation, you could easily see if there is availability for it to be rescheduled for a later time.
It's a tough call on whether or not to make reservations. Here's the thing, if you want to dine at some of the very popular restaurants like Character meals, you'll be really glad you have the reservations. We've gotten very lucky and walked up to certain restaurants during our trip and gotten seated. It really depends on the time of year you go and how crowded the Parks are. My family likes to have one
Advanced Dining Reservation per day during our vacation, whether it's for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This way, we know that we'll have some down time and a meal together.
I sure hope this helps with your planning, Jodie! Please feel free to stop back by if we can help with any other questions you think of!
Wishing you and your family a Pixie Dusted vacation!
~Jackie