Hi Tenay! Happy New Year, and what better way to start 2012 than by planning a Walt Disney World vacation! My family and I have been fortunate to experience a vacation while using the free dining promotion and it was so worth it! You can absolutely make dining reservations without having a package booked. Keep in mind that the booking window opens up 180 days prior to your arrival date. If you have a package booked, you would be able to make all the dining reservations needed for your entire length of stay in advance. If you haven't booked a package at the time the window opens up, no worries. You would just need to make sure to go back into the dining reservations page for each day of your stay. You do not have to link your dining reservations to your resort reservation.
Should you have to cancel any reservations, there are two ways of doing this. You can return to the dining reservations page and enter the confirmation number you received at the time of reservation. You can then cancel the reservation. Or, you can call (407) WDW-DINE and provide your confirmation number to the cast member, and cancel it then.
Please keep in mind that as of 10/26/2011, a number of Walt Disney World restaurants are requiring a credit card guarantee. Should you need to cancel your reservation, please make sure to do so 24 hours in advance or you will be charged $10 per person. The website
Mousesavers.com has a great section dedicated solely to advance dining reservations, as well as a full list of the restaurants requiring a credit card guarantee.
Hopefully, this will help guide you while you make your reservations! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you in the hopes that free dining promotion is released.
Good luck!
-Malanie