Can You Make ADR's Before Your Trip Is Booked

[jszczur5]

I know someone here will know the answer to this one. Can you make ADR's before you have actually booked your trip. I'm sure you must be able to, as lots of diners are day-trippers, and not necessarily staying on site.
The last two years I have had to give my Disney Booking Confirmation number when I booked my ADR's. Because we went during Free dining, which wasn't offered until April, it meant that I was making my reservations quite late in the game. We were able to eat at all of our chosen restaurants, but not necessarily at times that worked for our schedule.
We are anticipating free dining again this year, and would like to make our ADR's before the mad post-"Free Dining" rush. This should be possible - yes? And then, if the free dining is not offered, or the timing is not right for us, we can always cancel the ADR's and free them up in plenty of time for other diners to use.
Given the new changes to the DDP, I will not consider paying for it, but am willing to pay rack room rates and get the dining for free, as this is the time of year that we always travel.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[kaylamag]

Yes, we made our ADR's over the summer and did not book our trip until November.

[Strmchsr]

While you certainly can make ADRs without a reservation, the one caveat is that you can only make an ADR without a resort reservation at exactly 180 days out. When you're booked at the resort you can make the ADRs for the whole trip beginning 180 days from your arrival day. So, not having the reservation simply means you have to call each day at day 180. If you know you're going during this time no matter what I would suggest going ahead and booking your reservation through Magical Journeys. If the free dining (or any other) promotion is released they will automatically add it to your reservation without you having to do a thing. This way you have the best of both worlds. You're already booked so you can make your ADRs and you don't have to worry about the rush of trying to book during the mad "free dining" rush when room availability on the package disappears quickly.

[DDuck66]

We live nearby and never have any problem making ADR's without having a trip booked. Just remember the 180 day mark...cannot go beyond that.

[jszczur5]

If you know you're going during this time no matter what I would suggest going ahead and booking your reservation through Magical Journeys.

I am not familiar with Magical Journeys, as we have always booked through CAA (Canadian version of AAA). Because we drive down, and use our own vehicle to travel around the parks, the Triple Diamond parking pass is a very valuable perk to us. I'm not sure that I would be willing to give up the preferred parking location.
As I said, we were able to get all of our chosen restaurants booked last year, even though ADR's were made just 4 months before our trip; just not always at our preferred dining time of 7:00 p.m.

[bleukarma]

Since I live close I can assure you that you don't even need to plan to have a resort reservation to make an ADR. When they ask you for your booking number just tell them that you don't have one. They'll move on to the next question. :mickey:

[katzctkpt]

I'm sure glad to know this bit of info. I have wanted to eat breakfast at the castle the last 4 yrs and haven't been able to book because of the time frame. SO, now I can mark my calendar to start calling 180 days out to get that ressie.
Thanks for asking the question.