180 days !!!
ANYBODY can book a table at WDW up to 180 days in advance. You don't need a resort booking or anything EXCEPT a ticket into the park if your chosen restaurant is in a park
December 6th is Mickey's Very Magical Christmas Party night - it's a hard ticket event and unless you have a ticket you'll be out of the park by around 6pm,
Go visit Monday 5th - MK will be busy both days but you'll get more hours to do it in on Monday
At Table Service / Buffet meals - when your waiter / waitress first arrives at your table, advise them that you're on the DP - they will take one of your MDE cards to check that you have sufficient (and the correct type of) credits for the meal that you're about to order.
Once that's over with...
You'll be let into the park in plenty of time to walk at a leisurely pace to the castle, and take all the pictures you need.
I would expect you to be allowed into the park at least 15-20 minutes prior to your dining slot
I don't believe that you can do TOO MANY character meals. What better way to rest your tired legs, eat AND get the characters to come to you ?
As long as you visit different locations and see different characters then you can't go wrong. My recommendations would be -
Crystal Palace at MK for...
You won't be going to MK on all 4 or 5 days (will you ?) so I would suggest that the hotels bus service would be adequate on those mornings.
On MK days I'd look at booking a taxi.
Since I am both the law and the judge you cannot win - I'm getting immensely tired of your pettiness so I will leave you to go and cause trouble with someone else YAWN
Perhaps you should start your reply with IMO - you state "I believe" therefore you have an opinion ???
Don't preach if you can't uphold your own high standards
Sorry, just who are you to state that I am morality police ???
I am posting an opinion (I don't consider it necessary to type "IMO" or perhaps I would have done), as after all - almost everything posted on here is an opinion.
IMO you should take your sarky comments elsewhere
A party of 2 ( for example) making an ADR for a party of 4 to ensure that the party of 2 manage to eat there is being selfish - it is deliberately depriving a party of 3 or 4 from booking that table. Therefore that is selfish.
However, if the party of 2 showed up at the restaurant and were...
Nothing would "happen" to @Innkeeper's Club if a table for 3, 4 or 17 were booked and only 2 showed up.
The MORAL question is "is that really fair on other diners, to DELIBERATELY overbook a table for your own selfish gains" If I found out that I couldn't get a reservation for my party of 3...
What is your issue ??
The fact that us Brits actually have an offer that you're not entitled to, and that it's cheaper than you can get with a PIN code ?
I think you'll find that as a US / Canadian citizen you get more WDW offers than we do.
Get over it - at least you're going to Disney