How likely to get into the bar at California Grill before fireworks?

[JennyMP03]

I'd like to do a monorail bar crawl and watch HEA from the balcony on California Grill. We don't want to have a full ADR there, but I planned to go up for drinks and an appetizer to share before heading out to the balcony.

Is there an ideal time to arrive for this? Is it likely they may be too packed and won't let us up? I have it planned for a Wednesday evening in early May.

 

[brertoad]

Maybe 2 hours before the fireworks? There is a limited amount of bar space / lounge space. I recall having a hard time getting into the lounge on several occasions.
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who like to do this.

 

[JennyMP03]

Maybe 2 hours before the fireworks? There is a limited amount of bar space / lounge space. I recall having a hard time getting into the lounge on several occasions.
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who like to do this.

Yeah, I thought as much. I was hoping we wouldn't have to go several hours ahead of time but I'm sure it's quite busy even on a weeknight.

 

[Keels]

You'll want to get on the list at LEAST 90 minutes before fireworks in hopes of getting a spot. If you get up earlier, they won't just let you hold a table after your round of drinks and appetizers are done if you're still a good ways away (30-45+ minutes) from fireworks. They'll ask you to leave and show your receipt to come back up to view the fireworks when its time.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Once we sat and spent $200 drinking at that bar anticipating fireworks. Turns out we didn't particularly care by that time. Still surprised we got back to POR.