We could not get a reservation ahead of time for our October trip last year on the holiday weekend. We walked up around 8pm, and they put our party of 4 on the waiting list. Said it would be 90+ minutes. They do this via Open Table, texted to your phone (even though they don’t use Open Table for reservations). We were staying in the GCH, so we went back to the room and got a drink from Hearthstone. On the Open Table app, it tells you how many parties are ahead of you. The number was dropping like a stone and the table was ready in 20 minutes. I think many people get on the list, but then decide to eat elsewhere when they hear the projected wait time. Therefore, they move through the list much faster than expected. YMMV but that is what happened to us. We were happy to get in earlier but had to rush our drinks to get down there when it was time to be seated!