lilclerk, I was wondering how your Rose & Crown Illuminations experience went? I was able to snag a 7:10p reservation for our upcoming November trip, and am hoping to also enjoy Illuminations...
Hey! It went amazingly well, but it was mostly due to our server being a real sweetheart. Long story short, there were still about 6 empty tables outside during the show, so it wasn't a problem at all.
Long story:
We were starving and decided to forgo trying to sit outside for the show, so we ended up checking in early at 6:50 and didn't make any seating requests. They seated us at 7ish (my first photo is 7:08pm) I figured we'd just watch the show from wherever there was an inch of space in World Showcase after dinner.
Well they seated us outside on the patio on the upper level. It was an amazing view, with or without the show, and our server heard us gushing about it as she came over. We chatted about it a little, and how it was our first night of the trip, Epcot's our favorite park, we love Rose & Crown, etc.
She and the chef helped with my friend's unusual food allergy and my pickiness very nicely. There was a couple seated behind us who only split an appetizer and had 1 beer each, they asked to stay for the fireworks, and it was just barely allowed. The server was trying to get them to go down to the viewing area where guests eating inside watch from, but the manager wouldn't let them in yet... so they just stayed and held the table.
Then behind them was an extremely loud, unruly, drunk man who was hitting on our poor server in a very... un-Disney way, then he and his party LEFT, and then came back saying they were going to stay and watch the show. What??? (she dealt with him so well, I was impressed.) Other guests came and went at the other tables around this group, I really think they are the reason there were so many empty tables during the show.
Anyway, it seemed like she was having a rough night, so despite how nice she was to us and the empty tables, we didn't ask about staying for the show. We didn't want to stress her out even more.
We ended up finishing the meal at about 8:30, she brought the bill out, and told us we were welcome to stay for the show. We doubled her tip, thanked her profusely, and enjoyed! And we stopped at Guest Relations on our way out to give her and the chef compliments.