Watching Wishes at Cali Grill?

theemily

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Jun 17, 2008
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Hi all! The bf and I will be eating at the California Grill for the first time in October, and I was wondering something. I heard a good res time to be able to watch Wishes was 8pm, but the earliest res I could get was 9:10pm. I know Wishes starts at 9:00 that night (and I double checked with the dining rep), so we'd be missing the beginning. It has happened before that we've arrived at Disney restaurants early and been seated quickly. Do you think if we showed up at 8:00 or so they'd be able to seat us earlier? I know it's a stretch... Also, I've read that if you arrive early you can wait in the lounge, or they may even seat you there for dinner. Does anyone know how often that happens? Thanks for the help!
 
Go up early, get a drink at the bar and watch the show from the observation deck.

Your odds are slim to none on being seated at a window table that close to the time for the fireworks.
 
Go up early, get a drink at the bar and watch the show from the observation deck.

Your odds are slim to none on being seated at a window table that close to the time for the fireworks.

I figured as much, so that's pretty much our plan. Thanks! :)
 
Your odds of getting an actual seat at the bar or lounge are probably also close to slim or none. We've been let up early 3 or 4 times to "have a drink at the bar" only to find a mob of SRO people just waiting on the fireworks. Best we could do was find two un-attended chairs and prop them up against a wall, out of the way.
 

Your odds of getting an actual seat at the bar or lounge are probably also close to slim or none. We've been let up early 3 or 4 times to "have a drink at the bar" only to find a mob of SRO people just waiting on the fireworks. Best we could do was find two un-attended chairs and prop them up against a wall, out of the way.


Same experience here last two times also. In Jan, when everyplace else was dead, this place was still packed and people were lined up against the wall standing. We waited 50 min past our ADR before we were seated.
 
We had 9:15pm adr on xmas day 2006 and got there around 8:50 (wishws started at 9:00pm)and were escorted upstairs right away and seated immediatley, but were told we could go out to observation deck if we wanted, but the view from our table was great. There were folks at the bar and lounge tables, and some did go out on deck also.

Connears
 
We were so surprised because we had ADRs at 5:30 but they told us we could come back later to watch Wishes from the observation deck. As long as you have ADRs sometime that night you are allowed to go up to the decks. It was SO beautiful watching from up top - I loved seeing Tomorrowland from up there - one of my best memories from the last trip.
 
on September 11th. I know that the firworks are at 9:00pm that night too. We are arriving at 6:00pm that evening and I figure that by the time we get to the POFQ via ME, freshen up, we'll hop a bus to the MK and get to the Contemporary just around the time of our ADR. I figure we'll probably see the fireworks on the monorail....or if we're lucky, from the observation deck.

I am really looking forward to it! I hope we at least get a glimps of them our first night there!

Karen
 
Maybe we have just been REALLY lucky but each time we have gone up earlier than our ressie we have gotten 2 seats at the bar while we were waiting. I think we prob could have just eaten dinner there if we didn't want to wait for our table. Last time we went I actually watched wishes from my bar stool!! Wishes and wine what a good combo!!!:thumbsup2
 
We were so surprised because we had ADRs at 5:30 but they told us we could come back later to watch Wishes from the observation deck. As long as you have ADRs sometime that night you are allowed to go up to the decks. It was SO beautiful watching from up top - I loved seeing Tomorrowland from up there - one of my best memories from the last trip.

That's really helpful to know. Thanks!
 





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