What are the odds....

[upon-a-star]

My siblings and I are meeting (with families) down in Orlando in November 2009 to celebrate my father's 75th birthday. He requested that we all go to Le Cellier together for his birthday meal (a late lunch or early dinner).

Will it be possible to get reservations for 18 or so? Or is there a good in-park substitute for this?

 

[DISNEY1975]

My siblings and I are meeting (with families) down in Orlando in November 2009 to celebrate my father's 75th birthday. He requested that we all go to Le Cellier together for his birthday meal (a late lunch or early dinner).

Will it be possible to get reservations for 18 or so? Or is there a good in-park substitute for this?

I called at my 180 mark for November this year (I dont have my notes in from of me, but I think we are going the Sat after Thanksgiving).

I reserved for 12, no problem..Im sure you could get another table for 6. You may not all be able to sit together at one long table, but you can get tables all close to eachother. I was split into an 8 and 4.

I called back a month or two later to try to add the Candlelight Procession package to the reservation. They would not allow that (because original dinner time was after the show time i wanted to see and apparently you get your tickets to the show while you are dining). I had to rebook for an earlier time. Still not a problem, but now I am split into 3 tables 4/4/3.

 

[Maxamuus]

They can get you in as a group but usually large groups can only get the first seating. So it would be 1130 ish for lunch or 4ish for dinner.

 

[imthatgirl]

i would book your party as a grand gathering, then at that point you will be assigned a cm to help with ADRs and yes you will be able to get a dinner together as long as your CM is aware of your desires before 180 days out.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I booked our group of 22 there with no problem, but it took FOREVER (seriously, 2 hrs.) for them to seat us!!! My Dad said he would never go back for that reason alone. Make sure you tell them you don't mind being split up, that's what took so long, they put us all at one table. We didn't mind being split either (we had been doing it all week) so I'm not sure why they waited until all the tables were together. That being said, you will need to call Group
Dining for groups larger than 10. Their number is 407-939-7707. We were booked as a Grand Gathering and still had to go through Group Dining due to our party size.

 

[disnut8]

For my party of 12, I also was referred to the group dining reservation. It was also for a special occasion (renewing our vows) and quite frankly, at the time, I booked for the location more than anything. We had no problems and our tables were 3 tables of four which they then asked if we wanted pushed together (we did). We waited about fifteen minutes until the tables were pushed together and that was about it.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I called for my parents exactly 180 days at 7:00 am for Canada they are only a party of two . I couldn't get nothing for lunch or dinner from Dec 6 to the 13th. So I would say your chances aren't good. But you never know.
Good Luck!
There other places I would try in this order would be
Japan TE
Italy
Coral Reef.

Have a magical trip!

 

[disnut8]

I called for my parents exactly 180 days at 7:00 am for Canada they are only a party of two . I couldn't get nothing for lunch or dinner from Dec 6 to the 13th. So I would say your chances aren't good. But you never know.
Good Luck!
There other places I would try in this order would be
Japan TE
Italy
Coral Reef.

Have a magical trip!

The OP wants the booking for 2009 - plenty of time for that. And reservations for a party of two are difficult to get. There aren't a lot of two person tables at Disney World.