Wishes at 10 -- What time ADR for Cali Grill?

[Soccer Princess]

We will be honeymooning in WDW this August and want to eat at the California Grill. Wishes is not until 10pm that night so how early could we make our ADR and still be able to stick around and watch the fireworks? I was thinking we could eat, have dessert and then a glass of wine before they started. Would 7:30 or 8pm be too early? Thanks!

 

[lark]

Ideally, you wouldn't want to be seated much earlier than 8:30. I've done the lingering thing at California Grill, and while the waiters are used to it, it actually gets kind of tedious. You find yourself twidling your thumbs a little or eating your food ridiculously slow.

The problem is that in August, even with a 7:30 ADR you might not get seated until 8:15. You never know. You could get seated at 7:45 though.

If you did a 9:00, you'd probably be safe.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

About 8:15-8:30. 7:30 is a bit too early. You'll have to make active efforts to linger if you're too early, and that's no fun.

 

[Soccer Princess]

Thanks I'll try to make an 8:30 ADR today!

 

[CamColt]

We tried making an 8:30 PS for August on our 180 day mark. The best we could get was 8:45. This had me worried as I have heard of people lingering too long and people not getting seated until after the fireworks. Plus even if we had a short wait, I didn't want to start eating dinner after 9:00pm. We tried back and were finally able to get 8:00pm. Of course Im feeling that is a little early, but since I dont want to linger, I figure if we are seated right at 8:00, we can always have an after dinner drink at the bar while we wait for Wishes, then go outside to view them. Hopefully my plan works.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

I'd make the ressie for 8:00 and arrive promptly. Watching the sunset can be just as thrilling as watching Wishes and you'll have a fantastic view of both from CG.

 

[CamColt]

I'd make the ressie for 8:00 and arrive promptly. Watching the sunset can be just as thrilling as watching Wishes and you'll have a fantastic view of both from CG.

Thats encouraging! Thanks!

 

[__disneygirl]

We did ours at 9:20.. it was the perfect time I thought.

 

[Soccer Princess]

My only choices were 8pm or 8:50pm. The CM I talked to was really nice and I told her we really wanted to see the fireworks but didn't want to be "those" people who were waiting around. She said 8 should be fine and they were used to people doing it. I figure we can also get after dinner drinks if we get done with dinner too quickly! Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[beattyfamily]

We had an ADR last Nov/Dec at 8:20p with the plan to see Wishes at 10:00p and we didn't make it. We were totally done at 9:30p. I just couldn't drag it out any longer.

Good luck!