Requesting Window Seats At Your ADR..

Requesting a specific seat 30 minutes prior makes sense to me because then you have a bit of a buffer time for them to turn the tables that are already seated. However, by that same token it means that someone has to be at the location 30 minutes early to put in the request, and all of the party needs to be there the moment the seat becomes available. I guess it depends on how important a specific seat is to you.

For what it's worth I've had a window seat at Yachtsman, and I personally wouldn't bother with requesting one there. Where we were seated at the window just overlooked a walkway, fence and pool chairs.

Are you doing Sanaa before or after dark? Window seats are important there during daylight hours and dusk, not so much when everything is dark though. I think if you're doing Sanaa for lunch then this may be the easiest place for you to get your request. It's also a great place to arrive early to put in your request because there is a door that leads out to the fire pit and savanna viewing area that you can enjoy while you wait.

It will be dark by 8:00 pm in October.

We're going to try the 30 min rule for California Grill on our anniversary. We have 9pm reservations and we'd love to be able to see Wishes from our table. Plus I don't mind sitting and having a drink at the bar for 30 min if need be

Such a sacrifice - sitting at the bar.

My thoughts exactly JoAnn, especially at the Cali Grill!

I've never requested any particular seats at any WDW restaurant, but on an upcoming trip we've got an 'Ohana ADR about an hour before the fireworks, and we're going with friends who've never eaten at 'Ohana, so I am seriously considering trying to get a table with a good view. I think the friends would be thrilled.

We requested at Sanaa and had a lovely view. Jamal watched us for most of our dinner and then fell fast asleep. Apparently he is the only animal who has figured out how to get over the fence. There was a family of giraffes as well that we had full view of.

We've got Sanaa for lunch...guess we'd better go for a window seat there as well.

We noted that while we are at Narcoossee, we are celebrating our friends 45th AND our retirement. ADRs are at 7:15 with Wishes at 8pm (little help from the TA) and so they know we want a wee bit of magic. But we will also mention it when we get there 30 minutes prior.

I have never requested a specific seat, but we've been fortunate to have really great seats. We found that our table at Sanaa was not by the window, but because of the layout, we could still see out of the windows. I never felt my view was obstructed.

We saw a lady throw a fit at San Angel Inn in Mexico because she wanted a seat by the "water". There were open seats, but because of wait staff and how they set up the restaurant, they were not seating people there. She literally pitched a fit, but I was proud - the manager refused, then they were seated next to us and complained the entire time.... And y'all know how close those tables are at that restaurant!

Didn't work for us at California Grill When we checked in we were told to ask again after our buzzer went off We were seated a few minutes after we showed up even though we were half an hour early and we asked again as we had been instructed. The hostess showed us the table we had been assigned to and told us that if we wanted to wait for a window seat instead we were welcome to but there was no guarantees. It wasn't that important to us so we took the first table and watched the fireworks from the viewing deck which was amazing anyways!