Thanks for the tips everyone! I had a 9:30 reservation in late May with HEA fireworks posted at 9:15p which I figured was no big deal, of course we could go up, grab a cocktail then be seated after the show. To be safe, after reading this post, I was able to hunt down an 8:55p reservation time to give us a bit more of a buffer between seating time and dinner time. Still planning to check in a few minutes early in hopes of at least being allowed to go up to the observation deck ahead of dinner. Fingers crossed!!