Meal Time Monday - 'Ohana

'Ohana means family and here everyone is treated like family.  This is one of my family's favorite meals in all of Walt Disney World.  'Ohana is located at the Polynesian Village Resort.  Today we are going to look at Dinner.  The meal is served family style and is all you care to eat.  It is the perfect meal for anyone who loves MEAT.  Vegetarian's have options here but this meal is a carnivore's paradise.  

With an open kitchen, skewers are prepared over an open flame for all to see and smell, but there is more to 'Ohana than just food.

This place is fun as well!  This is not a character meal so if you are looking for a place where you can have some excellent food while your kids are entertained and without having to worry about having autograph books out for autographs.  It is also really nice to have the food brought to you.  You can get tired of buffets after awhile.  

One of the attractions for the kids is the Coconut Races.  Here Clair is getting her coconut and broom.

And here she goes.  The kids do a lap of the restaurant with their coconut and broom.  

There is also a parade with the ukulele player.

Now the kids are learning to hula.

At a certain point they are sent to get a parent to learn with them.  They learn what all the movements mean as they learn the dance.  I leaned a lot as well.   Depending on what night you are there or what time determines weather you will dance or race.  You really don't know what you will do until it happens, but our kids have really enjoyed both!

Now onto the meal.  As you know from my other food reviews, I'm not a foodie, so bear with me.  First out is some bread.  It is a pineapple bread that is really sweet and they serve a honey butter with it.  There is no picture because our kids devour it as soon as we sit down!!   They also serve wings and pot stickers, both are very tasty.  The wings are very mild and have a sweet taste and the pot stickers are very meaty and soft.  There is not too bold of a flavor with the pot stickers, but they are served with sauces on the side if you want to kick it up a bit.  Doug always tries them out but I just eat them plain.

The sauces served are Sweet-n-Sour, Peanut, and teriyaki.  These can be used for any part of the meal.

Also served with the appetizers are Vegetables and Noodles.  Doug likes the noodles but I'm usually too full to bother with them.   Also in this picture is the kids mac and cheese and chicken nuggets and fries.  Just ask about the kids plate when you are seated and the server will take care of them.  

Now onto the reason we are really here.   The MEAT!  They bring around skewers and skewers of meat.  Steak, pork, and shrimp are brought around.  When the server is putting it on your plate you tell them when to stop.  If you want more just wave them down and they will bring it to you.  If you get some that are too dry or not cooked the way you like, just ask for whatever you need.  That is the great thing about this meal, the meat never ends.  There are subtle flavors in all three.  I am fairly picky and I enjoy them all.  Doug really likes the shrimp, but they are a "peel and eat style" so it slows him down a bit.  

How can you not enjoy a meal cooked this way?  

After the meal, there is an amazing dessert that is also consumed too fast for pictures.  Bread pudding with a banana caramel sauce.  I think an entire meal of just this would be worth it to me.  The kids can also get ice cream or a brownie, we have seen both for them.

After your bellies are full you are just a monorail ride from the Magic Kingdom where you can show off your lei while riding on Cinderella's horse.

OR... walk to the TTC and hop on the monorail to Epcot!

'Ohana's is located in the Polynesian Village Resort. 

I highly recommend booking this restaurant 180 days in advance of your trip for a normal dining time for dinner. 

It is one table service credit on the Disney Dining Plan(and a good use of one)

The menu is located here.

Trip Report 2012 Day #9 part one - 'Ohana Breakfast, Blizzard Beach

We have had 8 days of rope drops so far this trip, so we are now on our version of an "off day."

We started our morning with a breakfast at 'OHana at Disney's Polynesian resort.

This is how we take it slow, get up early and have a breakfast with Mickey, Stitch, Pluto, and Lilo.

Downstairs the kids think they are pretending to surf.  

They snap a picture before you are seated.  

Once seated we were served some juice and food.  It is a family style meal, and it was nice to just sit and be waited on, rather then worry about missing a character when at the buffet.  Pluto was first to greet us on this morning.

Then Stitch came by.  This was one of the best character meals because there was a PhotoPass person with Stitch and Mickey.  

And Lilo.

And finally our pal Mickey Mouse!

Now that our tummies were full, we headed over to Blizzard Beach.  We had the water parks add on to our base ticket so we were excited to take advantage of it.  The kids were ready to go and hoping not to "melt."

The view of the summit from the "lost children" area.   We pointed this out to the kids that they better not get lost or they will be forced to hula hoop.  Only joking of course… :)

Our little vacation planners!   They thought they were making our rope drop plan but we already had a plan.   We started by Doug heading up to go down Summit Plummet  then we would all go up and do the family tube ride.  After that we would be focusing on the little kid's area.

The kids and I watched Doug from here after we had claimed a beach chair in the little kids area and put stuff in our locker.  Doug was the second person to go down for the day.  The only person before hime was the person they picked to "open" the park.

You can almost see the flash that is Doug go by in this picture.  He liked it for some reason! It is unlike anything else you can go on and the best wedgie of your life. :)

Once he rejoined us at the bottom, we all rode to the top.  Doug walked the first time up because it is faster to walk.  We knew the line for the chair lift would just keep growing as the morning went on so we wanted to ride it now to avoid the line later.

Clair pointing out some thing important.  

The big kids and I at the summit.  Be warned their are still some steps to go up to get to the top.  Now that we got to the top, we were ready for Teamboat Springs (worlds longest family raft ride) but it was not open yet due to technical difficulties.  So we had to walk down the steps to the bottom.  Not exactly the way for the family to start the day.  

We hung out in the Tike's Peak area and the kids splashed around for a few minutes. Next, we hiked back up the steps for another try at Teamboat Springs.

Thank goodness it was open! I'm not sure we could have walked back down again! The kids are not tall enough for any of the other slides up there.  It has a great view from the top!  You can see just about every Park and Hotel from up there.  

The raft ride is lots of fun and long.  Clair would argue that it is no fun and too long. (This Disney trip was full of fearful things for her and she survived!) 

We had room for more in our raft.  I is hard to Imagine 5 adults in it but I believe it would work.

You can see the steepness in this pic.  

At the bottom where you get out of the raft they have a hidden mickey made out of the raft and some tubes.

Lots of tubes waiting for lazy people in the Lazy River.

We walked over to the wave pool.

This wave pool has the short choppy type waves and Alden and Samantha didn't know what to make of them.  Clair basically said NO, so we hung out in the back.

Back over to Tike's Peak for some sliding.

Sam always end a slide with a look of terror on her face.  

We finally pushed Clair Down one! 

Sam, Alden, and Doug went over to the Ski Patrol Training Camp.  This is the pre-teen area.  There are some other activities and slides over there.  Alden and Sam did one of them a few times.  Then they headed over to the Toboggan Racers.  They had lots of fun once they got brave enough to do some of the bigger slides.

Random view up the Mountain from the Ski Patrol area.

It was just about noon so it was time to head to lunch and rest up for a big night at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!  The water park opened at 10.  So, in two hours we were able to accomplish everything we really wanted to with very little waits.  The people were really starting to file in as we were leaving.  And just like in the theme parks we watched people enter and then look at a map and decide to eat first.  By 2 o'clock the lines will be long and hot, so we were glad to get out of there before it got too crazy.  

We took these picture while Doug was getting all our stuff out of the locker.  It was our first time to a Disney Water Park with the kids and we had fun.  Can't wait till they are a little braver and little taller.  We picked Blizzard beach over Typhoon Lagoon because Tike's Peak is a lot bigger than the little kids area at Typhoon Lagoon and because we did not want to mess with the sand that Typhoon Lagoon has.  

Map of Blizzard Beach

Trip Report 2012 Day #4 - Hollywood Studios Rope Drop Extra Magic Hours, Play & 'n Dine,Jedi Training, & 'Ohana, Epcot

Another early morning as today is our Hollywood Studios day!!! We were going to Morning Extra Magic Hours.

Not sure Clair has figured out how to use covers yet. 

We missed a rope drop one time in 2010 an I made a personal vow to never miss one again. So here we are first in line at Hollywood Studios.  Of all the rope drops Hollywood Studios and Epcot are the most critical because those parks have fewer rope drop priorities. Therefore the headliners build lines very quick, unlike Magic Kingdom where the rope drop crowd goes in lots of directions. 

Doug went ahead of the kids and I to fight the crowd for a Fast Pass to Toy Story Midway Mania. (Please note, you can no longer get paper Fast Passes as of 2014. Now you can use Fast Pass+ for electronic Fast Passes.) We met him at the entrance of the line. We were on the ride after about 3 minutes. 

The kids like to ride together and Doug likes to ride by himself because it gives him more targets and chances to score! 

There might have been a few hundred people ahead of us because we stopped to grab a Fast Pass and Doug was excited to have the high score so far (even if it was a disappointing score for him). 

After the spin on Toy Story Midway Mania, Doug took Sam and Alden to sign up for Jedi Training Academy.  Clair and I met some characters.  

Fist thing in the morning they have lots of fury friends to meet right out front of the large Sorcerer Hat. This is to help slow the on slot of people heading to ride Toy Story Midway Mania.

Lightning McQueen & TowMater

Clair and I with one of Pawnee City's Finest...TowMater (Larry the Cable Guy, who voices TowMater is from Pawnee City, Nebraska - which is also where my mom grew up and my grandma still lives). 

We met back up with Doug and the older kids after they got a time for Jedi Training after lunch. 

We split up again - Doug and big kids went to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, while Clair & I met our pals from Monster's Inc. 

Sam & Alden both cried after the pre-show because of the lightning, but as soon as the ride was over they both wanted to do it again. 

It was time to use our Fast Passes for a second spin and I got to ride solo because Clair wanted to ride with daddy. 

Scores from Doug and Clair. Can you match the person to the score? 

We met Sorcerer Mickey inside the Animation building.

Lunch time! We walked over to Hollywood and Vine to eat at Disney Jr. Play 'N Dine Lunch. We met June from the Little Einsteins first.

Then Handy Manny. 

Lots of great food on the buffet. 

Yo Ho Lets Go!  Jake from Jake & the Neverland Pirates

Special Agent Oso, who according to Alden, is the softest one to meet. 

We paused for a picture in the entrance before we left. We like this meal because it is very interactive. They do some dancing with the kids and little parades around the restaurant. 

Clair demanded a picture with Minnie Mouse. 

We got a shot of each kid on the speeder bike. 

The kids getting lined up and ready for Jedi Training.  

Getting their robes. 

Razor focus. They learn a few moves and then take on Darth Vader. 

Darth came out and the class ran to the side of the stage. 

Time to put that training to work. 

Lots of kids just barely swing at Vader but Alden went out there like he had a score to settle. 

They battled to a draw. 

Sam ended up in a draw as well. 

With Vader turned away they received their diplomas. 

Clair then met Handy Manny again. 

It was the last day for the pooh meet because the next day it closed to prepare it for the Wreck It Ralph meet and great. 

My allergies were killing me after spending lots of time in the evergreen forest on Endor. So we left the park and stopped by Target to get me some medication. 

If you are doing Disney right the kids can be asleep before you are out of the parking lot. (Please note they fell over like this when we stopped at Target and perked back up when we started driving again, and their seatbelts were in the correct positions while moving.)

This evening we find ourselves at one of our favorite restaurants 'Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. 

The pineapple bread basically disappeared. 

This is a meat eaters paradise. Skewers of meat over an open flame. 

While this is one were we come for the food. They also entertain the kids. 

They teach the kids to hula. 

Once the kids are experts they took Doug out to learn. 

Shrimp, turkey, and steak!  And when you want more you just wave your hand and more appears on your plate. 

There is also salad, pot stickers, and wings. 

Alden may have enjoyed the lei too much. 

In the lobby of the poly. 

After dinner we walked to the TTC and got on the monorail to Epcot. 

We made a quick stop at the Character Spot. 

We like to get pics with the fab five in our Husker gear. 

Minnie always smiles when she sees us. 

Still no pants?

And we end our night with Goofy then headed back over to the monorail to get back to Bay Lake Tower.  It was a successful day with lots of great food and the kids became Jedi!