DECEMBER 5, 2011
Day 1, Part 3 In Which We Form A New Ohana At Ohana
The Seven Seas Lagoon is so gorgeous. But we didn't have time to dwell on the view. We had to DASH over to the Resort Monorail for a date with my boyfriend, Monorail Voice Guy.
You don't need to hear the story of how much I adore this man. I'm sure you've read my last world famous and amazing trip report. You know that no words turn me on more than, "For the comfort of others, no smoking please." and "Por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas."
Be still, my aching heart!
That giant Mickey head is a wreath! Love it!
This picture cracks me up b/c the reflection looks like God is taking a picture with a giant camera. "Oh look, it's Disney World, one of my finest creations! *Click*"
Seeing the castle and Space from the monorail is one of my favorite parts of every trip.
Pretty soon we arrived at one of my favorite places in the world: Disney's Polynesian Resort.
The guy in front of us clearly had visited the Main Street Barber Shop:
What a cool dad/granddad/uncle/guy/man/etc
I love the colors on this tree. One of my favorite things about visiting Disney around the holidays is the resort specific decorations. My big regret from this trip is not going to see more of them, but I'm glad to have an extra excuse to go during the holidays again!
It was around 4:45 PM when we arrived at 'Ohana. What we saw when we got there was something I have never seen before, nor anticipated in any way.
There were two lines and a sign in front of the podium. The sign said GUESTS WITHOUT RESERVATIONS with an arrow pointing to the left, and GUESTS WITH RESERVATIONS with an arrow pointing to the right.
Have they always done this? I actually think it was a pretty great way to organize things. I hate when there's a big crowd up at the podium at a popular restaurant and you have no idea who's checked in and who's not or where the end of the line is, and you just end up standing there awkwardly wondering where the nearest Panera is.
The "Guests without reservations" line was pretty short. The restaurant was not even open yet. We talked to the people in front of us in line who said they open at 5:00 and a CM had told them they would start accepting people with no reservations at 5:30. One of the guys told me that he has come here ten times with no reservation and has gotten seated every single time.
Wait... WHAT? You're telling me all I have to do is chill in this line for 45 minutes and I've got myself a table at 'Ohana?! Done deal. If you could do this at Le Cellier, I would do it every day of our trip for both lunch and dinner. I would get in line for lunch around 9:00 AM just to be safe. I'd probably be seated around 12 or 1. Then, after enjoying six bowls of Cheddar Cheese Soup and a Chocolate Moose, I would walk around the World Showcase for approximately fifteen minutes before getting right back in the Le Cellier line for dinner.
A perfect vacation.
While we were waiting, my mom went over to the Tambu Lounge and got a Bloody Mary.
Is there anyone else who cannot even fathom drinking this?! The mixture of ingredients is just
bleh. For those of you who enjoy these, though, my mom said it was delicious!
I really wanted to FINALLY try a glorious Lapu Lapu (for those who don't know, that's the famous alcoholic drink you get at the Poly that comes in a pineapple), but all I had eaten all day was the McMuffin and if I drink alcohol on an empty stomach I feel awful, so I passed. Of course, I ended up never getting one. THE LAPU LAPU HAS EVADED ME ONCE AGAIN!
The info we had gotten was correct, and just around 5:30 they sat a couple of the parties in front of us. About 15 minutes later, they asked if the two people in front of us, my mom and I, and the two people behind us would like to all sit together because they had a table of six available.
My immediate mental response was NO OF COURSE NOT.
Any time anything like this happens, my default response is that it is sure to be a disaster. I mean, I didn't want to make awkward conversation with people I don't know. That whole "Where are you from, what do you do" thing is fine when you're chatting with a CM or something, but during a whole meal? Plus, this wasn't just ANY meal. This was freaking 'Ohana!!!!!!!!!!! I had wanted to eat here for five years and now I have to eat with people I don't know? And what if they turned out to be smelly or fans of the show Whitney or serial killers or pool hoppers something? No thank you, I'll just eat with my mom. Since I didn't want to offend anyone, I said quietly so that only she could hear, "No, I just want to eat with you." I decided to be a wuss and just let her take care of it.
That didn't happen. EVERYONE else, including my mom, said "Sure!"
Well okay. I'm not going to be the one jerk that says no. Plus, I was really freaking hungry. So off we went to the front of the restaurant where we were soon whisked away by the host. I noticed the four people we were to dine with seemed very excited as well, and the six of us were quite a shiny, happy group walking in there. We were kind of like the Friends cast, but not as well paid.
I wasn't really thrilled about the dining with randoms situation, but hey, THIS IS DISNEY! I was like, who cares really. I'm at Disney World and we've gotten into 'OHANA, baby!
When you go to 'Ohana, they ask if you've been there before as you walk to your table. Two of the people in our party had, but the rest of us haven't, so he took us over to this area where he showed us some drinks and explained what 'Ohana is like. Of course, I already knew everything about this place from the DIS so I just surveyed our group and wondered which of them would end up being the most annoying.
Well, guess what? It turns out that I'm a moron, cause they were all lovely people! No Whitney fans or anything. Seriously, I liked everyone and so did my mom! There was one couple from Pennsylvania and one younger couple from North Carolina. We all got along great and it was only awkward for about two minutes. Not even one of them annoyed me!
The great thing was, they were all big Disney fans staying at other Disney resorts. It's not like they just wandered into the 'Ohana line thinking "Hey, this place looks good. Aloha!" Nope. They all knew of how delicious and famous 'Ohana was and knew to get there early and get in line for a table. We all talked about past trips and favorite attractions, restaurants, etc. It ended up being really wonderful.
It was a lesson to me that I need to be more open with people. We all have plans on our Disney trips that go awry, but sometimes what ends up happening turns out to be wonderful, so you should just trust the Pixie Dust. Of course, my warped mind immediately went to the worst case scenario, but it ended up being totally not like that at all.
But who cares about that.
Mother of God that food was good.
Slap my behind and call me Walt Disney, THE FOOD WAS SO GREAT!
'Ohana is a family style, all you can eat kinda deal. I did not take pictures b/c I did not want the people we were dining with to immediately think I was insane. Usually, I try to ease people into the crazy that is me, instead of just throwing it at them in their faces.
For my drink, I ordered a pomegranate iced tea. Pomegranate is my favorite flavor and I LOVED this. I think I ended up having like three glasses of it? Just delicious.
So first, they bring a round, warm, DELICIOUS loaf of bread and it was very hard for me to not eat it all. I am starving now.
Then, they bring salad. I laughed. I knew there were large chunks of meat coming. IN UNLIMITED QUANTITIES! No chance I was going to fill up even a little on LEAVES.
Then, someone came over with a giant skewer filled with shrimp. I like seafood very little and rarely eat it, so I passed. I was waitin' for the good stuff.
One of the people at my table asked my mom if I ate meat.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It's funny, I guess b/c I had turned down the shrimp and salad, they thought that I was one of those girls who doesn't really eat or something.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Funny. That.
So then they brought two huge plates. One was filled with chicken wings and POT STICKERS!!!!!! The other with vegetables (lol) and lo mein.
The only thing in the entire meal that I did not like were the chicken wings, and that is because they were not cooked nearly enough. They had a good flavor about them but I just couldn't eat them like that. The pot stickers were the best I EVER had, they were perfectly seared. These are much better than the pot stickers from Yak & Yeti and I ate about 48 of them.
The veggies I ignored. The lo mein, oh my god. It was the best I have ever had, and I have had INCREDIBLE lo mein from what I consider to be the best catering company in New York City. And yet, 'Ohana even beat that. I ate SO much of this. The rest of the people at our table ate very little of it and so I just kept piling it on and down the hatch it went!
Then, the meat started coming.
Glory, glory hallelujah!
The steak was just unbelievable. It was my favorite. I never expected it to be THAT good. I mean, I guess I expected less than amazing steak because it's grilled on a skewer in large quantities, but it was the kind of savory, perfect steak that you would get at a steakhouse!
The chicken was WAY better than the chicken wings. I don't know what kind of sauce they had on it but WHEW. Incredible.
They had pork too and I didn't even eat any of it. I love pork, but the steak and chicken and lo mein were just SO good and I was eating SO much already that by the time the pork came around, I couldn't even fathom adding another component to this meal.
I posted on twitter:
Oh my God. 'OHANA. I've been full for like 20 minutes but they just keep bringing more food and my god i love Disney so much.
Some kind of magic occurs at 'Ohana where, even though you are filled to the brim, you are somehow able to keep eating. I believe it was similar to a tear in the space/time continuum. Which reminds me of when Sandy Cohen asks Seth and Ryan if they need anything from the store and Seth replies, "Ryan needs a tear in the space/time continuum so he can go back and say 'I love you' to Marissa."
Remember that episode? Marissa said I love you to Ryan but he just said "Thank you" back because well he's Ryan, the abandoned, tough but secretly vulnerable hottie from Chino and he can't just SAY 'I love you' like that even though he REALLY did love her.
And he still does.
He always will.
I should probably mention now that if you don't like talk of television as a supplement to the regularly scheduled Disney Trip Report... well, prepare to do some scrolling.
ANYWAY BACK TO 'OHANA!
It was dessert time.
You are probably familiar with the bread pudding they serve for dessert at 'Ohana. I am not a fan of bread pudding. However, other people who don't really like bread pudding tell me that they eat it at 'Ohana anyway cause it's just that good. Well, I hate to disappoint you guys, but I didn't even try it! I was so full that my plan was to have "just a little bit" of ice cream.
That plan backfired.
They put this giant bowl of like, 87 scoops of vanilla ice cream with the little black flecks and the Mickey head rainbow sprinkles atop it. Most people barely took any ice cream because they were focusing on the bread pudding, which meant that I ate basically all the ice cream.
I didn't even mean to.
People were wondering what happened to it and I was all, "A squirrel just ran in and took it!" Liz Lemon style.
I was so full, I don't know how I did it. It was just so delicious.
Frankly, I doubt they even had to wash the dish, it was so clean by the time I was through with it.
And thus ended a magnificent first meal of the trip. 'Ohana lived up to my high expectations and then some. We will definitely be returning, in fact I think this will be a must do on every trip from now on.
UP NEXT: We lose a member of our crew!
I wouldn't be able to deal with that. Thank God you have Tumblr!
is the best. I actually read that they changed the name of the film from Rapunzel to Tangled so that people would know it's not just all about the princess and it's for boys to identify with too and stuff. Apparently a lot of people didn't like this decision but I think it was smart!
No description could be more accurate.
How strange was it to share the meal family style with strangers, though? I can handle sitting with strangers at Biergarten because it is a buffet and everyone gets his/her own food... not sure how awkward it would be to be dipping from the same bowls...
Hmmmm- come to think of it, it was probably like just putting the buffet out on the table as opposed to walking up there to fix your plate. 
Oh well, we will be a party of 9 with my cousin and her kids joining us, so I don't think we run the risk of having random people added to our table. 
BUT IT'S SO WONDERFUL. I'm not a bread pudding fan AT ALL, but 1 part bread pudding, 5 parts ice cream, 2 parts banana sauce, 2 parts Mickey sprinkles is a flawless combo.
