Doing It Deluxe, Indulgence for 14 Nights... With Pics!! **Update: CALIFORNIA GRILL**

[World Bouncer]

Now you've got me curious about that House Charge. I wonder if this is something specific to resort TS restaurants? We're going in a few weeks and dining at many resort locations. You can be sure we'll look into it. Yours is the first mention of it. I know they do this in Las Vegas -- a few places anyway -- tacking on some unknown, purposeless "service charge" that is neither a gratuity nor tax.

I don't care how bad the economy is, either incorporate the price change into the cost of the entrees et al. or the manager and/or server are going to have to pull out the Unabridged Oxford-English explanation for what exactly a House Charge is. Either way, I'll let you know.

BTW, World Bouncer, of all the reviews being posted, yours are far and away my favorite. Your photos, descriptions and the genuine fun you and your family seem to be having are a daily delight. Thank you for sharing that with us.

I am so glad you are enjoying them, thanks for reading!

We ate at many resorts including the California Grill at this same resort and I don't recall any charges, except for this one... let me know if you find anything out.

Great reviews! I had to come out of lurkdom to comment on how much I'm enjoying them. Your pics are great! You even remembered to take ones of the drinks! Impressive! Whenever I try to take pics of my food, I get distracted at some point and can't even remember to take pics of all the courses, lol!


I also like the breakdown of food, service atmosphere at the end - great info and any one of those can make or break a meal!

Thanks for reading, I am so glad you're enjoying them, and thank you for coming out of "lurkdom" to let me know!

The Reuben and Burger look soooo good. I enjoyed the Reuben at SciFi, but I believe it may have had more meat on it. But that's OK, this looks great! How was that multigrain burger bun?

We all like the multigrain breads and it was a nice touch to the burger, verses the plain old buns!

Great reviews! We are doing the deluxe dining plan in May for our anniversary trip and we will be going to many of the restaurants you reviewed. Thanks for taking the time to make a phenomenal trip report!

Thanks for checking the reviews out, and I'm happy you are enjoying them. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

I hope you have a wonderful anniversary trip. I want to take DW someday for a land/sea package on our anniversary!

Another crab cake It did look really good and that chocolate milkshake looked really really good

Crab Cakes LOL
That was a really good milkshake, it was nice they take the time to make it look cool too!

Great review !! Food looks great !! I am a huge Reuben Fan too!!

After seeing the pics and thinking about the yummy Reuben.... I had to get the griddle out and buy some rye... mmmmmm.... we went to town!
(sorry no pics LOL)

 

[BriarRosie]

Crab Cake Boy! You didn't let me down. Instead of Drinking Around the World, you'd rather do Crabcakes Around the World.

The only thing that prevents me from ordering a Reuben is the taste of rye bread. I can't stand it. It looked like yours had a multigrain bread, which I can tolerate. I'd probably order that if it had no hint of rye taste.

 

[World Bouncer]

Crab Cake Boy! You didn't let me down. Instead of Drinking Around the World, you'd rather do Crabcakes Around the World.

The only thing that prevents me from ordering a Reuben is the taste of rye bread. I can't stand it. It looked like yours had a multigrain bread, which I can tolerate. I'd probably order that if it had no hint of rye taste.

That could have been the title to my review ... lol

Though I think I could handle a good dose of both... wine and crab around the world!

 

[hill6]

The Wave looks great. I will be there Saturday night. Yum.

 

[TPCShauna]

The Wave sounds really yummy. DH and I are dining there in a mere 26 days so it's nice to see a good review.

Question - Do you recall approximately how long it took for lunch here? We are doing lunch on our MK day and I would love to know how much time to plan. TIA!

Great job as usual!

 

[Tbella]

I am really enjoying all your reviews. They have helped me plan my dining ressies. I know this takes alot of time on your part. Thank you!

 

[onelilspark]

Thanks for the review on the Wave. The menu scares me a little as I'm not an overly adventurous diner. But judging from what you guys ordered, I would be able to find something here

 

[Maecenus]

Your pictures and descriptions are amazing! Thank you!

 

[World Bouncer]

The Wave looks great. I will be there Saturday night. Yum.

Think of us LOL ... enjoy your meal!

The Wave sounds really yummy. DH and I are dining there in a mere 26 days so it's nice to see a good review.

Question - Do you recall approximately how long it took for lunch here? We are doing lunch on our MK day and I would love to know how much time to plan. TIA!

Great job as usual!

Thanks..... I believe that we were there for close to an hour and a half, and I remember it was nice and relaxed, we could have been done quicker but, were in no rush.

I am really enjoying all your reviews. They have helped me plan my dining ressies. I know this takes alot of time on your part. Thank you!

Thanks for reading and I am glad you are enjoying!

Thanks for the review on the Wave. The menu scares me a little as I'm not an overly adventurous diner. But judging from what you guys ordered, I would be able to find something here

I think you should be able to find something, even if its a salad and burger or something like that.

Your pictures and descriptions are amazing! Thank you!

Thanks for reading and you're very welcome!

 

[World Bouncer]

Coming up next.....

Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show @ The Polynesian

 

[mybabesuz]

GREAT reviews...

 

[wilma-bride]

Still not sure I fancy The Wave, even after your excellent review, however I am really looking forward to your review of Spirit of Aloha

 

[World Bouncer]

GREAT reviews...

Still not sure I fancy The Wave, even after your excellent review, however I am really looking forward to your review of Spirit of Aloha

Thank you both for checking out the reviews....

Stay tuned

Here comes the next one

 

[World Bouncer]

Spirit Of Aloha Dinner Show @ The Polynesian, Dinner, 09-23-08

***Before I get into this, I just want to warn you that this was not an overly positive experience for us. I don't think that I am very negative about most of our experiences, but this was will bring a bit of that out.

A few pics of the stage:

And a few pics of us:

Our reservation for the evening was for 8pm... you are suppose to show up a half hour early and we did.
We were at MK and when it was time to go.... the resort monorail was not in service, so we took the express to the transportation center, and walked to the Poly from there. The walk to the Poly isn't so bad, but the location that the dinner is in, was totally on the other side of the resort. No problem though, we had a very nice walk, it was a nice evening and it was walking the path through the resort with the lit tiki torches.

There was a greeter with a clipboard standing at the sidewalk and checking for reservations, she was very pleasant. After you pass the greeter, you continue on the sidewalk to where they take your picture... we bypassed this area and opted to not have our picture taken. You then come to an area where everyone waits and as you enter everyone is given a lei, you then wait in one big group for the exact moment and then they open the walkway to the actual dining area. At the end of this walkway, you are meet and seated.

Here is the menu offering as posted on the DIS online menu.

Entree/Main Course
Adult Dinner Show Menu - Family Style Feast: Tropical mixed greens with mango poppyseed dressing, pineapple coconut bread, sweet golden pineapple, Islando BBQ pork ribs, Lanoi roasted chicken, Polynesian rice, fresh seasonal veggies and Kilauea Volcano Delight Dessert. Presented in an open air theater, and; therefore may cancel due to inclement weather.
Drinks
Tropical Beverages - Bud and Bud Light Draft Beer, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, Tea (hot or iced), Coffee, Milk, Pink Lemonade, Sprite, Coke, and Diet Coke. Tropical Cocktails for purchase. *





The Bread
Of all the food that is offered here.... we enjoyed the bread the most! It was fresh and chewy, with a sweet flavor to it. We ate what was brought and requested more! The bread is brought out as part of the appetizer platter.

Appetizer
On this platter you receive the bread, fresh pineapple, and a citrus salad. There was nothing wrong with this pineapple or the salad, but on the other hand, we were not impressed at all. Very Average.

Entrees
On the Entree platter you are brought Ribs, Rice, Veggies, and Chicken. Again we were not at all impressed by the food. I ate lots of the rice, nibbled on a rib and tried some chicken. Rice was good, the meats were below average, but edible.

Dessert


We actually enjoyed this dessert.
This first picture is how it was brought to our table

This is after we served it on to our plates

This is some birthday cake that was delivered for a 7 yr. old boy celebrating. His family was seated at the table right next to us, and they shared!

The Mickey decoration on the cake

Beverages
DD - Ice Tea
DW - White House Wine
ME - Red House Wine


Cost:
I cannot find our receipt for this experience, so I apologize that I cannot provide that information for you.
It is however a 2ts charge on the dining plan, and it includes some alcoholic beverages as well as the gratuity in the all inclusive price.



Service
The service here was almost non-existent. We were brought our food and then hardly seen our server. The service was not friendly, but a matter of fact. It kind of felt like being shuffled through an animal feeding process. It is a good thing for the servers here that the gratuity is included, because our server didn't do much to earn one. In a bit of defense to the CM servers.... there are an incredibly large amount of tables that are loaded on them.


Atmosphere
This is an outside theater, and the dining area is under a roof, but open on all sides. It is fairly crowded with lots of seating packed in. The chairs are heavy metal, not the most comfortable things in the world.

The show.... the first half of the show just seemed chaotic to us without any real point and came across as a bunch of noise, noise, noise. The storyline that was used was not interesting. The second half of the show did offer some entertainment in the form of the fire and torch dancing.


Food
The food was all edible, but barely. I would not purchase most of this food ever if it was offered on a regular menu, except the bread, rice, and dessert. Now I know that you are paying for more than just food here, and if the show had been really good, then maybe the lousy food would have been easier to bare.
You also get some alcohol choices included with your price here, we tried both the white and the red wines and were disappointed.

Overall
Our family made the best of the experience and found what enjoyment we could. After all being with the ones you love can sometimes be all you need! I would not suggest this experience to most people, due to the fact that nothing meet up to our standards... the show, the food, or the service. We are fairly experienced dinner show attendees, and this one just did not measure up in our opinion.

I think that your money can be so much more well spent while at Disney than on this.

However... if you choose to do this, just keep an open mind and keep your expectations on the low side with the plan to enjoy the evening with family and friends.

 

[KSG'sDisneyMem]

World Bouncer, your reviews are awesome. I love the picture of Jo Jo with her chocolate shake. I usually get a chocolate shake at Sci-Fi but that one looks phenomenal. Thanks for taking so much of your time to do this for all of us out here. I had not thought of doing a meal at the Wave but it sounds like a great idea for a walk-in if time allows for this. I think I have to go there for the chocolate shake in December. How did your DD rate it? Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[belle8306]

I am really enjoying all of your reviews. It is too bad that the Spirit of Aloha show wasn't more enjoyable. I am looking forward to more!

 

[Minnie Squeaks]

World Bouncer, your reviews are awesome. I love the picture of Jo Jo with her chocolate shake. I usually get a chocolate shake at Sci-Fi but that one looks phenomenal. Thanks for taking so much of your time to do this for all of us out here. I had not thought of doing a meal at the Wave but it sounds like a great idea for a walk-in if time allows for this. I think I have to go there for the chocolate shake in December. How did your DD rate it? Looking forward to reading the rest.

The chocolate shake at The Wave was great and the little bit of hot fudge in the middle made for the perfect touch. oh yes...i loved the whip cream on top too
but the oreo shake i had at the Sci-Fi was also very good

 

[englishrose47]

I had heard similar eviews of the Lua and wouldn/t waste 2 TS on it , in fact about the only similar thing I might consider is HoopDe Doo!! Nevertheless great and honest review !!

 

[tinklynn]

So, I live in Washington state. I took a drive the other day over to Port Angeles, home of the Dungeness crab. While looking down at the spit, I could see a great group of crabs coming out of the water! And they were all carrying little crabbie suitcases!! I stopped one of the first to pass me and asked him what they were doing? Where were they going? He responded by giving a huge crab sigh. "Well, you see, there's this guy who has a complete fixation with crab cakes and he's cleaning us out! Just wiping us clean." "But..but you can't leave," I cried. "Washington is known for Dungeness crabs!" He looked at me solemnly and said, "Yeah, that's just it. We're Dungeness crabs, this is the Dungeness spit, where would YOU go to find a Dungeness crab? We're sitting targets for him right here." The light broke through and I stammered, "but where will you go? what will you do?" The crab looked up at me with his sad little crabbie eyes and replied, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a clam."

I watched them walk off towards the mountains and sighed. Hopefully they would find a home at Crescent Lake or some other body of water up there. My eyes misted slightly as I twisted my watch on my wrist so I could see what time it was. Noon! Wow! Time for my reservations at the 3 Crabs Restaurant!! Hope they've got plenty of drawn butter.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

Lynn

 

[wilma-bride]

Sorry you did not enjoy Spirit of Aloha - I was really hoping for a great review as it's something I've always wanted to try. owever, the food did not really look appetising to me so, if the show is not worth it either, I think we may well skip it.