Final Night: Luau or Ohana's

[crelange]

My family of 4 (DH, DD's 5,8) have PS at the Luau. I have not heard great things about it. I am thinking of trying to change to Ohana for dinner. It is on 9/2. What do you think?

Additional things to consider:
- we are on free dining and the Luau is 2 TS.
-Luau is outdoors and we may really need to be in airconditioning if it is really HOT
-the Luau food sounds OK, but not great.

-my girls would love the luau show

What do you think???

Chris

 

[eeyore45]

I think you answered your question!! Since this is a personal choice, you have to weigh the pros and cons for your situation!!

We chose ohana, because I love a/c, and altho the show sounded good, I wasnt sure about the seating, and it wouldnt provide conversational opportunities - and I've read where "some" waitstaff dont refill as often due to impairing the sight lines for other diners... long waits for free refills...

Now we have a dd8 and she loved participating in the coconut races, and the hula hoop... we got there early and took part in the Polynesian lighting the tiki torches, and they have a wonderully talented lady in the lobby that works the hula dance...

 

[michellejed]

We did the Luau in Jan and it was really cold but glad we did it once.

The kids then 10 and 4 loved it but would we go again? No, once was enough

 

[Grumpy'n'Goofy]

One more thing to consider is the fact that that the Luau can be cancelled due to bad weather, whereas this is not an issue at Ohana.

 

[VistaLeigh'smommy]

I was not wild about the Luau but I don't have children.

I LOVE Ohana's and the food is MUCH better

 

[grimley1968]

I'd probably choose Ohana, but getting a PS there at this date for 9/2 may prove difficult. I'm staying at the Poly from 10/1-10/8, and I couldn't find any PS availability at Ohana for the entire week. I called this past weekend.

How flexible are you? There are plenty of other great places to eat on the resort loop of the monorail besides Ohana. Hoop De Doo is not on the monorail, of course, but we love this show/dinner. Maybe there's availability for it? It's indoors and air conditioned, of course. It will use 2 of your TS credits, like the Luau.

 

[HM]

I think you should do it, especially if you feel like your kids would want to do it. My family did the Luau in June 2003 and loved the experience. We'd never done anything like it before. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food after hearing only bad things previously. The storyline of the show is a bit sophmoric, but that was made up for by the wonderful music, dancing, and costuming. I was really kicking myself for not having our video recorder along (camera didn't capture the movement well at all). We did the second show so it was cooler (and though we had rain, it only affected the show a bit because most of it is under a stage cover now). I really have no bad things to say about it (well...the dessert was awful).

HM

 

[disneyfan67]

I was not wild about the Luau but I don't have children.

I LOVE Ohana's and the food is MUCH better

You can say that again! I would choose Ohana's every day of the week and twice on Sunday before I would do the Luau. The Luau is cool but it's just not worth the price or chance of bad weather when you have Ohana's just a few feet away. If you get lucky and get a window seat of the lagoon it just makes the dinner even better. I didn't think the food at the Luau was all that good but that just my opinion. Ohana's on the other hand is great and I love taking people there who have never been there before. It's my favorite resort restaurant in all of WDW.

 

[Violetx3]

I did not go to the Luau. I wanted to say one thing about O'hana. My dh and I really enjoyed the food, but my girls (similar ages to yours) didn't think it was anything special. They are probably too young to appreciate the grilled meats. The coconut races aren't that big of a deal and they can't really be compared to a dinner show. The most exciting thing for them was getting paper umbrellas from the bar.

 

[jeankeri]

The Polynesian is great- we stayed there last trip and did both restaurants. Would you be trying to time the dinner to see the Electric Water Pagent and Wishes after? That would make your last night even more special. I believe Wishes is 8:30 that night. The EWP is 9pm unless that conflicts with Wishes. I would double check the time for that. If you are interested in viewing those from the beach then you would have to go to the earlier luau, and you would have time to fill before the fireworks. Or, see what ADRs are available at O'Hanas. The price of the Luau is steep but the show was awesome.