Finally got Ohana ADR but now I'm having second thoughts on my ADRs

[samsonjs]

I've been stalking Ohana and set up an alert. I didn't even get an alert when I stumbled upon a time on the Disney site and quickly booked it. Now I'm having second thoughts and worried I'm doing too much. It's our first trip. I have a 5yo and an almost 3yo. I'm trying to switch up food choices so it's not all chicken nuggets/fries. Most of our FP are between (9:30-12:30 except FOP at 2pm).

This is what I had planned:
Sat afternoon: Epcot- quick service dinner
Sun: MK- Liberty tree lunch, maybe a break during the day and QS dinner somewhere
Mon: HS-, Backlot lunch, resort dinner/pool, back to HS for shows
Tues: MK- lots of pool time, Art Smith's Homecoming dinner @ DS in evening, maybe fireworks at MK
Wed: AK-Tusker house brunch, maybe a pool break, Canteen dinner and light show
Thurs: MK, no definite plans, but my dad is coming up and he wants to be at MK
Fri: home

So I only had 3 reservations at Liberty Tree, Homecoming and Tusker house. I didn't think I would get reservations at Ohana but I found one for Tuesday at 8pm. I was able to move Homecoming (my husband REALLY wants this) to Monday at 4:30. I'm worried it will be too much for HS but we will have our own car. It seems like HS isn't requiring as much time but I do have a Star Wars loving son.

I also read mixed reviews about Ohana being frozen food, running out of food for late ADRs, taking an hour to be seated. Can we see the MK fireworks at Ohana? Am I planning too much? Will I be disappointed with Ohana if I'm paying cash and don't have dining plan? I just need someone to tell me what to do.

 

[bluejasmine]

Can you make Arts a lunch? That's what I did... So get up Tues pool time and then around noon head to DS for Arts and maybe shopping and then to Ohana for your dinner and ride monorail over to MK or watch from Poly beach!
Or move Arts to Thurs for dinner,,

 

[KenHutch]

Ohana's is my families favorite, and as I have posted before we eat dinner there twice every trip and sometimes a breakfast as well. I always schedule my ADR there for 20:00 or later so we can watch the fireworks from there (they pipe in the music). I cannot get my 17 year old to watch fireworks from the park but at that distance she is fine. Sigh

 

[samsonjs]

Can you make Arts a lunch? That's what I did... So get up Tues pool time and then around noon head to DS for Arts and maybe shopping and then to Ohana for your dinner and ride monorail over to MK or watch from Poly beach!
Or move Arts to Thurs for dinner,,

Hmmm I didn't think of doing 2 big meals on the same day but if it's an 8pm meal maybe it would work. What if we slept in did pool late morning (my kids can only do about 1-1.5hrs of pool time) and lunch around 1:00 at homecoming then go from DS right to MK for afternoon FP and then take the monorail from MK to Poly. I heard DS busses can be hit or miss. Do you think driving and using the monorail would be OK? What time would we have to get on the monorail to Poly?

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

For my family, when kids were that age especially, an 8:00 ADR at Ohana would not have been worth it. We'd be crazy-hungry before then, so we'd have to have a snack, and then no one would be all that hungry for the all-you-can-eat at Ohana. Views of fireworks from there are OK if you are right by the window, which few tables are. And it can be a long wait for a table, even with an ADR.

 

[maryj11]

Just go ahead and try Ohana. We have eaten there several times. Our last time I was not happy with the chicken(dry) and steak(to rare) but everything else was good. Love the shrimp, pot stickers and dessert! I would still go again. It does take around 15 to 20 minutes to be seated. But I think you should try it at least once. You can see the fireworks from the beach.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

You know your kids best...will they be ok eating dinner that late? I know when mine were that age they never would have made it for an 8pm dinner. And I realize I'm in the minority but we think Ohana is highly overrated and I definitely wouldn't change my plans to eat there.

 

[msk]

The last time we went to Ohana it was around 8:00. We waited 30 to 45 minutes for our table. The food was cold and the service was not good. I do love Ohana but I'll never again go that late at night.

 

[samsonjs]

I might just stick with my original plan then. I really wanted to try it but I'm worried about a bad experience and if it's too close to 9pm before we eat I'm not sure if my 2yo will do well. I guess I will just keep waiting for an earlier time. I'm surprised at how hard it is to pick out restaurants and time everything right.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I've been stalking Ohana and set up an alert. I didn't even get an alert when I stumbled upon a time on the Disney site and quickly booked it. Now I'm having second thoughts and worried I'm doing too much. It's our first trip. I have a 5yo and an almost 3yo. I'm trying to switch up food choices so it's not all chicken nuggets/fries. Most of our FP are between (9:30-12:30 except FOP at 2pm).

This is what I had planned:
Sat afternoon: Epcot- quick service dinner
Sun: MK- Liberty tree lunch, maybe a break during the day and QS dinner somewhere
Mon: HS-, Backlot lunch, resort dinner/pool, back to HS for shows
Tues: MK- lots of pool time, Art Smith's Homecoming dinner @ DS in evening, maybe fireworks at MK
Wed: AK-Tusker house brunch, maybe a pool break, Canteen dinner and light show
Thurs: MK, no definite plans, but my dad is coming up and he wants to be at MK
Fri: home

So I only had 3 reservations at Liberty Tree, Homecoming and Tusker house. I didn't think I would get reservations at Ohana but I found one for Tuesday at 8pm. I was able to move Homecoming (my husband REALLY wants this) to Monday at 4:30. I'm worried it will be too much for HS but we will have our own car. It seems like HS isn't requiring as much time but I do have a Star Wars loving son.

I also read mixed reviews about Ohana being frozen food, running out of food for late ADRs, taking an hour to be seated. Can we see the MK fireworks at Ohana? Am I planning too much? Will I be disappointed with Ohana if I'm paying cash and don't have dining plan? I just need someone to tell me what to do.

I think the bulk of your plans sounds great and you've got a good mix of ADR and QS so not to be too reservation heavy and some good breaks. Not sure what time the fireworks are set for on the Tuesday you're there and what the MK park hours are, but you might miss the show with an 8pm dinner ADR. I've never done dinner at Ohana but we've done the character breakfast and we really loved it but I know, completely different meal. If you could get to Ohana a bit earlier, you could then watch the show from the Poly beach. Will you be in HS after Toy Story land opens, if so you'll want to devote a little more time to HS with the new land opening I think end of June.

 

[tinkerhon]

Agree with some of the others --- we are fans of "Ohana" and would definitely recommend trying it, however, given the ages of the children, I would be weary. Most likely, you will be seated around 8:15 for an 8PM ADR -
Our kids (now 11 and 7) were never that hungry at that time - they would usually just want a quick snack or something to share from the food court once we got back to the hotel

Just something to consider -

Enjoy !

 

[samsonjs]

I think the bulk of your plans sounds great and you've got a good mix of ADR and QS so not to be too reservation heavy and some good breaks. Not sure what time the fireworks are set for on the Tuesday you're there and what the MK park hours are, but you might miss the show with an 8pm dinner ADR. I've never done dinner at Ohana but we've done the character breakfast and we really loved it but I know, completely different meal. If you could get to Ohana a bit earlier, you could then watch the show from the Poly beach. Will you be in HS after Toy Story land opens, if so you'll want to devote a little more time to HS with the new land opening I think end of June.

No, we will be there April 14-20. I'm not really sure how much time we will actually spend at HS. There are so few rides. My son wants to meet all of the Star Wars characters. We are not messing around with the toy story ride since you can't FP it. We will do the Beauty and the Beast show and try to do fantasmic.

I think I'm going to skip ohana this time and go with Kona for Monday dinner at 5:20 before heading back to HS. We have a car so hopefully it's easier to move around.

 

[Fldisneyfamily4321]

As much as I enjoy Ohana the one and only time we had a late evening ADR we said never again .. and not because of the kids but us ! Lol by the time we sat it was coming up on 9:30 and got done LATE .. it was not a enjoyable meal simply because we were exhausted and wanted to just go to the room .

 

[Fldisneyfamily4321]

By the way Kona is one of my favorites.. great food and I have always been able to get in as a walk up right when they open .. love Kona

 

[DisneyHardin]

I also read mixed reviews about Ohana being frozen food, running out of food for late ADRs, taking an hour to be seated. Can we see the MK fireworks at Ohana? Am I planning too much? Will I be disappointed with Ohana if I'm paying cash and don't have dining plan? I just need someone to tell me what to do.

I can assure you that they will not run out of food. They will always cook fresh food for even the latest ADRs. We've eaten there 4 or 5 times and only once were seated about 20 minutes past our ADR time, but I do read a lot of reports of people waiting. I've not read any reports of the food being frozen - do you mean it started out as frozen (like they bought it from GFS or something) or do you mean it wasn't cooked all the way and was served still frozen?

 

[samsonjs]

I found a 3:50pm Ohana reservation on Sunday when we plan to spend the day at MK! I will drop the Liberty Tree reservation and do a light Quick service in the late morning. Should I also drop Kona then too Monday and try something different or is it worth keeping both?

 

[Linleedo]

I've been stalking Ohana and set up an alert. I didn't even get an alert when I stumbled upon a time on the Disney site and quickly booked it. Now I'm having second thoughts and worried I'm doing too much. It's our first trip. I have a 5yo and an almost 3yo. I'm trying to switch up food choices so it's not all chicken nuggets/fries. Most of our FP are between (9:30-12:30 except FOP at 2pm).

This is what I had planned:
Sat afternoon: Epcot- quick service dinner
Sun: MK- Liberty tree lunch, maybe a break during the day and QS dinner somewhere
Mon: HS-, Backlot lunch, resort dinner/pool, back to HS for shows
Tues: MK- lots of pool time, Art Smith's Homecoming dinner @ DS in evening, maybe fireworks at MK
Wed: AK-Tusker house brunch, maybe a pool break, Canteen dinner and light show
Thurs: MK, no definite plans, but my dad is coming up and he wants to be at MK
Fri: home

So I only had 3 reservations at Liberty Tree, Homecoming and Tusker house. I didn't think I would get reservations at Ohana but I found one for Tuesday at 8pm. I was able to move Homecoming (my husband REALLY wants this) to Monday at 4:30. I'm worried it will be too much for HS but we will have our own car. It seems like HS isn't requiring as much time but I do have a Star Wars loving son.

I also read mixed reviews about Ohana being frozen food, running out of food for late ADRs, taking an hour to be seated. Can we see the MK fireworks at Ohana? Am I planning too much? Will I be disappointed with Ohana if I'm paying cash and don't have dining plan? I just need someone to tell me what to do.

I would avoid late reservations at Ohana. The staff wants to get off from work. We were ignored, they ran out of food, and it was a miserable experience. We loved it the first time we ate there around 6pm. We won't ever go there late again.