When we arrived on Saturday, July 1, we had reservations for 6 (3 adults/3 children) at the Makahiki Luau at Sea World.
I highly recommend this dinner for several reasons.
1) The food is served family style and scrumptious consisting of beef ribs, coconut mahi mahi, stir fried rice, sweet and sour chicken among other really good stuff. The children were offered kids meals (hot dogs, chicken fingers, PBJ, etc.) which came in super cute little Shamu plastic cases that they could take home, along with re-usable capped shamu cups with plastic drinking straws.
2) The show was fantastic. I was born in Hawaii and have been back several times and I am extemely skeptical of luau shows, as they usually are pretty weak, both with theming and with the dancing. These dancers were really very good. The fire dancers were awesome.
3) You don't have to pay for parking if you're just going to the luau. The show was at 5:30, you could get into the park at 4:30 without having to purchase a Sea World park ticket. Huge savings here for our family!
4) They offer a 10% discount for
AAA if you mention it when making your luau reservations.
5) After the show, you can stay at the park and enjoy the rest of the shows and attractions. We were done at 7:45 and were able to do the Sea Lion show, the Shark Encounter, the Dolphin Nursery, Pearl Diving and of course, Believe, the Shamu show which is fabulous. The park didn't close until 10Pm the night we were there. Fireworks and a laser show were at 10PM.
Tremendous value overall.