'Ohana/Illumunations ?

[Arctic Stamp Queen]

I was able to secure a ADR for 8:00 at 'Ohana for Hubby and I. We are on the free CSDP and this will be our one sit down nice dinner to celebrate our first/only ever vacation EVER on our 9 day trip. We will, of course, be paying out of pocket for this dinner.

My question is this. We would like to be able to enjoy the Illuminations show while eating dinner, but I was only able to get an 8:00pm ADR. How long does dinner take? I would like to be able to slow down and enjoy this one a bit with hubby. I know the show doesn't start until 9:00. Will they be chomping at the bit and rushing us out of there?

If I am unable to secure a later reservation, like say 8:30, I've heard grabbing a hammock at the Polynesian is very romantic for viewing as well. Is this frowned on since we are staying at a value hotel? Could we sit on the beach and observe? I don't want to make a faux paux.

 

[Cafeen]

I was able to secure a ADR for 8:00 at 'Ohana for Hubby and I. We are on the free CSDP and this will be our one sit down nice dinner to celebrate our first/only ever vacation EVER on our 9 day trip. We will, of course, be paying out of pocket for this dinner.

My question is this. We would like to be able to enjoy the Illuminations show while eating dinner, but I was only able to get an 8:00pm ADR. How long does dinner take? I would like to be able to slow down and enjoy this one a bit with hubby. I know the show doesn't start until 9:00. Will they be chomping at the bit and rushing us out of there?

If I am unable to secure a later reservation, like say 8:30, I've heard grabbing a hammock at the Polynesian is very romantic for viewing as well. Is this frowned on since we are staying at a value hotel? Could we sit on the beach and observe? I don't want to make a faux paux.

I'm going with the assumption that you mean Wishes and not Illuminations. Since Illuminations is at Epcot, it would be very difficult to view it from there .

Any of those times would work, but you may or may not have a decent view from your table. Typically, I budget around 60 minutes from the time I sit until the time I pay the check at most TS restaurants, and this would fit well there. Plus 'Ohana does tend to seat a bit late at times, so that would actually help you out.

However, as mentioned, you may or not may not have a view of the show.

For the second part, you certainly can watch it from the Poly beach. Sometimes (very rarely) will they limit entrance to the beach to Poly guests, but this is basically a NYE/July4th thing simply due to huge crowds.

Personally, I'm doing Kona on Saturday at about 7, and then Mom and I will do just this as well.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

I was able to secure a ADR for 8:00 at 'Ohana for Hubby and I. We are on the free CSDP and this will be our one sit down nice dinner to celebrate our first/only ever vacation EVER on our 9 day trip. We will, of course, be paying out of pocket for this dinner.

My question is this. We would like to be able to enjoy the Illuminations show while eating dinner, but I was only able to get an 8:00pm ADR. How long does dinner take? I would like to be able to slow down and enjoy this one a bit with hubby. I know the show doesn't start until 9:00. Will they be chomping at the bit and rushing us out of there?

If I am unable to secure a later reservation, like say 8:30, I've heard grabbing a hammock at the Polynesian is very romantic for viewing as well. Is this frowned on since we are staying at a value hotel? Could we sit on the beach and observe? I don't want to make a faux paux.

You mention you are on the CSDP? Ohana is a TS meal. Are you paying for this one out of pocket, or are you upgrading to the regular DP which includes TS meals ?

 

[Arctic Stamp Queen]

Whoops...got my show terminoligy mixed up...yes, I meant Wishes. Thank you for your information, I feel much better now. Maybe we should just make sure we are done with the meal by 9 and head to the beach and catch a romantic moment...hmmm. Choices, choices, choices.

Yes DisneyRookie 2007, as stated in my OP, we will be paying for this meal on our own. It's our treat/splurge meal for the trip and I am SUPAH excited about it.

 

[CajunMomof3]

We had a 9:50 ADR at Ohana on our last trip and didn't feel rushed by the staff at all so I don't think that will be an issue at 8:00.

As for seeing the fireworks from Ohana... It all depends on your table. We have had one where it would have been a great view had the timing been right and one where there wasn't a chance we could have seen it from there.

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Whoops...got my show terminoligy mixed up...yes, I meant Wishes. Thank you for your information, I feel much better now. Maybe we should just make sure we are done with the meal by 9 and head to the beach and catch a romantic moment...hmmm. Choices, choices, choices.

Yes DisneyRookie 2007, as stated in my OP, we will be paying for this meal on our own. It's our treat/splurge meal for the trip and I am SUPAH excited about it.

My apologies. I guess I need to read these threads more closely. I was in a hurry to post my reply as I had seen you were still on-line at the time.

We've done Wishes on the beach @ the POLY. We needed to be there at least 30-40 minutes early to get out choice of viewing. We managed to get wooden swing

 

[Arctic Stamp Queen]

Disney Rookie...that sounds wonderful and based on what I was hearing, I went ahead and changed our ressie to 6:50 so we could enjoy our dinner and then go stake out a romantic spot for viewing as I REALLY want to be able to see the fireworks, so this seems like a win win for me. I don't care as much about the music, as time with my hubby...something we have been in short supply of. Thanks for taking the time to anwer my question and making sure we weren't suprised when presented with a bill.

So I am thinking we will spend that day at Animal Kingdom, and then make our way over to the Polynesian by boat from Downtown Disney...does this seem like a good plan?

I am super excited now. Aaaah, March is forever away, I can hardly stand it.

 

[alicat07]

You've already changed your ressie, so it doesn't matter now, but I was going to say that an 8:00p reservation you would have been fine to watch the fireworks! All the times I have eaten there, it has taken no shorter than an hour and a half...we just ate there this week (I am at Disney as I type LOL) and had a 6:25 reservation, and we didn't get out of there until 8:15p (and we didn't take our time, it just took a little while for them to bring all our dishes out). Our average time there has been 1.5-2 hours, depending on whether they take you on time (we've had 8:00p reservations where they ran an hour late, we didn't get seated until 9:00p).

Also, are you planning on going to Downtown Disney straight from Animal Kingdom for any other reason than to go to Poly? If not, then you can just take a direct bus from AK to Poly, and skip Downtown Disney. If you were going there to shop, then that's a different story.

 

[Gmouse]

Disney Rookie...that sounds wonderful and based on what I was hearing, I went ahead and changed our ressie to 6:50 so we could enjoy our dinner and then go stake out a romantic spot for viewing as I REALLY want to be able to see the fireworks, so this seems like a win win for me. I don't care as much about the music, as time with my hubby...something we have been in short supply of. Thanks for taking the time to anwer my question and making sure we weren't suprised when presented with a bill.

So I am thinking we will spend that day at Animal Kingdom, and then make our way over to the Polynesian by boat from Downtown Disney...does this seem like a good plan?

I am super excited now. Aaaah, March is forever away, I can hardly stand it.

I agree with Alicat 07- you're gonna have to start at about 4:30 to get to Poly if you go thru all that...unless you plan on going to DTD anyways. But still-I would take the bus straight from AK or from DTD if you are there. The boat will take forever to get there. Just going from MK to Poly by boat can take a while sometimes. Anytime you travel from one place to another at Disney (excluding riding the monorail to resorts) you need to plan on heading that way about an hour and a half before time to be there. You never know what you'll run into in Disney traffic.
You won't be disappointed in Ohana...it's great-one of our faves. Kona Cafe is just as fabulous

 

[vicki_c]

So I am thinking we will spend that day at Animal Kingdom, and then make our way over to the Polynesian by boat from Downtown Disney...does this seem like a good plan?

It's already been alluded to in the posts above, but just to be clear - there is no way to take a boat from DTD to anywhere near the Magic Kingdom.

DTD boats only go to SSR, OKW and POR/POFQ (maybe just POFQ, I'm not sure).

Boats that run to the Poly only come from the MK / Grand Floridian.

 

[Gmouse]

It's already been alluded to in the posts above, but just to be clear - there is no way to take a boat from DTD to anywhere near the Magic Kingdom.

DTD boats only go to SSR, OKW and POR/POFQ (maybe just POFQ, I'm not sure).

Boats that run to the Poly only come from the MK / Grand Floridian.

I also didn't think there was a boat from there....just didn't know if they had added a new route I didn't know about That would be a good idea if they would though

 

[Arctic Stamp Queen]

Geesh, I am obviously showing my WDW newbieness...I was sure I had notes somewhere about a boat to there, but I am obviously confused. Perhaps it is a GOOD thing I still have 5+ months to get this all figured out. Lol. Will do with the bus over and do a boat trip another evening. Thanks for keeping me straight. I (very seriously) appreciate it.

 

[Gmouse]

Geesh, I am obviously showing my WDW newbieness...I was sure I had notes somewhere about a boat to there, but I am obviously confused. Perhaps it is a GOOD thing I still have 5+ months to get this all figured out. Lol. Will do with the bus over and do a boat trip another evening. Thanks for keeping me straight. I (very seriously) appreciate it.

Don't worry-there's ALWAYS something to learn about Disney World! It's everchanging....always something new...that's the beauty of it all I am so thankful for DisBoards-I have learned so many thing I wouldn't have otherwise