Ohana's dinner and Wishes cruise advice

[eddieras]

we have a wishes cruise for friday may 13 - fireworks at 10. we' re to board the boat at the marina at the Poly at 915pm.

we have a party of 10. i really need help deciding on a dinner time and what to do between dinner and the cruise.

we currently have two PS's - 540pm and 630pm.

is it better to go at 540? would we have time to leave the area to go to a park? if not, what would we do at the Poly (4 kids , 5 to 9 - but, not game room types).

or is it better to take the later one at 630- eat slow and just hang out at the poly??

how long should we allow for dinner at ohana?
would we be able to use the pool (our resort is AKL) can we change there?
should i try for an even later seating?

Please! all help and recommendations are appreciated!! thanks!

 

[swimmom]

Ohana isn't a buffet but they have a set menu so its kind of a hard spot to linger over your meal to kill time. If you have a ps before 6 - I can gurantee you you will be done and ready to go by 7:15. Thats a long, long time to linger. I am not a Ohana fan at all (but I am a HUGE Poly fan). I think its way overpriced and the food is subpar IMHO. The Kona Cafe at the Poly is a great restaurant - interesting menu, well prepared/presented food. Worth the price. The Volcano pool is a nice spot and does have changing rooms, but you know how Disney feels about pool hoppers!!! If I were you I would pass on Ohana and book in at the Lona Cafe for 7:30 - you can enjoy your meal, stroll around the resort and be ready to take your cruise!!

 

[eddieras]

thanks for the tip-- we're pretty much locked into ohana-- but i appreciate the advice--

we can't pool hop?? that's not allowed?

how long will dinner last there-- on average?

 

[gw_lit]

I'd plan on 90 minutes for dinner at Ohana. The other variable will be if you get seated at the actual time of your PS. I've heard of people not being seated until 15, sometimes 30 minutes after their scheduled PS. (We've only dined at Ohana once and loved it, and got seated right at our PS time.)

Disney does frown on pool hopping (do a search, you'll find oodles of debates on here!), so I wouldn't recommend that. I'd stay with the 6:30 PS. Eat a leisurely dinner. If you have time, maybe take the resort monorail around the loop (try to get up front for a great view! -- only 4 people will fit in the front though). It'll take about 20 minutes to go all the way around on the resort monorail. You could always get off at the Grand Floridian and/or the Contemporary and look around those resorts to kill time as well.

 

[Mickeyfaniam]

we have this situation too. We have a Wishes Cruise booked for July 22 out of the WL. We wanted dinner at the Whispering Canyon and the ONLY res time I could get and have our party of 10 seated together was 5:00. We took it b/c most all of our other ps's won't promise us tables for 10 but here they did. I too, wondered what to do and someone suggested to me that we rent the water mice after dinner while waiting. We thought it was an awesome idea. Its something we wanted to do anyway but couldn't fit it into our schedule. There is also the pool bar to lounge at, Poly has one too. As for the pool, I am going to put my swimsuit in the car but I would only do this if I asked and was given permission. I know we are going to have at least 2 hours to kill!!

but the water mice was an excellent idea! I know Poly has thoseout of there too

 

[eddieras]

hmm... water mice? never thought of that- i'll have to try and find how much they run to rent and how many they fit...

any other ideas?

 

[nocnurse]

Go with 6:30. I've arranged an almost identical plan for Wed. July 6th and our PS for Ohana is for 6:30. The reason so early is they recommend you arrive 45 min early for boarding the cruise, and a PS at 6:30 doesn't mean you are going to sit down to eat at 6:30. I figure this way there will be plenty of time to eat, enjoy, wait for a table if necessary, and if we need to kill a little time; a nice walk around the resort will probably do.

 

[estnh]

We had dinner at O'Hana last Tuesday night. We had PS for 7:00, but did not get a table until 8:10. Place was out of control packed. If you are on a time constraint I would book EARLY!

I know its sacriledge to dispair Ohana on these boards, but I gotta tell you that the service was not only slow, but also rude, and the food was not memorable.

 

[LAWalz23]

You can also rent the surrey bikes at the Poly and kill sometime that way. While it only takes about 10 min to get to the MK by monorail by the time you get into the park and to the rides it would probably take more than 30 min and then another 30 min to get back to the Poly effectively giving you about 1 hour of actual park time. You could also walk to the TTC and take the monorail back and forth to EPCOT total time would probably be about 1 hour. The Poly has some nice gift shops and the grounds are really pretty for a leisurely walk. You will probably get seated closer to your actual PS time with the earlier time and have a wait with the later time. My mother and I had a 6pm PS in Jan, we waited a short time to be seated and did not leave until after 8:30pm It does take a larger group longer to eat than a smaller group. Whatever you decide have fun.

 

[DawnCt1]

hmm... water mice? never thought of that- i'll have to try and find how much they run to rent and how many they fit...

any other ideas?

I believe the water mice have to be in before sunset.

 

[Mickeyfaniam]

So in July what time is sunset? I did wonder about that.
I will have to check into that.

as for your questions... I'm not sure the price....maybe approx. $20 for a half hour/$30 for an hour. I'm guessing. I'm going to go check. And usually one person per boat, although you can put 2, it slows them a little and of course any child under 5 feet cannot drive so they would need to ride with an adult. I liked the surrey bike idea but we're eating at WL. I don't suppose they have those bikes there? And if not how long is the drive from WL to Poly?