Day 6, Part II. – Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show
June 20, 2007
We arrived to our lovely vacation home no later than 4:45 feeling wiped out from the sun even though I had spent most of the day in the shade. I was so glad that I was feeling better and I could tell because I was starting to get hungry. Our ADR was not until 8:00 PM, but we wanted to arrive by 7:00 PM.
I already knew that I was going to wear my new Hawaiian dress that I bought at MK so once I showered it was just a matter of styling my hair. I was ready in record time so I decided to take a little snooze. I must have been incredibly tired from the day before since it would have been my 3rd nap of the day.
It wasn’t a long nap, probably 5 minutes at most and soon enough we were all ready to head over to the Polynesian.
We took two cars since we now had one extra person joining us. Justin, myself, Janna, Jeff, and Matthew came in one car, and Karen, Jeanne, and Ken went in the other car. We ended up parking pretty far away and met everyone at the entrance of the Polynesian. Everyone except Ken; I guess he dropped off Jeanne and Karen and went off somewhere. I think he went to buy Jeanne an anniversary gift since that day had been their wedding anniversary, but I am still unsure. So we all waited for him return because they won’t let you check in unless the entire party is with you. Needless to say, we waited and the best thing to do when waiting is take pictures of course!
If I didn’t know better, I would say these pictures were taken in Hawaii.
Waterfall/fountain outside of the main entrance.
See my new Hawaiian dress? Only $18.00!! That is pretty cheap by my Disney standards!
I thought this little guy was interesting looking, he just called out to me.
I absolutely love this resort and I hope to stay there one day. I love the tropical feel of it which is why we take lots of pictures of the scenery.
After our brief photo shoot there was still no sign of Ken so Jeanne said to try and check in. Turns out the entire party doesn’t need to be with you to check in. I swear every CM is different. We checked in and the CM gave us directions to Luau Cove. Not that we needed them because we had seen this show a bunch of times before. We walked through the resort and then outside where of course, in true Disney fashion, we waited in line to take our picture.
As we waited in line the scantily dressed Hawaiian CM greeted us with a cheerful “Aloha!” and gave us our leis and we continued waiting in line.
The weather was beautiful and I was so excited that it wasn’t going to be rained out this year! In 2005 it was pouring rain during the show and they had to cancel it. We still got our food, but there was no show, just some live music. This year there would be no rain and we could enjoy the entire show.
The view from where we were waiting in line, this looks like a postcard!
Ken finally joined us and the line started moving and eventually we were able to take our group picture, which we would later purchase. After our picture the CM directed us to another holding area because they had no begun seating yet. So of course we take some pictures!
Contemporary Resort in the distance.
Who sees the castle?
I spotted the Wedding Pavilion and Grand Floridian and then reminded DF about our walk to it tonight. He responded with a blank look and said, “what walk?” Of course he was kidding, but he still got smacked for that comment because he knew how much I was looking forward to this.
I had read here on the DIS that the walk from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian is very romantic and I always wanted to walk by the Wedding Pavilion in person. So while we were waiting in the holding area for the luau to begin I was plotting our course of action on how to get to the Wedding Pavilion and Grand Floridian.
DF and I then decided we wanted to take a picture with a big tree in the holding area. We didn’t know that we would be in the smoking section though. So as we are posing for our picture our eyes begin to water from the stench of the smoke and we start laughing because only we would decide we need a picture in the smoker’s section.
It was a pretty picture spot though.
Finally they begin to lead us into the dining area like cattle and we are seated at one long table. Our seats were kind of far up, but we could still see plus we knew what this show was all about so it was all good.
Once we were seated it didn’t take long for our CM to come and take our drink orders. I got my usual coke and DF got a virgin Pina Colada. DF and I don’t drink, but he sure loves the taste of those Pina Coladas. Jeff ended up getting a non-virgin Pina Colada and we hoped that the CM didn’t mix them up when he brought them out. That would have made for an interesting night.
Soon after our drinks came out the CM brought our platter of appetizers. For those of you who have never been to the dinner show, the entire meal is served family style and they just keep bringing it out until you are full!
The appetizer platter consists of Pineapple Coconut Bread, Mixed Greens with Mango Poppy Seed Dressing, and the most delicious Sweet Golden Pineapple you would ever eat! I got a little of everything and absolutely loved it all. The bread has a sweet taste to it and so did the salad dressing, it was so yummy! The pineapple tasted as though it was just picked fresh from Hawaii! We definitely had our server bring out more of that good stuff!
For the main course they served Barbecued Pork Ribs, Roasted Chicken, Polynesian Rice, and Season Vegetables which was broccoli and carrots.
Why do we look so happy? Because look at all that delicious food!!!
Everything of course was wonderful and it is one of the main reasons why we keep going back to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show time after time! My favorite thing on the plate were definitely the ribs and rice, but everything was great and our server kept it all coming!
During your dinner the band plays live music and they invite couples to come up and dance, of course DF and I went up to dance as did Jeanne and Ken. They also invite people who are celebrating a birthday during the month to go up and they teach them how to hula dance. It is all good fun!
Of course we had gotten incredibly full but then they do this entire presentation of the dessert and no matter how full you are you know that you just got to eat it!
Those little volcanoes are like straight from heaven! It is like a chocolate mousse pudding with raspberry sauce coming out as the lava. It is so creamy and rich you cannot help but fall in love with it.
It is during dessert that the actual dinner show really starts to pick up. They have all different kinds of music and dance from the different islands being played. DF’s favorite is the one with the woman who comes out with a huge jug and performs some kind of dance with it. Every time we go he whispers to me, “look at those jugs.” It is one of those things we always laugh at because our minds are in the gutter. I can be certain that when we are 80 years old and still going to this dinner show he will make that comment and we will always laugh.
The highlight of the entire show is the finale where the fire dancer comes out and does some pretty amazing things. All the kids and adults love this part of the show and I am always amazed.
After dinner we were all incredibly full and content. It had been a night of great food and great entertainment. DF and I told everyone that we would be taking a walk to the Grand Floridian. Jeff and Janna decided to head back to the house because Janna’s friend Shannon would be joining us tomorrow for Epcot and was supposed to meet her at a certain time at the house, so they took one car. Jeanne, Ken, Karen, and Matthew all stayed behind and decided to take a monorail ride and see if they could catch the Electric Water Pageant. We told them to meet in the lobby of the Polynesian when we were ready to leave. And with that we split off and DF and I went on our walk.
The walk from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian is very peaceful and romantic. I suggest to anyone who wants some alone time with their significant other to take this walk at night. There is a walkway or you can choose to walk on the beach. I was a little reluctant to walk on the beach because I know there are alligators in that lagoon, but DF assured that he would save me, either way I made him walk closer to the water.
On or way we saw these little guys.
It was amazing how peaceful this path was. When you think Disney World you think of long lines, mobs of people, and screaming children, but none of this occurred while on our walk. In fact we were the only two people except for another couple who was way ahead of us. We knew this couple ahead of us were on their honeymoon because they were sporting the bridal ears. It was just so relaxing to be alone with DF and I think it was at that moment when we arrived at the Wedding Pavilion, that it finally hit me that we were going to get married!
We stopped to admire the Pavilion as did the other couple who was ahead of us and they asked us if we were going to get married there, we said maybe because we had just gotten engaged yesterday. They congratulated us and we returned the favor to them, they were very nice and probably not much older than us.
Of course, the gates to the WP were closed but that didn’t stop me from wanting a picture.
We stayed near the gates awhile and contemplated the idea of a Disney Wedding. It was surreal to actually be discussing wedding plans for real now. We, okay I, had always talked to DF about wedding plans, but now it was official! We walked over to the Franck’s Studio which is the Disney Weddings planning building and took some pictures of the windows.
We took in the scenery awhile longer and then decided to walk over the Grand Floridian to have a look around. It looked so beautiful in the distance all lit up. We walked through the grounds and were amazed at how pretty it is. I have always seen pictures of the GF but pictures don’t do that resort justice! It is such a magnificant hotel we then went inside, I had been inside the GF once before but only on the top level of the lobby where the monorail lets you out. The entire lobby is amazing and again the pictures do not do it justice. DF and I looked at each other and we both were thinking the same thing, we will stay here for our Honeymoon. The way we see it, yes it is ridiculously expensive, but you only get one Honeymoon so we might as well do it in style!
It is crazy to think that the next time we will be at Disney, we will be on our Honeymoon and staying at the GF!!!
After we marveled at the hotel a bit longer we decided to go and take the monorail back to the Polynesian. We found the monorail station and it didn’t take long for one to arrive. We got in and were delighted that it was pretty empty, until it stopped at MK. MK had just closed or was about to close so a ton of people piled in, so much for a peaceful monorail ride. It wasn’t that bad though and soon enough we were back at the Polynesian waiting for the rest of the group.
We sat in the lobby and talked with one another about Disney Weddings and Honeymoon plans, it was definitely one of the best parts of the entire day.
The rest of the group arrived shortly after we did and we all piled back into the van and back to our vacation home to get some rest for the next day at Epcot!
Up Next: Epcot – Our “Failure” Day 
- FIND IT ON P. 27 post #393!!
BONUS: CHECK OUT DF'S SIDE OF THE ENGAGEMENT STORY - P. 24-26 posts #350, 362, 377!!
I think everyone wants to be asked to get married in disney world =] 
Be on the lookout for DF's version of engagement day, rumor has it that he is working on the installment! 
