BEL13VE in Magic: The TCD Gang Rings in 2013 at The Fort

[CDNCruiser 14]

Add us to the 'Ohana fan club. We enjoy at least one dinner there every trip.

Next time will be in less than two weeks!

[Duane 152]

Hey Andrew, if you would have kept that later reservation and managed to get that prime table, you could have watched the fireworks over the castle. Unless they have changed things, when the fireworks start, the lights dim and they pipe the soundtrack into the restaurant...

The last time we were there which was many years ago, we managed to see the show and it was pretty impressive...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks for all the comments.

This is the great thing about Trip Reports here.

Everybody learns something.

Especially me.

We love Ohanas too but it is super expensive. Maybe if the girls bring their babysitting money and pay their own way we'll return.

Your comment on being rolled out of there reminds me of the book Mousejunkies. Not sure if you've read it but it's a WDW guidebook. The author is pretty funny and adds some personal stories in there. He too enjoys Ohanas and has this suggestion of a card that you pin to your shirt if eating there. It basically goes like "'My name is (fill in the blank). I am staying at (fill in the blank). I have just eaten at Ohanas and am dangerously engorged and cannot speak. Please get me to the nearest bus to my resort. There is a fast pass for Toy Story in my pocket, please take it as a token of my thanks." I laugh every time I think of it because it's so true! Although I too can never pass up the bread pudding.

I've never heard of that book, but it sounds funny. And not too far from the truth!

The BuckeyeFortFamily eats at Ohana EVERYTIME we go to WDW.

H.A.M.

Love it.

Ham?

I didn't get any ham!

I remember that the BFF gang ate at Ohana from your trip report.

Y'all do it right!

My big problem is that our trips to WDW are not planned months in advance, so we never are able to get ADR's for anyplace good. It's a shame for people like me, but great for people like you.

One of these days, I may change my ways, but I have refused to plan my trips around where I'm going to eat.

I'm in total agreement with TCD's assessment of 'Ohana.

As for mixed reviews, most of the reviews I've read give 'Ohanas between 4 and 5 stars, that's very good. And those that give it a bad review do it for some silly reasons. IE, no scalloped potatoes, noisy room, didn't like the entertainment, really? It's all about the food.

As for the cost, considering it's Disney, and for what you get, I thought it was well worth the cost. And I would say that even if I didn't get the nice CM discount.

We were there for the first time last week and everything was great. Service, food, servers, price, all great.

I'll be back.

Take me with you!

I would love that place even more with a CM discount!

TCD,

So glad you like O'hana. We have always loved it too! On almost every trip, I would always make an ADR at O'hana, Boma and Breakfast at either Chef Mickeys or 1900 Park Faire. The last few trips, I havent been able to get an ADR at O'hana unless I took one at 9:00 or after, which is way too late for us to eat a meal like that! I need to get us back there on our next trip....your photos looked yummy!

Heidi

Yup, it seems like late reservations are all you can get unless you book months ahead of time.

I think we benefited from the new policy that requires guests to cancel before 24 hours or pay a $10 cancellation fee. At least now, people don't hoard reservations and not use them.

We eat there every time we go also. Except this last trip. Went to luau it was good food and good show. But we will be going back to O'Hana. Love love love the hot wings and pot stickers. And of course the bread pudding.

Ask your server if you can get your steak medium rare and they will bring you medium rare to medium. I ask every time and the steak is never dry then.

As always great TR and you guys always seem to have such a wonderful time.

That's a good tip. I never thought to ask for the steak to be cooked a certain way. It assumed you got what was on the skewer, take it or leave it.

Our steak was medium rare to medium. I figure later guests get it well done.

Consider us as part of the O'Hana fan club... I have two more days until I can book that meal....

Man, 'Ohana has a big fan club!

Totally jealous of Ohana. It is on our short list of places we need to try!

Well, I just tried it for the first time, so don't feel bad.

You need to negotiate this into the deal when your ladies ask to go to the GF for the HTT.

Ohanas is one of our favorite restaurants at Disney. We try to go at least once a year. Ressies are sometimes difficult to get. Once I even set a reminder on my phone to book a ressie the day they should have been able to book during the 6 month window and low and behold not a single open slot. I will have to say though as I stated awhile back, do not waste your time for breakfast there. It's normal Disney breakfast fare only at a ohanas price. Service has also always been terrible in the AM. Andrew, I cat believe you have never been here. If you thought this place was great you have to check out Texas de Brazil on Spruce st by international mall in Tampa. Out of this world and actually better cuts of meat. I take my corporate people there when I want to impress them...lol. I think there is one on I drive but I hear it not as good as Tampa

Thanks, Dave.

Funny you should mention breakfast at Ohana. We actually went to Ohana for breakfast years ago. It was the first time we took the twins to WDW. They were still in high chairs. They had never seen a character before. The first one that came by was Goofy. He snuck up on us. He startled all of us, and the twins started to cry. They egged each other on, and it was bad. Mrs. TCD and I each had to hold one for the rest of the meal and eat with one hand. Not fun. I remember the table we sat at, and pointed it out to the twins when we were there. They had no memory of this. Mrs. TCD, our older daughter and I talk about it all the time- we were all pretty ticked that we didn't get to enjoy that breakfast.

Thanks for mentioning Texas de Brazil. I think you and I have discussed this before. I remember talking to someone about it anyway. Since we loved Ohana, we will need to give it a try.

WE are huge Ohana (the restaurant, not the Dave version) fans. It looks like y'all sat in or very near our favorite spot! We've always gone at night and watched the Fireworks. Funny, but we leave feeling like we could never eat another bite too! ;D

Funny you should mention the Dave version.

He's talked about that so much that I was actually worried about the repercussions.

Not to share TMI, but nothing happened.

Nothing at all.

Add us to the 'Ohana fan club. We enjoy at least one dinner there every trip.

Next time will be in less than two weeks!

Less than two weeks?

That's great Gary.

Have a good time.

Remember to save some room for the bread pudding!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Hey Andrew, if you would have kept that later reservation and managed to get that prime table, you could have watched the fireworks over the castle. Unless they have changed things, when the fireworks start, the lights dim and they pipe the soundtrack into the restaurant...

The last time we were there which was many years ago, we managed to see the show and it was pretty impressive...

I think that they still dim the lights and pipe in the fireworks music.

Fireworks were at 8 that night, so the later reservation wouldn't have worked for that.

I would have loved to see the fireworks from our table. I think we may have had the best seat in the house for that.

One of these days, I'm going to plan ahead and set this up.

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

With ADRs, you might have some luck checking 2-5 days out when a lot of people cancel to avoid the charge if less than 24 hours.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

With ADRs, you might have some luck checking 2-5 days out when a lot of people cancel to avoid the charge if less than 24 hours.

Yes, we snagged this 'Ohana reservation just two days before we arrived.

So far, I haven't had any luck with same day reservations, even though common sense would dictate that there should be availability from guests who cancelled just outside the 24 hour mark. I'm not sure they update the system as much as they should.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well, at long last, here we are.

The end.

This is it.

No more post-scripts after this one.

I am out of photos.

So, here we go.

Backing up for just a moment, I found some photos that Twin #1 took during dinner.

They are much better than mine, so I thought the 'Ohana fans out there might like them.

Our salad:

Our bread- I don't think I mentioned how good the bread was. It was good:

This is a piece of the chicken. Maybe it's gross, but I'm sure someone is wondering what it looks like. Now you know:

This is the beef:

And here's a cross section of the beef- kind of rare- I love it like that, but in this day and age I am surprised that they served the beef this rare:

The bread pudding, as seen from Twin #1's point of view. She ate that banana slice and remarked on how good it was. The banana slices were gone before I got one. You have to move fast with the twins:

Here's a photo of the girls with the 'Ohana sign:

This helps to resolve something that a lot of us have been confused about.

How to spell 'Ohana.

It's not O'hana.

or Ohana's.

It's 'Ohana.

Got it?

Disney Cruise Line fans often get their panties in a wad if you call the fancy restaurant on the ship Palo's. It's just Palo.

And, did you know that castle in the MK is Cinderella castle? Not Cinderella's castle?

Disney likes to mess with apostrophes.

Sometimes there is not one where you expect it, and sometimes they put one where you don't.

I don't know why.

But they do.

Anyway, we left the Polynesian Resort via the HIghway in the Sky.

There were a lot of folks on the monorail heading to the MK.

We had to cram into a car with standing room only.

And then we had to cram some more when giant stroller guy decided there was room for him and his giant stroller in our car.

Have you met giant stroller guy?

Why is his stroller so big?

What is he compensating for?

Let's leave that discussion for another day.

The MK was busy.

I kind of expected that.

Even though it was a Sunday, Monday was MLK day and a holiday for a lot of people. Plus it was a really nice night. It was about 65 degrees out.

As we walked in, the train was pulling up to the station

For some reason, I had it in my head that the train stops running at dusk.

It was way past dusk. It was dark.

We had noticed it still running after dark when we were here Thursday night.

We all agreed we ought to hop on the train for a ride in the dark. I can't remember us ever doing that before.

So we did.

The train has lights.

And the stuff along the tracks was lit.

So, I guess I have been wrong all this time thinking that the train doesn't run after dark.

We decided to get off at what they now call the Fantasyland station.

We weren't sure what we wanted to do there.

Dumbo had a 30 minute wait, but they were still printing Fastpasses. The return time was after 9. We didn't plan on being back in this part of the park then, so we passed.

The new meet and greet tent seemed kind of quiet so the girls said let's go in there.

We did.

There was a longish line for Minnie and Daisy, and almost no line for Goofy and Donald.

The girls wanted to meet the girls, though.

So we got on the long line.

After it didn't move for a few minutes, the girls decided to meet the boys.

So here you go:

The other line hadn't moved much at all, so we skipped meeting the girls.

We exited right into the new Big Top Souvenir shop.

They have some interesting things for sale in here:

These apples are cool:

But the price is not cool:

Anyone up for a mildly amusing anecdote?

Too bad, I'm telling it anyway.

As we are looking at this stuff, a CM asks the people next to us if she can help them.

They say they would like a Dumbo apple.

The CM says, in kind of a snotty voice, "We don't have Dumbo apples!"

The guest says, how about these (pointing) :

The CM says, oh those.

They were right in front of her.

I guess you had to be there.

You want to know something scary?

I saw this guy walking around the store and took his photo:

Why?

We laugh at men who wear Ed Hardy stuff.

Remember Jon from Jon and Kate plus 8?

When he went crazy and ran of with their babysitter, or whatever he did, all the photos of him always showed him pimped out in Ed Hardy clothes.

Like he was cool or something.

So, we always laugh at men trying to look cool rocking Ed Hardy stuff.

And just look at that guy!

That's not the scary part.

This is:

What's scary about that?

Twin #1 took that photo.

Completely without knowing that I had taken the previous photo.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

That's the scary part.

So here we are hanging out in a gift shop taking photos of guys butts, and we all ask ourselves what are we doing here?

We should be out having fun.

The girls say lets go find a place to watch the Remember the Magic show. And then maybe we would watch the fireworks after.

We decided to try for our new favorite spot.

It's over by Casey's Corner.

But, the Electric Parade was still going on.

And there was no crossing Main Street.

Plus there were people everywhere.

We ended up on that winding path that goes through the roses.

As we walked along, we noticed that we had a pretty good view of the castle from right there.

Check it out:

We decided to just watch the show from there.

Photo op:

A couple of shots from the show:

The Wreck-it Ralph scene:

They have a new sequence that they added in for Valentine's Day. They play music from Lady and the Tramp and have some new scenes. My girls love the floating lanterns from Rapunzel:

After the show ended, we had just a few minutes before Wishes would begin.

We were right near where Tinkerbill would be flying, and I wanted to stay and watch him.

But the girls pointed out how crowded it was, and what a madhouse it was going to be for the rest of the night.

They said let's go.

Now.

I agreed.

We headed to the not-so-secret exit.

Look, a blurry photo of a plastic fence:

I kind of wanted to walk slowly through here so I could watch Tinkerbill slam into the old matress that they use to stop him, but there were CM's everywhere back here keeping everyone moving.

And, almost every guest had a phone or camera out, so the CM's were constantly yelling no photos!

I tried to turn my camera off, but I'm old and pushed the wrong button, so I got this photo of a giant tent that they are hiding back here:

The last time I was back here, this was just a parking lot with cars in it.

Now there's that giant tent.

And CM's telling people not to take photos of it.

What are they trying to hide?

Is that where they keep the flying dragon?

Did they thaw out Walt's head, and are they going to have a big dance party in that tent or something?

Are they building a new Starbucks?

I don't know.

But I do know they don't want any photos of that tent on the interwebs.

So don't look.

What's the big deal?

There are giant tents in the Epcot parking lot for the marathon, and nobody cares if you take a photo of them.

They need to chill-out on this.

I bet most people wouldn't even think of taking photos until they hear the CM's yelling for them not to.

Anyway, we got dumped out back on Main Street.

And we headed on out.

We decided to head home early.

It's not so much fun in the MK when it's packed like that.

We took the resort monorail.

Which was full of dummies who got off at the TTC.

I guess the concept of the Express monorail was too hard for them to grasp.

I don't know if you can see it, but a deer was grazing in the grass right by the TTC monorail station:

I think they have a deer problem at WDW.

We exited at the Polynesian Resort.

It wasn't quite 8:30, and 'Ohana was still jumping.

The 49ers had beaten the Falcons, and now they had the Patriots/Ravens game on.

There were chowds everwhere.

They were even showing the game on the TV that usually plays cartoons for the kids:

I wish we could have been there to see all the sad chowds at the end of the game.

But we had to go.

And we did.

We were home before 11.

And that's that.

We are finished.

If you read it all, good job.

If you skimmed, you need to go back and read. There's some good stuff in this one.

That's all I have for you.

Until next time.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

You are correct TCD, the area with the big tent is normally a parking lot. I asked someone when I was back there this week, what's up with the huge tent?

He told me it was for a CM appreciation event. What, where's my invitation? I guess I won't be taking the Tux out of the closet.

They've continued working on it and now there are props, decorations, and potted plants all over the place. It's going to be a big deal I guess.

I wonder if they have my correct mailing address? That's ok, I'm sure I'll be busy that night as I still have a lot of work to do on my ping pong ball collection.

I wonder if Dave Devores got an invite?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I read a rumor on another site that the big tent is where they wax Tink before he slides down the wire.

And speaking of Disney apostrophe catastrophes, what about the Meadow / Meadow's?

[alexwyattmommy 181]

How could it be that two upstanding gentlemen, such as yourselves, did not merit an invitation? ~Cpt. Jack Sparrow

Love that you go the pink castle with the pink the girls are wearing. Very pretty photo.

​There seems to be a brouhaha over sauces or lack there of for the meat. Did you feel cheated that you only had one sauce and not a choice?

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Another great report TCD!

That is funny you and your DD took the same photo.

NO PICTURES !!!!! How dumb.

Looking forward to your next one as always sir.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You are correct TCD, the area with the big tent is normally a parking lot. I asked someone when I was back there this week, what's up with the huge tent?

He told me it was for a CM appreciation event. What, where's my invitation? I guess I won't be taking the Tux out of the closet.

They've continued working on it and now there are props, decorations, and potted plants all over the place. It's going to be a big deal I guess.

I wonder if they have my correct mailing address? That's ok, I'm sure I'll be busy that night as I still have a lot of work to do on my ping pong ball collection.

I wonder if Dave Devores got an invite?

That's awful. They set up this big tent where all the CM's can see it, and then have some kind of CM appreciation party that a lot of them aren't invited to? What Idiot Manager thought of that? Probably that IM whose portrait is hangin in the new gift shop.

I read a rumor on another site that the big tent is where they wax Tink before he slides down the wire.

And speaking of Disney apostrophe catastrophes, what about the Meadow / Meadow's?

Really? Why do they need such a big tent?

Yes there's Meadow/Meadow's. Also Trails End and Trail's End.

How could it be that two upstanding gentlemen, such as yourselves, did not merit an invitation? ~Cpt. Jack Sparrow

Love that you go the pink castle with the pink the girls are wearing. Very pretty photo.

​There seems to be a brouhaha over sauces or lack there of for the meat. Did you feel cheated that you only had one sauce and not a choice?

Thanks.

Did I mention that we only got one sauce? Because that's true. We only got one. It was some kind of soy/peanut sauce. The menu listed others, but we didn't get any. I didn't miss it. All of the meat had been marinated and seasoned. It was just fine the way it came. I'm sure if I wanted sauce, our servers would have been more than happy to bring it.

But I can imagine that there are those who would feel cheated because the menu says you get three sauces. Disney attracts these folks.

Another great report TCD!

That is funny you and your DD took the same photo.

NO PICTURES !!!!! How dumb.

Looking forward to your next one as always sir.

Thanks!

I hope to see a TR from you before my next one.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

I read a rumor on another site that the big tent is where they wax Tink before he slides down the wire.

I'm not getting sucked into that discussion again.

And this is how I will be spelling my name, 'L'o'u'. If one apostrophe is good, four is better.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

My name in French is Dave'. it's pronounced "dah-vay".

In Polynesian it is 'dave. I don't know how it's pronounced.

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

We weren't far from you during the "Remember the Magic" show! Wish I had seen you guys...I would have introduced myself....probably not..I'm painfully shy. We took the backstage path when we arrived at MK that night. Not sure how I feel about that. It was interesting, but not the Disney I was there to see.

Great report as usual!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Great ending to a great report!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm not getting sucked into that discussion again.

And this is how I will be spelling my name, 'L'o'u'. If one apostrophe is good, four is better.

I like that, 'L'o'u.'

Sorry about the Tinkerbell discussion. I know you hate that.

My name in French is Dave'. it's pronounced "dah-vay".

In Polynesian it is 'dave. I don't know how it's pronounced.

When are we supposed to use each?

We weren't far from you during the "Remember the Magic" show! Wish I had seen you guys...I would have introduced myself....probably not..I'm painfully shy. We took the backstage path when we arrived at MK that night. Not sure how I feel about that. It was interesting, but not the Disney I was there to see.

Great report as usual!

What?

On this past Sunday?

I didn't know they let guests in through that backstage path. I've never seen that. Having people leave that way I understand, but not entering.

Did you stay for the EMH? I'm wondering how busy it was after the fireworks.

Great ending to a great report!

Thanks.

I need to get to work on planning my next trip.

TCD

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

Yep...this past Sunday and on the way in. When we got there the first showing of the Electrical Parade was still going on, so the sidewalks were packed...I mean PACKED. A castmember saw us and said we could get to the other end of Main Street through "there". So we did and ended up on the other end. It was so crowded we just stood there. Once the parade was over, things thinned out a little and we moved closer to the street and the Rose Garden area to watch the show and fireworks.

We stayed that night until about 10:30. It thinned out some more after the second showing of the Electrical Parade, but not much. We had fast passes to BTMR and used those but the wait times were to long for most everything else. We wandered around a bit and looked in some of the nooks and crannies and walked down some pathways we didn't know existed. We always spend our first and last day in the Magic Kingdom and we were heading home the next day, so we were taking in all we could.

[caveat lector 181]

Great TR as always!

'Ohana is the one restaurant that the whole family agrees.

The kids have a ridiculously Large collection of those leis (the flower necklaces)

The food is always great.

I agree with you on the price, but its one bill that I never cringe about. Seems like great value.

[campingdawgs 4]

'Ohana is our favorite restaurant at WDW! (Did I get the apostrophe right?) It's the one ADR we all request. Although we used to be able to walk up at 4:30 and be seated when they opened, no ADR needed. When we were there for New Year's, I hadn't been able to get one. I checked for cancellations every morning and got one for Jan. 2 at 7pm! Woo hoo! The pot stickers and the bread pudding are my favorites. I would go there just for those. But I have to be quick to stop the server from pouring the caramel sauce over it. I want to do it myself so the ice cream doesn't melt so fast. :) My kids make fun of me, but that's just how I like it. We already have an ADR for our Spring Break trip!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yep...this past Sunday and on the way in. When we got there the first showing of the Electrical Parade was still going on, so the sidewalks were packed...I mean PACKED. A castmember saw us and said we could get to the other end of Main Street through "there". So we did and ended up on the other end. It was so crowded we just stood there. Once the parade was over, things thinned out a little and we moved closer to the street and the Rose Garden area to watch the show and fireworks.

We stayed that night until about 10:30. It thinned out some more after the second showing of the Electrical Parade, but not much. We had fast passes to BTMR and used those but the wait times were to long for most everything else. We wandered around a bit and looked in some of the nooks and crannies and walked down some pathways we didn't know existed. We always spend our first and last day in the Magic Kingdom and we were heading home the next day, so we were taking in all we could.

Wow- so we were pretty close to each other, as we found our spot along the path just at the first Electric Parade was ending.

I'm sorry the MK was packed like that for your last night, but it confirms that we did the right thing by leaving when we did.

Great TR as always!

'Ohana is the one restaurant that the whole family agrees.

The kids have a ridiculously Large collection of those leis (the flower necklaces)

The food is always great.

I agree with you on the price, but its one bill that I never cringe about. Seems like great value.

Hey, we did't get a lei!

No big deal, though, we've gotten plenty over the years on prior visits-even when just heading to Captain Cooks.

'Ohana is our favorite restaurant at WDW! (Did I get the apostrophe right?) It's the one ADR we all request. Although we used to be able to walk up at 4:30 and be seated when they opened, no ADR needed. When we were there for New Year's, I hadn't been able to get one. I checked for cancellations every morning and got one for Jan. 2 at 7pm! Woo hoo! The pot stickers and the bread pudding are my favorites. I would go there just for those. But I have to be quick to stop the server from pouring the caramel sauce over it. I want to do it myself so the ice cream doesn't melt so fast. :) My kids make fun of me, but that's just how I like it. We already have an ADR for our Spring Break trip!

Wow, that was lucky that you got that January 2nd reservation. We got laughed at when we tried to walk up on the 1st.

I wonder if that 4:30 thing still works? I wouldn't mind doing that if there was a reasonable chance of being seated at around 5.

Hmm- I liked the caramel sauce on the ice cream. We ate it all before it had a chance to melt!

TCD

[ajcjmom 8]

Great TR!

It looks like I will be dragging Dad and his CM discount to 'Ohana!

My birthday is in a couple months! So he can take his only daughter to dinner!

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Thanks for sharing TCD ! The tent isn't for cast members... why would they get anything cool.... I'm certain it is to celebrate the outstanding artwork of the painter of the most important person in the Magic Kingdom. :rofl2: The person in the portrait looks so comfortable and relaxed. :laugh:

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I think the tent is hiding the new x-wing fighter ride vehicles for Star Jets or whatever we're calling that ride now.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great TR!

Ill be watching for your next one.

Thanks for sharing.