MINI REVIEW WITH PICTURES!
Where: Disney's Polynesian Resort
When: 2 days ago... Sept 4th 2009
What:
Disney's Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show
First the review...
I read a lot of mixed reviews. I expected a Hawaiian version of the Hoop De Doo Review, and in a way it was.
The Bad. I have to admit a serious pet peeve here. I'm no Hawaiian history buff by any means, but I feel pretty dang sure that juices are more traditional beverages in Hawaii than beer and wine. I can't help but think there were Hawaiians drinking pineapple juice LONG before beer and wine. It's sad that you can order beer and wine on the
DDP, but you absolutely can NOT order ANY kind of juice. Sorry, but that's just not right.
I'm not a soda fan (even though I do, as my sig states, like Beverly in Club Cool) and I'm not an alcohol drinker. My choices were tea, coffee, milk, or soda. I felt RIPPED OFF. I'm sure that beer costs more than a glass of pineapple or orange juice, so the cost is not a factor. I had to drink iced coffee, which, mind you, was VERY good, but it wasn't what I had hoped for. I'm a juice fanatic. I drank juice all week.The iced coffee was still pretty good. I added about 5 packs of sugar and half the little cup full of creamer, and it was quite tasty actually, but I still just think some type of juice should have been offered for a Hawaiian Luau!!!
OK moving along... the food (all of it) was REALLY GOOD!!! The pineapple chunks were not completely ripe. They almost tasted green, and a bit crunchier than most we buy, but were still pretty good. (Maybe a different kind or region thing???
)
The ribs were AMAZING!!! It was fall off the bone goodness. They were different than the ribs at Flametree, which is my single favorite restaurant (CS) in all of Disney, but they were almost better. They were softer meat, and as before, it fell off the bone into your mouth. (Where is that droolin smiley we all keep asking for???)
The chicken tasted a
LOT like the rotisserie chicken you get at Sams Club and Costco. It was really good. The bread was great. The salad was "OK" as well. The mixed veges were tasty, but just average. Nothing bad, and nothing spectacular. The rice was rice. Not much different than any other rice. It was good and plentiful, as everything was. The server was fast, and he kept our trays piled high. We never went wanting for anything (Other than a nice tall cold glass of pineapple juice that would have fit the bill much nicer than iced coffee.....
)
I'll have to disagree with a recent review that said the dessert was nasty. I thought it was AWESOME! It tasted really different, and I like different. It was "wet". Wet was good.
First the ambiance/show pictures!
(The best part of the meal was the show of course!)
The children are called up at one point to learn Hula dancing. Our DD is in there somewhere.
The 1st course: salad, pineapple chunks, and bread.
The second course: chicken, ribs, mixed vegetables, and rice.
The dessert:
A bit closer... the camera lightened the colors. They looked darker in real life.
And more show pictures!
After the show you can relax HERE!!!!
(The beach of Poly...) You'll need to with your waist 3 sizes bigger.
Sorry, I didn't get any good fire pictures. there's a big headed jerk in the lower right of one of the first pictures. His wife stood up in front of us and blocked my DW &DDs first 5 minutes of the show till we all yelled at her to sit down. He then grabbed the camcorder and held it up so we all had to watch the show around his high resolution, super bright (remember it's dark where your sitting) large screen camcorder. I yelled a few words at the jerk, and my wife stopped me from a full confrontation. I was ready to show him an NC attitude up close and personal. People can be so rude and inconsiderate.
That's why there were no flame pictures. We had spent the last 10 minutes trying to get this one inconsiderate family to respect those sitting behind them. I didn't want to do the same to those behind us (which were a super nice family from Lebanon who we chatted with throughout the entire show). They were really nice people, and I didn't want to block their view the way "Mr Inconsiderate" was blocking ours.