Have not been to Ohana in many years. It used to be a must do…but we really don’t do much restaurant eating any more since they did away with Tables in Wonderland and the deluxe dining plan. We did Disney for our Honeymoon in 1979 and stayed at Polynesian Resort ( the only other choice was Contemporary Resort). Ohana was called something else then…Papeete Veranda. They used to have a character breakfast buffet, have some great photos and memories when we brought the kids there 10 years later.
No way! Our only trip to WDW when I was a child was in 1979. We also stayed at the Polynesian. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Papeete Veranda. All I remember is that I had macadamia nut pie for dessert. The trip was a once in a lifetime thing at the time. Mostly we visited relatives for vacations when I was a kid. I haven’t stayed at the Polynesian since.
Your first full day at Poly I would get to the MK as early as possible for early entry. Resort monorail ( as I’m pretty sure they don’t run the express monorail early as most people parking at TTC are not staying at Disney resorts). Or Poly boat (not the Ferry) if it goes directly to MK and doesn’t stop at GF….and if it runs that early. You could probably do that on check out day too depending on how early MK early opening is.
Totally!
Seems like you are making good use of your recent DVC add ons. Now that DH is on the road to recovery we can resume our 3 times a year visits. It’s nice to be able to drive there now instead of flying,
Our plan is to do a Year of Disney with annual passes every 3ish years. So April 2025-April 2026 will be Disney heavy. Our next Year of Disney will be Dec 2027-Dec 2028. But this year we are going 5 times (was supposed to be six but we had to cancel a 2 week trip in May) and doing a little recon for future trips. Our trip number is boosted by using up the last of our Hyatt II deposits on DVC exchanges.
April we stayed at BLT/Boulder Ridge- 5 nights
Sept we are staying at OKW/BCV- 6 nights
Dec we are staying at Kidani/Jambo- 6 nights
Jan we are staying at Boulder Ridge- 7 nights
March we are staying at BCV/Poly- 7 nights
Maybe in our next year of Disney we will need to try for a GFV and Riveria split stay. But mostly I feel like Disney transport wastes a lot of time, so I need to love the resort (Wilderness Lodge, I’m looking at you) to deal with less convenient transportation. So it’s hard to imagine using BCV points to book anything other than BCV.
Our current school of thought is to pick an area to stay and focus our trip on that area: while at Wilderness Lodge focus on MK, WL and Fort dining and rec, maybe nip over to Steakhouse 71. While at AKL focus on AK park and AKL dining and resort activities, with maybe evening visits to other parks if park hours are long enough. Rather than try to visit all parks on each trip, visit all parks over the course of each year. So right now the thought is that some trips will be split stays at MK area resorts/EPCOT area resorts and others will be AKL. Occasional stays or nights at Saratoga or OKW when we can’t get anything else. We’ll see if that pattern suits us over time, but it’s my current thought.
