I guess everybody's experience is different.
We had just arrived that afternoon. We were staying at the CSR and drove to the Poly. Flash the DDE creds, and voila, we’re in the lobby! We were a little early. It had been raining on and off, so they were checking people in near the boutique in the main building. We did some shopping, checked out the lounge – there was a neat Polynesian-style lounge singer playing there, then checked out the pools and the beach (it had stopped raining). Then we walked on down to Luau Cove. Had our pics taken, were seated and started on salad and drinks.
Salads and bread was delicious. Food was pretty good – standard chicken and ribs with a poly flair. But our waiter brought plenty of food and drink – whatever we asked for extra was provided. The service was really top-notch. And the flaming/smoking volcano trays that the dessert came out on (all at once coordinated with music!) were pretty cool.
But let me tell you, folks, the show was fabulous. I’d highly recommend it. It has a sort of story behind it – a girl who comes home to the islands after being away on the mainland for a while. But the story is just an excuse for a fabulous show. And they have breaks in the show timed perfectly so you get a chance to eat and order more drinks, etc., and not miss anything. The grand finale with the fire dancers was the best of its kind I had ever seen, live or on film/TV. The costuming was great. And there was some kid-participation hula, and a chance for couples to dance to the Hawaiian Wedding Song. And it was a good long show – a couple of hours – but not too long.
And I saved over $30 with my DDE, with the $7 value for the valet parking, the card nearly paid for itself the first night.
What a great way to start a vacation!
My DDs loved the show. They are 11 and 7. The 7 yo loves ribs, and could eat several racks of them if I let her. She also loves pineapples. They are on the table with the salad at the beginning, and she ate them all (leaving only a few for the rest of us), and asked for more, and our server brought a big bowl. Our server never let us run out of beer and wine or ribs or chicken without ever being asked. As I said earlier, the food was nothing spectacular, but it was pretty good, anyway, and plenty of it.
Also, my kids are really into Lilo and Stitch, so they were looking forward to a Poly themed show for weeks. They especially liked the fire dancer (because that's what Nanni's boyfriend David does!).
It's a shame that it rained for inafog's show. I think the staging must, in fact, have been changed a bit, because ALL the kids were invited up to learn a hula (maybe even more than once), and they had neat hanging paper ornaments (of the humuhumunukunukuapuaa fish) that the cast held over the kids heads and surprised them. And all the couples go to dance to the Hawaiian Wedding Song. If it were raining, we would have been doing that stuff in the rain. So maybe that's why. Plus we had exactly the opposite experience with the CMs. Everyone was really nice, and we got alohas and smiles and leis all over the place! And the service was great.
As for value, $50 ($25 for kids) without the DDE is a little steep, but it is WDW for crying out loud - nothing is cheap. Considering I spent $24 ($13 for kids) at Akershus for lunch, where DD7 ate a few pieces of cheese and half a PBJ, saw a few princesses, and it was over in less than an hour, compared to nearly two hours of entertainment, I think we got more value out of SoA.
HDDR was the same price, and I didn't get the DDE, because it doesn't work for the early show. And we felt rushed at HDDR. There are three shows each night, versus two for SoA. And the food was better at SoA, although the main course was about the same with a different sauce :lol: . At least at HDDR, the rain won't affect the show at all. I don't know why they don't have a covering over the show area at Luau Cove. This never made sense to me.
Anyway, I just had a cup of coffee, so I'm sorry to go on like this, but just in summary, I'm not trying to invalidate everyone else's experience, it's just that we had a really good one at SoA.
I am sure with the age of your kids that they will love it.
