Super Early Dinner reservation Ohana..allowed to stay?

[Waters Back Side]

If reservations were only available for Ohana for dinner at 6 or 7 pm and it was not in our plans to return to a park after, would they actually allow you to stay for 3 or 4 hours if you want to and the kids participate in the activities and we just eat leisurely and wait for the fireworks to start and watch from the restaurant?

 

[Weather_Lady]

I can't imagine children having the patience to hang around in a restaurant for 3-4 hours! I don't know that they'd ask you to leave, but obviously you'll be depriving your server of the chance to turn a table and receive another tip, as well as depriving other families who made ADRs for later times the chance to be seated in a timely manner. It might be "allowed" in the sense that you won't get thrown out bodily, but candidly, I think it would be a discourteous thing to do. Why not eat and then go out onto the beach where you'll have an even better view? (Unless you're seated right next to the right windows, the view from 'Ohana may be nonexistent anyway.) In the meantime, keep checking for a later dinner ADR to open up, and/or utilize the free touringplans.com reservation finder tool. (It doesn't make ADRs for you, but will send you a notification if it finds a slot that opens up, so you can make the ADR yourself.)

 

[Waters Back Side]

Yes I agree it would not be the kindest thing to do. I did not know the beach was accessible if not staying at the resort!

I guess if a reservation for between 8:30 and 9:30 pm was not possible watching from the beach is the best option.

 

[MickeyMomV]

If I remember correctly the normal dinner rotation time for O'hana is about an hour and 15 minutes. I don't think they would ever kick out "family" but I have to think at some point they would stop serving you. At the 3-4 hour mark I don't think I would have any patience left. I just can't sit that long, especially at WDW. I think you would be better off going to MK, finding a spot, and people watch for an 1.5-2 hours.

 

[rob0519]

Considering you can see the fireworks from the beach and you have no guarantee of getting a table from which you can see the fireworks, what you're suggesting is definitely inconsiderate to both the wait staff and customers with ADRs. I'm not sure that if after two or two and a half hours a manager might ask about your intentions when there was no longer food on your table.

 

[Tuvalu]

Fireworks viewing from inside 'Ohana is marginal at best, even with a window table. Go down to the beach area.

 

[Hockey89]

If reservations were only available for Ohana for dinner at 6 or 7 pm and it was not in our plans to return to a park after, would they actually allow you to stay for 3 or 4 hours if you want to and the kids participate in the activities and we just eat leisurely and wait for the fireworks to start and watch from the restaurant?

So people get screwed because you wont move and the server loses out on more money...Seems like a great plan.. 4 hours at a table....

 

[danyoung56]

I don't know that they'd ask you to leave.....

And I'd betcha that this is EXACTLY what they'd do, maybe 20 minutes or so after the bill was presented. You're not eating dessert, you're not bringing in any more money to the restaurant - why would they let you stay there?

 

[rob0519]

So people get screwed because you wont move and the server loses out on more money...Seems like a great plan.. 4 hours at a table....

I was trying to be a bit more delicate in my earlier response to the OP, but you seemed to have summed this up nicely.

 

[Hockey89]

I was trying to be a bit more delicate in my earlier response to the OP, but you seemed to have summed this up nicely.

Why sugarcoat it

 

[Waters Back Side]

I was not suggesting that this is something I would do. I would not want someone to take up a table for 4 hours and keep me waiting either. I am not sure how the dinner works there. Not sure if there was a designated area in the restaurant or if we were allowed to leave and reenter (like the California Grill).

I agree with everyone and anyone who would think it would be thoughtless to do this. I thought maybe the dinner had a perk which was meant for fireworks viewing as well as the other forms of entertainment.

Turns out I found out from an earlier post that guests who eat there can go to the beach outside to vieesort Wishes. I thought that might be only for guests of the resort.

If i didnt have an 8:30 reservation and it is not by the window, I'll either go view it at the beach or go back to MK and watch it there like most people do. I just know I and my family want to eat at Ohana and one perk of several if timed properly is viewing of the fireworks.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

If i didnt have an 8:30 reservation and it is not by the window, I'll either go view it at the beach or go back to MK and watch it there like most people do. I just know I and my family want to eat at Ohana and one perk of several if timed properly is viewing of the fireworks.

That perk is really only good when dining at CG. The view from inside OHana's is simply not that good.

 

[danyoung56]

Why sugarcoat it

Hockey89 doesn't have the sugarcoating gene!