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‘OHANA AT DISNEY’S POLYNESIAN RESORT

‘Ohana (the name is Hawaiian for “typographical error” “family”) is a deeply-loved restaurant at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.  In the evenings, dinner features flame-cooked meat skewers cooked over an open fire (menu here).

In the morning, though, the fires are out, and their entertainment value is replaced by Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and friends.

THE LILO AND STITCH BEST FRIENDS CHARACTER BREAKFAST AT ‘OHANA IN DISNEY’S POLYNESIAN RESORT

The Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Character Breakfast features standard continental American breakfast foods in any quantity you want, highlighted with a little Polynesian flair. (Somewhat vague menu here.)

The first course is fruit, yogurt, breakfast breads with a hint of the Pacific Islands, and mango juice (other standard breakfast beverages are also available).

This is followed by a skillet with biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and breakfast potatoes.  In our visit, we were among the earliest to be served (we had a 7.45a reservation)—before the real demand on the kitchen began–and the food was hot and perfectly cooked.

The potatoes and sausage each have a hint of the exotic to them—but the hint is subtle enough that even the most finicky kid won’t pine for a McDonald’s Big Breakfast instead.

The fruit, bread, and hot food are all served “family style”—your party serves themselves from the serving utensil, and you can get more of anything should you want it.

Later, the dedicated waffle service comes by!  I’d forgotten this was coming so could manage only one…a turn of events I regret as I sure do love those Mickey-head waffles…kind of a weird Disney communion…

All in this is fine but largely routine breakfast fare.

What distinguishes the Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Character Breakfast is the cool setting of the Polynesian—one of Disney World’s most kid-pleasing locales—attendance by Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and others, and fun Mickey-led marches for kids around the restaurant.

At various times during the morning, the characters come out and visit with each table, pose for pictures, and then shift into parade mode. After the parade—at least on our visit—they take a break, then return a little later.

The Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Character Breakfast is a great place for breakfast, and a fun alternative to this site’s recommended Chef Mickey’s character breakfast.

Chef Mickey’s has better characters, in its buffet a wider variety of food choices, and better access to the Magic Kingdom.  But the Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Character Breakfast is a fine choice as well!

HOURS, THE MAGIC KINGDOM, GETTING THERE, AND SUCH

Disney’s new website—which often works—lists the hours of the Lilo and Stitch Best Friends Character Breakfast as being 7.30-11a.  I can’t tell for sure when the last seating is, but it is at least as late as 10.20a.

• Families eating here as part of a leisurely morning can make their reservations for anytime.
• Families combining breakfast here with a visit to the Magic Kingdom should eat as early or as late as possible.

Very early dining allows you to still make a standard 9a opening (but not morning Extra Magic Hours, or one of the 8a opening you’ll see at the busiest times of the year) while not having to rush out just as Mickey shows up.

Getting one of the latest possible reservations—10.20a, or later if you can–lets you do rope drop whenever it is, and thus see part of the Magic Kingdom while crowds are the lowest.  It also lets you sleep in a bit longer, and to treat the all-you can eat meal as a filling brunch. So that’s the way to do Best Friends.

‘Ohana is on the second floor of the Great Ceremonial House—the main building—at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.

You get there from the Magic Kingdom by either boat or monorail.

• Check the Polynesian boat boarding area at the Magic Kingdom before you get on the monorail—if the boat is there, it’s more fun, but it’s not worth waiting for.
• Otherwise, take the resort monorail—also fun–getting off at the Polynesian.

If you are coming from the Contemporary Resort, take the resort monorail. From the Grand Floridian, you can walk, take the boat, or take the resort monorail.

From other Disney resorts, if you have one of the early reservations, ask your hotel concierge the day before how to get to the Polynesian.  Disney runs special buses for early character breakfasts, so you may be directed to one of these, or to the resort’s standard Magic Kingdom transport if it is operating that early.

You can also drive to the Polynesian, but while construction is going on there—as it will be for a while—parking is scarce, so you may have to valet.   It’s bad form, by the way, to leave your car in the Poly lot and head off to the Magic Kingdom for the day…

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: JUNE 8, 2013 TO JUNE 16, 2013

The material below details operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the table, but organized by park, not by topic.

Star Wars weekends have their final presentation at the beginning of this week and increasingly are mobbing the Studios, so avoid Disney’s Hollywood Studios the 8th and the 9th.

After the 8th, Disney World reverts to its normal summer Extra Magic Hours schedule. This means morning EMH at the Animal Kingdom this week the 8th, 10th and 12th–and thus that the 11th and 13th will be particularly good days at the Animal Kingdom.

(For more on June 2013 at Walt Disney World, see this.)

[Read more →]

THE NOMURA MEDIA AND TELECOM SUMMIT AND FASTPASS+

Fastpass+ is a new, not-yet-released Disney World program that will allow…and perhaps require…Fastpasses to be reserved well in advance of a visit.

(Len Testa has a great write-up of what’s known (not a lot) and what can be reasonably speculated about Fastpass+ here.)

I predicted back in early April that the earliest date we’d see this consequentially operational in the parks would be October 1, and nothing in Disney’s early May earnings call led me to revise this date to earlier.

I thought a telling exchange on this call was the following (bold added by me)

Analyst: “…in terms of [the Fastpass+] timeframe, would that be something where by fiscal 2014 you would think we start to see some impact?”

Bob Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company: “Yes. I think–well, I definitely believe we’ll see some impact in fiscal 2014. That is certainly our plan…”

Disney’s fiscal 2014 starts in October 2013. This waffling is sensible—you don’t want to announce a date before you are confident in it, and Disney can’t be confident in Fastpass+ until a number of systems issues are resolved, and lots of further testing happens.

Now Jay Rasulo—who was also on that call, and is Disney’s CFO—was at the Nomura Annual U.S. Media and Telecom Summit last week, and of course got a similar question.

Here’s what Jay had to say about the timing of MyMagic+, the overall program of which the major element will be Fastpass+:

“…MyMagic+… will probably launch before the end of this year in its, I don’t know, I won’t say totality, but largely be launched by the end of this year and fiscal year.”

So my take-away?  October 1 is still the earliest date I’m seeing for the widespread in-park use of Fastpass+, but if I had to bet, based on just the passage of time and the comparative words used between these two early and late May sessions, I’d look for an even longer timeframe…

I’d now guess for a formal widespread opening of Fastpass+ for reservations sometime between late September and early November, with the first pretty full use of the program in the parks beginning no earlier than January 4 or 5, 2014—after all the holiday crowds are gone.

This is just a forecast—it could be earlier, especially if the launch in the parks explicitly excludes Thanksgiving week and the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s or even later.

But that’s my bet now—no widespread use of Fastpass+ in the parks until 2014.

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Disney World raised its theme park ticket prices over the weekend, with the most common ticket types going up 6-9%.

My friends at Undercover Tourist, a sponsor of this site, remind me that they still have an inventory of tickets priced based on the former prices, and will make these available until sold out.

These tickets don’t expire, so you can buy them at these old prices now–while they last–and use them on your next visit, whenever it is!

For more, see this.

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Pop Century Resort, click here.

THEMING AND ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Disney’s Pop Century Resort is one of 5 value resorts at Walt Disney World:

• Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, opened in April 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, opened in November 1994
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, opened in January 1999
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort, opened in December 2003
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, opened in May 2012

Each of these five has four-person standard rooms. At Pop Century, All-Star Movies and shortly in All-Star Music, you get two queen beds and a coffee maker. In the not-yet refurbed rooms at Music, and in All-Star Sports and Art of Animation, you get full beds and no coffee makers. Queen beds in All-Star Sports are possible soon.

For most families looking for standard rooms and not worried about full beds or coffee makers, Art of Animation is the best choice, followed by Pop Century. Art of Animation rooms are also the most expensive–especially in the summer, when they approach moderate-level pricing. The All-Stars are all priced the same, and are the least expensive. Pop rooms average $40 more per night than the All-Stars, and $40 less per night than Art of Animation.

Disney’s Pop Century Resort officially salutes “many of the 20th-century popular culture crazes—including toys, gadgets, music, movies, fads and catch phrases.”

Pop Century’s theme is to recall the later decades of the twentieth century, through enormous statues of toys, games, Disney characters, and other stuff relevant to the decades. You’ll find scattered around the resort a Mickey Mouse Telephone, Roger Rabbit, a Big Wheel, bowling pins, Baloo and Mowgli, Lady and the Tramp and more…all 30 to over 60 feet tall!

Elsewhere you’ll find Play-Doh, Mr. Potato Head, a more than life sized foosball game, a pool designed to look like a bowling alley, a four-story laptop, and more.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

There are 2,880 rooms at Pop Century, evenly divided among ten accommodations buildings, each with elevators.

They are available in four booking classes, basically preferred or standard, with each of these available as pool view or not.  The least expensive rooms are standard without a pool view, and most expensive are preferred pool view.

Preferred rooms are scattered in wings of several buildings and in general are a shorter walk to the main pool, the gift shop and food court, and the bus stops. Pool view rooms overlook one of the three pools, and will be louder than others.

Once you’d booked your class, during online check in (or over the phone) you can further request particular areas, a lake view, upper or lower floors, near transportation, and near elevators.

These rooms a refurb completed in 2018 now have two queen beds–the second is a fold-down bed that makes the table disappear when it’s down. Refurbed rooms also have more storage, more power points, bigger TVs, more bath privacy, and coffeemakers.  A full photo tour of a refurbed room begins here.

Also available are rooms that sleep two on one king bed.  There’s fewer than 200 of these, and they too are not directly bookable, nor do they show up on the on-line forms.

My general recommendation is an upper floor lake view room. These will be quietest and loveliest. Here’s some lake views:

THE AREAS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

A quick look at the map tells you a lot about Disney’s Pop Century Resort.

The key points to notice are Hourglass Lake, at the top, the Disney Skyliner gondola station here, circled in black, and the central resort services, circled in red and orange at the middle.

Rooms facing Hourglass Lake will have the best views, and many will be close to the Skyliner station.  Rooms closer to the central resort services will have the shortest walks to concierge services, dining, and the bus stops.

Pop Century’s ten buildings are nominally divided into five areas–1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s–representing the icons and memories of each decade, each area with a different set of larger-than-life Disney characters, toys from the era, and other decorations, with a particular focus on music playback tools.

However, there’s just one ’90s building, grouped in with the ’80s buildings, so in fact Pop Century really has just four areas.

• The three ’50s buildings, grouped around the Bowling Pin pool
• The two ’60s buildings, grouped around the main Hippy Dippy pool
• The two ’70s buildings, the only ones without a pool in their center–making them quieter–and
• The two ’80s and one ’90s buildings grouped around the Computer pool

THE 50s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The three buildings in the 50s area– Buildings 1, 2 and 3–take dancing at a sock hop and bowling as their overall theme, with a bowling pin shaped pool and bowling pins hiding the stairs. While bowling was more popular in the 60s, its popularity began to take off in the 50s.

A jukebox decorates the center of one of the buildings…

…and Lady and the Tramp (1955) the other two.

The 50s buildings are reasonably good places to stay, with their principal negative being distance from the bus stops.

THE 60s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The 60s area, with Buildings 4 and 5, is themed to flower power and other more innocuous 60s themes and has the most centrally located of the Pop Century rooms. Many of them surround the main pool at Pop Century, the Hippy Dippy pool.

These rooms have become even more convenient with the new Disney Skyliner gondola station opening on the bridge between Pop and Art of Animation, with service to the Caribbean Beach hub, from which you can re-board the gondola lines to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Stairs are themed to yo-yos, which resurged in the 60s.

The movie theming is the Jungle Book (1967).

You’ll also find here Play-Do–invented in the 30s as a wallpaper cleaner, and repurposed in the 60s as a creative toy.

THE 70s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

The 70s has buildings 6 and 10, and is the only area at Pop Century that does not surround a pool, making these rooms generally Pop’s quietest.  Still close to buses, the Skyliner, and the central services and main pool, and with plenty of lake views, it’s the area at Pop Century I recommend the most.

Stairs are themed to 8 track tapes, frankly a dull and forgettable choice.

In a testament to the state of Disney animation in the 70s, this area is the only one at Pop Century with no Disney movie highlighted…

The overall theme is active play, and the courtyard of buildings 6 and 10 is dominated by a larger than life foosball court.

Smaller play areas are also here–e.g. Twister, which nowadays is a prima facie venue for sexual harassment.

You’ll also find an enormous Micky phone which sets a Disney connection that makes up for the absence of a movie reference in the 70s area.

The Mickey phones were part of an AT&T program of “Design Line” phones that launched in the early 70s.

Across the foosball court is a Big Wheel–launched in 1969.

THE 80s AND 90s AREA AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

Two 80s buildings–7 and 9–and one 90s building, 8, make up a three building group surrounding a pool that works more as a unified area than as two separate themed areas, which is why I consider them together here.

These buildings are most distant from the main pool and central dining, gift shop and other services, but some rooms, especially in Building 9, are not far from the bus stop.

Stairs are themed as Rubik’s Cubes, invented in the 70s but licensed to be sold in the 80s…

…and to 90s-style cell ones, which are almost life-size.

The pool area in the center of the three buildings is laid out like an early laptop, with the keyboard on one side and the screen on Building 8. The green item at the left of the screen is a floppy disk, which were central to computing until they weren’t.

The Disney movie referenced here is Roger Rabbit (1988).

Across from Roger is probably the weakest principal icon at Pop Century, a Sony Walkman–introduced in Japan in 1979.

Adding some playfulness to what other than Roger Rabbit is pretty dull theming is this charming couple, found near Hourglass Lake.

PHOTO TOUR OF A ROOM AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIALS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

• Disney’s Pop Century Resort–overview and summary
• Theming and accommodations at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• A photo tour of a refurbed room at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• Amenities and dining at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• The pools at Disney’s Pop Century Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Pop Century Resort, click here.

AMENITIES AND DINING AT POP CENTURY

Most amenities at Pop Century–except its pools, bar, and Skyliner stop–are in or near its main central building, Classic Hall.

You can also walk across the bridge from Pop Century to Art of Animation and use the amenities there, except for Art of Animation’s pools.

If you take the Magical Express, you’ll get dropped off on the side of Classic Hall. This is also where, if you’ve ordered one, brides are delivered.

Everyone else will enter through the center of Classic Hall…

…where you’ll find an entry lobby where games may break out.

Next to it is the check-in lobby, where you check in, and will also find a concierge staff that can help you with dining, tickets and such.

On the back wall of the lobby you’ll find a timeline of Pop Century’s decades, and various objects that reflect Pop Century’s theming.

Closer.

Just outside are the bus stops. Here you can catch buses to all the parks.

Between Pop Century and Art of Animation is a station for the Disney Skyliner gondola system, an alternate (and fun) way to get to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Between the bus stops and Building 10 you’ll find a playground.

Back inside, across from the entry lobby is the gift shop, Everything Pop.

You’ll find here mostly souvenir stuff but also sundries and some snacks. More snacks and drinks are in the food court.

The food court is on the other side of the gift shop.

Multiple stations give you a variety of dining options…

…but if you want more adventurous ones, walk across the bridge to the food court at Art of Animation. The Pop Century menu is here, and Art of Animation’s menu is here. About a third of a mile separates the two food courts.

Just outside Classic Hall you’ll find the main pool.

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIALS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S POP CENTURY RESORT

• Disney’s Pop Century Resort–overview and summary
• Theming and accommodations at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• A photo tour of a refurbed room at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• Amenities and dining at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• The pools at Disney’s Pop Century Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!