Club Level news
For those of you who were disappointed to see the pineapple and caramel sauce gone from the club level lounge, it is back! Also back is a menu that went into effect October 4. The word is that they are going to do something to help control the portion you take. I am sure this is due to those who we have all experienced that decide to fill their plate and leave nothing behind on their way through the line. I will update the menu on the Club Level page.
The new Concierge lounge menu as of October 4 is
Daily Breakfast 7:00 AM– 10:00 AM
• Miniature muffins/ croissants/ bagels (choice of 2 daily)
• Cut fresh fruit
• Four cereals
• Hot meal station*
Fresh made oatmeal with two dried fruits (blueberries and cherries, granola and brown sugar
Monday evening offerings
• California sushi roll
• Vegetable sushi roll
• Wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce
• Kona salad*
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Tuesday evening offerings
• Pork Skewers with Luau BBQ sauce*
• Fried vegetable wrap with Tzatziki sauce*
• Chilled Banana and coconut soup*
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Wednesday evening offerings
• Kona sticky wings
• Steamed Pork dumplings with sweet chili sauce*
• Luau salad served with mixed greens, mandarin oranges and mango poppy seed dressing
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Thursday evening offerings
• Vegetable spring rolls with oriental hot mustard*
• Crab rangoons with sweet chili sauce*
• Chilled canapés*
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Friday evening offerings
• Bacon wrapped ginger chicken with sweet chili sauce*
• Cocktail meatballs with ‘Ohana mustard sauce and BBQ sauce*
• Kim Chee*
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip*
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Saturday evening offerings
• Barbecue pulled pork on Asian spoon
• Scallop bacon wraps with ‘Ohana mustard sauce*
• Chilled pineapple vegetable soup*
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
Sunday evening offerings
• Chicken satay with teriyaki sauce*
• Steamed duck pot stickers with cream soy sauce*
• Asian spoon cole slaw
• Variety of three cheeses served with fruits and berries
• Pineapple with caramel dip
• Hummus and pita bread
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Assortment of crudite individually served with ranch dip
Baby carrots with tops, cucumbers and celery
* items new to the menu
New ‘Ohana chef
As of this year there is a new Chef in town. Chef TJ comes to ‘Ohana from Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. He has been at Disney World for 14 years and he is now working with ‘Ohana and Captain Cook’s. He is well known for making some specialties that are vegan, raw vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, egg free, etc. If you want to try some of these things make sure you contact the resort a few weeks ahead of time. An article written about Chef TJ has some tips on how to get your vegan feast at ‘Ohana.
HOW TO GET YOUR VEGAN FEAST BY CHEF TJ AT ‘OHANA
1. Call (407) WDW-DINE to make Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR’s) up to 90 days prior to your visit.
2. Inform the Cast Member (CM) of your “dairy, egg & shellfish allergies”. As of Fall 2008, The CM’s were not able to note that you are vegan, only which foods you “have an allergy” to. *** UPDATED*** as of May 2009, this seems to have changed. Now it is possible to get both “vegan” and “vegetarian” on your ADR. You can still add the allergy info is you want to be extra safe, but recent reports are now saying that you can request “vegan” to your ADR.
3. Request the ‘Ohana Food & Beverage phone number. You need to request this number before the CM is done with the reservation, because after it is complete, they cannot access it in their system.
4. Call the Food & Beverage representative (usually the chef) to discuss your vegan dining options at least 24 – 72 hours prior to your ADR. For more unique requests, such as raw vegan meals, call at least 3 weeks prior to your ADR.
Check out: Chef TJ’s Profile from the book Vegetarian Walt Disney World and Greater Orlando
How to get the best deal
So over the years I have gone from booking through AAA to booking myself to using a Disney Authorized vacation planner (Magical Vacations). I have also met many of the planners from other companies and there are so many great and talented planners out there. If you are using one and you are happy with them then they are probably your best choice to use when booking a trip. If you have been doing it yourself or through someone you are not very happy with it is hard to know who to go to. You can check out the discussion forums for recommendations but I would advise against that. I have seen many planners from many places get unfairly slammed on forums. Much of the time it is by people that have nothing better to do but post false information or from competitors who are trying to get business away from good planners. There are some great places to go out there like Magical Vacations, Small World Vacations, Magical Journeys, Mouse Fan Travel, Kingdom Konsultants, Fairytale Dreams & Destinations etc. I have chatted with people from all these places over the years and they have always been knowledgeable and helpful. Many I would consider friends. I think you would be in good hands with any of them.
Many of you know that Lisa from Magical Vacations and I worked together on the Tikifest partys and from that came some amazing group rate room blocks for certain times of the year. Some planners get a hold of these rooms at a discounted price by purchasing them ahead of time. They are often better deals than any other Disney special but the good thing about a Disney Specialist is you don’t pay them. You are booking just like you would through Disney and most of them will keep an eye out for better deals and let you know if something better comes up. I don’t know why anyone would book directly with Disney when they can use one of these planners to look out for you. Your first step in booking a trip should be finding a planner you like and booking with them.
Now if you can’t find anything onsite that is what you want for the money you want to spend you can go to www.OrlandoVacation.com and search for hotels to find the best deal offsite. If size is the issue and you need a vacation home they can find that for you also.
Sometimes the first place to start is a site that will give you advice on when to go and what to look for. www.Mousesavers.com is the first place I will start to see what season to go, what discounts might be available and tons of advice for traveling to any Disney park. Something new my friend Len told me about what a ticket calculator that is on his www.Touringplans.com site. It gives you a way to tell it how many days you want to go into the parks for how many people, what type of tickets and some other questions. It then will give you a list of places and prices to go and purchase your tickets at the lowers cost like www.mapleleaftickets.com . The page for the ticket calculator is http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=18
If you are paying full price for anything you are paying way too much. These places can help you find the best deal with little effort on your part. Also don’t fall into the Disney trap of the next best deal. Disney comes out with these 4 days with 3 free and everyone thinks it is the best thing in the world. Many don’t realize that they are paying full rate (which is crazy) for the 4 days. You are also paying full rate for the first 4 days of tickets with the last 3 free but if you see how the pricing is structured you will see those last days are very little cost to add on. Just because Disney has fancy commercials for these deals and tells you it is the best thing out there, does not mean it is. Get a specialist to help you save the most you can.
Now speaking of specials. Magical Vacations has been getting a lot of requests for their group rate rooms for 2010 because at this point they do beat any Disney special out there including the 40% bounce back rate. Because of its popularity Magical Vacations is getting flooded with quote requests. Some are even just to find out the rate with no intension to book. Because of this they are putting in some new rules to eliminate the false requests. Also returning customers will have some benefits.
For people interested in receiving a quote from Magical Vacations on their agency exclusive offers, please keep these details in mind when submitting your information. This helps reduce the amount of wait-time, or having your request returned for lack of information.
· Please do not submit a request for dates outside of the offer periods; the exclusive rates are only available for the travel dates listed with each offer.
· Please make sure you have fully completed your request form to include your choice of resort, and your choice of room category. If you do not include this information, your form is not able to be processed.
· Please do not submit a form with multiple requests. Please decide between resorts and room categories prior to submitting your form.
· It can take up to 48 hours to receive a quote; sometimes longer in the event it is extremely busy. Please be patient and know that all requests are answered in the order in which they were received.
· If you did not receive a response following 48 hours after your submission, please check your spam/junk folder. If you do not see your quote, kindly send an email asking for the status of your information to determine if it was received.
Magical Vacations Travel Club
To get in on Magical Vacations exclusive agency rates, you must be a current Magical Vacations customer and have completed at least one trip with us. Customers then have the option to join our Travel Club which is free of charge, and gives you access to agency-exclusive, discounted rates during certain times of the year before they are released to the general public. Current customers can email Magical Vacations to be added to the Travel Club’s mailing list.
Hawaii resort
So I have been gathering information on the new Hawaii resort since it was first announced. I still need to put it all together with the photos and add it to the new page that is under the NEWS tab but I have something there now. I added the original press release. There will be more to come soon.
