'Ohana Change Rumor

[GoofySon'sMom]

I read this on another site yesterday ...

…We're hearing a rumor that 'Ohana will be trying group seatings in early August (four seatings per night). The walk-up policy may change at that time, as well.

I am wondering how that would work with people with existing reservations?

Anyone heard anything about this?

 

[DVCconvert]

I hope to heck not. Several times there I've felt as if we were being rushed - big time...this would no doubt make that even worse!

 

[goofygal531]

Communal tables like the Biergarten?

That might improve the amount of guests that can dine, considering how difficult it is to get an ADR.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Interesting!

 

[hannahdrewmom]

This has been our fav for years... but in May when we went it was terrible. We didn't even get all the side dishes and to be honest I was so put off by the fact that we didn't get the shrimp for 30 minutes that I totally missed the fact we never got the brocolli.... (needless to say my kids didn't remind me! ) Anyway, we decided we would give it a break for a while.

This might sway me to try it again. I think they are trying to hard right now to accommodate large numbers of people instead of focusing on serving a smaller number well. I can see where this would be a good fit since it says it's all about "family."

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Communal tables like the Biergarten?

That might improve the amount of guests that can dine, considering how difficult it is to get an ADR.

I took it more to mean that there would be certain seating times. Four times per night so maybe 5, 6:30, 8 & 9:30? I just wonder how that would work with people that already have ADRs for other times and their plans made. It wouldn't really affect us too much as we have a 5:30 ADR. But if they are going to only seat at certain times, I can see where that could affect other peoples plans.

 

[k^2]

this doesn't seem logical to me... after all, group seatings only work if everyone arrives at the same time and is seated at the same time. Everyone who already has reservations for August and on (me, for example) is going to show up at "their" time. So how could they condense the reservations? Would they call everyone? Would it actually help capacity issues? So many questions!

 

[sjs314]

I read this on another site yesterday ...

…We're hearing a rumor that 'Ohana will be trying group seatings in early August (four seatings per night). The walk-up policy may change at that time, as well.

I am wondering how that would work with people with existing reservations?

Anyone heard anything about this?

First I have heard of that rumor and not sure exactly how I feel about it since October will be our first time eating there. I do have an ADR for 5pm so as long as that does not change I doubt it would effect our plans any on this trip.
Since they do not have a dinner show it seems a little odd that they would go to seating times.

 

[Buntington]

Wouldn't they have to start that several months out if they were going to have group seating times? We have a reservation for 8:05 in August--that's kind of an odd time for a group seating.

If they did switch over to that kind of plan, it might help to keep the dinners from being so rushed (e.g., if every group has 1.5 hours to eat, they wouldn't be rushing you out of there to seat the next party). So it could ultimately be a good thing.

 

[FLCMpirate82]

I took it more to mean that there would be certain seating times. Four times per night so maybe 5, 6:30, 8 & 9:30? I just wonder how that would work with people that already have ADRs for other times and their plans made. It wouldn't really affect us too much as we have a 5:30 ADR. But if they are going to only seat at certain times, I can see where that could affect other peoples plans.

Here is the information on Ohana. They are going to group seating times. This does not have anything to do with your party or table size, this has to do with the times reservations with be available. In order to prepare the food better and offer better service they will have blocks of times available. An example, but not the actual times would be...they would have reservations times from 5:00-5:20, then 6:00-6:20, then 7:00-7:20, etc. This would allow the servers to have more guests eating the same parts of their meals making serving more streamlined and the food fresher. You will still be seated at a table for just your party size. Also, this has been in place for months, so if you already have reservations, then your time is within one of the new blocked times.

 

[Snurk71]

Here is the information on Ohana. They are going to group seating times. This does not have anything to do with your party or table size, this has to do with the times reservations with be available. In order to prepare the food better and offer better service they will have blocks of times available. An example, but not the actual times would be...they would have reservations times from 5:00-5:20, then 6:00-6:20, then 7:00-7:20, etc. This would allow the servers to have more guests eating the same parts of their meals making serving more streamlined and the food fresher. You will still be seated at a table for just your party size. Also, this has been in place for months, so if you already have reservations, then your time is within one of the new blocked times.

That sounds counter to the goal. How do you prepare and serve fresh meat, [fill in the blank] if everyone in the entire restaurant is wanting that item at the same time? That doesn't make sense to an inexperienced restauranteur (though highly skilled in process efficiency) like me. You would have to pre-prepare food in order to have enough ready for the entire restaurant at one time instead of having stations of cooks prepare fresh food continuously.

But I don't own or run a restaurant, so I don't know what I'm missing.

 

[dancin Disney style]

That sounds counter to the goal. How do you prepare and serve fresh meat, [fill in the blank] if everyone in the entire restaurant is wanting that item at the same time? That doesn't make sense to an inexperienced restauranteur (though highly skilled in process efficiency) like me. You would have to pre-prepare food in order to have enough ready for the entire restaurant at one time instead of having stations of cooks prepare fresh food continuously.

But I don't own or run a restaurant, so I don't know what I'm missing.

I have worked in both regular restaurants and banquet catering.

It actually does work better when you are cooking banquet style. All the food for the entire evening is prepped ahead of time so it only needs to be cooked and it can be cooked all at once. The other side of that is regular restaurant style when things are cooked to order which only allows for a limited amount to be made at one time.

So in the case of Ohana all the food would be ready to be cooked in advance and then cooked fresh for each seating. The kitchen would still be cooking constantly but each seating would have it's own fresh batch.

I'm not sure I explained that very well.

 

[Nermel9]

I really hope this isn't true, I'm not really a big fan of sitting with people I don't know for dinner, I thought Teppan Edo was so awkward, so I would imagine 'Ohana would be the same!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

I really hope this isn't true, I'm not really a big fan of sitting with people I don't know for dinner, I thought Teppan Edo was so awkward, so I would imagine 'Ohana would be the same!

You would still have your own table, just ADRs are limited to a seating time of the first 20 minutes of each hour.

 

[DCDisney]

They already do this at Akershus and have been for about 5 years. They seem to do waves of seating by the room. So a whole room of people goes through the picture line and then are seated all in the same room. At Akershus they seem to be able to move people through more quickly this way. I think the ADR times are still a bit off like 5 mins after in terms of making check in easier for them so some just wait a bit longer than others. Personally we didn't like the experience at AKershus so once my daughter was through the Princess years we stopped going there. It just felt a bit rushed. I have allergies so my meal takes a bit longer but when they started bringing out the dessert you were getting it ready or not They may be able to serve more people this way but you can notice the difference.

 

[MPHARJ]

Well if this is already in place as stated above can't wait to see what happens when I get there with my 2045 hour ADR!

 

[DaisyMaisie]

I am pretty sure they do this at Clambake since there were only very specific times available at my 180 days. (e.g 5:20 then 6:20)

However when I booked my Ohana dinner for this coming December I had lots of choices, I think just about every fifteen minutes so this system was NOT in place.

Michelle

 

[bdcp]

We're going in Oct and I had requested 7 pm, but 6:50 was what was available. So, we'll see what is actually going on with times.

 

[kungaloosh22]

We're going in Oct and I had requested 7 pm, but 6:50 was what was available. So, we'll see what is actually going on with times.

I had the same experience for our October booking, and that was true for every evening that I checked. At the time I thought it was a bit weird, but now I guess it makes sense.

 

[k^2]

Here is the information on Ohana. They are going to group seating times. This does not have anything to do with your party or table size, this has to do with the times reservations with be available. In order to prepare the food better and offer better service they will have blocks of times available. An example, but not the actual times would be...they would have reservations times from 5:00-5:20, then 6:00-6:20, then 7:00-7:20, etc. This would allow the servers to have more guests eating the same parts of their meals making serving more streamlined and the food fresher. You will still be seated at a table for just your party size. Also, this has been in place for months, so if you already have reservations, then your time is within one of the new blocked times.

I have a 6:55 reservation for 9/3 Maybe that's a "close enough"?