We had our non-vegan families in town for our wedding, and some meeting for the first time, so we thought the Spirit of Aloha dinner show would be fun for everyone. We had never done it before so we were really excited. It takes place at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and we highly recommend making reservations in advance for this experience.
You pick from three different seating options which vary in price and determine how close you are to the stage. You’ll check-in from the back of the main lobby of the resort where you’ll receive a flower lei and wait to be taken to Luau Cove. It is an open-air theater and shared seating so you will likely be sitting with or very close to others while dining. We had a large group so we were at our own table.
As soon as we sat down there was food waiting for us. We had let Disney know in advance when we made the reservation that we were both vegan. We had a basic iceberg lettuce salad with oil and vinegar on the side, allergy gluten free bread, fresh pineapple and watermelon, and a cold noodle salad which had black beans, corn, edamame, and cherry tomatoes in it. We were both served all of this on our own individual plates while the rest of the table was served family style on shared plates.
The non-vegan iceberg and cold noodle salad I believe both had honey in them. We really liked the cold noodle salad and while the iceberg salad was nice to have, there was nothing special about it. We are not fans of this brand of gluten free roll so we didn’t eat them and there was no vegan butter available.
We were getting full at this point and enjoying the dinner show where ‘Auntie Wini’ hosts a traditional Polynesian style luau with dancing, singing, drumming, and of course the fire performers. Our main course arrived and we were super excited to see it had changed from our previous reviews [see Melissa’s experience from 2018 here].
We were served individual plates again with white rice, a veggie stir fry filled with green beans, broccolini, with a mix of lettuce, cabbage, and carrots, but the star of this dish was the tofu. It was cooked well (with grill marks so we assume they grilled it) and was dressed in a sweet chili style sauce. We loved this course. I wished I had eaten less of the salads so I could have eaten all of this.
Our server was great and brought us each dish himself reassuring us it had been prepared special and was vegan. He brought our dessert next and it was plated beautifully. It was two chocolate cakes drizzled in chocolate sauce atop a raspberry sauce with blueberries and blackberries. This was SO good. Our table of non-vegan family all wanted a bite. There was so much food we took some to-go and it was all so good.
We really enjoyed the dinner show as well. It was timed so that you’re eating during most of the show and are finished by the time the fire performers come out so you can enjoy their performance. My only tips for this would be if you are heat sensitive you would not want to book this during warmer weather since it is open-air and to let them know you’re vegan when you make the reservation. They were very prepared for us and we had such a great experience that we will definitely be back.
Price $$$$
Review from October 2019