Hello everyone, this is...
You know I don't even know what this is.
I don't know what the... what the official title of it.
What it is?
It's a service review.
Like a review for a service or an event.
It's not just a food review.
We'll just say... we'll just... we'll just say the name.
Hello, everyone.
This is Running On Empty...
Food Review!
Well hello ladies and gentlemen and everyone...
listening or watching.
This is an interesting video that I wanted to do.
I know recently there's been a lot of silly little...
trivialities you can say.
It's a new word there,
but there's a lot of silly nonsense going on
and life goes on, forget about that stuff,
and I wanted to do a new video for you.
Now what this is, it's a review,
but it's more or less a review for a service.
Then it is just a food review.
Think of it this way alright?
This is probably gonna be...
one of the most thrilling...
dramatic...
action-packed, edge-of-your-seat...
I'm kind of sitting on like a futon,
and I'm not quite sitting on the edge of it,
so maybe that's a little too far.
Near-edge-of-your-futon...
review.
We're just gonna have you...
You're just gonna be...
It's gonna be incredible. That's all that I have to say.
This is a review for...
a Disney dinner show of all things.
There is footage of it.
You know it's gonna be kind of intersperse with this blabbering.
But this is a review for Disney's...
I have it up on there just to make sure to get the information right -
Disney's Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show.
This was set at their Polynesian Resort in Disney World,
in central Florida.
And I had the chance to stop by there,
attend the dinner show,
and you know, share a nice meal with some family
and have a good time there. But at the same time,
I wanted to kind of mark down a few things,
enjoy the food, but kind of take it in also.
See the experience,
and then kind of like make a video review on it.
That's exactly what I did.
Now first and foremost I have to tell you this.
When it comes down to this show,
and this whole event,
I cannot rate it just upon food,
or just upon price,
or just upon the performance which I viewed.
Rather it's got to be a combination of all of those things,
and as an experience, how good was it?
Now first and foremost, well what is the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show?
Well Disney, what they like to do,
aside from just having the theme parks and the hotels,
they try to have other events going on as well.
A lot of that in the form of of dinner entertainment,
where they'll serve you up some food,
and you can have a seat,
and then you could watch performance of some sort
either while you're eating or after the meal or something to that extent.
It's just the type of entertainment there.
Now price I have to mention,
this show was expensive.
It was around $70 per person,
so right there you know,
if I were to just base this off of value in and of itself...
you see where I'm going.
But because I was eating with family
and then some dinner plans needed to be changed.
They didn't reimburse me.
And then they charged me 400 bucks
for some sort of fee that I'm trying to fight,
so I'm out $400 anyway,
but I'm not going to hold that as a black mark against them,
but just keep in mind that it's expensive.
But this dinner show, of course it's Hawaiian themed,
it's supposed to be like a luau type of event...
from the Pacific.
where you're supposed to be eating, you know, a lot of...
pork based products
and eat like a Hawaiian king right?
And I eat this feast and then watch some...
traditional Pacific dance,
and you know the fire dancers and all that stuff.
And I checked the reviews of this thing online,
and people hated it.
I mean...
Some more than others,
but some people were saying...
the food was the worst thing I ever ate,
and the performance was even worse.
Don't even do this, you're gonna be scarred for life,
and this will haunt you until the day you die.
So with that,
Let's go in to first kind of clip
where I was sitting there in the lobby of the hotel
waiting to get to the show.
To build up that dramatic anticipation.
[crowd chatting]
One of those times...
when I really care about filming in public.
I just kind of woke up...
ten minutes ago so I'm just out of it.
Gonna be going to a dinner show.
Some sort of aloha thing.
But keeping those fingers crossed,
the show has yet to start,
and just kind of killing time here.
I'll keep you updated.
Okay,
so I made it in,
I got seated,
I got situated,
I had to rip those little "leigh"
- that's what I called them little flower.
I had to get that off
because that thing was shedding, it was really uncomfortable,
and not the highest quality of course.
I had to get rid of that.
I took it off,
but I got settled in, and the first thing that they bring you is the food.
So now it's time for some food criticism.
The volume in the place wasn't...
the best for filming.
I tried to film something. I'll show you a little bit of it.
But it's just very very noisy.
Now the food they try to give you an impression
that it's like an all-you-can-eat feast.
You know fit for the King that you are.
And that you'll just be chowing down
non-stop.
They kind of serve it to you in these like feeding troughs.
It's the only way I could describe it.
And you get a variety.
First they give you the appetizers which is pretty standard.
Some little pineapple pieces,
some noodles, some salad, and some bread.
Now take a look at the pictures there.
Hopefully you can see them.
I tried to get the highest...
Instagram-food-blogger tier...
pictures that I could get of the food.
That's the appetizer.
I was able to be brazen enough
to film a small little excerpt
from my appetizer consuming experience.
Hope you enjoy.
So I tried out the appetizer here. [crowd chatting]
And you know the reviews online what they say about it.
Well, it holds true.
The salad, very freshful, comes with some sort of dressing on it
which is good.
And these noodles which are interesting but a little lacking in flavor.
The little pineapple pieces you just saw on the picture,
It's like something out of a Dole cup.
I mean you know, it's not fairly what we're paying for.
And the bread, that was the biggest disappointment.
I always like my dinner rolls.
It's dry, a little sweet.
No much flavor at all, and there's no butter.
Then the main course came out.
And this was a more of a...
diverse...
menagerie of...
of food I guess. Guess it was food.
What else would it be?
Sure it's food.
That was again mainly pork based,
where you had some chicken, okay?
You did have some chicken,
and some chicken breast, some drumsticks,
some ribs,
you had pulled pork and rice,
and I think there was some mixed vegetables in there as well.
But as for the actual main course itself,
it wasn't as bad as a lot of the reviews
you read online will tell you that it was.
though maybe it is a case-by-case basis.
but I mean the food that I ate,
the ribs and the chicken especially
that's what everyone's really paying attention to.
It was alright.
You know, it was pretty tender,
it was okay.
I'm not going to go ahead and say what's the worst thing I ever ate,
but it is by far
nothing even close to the best thing either.
You know, it's tender.
It's one of those things that's very dependent on sauce.
If it doesn't have that barbecue sauce they kind of give it a glaze on,
yeah, you won't enjoy it.
It might be tender, but it won't have much flavor to it otherwise,
so don't go into this expecting these extremely you know...
flavorful...
ethnic cuisine.
Because it's not really gonna be that.
It's gonna be edible, it's gonna be alright,
but it's not going to be anything that's outstanding.
That's you know, this is what you're gonna remember the whole experience by.
I did have an issue with the the pulled pork a little bit,
it was just extremely...
extremely dry.
There wasn't any sauce on it.
It didn't seem like it was any way.
And there was no sauce anywhere to put on it.
So it's the extremely dry and salty,
and was one of those things like it sucked
all the moisture out of your mouth,
and there I was chewing onto her.
I just had to down it with a glass of water
and call it a day with that.
That's the most disappointing part of the dinner experience if you ask me.
Now as dessert later on
they do bring around these slices of cake
which are actually pretty good.
It's like a pineapple type of cake.
It was...
It's like your standard just sponge cake,
but then it had some pineapple with it too,
and I really couldn't complain about.
Again It was more in the generic side of things.
It wasn't anything to completely brag about,
but it was alright for what it was you can see a picture of it there.
And again, it was alright.
So the food in and of itself,
unremarkable.
It's really dependent on sauce and freshness,
but it is most certainly not the worst thing I've ever ate,
nor is it the best - it's completely average.
And that's where that stands.
Now on to the performance.
This is where my biggest...
grievance lies.
Because it's a dinner show.
It's not just a dinner.
They don't market it
just as a dinner you know.
If it was just a Hawaiian dinner, alright, we're done.
You know pack up, stories over.
Overpriced, but we're done with it.
It's a dinner SHOW.
So while you're eating,
there's a stage that's right there,
and you can enjoy a show that's going on
whilst you eat or afterwards.
and this is where I have my problem.
I think the show was too long quite frankly.
And when I have my complaints when it comes down to
performers or entertainment,
I always have to realize number one first and foremost,
could I go up on that stage and do what these people did?
Absolutely not.
I have to remember that.
And I can't be too harsh
because I myself haven't any of the abilities that these performers have.
None whatsoever.
But the biggest issue that I have is
for the first I'd say 45 minutes
because this this went on for two hours - the entire things about two hours long.
The first 45 minutes to maybe even an hour,
It was weird.
It was just really really weird.
That's all that I have to describe it.
It's like they tried to make up some sort of
storyline and plot and make it almost like, again, a show.
But no one was really paying attention.
Everyone was just eating their dinners.
No one really cared.
And it was one of those weird times
I actually felt bad for the performers.
where they tried to make some sort of
weird plot.
Where there's like some -
I couldn't even follow it.
There was like some -
I don't know, I called him the Hawaiian frat boy,
but I don't think that's what he was.
Some guy who was going off to college or something
and I couldn't even follow it,
but you know they kind of BSed around for 45 minutes with that,
and I just felt bad for them
because I felt it was a waste of time.
It dragged the show on too long;
It was really hard to follow;
No one was paying attention in the least.
And to actually prove it to you take a look at this clip
of this kind of starter show,
and you'll see it's just really weird. No one was...
Everyone was just eating. No one was even watching them.
It's just weird.
[energetic music]
But after that 45 minutes ended,
then I would say the real show started,
where they started talking about the culture
of a lot of these Pacific Islands.
They started going around, they were talking about let's say
Tonga,
and Vanuatu,
and New Zealand and of course, Hawaii.
And you know they're trying to show the different cultures and ethnic dances
that are performed on these various...
Pacific Islands.
And that from that point onward I enjoyed the show.
That was again, probably the final 45 minutes
where they started showing, you know,
showing these these cultural dances
and then of course as the finale they brought out the fire dancers
which really was a sight to see.
they were incredibly talented,
and I'd like to show you a few clips of those performances now.
[woman speaking foreign language]
[men speaking foreign language]
[drum beats]
[intensive drum beats and crowd cheering]
But if there's one...
main complaint that I have
that I think they could do away with,
and it would work out I think to everyone's benefit.
What I think they should do in terms of this dinner theater is
they should just get rid of the first 45 minutes
that whole plot was the going to college thing and everything,
I understand what they wanted to do,
but it didn't work out.
It was hard to follow.
No one was really captivated or enthralled by it.
People they just wanted to eat their dinner. They didn't really care.
What I think they should have done is
they should have completely done away with that.
Not even included it.
Had the band - there was an actual band there -
that was playing you know, Hawaiian music.
Had, you know, had them...
Kind of just play some instrumental pieces
while everyone is eating maybe for 20 minutes,
and then just start the show
by introducing the cultures and dances and everything
from these varying Pacific islands,
instead of having this storyline and all this stuff
that I feel just went to waste.
It's a good use of talent that no one was paying attention to
and it went to waste. It was a disappointment.
They should just axe all of that, get rid of it.
I'm not saying fire the people by any means,
but get rid of that part of the show.
And again, just really officially started when they start introducing the real
full-blown performers and cultural aspect of things
because I think when people kind of think of a Hawaiian-esque luau,
that's what they want to see.
They don't care about some frat boys in Hawaii
who were doing this or that either or bouncing around,
and you know, are trying to act...
so outdatedly hip.
And again it just came off to me is weird,
and I just felt bad for them honestly.
So with that being said,
What is my final consensus
when it comes down to the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show?
I think it could need some improvement.
Definitely there are some things that it needs improvement on okay?
The seating
Incredibly incredibly uncomfortable,
I mean those seats
were lowed to the ground,
they will cut into your your bottom like nothing you've ever seen before,
and you will be so physically uncomfortable by the end of it, it's incredible.
The food itself is average,
the performance itself,
the first 45 minutes are gonna be tough to follow,
you're gonna be scratching your head.
You're gonna be...
you might even be feeling bad for the performers as I was.
And I think they can do away with it,
But after that,
it was a good show,
very talented performers,
very talented dancers.
They did a wonderful job,
wonderful performance,
you have to thank the band too.
They performed live and they kind of kept everything in in rhythm
and you know, coordination in that regard.
And they kept you entertained.
With that being said, out of 10,
I'm gonna be giving this whole experience a 6 out of 10.
I think it needs a little improvement,
food isn't perfect as I said,
the show could, you know, can do with a little work.
But just keep this in mind, if you do decide to do it,
don't expect an all-you-can-eat buffet;
Don't expect that it's gonna be fast paced;
Don't expect for it to be the most comfortable environment in the world.
But if you can make it through the first hour of this event,
the next hour will leave you satisfied,
and you won't be disappointed with it that I can assure you.
All right, but that's what I have to say on it.
Those are my thoughts on the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show.
It's expensive. If you really want to go for it, go for it.
It's not going to be a totally authentic Hawaiian luau.
I've been to one in Hawaii before it.
You can't even compare the two.
But again if you could make it through the first hour,
the second hour won't disappoint,
but keep that in mind.
So I hope this video served.
There's at least some,
you know, some form of being informative or entertaining in one way or another.
Again, thank you for watching,
I'm your host The Report Of The Week.
And as I said life goes on,
forget all the little trivialities that get to us,
blow them aside, doesn't mean anything, life goes on.
So I wanted to make this video for you.
So thank you for watching, take care,
I'm your host, The Report Of The Week.
Have a great weekend everyone.