Trip Report A little bit of Disney and a lot of luaus!

Hello all!
We're back from our "Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa" stay, and I'm finally able to get this trip report started!
(And fyi the closest I came to a spa was getting a water bubble foot bath at the kids splash area!)

Our party of 6 and a 1/2 consisted of myself Cindy, husband Gary, son Seth, daughter Aleisha (and the half), SIL Julio and our 20 month old granddaughter Una. (You may remember her as crazy girl from our Oct. 2021 WDW trip report.) Nothing has changed there!

Same cast of characters except in a different location!

We left home 9/24/22 and returned 10/5/22.
On Saturday the 24th we flew from Pittsburgh to Sacramento via Dallas. (That is a big airport)!

Before we left I bought myself a new (larger) suitcase for the trip. Someone may or may not have packed one and a half suitcases full of kid crap treasures and needed more space! When I retired my partners bought me the smaller version of this and I love it so much (and it's held up for 4 years of Disney adventures) so it made sense to buy the matching larger one! I'm glad they still offer the same pattern.

We packed up all of said stuff and headed to the airport. Our flight was at a reasonable 1:30pm so we didn't have to kill ourselves to get there.
I put this photo in to remind myself to never do this again. I wanted to save $3/day and so I parked in the economy lot. @riverside will be able to tell you how silly this decision was. There are no shuttles and it was a full on 20 minute walk with my annoying hip back to the terminal. You see that strip of brown there past my car? That is the highway surrounding the airport! But hey, I saved $3/day!

We got through security no problem that time of day and got on the monorail type thing that takes you from the land to air side.
And ps, I'm with every other human on the planet that is sick of mask wearing but Gary's oncologist has asked him to keep wearing them indoors as much as possible due to his immunocompromised state with ongoing chemo and so we do.
I tell everyone it's not going to be his cancer or covid that takes him out, it's going to be me.
See post of family fracas that occurs in a few days.

We had time to grab an early lunch so we shared Chick-fil-A nuggets, waffle fries and some Auntie Anne's nuggets.
He's happy, honestly! He doesn't earn those Grumpy shirts for nuthin!

And then on to what started out as one of the most controversial subjects of this trip.
As his illness progresses and he gets more tired (and grumpy) I try to figure out how to make things less stressful and easier for him.
Flying has become something he detests. So I proposed for the first time in our life that we try to fly first/business class and see if it is any easier for him. If you hate it or feel it is not worth it, never again I tell him.
(Remember I'm the person too cheap to park closer, I don't throw money away either).
Oh boy did the grumping and complaining begin. That's too expensive, I don't want to do that and on and on. I finally wore him down and he acquiesced.
So, how do you think it went?

Give you a little hint, that's actually a smile behind that mask as he sits in his nice wide soft seat!

Do I get to do a wifely eyeball roll yet?!
Hope you'll stay tuned for more of our adventures!

 

[MickeyCB]

Intrigued so far by your TR -- can't wait for more vacation experiences to come!

Glad you're on board!

 

[MickeyCB]

How exciting - Una will soon be promoted to big sister

I can't even imagine how the princess is going to handle that. Later in the report there is a little incident with her being jealous of me petting their dog!

 

[Swissmiss]

I can't even imagine how the princess is going to handle that. Later in the report there is a little incident with her being jealous of me petting their dog!

Yes, I can see that. Despite my daughter being an only child she got “the best of both worlds” - when she was about 4 another family moved into the building and they had a 2 and a half year old. For several years we shared a nanny and basically raised the girls to be like sisters - but at the end of the day they didn’t need to share parents so it worked well. Other friends in the neighborhood commented how well our girls shared compared to their own daughter

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 2 on our way to paradise!

We of course woke up bright and early despite traveling the day before. That 3 hour time difference is a killer.

They bought a home right after our Oct. trip of last year. They were in a very small apartment prior to that and wanted more space and they love being outside. Julio is a wonderful cook and is into growing their food and wanted a yard for that.
They have several mature fruit trees (it's in an older 60's type neighborhood). Apple, apricot and my favorite the orange trees.
I went out and picked oranges for fresh squeezed juice! It just doesn't get any better than that!

My favorite thing we brought for Una was an old music box I found at our local flea market. It's a Beauty and the Beast music box and when you open it, it has 3 ballerinas in snow globes that turn around!
I think I paid $5 for this and filled it with old costume jewelry I had laying around.
She lifted up the lid and with sparkles in her eyes said, "JEWELS"!!!

I find it astonishing that someone that little can understand the concept of jewelry but throws a hiss fit on the floor if her string cheese is shredded "wrong"!

Admiring herself in the little mirror inside.

And later that day still playing with her jewels. She loved these old clip on sparklers!
I also got her a set off of Amazon of toddler clip ons because she always wants to wear Aleisha's earrings that are pierced and gets frustrated.
But, she liked the old fashioned ones best.

It was funny because Gary (on his own) had bought her several Disney dresses and Moana clothing before we left (that were all too big), and I thought she would want nothing to do with them. But, I was wrong they were a favorite.
(And sorry for all of the pics in this TR of kid stuff unrelated to Disney)! But you know I'm going to put them in here.
On second thought, there was a lot of Disney kid junk bought new so those of you with Disney stock can thank me now!
The guys were watching some Sunday football. I don't remember who was playing.

And another flea market find, an older (not quite vintage yet), Mickey watering can. She likes helping her dad in the garden.
And those shoes were a big hit. She loves the Frozen movie now and the heels light up. She wore them a lot on our vacation.
It was over 90 degrees while we were there. It's stifling.

There was one more little bag of jewels and then it was time to eat lunch and go down for her nap.

Aleisha and I went for her to get a mani/pedi while Una napped.
That evening we did some takeout, I don't remember what it was, and packed up all of our gear for phase 2 of our adventures.
Tomorrow we're off to the island of Oahu and our stay at Aulani!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

So pleased to see this report from you and to know that Gary is ok. Una is a little darling and growing up fast. Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[MickeyCB]

Yes, I can see that. Despite my daughter being an only child she got “the best of both worlds” - when she was about 4 another family moved into the building and they had a 2 and a half year old. For several years we shared a nanny and basically raised the girls to be like sisters - but at the end of the day they didn’t need to share parents so it worked well. Other friends in the neighborhood commented how well our girls shared compared to their own daughter

I think that is awesome! It can be tense when kids act like little monsters to one another.

 

[MickeyCB]

So pleased to see this report from you and to know that Gary is ok. Una is a little darling and growing up fast. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Thanks for following along and yes it is crazy how fast she is changing!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 3-we're headed to paradise!

We were all up fairly early except for Una, they let her sleep till the last minute. Our flight was scheduled to leave Sac at 9 am so we headed to the airport at around 7 am.
Gary and I took an Uber because with all of our luggage and 5 travelers there wasn't enough room in their car. We of course were there before them and sat and waited near the Hawaiian airlines ticket counter.

A very sad event occurred as we were waiting. To the right of us was a suitcase and a stroller and I hadn't been really paying attention to it because I was looking to the left at the doors waiting for the kids.
An airport security guard came by on a scooter type thing and stopped there. It was then I realized that there was what I presume was a mom and 2 children under the seats sleeping (they were covered with blankets and not even visible initially). They couldn't have been more than a 2 year old and maybe the other under 1 year of age.
He was very gentle with her. I heard him ask if she had a plan and was someone going to help her. I'm tearing up again as I type this.
She was crying and the kids were still sleeping.
Our kids came in at this time and as we went to get in line to drop our baggage I offered the mom a little money hoping it would help in some way.
I'm not particularly religious but this was one of those, there but for the grace of God moments. You've got to be grateful for what you have and the people who supported you getting there.
I am happy to report that later by chance I saw her in the airport past security and she was accompanied by a woman who by their conversation appeared to be a social service person of some type. It looked like she was helping her and the kids. I felt better after that.

We rode the monorail to the security area. Una loves all types of vehicles.
Trains, busses, planes, garbage and fire trucks and especially "helipoppers"!

We made it through security fairly easily as it's a small airport. Aleisha is the only one of us that does not have TSApreck and it would become a huge issue headed back from Hawaii.
Ready for our adventures (sort of)!

We headed to our gate area with about an hour to spare and looked for somewhere to get some breakfast before boarding since the flight was going to be about 5 and 1/2 hours. The restaurant that we like said it would be well over 30 minutes just to place our order. So against Gary's advice (he remembers this place having horrible food), we ordered some breakfast sandwiches from a quick service type deal, and he was right. They were throw in the trash bad. I probably ate half of mine. Una liked the hash browns that came with it, and she loves BB's. (Blueberries).

I forgot to mention when we checked in at the airport the Hawaiian airlines bag tag machines weren't working, and we found out our seats had been completely changed without our knowledge and they refused to do anything about it. Aleisha had paid extra to pick our seats which were to be in a 3 and 2 configuration. As it turns out 4 of us sat in the middle of the plane and Gary ended up sitting in front of us. (Aleisha did say he was the lucky one as he didn't have to deal with Una on the long flight)! Thinking about it, he didn't seem to mind all that much!
She's still under 2 so they get her a seat of her own, but have her sit on laps if she won't chill. She is a pretty reasonable traveler for her age. She's probably been on a plane at least 10 times since she was born.
Notice the guy across the isle, he does not look amused!

And how many seats does one 20 month old need?!

Hawaiian airlines serves a sandwich and beverage on this flight complimentary. It wasn't awesome but was food.

It was the first time we've used Hawaiian and I wasn't thrilled.
When I booked Seth (he flew direct from NY to Honolulu) their online booking system kept locking me out and ended up charging me over $100 more for his flight within a 10 minute time period. I contacted them and they reluctantly refunded me the money because "we do have IT problems". Ya think?! Then we had the seat problem on this flight and as I'll report later a crazy airport experience on the way home.
Oh and I forgot, on Seth's flight we paid extra so he would have an outlet at his seat as his plan was to try to log some hours of work on the long flight. He told me when we met up with him that he was so frustrated because not only didn't the outlets work, his computer shut down and he was afraid it got fried. Also there was no wifi access paid or free and he had to watch "boring airplane movies" and not earn any money!

Speaking of Seth he sent me this photo from his seat on the plane. He was going to get into Honolulu about 2 hours after we did. He was going to Uber to Aulani when he got in.

We landed in Honolulu at about noon their time and took a shuttle, bus system they have to the baggage area. I went to pick up the rental car while the rest of the crew wrestled up our piles of luggage.

This was a Budget car rental and I use their FastBreak system. It is marvelous. When I got to the rental car area there were seriously 30 people in the line for a car, but with FastBreak you go past that line and in Honolulu go up the escalator to a booth where there were zero people waiting in line. (I've used it in Sacramento with the same results).
The only problem was they insisted they had to see Julio's drivers license as he was going to be a second driver and told me I had to go get all of them and circle back around so he could show them his license.
I got us a minivan, because you know, 6 people and a car seat.

And when I circled back around to pick them up Aleisha had a cow because apparently Una is still supposed to be in a rear facing seat and this was forward facing.
So since we had to go back anyway I told her she could discuss with the lady up there because they had an entire room full of car seats.
We got back up there and apparently all of their car seats are forward facing unless you use an infant one and Una is too big for that. So I was told, "don't wreck mom"

I drove and Julio was the co-pilot and off to the 6 lane traffic that surrounds the airport we headed!

 

[Swissmiss]

Your comments about the car seat had me curious so I looked it up. Wow - rear facing until 2-4 years old? Have designs changed in the past 16 years or so, because my kid’s legs were way too long after she was about a year old (granted, she was always in the 80th percentile in height).

The problem I always ran into was that our legislation is stricter for the booster seat - required until 12 yo or 150 cm (just under 5 ft) - so I always had to travel with a booster seat because not all taxis here have one in the trunk and I never wanted to risk being forced to take the bus home because there was no booster seat. It also saved me from explaining to a child why she needed to use the booster seat here but not when we visited family.

 

[Songbird76]

I can't even imagine how the princess is going to handle that. Later in the report there is a little incident with her being jealous of me petting their dog!

When my son was born, my daughter was 1.5 years old and she was SO jealous. We had tried to prepare her....we bought her a doll to take care of. Feed, change its diaper, etc. But she was really uninterested, and when I was nursing A, E would be trying to push him off my lap, or kick him in the head. I would have to stop nursing him to set her on the floor and tell her if she couldn't be nice, she didn't get to sit next to me. It took about 2 weeks before she realized she was spending a LOT of time sitting on the floor instead of next to mommy, and she stopped. But for the first couple of weeks, my husband had leave from work and she followed him around everywhere. She wouldn't let me feed her so much as a grape, or change her diaper. She was SO mad at me for bringing this THING home and giving it the attention she thought should be hers. So daddy had to do EVERYTHING for her for those 2 weeks until he went back to work, and then her regime of ridding our house of the creature started. She learned, and Una will, too. It's an adjustment.

 

[MickeyCB]

Your comments about the car seat had me curious so I looked it up. Wow - rear facing until 2-4 years old? Have designs changed in the past 16 years or so, because my kid’s legs were way too long after she was about a year old (granted, she was always in the 80th percentile in height).

The problem I always ran into was that our legislation is stricter for the booster seat - required until 12 yo or 150 cm (just under 5 ft) - so I always had to travel with a booster seat because not all taxis here have one in the trunk and I never wanted to risk being forced to take the bus home because there was no booster seat. It also saved me from explaining to a child why she needed to use the booster seat here but not when we visited family.

Yeah, it's obviously been a long time for us too.
Heck when Aleisha was born she tooled around in the front seat facing forward!
And I have questioned the facing backwards thing because her legs already hit the back seat.
This is her in her real car seat and playing with the cushion hold downs.
Her legs are already touching.
And I asked Aleisha if she was aware Una was pulling the elastic straps all the way up her legs and she was not. I'm not sure why toddlers are always trying to come up with ways to harm themselves!

 

[MickeyCB]

When my son was born, my daughter was 1.5 years old and she was SO jealous. We had tried to prepare her....we bought her a doll to take care of. Feed, change its diaper, etc. But she was really uninterested, and when I was nursing A, E would be trying to push him off my lap, or kick him in the head. I would have to stop nursing him to set her on the floor and tell her if she couldn't be nice, she didn't get to sit next to me. It took about 2 weeks before she realized she was spending a LOT of time sitting on the floor instead of next to mommy, and she stopped. But for the first couple of weeks, my husband had leave from work and she followed him around everywhere. She wouldn't let me feed her so much as a grape, or change her diaper. She was SO mad at me for bringing this THING home and giving it the attention she thought should be hers. So daddy had to do EVERYTHING for her for those 2 weeks until he went back to work, and then her regime of ridding our house of the creature started. She learned, and Una will, too. It's an adjustment.

Ages ago as a med student I was on a medical rotation with a hematologist and he had a 4 year old and a newborn. I asked how the 4 year old was doing with the baby. Oh no problem he says it's great.
4 weeks later as I was finishing up the rotation he told me the evening before he and his 4 yr old were sitting on the couch watching a ball game and the baby wouldn't quit screaming. He said his son turned his head to him and said, "Dad, let's chop off his head and eat him"!!!!
I suggested it might not be a good idea to let the 2 of them be alone together!

 

[RememberWhen]

Your comments about the car seat had me curious so I looked it up. Wow - rear facing until 2-4 years old? Have designs changed in the past 16 years or so, because my kid’s legs were way too long after she was about a year old (granted, she was always in the 80th percentile in height).

The problem I always ran into was that our legislation is stricter for the booster seat - required until 12 yo or 150 cm (just under 5 ft) - so I always had to travel with a booster seat because not all taxis here have one in the trunk and I never wanted to risk being forced to take the bus home because there was no booster seat. It also saved me from explaining to a child why she needed to use the booster seat here but not when we visited family.

Yes. The rear facing is much safer for the kids. It has to do with keeping their neck/spine safe. It’s ok if their legs are bent rear-facing. It’s why we always bring our own seat if we need to rent a car. The rental places only ever have forward facing or infant seats. And you never know what’s happened to those seats.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I'm not sure why toddlers are always trying to come up with ways to harm themselves!

An amazing lack of self preservation skills.

 

[Songbird76]

Ages ago as a med student I was on a medical rotation with a hematologist and he had a 4 year old and a newborn. I asked how the 4 year old was doing with the baby. Oh no problem he says it's great.
4 weeks later as I was finishing up the rotation he told me the evening before he and his 4 yr old were sitting on the couch watching a ball game and the baby wouldn't quit screaming. He said his son turned his head to him and said, "Dad, let's chop off his head and eat him"!!!!
I suggested it might not be a good idea to let the 2 of them be alone together!

My vocal Jazz director in college had a 3 year old and a newborn, and one day the guy was explaining to the 3 year old about what an attic is used for. That you put things that you aren't using but want to keep for later in the attic. The kid says "Can we put baby brother in the attic until he's big enough to play with me?"

 

[TheMouseFan]

I am finally here!! I can't wait to hear about this trip! I would love to go back to Hawaii and will live vicariously through this report until I can get myself back over there!!

 

[Darstarr]

Ok, I am a tad late but that is no reason to be so harsh…

Maybe because @Darstarr was on the east coast?!
There was a hurricane on the east coast while we were in Hawaii, just sayin....

An amazing lack of self preservation skills.

And this…it is amazing the human race still exists.

 

[MickeyCB]

I am finally here!! I can't wait to hear about this trip! I would love to go back to Hawaii and will live vicariously through this report until I can get myself back over there!!

So nice that you're here! More adventures to come shortly!

 

[MickeyCB]

Ok, I am a tad late but that is no reason to be so harsh…

Aww man, you know we love you and your rain making skills!
(And glad that you're here. We haven't even made it to Aulani yet with all of the unnecessary kid details)!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 3 cont.- we finally make it to Aulani!
When we left off we were headed from the Honolulu airport to Aulani!
It was a very easy drive of maybe 30 minutes. It's located in Ko Olina.

As you exit the highway and head onto the small road that takes you to Aulani there is a gate house with a human woman that stood there and waved with her left hand to every car that passed through.
(We questioned if she could actually be an animatronic because it didn't matter what time of day or night we came through there, someone was standing there waving).
Also, little note to anyone driving by this gatehouse. There are some serious speed humps/bumps before you get to the gate. Later in the week this would become a small issue.

We rounded the bend and became very excited as we saw this wall!
You can see the peak of the resort building in the distance.

We pulled our car up under the portico to go see if our room was ready. They do room ready or not txts here like they do at WDW, but I've learned that sometimes the room has been ready if you go to the front desk.
They told us that the room wasn't ready but we could leave our things with bell service or take the car and park in the garage and get our things later.
We opted to just leave the mountain of stuff in the van and park and walk back up to the lobby. It wasn't very far away.

We walked into this insane lobby!
It definitely makes an impression!
During our stay we sadly never really stopped in the lobby but used it as a pass through on multiple occasions.

We went out onto the open area and took our first selfie at Aulani!

There was a huge line at registration but they have a separate counter for DVC members so I took a chance and went there not sure if they could help with check in status.
My new favorite CM is Noni. He was amazing! He said that our room was already assigned but not ready but he could give us our keys so when we got the txt we could go straight up. He also gave us a bunch of pins as first timers and we are celebrating buttons. He also gave Una a bunch of stickers.

He told us we could go visit the DVC area down the hall while we waited. It was awesome!
Julio gets so annoyed with how easily Una recognizes Mickey. This was a great moment! She ran right towards him!

Had to give Mickey a high five (or would that be a high four)?!

I love this one. Una has learned how to say "cheese" when someone is taking a picture (and she feels like cooperating)!

The CM's there were so nice. They took these pictures for us and as we wandered off I realized Gary wasn't with us. He stayed behind to chat and they gave him 2 really nice photos of Aulani with Mickey in them and several DVC member lanyards.
This isn't a good photo but this is what they looked like.

We still had not received our room ready txt so we went to their quick service Ulu Cafe to get something to eat as we hadn't really eaten today.
One critique about Aulani is that all of their food service areas are quite small for the size of the resort. The Ulu Cafe was super small. I think similar in size to Captain Cook's, or even smaller. There are only 4 or 5 tables outside the restaurant, none in it, and there are several tables with umbrellas closer to the beach but it was a good 88 or so temp and not very comfortable out there.
The other part that is confusing is you can order some items by standing in line in front of the kitchen, but then other items you have to get in line at the cash register and pay first. So if your party wants items from both areas you have to split up and order from each. It was an odd system and not very efficient.
We did all get the resort cups that I will show you a picture of once we get back to the room.

I don't remember what everyone got, but I do remember Gary being in heaven eating a dole whip while gazing out at the ocean!

I've run out of picture space so will continue on the next post with a few more of arrival day prior to getting into our room.