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!

 

[Darstarr]

And how did all of you get to that post before me?!

 

[MickeyCB]

It's just magician magic I say!

 

[MickeyCB]

OH MY GAWD!
I was looking for our Christmas lunch on the beach pictures, I didnt find them but I did find our room…
View attachment 674031
I am not kidding.

I found a piece of bacon and a Nyquil under the dining room table, was that yours?

 

[Songbird76]

I found a piece of bacon and a Nyquil under the dining room table, was that yours?

OMG, you crack me up!! If I had a voice right now, I'd have laughed out loud.

 

[MickeyCB]

OMG, you crack me up!! If I had a voice right now, I'd have laughed out loud.

What's wrong with your voice, you ok?

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5-Let's check out Sea Life Park

Our plans for the day were a jaunt to Sea Life Park and then in the evening our first luau!
But first we start with one of those wonderful balcony breakfasts.
And a little sass from Una who isn't interested in sitting down in that chair.
Remember this is crazy girl who the first thing she did at 10 months old was try to climb the balcony railing at our Baylake room!

Fine I'll sit.

But look Mom, it's fish! You could see the koi pond from here.

Leftovers for breakfast, yum!

We all got dressed and headed for the parking garage to get into the van and head out.
I took this picture to remind me to talk about parking fees and the spots available.
Parking currently is $37/day, no charge for DVC members. Like everything there I think it's a little steep.
But more fun is the spaces are so ridiculously narrow there were many times where I had to let everyone get out to park because even the sliding doors of the van wouldn't open without hitting a pole.
It's very odd because with this being a vacation place there are a ton of larger vehicles that have been rented and parking there.

We arrived at Sea Life Park after maybe a 45 minute drive. A fair amount of it was coast so that was really nice.
The park itself is right along the coast and I have some beautiful photos of that further along. I had heard it was very small and that was fine as we just wanted a little excursion for the day. When you arrive you are directed to a circular walkway that goes around a large tank that had some sharks in it. Gary is obsessed with sharks and he and Una enjoyed this part.

Next up were the very large turtles. Seth went and bought lettuce for Una to be able to feed them.
She seemed to enjoy this as well.

Next up we wandered over to the penguin area where a small show was about to begin. But, the employees mic wasn't working and it was close to the temperature of the sun if you weren't in the shade so I didn't stay there too long.

This photo is to show how the park is situated. There are mountains on one side and to my back when I took this is the ocean.

More Sea Life Park to come!

 

[Songbird76]

What's wrong with your voice, you ok?

I will be. There's a really nasty flu bug going around. I haven't been this sick since before I had my adenoids removed. It's way worse than covid was for me! E came down with it and developed tonsillitis....or that's what we think it was. The doctor wouldn't let us come in to see what it was because she had covid-like symptoms, and even though she did 3 selftests over a week that were all negative, they didn't want people to freak out because she was coughing. So they wouldn't do anything for her. She was out of school for almost 2 full weeks. I came down with it right after my choir competition....thank goodness I waited until after that to catch it! And A came down with it a couple of days later, so he was out of school all week and E just went back on Tuesday. This coming week is fall break, so they are both home. But I think it manifested more like bronchitis for me. I've never coughed so hard in my life. I coughed so hard one night that I think it strained my muscles? Like....it felt like my muscles were literally being ripped apart. It was excruciating, and now my arm muscles in particular are sore. And I have no voice.

My husband has been staying with his parents for the past 2 weeks because his dad just had surgery and then he had some issues afterwards and ended up back in the hospital for about a week after they had initially released him. So my husband was staying with his mom, since she can't be left alone since her stroke in March. His dad is out of the hospital again now, and they still need help, so he's staying there. I told him not to come home to germ central yet. I'll sanitize everything when we're all over it and then he can come home without worrying about coming down with the crud and not being able to help if his parents need him. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I finally do feel a lot better today physically, other than being sore, and I do cough a bit, but not as badly. I just have no voice.

 

[Darstarr]

It's just magician magic I say!

Who has the better wifi

 

[MickeyCB]

I will be. There's a really nasty flu bug going around. I haven't been this sick since before I had my adenoids removed. It's way worse than covid was for me! E came down with it and developed tonsillitis....or that's what we think it was. The doctor wouldn't let us come in to see what it was because she had covid-like symptoms, and even though she did 3 selftests over a week that were all negative, they didn't want people to freak out because she was coughing. So they wouldn't do anything for her. She was out of school for almost 2 full weeks. I came down with it right after my choir competition....thank goodness I waited until after that to catch it! And A came down with it a couple of days later, so he was out of school all week and E just went back on Tuesday. This coming week is fall break, so they are both home. But I think it manifested more like bronchitis for me. I've never coughed so hard in my life. I coughed so hard one night that I think it strained my muscles? Like....it felt like my muscles were literally being ripped apart. It was excruciating, and now my arm muscles in particular are sore. And I have no voice.

My husband has been staying with his parents for the past 2 weeks because his dad just had surgery and then he had some issues afterwards and ended up back in the hospital for about a week after they had initially released him. So my husband was staying with his mom, since she can't be left alone since her stroke in March. His dad is out of the hospital again now, and they still need help, so he's staying there. I told him not to come home to germ central yet. I'll sanitize everything when we're all over it and then he can come home without worrying about coming down with the crud and not being able to help if his parents need him. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I finally do feel a lot better today physically, other than being sore, and I do cough a bit, but not as badly. I just have no voice.

Well, that's all not good! Hope you all continue to recover nicely.

 

[MickeyCB]

Who has the better wifi

Not me with my 8.1 Mb's of speed on a good day.
Country life is grand.

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5-Sea Life Park cont'd....

A photo Seth got of a penguin before we walked away.

And another of the turtles that he took from earlier.

After the penguins we wandered over near the dolphin enclosure. They weren't visible from this side.
This is also where the beautiful coastline was most visible.
There is a walkway on the far side of the dolphin area that you are permitted to walk on. We took a few photos there.

A little aside on family dynamics. I've always been happy that Aleisha and Seth, despite their age difference get along reasonably well.
(Except for 2 incidents that come to mind when he was very small and she was a smart pants pre-teen.)
He's adopted and we all, including her, made the decision to adopt. She even named him.
But, smart mouth teen, she was in my car with her friend and we were on the way to pick Seth up from child care, he was maybe 1 or so, and she said to her friend, "we have to go pick up the parasite!" Witch!
And then a couple of years later, he's maybe 3, she's 15 or so, and they are seriously fighting/arguing in the back seat. I'm thinking you're 15 how could you possibly be fighting with a 3 year old?!
I pull the car over and move his car seat to the far right from the middle.
I pull out again and he says, "mom, "eeshas" lookin at me"! Bah!

But then after that they became buddies. When he was in HS and she was at college 5 1/2 hours away, he would call her and ask her if she would come home to take him to a concert or whatever and she would. At Disney and even this vacation, they go off and do things together, it's nice.

After visiting the dolphin area we headed over to the sea lion enclosure where a small demo was about to take place.
I got a few pics of the gorgeous flowers on the way.

Next up, sea lions and lunch!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5-Sea lions and we're hungry!

We headed over to the sea lion area where another small show was getting ready to start.
I found Una and I a small spot of shade to watch and Seth took a few pics for us.
The enclosure is quite small so they were up close.

I don't know if you can see the side eye or not?

We decided after a short while that we were both hot and hungry so went in search of food.
They have a fair size quick service with a decent amount of food choices. They also have some seriously crabby young women working there.
We all ordered and that woman was a little snippy, but after we got everything I realized an item wasn't there and went back up to the counter. Another young woman who appeared to be finished with the customer she was helping said to me, "I'll help you when I'm finished with this customer".
The only reason I didn't climb over the counter was I didn't want to be on YouTube or in jail, or have her spit in my food.
And hilariously the customer who was there said to me after the employee walked away, "she's having a bad day." And not in a nice tone.

We ignored all of that, had a decent lunch, rested up a bit and headed over to the dolphin area for a show that was about to start.
It was quite short but entertaining. I had more fun watching Una watch the show.

We decided we were ready to head out of the park and were going to be making a stop at a very interesting location!
Julio had asked if on the way back to the resort we could go to this shop that sells vintage Hawaiian shirts. He wanted to get one for the luau we would be going to that evening. It's located in Waikiki.

We said no problem, we have plenty of time and headed out.
The road again followed the coast for awhile and was entertaining.
This was a neat shot Seth got from the car as we traveled along.

I think that was of Makapu'u lookout. Not sure as I was driving and Julio was navigating.

Stay tuned as we are about to hit the mother lode of Hawaiian shirts!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5- we need some festive shirts!

We made our way into Honolulu and found the shirt shop. Julio had found it online and apparently it has a rep for a huge selection and there are celebrities who buy shirts here.
It's called Bailey's Antiques and Aloha Shirts. It's on a side street, Kapahulu Ave. if you're interested in looking it up.

We got there and all piled out to visit. This place still requires face masks and if you don't have one they will sell you one for $1.
When you step in it is overwhelming! There are 2 rooms packed like this with shirts!

There are soooo many shirts. They have new ones and some nice vintage ones.
I am annoyed I didn't take a picture of one that was hanging up high. I think the price was $5000.
I started chatting with the lady working there and she had fun sharing stories about celebrities that come there specifically to buy shirts from them. Apparently some shirts go for much more than the one on display. She also said some movie and tv episodes, I think Hawaii Five-O, were filmed there.
We got talking about what makes a shirt vintage and valuable, and one of the things she said was both the type and orientation of buttons and the button holes on the shirts.
I wish I had taken notes because I've forgotten half of what she told me.

While we were chatting I had Una in the buggy because we didn't want to let her rip in there and I could barely fit the stroller through the isles. She watched a movie on their tablet.

Julio bought a slightly older one to wear for our luau tonight and then Seth decided to get one too. His was a newer one that he felt he could also wear once he was home again. I'll show photos of them with our luau pictures later. They were not horribly priced. I think Julio's was $70 something and Seth's was $30.
Gary had already bought a few shirts at home, so he didn't get a new one. The one he will wear tonight is my favorite and a flea market find!

We headed back to the resort after that to rest a little and get ready for our fist luau. We didn't have far to travel because our luau was being held on the lawn at Aulani!!

 

[Songbird76]

Well, that's all not good! Hope you all continue to recover nicely.

This too shall pass. I'm mostly feeling physically better today. Now if I could just kick the cough, I'd be a happy camper. E seems pretty much completely better. A few more days and I'm sure I'll be right as rain.

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5- Let's luau!!
We all got dressed in our luau finery and took the long walk (down the hall and into the elevators) to the lawn of the Ewa tower.
(The one we were staying in!)
The towers are in an L shape and the luau takes place there. Reportedly if you are staying in either of these wings you can watch the luau from your room's balcony.

View from the lawn looking up.

As we exited the elevators on the ground floor we were met by CM's directing people out to the lawn. If you were preferred seating you went left, straight out to the lawn and if not, to the right down around the resort. I didn't understand at first why the difference, but apparently preferred is let in first, seated first and able to participate in the activities they have set up early.
This is what I had reserved for us but only because the seating was closer to the stage, I was unaware of the other benefits.

They confirm your name and then every (paying) person is given a kukui nut lei. The fee is $208/adult for the luau.
They don't charge for (Keiki's-children under 2).
Not sure how they can justify not giving a 20 month old a lei while she watches everyone else getting one.
When you reserve it would have been nice to be given the option to purchase a lei for the little ones.
We gave ours to Una.
And I will say out of the entire evening that followed this was my one and only complaint. It is very well done and we were glad we went to the luau.

How cute is that luau dress?!

While we were waiting to be seated we took some pre-luau photos on our phone and then as they seat you they take a photopass picture.
I saw the funniest clip on this on tiktok before we went on vacation. The comedian says they come up to you and ask if you would like to stand beside the most beautiful and in shape people on the island and have a photo of your maybe not so in shape self taken with them?
Uh sure...

Some pre-seating photos.
You can see Seth and Julio's new Hawaiian shirt choices from our adventures earlier today!

I don't know if you can see the print on Gary's shirt but it is my favorite, Mickey!

The stage is very nice and this group was playing music as people were mingling and when the activities were going on prior to dinner.

And us with the beautiful people!

They seat you and give you a welcome drink. There are both alcoholic and nonalcoholic versions.

You are then free to participate in the activities. We decided to go give them a look see.
Up next. Will Una accept a tattoo or not?

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5-The Aulani luau continues...

After we were seated we were told we could go to the activity area, so we went to check out the offerings.
They had an area where you could smash poi. This is a good activity for all ages!

They had a table with wrist lei's but they were already made up and they handed them out if you wanted one.
They had a place where you could learn to play a few notes on a ukulele, we didn't participate in that but it looked neat.

We did however opt to go to the "tattoo" station were they had several different prints on a roller of sorts and you could pick which pattern you wanted and they would roll it on you.
Una was super reluctant at first, but when she saw us getting one she opted in. The men at this table were very patient with her decision making despite there being a line behind us.

You can see it on her arm here. I would caution anyone interested in this that good news, it comes off easily with soap and water, bad news it comes off very easily. It was a very warm humid night and I noticed that it smeared off of peoples arms very easily.
That little cup in Aleisha's hand was the poi. Verrry bland stuff.

@Tuvalu this is another time my germaphobe self kicked in. I was picturing all of the sweaty arms that thing had rolled across, the bacteria picked up in the ink and then rolled on ours.
But in Rome Hawaii and all that....

After that we made our way back to the table to enjoy our welcome drinks and listen to the pre-dinner music and watch a few hula dancers.
We were seated very close to the stage which was nice, but the tables are perpendicular to the stage, so anyone not facing it had to completely turn their chair to watch the performances. During dinner it was a little awkward for guests on our side because you couldn't both eat and turn your chair. After dinner it was fine, we just all rotated our chairs to face the stage for the duration.
If I was queen of the world I would angle all of the tables in an upside down V facing the stage.

It was set up in wedding style in that someone came around and told tables when they could go to the buffet.
When I booked this, it was still in the format they had developed after they reopened. At that time they offered bento boxes instead of the buffet. By the time we got there they had reverted to a buffet. I didn't get a photo of the buffet itself but Seth took photos of his plate so you can get an idea of the food choices. There were plenty!
The tables where we were seated also offered all of the beverages you would like, alcoholic or plain.
The green drink in the upper left was the nonalcoholic welcome drink. Not a bad idea to have completely different colors to differentiate.

After a wonderful dinner we all settled in for the entertainment portion of the evening which we all enjoyed!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5-Disney Aulani luau continues!

As it started to get dark and dinner was finishing up, the evenings main entertainment began.
I just realized that I didn't take a tremendous amount of photos, more just enjoying the show. It ran about an hour and a half.
There were a male and female that took on the storytelling roles.

But, before the more traditional Hawaiian stories and dances took place there was an unexpected visit from my favorite!
Mickey!
He can really hula!
What I thought was awesome is they invited people up to dance on the lawn and this man, bottom left was having a great time!

Una absolutely loved the show and I'm quite proud to say seems to appreciate Mickey as much as her gamma does!

I thought it was great having that little Disney moment at this luau held at a Disney resort. Prior to his arrival and after was all more of a traditional (or what we've become used to) luau.

I don't remember what this group represented but they were phenomenal in both their dancing and costuming.
You can see the storyteller off to the right in these photos.

I don't have photos and wish I did to show you all, but there were several different dances and costuming throughout the night. There was a dance performed only with the men that was phenomenal. The one above and that one brought down the house!

There were of course amazing fire dancers to close out the show.

I was very pleased to see that the whole family enjoyed this very much. As we were walking out Gary told me he heard a man complaining about the cost of the night, that it wasn't worth the money he spent. But Gary pointed out that there were so many things that were included with this that he didn't understand his complaints.
Activities at the beginning, all of the drinks you felt like drinking, an excellent buffet and service at our tables, and of course an hour an half show. I agreed with him that I thought it was money well spent. (And remember I am the cheapo who saved $3/day on parking)!

We had decided prior to our trip that we were going to attend 2 completely different luaus during our vacation, for scientific research you know! That review will follow in a few days.

Now it was time to exit. Earlier in the evening Seth and I were talking and I said how convenient it would be to leave here and just be able to go straight up to our rooms. He said, yeah us and about 300 other people. He was correct.
At the end everyone channeled into the hallway that takes you to the one elevator bank for the Ewa tower.
But, somehow we ended up at the front of the pack. I think it was because at the end each of the CM's that entertained in their various costumes posed for photos with anyone that wanted to, and that held a lot of the guests back.

We got up to our room and everyone pretty much crashed again.
Tomorrow's plans weren't set in stone yet, and it was a good thing because our little Una got a booboo.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Tomorrow's plans weren't set in stone yet, and it was a good thing because our little Una got a booboo.

(But hoping it was just a standard toddler one )

 

[MickeyCB]

(But hoping it was just a standard toddler one )

It was, created a little concern at first but it all turned out ok though.

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 6-busy day at Aulani!

This first part is txt heavy, sorry.
We weren't in a rush to move out today. Julio and Aleisha had wanted to go to the Bishop Museum and the rest of us didn't care one way or the other.
We had our usual coffee on the balcony and some breakfast. I was inside and heard a commotion outside and they brought Una in crying. Apparently Julio was putting sunscreen on her and pulled on her arm, drawing it from elbow to wrist.
Seth said Julio almost cried out there when it happened!
It was difficult to tell if it was her shoulder, elbow or wrist that hurt but eventually we sorted out that it was her elbow. There's a thing a lot of you have probably heard of called nurse maids elbow. We were trying to sort out if this was a possibility and how big a deal it was because she quit crying but each time we tried to get her to move she protected it and whimpered. We called around to a lot of local urgent cares and found one that had both orthopedics available and took their insurance and was only 10 minutes away.

So plans for the museum were put on hold and Aleisha, Julio and I, loaded Una up in the buggy and headed for the van.
Somewhere during the trip to the van Una pushed herself up in the buggy and all of a sudden quit fussing.
When we reexamined her arm, no pain and full range of motion!
We looked at each other and said well, the problem seems to have fixed itself.
So I suggested they just go on to the museum and Una and I would stay.
There was a small moment of fussing as they left but soon she was fine as we wheeled back in.

We decided to order food and went down to pick it up and we were super excited to find out that Moana was going to be meeting people right in our path. So we were first in line and had a very minimal wait. Sorry for the volume of pictures but it was a cute fun moment. Una was getting a little tired as her nap approached and a little shy,
but then perked up as the meet and greet progressed.

Then Moana knelt down and Una became more comfortable.

She showed Una her necklace. When Una wrings her hands like that she wants to touch something but knows she shouldn't.

But Moana told her it was ok and best buds were formed!

After that Una was jabbering away! Maui went that way she told Moana!
At least that was my interpretation of all of the gesturing and gabbing!

It was a wonderful encounter and we really appreciated the time she took with Una!
I sent pics to Aleisha and she was excited for Una but did say she was sad she wasn't there to see it for herself.

After that we got our food and went back up to the room to eat and get Una ready for her nap.
She had a mac and cheese from the groceries we bought. It's a fave!

We ordered Gary a crab cake blt because he loves crab cake. He didn't care for this at all because of the bacon. He did of course eat the Mickey ice cream. Seth had the chicken club and I had some leftover pizza flatbread I had from the day prior.
I put the pic of the order in here because I forgot to take photos of the food.

I absolutely suck at putting this kid down for her nap. She was crying and crying and Seth went in and realized I hadn't given her her bink. 2 minutes later, all's quiet.

The good news is it appears I was forgiven when after the nap I provided the peanut butter puffs she likes for a snack.

But before she woke up, Seth was working in the room and said he would keep an eye on the monitor and Gary and I went down to the store to pick up a few items.
We saw this hat that he liked and he was hemming and hawing and I told him to take it as it was the last one. You can always return items on Disney properties with tags on and a receipt but you can't buy it if it's gone!
A perfect example of this was they had a Koa wood postcard of Donald Duck that Seth saw on the first day and didn't get it and they never had it again during the week.

I love that the Mickey shape is actually wood!

You can see Gary's lanyards here loaded up with pins ready to trade. They had several places to trade, the stores, down by the pools and in the DVC area. There were set times and he learned when they would be there an headed down!

I put this in here to remind me to mention that Duffy Bears are huge here. They have big displays of them, clothes, bags and ears.