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!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm glad you got to go to the Poly Cultural Center. The first time we went to Hawaii it was a must do and we had a lot of fun there. I didn't do the luau there (did see the big night show though). There wasn't any alcohol at their luau!

 

[MickeyCB]

I'm glad you got to go to the Poly Cultural Center. The first time we went to Hawaii it was a must do and we had a lot of fun there. I didn't do the luau there (did see the big night show though). There wasn't any alcohol at their luau!

It is something I think is worth going to if people have time on their vacation.
Online people were criticizing the PCC because it's owned by by the Latter day Saints/Brigham Young University but I'm not sure why that's an issue. The only thing mentioned at some point at each country was that by going to the PCC you help support the college education of students at Brigham Young.
Probably the reason for no alcohol.
We did the luau that I'll get to in a few posts and the night show. (That was freakin awesome!)

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 7-Let's Tonga!

Next up was, in my opinion, the best of the mini shows of the day.
We went into a raised seating area that faced a stage. The MC asked for 3 volunteers and it was so absolutely hilarious that you have to question if it was a setup. The only reason I don't think it was is that I saw the guy who stole the show later throughout the property and he appeared to also be touring.

It is a show where drums are involved and the volunteers are asked to copy what the Tonga rep beats out on the drum.
I have literally never laughed so hard at/with one of the 3 volunteers. He was so into it and could honestly get some kind of gig somewhere with his humor.
It's the guy in the middle of the 3 that was so funny.

After we got back I looked on YouTube and there are multiple videos with this particular act, though I didn't see one of the day we were there.

After that enjoyable show we moved onto Aotearoa (New Zealand).
We saw another wonderful performance here also.
Once again Una was enthralled and sat very patiently through the dancing and story telling.

Next up was Samoa. I am so disappointed that it appears none of us got any photos here.
Gary was stationed in Samoa while he served in the Peace Corps a lifetime ago and he constantly talks about his time there. I think I've mentioned this in past reports but we have hanging on our "Polynesian" living room walls, tapa cloths that his family in Samoa made him and gave to him when he left there to come back home. That's a good 50 years ago.

They had a fire making demo, and talked about the multiple uses for the coconut tree. Then everyone was invited to step out onto the lawn and one of the men climbed a tree to cut down a coconut. It was very cool.

After that, our time of visiting the islands came to a close and we were escorted by our guide to the Luau portion of the evening!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 7-Let's luau (again!)

The rest of the evening was divided into 3 parts.
The luau with some entertainment, then an hour or so for shopping, bathroom breaks (and in our case a whopper of a family brawl), and then the finale, an evening show in an auditorium.

We were escorted to the location of the luau by Jasmine where we said our goodbyes. Here, on arrival were each given an orchid lei, and then a group photograph prior to being seated at our table. It's super touristy but I'm really bad about not buying the horribly overpriced photos at these things.

After that we were escorted to our table where we each received a really cool pineapple drink. I'm not sure what was in it, but it was a bit like a creamy smoothie in texture.

I didn't take pictures of the buffet layout but these are some pics of our plated food so you can see the variety. It was a very nice buffet and didn't feel crowded to access despite the large volume of people attending. Luckily Seth kept remembering to take pics of the food because I kept forgetting.

During dinner there was a show that ran pretty much the entire time.
Between eating, getting up for food etc., I wasn't particularly enamored with it. There was dancing which I did like, but there was a lot of talking and a procession of the queen, and some children playing some role I didn't understand. (It's ok, because the night show made up for all of this.)

A photo of one of the dinner dances.
And I forgot to mention that this is a little more of a traditional luau in that they had a roasted pig that they brought up from a pit near the base of the waterfalls you can see behind the dancers. I made sure Gary saw them pulling it out, because prior to tasting the pork at the Aulani luau, he said it didn't taste good because it wasn't a real in the ground roasted pig.
He said this one tasted better.
Again

And Una's interest in all of it!

Up next, bathrooms, browsing and a brawl!
It's gonna be great they said!

 

[cgersic]

Gotta say, I love a good family brawl! I have 3 older sisters and it's a regular thing for us!

 

[MickeyCB]

Gotta say, I love a good family brawl! I have 3 older sisters and it's a regular thing for us!

Well it was a doozy!
And just love the gif!!

 

[amjt660]

Max

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 7-and the (infamous) brawl

I was asked by my buddies @Darstarr and @Tuvalu to get on with this post because they can't wait to entertain themselves with the B family's brawl story.
This is very txt heavy because who takes selfies of animalistic growling?

Towards the end of the dinner portion of our evening I got a PNC email alert that a $1050 charge had been put on my visa card from Hawaiian something.

A little history here. My credit card got hacked both in Dec. and Jan. In Dec. with 2 weeks till Christmas the Visa customer service lady said, I've put a hold on your card and you'll get a new one in 2 weeks or so. Oh H**l no.
I only have 1 credit card and it's 2 weeks before Christmas. When I complained enough she said, Oh we can send you one in 24hrs.
After the second hack event I put a notify if $1 or higher is charged, trigger on my card. Works well. I'm obviously super sensitive to incorrect charges on my card.

So back to the luau. I leaned behind Seth to ask Gary if he remembered the charge for the luau already being paid because these amounts were similar. Seth gets annoyed because we're apparently bothering him worrying about a $1000 charge and gets grouchy. You can worry about this when you get home.
Oh really?
At this time the luau is over and we have about an hour to use the restrooms, of course hit the shops and make our way to the theater.
It's sort of like a cruise line. They announced if you aren't in the theater by (I think 7:30) they shut the doors and too bad for you.

Knowing this was going to be a very long day for everyone, I told everyone yesterday and today I reminded them, that we did not have to stay for the evening show if everyone was tired as we also had an hour drive back to Aulani.

Seth stomps off to the stores, we go to the bathrooms and then to add to the fun the scooter has to be turned into the rental place before the show or it turns into a pumpkin. (You pay like a million dollars).
Gary and I head off to return the scooter.
I did take a pic of this because there was no one there to acknowledge the return of the scooter and I figured if questioned I could show a pic with a time stamp on it at least.

And like the herd of cats my family is, Aleisha, Julio and Una go shopping.

After we returned the scooter Gary calls Seth to see where he is (because we saw him 2 minutes prior sitting on a bench) and he responds super rudely. I snatch the phone and explain that he'd better never speak to his dad like that again.
We're getting close to the doors closing time at the theater. Seth has disappeared and when contacted is refusing to come meet us at the doors. I have everyone's tickets digitally on my phone and we all have to enter together.

Keep in mind we are in a heavily populated little outdoor shopping/eating area with people all around. Not a questionable part of town.
I say too bad for him, he can stay out here we've got 5 min left to get seated.
Gary sits on a stool and refuses to go in because he's worried about something happening to Seth. (He lives in NY, remember?)
He actually said something along the lines of "Ohana means family, etc. etc."

I say maybe we should all leave. Aleisha tells me Julio doesn't want to leave, they want to see the show. I have her try to talk to Seth. No go.
I am just short of screeching at this point telling Gary he needs to come along (I can't leave Gary alone as I don't know if he will wander off and us not be able to find him later). He is still dealing with memory problems.
An employee comes along and asks if there is something he can help us with. I explain in sub-screech voice that I just need a family that will cooperate. He decides his best option is to just move along.

With about 1 minute left we convince Gary to come inside with us leaving Seth outside, and as we were preferred seating we are alllllll the way down in front in lovely seats in the second row.
We go down and of course have to disturb several people as we climb over their laps in the dark to get to our seats.

Gary refuses to look up at the entertainment and ominously says, if something happens to Seth....
The show starts. It is called Ha Breath of Life, it's a really wonderful production that follows a family, their life cycle, a new child, a war.
As this wonderful show is progressing, I'm so pi***d that Seth isn't seeing it, Gary has his head down and because of Gary's ridiculous concern for Seth I begin to worry. What if he gets snatched or tries to get a ride back to Aulani with a Hawaiian ax murderer?
I txt Seth, are you ok. I'm fine. Oh good, I know he's alive.
Finally he txts, can you screen shot me the entrance tickets. Yes.
He finds us and sits down beside Gary who still won't acknowledge any of us.
The show has amazing dancers and a crew of fire dancers and for the first time I've ever seen a female fire dancer. It was just awesome.
The show ended shortly after and we made our way out of the theater with no one really talking to each other.

I would love to be the type who can just ignore all of this but I'm not wired that way. It was exhausting and really sucked to have the night end that way.
As we loaded up into the van people started speaking to each other a little and as I was the driver and Julio was the copilot we of course started talking.

You'd think with all of that the evening was shot. But through something quite silly that I did it actually took a turn for the better.
Remember the gate house right before Aulani in Ko Olina I mentioned at the beginning of this report?
Well it has 2 of the most robust speed humps I've ever seen.
Everyone except Julio and I had fallen asleep on the way home.
As we were coming down the hill towards them I missed seeing the first sign for the humps till I was right on them at a decent speed.
I yelled, "oh s**t" as I braked and the van flew up in the air! Everyone in the back certainly wasn't sleeping anymore but instead of yelling at me they all started laughing as they were airborne!

Well, we made it back to Aulani safely and if you ignore the 48 minute WWE event it was a lovely day!

Tomorrow we head to Waikiki for a special celebration lunch!

 

[Swissmiss]

So glad to know your family is just like my family

 

[amjt660]

and only family can pi$$ you off this much...

Thanks for sharing - nothing new to me - all families have their fights and then get back to being family again


Max

 

[MickeyCB]

and only family can pi$$ you off this much...

amen brother!

 

[MickeyCB]

So glad to know your family is just like my family

My daughter has always said that we solve our problems loudly!

 

[RememberWhen]

Better to get the fight out and done with than to let it fester. Siblings can remember slights from eons ago…

 

[MickeyCB]

Siblings can remember slights from eons ago…

This part is definitely true!

 

[LSV]

But what about the $1050 credit card charge?

 

[MickeyCB]

But what about the $1050 credit card charge?

Ahhh, I completely forgot to explain that, thank you!
When I booked Seth for his flight on Hawaiian airlines it was a direct 11 hour from NY to Oahu.
Coming back would be a red eye arriving 7 am and he had to work that day.
Hawaiian airlines has this thing where you can "bid" on a first class seat and if you win you are upgraded at the price you bid.
So with those seats some ridiculous price at normal fare, they are full recline, you can sleep type, I thought I would bid that amount and surprise him if we won.
I still liked him that day.

It wasn't till the day after our visit to the PCC that I realized it was Hawaiian airlines that placed that charge on my bill.
I thought he got the seat. But when he checked in for his flight he didn't.
I confirmed with my visa that it had mysteriously dropped off of my charges so even now I have no idea what occurred.

He slept upright and I saved a lot of money.
Which was just as well since I was so annoyed with him at that point anyway!

 

[Darstarr]

Worth the wait! Thanks

 

[Tuvalu]

 

[LeighM]

Sounds nicer and more polite than any family fight I've been in or witnessed - even those that happened in public LOL. We're all a bad tempered, easily triggered mean bunch and usually curse words, insults, threats, and/or fists are thrown

 

[cgersic]

Yup, I thought maybe there would be at least one fist flying!

This gif actually reminds me of an argument I had last week with one of the three sisters. I had another sister on a phone call on my cell phone and had to hold it up in the air (I'm taller) while she was trying to grab it out of my hand, with me trying to yell the story out to the one on the phone before the one there could grab it. Totally reminded me of our childhood! Glad you were all able to work it out, Seth got to see the show, you didn't get charged $1000, and that you didn't lose a bumper on the van landing! Good stuff!!