Aulani trip report

[StarWarsGirl]

I thought I would share some photos from last June's Aulani trip...

More coming as soon as I can upload them...and I'll tell you all about it.

 

[disneysince71]

Wow!! Love it!! I want to go so bad!!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

We arrived on Oahu June 15, 2012. We flew United nonstop from Dulles to Honolulu. It was about 10 hours. It was coach, but it wasn't bad by any means. After stepping off the airplane, the first thing I did was swell up like a balloon. I turned out to be allergic to the fragrant flowers So no leis for me. I had to get a fake one at Polynesian later that year. That, and one of my parents had to walk ten feet ahead of me at all times and I went on extra allergy medication while I was there.

We were staying at the Hilton for the first 6 days. We rented a car and tried to navigate. And we got lost. The map was horrible, we were all exhausted, and my parents wouldn't listen to me when I told them if we stopped at the mall, I could get a wifi signal and my iPod Touch could give us turn by turn directions. Since it was an hour before we actually made it there, they are never living this one down.

In case you were interested...
This was the view from our room...

The lobby...

And the pool...

Actually, there were several pools, but I liked the beach best. Of course, who wouldn't?

I'm not going to spend too much time on Hilton now. I'll come back to it if you all want me to. It was lovely, but also in the middle of Waikiki. So it wasn't very relaxing. But there were so many shops! More than in Disney. While there, we did the beach and pool, but also went exploring. We did Honolulu Zoo, which is a cool little zoo, and some stuff over in Waikiki. This was the first time in six years that I had stayed at a non-Disney hotel. It was disconcerting. Honestly, I wasn't wild about the first week of the trip. But then we got to Aulani...

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Now, you may have been wondering about food! I have to say, I don't appreciate Disney chefs enough. While in Honolulu, we ate out every night, and the chefs there weren't nearly as good as over at Disney at dealing with food allergies. I felt much safer getting over to Aulani, especially since I do have a pineapple allergy. While in Honolulu, we ate at Hard Rock Cafe, PF Chang's, and Cheesecake Factory. Yes I know. Why do that? Well, the simple answer was we could walk there and we knew the food was good. We also did some of the ones over at the Hilton, which of course were great. Tapas Bar and Grille was probably the best one over there.

Now, Aulani's restaurants received a bad reputation at first. Whatever they did worked to fix it because the food there was always good. Perhaps my favorite Hawaiian food while out there (besides Shave Ice, more on that in a minute) was waffles with whipped creme and coconut syrup. I got this first over at the Hilton and then over at Aulani. There are two restaurants, Ama Ama and Makahiki. Both serve breakfast, but Makahiki has characters (Stitch, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy are all on vacation with you. They can even get in one part of the pool), so we skipped that one. We don't do character dining. We went to Ama Ama. A lot. The food was really good there. So I got my fair share of coconut syrup. For dinner, we did both places. We did Makahiki twice, and I did Ama Ama once with my parents. They went one night just them and my uncle, who joined us for the trip. Makahiki has an optional buffet. I did the buffet the second time once I felt more secure with the chef there. The first time I ordered off the menu. I don't remember exactly what I ordered, only that it was really good. And the minestrone soup there...hands down best minestrone I've ever had. Good thing they had it on the buffet as well. Ama Ama is more expensive, but it's really really nice. I had Paella, a Spanish dish that features rice and seafood. It was good, of course. We went to the Italihttp://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/aulani-trip-report.863545/#post-5440248an place at the Marriot. Everyone else liked it, but I wasn't thrilled with it. I was in a bad mood that night for some reason. Probably jet lag. There's also this little place across the street from Aulani. It's a Mexican place called Just Tacos. If you ever go, it looks like a dump, it's cheap, and the food is fantastic, plus there is a ton of it. Order one at a time and let the table share.

As far as counter service went, it was your usual fare of burgers, Caesar salad, hot dogs, chicken tenders, that sort of thing. Only twice the price from WDW. And then there was shave ice...every day I ordered a shave ice. I love it. The cast members at the stand got to know my order. I'd change it up, but plain ice, three flavors. Lilikoi (passion fruit) was my favorite. They had many to choose from. Several I couldn't have because of food allergies, but the rest I could have. Coconut was another good flavor, but never get an entire coconut. Pair it with something else. The shave ices are very sweet, so be careful.

I'm waiting on photos of Aulani. They're uploading to my Google+ account so I can link them here.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

While we're waiting, let me talk about what else Aulani has to offer.

They used to have a snorkeling lagoon, which is pictured in the first picture of my first post. I understand they have since filled it in. There was not reason to have it. Why do you need a man made reef when you can swim out to a real one? Plus you had to pay to use it and weren't allowed to dive. No fun at all. I understand they're adding another pool. I'm going back this June, so I'll let you know.

They have a spa. A very nice spa. My mother went. She said it was wonderful. She came out looking very relaxed. They also have a teen spa/center called Painted Sky. I went in a few times. They have a yogurt and elixir bar in there. I found it to be geared more towards ages 13-15. I was 17 when I went and had outgrown it. Besides, who wants to be indoors in Hawaii?

Let me tell you a little about the pool. It's huge. It's like mini Blizzard Beach. There are some pictures from my first post. There are two slides, one body slide and one with inner tubes. The one with inner tubes dumps you into the lazy river. Yes there is a lazy river. You can jump in and swim or you can get in the tube. The body slide was great fun. It was really really fast and dumped you into the main pool.

Hot tub, hot tub, hot tub! There were three hot tubs, one average one and two infinity hot tubs overlooking the ocean (I promise pictures are coming!) The one infinity hot tub dumps water into the other one. You can sit there and let the water just fall on you. I was frequently found doing this.

There was a second smaller pool tucked out of the way. I found it before my parents did. This is where I swam laps.

I'm waiting on photos. Google is being particularly slow right now. More later. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to post them.

 

[coachwnh]

Sounds great so far. cant wait to see the pictures!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

And...we have photos! Aulani is on a different area of the island than Waikiki and the Hilton. It's not a very built up area. In fact, the nearest grocery store is about ten minutes away by car. There is a Marriot next door. Essentially, the government of Hawaii blasted out some beaches and made a sheltered lagoon. This is the result:

The path leads you down from the infinity hot tubs I was talking about to the beach

The small island out there is where the reef is location. I was out pretty far snorkeling, probably farther than I was supposed to be. You aren't allowed on the rocks as there is coral that you can damage, though you are welcome to get close to them. There's also a roped off area where you can't go because you'll get swept away by the current.

See the person dressed in white on the beach (really small)? It's a bride. Every day a Japanese couple would get married at the chapel next door. Actually, it was more than one per day. You'll hear the bells ring. And then my father would say, "Someone else is making a mistake!" (He and my mother have been happily married for 27 years, but he likes to be sarcastic. He is where I got my powers of sarcasm from). There were Japanese weddings every day even in Waikiki. Multiple per day. And they were typical American weddings! Bride in white and everything.

Use of the beach chairs is free.

The Marriot next door. In case you couldn't tell by all the trees blowing, it was quite windy.
And the moment you've all been waiting for...

The gorgeous Aulani!

Well, that's all for now. I will be back tomorrow to make you all want to go there some more. I will be sharing lobby and room pics, as well as some additional resort pictures.

 

[foreverbelle]

OMG it looks beautiful...and a much needed view at the moment as its overcast and dreary down here in DC this morning.....but it looks like heaven. Thank you for the note about allergies, as I hadn't even thought about that but with my allergies, this will be something to take in to consideration if and when we ever get out of there....

As Dulles is in our backyard, how long of a direct flight was it? We always wanted to know.

Thanks for the report looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Zman-ks]

Great pictures!

 

[Sumrdog]

Thank you for posting these! I really want to go someday!!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

OMG it looks beautiful...and a much needed view at the moment as its overcast and dreary down here in DC this morning.....but it looks like heaven. Thank you for the note about allergies, as I hadn't even thought about that but with my allergies, this will be something to take in to consideration if and when we ever get out of there....

As Dulles is in our backyard, how long of a direct flight was it? We always wanted to know.

Thanks for the report looking forward to seeing more.

It was 10 hours. Sometimes it can be more; it just depends on how the weather is. Back is overnight and it was about 9 hours. It wasn't too bad. United does a direct flight from Dulles to Honolulu, and for some reason, it was cheaper than stopping. So we made the trip from Baltimore down to Dulles.

If you ever get out there, make sure you pack allergy meds and up your allergy medicine a week beforehand. They have some different plants that can aggravate those of us who aren't used to them on the East coast. This was my allergist's advice to me since I'm going back in June (I know, we just went, but I wanted to go to Disneyland, and then somehow we had points we had to use or lose, so my dad said, "You wanna go to Aulani?" and who am I to say no?)

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Great pictures!

Thanks. Most of them are my mother's. She really liked being out there with a camera.

 

[foreverbelle]

It was 10 hours. Sometimes it can be more; it just depends on how the weather is. Back is overnight and it was about 9 hours. It wasn't too bad. United does a direct flight from Dulles to Honolulu, and for some reason, it was cheaper than stopping. So we made the trip from Baltimore down to Dulles.

If you ever get out there, make sure you pack allergy meds and up your allergy medicine a week beforehand. They have some different plants that can aggravate those of us who aren't used to them on the East coast. This was my allergist's advice to me since I'm going back in June (I know, we just went, but I wanted to go to Disneyland, and then somehow we had points we had to use or lose, so my dad said, "You wanna go to Aulani?" and who am I to say no?)

Well thanks for the advice, even if I am not used to it. I am allergic to everything, so its good to know for sure. And you are right, I do not think I would say no either. I am hoping to celebrate my ten year anniversary-when the time does come-over there....

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Now for some room pictures!

We had a two bedroom. We were not willing to spend the points for an ocean view. Actually, the only reason we got an ocean view at the Hilton was because we got a spectacular upgrade, but anyway...

You can see what the resort mugs look like. They're sitting on the table. Blue one is mine.

The living area. The couch folds out into a sofa bed. I don't know how comfortable it is in comparison to other DVC resorts since I slept in the bedroom and my uncle never pulled it out.

The master bed. The two queens in the other bedroom are very similar.

The view from the room. Unfortunately, we could also see the parking garage.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Well thanks for the advice, even if I am not used to it. I am allergic to everything, so its good to know for sure. And you are right, I do not think I would say no either. I am hoping to celebrate my ten year anniversary-when the time does come-over there....

Yeah, the only reason we're going back is because it's a celebration. I'm graduating. I hope you are able to make it over there; it's great!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

So now for some hotel scenes:

Check in...

Hallway leading to gift shop and villas.

Lanai that gives you a view of the pool.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I suppose you guys want to see the pool? Of course, why wouldn't you? It's the best part! I spent an entire day on a lounge chair by the pool because it was so wonderful.

The mountain is where the water slides are. The body one is an interior slide.
A couple of extra lobby pics:

I'm still going through them, so more on my next post. In a few minutes hopefully...

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Okay! We have more!

The pool. Behind it is the bar where you can get food, hang out, whatever.

Beyond the cave is where the body slide lets out. Every now and then it suddenly dumps water at the entrance, so be careful.

This is the infinity hot tub. You can see how the water falls over onto the next one. It's a lovely view, to say the least.

Many of the original members of Aulani purchased a tile commemorating their legacy. This is just one stone with all of the tiles. My family has one. No I'm not telling which one it is. Sorry, I don't give out my last name online. Safety issue IMO.

I thought that we had no pictures of the spa, but I don't know where these are, so I'm assuming it's the spa. My mother went. I have issues with being touched, plus I was not about to spend my money on that. A waste IMO. But here you go...

That's all for today, folks. I will be back tomorrow with some photos from Pearl Harbor, a destination you'll want to be sure to visit if you go to Hawaii. Up after Pearl Harbor will be several days of photos from all over the island. Because there is a Hawaii beyond Aulani. Meanwhile, if you have questions about the resort or Hawaii, I'm one of the few board members who has been, so feel free to ask!

And I promise that when I go in June-early July, I will post another trip report with even more photos!

 

[BoarderPhreak]

It's kinda funny... Disney could build a SHACK in the desert - and it would STILL look Disney.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

It's kinda funny... Disney could build a SHACK in the desert - and it would STILL look Disney.

Aulani does look very Disney. Even all the way in Hawaii it feels like Disney. Of course the characters helped with that. I have to say I was much more relaxed over there because it felt like Disney and it was more familiar.