Trip Report *COMPLETED* Aloha...E Komo Mai to Our Aulani Adventure!

Hi Everyone!

Based on the feedback we received during our last trip report, which you can read here, we have decided to write a trip report chronicling our first visit to the Aulani resort in Ko 'Olina, Hawaii. Not sure if this is the place for such a report as it's not WDW-based but figured I'd start here and if it's moved, so be it.

We just returned yesterday afternoon after a terrific eight days in paradise. Amazing to think how quickly things came and went, especially considering we made this reservation using our DVC points seven months ago, but the visit will be one we look back on for a long time. We didn't put together a pre-trip report or anything so here is a short preamble before we dive into all the sunny details.

So...for those of you who read our last report, you may recall that our last visit to WDW was not supposed to happen. Instead, we were 48 hours away from traveling to Honolulu for our second visit to the island. We were booked to stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, not Aulani. Less than two days before we were to take off, hurricane Lane hit the Hawaiian islands and our trip was wiped out. Our last minute scrambling allowed us to salvage our vacation and resulted in an unexpected return to the World. That trip was fantastic but we couldn't help feel lousy about missing out on Hawaii.

It was something we looked forward to for months so when we returned from WDW, Kelly and I decided we would try it again, this time focusing on using our DVC points to stay at Aulani. Our plan was to look at an April 2019 visit and as the seven-month window crept closer, we kept a close eye on the availability of a standard view studio. The day finally came that we were able to jump on the DVC site and we were most pleased to snag a studio for a trip from April 6 - 13!

We were pretty jacked up but felt a little guilty revealing to our moms, Ally and Deb, that we were heading back to Hawaii. They were so excited to be going to the islands with us before the hurricane and you could tell they were disappointed not to be included on this trip. Alas, we had a long-awaited beach vacation to look forward to and the added bonus of some Disney magic!

This report might not be as detail-oriented as a typical WDW visit, but we took a lot of pictures and explored the resort as best we could while we were there. Hopefully it gives you a good look into what Aulani has to offer.

Mahalo in advance for reading along. Kelly and I are excited to share our latest trip with you!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

We spent the next few hours ripping through as much as we could in and around the pool and made sure to take one last trip down the slides.

It felt like the last opportunities we had to enjoy the water went by in the blink of an eye and before we knew it we had to pack up our stuff and head to the front desk to grab a key to our courtesy room.

The lobby was very busy at this point. A lot of people were just arriving from the airport to check in. The lines were massive. Luckily I was able to use the DVC line to bypass most of it and pick up a key to the room. Kelly and the girls were getting the smaller bags we needed to get showered up and dressed.

The room we had access to was a regular hotel room within the Ewa Tower. The room itself was beautiful. Full of natural light, two big beds, better counter space around the beds with more device plugins than we had in our studio. And of course, the Disney touch...

As we only had 45 minutes for all of us to shower, change, do our hair, put on our makeup, etc, we got straight to business. We had quite the efficient process strung together and somehow we were able to pull ourselves together just as our window of use was coming to a close. It was closing in on later afternoon and we knew we had quite a few hours to kill before heading to the airport around 800pm for our 1000pm flight home.

We made our way back to the lobby, returned the key to the front desk and picked up the rest of our luggage from bell services. We thought it was a good idea to load the car now and not have to do it just before we left the property. It also gave me a chance to ensure the car was fully charged, which it was, so we were all set to wrap up the trip.

With our luggage stashed in the car, we decided to kill a little time and wander around the resort. Almost immediately outside of the main building we ran into a CM who was nice enough to take a few family photos. For iPhone pics, they turned out very well!

After our quick stop we continued around the grounds for a few more final memories.

We also found a nice place to grab a seat and enjoy the sun.

We debated on where to eat before heading to the airport. We thought of heading offsite to grab dinner at another restaurant but since we had such a great experience the night before in the lounge, we decided to make it back to back nights.

We sat out in the sun for a bit longer before starting to make our way down to grab a bite to eat.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Once we had enough sun we walked down the stairs and grabbed a high table inside the lounge for our final Aulani meal.

We recognized the servers from the evening before and both Kelly and I planned on having the exact same thing, well minus the three beers.

The girls had their eye on the macaroni option that was on the happy hour menu but the weird one, Lennon, wanted only macaroni noodles, no cheese, no nothing. Not sure if she’s really my kid or not but as long as she ate her bland meal of gluten and carbs then that was fine with me.

I once again ordered the wings, Kelly got the sliders and since we took pretty much the same photos the night before, I didn’t think it was necessary to do it again!

Ella’s macaroni, the good kind with the cheese and flavour, was excellent! Lennon’s plain noodles looked just that, plain, but she ate every last one.

We took our time eating as we really had no place to go. If or when we ever return to Aulani, I will most definitely be stopping by the lounge on multiple occasions for a wheat ale and the Korean wings.

We finished up, paid our bill, and made our way to the beach for one last look at the sunset.

On our way to the beach we stopped by a communal fire pit to listen to one of the local CMs tell stories about Hawaiian culture to resort guests.

This particular story was about the background of Maui and his family routes. It was fabulous, and the CM told it with such humour and passion that everyone around the fire was definitely engaged.

Made me sad that this was the first and only time we took the time to sit around the fire and listen to these highly entertaining tales of island culture.

We said thank you the CM for the wonderful story and finally hit the beach for one last look at that perfect horizon.

It just so happened that a wedding was being set up on the beach and it looked like it was going to be quite the shindig. I have no doubt this would have cost a pretty penny but that view is pretty priceless.

The girls kicked off their sandals and went for one more run in the sand. We must have hung out enjoying sunset for about 30 minutes before the time had pretty much come to say goodbye to Aulani. I couldn’t leave without a few parting shots.

We slowly strolled through the pool ground one last time before winding through the lobby towards the parkade.

We loaded into the Leaf and set off for the airport. We had to drive through the front lobby entrance to get back to the main road so we all took a final look at what was a fantastic home for the last week before hitting the streets to head back to the airport.

The sun had set at this point and we had a perfectly calm evening with the stars shining as we drove the freeway back towards Honolulu. The traffic was essentially non-existent and with no issues with the battery, the drive was as smooth as could be.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, parked the car in an area we had been instructed by our Turo host, and hailed our luggage to the terminal.

Upon checking in and finding our gate, we had a bit of a wait until our first flight took off. It had been a long day to this point and with a long, overnight flight to get back to Canada, we knew it was going to be a tough evening.

I will say, even with the long flight schedule, I was looking forward to getting home to jump on the couch and watch the final round of the Masters.

When our flight was finally ready to board, we had one last cool experience before finding our seats towards the tail of the plane. The girls were invited into the cockpit to chat with the pilots and see how cool and amazingly complicated it is to fly a plane.

We spent about 5 or so minutes chatting with the crew and asking questions before shuffling back to take our seats. The flight was going to be about 5 and half hours and I think all four of us were asleep before the flight took off.

That definitely helped to make the flight to Vancouver so much easier. Went by in the blink of an eye.

Upon arriving in Vancouver we had just enough time to clear customs, find our next gate and grab a very light breakfast. The distressing part about the layover was finding out that poor weather conditions had forced the start of the final round to begin hours earlier. I wasn’t sure I’d get to watch any of it live by the time we were home but at least we were almost back.

The flight from Vancouver to Edmonton was only about an hour and unfortunately Ella got ill during the flight. Couldn’t blame her, it had been an exhausting day. She survived and we made it home relatively unscathed. I checked my phone to see that Tiger was coming up 18 about to win another green jacket which, even though is an amazing comeback story, bummed me out a bit.

It took a while for our luggage to arrive on the belt but once we had it we jumped in our car and 40 minutes later we stumbled into our house.

We were home and the trip was sadly over. We had an absolutely amazing visit to Aulani. Kelly and I were so pleased to be able to experience Disney in paradise and the kids are already on our case to go back sometime soon.

I want to thank each of you who has been following along and commenting as I’ve been posting. I do plan on doing a post with final thoughts but I feel very fortunate that we’ve had so many great friends following along with our adventures.

It took me longer than I planned to get through this report but it’s been a blast sharing our experience and reliving this great trip!

I’m also looking forward to being able to start sharing our plans for our marathon trip I’m January so do stay tuned for that!

Thank you again!

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for sharing Matt. It sounded like such a fantastic trip

 

[MinnieM123]

EXCELLENT TR !! If I win the Lottery, I'm heading for Aulani!!

So glad that you and your family had a wonderful vacation, and memories to cherish for years to come.

P.S.: What a nice opportunity for the girls, to see the cockpit of the plane and chat with the pilots.

 

[krisri18]

Thanks for sharing your amazing trip with us! I think you may have just added Aulani to everyone's bucket list!

 

[Duckberg]

Liked that your report was the entire trip from getting there to getting back. Being able to relax Disney Hawaiian styles without the WDW crowds. Those pictures on the beach, that's something. You have a NICE Family and your smiles tell all.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Thanks for sharing Matt. It sounded like such a fantastic trip

Thank you very much for reading! We had a great time.

EXCELLENT TR !! If I win the Lottery, I'm heading for Aulani!!

So glad that you and your family had a wonderful vacation, and memories to cherish for years to come.

P.S.: What a nice opportunity for the girls, to see the cockpit of the plane and chat with the pilots.

We highly recommend Aulani to any Disney fan wanting the Disney touches, without the park hustle.

I hope you’re able to check it out for yourself sometime soon!

Thanks for sharing your amazing trip with us! I think you may have just added Aulani to everyone's bucket list!

Thanks so much for reading!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Liked that your report was the entire trip from getting there to getting back. Being able to relax Disney Hawaiian styles without the WDW crowds. Those pictures on the beach, that's something. You have a NICE Family and your smiles tell all.

Thanks for reading and for the very nice comments! We had a blast. I love WDW and I can’t wait to get back for our next visit, but Aulani has skyrocketed up my list of favourite places. We will be back at some point

 

[Tuvalu]

It was so much fun to take a “vicarious” Hawaiian holiday with your lovely family!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

It was so much fun to take a “vicarious” Hawaiian holiday with your lovely family!

Thanks for reading along! You’ve provided so, so, SO many vicarious vacations for us, glad we could return the favour now and then!

 

[Darstarr]

I loved it all! I laughed, I cried (from all the laughter), I completely enjoyed it!
It brought back so many wonderful memories of my family’s trip to Aulani.
Aloha and Mahalo!!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

I loved it all! I laughed, I cried (from all the laughter), I completely enjoyed it!
It brought back so many wonderful memories of my family’s trip to Aulani.
Aloha and Mahalo!!

You are too kind! Thanks for reading along and for the great comments. Aulani is a beautiful place. So pleased to have had the opportunity to visit and share with all of you

 

[Rista1313]

That trip looked amazing, and the girls will never forget that time you almost ran out of electric for the car. And that's all what it's really about, isn't it? Making memories.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

That trip looked amazing, and the girls will never forget that time you almost ran out of electric for the car. And that's all what it's really about, isn't it? Making memories.

Hahaha! Kelly will not let me live that moment down no matter what. Truth be told I just bought our own electric car and I’m hoping I’ve learned my lesson thanks to our Aulani trip!

 

[Sillysidewalker]

Really enjoyed following along. I’m amazed how every picture everyone was smiling!!! We don’t get many of those pictures so enjoy.

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Really enjoyed following along. I’m amazed how every picture everyone was smiling!!! We don’t get many of those pictures so enjoy.

Thanks so much for reading along and thank you for the kind words! We truly enjoyed every second of the trip...ok, Kelly and the kids probably didn’t have as much fun as we were running out of juice in the car, but I’m glad to see it was portrayed in the photos!

 

[Doc Disney]

Thank you so much for sharing!!!
I picked up many great tips for our trip to Aulani next year - if you have any more tips feel free to send them my way

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Thank you so much for sharing!!!
I picked up many great tips for our trip to Aulani next year - if you have any more tips feel free to send them my way

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys have a great time during your Aulani visit!

As for tips, Kelly would likely say the biggest thing is to rent a car (if you are renting) that will not get you stuck on the side of a Honolulu freeway.

Before we left we should have done a little more research on dining options outside of the resort. At least looked into the neighbouring resorts to get some ideas. We made due by driving to several different places but there wasn't an abundance of offsite restaurants, say in the MonkeyPod area, for you to choose from.

Outside of that, my best tip is to simply enjoy the Disney experience in a different way. Park vacations are always nonstop, at least for us, so this was a much different way for us to get our Disney fix. The service is still amazingly Disney, as are the surroundings and the details. Just sit back, relax and enjoy!

 

[fractal]

Great report Matt! Thanks for sharing. You have a beautiful family!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Great report Matt! Thanks for sharing. You have a beautiful family!

Thanks so much for reading along! I really appreciate the kind words.