Trip Report Magical Aulani Honeymoon June 2017

We're back!! Here's part 1 of a super-long TR. Whenever you see something in caps, it's not me yelling, it's just making an important point.



We begin when the alarm goes off at 3:15 in the morning! The only thing that I would EVER get up that early for is either Disney or Hawaii. This time, it’s both!! We’d made it to the airport, were checking our bags and through security by 4:45. Once, we had an early morning flight to Vegas and the security line was super long, so we decided earlier was better this time. In the concourse, there was a HUGE line for McDonald’s, which didn’t open till 5 am. We got in the much shorter line for Dunkin’ Donuts (yum), which also didn’t open until 5 am. After that, we got coffee and just waited for over an hour. I read some magazines. My aunt gives me dozens of her PEOPLE mags every few months, which makes my trips go by quickly with all that easy reading!

We boarded for our 8 am flight to LA. It was a quick flight on DELTA. They are re-doing terminals at LAX so there wasn’t much to do in the terminals. We waited in another super long line for Starbucks (but it killed time since we had two hours here) and called both our mommies to thank them for their generous contributions the week prior to our honeymoon fund.

Edit to add: we’d registered for this trip on Disney Honeymoon Wishes and many of our family friends donated through that. We pulled the money out about a month before we left but we got it within a week of requesting it from the site.

We boarded the plane to HONOLULU and discovered they had little tv’s in the back of each seat! My husband had brought two pairs of headphones (I didn’t bring any because I wasn’t expecting a movie viewing opportunity.). One of his pairs of headphones are the kind that are BOSE and fit snug over both your ears. Not earbuds. I wear hearing aids and I can’t hear much without them in. Earbuds don’t work for obvious reasons. Dear Hubby just offered his up, I didn’t even have to ask!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTT!!

I watched: Definitely, Maybe (one of my faves with Ryan Reynolds), the Sandlot (where I mouthed every line in the movie) and managed to squeeze in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The plane ride was a little over 6 hours and some of these movies were shorter than 2 hours.

Flying in, we flew right over Aulani. Aulani’s easy to spot from the air, not because we’d been looking at so many pictures, but because it’s the ONLY HOTEL with a very distinctive look in Hawaii. So many other hotels just threw up hotels and put a luau and tiki torches there. But when Disney does something, they go ALL IN AND DO IT RIGHT. INCREDIBLY SO.

When we landed, we followed signs to baggage claim. Honolulu is partially an open-air airport, which is pretty cool. Each baggage claim was partitioned by Alphabet letters and a little wall, so you couldn’t see multiple ones at once. We found bag claim 8 and our luggage. I lost my cheap Mrs. Luggage tag from Michael’s….guess I need another Disney tag now.

We had pre-ordered a shuttle to Aulani through SPEEDI SHUTTLE for $16 each. So for two round trips, we paid about $80. And we were able to pre-tip online, though not sure how I feel about that concept. We found the Speedi Shuttle people quick, all wearing red Hawaiian shirts and everywhere! They walked us out to the van and off we went! The drive was about 40 minutes on a Saturday afternoon about 2:30 pm.

THE COSTCO AND TARGET PEOPLE MENTION ARE ONE EXIT BEFORE AULANI. SO YOU HAVE TO GET ON THE HIGHWAY TO GET THERE.

(just thought that was important to mention).





We pulled in to the beautiful Ko Olina resort area and up the little hill to two LARGE CANOE houses looming. I’m posting picss, but they don’t do it justice. Aulani is truly incredible!! We had done on-line check in so the women outside gave us our leis, a map, room key and showed us around the lobby. Amazing service! Our room was 278. The lobby is on the 3rd floor. We had paid an extra $15 a night for the poolside view, and we didn’t regret it for a second! We had a great view of the lazy river and the sailboat! We were standing on the balcony and STITCH WALKED BY!!!!!!!!!! I shouted “Aloha Stitch!” and he looked up and waved. I’M SO IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so impressed with how Hawaiian and nice our DELUXE STUDIO VILLA was! WE HAD MICKEY HEAD TOWELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s the little things that make Disney amazing!The bathroom had a door separating the toilet and sink/shower area. The best part of the sink was a little shelf above the sink where we could store our brushes, toothbrushes, makeup, etc.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

We changed pretty quickly and then headed down to the pool for some fun!!!

We grabbed our wristbands at Kawale Korner (the only towel place we saw to get the bands). Before jumping in the pool, we spent a few minutes wandering around the Waikaloale Valley, getting the lay of the land---where Ulu and Off the Hook were located, etc. The beach cove was INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! The town of KoOlina had actually made 4 lagoons way before Disney bought the land on one of them to make Aulani. The beach is public, but because of tourists, most locals stay away.

We spent about an hour in the Lazy River and the adults-only infinity pool, over looking the ocean! We got our refillable cups at ULU café (there are 3 refillable stations around the resort, so for $18, it was totally worth it!) The designs of the cup are Hawaiian designs, but they do have character cups available, too! DH had a wrap and I had a delicious chicken curry sandwich. After we ate, we found a photopass person by a wooden STITCH and got a few cute pictures.

We went back to the room for a few minutes. We decided to head down to OFF THE HOOK for some late-night drinks. Well, it was 7:30, so not that late, haha. But it felt like it to this Colorado girl who’d been up since 4 AM!!!!!!!!!!!! Off the Hook is right by the big pool and looks like a great Old Hawaiian shelter. The wait staff was really friendly and efficient every time we were there.

We ordered Edemame and drinks. I had a coconut mojito and Steven tried a cider. We finished and used our room keys which doubled as charging keys, to charge our food to the room. We pretty much did that all week. We could charge everything, just had to stay within budget, lol! The castmember at check-in said the charging limit before your card is charged is: $2,000 and they send you a notice when you get close to that.

It’s Disney and Hawaii so nothing was cheap. All the alcholoic drinks were: $13.50 a drink. The non-alcholoic drinks were about $7.50.

We were asleep by 9:30, having been up for 22 hours.

Coming up, the best reason to get up at 2:30 on vacation.

 

[Joeamc]

Following along! Im heading to Aulani in July with my wife and Kids. Loving the Detailed TR!

 

[LisaBelle]

Very excited to read your report. Hawaii is on my bucket list and being Disney obsessed would love to stay at Aulani. Looking forward to more.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

Thanks! I hope the report is helpful for those planning trips or dreaming about it! We had to plan and save for two years, but it was soooo worth it!!

Following along! Im heading to Aulani in July with my wife and Kids. Loving the Detailed TR!

Very excited to read your report. Hawaii is on my bucket list and being Disney obsessed would love to stay at Aulani. Looking forward to more.

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

I woke up at 2:07 am freezing. Looked in the closet for a blanket, but couldn’t find one. In the dim light of my cell phone, I also couldn’t find the front desk/mousekeeping number. We weren’t that far away from the lobby, so I took a walk. The CM said she’d send one right up and I waited outside our door for MK so as not to wake DH.



WHEN YOU GO TO AULANI, WAKE UP AT 2 AM, go down to the lobby and take AS MANY PICTURES AS POSSIBLE. It’s incredible, but more awe-inspiring and way easier to get good pics without anyone around at 2 in the morning. A wonderful consequence of cold and jet-lag. Also, when I got back to our room with the blanket, DH informed me there was ONE HIDING IN THE OTTOMAN. I forgot ottomans had hidden corners!! We went back to sleep and woke about 8 for our 9 am breakfast at AMA’AMA.

This whole experience was feeling “surreal but nice!” (Bonus if you can name what movie it’s from---a Universal one, lol). I wore my fun little flip flops with cocktails on them and a dress to breakfast. We arrived early and drank some strawberry water. They seated us right away, as close to the water as possible!! We had an incredible view! It was a gorgeous day and we were watching the sun hit the water and a bunch of dedicated athletes work out through Aulani’s fitness classes!

We ordered POG MIMOSAS. For those of you that have experienced AKL, you’ll know what POG IS…. (passion fruit, orange and guava!) It came with real orchids on it!!

They were delicious!

Our food came out very quickly. DH ordered the breakfast platter with a side of hash browns (which were amazing!!) I had the macadamia pancakes with the most delicious poached egg I’ve ever eaten. The egg was snaked and poached perfectly!!

We were brought a special dessert for our honeymoon buttons! It was a tiny chocolate moussee with a chocolate congratulations on it!

After breakfast, we had about a half-hour before we could check in at LANIWAI, the SPA!!! We just relaxed in our room and got ready. We wore bathing suits, because they had the relaxation spas. At Laniwai, you can check in an hour before your treatment to use all the facilities.

We checked in just after 11 for our 12:00 couples treatment. The spa is in the other tower on the first floor. (We were staying in the EWA tower). The spa check-in has a cute little gift shop with some very nice spa gifts. A spa attendant came and walked us down the transformation corridor and asked us to pick rocks.

Mine was “Listen” and DH’s was “Dream.” In our marriage, I’m known as more of the dreamer and he’s the amazing listener, so our stones were fitting, as we could both work on those things. The locker rooms were incredible and they even gave us shoes! We used the respective locker rooms to change and wear super comfy robes to walk to the hydrotherapy garden. There are SEVEN different waters falling in the garden! We had fun trying them all. We also soaked in the relaxation tubs and the covered relaxation room. The spa is built off the other side of the tower, facing away from the waikaloie valley, so it’s incredibly peaceful and you can’t hear a sound!! We enjoyed relaxing outside on the lounge chairs. The garden was full of trees so lots of nice shade. We were doing the couple’s massage and we had two great therapists. I don’t remember the woman’s name, but the man was Derek, and he was awesome. We were whisked to a massage room and they started the exfoliation treatment. DH had never had a massage before and does a very physically demanding job daily. So this was good for him. In our spa room, we found a hidden mickey!! You’ll find it easily in your massage room if you look!

After the exfoliation, we washed off and then enjoyed an hour-long amazing massage!! Putting us at great peace and relaxation. In our trance, we walked out to the relaxation pool again and I put my hearing aid in a robe and enjoyed the tub. We finally left Laniwai because we wanted to take a spin in the lazy river. I grabbed my robe and got dressed.

THEN I REALIZED I’D LEFT MY HEARING AID OUTSIDE!!!! I FREAKED OUT BECAUSE NOT ONLY ARE THOSE BABIES 1,200 EACH, THEY ARE MY LIFELINE TO THE WORLD!! I ran back outside and a wonderful young man named Matthew who works there was holding it.

MY HERO!!!!!!! YOU BETTER BELIEVE I LEFT HIM A COMPLIMENT!!!! I SAID THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINDING IT!!! YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!!!!!!!! HE SMILED AND SAID “we found it together.”’ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

I'll upload some photos tonight! For some reason, my computer can't find all of our photos from the trip even though I saved them to Costco's photo book site!

 

[bee]

Wonderful start! Can't wait to see your photos (if/when your computer allows you to post them ).

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

It turns out I'd never uploaded my pics to my computer, just hubby's, so I had to transfer! Here are some pics! Thanks for your patience!!
The first pic is the view of the other tower and it's giant mural. The murals on each tower either represent the female or male Hawaiian strength. The other pic of the tree and lazy river is the view from our second floor room. There's a pic of our door I love the woodwork!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

The large pool in the daytime, the lagoon at sunset, and two pics of the lazy river!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

After Laniwai, we looked around both gift shops. One is the “store” with many Disney and Aulani products, mugs, hats, shirts, toys, and a cool case for food, etc. The other store is: Halu Mani, which has more upscale products such as: art, fine jewelry and really nice clothes. We just drooled because we knew we’d be back later in the week. I’d been eyeing a Disney Aulani charm for my pandora bracelet.
We changed quickly and had some time in the lazy river before meeting a friend who lives in Hawaii at 4 across the street at Monkey Pod. I am absolutely CONVINCED there are hidden mickey’s in the lazy river, I just didn’t find them. The LAZY River is incredibly well done (as everything Joe Rhode and Disney is). We loved all the mishcivious waters looming around us and we found at least a dozen hidden Menehune throughout the week. The amount of flowers and fauna all around the lazy river provides some nice shade in parts and a nice view. But it makes the valley beautiful, with all that greenery.
There’s not a ton of space in the Waikalole Valley but the way the Imagineers crammed 7 pools, a lazy river, two slides, three hot tubs, Keiki Cove and a magificient and large Menehune bridge, and Rainbow Reef is nothing short of impressive. AND THEY MADE IT ALL LOOK HAWAIIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!We were wearing auqa sox because the pavement is HOT. We stood in line for the tube slide (it was the shorter of the two lines) and really enjoyed the tube slide. YOU HAVE TO BE BAREFOOT FOR THE SLIDES. So we just held our shoes on the way down.
We got out and cleaned up as it was time to meet our friends.
We walked over to Monkey Pod. I’ve noticed on reviews I’ve read and on other blogs, people talk about crossing the busy street to Monkey Pod, the Coffee Shop (ISLAND GARDENS COFFEE) and the ABC Store but there’s a wide sidewalk from Aulani and a crosswalk. So crossing the street is nothing to be worried about. We were early, so we browsed in the ABC store, thinking of what souvenirs we’d want to take home on Friday. We found our friends Betsey and Joe right outside MonkeyPod. I know Betsey from being in the front row for …..a lot, but not too many, shows by our favorite Rock and Roll band, THE REFRESHMENTS (you know them as the guy that wrote the KING OF THE HILL THEME SONG AND BANDITOS IN 1995/6) THEY ARE NOW CALLED ROGER CLYNE AND THE PEACEMAKERS. They have several albums and are Rock and Roll with a southwest influence. (The band is based in Phoenix). Betsey is supersweet and at a show in Mexico, I fell and cut my hand and she helped me clean it up. ❤
She moved to Hawaii in Dec of 2008 and met her husband, who’d grown up in Hawaii in 2009. Monkeypod had some nice music and their drinks on happy hour weren’t that great of a deal (like $9 instead of $13). So at least it was a deal and we saved 8 bucks! DH had cider and I had a Lilikioe vodka drink. It was sooo yummy. If you go, the garlic fries are totally worth it!! It was great to catch up. Our hubbies had a lot in common, so it was fun to get them together. There was music on the patio. Betsey is a nurse, so she had a super flexible schedule and offered to take us around on Monday afternoon. We were honored and touched. We didn’t rent a car and Betsey said she’d pick us up at 3 the next day and take us up the coast of Oahu.
We all walked back to Aulani and Betsey was standing on the lainai, overlooking it all and said: “You are so lucky!”
WE ARE, IN SO MANY WAYS. Anybody who gets to stay at Aulani is already incredibly blessed, but DH and I know we are blessed with so much and I try not to take it for granted.
We said goodbye and walked to Makahiki, for our dinner reservation. We had to wait a bit, but the lobby of the restaurant was spectacular, telling the story of the Harvest. There’s even a darker waiting room that has a starry night sky! Makahiki means “harvest” and of course, the harvest theme was amazing!! We waited about 20 minutes and were seated outside. DH ordered a Long Island iced tea (or that’s what we’d call it on the mainland) and I had a cucumber coconut drink. I liked it but don’t like cucumbers enough to order it again. It was blended and wasn’t overly cucumbery, but not my favorite. The buffet was A SCRUMPTIOUS SPREAD. As all of Disney’s buffets are. Hawaii is wonderful in that they do a fabulous job catering to the Japanese population and the mainland American population. So the buffet had many Japanese foods, such as: rice, miso soup, sushi, other raw fish, etc, and then things we’re used to such as: prime rib, chicken, pesto Alfredo (which my DH kept raving about all week and went back for more). We really enjoyed the meal but the DESSERT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! They had mini-chocolate lava cakes, which were very thin and mostly lava when you cut into it! I had three. Hey, I’m on vacation!! There was a chocolate mousse that was delicious, too.
DH was very good about wearing his honeymoon button, and the waiter brought us a surprise mini-red velvet cake. It had a white circle on the top. I took a bite and said: “this sugar mousse is delicious!!” My sweet hubby spit out his drink from laughing so hard and said “usually, we call that frosting.” I was on such a high note from the fantastic day, weather, great food and company, that I was super silly. We left Makahiki (charged it to room) and Dh said “I’m incredibly full.” Ummmmm yeah….
It’s only 8:30 pm…now what?

PICTURES:
BETSEY, JOE AND DH AND ME,
THE DESSERTS AT MAKAHIKI
THE LAVA CAKES THAT WERE PURE LIQUID CHOCOLATE ON THE INSIDE
MY CUCUMBER COCONUT DRINK

 

[WisDisneyFan]

I'm all caught up! Congratulations and I'm excited to read the rest. I looks so nice and fun!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

SUNDAY NIGHT, CONTINUED

We walked over by the pools and had seen in the Daily Iwa that they were having Star Gazing tonight. We walked to the Pau Hana room where we register and discovered it was $40 EACH!! It was something we’d planned on doing but didn’t know there’d be that much of an extra charge for an hour-long presentation. We decided to do it and waited about ten minutes for the astronomer. It was a clear night as a small group of us were led down past the pools on a lanai near the beach. There was a super giant telescope and chairs. The astronomer was great and oriented us in the night sky. It was a very clear night. We saw the sign of Scorpio, which really is known as Maui’s fishhook pulling stars out of the ocean. I have always been interested in astronomy, so I thought this was cool. We saw Jupiter’s moons through the telescope AND the rings of Saturn! The telescope was THAT GOOD. We could see craters on the moon and were able to use our iphones to take a picture of the moon through the telescope. We could also see the mountain range on the moon! Hawaii is the only Polyneasian island where you can see the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper in the same sky. It’s incredible to see both.

Walking back after the talk, people were still in the pool. The cast member said “summer pool hours open till 10!!” The slides and lazy river close at 8. It was almost 10 but we sure weren’t going to forget that for the next night!!! While walking back, there were very few people around, so we really were able to get great pics at night of Aulani. The cup refill station across from Rainbow Reef and Shave Ice shack is open till 10!

Getting back to our room, we found a beautiful lithograph of the characters and an offer to attend a DVC presentation this week and receive a $100 room credit. WELL WHO DOESN’T LIKE FREE MONEY???????????? Also, we are super interested in DVC and sent away for the video two years ago.



We woke up on Monday and had been sleeping great, thanks to the fan and the extra blankets from the ottoman and mousekeeping! We grabbed an early breakfast at ULU (DH had a wrap and I had yogurt, granola and oatmeal. Both were delicious. We refilled our cups, found chairs (Which were never that hard to find, we only really needed 1 for our stuff). We found the chairs by KaMaka Grotto and jumped in. It’s an infinity pool and they did a beautiful job designing it. The rockwork here made me feel like I was in Ariel’s grotto. I was looking for Sebastian and Scuttle, but alas, they aren’t Hawaiian. An amazing view, just sitting at the edge of the pool, stealing kisses and smiles, overlooking the ocean. We checked our towels and then I saw Stitch walk by, so I followed him and we got a great pic!

We signed up for Snorkeling at Rainbow Reef. You have to sign a waiver each day for Rainbow Reef and they have to punch your key and band. DH had never been snorkeling before. RR is big, but can only hold so many people at once, obviously. We didn’t have a line, but again, had to be barefoot. You could store your shoes in a shoe caddy they have at the Reef.

THERE ARE SIGNS SAYING “THE WATER IS COLD.” So yes, it’s super cold, compared to the heated pools, but your body acclimates. Once you enter, you’re standing on pebbles while you adjust your mask. You have to swim only with your arms, no kicking. The fish were BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! SO MANY different varieties, yes, Dory and Nemo are there! They have windows where you can wave to the people watching in the cave in Wakailoe Valley! There are a few Menehune in the water and two not-so-hidden Mickey’s. We did the lazy river twice and then went back to our room---it was being cleaned, so we headed to the LAVA SHACK to refill our cups.

EACH TIME I REFILLED MY CUP, I filled it with WATER. It was a great way for me to stay hydrated on the trip. We knew we’d be buying the cups, so I saved valuable sovineir space by not packing a water bottle. Headed back to our room and saw a DVC guy and signed up for a time slot for Tuesday at 3. We changed and we grabbed shave ice in the Waikalole Valley. They had about 20 flavors to choose from. You can get three flavors for 4 bucks, including the condensed milk. DH and I both tried the condensed milk and really loved it! Adding mickey ears is cute, but not worth the extra dollar for us. Watched snorkelers in Rainbow Reef while eating. Grabbed an Aulani shirt from the store next to the lava shack. It’s longsleeve and made for the water so I was really excited to have something to keep the sun off my fair skin.



At three, a friend I’d met through my favorite rock band (The Refreshments of Banditos fame in 96—now called Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (check them out! www.azpeacemakers.com), picked us up and drove us to this beautiful spot up the Waiane coast. It was GORGEOUS!! Green mountains on one side and the vast, beautiful, glowing ocean on the other!! Betsey surprised me with a bowl of cherries (cause that’s a band reference) in a carved wood turtle! So sweet!! She first took us to this beach where we walked out on old lava rocks to a circle opening in the rocks. She put her stepstool down the opening and we climbed down. It was tricky to get down there, but with the stepstool and a towel, we managed. It was easier climbing out than getting down! Once we were in this hole, the ground was covered in coral and waves came crashing in!! It was stunning and beautiful!





Betsey then took us up to her in-laws. They were nice and showed us their garden: They can grow EVERYTHING: pineapple, papaya, mango, bananas, lilikoi, coconuts and a few other delicious things! Betsey took us to another rocky beach that had a rock hole shaped like a heart! The hole was really deep and way more powerful than the first cove, but it was super cool to watch from above. Then Betsey drove back to a hidden beach near her in laws on the coast and we got out and saw A GIANT TURTLE!!!!!!!!!! WE were so excited!!!!

She dropped us off and said she’d see us Friday. Once we got back to the room at Aulani, we discovered a cake had been delivered to our room!!!! It was the amazing mocha cake that said “Happy Anniversary!” This was our honeymoon, but our one-year anniversary is at the end of the month! It was about 7 pm, so we rushed to the beach to grab some late sunset photos, unsure of how they’d turn out. The last photopass person was about to leave but she was happy to take some pics. It’s almost dark in these pics, but they still turned out amazing because the Photopass people know what they are doing!!! After she was done, we walked out to the point where UNCLE et. Al, film all their promos and got some nice pics of Aulani at night! Walking back to the hotel, we went in the AMAAMA gate and walked up the stairs. We saw a big crowd and couldn’t figure out what it was. Then we realized it was the FIREPIT AND UNCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are 2 uncles but THIS WAS THE ONE IN THE PROMOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS OF THE TRIP!!! I could lean over the rock wall and get fantastic pictures, while hearing the second half of a lovely Hawaiian legend. Uncle is as charismatic and as entertaining as he is in the promos. He moves around a lot, and like any great storyteller, he uses his hands and knows how to command an audience. When uncle was done, I realized I was STANDING RIGHT AT THE EXIT WHERE HE HAS TO WALK OUT, SO I HAD MY camera ready and said “can I bug you for a photo?” And he was so sweet and polite and I said “we’ve been watching your promos for a year and love the shaved ice one last week. He said he was craving”mango, pinnapple, lilikoi shave ice”

We then stoppen by ULU CAFÉ to grab pastries for the morning, since we were leaving early for Pearl Harbor. Steven grabbed a maple bacon donut and I grabbed a cinnamon roll.

We decided to hit OFF THE HOOK for dinner. Their kitchen serves until 9pm. We grabbed a strawberry guava drink (steven) and I had a yummy coconut citrus drink that’d I definitely want to try again!! We ordered a plate of nachos to split and all the toppings came on the side! Which was preferable because we like different toppings, so it was much easier to split this way. It was so yummy and nice, just sitting outside, looking at the stars and the lights of the Waikaloe Valley and chatting with eachother. It wasn’t a cheap meal but it wasn’t too bad. With tip, our two alcoholic drinks, and nachos were $40.00. When we were done with the nachos, we realized UNCLE WAS GOING ON AGAIN IN TEN MINUTES SO we ran over there and grabbed some footstools. We heard a beautiful legend about a princess and a fisherman. This story involved us singing! Fun!

We were off to bed to get ready for an early morning in Pearl Harbor.

Here are some pictures of our adventures with Betsey!! The UNCLE pic is on my phone, not my computer, so I'll try to upload it tonight!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Enjoying your honeymoon report! What a great way to get the best of both world - Disney and Hawaii Enjoying your photos - Aulani looks so beautiful!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

HERE are some pics from Rainbow Reef

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

Being a teacher with the world's shortest summer (only seven weeks, ahem), I have one adventure after the other planned. Tomorrow's anniversary trip to see our favorite rock band in Arizona (the Peacemakers, of course!!) starts at 6 am, so I'm going to post the rest of the trip now!

We woke up at 5:45 for a 6:30 pick up and we were down there first. Many others showed up and they needed three small buses to take us all. The ride to Pearl Harbor was in rush hour traffic and took almost an hour. It was a pretty drive and the driver told us a lot of information about Hawaii and Pearl Harbor that I didn’t know. Once dropped off at the visitor’s center, the driver distributed our tickets. It was SO NICE knowing we didn’t have to wait in a long line and pray we got tickets. We looked around at some gift shops and a beautiful memorial near the flag pole about all the ships that were lost at sea during the WAR and the men on them. Our call time was 8:45 and we had to be there 10 minutes early. We watched a moving 30 minute video about Pearl Harbor and the War in the Pacific. Then we were shuffled onto the boat to take us to the memorial. The boat ride was about 7 minutes and we only spent about 10 on the memorial. The actual memorial is very small so they funnel people through, but they do give you time to stop and reflect. It’s incredible to still see the USS Arizona down in there, 76 years later. I can’t believe it’s still bubbling oil after this long!! We rode the boat back and met our bus to go back to Aulani.

I feel like Pearl Harbor is one of those once-in-a-lifetime visits but it’s so important to see just once.

Once back at Aulani, at 1130 am, we got off the bus and walked straight across the street to ISLAND COFFEE, right next to MONKEYPOD. Island Coffee is SOOO DECADENT!! Has so many different flavors and their shop has so many cute little foods, coffee and cups, water bottles, etc. They have coconut peanut butter! I didn’t buy any but it looked yummy!!!! I knew I’d be buying something on Friday (which was payday!) DH ordered a yummy green tea frozen chai and I ordered a frozen coconut mocha! One of the best drinks I’ve had in a long time!! We walked back to Aulani, prepared for the pool and hit the lazy river. I saw Donald and Daisy right after we got in the Lazy River and I jumped out and got in line, only to be told the line for them was ending (I LOVE DAISY, sad) but I’d be third in line for SHELLie MAY!!!!!!!!! Seeing as how I never go out of my way at Epcot, I waited. I was pretty upset that Shellie May didn’t have a photopass photog with her, as every other character we encountered during the week had one. So I met her, but don’t have a pic to prove it since I was in my swim gear and had left my camera back in the room!

Aulani was crowded during this week but it wasn’t packed, we always knew where to find chairs, etc. We did notice it was way more crowded on weekends.

We grabbed a quick nap before our DVC presentation at 3. We walked over to the other tower and met our DVC guide, Darren. It was a private presentation and he walked us through all the numbers. He said right now they are selling Poly and Aulani. Although, there are ways to get another home resort if you want one. We didn’t know too much about DVC and we know someday we’ll buy into DVC, so the presentation was very interesting and informative, without being overwhelming for us. We decided no this time because we have a few other questions in our lives, like “are we really going to live in an apartment forever?” Someday, we will end up DVC members, just a matter of when. The DVC presentation was awesome because it was only 90 minutes AND WE got a $100 room credit! Whoo hoo! We already had a $300 credit from the time of year we were there, since we took advantage of their deal last fall. After the 90 minute presentation, we went back and changed for our AMAAMA dinner.

We checked into AMA AMA and I had to go to the bathroom, I asked the hostess and she told me they were by the LAVA Shack. I thought that was odd, for a signature restaurant not to have bathrooms nearby???!!! I ran there and then came back and we were seated at a great table overlooking the ocean! So peaceful, romantic and perfect!! They informed us they don’t do the couples dinner that was advertised on their menu posted online a week before we arrived. Even with everything we ordered, it turned out to probably be about the same price. We both ordered salmon. The mustard glaze on the salmon was decadent. Not spicy. DH had amazing coconut rice and I had a delicious baked potato with chives. I don’t remember what alcohol we had, but it was delicious, too. For dessert, they brought us out a ….



CELEBRATION MOCHA CAKE!!! Which would have been amazing if I hadn’t cancelled that one and requested it on Monday instead. We received the Monday cake but I didn’t want the one on Tuesday because we wouldn’t have had enough time to eat it all before we left Friday. So the waiter took the cake off the bill but we did end up with 2 mocha cakes to eat!!! The waiter gave us a box to take the cake back to our room. Due to this, we had generous slices at AMAAMA, overlooking the ocean.



After dinner, we ran down to the ocean to grab more sunset shots. Since our dinner Ressie was at 6, we managed to make sunset pics on the beach! We think they turned out better than Monday night’s! We hurried back to the room to change into swim gear and have some night swimming! We managed 3 laps in the lazy river at dusk and then spent about an hour in the large pool, enjoying ourselves and the fact WE ARE IN HAWAII!!!!!!!!! The infinity pool was crowded at night but we stopped in there for a second so we could overlook the ocean. Night swimming was way less crowded than the day swimming.

We left the pool and headed back to the room about 9:30. DH really wanted a coke (we didn’t refill our cups around dinner) and I told him the gift shop was open till 10 and he ran down there to grab tea.


WEDNESDAY AM

We were able to sleep in as we had a reservation for the Makahiki character breakfast at 9:30, so we were able to sleep in---a nice change from yesterday! We made it down for the breakfast and got in line for Mickey pics before we were seated. It was a long line and the cast members were super friendly and we enjoyed talking to them. After Mickey pics, we had to wait about thirty minutes and then we were seated inside.

IF YOU ARE SEATED INSIDE, LOOK UP AT THE AMAZING GLASS DECORATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT ARE THEY???????? HARVEST FOOD!!!!!!!!!!! SO IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S A REALLY LONG AND BEAUTIFUL SCULPTURE.

The food was amazing, big mix of Japanese and traditional American food. I will say that the French toast is far too near the soy sauce and the syrup is on the other side of the room from the French toast. Don’t ask how I know that but I grabbed another plate with the correct topping for my food. One thing I was INCREDIBLY DISSAPOINTED IN was that you had to purchase your Mickey pics separately from the photopass package we had planned to purchase. It was 35 for all of our Mickey pics. I wouldn’t do that again the next time we come, just to save money. While the breakfast was a feast, if I had to choose, I’d choose dinner there instead of breakfast. I think just for the food selection. It seemed as if there was more of a variety at dinner than breakfast. We had PassionfruitOrangeGuava (POG) mimosas and they were delicious. We also had a very sweet server. The characters came around, Minnie and Pluto. It was super loud in Makahiki, louder than dinner, because every fifteen minutes, a CM with a microphone would have all the little kids dance a conga around the restaurant. Really cute but the woman had a SUPER SUPER LOUD microphone and it hurt my ears! I felt bad not super enjoying the breakfast, but between having to pay for the photos and the noise, I was a little grumpy.

I had called the character hotline early in the morning and found out that Moana was meeting at the garden at 11:45. THE TIMING WORKED OUT PERFECTLY. We finished breakfast at 11:35. We walked over to the line for Moana—WE WERE FIFTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 AND ONLY HAD TO WAIT ABOUT 5 MINUTES !!!!!! Can you feel the Disney magic??!!!

Moana is SUPER COOL!!!!!!!!!!!1 She was very nice and we discussed the stars and we took great pics!!!! She took a great pic with DH as Maui and then told him to “Swim away” and took one of us girls. When we were done, the LINE WAS HUGE!!!!! As it is for any princess (she’s a princess in my heart, no matter what Disney calls her!)

We changed into our suits and spent some quality time in the ocean lagoon!!! The waves were perfect for body surfing! It was easy to find chairs to lay our stuff. We saw a couple in their wedding attire and watched them take pictures for a bit. We just relaxed and enjoyed swimming in the ocean and looking out at how stunning the water was and how surreal it was to be in Hawaii! After the ocean, we grabbed pool chairs by the Adults-only pool near ULU Café and headed to Rainbow Reef. We were actually there at FEEDING TIME (I think it was around 1:45 but you can always double-check if you want to see it!) The fish were quite literally on a “feeding frenzy and it was fun to watch!” It was amazing how little the fish care about people. Of course they are used to it but I had fun laughing that they’d swim right under me. As I mentioned, there’s a shallow, pebbled entry that allows you to get your mask situated, etc. and some fish were super brave and swam up on that, right by the arms!

The lifeguard was actually swimming in the reef, each time we went in. At one point, I was fiddling with my mask, because too much water had leaked in and I could tell he was watching me very closely. I was impressed that the lifeguard was so attentive. While there are MANY, MANY lifeguards at Aulani, many are also very young (early 20’s), and we saw several young ones on the lazy river that were chatting with each other and not paying attention to the kids that were constantly swimming under people or STANDING on their inner tubes, or diving or doing other super dangerous things!

After Rainbow Reef, we checked our towels and hit the lazy river for three our 4 spins. Then we decided we needed: COFFEE SO we changed and off we went to ISLAND JAVA for our Green Tea and Coconut Mochas. NOW, THERE IS A CROSSWALK AND SIDEWALKS between Aulani and Island Java, so there’s nothing to worry about when crossing the street. After grabbing our drinks, we looked around the ABC Store a bit and realized it has EVERYTHING for a DVC unit, in terms of cooking, etc and lots of fun and cheap souvinears. On our way back to the room, we stopped in the fancy gift shop at Aulani and I bought the Aulani charm for my Pandora charm bracelet. We noticed the LINE FOR THE LUAU already at 4:05 pm!! So DH, who likes to be early or better yet, first, for everything, was a bit worried. I told him he could go down and wait in line but he didn’t want to. I took a quick shower and got ready super-record-setting quick for the luau and we walked down and had to wait for about 45 minutes. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

WAITING IS BORING. THERE’S NO WAY AROUND IT. I know we have to wait in line at Disney and waiting doesn’t bother me, especially at WDW but waiting can be boring. I do love how it forces you to talk to the person you’re with or make new friends. DH and I enjoyed waiting together and we watched them set up the amazing amount of food! We walked in and were seated in the dead center of the room. (I can’t think of a Haunted Mansion joke but once I realized we were “Dead center,” I started thinking of one!) Anyway, the luau had some games and Mickey Pics (again, you have to pay for them separately) and you can also include pics of your family with the luau cast. We bought them, mostly because DH really wanted them, I think. Another one-time-only purchase, I think for our family. We ordered Shirley temples for drinks but they did have a bar. For some crazy reason, I forgot that a buffet meant you could go back as many times as you wanted, so I was trying to sit down in a tiny space with three plates, haha! One, salad and fruit, two—meats and three---desserts!! The food was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! I loved the prime rib, DH loved the chicken, all the Hawaiian food was delicilous!!!

The luau had a great story---brother and sister from the island and told stories of their ancestors. The music and dancing was incredible and it was so neat to see Hawaiian dance and a peek at their traditions. The luau ended at 7:50 and the entire cast was out there for pictures afterwards. We took a couple, then ran back to the room to get ready for NIGHT SWIMMING!!!

We hung out in the hidden hot tub for awhile and then moved to the big pool where we just sat in the 2-ft area and chatted. Looking up at the stars was incredible at night. I just felt so appreciative and greatful for DH and our wonderful life together.

We didn’t spend much time in the pool because we got out and changed. We grabbed our gift cards to go pay off some of our tab (who KNOWS WHAT THE BILL IS NOW???????? We’d been keeping a semi-running list in our room of what we thought we’d charged) and we got down to the desk and realized: WE WERE RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were off by about $40 bucks, but that’s cause of the luau pictures we didn’t account for. We’d brought enough money for what we thought we were going to spend on this trip and plenty of extra because it all adds up fast!!! We were lucky we didn’t have to break into the extra money!!! Also, the $100 credit we got for the DVC tour was phenomenal!! And went a long way!



DAY 6:

We woke up super early because we had the dolphin cruise leaving at 7 from Aulani. What’s for breakfast you ask? CAKE, we had to eat more of our two cakes!! Delicious and probably NOT nutritious! The van arrived and whisked us and another couple up the Waikaloa coast (where we were with Betsey on Monday) and to the harbor. We boarded the boat---it wasn’t very crowded…maybe 40 people. They said we didn’t have to go far to see the dolphins. AS SOON AS WE LEFT THE MARINA, here came about 50 dolphins!!!!!!! I’m not kidding!! It really was 50!!! We saw them JUMP AND SPIN many times!! What a treat to watch!!! We were there probably 45 minutes and it was super amazing!! The water was so incredibly clear, we could see them swimming under us, the dolphins were splashing each other!! Steven had never seen dolphins before so he was especially excited!! The boat then took us up the coast a ways, so we could see the beautiful mountains from afar!! It was fun to see from a boat everywhere we’d been with Betsey on Monday!! The boat served a yummy lunch of burgers, kettle chips and brownies.

The whole cruise lasted about 2 hours, we were whisked back to Aulani by 11:30. WHERE WAS OUR FIRST STOP????????? An early morning and this Seattle native needs….COFFEE… so off to Island Java we went again!!! We bought souvinears at the ABC store so we could pack them at night instead of trying to wrestle them tomorrow after we’d checked out! I bought a few tiny Tiki gods for Dad and DH for stocking stuffers. I plan ahead! We returned to Aulani for a nap and enjoyed the delicious strawberries that were delivered to us on Tuesday. It was about 3 pm and we decided:

POOL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 First stop, the tube slide!! There was always a long line for this slide when we were there and we were excited!!! It was all in the dark, so we screamed like banshees going down, it was really fun!! We then floated the Lazy River for awhile. While we were floating, we decided we wanted an early dinner so we could maximize some night swimming. We kept floating and then got out and hit the OLELO ROOM for happy hour!!!



The OLELO ROOM IS STUNNING. IT’S full of all sorts of wood carvings of nouns and their Hawaiian name written underneath! I loved it, definitely a spot I want to return to in the future!! I don’t actually remember if they had happy hour specials on drinks. I know they had it on food! We ordered the sliders and garlic fries. To drink, I had a yummy vodka and grapefruit and Steven had the lilikoi margarita! Both were delicious! We were seated outside, watching them set up for music and I saw ….

DONALD!!!!!!!! SO I GRABBED MY CAMERA AND RAN OVER THERE. CM said it was his birthday, so Donald and I started dancing. Spontaneous character meet and greets are my favorite, especially when I have my camera nearby!! We enjoyed our little dinner to the tune of some Hawaiian music, then hit the gift shop so I could grab the Japanese charm and super cute pineapple earrings!

We dropped off our merch in the room…..MORE NIGHT SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were down there by 7:20, so we were able to hit the tube slideand the lazy river before it closed at 8!! The tube slide was fun but I’m looking for the light at the end to signal breath holding and I couldn’t see light because it was DUSK!!!!!!!! I WAS fine, it was just super fun and exciting! After the lazy river closed, we spent a long time in the hidden hot tub. A parent came in with about 6 kids after we arrived and let the kids dive in the hot tub and splash all around, when the parent could see there were three adult couples already in there. I know, I sound like an old lady. I get Disney is for kids, but I was just frustrated about the parent’s lack of respect for other people around their family. One thing life teaches you: IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU. The parent continued to let their children be wild in this very small hot tub (not that small, but too small for proper swimming and diving) so I finally said “there’s a great big pool with plenty of room for jumping over there” and pointed that direction. The parents got the message and left. About ten minutes later, we joined them in the big pool. We didn’t even notice them because it’s a BIG POOL meant for jumping and splashing DH and I loved hanging out in the cave in the big pool, especially at night!! Very romantic!!!! After a bit, we hit the infinity hot tub just for a second to steal some ocean kisses and be appreciative of the ocean and stars!!!!

Sadly, once we left the pool, we had to go pack to come back to Colorado. ☹ Packing is a very delicate dance and we had a lot of cramming and organizing to do. When we packed, the suitcases were about 45 pounds. We only packed one bag each, and I did have a little extra carry on that I could use to help with the weight but we were still overweight by about 3 pounds.... I wonder how much we’ll get charged at the airport?

As I was packing, I saw a giant thing wrapped in tissue paper. Why? I opened it and found the PURPLE AULANI CUP I bought on Monday!!!!!!!!! Wait, now I have two cups, since I’d bought one at the store today!!!!!!!!! Ooopppppsssssssssss……….. guess I really liked that cup!

Friday morning, we woke up super early (MORE CAKE FOR BREAKFAST) and were able to jump in the lazy river and the innertube slide before 11 am. We were able to spend about 2.5 hours in the pool before grabbing our luggage and checking out. We dropped our luggage in luggage storage. After we checked out, we went to return one cup, walked over to ISLAND COFFEE CO (I have an addiction to their frozen coconut mochas) and we waited on the lobby lainai for our friend BETSEY. It was a cloudy day, but it was still amazing, looking at the ocean and just enjoying the peace and thinking about our marvelous vacation.

I will say WE BEAT THE TOWEL SYSTEM and never had our stuff taken away. Point of personal pride .

BETSEY’s a night nurse and had worked Thursday evening but said she’d slept from 7-11 AM so she was feeling good. She was so sweet and our first stop was the Dole Plantation. We didn’t spend much time there, but it was great to check it out and we grabbed some pineapple soft serve. Then, we headed to the North Shore which was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! We stopped at a little cove where the tourists don’t know about and saw….TURTLES BODY SURFING. There must have been food nearby because the turtles were crashing onto the rocks with the waves. They did this for about 15 minutes (probably longer, we only watched for about 15 minutes). It was a sunny and gorgeous day! We then stopped by the BANZAI PIPELINE. The waves weren’t small but we were there June 9, so they weren’t incredibly large, either. January is when the legendary waves come, I hear. We stopped by TURTLE BAY RESORT, where they filmed FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. BETSEY and I could quote the whole movie. Turtle Bay was lovely, but one pool! I’m pretty sure Disney has ALL OF HAWAII BEAT ON RESORT THEMING AND their pool game!!!

We stopped by a food truck neighborhood (that’s the only way to describe it) …so many different kinds of food trucks. We didn’t have cash but Betsey ordered shrimp from the legendary GIOVANNI’S SHRIMP TRUCK and I tried one. Worth the journey. On the way back, we noticed WAIMIA FALLS. WE at least saw the turn off even if we didn’t stop. It’s one of the excursions Aulani offers and one we were interested in doing but we just didn’t want to cram ourselves so full of excursions this trip.

Betsey dropped us off at Aulani about 5:30 and we said Aloha. DH had to grab his mickey ice cream bar (per tradition at Disney parks) and then we headed to OFF THE HOOK for some drinks and nachos. We sat at the bar and chatted with the nice Hawaiian waiter. We said it was our honeymoon and he offered best wishes. We talked about the Hawaiian culture and how well represented it is at Aulani. We know the natives ARE PAID BY DISNEY but we also know they wouldn’t go out of their way and spew goodness on how well Joe Rhode and team did in creating Aulani and tying it into the culture if it wasn’t true. The waiter surprised us with the CHOCOLATE BALL DESSERT and it was extra yummy, knowing it’d be our last night!

We then grabbed our luggage and headed to the airport via supershuttle. Sad, but we knew we’d be back someday! At the airport, DH and I had a miscommunication which led to a crying me checking my bags at the counter. I think the agent saw I was so upset, she didn’t charge me for my bags. I didn’t plan it that way, but I appreciated her kindness. Through security, DH and I made up and then we stopped at Starbucks and browsed in the gift shop for a bit. Being 9:30, everything was closed in the airport. We charged our phones and waited and waited to board.

The flight was headed to Seattle (my hometown) from Honolulu, and it was only about a 5.25 hour flight. Not too bad. I slept most of the way, but I’ll definitely invest in a neck pillow for my next trip! At 8 am in Seattle, we were super tired, but managed to grab breakfast. If you are EVER IN SEA-TAC AIRPORT, STOP BY BEECHER’S ON THE C CONCOURSE!!!!!!!!!1 IT’S DELICIOUS AND A LOCAL LEGEND IN SEATTLE. So many different kinds of cheeses and cheese samples!! It also has coffee!!! If you’re ever in Seattle, the local Beecher’s is at PIKE PLACE MARKET. Higly recommended.

We arrived back in Denver about noon, hit the grocery store, realized it was 102degrees and wished we were at Aulani. The only thing that made us not miss Hawaii were our wonderful memories and the fact we were 150 days away from WDW.

THANKS FOR READING. I HOPE I DIDN’T bore you with too many details!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

I loved how all the characters were in Hawaiian attire (as they should be!) There's a pic of the Olelo Room, pics of the dolphin cruise (pretty hard to catch the dolphins jumping in the photo, unless I was taking a video). The pic of us dressed up is at the AmaAma dinner. Pluto was at the Makahiki breakfast!

 

[WisDisneyFan]

Awesome trip report! Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing!