Honeymoon in Hawaii Trip Report! Day 4 completed 3/9!

[MotoWifey185]

Hey everyone! I want to write this TR to both help me look back and remember how awesome it was and to help anyone that plans to go to Hawaii (either to Aulani or any other place on Oahu).

Since we didn't stay at Aulani, this isn't very "Disney" but I figured it would be helpful as far as other activities you may want to do while there! I wish I had been able to read more about our honeymoon before we went! We cut it very close and finally booked and bought everything about a month before we went! Planning the wedding meant the honeymoon was knocked back in priority I guess.

At first our honeymoon was supposed to be at Aulani. Well actually we had always planned on going to WDW until we decided we wanted a more relaxing vacation and September isn't the best time to go to WDW as far as weather. We also thought about DLR and staying at GCH, but we weren't really excited about that idea since we've been there so many times. It would not have stood out as our Honeymoon. So I got an email from Disney promoting Aulani and I checked it out. We were pretty set on that but once we checked further into it we just couldn't afford it at the time. We found a resort over half the price and I will say that we were not disappointed. We loved it 100% and had an absolute BLAST.

Cast:

My DH (Matt) & I (Ashley). He's 24 and I'm 22. I took him his first time to DL in 2007 and he has loved it ever since! We had AP's in 2010 but haven't been able to renew them since. His favorite ride is California Screamin' and he loves the corn dogs from the red wagon. My favorite ride is BTMRR and I love the taco salad from Rancho Del Zocalo.

Dates:
September 16-22, 2012---We left the morning after our wedding!

Locations:
Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu! We stayed there for 4 nights.
Waikiki Gateway Hotel in Waikiki. We stayed there for 2 nights.

Highlights:
TURTLE BAY & it's 7 miles of trails to walk/hike.
Renting mopeds!
Grand Circle Tour of Oahu
Snorkeling

I got tons of pictures and tips. If you have any questions I may be able to help you as well since I've done so much research. Just let me know! So let's get started. I hope you enjoy my TR! Oh yeah and by the way.. I did start this TR over on the DLR side because I was going to add a DLR trip we took right after Hawaii, but no one seemed interested so I'm bringing it to where it can be used.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Day One:
-Part 1... Wedding was a Success! Now we're off to Hawaii!
-Part 2...We Explore the North Shore!

Day Two:
-Part 1... Just keep swimming!
-Part 2... Lunch followed by a quick drizzle, then we rent mopeds!
-Part 3... Still cruising on the mopeds! Yummy shrimp for dinner!
-Part 4... The day is coming to an end... checking out the sun set and then I finish my own little bottle of rum.
-Bonus.. Moped Video & Oahu Aerial Tour Video.

Day Three:
-Part 1... Horseback riding trail by foot!
-Part 2... We find the WWII bunker, and get hungry for lunch at the famous North Shore town of Haleiwa!
-Part 3... Back from Haleiwa, more Scenic Hawaii 1000 and an awesome "anniversary" dinner.
-Part 3... Continued

Day Four:
-Part 1... Last full day at TBR.. hiking and a cute discovery!
-Part 2... Lava flows in the sunset!

 

[MotoWifey185]

The night of our wedding we went to our hotel and opened all of our presents! It was so fun, we had some cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries. We left to go to the gas station to get energy drinks for the next day. We finally went to sleep around 1am&. then we had to wake up at 4am so get ready to leave to go to the airport! We were tired but so excited to be going to Hawaii! My dad met us at the hotel that morning to take us to the airport and he also got DH's tux to return to the Men's Warehouse which helped us a lot. We got to the airport by about 5:45am and said our good-byes! Matt and I went to check in his bag (mine was a carry-on) and get our tickets printed. The airlines say to get there 2 hours early but we were finished within 15 minutes ) I just could not process that we were actually going to Hawaii!

I drank my energy drink on the way to the airport but Matt saved his to drink while we waited for the plane. He had to throw it away though because we forgot you cant bring in drinks! We found our gate and we still had about an hour and a half before we were supposed to board, so we went to different parts of the airport to watch planes take off. We got breakfast at the snack shop and ate by a big window. I had a million notifications on FB of people still talking about our wedding! It was pretty neat.

This is the food company that stocks the airplane with food. But on the back it says "regulated garbage"... that doesn't sound very appetizing! Luckily we found that the food was pretty good for airplane food!

And then at 7:15 or so it was finally time to board!! I just couldn't believe I was going to Hawaii! I never thought I'd be going there any time soon.

We got two seats by the window, row 39 seats H and J. I sat by the window and DH in the isle. It was nice only having 2 seats so we wouldn't have to worry about anyone sitting next to us. At 8am or so we prepared for take off!

Bye Phoenix!

I remember following the i10 with my eyes. It's the interstate that we take to California. It's pretty easy to spot since it's the only thing out there so I saw our usual gas station from way up where we were! Also saw a couple of landmarks that I always look for on the way to Disneyland, and I figured out where Disneyland WOULD have been if it weren't so cloudy! I wanted to see it so bad. Oh when we approcahed L.A. I saw many other planes in the distance. As I was looking out, a plane came out of nowhere and it seemed like it was SO close to our plane! Freaked me out a bit!

Hi California, miss you Disneyland!

From there it was blue.... blue... more blue... it was so cool! The flight was about 6 hours long, pretty much the same time it takes us to drive to DLR.

For breakfast we got bagels and cream cheese, a pack of crackers, and some sort of cookie. It was pretty good, we were hungry so it hit the spot. I also had a pineapple juice with rum even though it was probably 10am haha.

Before we knew it, we were about to land! I took a few pictures before we had to turn our phones off.

Once we landed, I was too busy figuring out where to go to take any pictures, but I wish I had! The airport was beautiful. We were supposed to rent a car, but since we are under 25 the fines were not something we were willing to pay. It was double what we were quoted in the first place! So instead we found a cab that would take us to the north shore (City Cab- They are the best rates and one of the only companies willing to drive the hour out there!).

Took this on the way.

Soon we arrived at the beautiful Turtle Bay Resort! We landed at 11:17, and didn't get to our resort until about 4pm because of all the hubbub over the car rental! We were so hungry that after we checked in, we threw our stuff in the room, and went right back out to get something to eat.

I did get a few pics of the room first though.

This was our view! (little FYI, this is a "partial ocean view room" but we got an amazing view. Just so you know if you want a great view without paying for the "ocean view")

We went down to the lobby again and found our first place to eat, the Surfer Bar. It was about 4pm or so and they were not serving their own food yet, but since there was a football game on they had an all you can eat nacho bar for only $10 a person. The nachos were DELICIOUS. Might have been because we were starving but they were really good. Tri-colored nachos with cheese sauce, chili, onions, and jalapenos.

I didn't get a pic of the food, but this was our view from our table. Not too shabby!

When we finished we went back up to our room to relax for a bit. We turned the TV on and watched what is now my favorite TV station... Scenic Hawaii 1000. I watched this station every night to fall asleep. So many cool sights of all the islands. My favorite to watch was the Big Island where the lava flows. So neat!

More pics of our amazing view. We liked to keep the door open to listen to the waves. It was just awesome!

I will stop there. Next up- We Explore the North Shore!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I have to sub in! I followed you here from Ellen's (Podsnel) TR. So far you have posted some beautiful pics! I want to go back to HI so badly - it will be probably two years for us - so I'll just have to live through TRs. I see we are almost neighbors - I'm in Ahwatukee.

Congrats on your marriage, and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Welcome! Thank you for joining in. Hawaii is definitely something else. The beauty is out of this world and I am obsessed with the mountains. They are green and usually cloud covered. I am so used to our brown mountains with brown air around them haha!

We live very close to Ahwatukee, less than ten miles East of it probably. We're new out here. We are originally from Surprise/Peoria area. We go to Ahwatukee a lot for shopping and stuff.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Alright, when I left off we were just in our lovely room at the Turtle Bay Resort! We just needed a little rest after our crazy wedding day... running off 4 hours of sleep... a 6 hour plane flight followed by at least a 3 hour delay in trying to find out HOW to get to the North Shore... Ahh! Really it was no big deal. We were very happy and excited none of that mattered.


CAB INFO: I do want to say again that if you are going to be staying in the North Shore and don't plan to rent a car, that City Cab is the BEST rate there is and one of the only cabs that are willing to take you there. It's over an hour out so they lose an hour coming back (which means $$$ lost) but our cab driver was AMAZING. He had all kinds of things to say about the history and various things about Hawaii. He even told us he'd be willing to come get us again at the end of our trip. We ended up calling him and he took us the other way around and showed us more of the island. I so wish I remembered his name. He was excellent and got two very nice tips from us.


Back to the report! We decided to go for a walk around the resort after relaxing for a bit. It was huge, there are so many places to go! One of the best things about this resort was how peaceful it was. It was never too crowded anywhere we went. We actually had the beach to ourselves most of the trip. That part was nice and made us glad we stepped out of our "Disney" shell. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Disney fanatic. My ringtone is the Mad Hatter's Tea Party ride theme! But it was nice to do something different.

Some pics of our walk around the resort and the lovely North Shore!

These are the rooms that Peter and Sarah stayed in in Forgetting Sarah Marshall! We remembered where a lot of things were in the movie. It is fun to watch it now and try to figure out where all the scenes were filmed.

There is a beach and hammocks in front of those rooms and we hung out there quite a bit.

The view from our hammock.

From there we went to the beach in front of our own room. The sand was thick and there were CRABS! Little ones that dig holes in the sand. They look like spiders and they creeped us out a little bit, but it was so different to see compared to the California beaches where I've never seen any crabs.

This was our building, so our room is in the pic somewhere.

We're married!!

After this we went to the bar to grab some drinks. I got a mai tai and DH got cranberry juice with vodka.

We went up to our room to drink them on our "porch" which was just the door open and two chairs pulled from the dining table thing. The second floor didn't have the out side patio chairs like the floors above us did. It was a nice way to end our first day in Hawaii.

Up Next: The Adventures Begin! Snorkeling, pool time, and MOPEDS!

 

[podsnel]

You are both adorable!! Congratulations!!! Turtle Bay DOES look gorgeous- and you are right, the view from your room was awesome! We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon (26 years ago) too- but I guess you already know that. He was 24 and I was 23. Just promise me one thing- you will NOT wait 26 years to go back like we did!

 

[podsnel]

Oh- I wanted to add- I will be very interested to hear about DL- we are going for the 1st time (YAY! I'll get a BUTTON!) in August.

 

[eva]

Congrats! Looking forward to the rest of your TR. We will be in Oahu in May. Can't wait!

 

[MotoWifey185]

You are both adorable!! Congratulations!!! Turtle Bay DOES look gorgeous- and you are right, the view from your room was awesome! We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon (26 years ago) too- but I guess you already know that. He was 24 and I was 23. Just promise me one thing- you will NOT wait 26 years to go back like we did!

We won't be waiting even one more year hopefully! Haha we plan to go back in September if all goes well. We're also planning our first WDW trip for Feb '14. Gotta get all our big trips out of the way before we settle down and have little ones.

Congrats! Looking forward to the rest of your TR. We will be in Oahu in May. Can't wait!

How exciting! Is it your first time going?

 

[MotoWifey185]

Today is one of the most memorable days we had on the trip. If you ask DH, he'd say it was definitely his favorite day of the whole trip. I would say so too I guess. It was great enough already by being our first full day in Hawaii and we weren't leaving anytime soon!

This morning I woke up about 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. I wasn't too surprised because back at home I am never able to sleep past 8am which is what time it was there. Sooo I did what anyone would do in my situation, and I pulled up a chair and sat with the patio door open and admired our view. I was finally in one of those moments where I could go back and think about our wedding, the first day of our trip, and soak in the fact that I was married and in Hawaii! My hubby is a big sleeper-inner so he snored away during this time. Here are some pics of the sunrise.

A little later, I saw this guy standing "in the ocean" fishing. I looked a little harder and saw there was a rock there that was just under the surface of the water. But it looked pretty crazy for a sec!

Kinda small, look closely!

DH finally woke up some time later, and we decided we wanted to try snorkeling! We got our bathing suits on and headed down to the bay area and got our snorkeling gear. The hotel gives either boogy boards or snorkels for one hour per day for each guest to use in their own little snorkeling spot. I would have loved to do the boogy boards but we ran out of time.

We had a Go-Pro camera and recorded video. This water was not clear so you couldn't see much! I took clips out of the video. The water was really cold!

After that we decided to migrate to warmer waters! We went over to the pool area and went swimming there. It was never very crowded so it was very nice! It felt like we had the place to ourselves at times.

We decided to go down the slide, and DH took a video of it. Here are the clips.

Cool shot!

Then we went into the hot tub. This was our lovely view, and again we had the thing to ourselves!!

It was such a fun morning! But the best part of today was yet to come! I've got to stop there for now. Hope you are all enjoying it so far!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Nice update! I love the way you just got right to relaxing and the beach!

Your first day is off to a great start! Love the sunrise pics! Did you get and fish pics?

The pool and slide look like alot of fun, too.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Nice update! I love the way you just got right to relaxing and the beach!

Your first day is off to a great start! Love the sunrise pics! Did you get and fish pics?

The pool and slide look like alot of fun, too.

Of course we got right to the beach! We had to after such a long couple days/weeks before that!

Unfortunately we did not see any fish this time around. I guess they don't go into the bay that much or maybe it was the time of the year. No turtles either which a lot of people were surprised to hear! Next time we go we plan to see a lot more fishies.

 

[MotoWifey185]

I left off with us relaxing in the hot tub. It was a fun water-filled morning! After the hot tub we dried off by the shore watching the surfers catch some waves. When we decided we were done watching the surfers we headed back to the hotel to take showers and get ready for the day.

I took a few more pictures of the bay from our room.

By the time we were done it was lunch time and we were pretty hungry. We headed to the Hang 10 bar by the pool and split a plate of nachos. They filled us both up pretty quickly.

Sorry, I'm not the best at remembering to snap food pics. But here's a pic of where we were looking while we ate.

It started sprinkling as we finished up eating. We heard someone say that the rain never lasts long so we hoped they were right and we went inside the hotel to walk around for a little while. We also used this opportunity to go to the computer center to look at booking a tour for the last full day of our trip. I had looked into it before we left but since we planned on getting a car we decided we'd go where we wanted to. Now that we didn't get a car, a Grand Circle Tour of the island would be a neat way to see it all! The total was about $75 a person and it includes lunch. So we booked it and were very excited! We would get to see Pearl Harbor too!

Just a few pics I snapped of the journey.

The rain soon cleared up and we headed to the "Adventure Center" to rent our mopeds!!

There it is!

We decided to rent the mopeds for 2 hours. We learned afterward that it was not enough time and we would have rather had them for the whole day. Time flies on those things!

We each got a little lesson on how to work the bikes (blinkers, gas, break, ect) pretty standard. We both ride dirt bikes at home so we were well prepared. We were finally sent on our way! DH forgot the mount for his Go Pro camera so we rode the mopeds back to the hotel so he could grab it. He wanted to record the whole thing on his camera and he did a great job! I am still editing all the videos into one so I can share it. For now I have a few snap shots I got off the videos.

We took the mopeds out on the highway.. our mission was to go to the nearby town to the grocery store to pick up some reasonably priced (for Hawaii anyway) snacks and bring them back. It was a little scary at times when the side of the road narrowed but it was a lot of fun!

 

[MotoWifey185]

We had to fill the gas tank back up before we took it back so we stopped at the gas station. As you can see, gas is prettttty pricey around there! Unleaded $4.45 a gallon. YIKES!

DH snapped this pic at the gas station.

I decided I wanted to get some shrimp from one of the famous shrimp trucks on the side of the road. I am not a huge sea food fan but I will eat it occasionally. There are a lot of trucks to chose from. I decided on Tony Roma's.

DH took a few pics while I was standing in line.

I got my food and we were running out of time so we had to hurry back to the center to return our mopeds. DH decided to switch me mopeds so he could get some video of him riding too. He said my moped took off a lot faster than his did.

We got back to the center JUST in time. We returned our mopeds and took our groceries up to our room. We got Hawaiian sweet rolls for sandwiches, deli meat & cheese, cranberry juice, pina colada Sobe drinks to mix with rum, and some chex mix. Pretty standard stuff but it helped save some money by not having to eat at a restaurant for every meal! I chowed down on some delicious garlic shrimp and rice! It was very good. Best shrimp I've ever had.

After we ate our dinner, it was about 5pm and the sun was starting to go down. We decided to go for a lonnnnnng walk around the outside of the hotel again to get the best view of the Hawaiian sun set. I went a little photo crazy.

Wish I was sitting on that bench right now!

DH checking out the crab up close.

 

[MotoWifey185]

This is where they do weddings. Can you imagine getting married here? It is a cute little building.

TBR has a lot of their own beach for guests to walk along. It is a secluded resort. We walked along this beach a lot during the trip and rarely saw anyone else.

These are the beach villas. THOSE would be nice to stay in!!

After our walk we went back up to the room and made our yummy drinks! I had a Sobe pina colada with malibu and DH had cranberry juice with vodka. We opened the door again and watched the waves crash up against the shore. Another awesome night!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

How fun to rent the mopeds! Love it! Isn't that shrimp wonderful? Nice beach walk - thanks for sharing the pics! You two make a cute couple.

 

[MotoWifey185]

How fun to rent the mopeds! Love it! Isn't that shrimp wonderful? Nice beach walk - thanks for sharing the pics! You two make a cute couple.

Thank you! The shrimp was awesome. I am craving it right now actually! Renting the mopeds is something I would totally do again. I noticed a LOT of people riding mopeds all around Oahu. It beats having a car payment and goes a lot further for gas milage!

 

[MotoWifey185]

I found the Scenic Hawaii 1000 videos and just wanted to share the Oahu video with you all! It is so awesome!

Oahu Aerial Tour
--Minute 4:15 is the Turtle Bay Resort.

I also got all the video together of our moped ride in to one. Just in case you want to watch it.

Moped videos


Now I am going to start Day 3 of our TR!

 

[MotoWifey185]

September 18, 2012 I woke up at 5am again Hawaii time. I poured myself some pineapple juice and watched the waves crash on the shore as the sun rose. I wrote on my phone updates of the last two days and DH of course, slept! I thought a lot about my dog and how much I missed her. She would love laying on the patio watching the waves with me!

When DH woke up we went to the little cafe by the lobby for some EXPENSIVE muffins and OJ. I think our total for breakfast was like $18 or something like that. Haha gotta love Hawaii! After we finished eating we decided to check out one of the trails that TBR offers. The trail we chose was called the West/Green Trail and it's a mix of beach and forest and takes you to a real WWII bunker. I think it's the trail they take you when you do the horseback riding tour. Here are some pics of our hike.

It was funny to us to see forest type foliage right on the beach.

The stables of Turtle Bay.

Took a look back at the Resort.

Love it!

Now this just plain does not look like it belongs in Hawaii.

Another look back at TBR. We found later that the trail we took went a LOT further and we could have had the chance to see turtles! Next time I guess!

DH loves pictures of foot prints in the sand so he snapped this one.

Another crap, I am ok with the big ones, but the baby ones look like spiders and CREEEP me outt!!!

The horseback riding tour.

Continued in next post.