5 Tickets to Paradise: Hawaii Pre-Trip Report (We're back!) Updated 3/17/15

sager1969 said:

Etsy is a dangerous place for a Disney addiction! Also, look onto Redbubble when your kids get older. They have some nerdy stuff! We are a house of nerds. I bought a Nerd enterprise short that looks like WED enterprises for a ABD trip we took last year. It got lots of attention from the Imagineers. My hubby is ready to go to Hawaii!. Hope you have fun getting out of this cold! Can't wait to hear all about when you get back.

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I'll have to check out Redbubble, thanks for the recommendation!

5 days to go! We had a snowstorm over Friday and Saturday, and the weather is going to be rainy and cold all this week. Bring on the Hawaii sunshine!

I've been putting together the stuff for our kid's travel backpacks. We have a direct flight to Honolulu on the way, and we will be on the plane almost 9 hours. The airplane does not have the video screens on the back of the seats, so we don't have that in our favor. (Our flight back home is broken up into a 6 hour flight and almost 3 hours flight, and the longer segment does have the screens on the back of the seats--woohoo!).

For every flight we take, I always pack our kids' backpacks and make them wait until we are seated on the airplane until they open them to see what's inside. Usually, I only need stuff to entertain them for 3-4 hours. But based on the advice of a friend, I'm going with the "less is more" mentality for this trip and packing fewer things that are bigger or more meaningful in hopes they will spend more time on them.

The in-flight backpack entertainment is basically 3 categories--electronics, books/writing and toys.

Electronics--the kids each have old iPods that have games (for the boys) and a few videos loaded. They will also have access to a Kindle with Big Hero 6 on it (we saw this in the theater but not since). We also bought a re-charging thing that will re-charge each device once.

Toys--we are surprising the kids with one bigger toy we hope they will love. My oldest has wanted this transformer for a while now. I will have to take that Big Hero 6 toy out of the box to fit in my other son's backpack--I didn't realize it would be so big!



In the book and writing category, we got my younger son a 1st grade Brain Quest workbook and two smaller books. My older son gets a chapter book he's been wanting to read.



I also got a few of these Invisible Ink books for the boys. These take me back to when I was a kid doing road trips with my family!



My daughter will have a Palace Pets busy book (which contains some actual pet figurines), a paper doll set and a Color Wonder book.



DH is bringing a travel chess set that he can play with the boys. I am bringing 2 magazines, 2 books and an iPad...but I usually spend all my airplane time trying to keep the kids happy, so I have low expectations of actually reading any of the things I'm bringing.

And of course we will bring lots of food and snacks! The kids will each get a pez dispenser, as these are a tradition on our trips.

Aloha!!!

We just got back to cold, deary Texas from sunny Aulani on Sunday! My kiddos are 4 and 2 and we didn't do anything with Aunty's (ran out of time) but, if you have any random questions about the island, I'll be glad to answer best I can! I can't wait to read about your family's Aulani adventure!

Jrex21 said:

Aloha!!!

We just got back to cold, deary Texas from sunny Aulani on Sunday! My kiddos are 4 and 2 and we didn't do anything with Aunty's (ran out of time) but, if you have any random questions about the island, I'll be glad to answer best I can! I can't wait to read about your family's Aulani adventure!

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It must be such a shock to return to this yucky Texas weather! Did you have a great trip?

How did your kiddos do with the time change?

It was definitely a change! They did pretty well with the time change going over there! I think we got up anywhere between 5:30-6:30am every morning, which ended up being really nice seeing the resort at sunrise! The trip was WONDERFUL! Surpassed ALL of my expectations! We did a healthy mix of explore the island and hang out at Aulani and the kids really didn't want to leave!

One thing I always did with my kids on airplane rides was play cards-Uno, Crazy 8s, Snap, Go Fish. It can be hard when you are squished in plane seats but we always made it work. Another idea is to have "something new" that you magically pull out of your own carry on about half way or 3/4 of the way-just another book or scratch pad and coloring pencils but something they have not seen yet and it gets them everytime!

alohamom said:

One thing I always did with my kids on airplane rides was play cards-Uno, Crazy 8s, Snap, Go Fish. It can be hard when you are squished in plane seats but we always made it work. Another idea is to have "something new" that you magically pull out of your own carry on about half way or 3/4 of the way-just another book or scratch pad and coloring pencils but something they have not seen yet and it gets them everytime!

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Great tips, thanks!!

Jrex21 said:

It was definitely a change! They did pretty well with the time change going over there! I think we got up anywhere between 5:30-6:30am every morning, which ended up being really nice seeing the resort at sunrise! The trip was WONDERFUL! Surpassed ALL of my expectations! We did a healthy mix of explore the island and hang out at Aulani and the kids really didn't want to leave!

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Glad to hear you had a wonderful trip!

2 more days to go here! We got 5 inches of snow on top of a layer of ice last night, and schools were canceled today. My husband has been in Florida on a business trip and is scheduled to fly home today, but a lot of flights into DFW have been canceled. Really hoping he makes it home today! My son is worried he won't make it back in time to fly to Hawaii with us. It is really so rare for this area to have ice and snow in March, so I wasn't really worried when these trips were so close together. But I'm confident he will at least make it back by tomorrow.

The kids are going nuts here--this is the most excited they have been for a vacation ever, I believe! They are currently watching The Stitch Movie on Netflix.

Today will be a laundry day for me and some cleaning so that tomorrow I can finish packing. This will probably be my last entry in this pre-trip report. See you on the flip side!

Oh my goodness-they are too cute! One last thing you may want to plan for is food on the way to Aulani once you land. My kids used to get pretty grumpy when they were smaller if they were hungry and tired. You have the nine hours on the plane and depending on what time you land you could hit traffic headed to Ko Olina. 2 days from now is Saturday so I think you will be ok but that stretch of highway can get clogged. What we did in the summer was get off just before the Aulani exit in Kapolei and ate (plus picked up sodas, POG, muffins and fruit at Safeway). Although I really did enjoy the option of Aulanis Ulu cafe too so there is that and I think they are oprn till after dinner into the evening but things tend to shut down early. Have a blast-there is no way you wont!

This snow is ridiculous. My big dog who loves cold is really happy about it. Our other dog is soaked from being too short to clear the snow. I will be praying that you guys get out and get to enjoy your trip. If your DH is flying SW, he might get in. Good luck! Have a safe and fun trip! I am excited for you!

So cute!!

We're back! We had a wonderful time! I hope to get to my actual trip report soon.

A few things about Aulani: I asked at the front desk last Thursday, and the cast member said the resort was 97% occupied. But honestly to me it didn't feel that crowded! The Starlit Hui was on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. I brought home 6 days of Daily Iwa's if anyone has any questions.

FYI--Aunty's Beach House posted a sign twice while we were there (that we saw) saying that they were at capacity and could not accept more kiddos. Both of those times were while there was a premium activity going on in half of the beach house (Wednesday night for Surf's Up with Chip and Dale and on Friday morning/afternoon for the Fish are Friends).

We reserved a standard room (paid with cash/credit card) but instead we got this upgraded view:


It really was an awesome trip!

Aloha! Welcome home! Only 9 more months for me..... Can't wait to read your report.

Nice upgrade!