Aloha, Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

dolphingirl47 said:

Yes, I will be there very briefly on the way back from my Disneyland trip. It turned out that the most sensible place to change planes on the trip home is Orlando on this occasion and I could not imagine just transiting Orlando especially not with the Food and Wine Festival on as well. At the moment it looks like I am going to arrive late in the evening on October 1st and leave again early evening on October 5th. I would love to see you again.

Corinna

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Excellent! I will be there October 1-7. My only concrete plan so far is MK on Saturday October 3, I booked dinner at the castle. My friend hasn't been to WDW in 22 years, I thought that would be a fun dinner.

And you're absolutely right. That would be very difficult flying through Orlando and not stopping

I don't think I could ever get tired of watching the sunsets at Aulani. They're stunning!

Great pics of you two at Rainbow Reef and around the resort.

Pinkocto said:

Excellent! I will be there October 1-7. My only concrete plan so far is MK on Saturday October 3, I booked dinner at the castle. My friend hasn't been to WDW in 22 years, I thought that would be a fun dinner.

And you're absolutely right. That would be very difficult flying through Orlando and not stopping

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I am planning to be at the Magic Kingdom on October 3rd as well and will have lunch in the other castle.

Friday will be all about the Food and Wine Festival and Sunday I will head to Epcot in the morning and then do MNSSHP in the evening. Monday I will just go to Downtown Disney until it is time to go to the airport.

ACDSNY said:

I don't think I could ever get tired of watching the sunsets at Aulani. They're stunning!

Great pics of you two at Rainbow Reef and around the resort.

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I feel the same about the sunsets at Aulani.

Corinna

Very cool adding WDW to your trip to DL!

franandaj said:

Very cool adding WDW to your trip to DL!

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It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. I am getting really excited about this trip.

Corinna

Day 11

We were up bright and early again that morning, but this was a definite bonus that day. We got up and finished the rest of the pineapple. We then headed over to the Ulu Café to get some coffee. We decided that we fancied a bit more substantial breakfast. Graham had a Danish pastry and a fruit cup. I had some French toast fingers with sausage. Once we had finished our breakfast, we headed over to the Pau Hana Room to sign up for the Art and Nature Tour, which is offered exclusively for DVC members once a week. We got there just as they were opening and we had no issue signing up for the tour. We then briefly headed back to the room to drop off our mugs and to get the map, confirmation email and cameras and then we headed out to get the car.

This day we were heading for Pearl Harbor. When we originally discussed what we wanted to do while we were at Aulani, this is what both of us wanted to see. I looked at tours, but they all included other stuff like visiting the other ships that are moored there or city tours. We just wanted to visit the Arizona memorial and the visitor centre. I had heard horror stories about people lining up at 6:00 AM or even earlier and still sometimes there were no more tickets available when they got to the ticket office. I then found out that you can actually book them ahead of time through the National Parks website for the princely sum of $1.50 per ticket. As the Arizona is classified as a cemetery, admission is free, but this is an admin charge. I was happy to pay this for the peace of mind and the potential to have a couple of extra hours in bed. I booked this back in August and a lot of the possible dates were already booked out. In the end, I don’t think we needed to book ahead of time for the day we ended up going.

On our confirmation email it stated that we needed to be at the ticket office at least one hour before our scheduled tour time or our tickets may be given to somebody else. After our taster of Honolulu traffic, we though we better give it plenty of time. For some reason everything went swimmingly. We arrived at the car part for the visitor centre at 8:40 and were at the ticket office about 5 minutes later. They checked our confirmation email and asked if we wanted to start our tour an hour earlier. As we were there anyway, we were quite happy with this. We were pointed towards the building in which the introductory film is shown and were advised to check in there at 9:45. We headed in that general direction. I took some photos in that area and Graham went to the bathroom. The member of staff near the door waved me over and asked if I was by myself or with a group. I told her that I was with my husband and was waiting for him. She advised if we wanted to, we could go into the cinema now, as there were still some spaces left. Graham appeared shortly afterwards and we took her up on that kind offer. Not long after we had gone inside, the lights were dimmed and the film started.







I have to admit that I knew very little about the history behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. I knew that Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese planes and that this marked the point at which the USA entered the Second World War. Having grown up and gone to school in Germany, we concentrated on the European aspect of the war so I did not really know much about the ins and outs of what led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. I found the film very informative and very balanced. I left feeling that I had a real understanding on not only what had happened, but also the reasons behind this. This was very sensitively and objectively done.

Once the film was over, we headed down to the dock to get on the boat that would take us across to the Arizona. As we approached the memorial we were asked to step off the dock and inside the memorial and not to linger to take photos. It was staggering how many people seemed to have issues with their hearing or alternative thing that the rules do not apply to them. A few announcements were made for people to step inside and they still did not move. In general I was a bit surprised about the behaviour of some people. Some people seemed to treat this like just another tourist attraction. Once we were inside the memorial, we stopped and just took everything in. We then walked around the memorial to read all the information plagues that are around the memorial. We also saw the “Tears of the Arizona”. This is heavy engine oil that is still in bulkhead of the ship. It is thought that about 500000 gallons of oil are still in the ship and this seeps out at the rate of about 9 quarts (or liters for people in Europe) per day and leaves a colourful sheen on the water. There have been some environmental concerns about this, but at the rate of seepage at the moment, this is just burned off by the sun. However, there are some concerns that as the condition of the Arizona continues to deteriorate, that a larger quantity will be released at some stage in the future. This is monitored carefully by the National Parks Service and the feeling of the volunteers was that at some stage they would find a way to pump out the remaining oil.

What I found the most moving was an information plaque stating that survivors that were assigned to the Arizona on the day of the attack can opt to have their ashes interred in one of the forward gun turrets. I cannot even begin to fathom this kind of strong emotional attachment to the ship on which they once served. I think it is very nice that they are given that option though. We then headed to the shrine room to pay our respects before lining up on for the boat back. While we were waiting for the boat to arrive, I took some more photos. We did not have to wait long before we were able to get on the boat and headed back to the visitor centre. We walked around for a bit looking at the information that was displayed along the waterfront and then headed back to the car. When we got back to Aulani, we found out that we were extremely lucky that we got the opportunity to queue jump. Apparently they suspended all boats going out to the Arizona memorial as of 11:00 as the sea was too choppy. So if we had stuck with our original time, we would never have got the chance to visit the memorial.



























On the way back, we made the acquaintance of yet another housing estate. When we did the trial run on my birthday, we had missed a sign for the H1 and thought we had overshot. So this time we took this turnoff and ended up at a dead end in the middle of a housing estate. We found the access to the H1 eventually. Soon after we got on the H1, something caught my eye. There was a van from Leonard’s Bakery parked in a retail park. Leonard’s is a bit of an Oahu institution in the same way that Matsumoto’s Shave Ice and the shrimp trucks are. Leonard’s specialized in malasadas, which are Portuguese doughnuts without a hole. They come with various coatings and also filled. They have a shop in Waikiki, but they also have mobile bakeries. What had caught my eye was one of those. I had read in various trip reports that there is a mobile version of Leonard’s Bakery near Safeway so we headed there, but there was no Leonard’s Bakery van to be found. So we backtracked and Graham found the retail park that we had passed earlier. The malasadas are freshly cooked. We decided on the coconut filled malasadas, which were absolutely delicious, but rather messy. Once we had finished our treat, we headed back to Aulani. Right opposite the retail park where the van was parked is an outlet mall, but I could not convince Graham to check this out.

We headed back to Aulani. We took our cameras back to the room and got changed for Rainbow Reef. Graham was teasing me that the fish were going hungry, as I wanted to have donuts. They did not look very hungry to me and we had Rainbow Reef pretty much to ourselves. Every now and again somebody came in, but they all soon enough left. Some people only got to the bottom of the stairs before turning around. We were just about to head out ourselves, but then realized that it was nearly time for the afternoon fish feeding so we decided to hang around for this. We both got to feed the fish again. We then decided that we were quite cold enough for a day, got rinsed off underneath the shower and headed for the hot tub to warm up again.

Soon it was time to go back to the room to get a proper shower and to get changed. We then headed down to the Pau Hana room where the Art and Nature Tour was meeting. Initially it looked like that it would be just the two of us, but just as we were about to leave, a couple from Australia showed up. We headed outside and our guide introduced himself and asked us to introduce ourselves. Just as we were finishing with the introductions, somebody came running up and asked if we were part of the Art and Nature Tour. They had managed to lose track of time and is wife was still elsewhere. Our guide explained where we would head and the husband texted his wife. She joined us shortly afterwards. We had not gone very far. We stopped on the island where most of the character meet and greets took place and our guide pointed out some dates on the bridge that relate to the history of Disney. He also showed us some plants and explained their significance to Hawaiian culture and what they were used for. He then showed us the birthing stone. This was the first thing that was put into place when they started building Aulani and cast members go there if they need a fresh perspective.






We had a walk around the grounds and our guide pointed out various landmarks and explained how they relate to Hawaiian culture. When we got to the Pu'u Kilo, the volcano that is the main landmark in the resort, he encouraged us to have a closer look. I had seen this volcano numerous times, but have never noticed that it had animal carvings. The carvings depict animals that are central to Hawaiian culture like the shark, owl, whale and turtle. He also pointed out some plants that were used to make textiles and some other plants that were used to make dyes. There is also a display on how textiles were made, which is part of The Menehune Adventure Trail.



By then the tour was nearly finished and the last thing was meant to sample some food at Makahiki. We went inside Makahiki and our guide told us a little about the Makahiki and showed us how the various elements were represented on the mural. They were still not quite ready for us so we went next door to the ‘Olelo Room. Our guide explained a bit behind the concept behind the ‘Olelo Room and pointed out various carvings. Somebody came to offer us some passion fruit orange and guava juice and we just spent some time chatting. Our guide recommended some restaurants on Oahu that are a little off the beaten track and also mentioned that the best snorkeling in the area was to be had at Electric Beach, which is by the local power station. Eventually one of the chefs from Makahiki came to get us. He walked us down the buffet line and explained the various food offerings. I was hoping to get to sample something local, but when we got to the desserts, he gave each of us a brownie. This was no good for Graham as he is allergic to chocolate. He was given some kind of fruit tart instead. After this, the tour was officially finished. I think the idea behind this is great, but they were just trying to cover too many different things. I think this would have been a much better tour if they had just concentrated on one aspect and done it properly.







Once we said goodbye to everybody, we headed down to the beach for the sunset. It was another pretty sunset and there were some Photopass photographers around. We had some photos taken and then just stood on the beach and enjoyed the sunset. Once the sun had gone down completely, we were ready for some dinner. We decided to head to the ‘Olelo Room again. Graham had spotted an Ahi Tuna rice bowl on the menu last time and wanted to try this. I decided to try the Pork Lumpia, which are essentially spring rolls. They were lovely, but they were just three spring rolls the size of my thumb. So this did not quite work as dinner. So we had some Garlic fries and cheesy garlic bread to share as well. Graham had the Big Swell IPA again and I had the margarita. Once we finished our meal, we walked around the resort for a while and then we headed back up to the room for an early night.

Catching up!

Sorry I've been MIA but it's been pretty hectic at home recently.

WOW! Fantastic updates. I can't get over the view from those villas.
And all that fish! What a great experience.
Sunsets are beautiful; and it would have been an interesting excursion to Pearl Harbour.

That was quite an update!

The Arizona Memorial is very moving. My childhood next door neighbor's brother was one of the casualties on the ship that day. She shared stories of him and we found his name on the memorial wall when we visited. I still get chills thinking about it. I've always wondered how WW2 is covered in German history classes.

Aulani is just stunning. They really built a beautiful resort.

Jill in CO

A really fascinating update, Pearl Harbour seems really interesting - such a shame not everybody gives it the respect it deserves.

PrincessInOz said:

Catching up!

Sorry I've been MIA but it's been pretty hectic at home recently.

WOW! Fantastic updates. I can't get over the view from those villas.
And all that fish! What a great experience.
Sunsets are beautiful; and it would have been an interesting excursion to Pearl Harbour.

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It just goes to show how busy I have been. I did not notice that you were missing. I noticed that we seem to have lost @tiggrbaby,@dgbg100106 and @PJB71 since the change to the new forum. Welcome back.

Aulani really is a little slice of paradise.

jedijill said:

That was quite an update!

The Arizona Memorial is very moving. My childhood next door neighbor's brother was one of the casualties on the ship that day. She shared stories of him and we found his name on the memorial wall when we visited. I still get chills thinking about it. I've always wondered how WW2 is covered in German history classes.

Aulani is just stunning. They really built a beautiful resort.

Jill in CO

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Amazing to know somebody who was directly touched by this.

As to how WW2 is covered in German history classes is pretty cursory in my experience. We started history as a standalone subject in year 7. Before that we would occasionally have a history topic as part of general studies. We started with ancient Egypt, worked our way through ancient Greece and the Roman empire through medieval times and the renaissance, the industrial revolution and the first world war. Towards the end of year 10, we covered the Versailles treaty and the effect this had on Germany. We got as far as the invasion of Poland and then year 10 was over. My school only went as far as year 10 so I moved to another school for years 11 to 13 where we started with ancient Egypt again. I actually learned more about this period of time in German lessons where we read books like The Diary of Anne Frank and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and in religious studies, where we watched and discussed the movie Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story at one point.

Aulani is amazing and they did a wonderful job with this.

Mrs Doubtfire said:

A really fascinating update, Pearl Harbour seems really interesting - such a shame not everybody gives it the respect it deserves.[/QUOTE

Pearl Harbour is well worth a visit if you ever get the chance. We only scraped the tip of the iceberg as there are also a number of other historical ships in the area and the Pacific Aviation Museum.

Corinna

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dolphingirl47 said:

As to how WW2 is covered in German history classes is pretty cursory in my experience. We started history as a standalone subject in year 7. Before that we would occasionally have a history topic as part of general studies. We started with ancient Egypt, worked our way through ancient Greece and the Roman empire through medieval times and the renaissance, the industrial revolution and the first world war. Towards the end of year 10, we covered the Versailles treaty and the effect this had on Germany. We got as far as the invasion of Poland and then year 10 was over. My school only went as far as year 10 so I moved to another school for years 11 to 13 where we started with ancient Egypt again. I actually learned more about this period of time in German lessons where we read books like The Diary of Anne Frank and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and in religious studies, where we watched and discussed the movie Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story at one point.

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I had a total different experience as to what I learned in school about WW II here in Germany. We started with the beginning of the 20th century in year ten and covered both world wars in depth. We did not restart in year 11, but that was a "project year" where we covered three main topics (Rome, cities in the medieval times and WWII) and then in year 12 we started with the 17th century and spent the first half of year 13 exclusively of the time from 1919 to 1939. I guess different curriculums in different areas teach it differently? And who knows how it is taught today! My history teacher in year 13 in 1992 insisted on teaching us history up to German reunification as he considered that so important! Even though the curriculum had us stop somewhere in the 1970s. But I was lucky that I had a fantastic history teacher who had so much enthusiasm for his subject for many years at my school.

I'm glad you were able to see the Arizona Memorial. Sounds like many different things aligned for you to do it. That's a shame some people forgot how to listen, especially at a place like that. Amazing that there is so much oil still trapped.

The donuts sound delicious!

How long was the DVC tour? Too bad they only gave you a brownie. Hopefully it was amazingly delicious.

Beautiful sunset pictures!

That's fascinating about your history classes in school, thank you for sharing

Corinna, it sounds like you had a wonderful day, very meaning full and lots of learning.

I'm actually really enjoying hearing the German perspective on history lessons. In the US it's much different, and I'm sure it varies by where you live and all sorts of other factors. I didn't have a very typical history education. I think in 7th grade we had World History and 8th grade was American History. These were very basic courses. "And then this happened and it caused this war.

In HS we had World History again and we covered all sorts of topics in a little more depth, until the Iranian Hostage Crisis occurred. We did continue reading our textbooks and had lectures about the various world wars and events, but a good portion of our classes were spent discussing the hostages, their situation, historical situations with potential similarities and viable options. It was kind of fun. We skipped a year of history and in 11th grade I took AP History and that was more a history of philosophies of the various periods in American History. I learned more visiting Boston than I did in that class.

Sorry to hijack your thread Corinna!

Flossbolna said:

I had a total different experience as to what I learned in school about WW II here in Germany. We started with the beginning of the 20th century in year ten and covered both world wars in depth. We did not restart in year 11, but that was a "project year" where we covered three main topics (Rome, cities in the medieval times and WWII) and then in year 12 we started with the 17th century and spent the first half of year 13 exclusively of the time from 1919 to 1939. I guess different curriculums in different areas teach it differently? And who knows how it is taught today! My history teacher in year 13 in 1992 insisted on teaching us history up to German reunification as he considered that so important! Even though the curriculum had us stop somewhere in the 1970s. But I was lucky that I had a fantastic history teacher who had so much enthusiasm for his subject for many years at my school.

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It is amazing how different the education system can be in the same country. What happened in years 11 to 13 may not be typical for the area where I come from either. I went to a standalone Sixth Form with a strong vocational element. Due to the nature of the school, not only did we have people from a wide variety of different school types, but also a huge catchment area spanning 4 or 5 different school districts. So there was no way telling where everybody was at and therefore it probably was just easier to start over.

Pinkocto said:

I'm glad you were able to see the Arizona Memorial. Sounds like many different things aligned for you to do it. That's a shame some people forgot how to listen, especially at a place like that. Amazing that there is so much oil still trapped.

The donuts sound delicious!

How long was the DVC tour? Too bad they only gave you a brownie. Hopefully it was amazingly delicious.

Beautiful sunset pictures!

That's fascinating about your history classes in school, thank you for sharing

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That was really what got me. Normally I don't even get upset about people with selective hearing anymore as this is just the norm in many ways. However, because of the nature of the place where we were and the history behind it, this absolute disrespect really annoyed me.

The donuts are amazing. When you head to Aulani, please make time to try some.

The DVC tour was about an hour.

I was actually amazed how well the sunset photos came out as most of them were taken with quite an old point and shoot camera.

franandaj said:

Corinna, it sounds like you had a wonderful day, very meaning full and lots of learning.

I'm actually really enjoying hearing the German perspective on history lessons. In the US it's much different, and I'm sure it varies by where you live and all sorts of other factors. I didn't have a very typical history education. I think in 7th grade we had World History and 8th grade was American History. These were very basic courses. "And then this happened and it caused this war.

In HS we had World History again and we covered all sorts of topics in a little more depth, until the Iranian Hostage Crisis occurred. We did continue reading our textbooks and had lectures about the various world wars and events, but a good portion of our classes were spent discussing the hostages, their situation, historical situations with potential similarities and viable options. It was kind of fun. We skipped a year of history and in 11th grade I took AP History and that was more a history of philosophies of the various periods in American History. I learned more visiting Boston than I did in that class.

Sorry to hijack your thread Corinna!

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It was a great day.

Thanks for sharing your experience with history at school. There is no need to be sorry. This covers two areas that I have a big interest in : history and education systems. I enjoyed reading about it.

Corinna

dolphingirl47 said:

It just goes to show how busy I have been. I did not notice that you were missing. I noticed that we seem to have lost @tiggrbaby,@dgbg100106 and @PJB71 since the change to the new forum. Welcome back.

Aulani really is a little slice of paradise.



Amazing to know somebody who was directly touched by this.

As to how WW2 is covered in German history classes is pretty cursory in my experience. We started history as a standalone subject in year 7. Before that we would occasionally have a history topic as part of general studies. We started with ancient Egypt, worked our way through ancient Greece and the Roman empire through medieval times and the renaissance, the industrial revolution and the first world war. Towards the end of year 10, we covered the Versailles treaty and the effect this had on Germany. We got as far as the invasion of Poland and then year 10 was over. My school only went as far as year 10 so I moved to another school for years 11 to 13 where we started with ancient Egypt again. I actually learned more about this period of time in German lessons where we read books like The Diary of Anne Frank and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and in religious studies, where we watched and discussed the movie Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story at one point.

Aulani is amazing and they did a wonderful job with this.

Click to expand...

I am here just far behind!

The Arizona is a very tasteful and touching memorial, I cried the first time I saw it, I was about 17.

The resort is so beautiful and view is truly amazing. I am green with envy, I can't wait to get back to Hawaii.

dgbg100106 said:

I am here just far behind!

The Arizona is a very tasteful and touching memorial, I cried the first time I saw it, I was about 17.

The resort is so beautiful and view is truly amazing. I am green with envy, I can't wait to get back to Hawaii.

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dgbg100106 said:

I am here just far behind!

The Arizona is a very tasteful and touching memorial, I cried the first time I saw it, I was about 17.

The resort is so beautiful and view is truly amazing. I am green with envy, I can't wait to get back to Hawaii.

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Welcome back.

Aulani is a real treasure. I can't wait to get back to Hawaii and especially to Aulani either. I am hoping that I maybe can convince Graham to go back for his 60th birthday.

I was amazed just how well done and moving the Arizona Memorial is.

Corinna

After reading Jill's post if we're talking "degrees of separation" Fran's mother's first husband was killed on the Arizona. Evidently she walked around Long Beach wanting to kill any Japanese that she saw after that. Luckily she didn't have a gun, but I guess she told Fran she wanted one. I don't know if her reactions were typical or if we was just crazy. I'd lean towards the latter, but I only knew her when she was old and lost her mind.