ABD Hawaii

[MinnesotaChill]

My husband and I are going to Hawaii sans kids to celebrate our 20th anniversary! Wahoo!

When our confirmation packet arrived, it mentioned several ABD excursions, including one to a ranch. It sounds interesting and I'm wondering if anyone has done that excursion.

Any other, romantic things you might recommend? We like authentic and adventurous - things we can't do or eat elsewhere. But... I'm scared of sharks.

 

[Bobo912]

When I was trying to decide whether to book an ABD while at Aulani I did a search on the board and found this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2819494

If you search on the DVC board you might find some more posts. I decided against booking an ABD. Since it's a day trip, all of the benefits of a traditional ABD just aren't there. You can go to the vendor's website and book the same excursions for much less. I can't comment on the Kualoa Ranch excursion, since we didn't visit there. We drove past it on the way to the Polynesian Cultural Center, but that's as close as we got.

 

[StormalongKay]

We visited Kualoa Ranch this past July. It was totally unplanned, as we were trying to get into Hanauma Bay to snorkel but that was closed. So we continued driving up the coast and came upon the ranch. We took the movie sites/ranch tour and it was totally beautiful. That ranch is a little slice of heaven. It also has an interesting WW II history as well. The other tour that looked interesting to me was the fishpond, but we didn't stay. We hit the beach park directly across the street from the ranch for a few hours, where you can see Chinaman's hat. I highly recommend this area, but it is a bit of a drive from Aulani, if that is where you are staying.

 

[taaren]

Romantic - eat at Roy's right across the street from Aulani. Get the chocolate souffle, at the very least. Walks on the beach at sunset also very romantic and don't cost anything, we try to do this as often as possible.

My favorite tourist activity to do that is "adventurous" is kayaking. It meets that afraid of sharks requirement, is a ton of fun, and you'll probably see some turtles which is just amazing. Btw ... most of the sharks in Hawaii are reef sharks, which means that they are less than 4 feet long, and I've spent a lot of time in the water and never seen one outside of the various aquariums. Not dangerous at all. And you're more likely to get hit by lightning than attacked by a shark.

Honestly you probably don't need to book an ABD for Aulani, as a PP said you can book it all yourself and save a ton. Unless you don't have a car, but really you should rent a car for the length of stay anyways, its probably going to be cheaper than shuttles to/from the resort and/or anything you want to go to, you'll have to drive anyways.

 

[carpenta]

I don't even know if Hawaii has sharks? I thought I heard when we were there that they don't populate the waters around the islands. Hopefully someone who knows more than me can help.

 

[sayhello]

I don't even know if Hawaii has sharks? I thought I heard when we were there that they don't populate the waters around the islands. Hopefully someone who knows more than me can help.

Apparently they do:

http://www.kitv.com/Great-white-shark-spotted-off-Oahu/-/8906042/9659192/-/139jd3m/-/index.html



Sayhello

 

[carpenta]

Apparently they do:

http://www.kitv.com/Great-white-shark-spotted-off-Oahu/-/8906042/9659192/-/139jd3m/-/index.html



Sayhello

Thanks. I guess what the snorkle person told us in Mauii was "malarky" (sp?)....

 

[taaren]

As far as I know, nobody has ever been bitten by a Great White shark in Hawaii. There's the occasional Tiger Shark biting those happen perhaps every 10 years or so, usually to locals who spend a lot of time in the water, surfers and such. But yes, we do have a lot of the cute little reef sharks, the ones that max out at 4 feet and they eat fish ... are probably afraid of people.

 

[beachbunny]

The movie Soul Surfer is about Bethany Hamilton whose arm was bitten off by a tiger shark in 2003. So yes, there are attacks.

My sister lives on a navigable canal right off the ocean and we often see hammerheads swimming. Doesn't stop us from kayaking and paddle boarding.

Back to your question, Kualoa Ranch is lots of fun. Book your own tour and drive there yourself. You'll save some money. http://www.kualoa.com/

Other than the ghost story tour, I'm sure you can book everything else or in the case of Manoa Falls and Waimea Falls, just drive there yourself.

When are you going? If it's during the winter months, I would definitely book a whale watching cruise. http://www.starofhonolulu.com/premier-whale-lunch.html

 

[pjacobi]

I wish ABD would have a tour that would include a 1-2 night stay on *each* of the Hawaiian islands with pre- and post-stay at Aulani.

I guess that won't happen anytime soon, because Disney want to keep you in the golden prison of Aulani.

It's such a shame that Disney does not make it easy to see all of Hawaii.


-Paul

 

[sayhello]

I wish ABD would have a tour that would include a 1-2 night stay on *each* of the Hawaiian islands with pre- and post-stay at Aulani.

I guess that won't happen anytime soon, because Disney want to keep you in the golden prison of Aulani.

It's such a shame that Disney does not make it easy to see all of Hawaii.


-Paul

Actually, Paul, ABD did have 2 different Hawaii itineraries at first, but they discontinued them. I've been told that they're not likely to do a new one, because they just can't justify the cost. The added value just isn't there. It's way too expensive, to do stuff that is pretty easy to arrange on your own or through the resort.

And even if they did, 1-2 days on each island would end up being way too expensive, and way too long, as you end up losing a goodly portion of each travel day getting from island to island. It'd end up being a 2-week trip, at least. And while that doesn't sound all that bad to me, I don't see it happening.

Sayhello