wanderlust7
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2015
First trip report! We were at Aulani for 7 wonderful days at the end of February. This will be a resort-centric trip report since we've been to Oahu several times before. I'll try to put in details that I think might be helpful. Sorry, no pictures. 
DH is in charge of those and I never know where he stores them. The trip was my family (me, DH, DS6, DD3), my mom, my cousin's family (cousin, cousin's DH, DS7, DD2). We had a dedicated 2 bedroom villa and it was a full house. The half bath outside the bedrooms was nice to have. We had an ocean view unit and I requested higher floor, facing Waikolohe Valley, in the Ewa tower. We got unit 1250, which is an end unit in the short wing of the Ewa tower furthest from the ocean and closest to the lobby. I thought the view was great, plus we had no neighbors on one side.
Aunty's Beach House
The two boys enjoyed Aunty's Beach House a lot. The staff there is great, always so friendly. They did the free sign-up activities, Volcano Disruption, Stitch's Space Goo, and Menehune Musical Mix-Up. The Menehune one was an after thought, it's only 30 minutes (the others are 1 hour) and I wasn't sure they would be interested (it's a scavenger hunt for Hawaiian instruments and then they learn to play them). I was in line for Space Goo anyways and the schedule worked out. Turns out they liked it, by then they were very into the Menehune! I wondered if they would come home and talk about the Menehune at school and no one would know what they were talking about!
They also did lunch once and dinner twice at Aunty's (lunch is at 11:30 am and dinner is at 5:30 pm). It's $8 and served family style. The menu doesn't seem to change day-to-day, I don't remember exactly, but it was things like pizza, mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and fruit kabobs with chocolate sauce for dessert.
The procedure for the free sign-up activities as well as lunch/dinner at Aunty's is the CMs come out at 7:45 am and start going down the line giving out tickets. You fill out the activity ticket with child's name, age, and your phone number and give it back to a CM. Once the tickets for a particular event/time are gone, they make an announcement. For lunch/dinner you have to stay in line to pay. The week we were there seemed moderately busy(?), hard to say since I have no comparison point. I was there on a Monday and a Tuesday at about 7:20 am and the line was 20-30 deep. On Monday I got the last 2 tickets for Volcano Disruption at 3 pm (the other time was 7:30 pm). On Tuesday, Stitch's Space Goo was at 10 am and 3 pm. I didn't hear any announcements about anything being full. They don't seem to offer Volcano Disruption and Stitch's Space Goo on the same day. I guess people would just sign up for both and the people in the back would get nothing. I think the schedule gets changed around, so don't count on the same times on the same day of the week. Also, the CMs always say to come 30 minutes before the scheduled time. I think if you're late, they'll give the spot away.
The registration process at Aunty's takes a good 15 minutes, so it's a good idea to get it taken care of before your first scheduled event. You have to fill out the form: adults authorized for pick-up (name, birth date, phone number), kids (name, birth date), secret word used for pick-up. I was able to put both my son and nephew on the same form. The CM has to enter it all into the computer, we had 4 authorized adults besides me, so it took a while! But it turned out I was the only one who ever picked up.... Then they get what looks like a MagicBand (used for check-in, check-out), which you have to pay $12.95 for, but it's refundable if returned clean and unscratched (CM didn't seem that picky about this when I returned them). It's green with Stitch on it. Might make a nice souvenir and you can use it on future trips, but we have too much clutter so I returned it. They also put a clip on it so it's not removable unless a CM does it (or maybe scissors, we didn't try). And lastly, they take a picture of adult(s) and kid(s) together, so make sure you have the kids with you! The other authorized adults didn't need to be there, I was told they can take a picture when they came to pick-up, just had to show their room key, photo ID, and secret word. Since I had my picture taken, I only needed room key and secret word.
Menehune Adventure Trail game
The boys LOVED the Menehune Adventure Trail game. It's a scavenger hunt type game similar to the Agent P game at Epcot. It's on an iPad mini now (check out from the Pau Hana community center), I saw some YouTube videos that had a cell phone. There are 4 outside games that take about 45 minutes and 1 in the lobby that takes about 20. If you can only do one, I would pick the lobby one, it's short, doesn't take as much walking, things are pretty easy to find, and it has 2 of my favorite effects. One of which gives a little souvenir...oops, hope I haven't said too much. If you want to do an outside one though, I would ask about doing the one with the sea turtle or the one with the baby sea turtles (they're on separate games). I think each game has a fixed set of effects, though once you finish them all they mix them all up and you can play again! I didn't try asking for a specific game, so I don't know for sure if you can, and maybe I just like sea turtles! On the plane ride home, DS and I listed out all the effects and he drew pictures for them all, he loved it that much. I think we missed a few though, during one of the games there was some type of glitch and the iPad went black and then came back on. I guess we'll just have to go back!
One secret I learned after our trip, there is hidden Menehune in a keyhole in the lobby. See the YouTube video so you won't miss it like we did!
On-site Dining
DD turned 3 on this trip, so we did Makahiki character breakfast for her birthday. Service was adequate but not particularly friendly. We were put at an inside table, but DH asked to be moved since it's a little dark inside. We were moved outside after a little wait. Mickey is at the photo-op before being seated. Minnie and Goofy came by twice (less interaction the second time), Goofy was the most interactive. The kids did the fish puppet parade and the coconut shell banging. The buffet had the typical breakfast buffet items (good selection of fruit, omelet station, eggs, bacon, sausage, Mickey waffles, pancakes, etc). Important tip: only the pancakes at the kids' station have chocolate chip! They also had miso soup, fried rice, and some Hawaiian items (kailua pork hash, moco loco, pineapple with li hing mui, pineapple with black lava salt). I probably should have tried the lava salt just so I could say I did, but DM said it wasn't good and scared me off. Apparently, it's salt and charcoal (Google search!). Everything I had tasted fine, though nothing was a stand out. I had put on the reservation that it was DD's birthday, but I think because of the table change, we had to remind the CM and they brought out a small cupcake with a candle and sang Happy Birthday. Later that day, we picked up a Mickey and Friends Luau ice cream cake from the Baskin Robbins in Kapolei. It was really cute and fit Aulani perfectly.
We went to 'Ama 'Ama once for lunch. The ambiance is nice with the ocean view and we were seated next to the fountain with the lifelike glass koi fish in the water. Service was friendlier here. The corn chowder was good, chicken wings were a little dry. The kailua pork on Chinese steamed buns were good because of the 3 sauces (pork itself was a little on the dry side). I liked the curry chutney one the best, there was also a BBQ sauce and a Sriracha type hot sauce. The chopped salad had furikake (seasoned seaweed flakes) in it, which went surprisingly well with ranch dressing.
Another day we got lunch from Mama's Snack Shop and brought it to the beach. They can put it in boxes and a bag if you ask so it's easier to carry. The coconut shrimp was very good, sweet and crunchy. They also have a variety of hot dogs and sausages, with choice or soft or crusty bread. I thought the crusty bread was a little hard and not that crunchy. Cousin's DH got the soft bread, which turned out to be a Hawaiian sweet roll, which he seemed to enjoy. There is shaved ice next to Mama's and self-serve Dole Whip at Lava Shack across the way.
Off-site Dining
Our first day, we went to Monkeypod across the street from Aulani for happy hour (3-5:30 pm everyday). We hadn't gotten our bearings yet and didn't know how far it was, so we drove, which turned out to be a silly decision. It's about as far to walk to the restaurant as to the Aulani parking lot, and it was impossible to find parking at the restaurant. We were all dropped off and the two DH's drove back to the Aulani lot to park. When I asked for a table for 9, I was told "within 1 hour". So...we starting thinking about alternatives while waiting for the DHs to walk back. When they got back 10-15 minutes later though, our table was ready. We were seated upstairs and there were a lot of empty tables. I guess they just opened up the section? Anyways, most appetizers were half off. We had the corn chowder, chicken wings, and truffle fries (everything was good, but the chowder was my favorite). We also had 3 different pizzas ($9 each). Those were just okay, some were a little burnt on the bottom.
We did dinner in the villa most nights since the two DDs were on a weird nap schedule and would sleep until after 6 pm. My cousin's DD had a cold (which is why she's not mentioned in the TR much). I don't know what my DD's excuse was. She slept a lot on this trip, I guess the sun and activity wore her out. One night it was Costco food (4 different types of poke, roast chicken, chicken wings). One night was takeout from Pizza Corner across the street. Cousin's DH went to get it and we said just get whatever, so my jaw dropped when I saw - poke pizza! There's no tomato sauce or cheese on it, so it's actually not as weird as it sounds and it was pretty good. It's thin crust and crispy, so kind of equivalent to smoked salmon on crackers. The more normal Margherita pizza was good too, still crunchy even though it was takeout. We also did takeout from Daiichi Ramen in Kapolei. It was good, but probably better fresh at the restaurant.
Scheduled Activities
The fish feeding at Rainbow Reef was fun to watch. I was surprised that they feed them nori (seaweed) and cabbage. The fish loved the cabbage. We also did the fish feeding at the koi pond. A CM gives out fish food pellets and it's on the side of the pond that's part of Makahiki (it's in the afternoon, so no dining service there since they don't serve lunch). There's a white koi that has a yellow or orange-ish Mickey-shaped spot on its head. Mickey's face isn't perfectly round, but close enough.
I took DD to the Toddler Time Splash and Play activity on the beach. We tossed a ball around, dug for treasure in the sand, and made a sand castle (or rather just played in the sand). Really all stuff you could do yourself, no need for a scheduled activity. The digging for treasure was interesting. The kids were given rakes and shovels and told to look for treasure in a rectangular area. DD was raking and hardly displacing much sand. I was thinking how deep did they bury it and absentmindedly digging around with my hand in one small corner of the rectangle. Lo and behold, I felt something and pulled out a small burlap sack with a bunch of rubber fish toys. Turns out that was the only thing buried and the kids got to pick out a toy from the sack. I think it would be much more fun if they hid them individually so each kid can find their own.
We went to the Starlit Hui show on a Thursday. It was also on Sunday and Tuesday when we were there. The schedule does seem to change though, I've seen Monday and Thursday mentioned. The line to the show is the pathway between Aunty's and 'Ama 'Ama. We had to show either our pool wrist bands or room key to get in. We got there around 7:15 pm and the line started moving not long after. The CM put down bamboo mats and we got a spot about in the middle of the space. The view was fine until the characters dance party at the end, then everyone gets up to dance and it's harder to see. The boys were a little bored until the men came out with the fire torches, but DD was mesmerized through the entire thing.
Pools and beach
All the kids loved the beach and splash pad (Keiki Cove). I think they would like any beach as long as it has sand. But the Aulani beach is especially nice for little kids since it's so sheltered and calm. There are free sand toy rentals at the Beach Rentals shack, though they sometimes run out. The splash pad isn't particularly big or unique, but there are lots of loungers around and even a few tables, where we did poolside dining for lunch one day.
We didn't spend much time at Menehune Bridge. DS doesn't like getting water in his face and cousin's DS was more interested in Aunty's Beach House. DD liked it, but since adults can't go on the play structure, it was a challenge keeping track of her up there.
There are 2 water slides at Aulani (not counting the 2 small ones at Menehune Bridge). One is a tube slide (Tubestone Curl), there are single and double tubes. I really enjoyed this one and went on it quite a few times. Once you get down, there is a zero entry part where you can get out or you can continue on to the lazy river. DS doesn't like thrill rides. I convinced/bribed him to try it once, he said it was fun but too fast and didn't want to go again. It's not really all that fast.... DD is more the daredevil and went on it a few times with DH. The line usually wasn't too bad, most times around 5 minutes, once about 10-15 minutes. The other slide (Volcanic Vertical) is a body slide, completely enclosed and pitch black. I tried it once and knew that my kids wouldn't like it. There were kids who liked it though, one who screamed (in a good way) all the way down. There were usually only 2-3 people in line for this one.
My favorite was the adult only, two tiered, infinity-edge whirlpool spa ('Alohi Point). So relaxing.
PhotoPass
There are PhotoPass photographers around. One took pictures of us at the splash pad with a GoPro camera. Another took pictures during the fish feeding at Rainbow Reef from within the tank also with a GoPro camera (we were outside). To see the photos, I had to go to the PhotoPass station at the souvenir store (Kalepa's Store), give them the location and approximate time, then look through some photos until I found us. I wasn't able to find the splash pad photos, in hindsight, it occurred to me maybe they were looking for a regular camera photo and not a GoPro camera photo. There are also photographers at Aunty's, but I totally forgot to check for those photos.
Out of Aulani
Besides grocery shopping (Costco, Target, Safeway), we only left Aulani for a day and a half. One day we did a North Shore trip. We went to the Dole Plantation and rode the train, had some Dole Whip (tasted the same as Aulani’s), and fed the koi. The kids enjoyed the train ride, DS was very curious about the various harvesters we saw. The koi feeding is interesting because there are so many of them. They all crowd to the edge of the pond to get the food that some end up on top of other koi, completely out of the water, flapping around until they can find a space to squeeze back into the water. We did the maze last time and decided not to do it again even though DS wanted to. It's best done on a not so hot, overcast day. It must have taken us at least an hour and a half to find all 8 stencils hidden around the maze. This is with DH using the tiny provided map. If it was up to me, we'd probably still be there.
From Dole Plantation, we went to Macky's shrimp truck for lunch. We've been there several times and it's always good. We keep meaning to try other ones, but the one time we did (Romy's), the shrimp was mushy. My favorite is the butter garlic, the spicy one is quite good too. The lemon one is a little too sour. I wanted to try the coconut one this time, but they were out. There is a $2 off/plate coupon in one of the tourist magazines. I picked it up at Dole Plantation since I'd forgotten to pick up any tourist magazines from the airport (Aulani doesn't seem to have them, I asked). After lunch, we went to Laniakea Beach to see sea turtles. Parking is by the side of the road and it was packed. There were 3 sea turtles lying in the sand. Volunteers had roped off the area so people don't get too close. The kids looked at them for less than a minute, got bored since they were just sleeping, and promptly started to play in the sand. After that, it was still early, so we ended up going to Ala Moana Mall in Waikiki. We had dinner at the food court in Shirokiya (Japanese department store). The takoyaki and ramen were good, I enjoy the place because it reminds me of our trip to Japan many years ago, pre-kids.
On Friday, the plan was an early dinner at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, then walk over to Hilton Hawaiian Village to see the fireworks. As the name implies, the place has great tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork cutlets). The kurobuta pork is the juiciest (but pricey), I like any of the ones that come with the grind yourself sesame seeds (they give you a mortar and pestle) for the sauce - so aromatic. Anyways, it turned into a bit of a fiasco. We were a little late out the door, then the parking gate wouldn't open so we had to go through the porte cochere (and stopped by a CM, had to explain). DH made a wrong turn coming out, but he thought he could go around the golf course, which he could have if the road wasn't closed! So all the way back around again. I had entered the restaurant's Beach Walk, Honolulu address into the car's GPS, but somehow it mapped to another Beach Walk on some other part of the island. By the time we realized it, there was no place to exit the freeway for miles. Silver lining, I guess we did get to see a part of the island we haven't before, there were some very sharply straight mountain ranges. We finally get turned around and make it into Waikiki, but the traffic on surface streets was stop and go. We didn't make it to the restaurant until 6:30 pm and it was a 20 minute wait for a table. Fireworks were at 7:45 pm, so it felt like we would be cutting it too close. There was no wait at the Japanese noodle restaurant (Shingen) next door, so we went there instead. It was decent, but a little pricey for noodles. In hindsight, we should have just had dinner after the fireworks, it would have been a lot less rushed. I think I get tunnel vision sometimes with my plans.... We end up watching the fireworks from the beach behind the Army Museum instead of walking all the way down to Hilton Hawaiian Village. As soon as we got to the beach, the kids promptly started to play in the sand. DD watched the fireworks for a minute, the others hardly looked up from the sand. Sigh - we probably should have just stayed at Aulani.
All in all, we had a fantastic time at Aulani. We're usually not stay at the resort type people, but there is so much to do at Aulani. I hope to make it back one day. Thanks for reading, it's a little longer than I intended! Feel free to ask any questions.
DH is in charge of those and I never know where he stores them. The trip was my family (me, DH, DS6, DD3), my mom, my cousin's family (cousin, cousin's DH, DS7, DD2). We had a dedicated 2 bedroom villa and it was a full house. The half bath outside the bedrooms was nice to have. We had an ocean view unit and I requested higher floor, facing Waikolohe Valley, in the Ewa tower. We got unit 1250, which is an end unit in the short wing of the Ewa tower furthest from the ocean and closest to the lobby. I thought the view was great, plus we had no neighbors on one side.Aunty's Beach House
The two boys enjoyed Aunty's Beach House a lot. The staff there is great, always so friendly. They did the free sign-up activities, Volcano Disruption, Stitch's Space Goo, and Menehune Musical Mix-Up. The Menehune one was an after thought, it's only 30 minutes (the others are 1 hour) and I wasn't sure they would be interested (it's a scavenger hunt for Hawaiian instruments and then they learn to play them). I was in line for Space Goo anyways and the schedule worked out. Turns out they liked it, by then they were very into the Menehune! I wondered if they would come home and talk about the Menehune at school and no one would know what they were talking about!
They also did lunch once and dinner twice at Aunty's (lunch is at 11:30 am and dinner is at 5:30 pm). It's $8 and served family style. The menu doesn't seem to change day-to-day, I don't remember exactly, but it was things like pizza, mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and fruit kabobs with chocolate sauce for dessert.The procedure for the free sign-up activities as well as lunch/dinner at Aunty's is the CMs come out at 7:45 am and start going down the line giving out tickets. You fill out the activity ticket with child's name, age, and your phone number and give it back to a CM. Once the tickets for a particular event/time are gone, they make an announcement. For lunch/dinner you have to stay in line to pay. The week we were there seemed moderately busy(?), hard to say since I have no comparison point. I was there on a Monday and a Tuesday at about 7:20 am and the line was 20-30 deep. On Monday I got the last 2 tickets for Volcano Disruption at 3 pm (the other time was 7:30 pm). On Tuesday, Stitch's Space Goo was at 10 am and 3 pm. I didn't hear any announcements about anything being full. They don't seem to offer Volcano Disruption and Stitch's Space Goo on the same day. I guess people would just sign up for both and the people in the back would get nothing. I think the schedule gets changed around, so don't count on the same times on the same day of the week. Also, the CMs always say to come 30 minutes before the scheduled time. I think if you're late, they'll give the spot away.
The registration process at Aunty's takes a good 15 minutes, so it's a good idea to get it taken care of before your first scheduled event. You have to fill out the form: adults authorized for pick-up (name, birth date, phone number), kids (name, birth date), secret word used for pick-up. I was able to put both my son and nephew on the same form. The CM has to enter it all into the computer, we had 4 authorized adults besides me, so it took a while! But it turned out I was the only one who ever picked up.... Then they get what looks like a MagicBand (used for check-in, check-out), which you have to pay $12.95 for, but it's refundable if returned clean and unscratched (CM didn't seem that picky about this when I returned them). It's green with Stitch on it. Might make a nice souvenir and you can use it on future trips, but we have too much clutter so I returned it. They also put a clip on it so it's not removable unless a CM does it (or maybe scissors, we didn't try). And lastly, they take a picture of adult(s) and kid(s) together, so make sure you have the kids with you! The other authorized adults didn't need to be there, I was told they can take a picture when they came to pick-up, just had to show their room key, photo ID, and secret word. Since I had my picture taken, I only needed room key and secret word.
Menehune Adventure Trail game
The boys LOVED the Menehune Adventure Trail game. It's a scavenger hunt type game similar to the Agent P game at Epcot. It's on an iPad mini now (check out from the Pau Hana community center), I saw some YouTube videos that had a cell phone. There are 4 outside games that take about 45 minutes and 1 in the lobby that takes about 20. If you can only do one, I would pick the lobby one, it's short, doesn't take as much walking, things are pretty easy to find, and it has 2 of my favorite effects. One of which gives a little souvenir...oops, hope I haven't said too much.
If you want to do an outside one though, I would ask about doing the one with the sea turtle or the one with the baby sea turtles (they're on separate games). I think each game has a fixed set of effects, though once you finish them all they mix them all up and you can play again! I didn't try asking for a specific game, so I don't know for sure if you can, and maybe I just like sea turtles! On the plane ride home, DS and I listed out all the effects and he drew pictures for them all, he loved it that much. I think we missed a few though, during one of the games there was some type of glitch and the iPad went black and then came back on. I guess we'll just have to go back! One secret I learned after our trip, there is hidden Menehune in a keyhole in the lobby. See the YouTube video so you won't miss it like we did!
On-site Dining
DD turned 3 on this trip, so we did Makahiki character breakfast for her birthday. Service was adequate but not particularly friendly. We were put at an inside table, but DH asked to be moved since it's a little dark inside. We were moved outside after a little wait. Mickey is at the photo-op before being seated. Minnie and Goofy came by twice (less interaction the second time), Goofy was the most interactive. The kids did the fish puppet parade and the coconut shell banging. The buffet had the typical breakfast buffet items (good selection of fruit, omelet station, eggs, bacon, sausage, Mickey waffles, pancakes, etc). Important tip: only the pancakes at the kids' station have chocolate chip!
They also had miso soup, fried rice, and some Hawaiian items (kailua pork hash, moco loco, pineapple with li hing mui, pineapple with black lava salt). I probably should have tried the lava salt just so I could say I did, but DM said it wasn't good and scared me off. Apparently, it's salt and charcoal (Google search!). Everything I had tasted fine, though nothing was a stand out. I had put on the reservation that it was DD's birthday, but I think because of the table change, we had to remind the CM and they brought out a small cupcake with a candle and sang Happy Birthday. Later that day, we picked up a Mickey and Friends Luau ice cream cake from the Baskin Robbins in Kapolei. It was really cute and fit Aulani perfectly.We went to 'Ama 'Ama once for lunch. The ambiance is nice with the ocean view and we were seated next to the fountain with the lifelike glass koi fish in the water. Service was friendlier here. The corn chowder was good, chicken wings were a little dry. The kailua pork on Chinese steamed buns were good because of the 3 sauces (pork itself was a little on the dry side). I liked the curry chutney one the best, there was also a BBQ sauce and a Sriracha type hot sauce. The chopped salad had furikake (seasoned seaweed flakes) in it, which went surprisingly well with ranch dressing.
Another day we got lunch from Mama's Snack Shop and brought it to the beach. They can put it in boxes and a bag if you ask so it's easier to carry. The coconut shrimp was very good, sweet and crunchy. They also have a variety of hot dogs and sausages, with choice or soft or crusty bread. I thought the crusty bread was a little hard and not that crunchy. Cousin's DH got the soft bread, which turned out to be a Hawaiian sweet roll, which he seemed to enjoy. There is shaved ice next to Mama's and self-serve Dole Whip at Lava Shack across the way.
Off-site Dining
Our first day, we went to Monkeypod across the street from Aulani for happy hour (3-5:30 pm everyday). We hadn't gotten our bearings yet and didn't know how far it was, so we drove, which turned out to be a silly decision. It's about as far to walk to the restaurant as to the Aulani parking lot, and it was impossible to find parking at the restaurant. We were all dropped off and the two DH's drove back to the Aulani lot to park. When I asked for a table for 9, I was told "within 1 hour". So...we starting thinking about alternatives while waiting for the DHs to walk back. When they got back 10-15 minutes later though, our table was ready. We were seated upstairs and there were a lot of empty tables. I guess they just opened up the section? Anyways, most appetizers were half off. We had the corn chowder, chicken wings, and truffle fries (everything was good, but the chowder was my favorite). We also had 3 different pizzas ($9 each). Those were just okay, some were a little burnt on the bottom.
We did dinner in the villa most nights since the two DDs were on a weird nap schedule and would sleep until after 6 pm. My cousin's DD had a cold (which is why she's not mentioned in the TR much). I don't know what my DD's excuse was. She slept a lot on this trip, I guess the sun and activity wore her out. One night it was Costco food (4 different types of poke, roast chicken, chicken wings). One night was takeout from Pizza Corner across the street. Cousin's DH went to get it and we said just get whatever, so my jaw dropped when I saw - poke pizza! There's no tomato sauce or cheese on it, so it's actually not as weird as it sounds and it was pretty good. It's thin crust and crispy, so kind of equivalent to smoked salmon on crackers. The more normal Margherita pizza was good too, still crunchy even though it was takeout. We also did takeout from Daiichi Ramen in Kapolei. It was good, but probably better fresh at the restaurant.
Scheduled Activities
The fish feeding at Rainbow Reef was fun to watch. I was surprised that they feed them nori (seaweed) and cabbage. The fish loved the cabbage. We also did the fish feeding at the koi pond. A CM gives out fish food pellets and it's on the side of the pond that's part of Makahiki (it's in the afternoon, so no dining service there since they don't serve lunch). There's a white koi that has a yellow or orange-ish Mickey-shaped spot on its head. Mickey's face isn't perfectly round, but close enough.
I took DD to the Toddler Time Splash and Play activity on the beach. We tossed a ball around, dug for treasure in the sand, and made a sand castle (or rather just played in the sand). Really all stuff you could do yourself, no need for a scheduled activity. The digging for treasure was interesting. The kids were given rakes and shovels and told to look for treasure in a rectangular area. DD was raking and hardly displacing much sand. I was thinking how deep did they bury it and absentmindedly digging around with my hand in one small corner of the rectangle. Lo and behold, I felt something and pulled out a small burlap sack with a bunch of rubber fish toys. Turns out that was the only thing buried and the kids got to pick out a toy from the sack. I think it would be much more fun if they hid them individually so each kid can find their own.
We went to the Starlit Hui show on a Thursday. It was also on Sunday and Tuesday when we were there. The schedule does seem to change though, I've seen Monday and Thursday mentioned. The line to the show is the pathway between Aunty's and 'Ama 'Ama. We had to show either our pool wrist bands or room key to get in. We got there around 7:15 pm and the line started moving not long after. The CM put down bamboo mats and we got a spot about in the middle of the space. The view was fine until the characters dance party at the end, then everyone gets up to dance and it's harder to see. The boys were a little bored until the men came out with the fire torches, but DD was mesmerized through the entire thing.
Pools and beach
All the kids loved the beach and splash pad (Keiki Cove). I think they would like any beach as long as it has sand. But the Aulani beach is especially nice for little kids since it's so sheltered and calm. There are free sand toy rentals at the Beach Rentals shack, though they sometimes run out. The splash pad isn't particularly big or unique, but there are lots of loungers around and even a few tables, where we did poolside dining for lunch one day.
We didn't spend much time at Menehune Bridge. DS doesn't like getting water in his face and cousin's DS was more interested in Aunty's Beach House. DD liked it, but since adults can't go on the play structure, it was a challenge keeping track of her up there.
There are 2 water slides at Aulani (not counting the 2 small ones at Menehune Bridge). One is a tube slide (Tubestone Curl), there are single and double tubes. I really enjoyed this one and went on it quite a few times. Once you get down, there is a zero entry part where you can get out or you can continue on to the lazy river. DS doesn't like thrill rides. I convinced/bribed him to try it once, he said it was fun but too fast and didn't want to go again. It's not really all that fast.... DD is more the daredevil and went on it a few times with DH. The line usually wasn't too bad, most times around 5 minutes, once about 10-15 minutes. The other slide (Volcanic Vertical) is a body slide, completely enclosed and pitch black. I tried it once and knew that my kids wouldn't like it. There were kids who liked it though, one who screamed (in a good way) all the way down. There were usually only 2-3 people in line for this one.
My favorite was the adult only, two tiered, infinity-edge whirlpool spa ('Alohi Point). So relaxing.
PhotoPass
There are PhotoPass photographers around. One took pictures of us at the splash pad with a GoPro camera. Another took pictures during the fish feeding at Rainbow Reef from within the tank also with a GoPro camera (we were outside). To see the photos, I had to go to the PhotoPass station at the souvenir store (Kalepa's Store), give them the location and approximate time, then look through some photos until I found us. I wasn't able to find the splash pad photos, in hindsight, it occurred to me maybe they were looking for a regular camera photo and not a GoPro camera photo. There are also photographers at Aunty's, but I totally forgot to check for those photos.
Out of Aulani
Besides grocery shopping (Costco, Target, Safeway), we only left Aulani for a day and a half. One day we did a North Shore trip. We went to the Dole Plantation and rode the train, had some Dole Whip (tasted the same as Aulani’s), and fed the koi. The kids enjoyed the train ride, DS was very curious about the various harvesters we saw. The koi feeding is interesting because there are so many of them. They all crowd to the edge of the pond to get the food that some end up on top of other koi, completely out of the water, flapping around until they can find a space to squeeze back into the water. We did the maze last time and decided not to do it again even though DS wanted to. It's best done on a not so hot, overcast day. It must have taken us at least an hour and a half to find all 8 stencils hidden around the maze. This is with DH using the tiny provided map. If it was up to me, we'd probably still be there.
From Dole Plantation, we went to Macky's shrimp truck for lunch. We've been there several times and it's always good. We keep meaning to try other ones, but the one time we did (Romy's), the shrimp was mushy. My favorite is the butter garlic, the spicy one is quite good too. The lemon one is a little too sour. I wanted to try the coconut one this time, but they were out. There is a $2 off/plate coupon in one of the tourist magazines. I picked it up at Dole Plantation since I'd forgotten to pick up any tourist magazines from the airport (Aulani doesn't seem to have them, I asked). After lunch, we went to Laniakea Beach to see sea turtles. Parking is by the side of the road and it was packed. There were 3 sea turtles lying in the sand. Volunteers had roped off the area so people don't get too close. The kids looked at them for less than a minute, got bored since they were just sleeping, and promptly started to play in the sand. After that, it was still early, so we ended up going to Ala Moana Mall in Waikiki. We had dinner at the food court in Shirokiya (Japanese department store). The takoyaki and ramen were good, I enjoy the place because it reminds me of our trip to Japan many years ago, pre-kids.
On Friday, the plan was an early dinner at Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, then walk over to Hilton Hawaiian Village to see the fireworks. As the name implies, the place has great tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork cutlets). The kurobuta pork is the juiciest (but pricey), I like any of the ones that come with the grind yourself sesame seeds (they give you a mortar and pestle) for the sauce - so aromatic. Anyways, it turned into a bit of a fiasco. We were a little late out the door, then the parking gate wouldn't open so we had to go through the porte cochere (and stopped by a CM, had to explain). DH made a wrong turn coming out, but he thought he could go around the golf course, which he could have if the road wasn't closed! So all the way back around again. I had entered the restaurant's Beach Walk, Honolulu address into the car's GPS, but somehow it mapped to another Beach Walk on some other part of the island. By the time we realized it, there was no place to exit the freeway for miles. Silver lining, I guess we did get to see a part of the island we haven't before, there were some very sharply straight mountain ranges. We finally get turned around and make it into Waikiki, but the traffic on surface streets was stop and go. We didn't make it to the restaurant until 6:30 pm and it was a 20 minute wait for a table. Fireworks were at 7:45 pm, so it felt like we would be cutting it too close. There was no wait at the Japanese noodle restaurant (Shingen) next door, so we went there instead. It was decent, but a little pricey for noodles. In hindsight, we should have just had dinner after the fireworks, it would have been a lot less rushed. I think I get tunnel vision sometimes with my plans.... We end up watching the fireworks from the beach behind the Army Museum instead of walking all the way down to Hilton Hawaiian Village. As soon as we got to the beach, the kids promptly started to play in the sand. DD watched the fireworks for a minute, the others hardly looked up from the sand. Sigh - we probably should have just stayed at Aulani.
All in all, we had a fantastic time at Aulani. We're usually not stay at the resort type people, but there is so much to do at Aulani. I hope to make it back one day. Thanks for reading, it's a little longer than I intended! Feel free to ask any questions.
