Happy in Hawaii –- Aulani & Oahu with a Toddler ~ Updated 7/20: Final Update and link to new TR!

[Dugette]

I'm catching up but Kate is still obsessed with taking off her shoes in the car. Usually when we are two inutes away from our destination, I hear the Velcro ripping open!

Haha, of course. Izzy was REALLY obsessed with it on this trip, but she seems to have forgotten all about that "fun" these days, so that's good.

I hate that awkward feeling when a kid wants your toy. We shared some of our beach toys and lost "the best shovel ever." Which okay, it's a Melissa and Doug starfish shovel, but it's awesome. I don't mind sharing, except for the paranoia I'm never getting it back, but it's that awkward "okay, we are leaving... Can we please have our (cheap plastic junk that we can't live without) back? Then the kid freaks out and I feel like a jerk!!

Oooh, I bet that was a cool shovel - I like those Melissa and Doug toys. It is awkward - you want to be nice and set a good example and share, but then it can go wrong so easily. We actually do share with another little girl later in the trip, once Izzy is not quite so dependent on her toys, so I feel a bit better about myself.

Oh man that French toast looks good. I loved our breakfast at Ama Ama... But.... I'm not sure that was on our menu. I'm SURE my husband would ha e ordered it!

Those Mickey ears are darn cute! I saw them in the shop and then never saw anyone actually wearing them! Interesting about Duffy at Epcot.

Huh, I think the French toast has been on the menu for awhile. Hope it stays - that stuff is delightful!

True, I never saw anyone wearing the Mickey ears either. They were cute, though.

 

[Dugette]

Characters Galore

We finished up our walk at our destination, the Halawai Lawn:



Looking up at the resort:



It was pretty empty, so Izzy loved having a chance to run around:



And, soon enough, we spotted Stitch making his way out :



Stitch had apparently acquired a new friend along the way:



I think we were right after that special friend. This ended up being a great meet – Izzy had a lot of fun meeting Stitch and the CMs did a nice job taking photos:

















As we walked away, I glanced back at the next girl and saw her wielding an autograph book:



I realized that we’d forgotten to give Stitch our book, so we waited for the next girl, then were able to jump back in to get Izzy’s book signed.

Next, Izzy spotted Mickey and Minnie, so we headed over to their line (take note of how they are in the grass, a step down from the sidewalk ):



Looks like Izzy was dancing or something :



When it was our turn, she hugged them both. Minnie was much more warm-hearted this meet than last, so that was good too. We also remembered the autograph book this time. I noticed that Mickey was left-handed. And we got a fun series of pictures:



Since she was looking down, I said, “Izzy, look up!”:



So literal!

Then, the money shot:



I also took video of this meet:

(click to watch)

Then, immediately after meeting Mickey and Minnie, Izzy tripped stepping back up onto the sidewalk from the grass and skinned her knee. She started crying, but I told her we’d go get it fixed up for her. The nearest place to us was Aunty’s Beach House, so I figured they would have something to clean her up, being a childcare facility and all. Well, the CM behind the desk only had a band-aid and a wet paper towel, but that did the trick and Izzy was happy again, proud to show off her band-aid.

While I was there, I asked if there would be any characters at their open house the next morning. They checked and said there would not be any. Good to know. I decided to wait for another open house later in the week.

On the way out, Izzy wanted to take a picture with their fish mailbox:






All fixed up!

Next stop was to refill my mug at the secret station I’d just discovered:



Our next scheduled meet was Goofy, over by the lazy river entrance. We were the first ones there, maybe about 5 minutes early. While we waited, the Photopass photographer struck up a conversation with us. He was super nice and his name was Bob. He told me that another gig he has is doing videos of first birthday parties. He loves asking the parents how they chose the child’s name, so I told him about how we came up with Izzy’s (years ago, we were looking through Dug’s family history/ancestry info and there were two Isabellas and one Isabel – one even had a town named after her – we loved the name back before it was popular). He also mentioned that he’d just done the graduation video for his very first 1st birthday client. I thought that was pretty cool that he got to bookend their childhood like that. He talked about how he loves his Photopass job and it makes him feel like he’s on vacation all the time. He likes feeling like part of the family when taking photos. He also gets discounts if he wants to stay at Aulani, so not a bad gig at all! He was a pleasure to chat with. He was also pretty fun, as he insisted that we stage a shot for Goofy to photobomb us as he came over :












Yeah, Izzy was clueless on that one.

Time to go see Goofy:



Bob took a ton of photos for us:









And we even remembered to get the book signed again:



I also have video of the meet (in which you can definitely hear Bob):

(click to watch)

After that meet, it was time to head back to the room and get Izzy down for her nap.

Up next: Naptime and a sunset catamaran ride!

 

[AZMermaid]

Bob was our favorite Photopass guy! He always took so much time with us. I didn't think to call the character line until our last few days when I was determined to find Donald. You are so smart!! I think water Goofy was my favorite- mostly for the uniqueness of it.

That beverage station is totally hidden- I never even noticed it until we picked the kids up at Aunty's one day. It was about the furthest away you could get from our room, so we didn't use it much- but made a mental note for next time!

That last picture of Izzy, Mickey and Minnie is so perfect.

How do you insert the videos? I have a few I want to put in my trip report, but don't know how to do it.

 

[Imagineer5]

Aw glad you got in some nice meets with Stitch, Mickey/ Minnie and Goofy. And Bob sounds like a great photographer, that is fun! I wanted to say how little Izzy looks in these pics, compared to her recent 3rd birthday trip and even when we saw you guys a few months ago. This was almost a year ago, wow!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Glad to see the character interactions got much better! My experience is that Stitch has always been one of the best at doing special things with the kids.

And I'm glad Minnie was on better behavior this time around.

Sounds like Bob is the photographer to see! Cool guy! Does he share his Aulani discount?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wow, lots of fun character meets! And Bob sounds really nice ... definitely seems like he has a nice gig there, and how neat that he is now doing graduations events for people he had done 1st birthday's for!

Aw, too bad about Izzy falling and scraping her knee, but glad it was an easy fix!

 

[hokieinpa]

Wow, a day full of characters!

The Stitch meet looks really cute! And love this shot with Mickey and Minnie!

Poor Izzy and her knee! It seems like she got over it pretty quickly, though!

I love meeting chatty CMs in line! They usually have great stories!

 

[Leshaface]

Wow I could eat breakfast out there every morning and never get tired of that view! Do you need to request a water view before being seated or all they all pretty much like this?

I ordered what I’d come here for: Chocolate Milk-dipped Haupia Bread French Toast - stuffed with Bananas and Peanut Butter. It did not disappoint. Here it is accompanied by the chocolate and peanut butter (I am a weirdo that doesn’t like syrup, so this was perfect for me!):

That looks delicious! Oh my gosh, DH is like that with Pancakes and it drives me nuts that he can just roll it up and eat it dry!

Looks like Izzy’s going to town back there :

DS has a crazy obsession with Stitch right now! Hopefully he'll continue to love him as much next October!

We peeked in and found housekeeping making the bed. Seemed odd, as we’d just had service the prior day and this was a DVC room (not made up every day).

That's a nice surprise though! Wonder if they do it more often at Aulani than at other resorts?

Such a beautiful view!

You might be able to see that there are a few streams of water coming down at the top of that stairway. That scared Izzy , so I snuck up the steps (no adults allowed on this, not even to help your kid)

Uh?? Isn't that a little dangerous then for smaller children? You'd think for Izzy's age and smaller one parent would be allowed to guide them.

Love!

I don’t know what got into me, but I went into crazy stalker mode and told Izzy we were going to catch Mickey, then we ambushed him :

He looks shocked!

Those ears are amazing!! I bet they're also like $30 bucks too

And here’s where you could grill some meals:

This is something I would totally do. In one of the TR's I read, the family picked up some fresh fish at Costco and made it on the grills. Perfect!

What kind of hat is on Stitch's head?

So literal!

Perfect!

(years ago, we were looking through Dug’s family history/ancestry info and there were two Isabellas and one Isabel – one even had a town named after her – we loved the name back before it was popular)

How cool is this story!

I was wondering when Goofy was going to bring his hand down!

 

[Schmagurty]

Hi @Dugette,

Thanks so much! We will just miss crossing paths. We are arriving on January 19 and have five days, four nights in Aulani. Then, we have thee nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. If you would point me towards any other blogs and web resources, I would appreciate it! I'm going to AZMermaid's to read it today. One tip from your write up that I really appreciated was how you guys took turns visiting Pearl Harbor. I was not sure how we were going to get that done with the two little ones.

Right now, our initial plan is to spend most of our time at Aulani during our stay there. When we move to the Hilton, we're are planning a trip up to the North shore and Pearl Harbor. But it's pretty early in our planning so it'll likely change. In general, we're in the early stages of figuring out two-child life (which is wonderful but brings its own logistical challenges as one would imagine!), so I'm sure our ambitions will grow once we get a bit further along and closer to the travel date. We're all pretty excited to go.

 

[Schmagurty]

Hi @Dugette,

Thanks so much! We will just miss crossing paths. We are arriving on January 19 and have five days, four nights in Aulani. Then, we have thee nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu. If you would point me towards any other blogs and web resources, I would appreciate it! I'm going to AZMermaid's to read it today. One tip from your write up that I really appreciated was how you guys took turns visiting Pearl Harbor. I was not sure how we were going to get that done with the two little ones.

Right now, our initial plan is to spend most of our time at Aulani during our stay there. When we move to the Hilton, we're are planning a trip up to the North shore and Pearl Harbor. But it's pretty early in our planning so it'll likely change. In general, we're in the early stages of figuring out two-child life (which is wonderful but brings its own logistical challenges as one would imagine!), so I'm sure our ambitions will grow once we get a bit further along and closer to the travel date. We're all pretty excited to go.

 

[Dugette]

Bob was our favorite Photopass guy! He always took so much time with us.

Oh, wow, you got to know him too! He was really fantastic, to the point that I was always keeping an eye out for him.

I didn't think to call the character line until our last few days when I was determined to find Donald. You are so smart!! I think water Goofy was my favorite- mostly for the uniqueness of it.

Well, I knew that Izzy would want to meet characters, so I figured I should be armed with the information on their whereabouts. Water Goofy was pretty cool, right there by the lazy river.

That beverage station is totally hidden- I never even noticed it until we picked the kids up at Aunty's one day. It was about the furthest away you could get from our room, so we didn't use it much- but made a mental note for next time!

Yeah, I just happened to look up and see it as we went past, but I never would have known it was there if I hadn't been in the right spot.

That last picture of Izzy, Mickey and Minnie is so perfect.

I love how that one turned out! My favorite!

How do you insert the videos? I have a few I want to put in my trip report, but don't know how to do it.

For me, I use Photobucket and copy the image link, just exactly like I do with the pictures. It probably isn't the best way, but it seems to work. I know others are able to embed YouTube videos right into their posts, which is pretty cool, but I haven't tried that.

Aw glad you got in some nice meets with Stitch, Mickey/ Minnie and Goofy. And Bob sounds like a great photographer, that is fun!

The character meets were a lot of fun! Always good to see our old friends while they're vacationing in Hawaii. Bob was so nice and did a great job!

I wanted to say how little Izzy looks in these pics, compared to her recent 3rd birthday trip and even when we saw you guys a few months ago. This was almost a year ago, wow!

I know, it's amazing how much she's growing up! I remember thinking how "old" she'd be on this trip - 2! Now she seems like such a baby. I think it helps that she's finally getting hair (not a ton, but better than she had) - makes her look a little older. You can't tell from the pictures, but her communication skills are worlds different now than a year ago. On this trip, she talked, but had a limited vocabulary/knowledge of the world. Now she talks like a 6 year old. It's blowing our minds! And she has a crazy memory. I mean, I'll be driving along with her in the backseat (facing the back, even, so she can't see what's coming) and she's like, "That's the way to daycare. Daddy went the wrong way, but this is the good way. Look at the trees! They're changing colors for Halloween. I see swimming lessons! I'm going to listen to my teacher!" Etc. She is a talker. And I asked her about Disneyland the other day and she was like, "Ooooh, I'm going to ride Peter Pan's Flight! I'll fly up high in a boat! With Peter and Captain Hook!" And on and on for many other rides too. I cannot believe the things she knows.

Glad to see the character interactions got much better! My experience is that Stitch has always been one of the best at doing special things with the kids.

Stitch was great! We actually have an even more wonderful time with him on an upcoming meet!

And I'm glad Minnie was on better behavior this time around.

Me too!

Sounds like Bob is the photographer to see! Cool guy! Does he share his Aulani discount?

He was great! Haha, I didn't ask about the discount, but he was nice enough, maybe he would?

Wow, lots of fun character meets! And Bob sounds really nice ... definitely seems like he has a nice gig there, and how neat that he is now doing graduations events for people he had done 1st birthday's for!

I think that is so cool that he has been doing what he loves for so long that he's seeing the 1st birthday kids graduate high school! I love that!

Aw, too bad about Izzy falling and scraping her knee, but glad it was an easy fix!

It was a bummer how we had literally just finished a great moment and then came crashing back down so fast. But it was all okay - she loves bandaids.

Wow, a day full of characters!

The Stitch meet looks really cute! And love this shot with Mickey and Minnie!

Thanks, I love that Mickey and Minnie shot too! I actually have it as the background picture for my nameplate right now at work (we have photo-holder ones). I love how it sums up three things I love - Izzy, Disney, and Hawaii!

Poor Izzy and her knee! It seems like she got over it pretty quickly, though!

Yeah, she got over it pretty well - she is a big fan of bandaids.

I love meeting chatty CMs in line! They usually have great stories!

It was really nice chatting with Bob. I think he probably could have shared many more stores if Goofy hadn't butted in.

Wow I could eat breakfast out there every morning and never get tired of that view! Do you need to request a water view before being seated or all they all pretty much like this?

You know, I didn't request anything and just ended up there. But it seemed that they were trying to seat everyone at the best-view tables. Breakfast doesn't seem to get too crowded (vs. dinner), so I think there are good odds of having a view. What a great way to start the day!

That looks delicious! Oh my gosh, DH is like that with Pancakes and it drives me nuts that he can just roll it up and eat it dry!

Haha, I'd get along well with your DH. I can just eat a plain waffle and I like to roll up pancakes around a sausage for a pig in a blanket. No syrup, though.

DS has a crazy obsession with Stitch right now! Hopefully he'll continue to love him as much next October!

I hope so! Are you booked for October then? Even with a 5-month-old in tow?

That's a nice surprise though! Wonder if they do it more often at Aulani than at other resorts?

Beats me. I guess we'll see in a few months.

Such a beautiful view!

There are so many gorgeous views around that place.

Uh?? Isn't that a little dangerous then for smaller children? You'd think for Izzy's age and smaller one parent would be allowed to guide them.

I totally agree. I know they are trying to keep "big kids" off so that it's safer for little ones, but it seems silly to keep their parents off when they're that little and it's so big and intimidating. I know that I was scared briefly because I couldn't always see Izzy and the last thing you want is to lose track of your toddler in a pool area. Hoping it will go better next time.

Love!

Thanks!

He looks shocked!

I'm sure he wondered what kind of crazy was chasing him down.

Those ears are amazing!! I bet they're also like $30 bucks too

I didn't even look at the price, as I knew we weren't buying. They are pretty cool, though.

This is something I would totally do. In one of the TR's I read, the family picked up some fresh fish at Costco and made it on the grills. Perfect!

I'll have to keep this in mind for next time. Nice alternative to going out for dinner, especially since we won't have full kitchens in the studios.

What kind of hat is on Stitch's head?

Honestly, I hadn't even noticed. Some kind of beach hat, maybe?

That one cracks me up.

Perfect!

I love it!

How cool is this story!

Thanks, we like it.

I was wondering when Goofy was going to bring his hand down!

Ha, I hadn't even noticed that either. Glad he did!

Hi @Dugette,

Thanks so much! We will just miss crossing paths. We are arriving on January 19 and have five days, four nights in Aulani. Then, we have thee nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu.

Wow, so close! I guess we'll warm the place up for you then!

If you would point me towards any other blogs and web resources, I would appreciate it! I'm going to AZMermaid's to read it today.

Hope you enjoy her report as much as I do! Other resources are this blog (by a DISer): https://ttimes3.wordpress.com/category/aulani/, this blog: http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2011/oct/03/aulani-with-toddler/, and this TR doesn't involve a toddler, but I got so much good info from it: http://www.disboards.com/threads/an...enture-chapter-32-added-5-23-the-end.3140126/ I know there were a couple other blogs I really enjoyed, but I can't seem to find/remember them right now. If you search something like "Aulani with a toddler", that might turn up some more things. If I can find the other blogs I'm thinking of, I'll post them later for you.

One tip from your write up that I really appreciated was how you guys took turns visiting Pearl Harbor. I was not sure how we were going to get that done with the two little ones.

That worked out really well for us! I was just intimidated by the no bags, only 1 diaper, be quiet and respectful thing - with a 2-year-old. And we are very comfortable with splitting up for things, so I'm glad we did it. In retrospect, we really only needed to split up for the movie/boat/memorial - seeing the grounds and museum were fine to do together with Izzy in the stroller. Splitting up was nice too, as it gave each of us a break and a chance to fully immerse ourselves in our surroundings, rather than catering to a toddler nonstop.

Right now, our initial plan is to spend most of our time at Aulani during our stay there. When we move to the Hilton, we're are planning a trip up to the North shore and Pearl Harbor. But it's pretty early in our planning so it'll likely change. In general, we're in the early stages of figuring out two-child life (which is wonderful but brings its own logistical challenges as one would imagine!), so I'm sure our ambitions will grow once we get a bit further along and closer to the travel date. We're all pretty excited to go.

Sounds like a great plan to me! That's similar to what we intend to do next time - use our non-Aulani time to explore a bit and mostly stick around Aulani when we move over there.

 

[Dugette]

Sailing Into the Sunset

We got back to the room and got dried off and changed. I put Izzy down for her nap around 2pm. I let her take her new toys into the Pack ‘n’ Play with her :



And what they look like in the dark, haha:



I think I sat inside at the table for a bit, waiting for her to fall asleep. My view (she was to the right of this, on the other side of the TV that was between us, which was blocking her view of me):



Dug had been sending texts to the relative that was staying in Ko Olina (his dad’s cousin & family), and he asked me to text the relative directly to try to meet up if we had time. So, I sent him a message, but didn’t get a reply until later on…

Eventually, I decided to go outside, as Izzy was still babbling away (to herself and/or her toys). I believe that, upon finding out that my laptop was low on power, I discovered an outlet back in the righthand corner of the room, behind the couch:



That allowed me to plug in my laptop and stretch the cord to the balcony (just barely). I kept an eye on the video monitor and mostly saw this :



Until, eventually, around 3pm, I saw this :



Whew, it was about time! (Well, way past time).

Meanwhile, Dug was taking pictures in Palm Springs:







Looks nice!

I enjoyed some time on the balcony, making some trip notes (and thank goodness I did! I’m writing this nearly a year later and would not remember nearly so much without my notes!) Eventually, I had to head back in to wake up this sleeping beauty:



My goal was to leave around 4pm, but we didn’t end up on the road until 4:18pm, so cutting it a bit close to arrive by the 4:45pm deadline. We were heading up the west side of the island. The road was called a “highway”, but it was a 35mph road with lots of pedestrians and traffic. Not super speedy. By the way, the catamaran company (Hawaii Nautical) provides a free shuttle from Aulani, but I opted out, as I wanted to make sure that Izzy was safely secured. They told me that they have two shuttles, one is a coach bus and one is a small shuttle bus – and I didn’t want to deal with lugging a carseat around if we got the little van. It was really no trouble to drive up there, as I had the car anyway. And we actually managed to get there right on time with the shuttle (little one) following close behind us. (I later heard the shuttle passengers joking about a wild ride and feeling like they were already on the open sea ).

I got out and caught my first glimpse of the boat we’d be on:



I got Izzy out of the car and we ended up checking in along with the rest of the group. I had found a deal on Yelp that allowed me to buy a $50 Hawaii Nautical voucher for $40, so I was able to use that towards our payment (which was really just me, since Izzy was free). Using the voucher was a bit of a pain, as I ended up having to email them a screenshot of it, but it all worked out fine and saved me $10.

This was a barefoot cruise, which meant we had to remove our shoes and socks before boarding. Well, Izzy was none too pleased about that. Sad girl, missing her shoes:



I got Izzy her milk and a pouch to enjoy while we listened to the intro. This was our view inside the very nice boat:



The pouch was helping her cheer up:



Izzy and I set off for a quick lap around the boat after that. It was hard keeping up with her, but she was committed to trying out all of the seats, so we did get some breaks from running laps around the boat. We also talked briefly with the parents of a sleeping almost-4-year-old, Sadie. Some pictures from our explorations:

















As you can see, we’d set sail and it was nearing sunset (this was a sunset cruise, after all). After Izzy had tired of running around, we went back inside to get some food. This wasn’t a dinner cruise, but they had a nice selection of appetizers (“pupus” in Hawaiian) and also provided a couple free drink tickets. I got Izzy some meatballs and taro bread and the crew also gave her a little cup of mini cookies, which was sweet! I got meatballs, taro bread, pulled pork, veggies, pita chips, and a Hawaiian Mimosa:





(And, yes, that is a rare look at my crossed toes – I debated posting that, as I generally don’t show off my “birth defect”, but I am a thorough trip reporter, I guess. And that drink was really good. )

Izzy liked the meatballs:



I think she got in trouble for sitting up here on the ledge by the window, as there was a drop-off to the doorway nearby. I got her down right away when the crew said something, but I'd been right next to her, making sure she wasn't going anywhere. But I get it, better to be safe than sorry on a sailing boat:



Enjoying the cookies:



While we ate, I got a return text back from that Canadian number I had texted for Dug’s relative. But, um, it was some random stranger. And he’d gotten all of Dug’s texts too. Apparently, we had the wrong number. But, being a Canadian, this guy was very friendly and conversed with me over text for a while, apologizing for putting the other party in a negative light by not responding sooner. So, that was all an unexpected oops.

There was only a small group on our boat and everyone was very friendly. The crew was great as well. I enjoyed everything about this cruise. We’re planning on doing their whale watching cruise when we go back in January – can’t wait for that!

After eating, we wandered around some more on deck. Looking up at the sail:



Looking forward (you can see Sadie’s mom there in green on the bench that we will end up on later ):



Pretty view:



And my poor attempt at a sunset selfie :



Up next: Making friends on the open sea, Uncle’s storytelling around the fire pit, and an unplanned late night Target run.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I definitely think willing a toddler to sleep is one of the more frustrating things in life - at least for my kids which never kept a regular nap schedule and tend to think that naps are for chumps. Glad Izzy did get some sleep in though and glad that things worked out with driving to the boat launch vs the shuttle

Looks like a nice boat and a nice trip - and $40 (or even the full $50) with the food and drink vouchers doesn't seem to bad). Glad that you liked it so much that you are using them again in January - which, by the way, is getting rather close!

Wow, that is a nice Canadian! To basically apologize for inconveniencing you despite you being the one texting the wrong number ... if you had gotten someone from New York they probably would have yelled at you for wasting their text count

I appreciate your full transparency as a TR reporter - from head to toes

Glad to hear there was another child on the cruise and that you made friends

 

[Imagineer5]

Glad Izzy got in a little nap, if maybe a little short! LOL. The cruise looks like so much fun, I'm glad you decided to still do it with Dug away.

I didn't see anything in your toe photo lol, maybe I need to look closer? Too funny.

Yeah, I don't think I would have been as friendly with someone from another country texting me a bunch lol! But I deleted my text plan for a bit (just added it back in with a new plan) so I was annoyed when anyone w/o an iphone texted haha.

 

[AZMermaid]

I am so jealous of the Aulani figurines. We did NOT see those! I would have totally steered Kate to those instead of the Little Mermaid set of minuscule pieces we ended up getting. It is so cute!

I love her Mermaid shirt. That catamaran looks awesome. I want to do something like that next time.

So funny about your new Canadian friend.

My kids would never sleep on a boat.... or anywhere besides their room really. So I hate Sadie. Ha ha.... not really. Maybe.

Thanks for the shout out for my report!

 

[alohamom]

The catamaran trip looks amazing-you are so adventurous. I honestly dont know if I would attempt to do that on my own,with a toddler, so I take my hat off to you! Izzy is lucky to have a mom who wants to share with her all the wonderful things the world has to offer...

 

[hokieinpa]

Using the voucher was a bit of a pain, as I ended up having to email them a screenshot of it, but it all worked out fine and saved me $10.

I'm always a fan of saving money!

This was a barefoot cruise, which meant we had to remove our shoes and socks before boarding. Well, Izzy was none too pleased about that. Sad girl, missing her shoes:

I can certainly understand the attachment to shoes, but I can picture her being upset over having to take them off and it makes me laugh!

This wasn’t a dinner cruise, but they had a nice selection of appetizers (“pupus” in Hawaiian) and also provided a couple free drink tickets.

Yum! It sounds like a really nice cruise! Beautiful views, yummy snacks, and drinks!

While we ate, I got a return text back from that Canadian number I had texted for Dug’s relative. But, um, it was some random stranger.

What a strange, awkward situation! But I'm glad the Canadian was kind about the whole thing!

And my poor attempt at a sunset selfie :

Beautiful view even if Izzy seems more concerned about her lack of shoes?

 

[SimplyGoofy]

You met so many characters! How fun! It's too bad that Izzy fell - it's amazing how something as small as a band-aid makes everything better.

I love hearing about the history on Izzy's name! It's always fun to hear the backstory on how people come up with their children's names. My mom selected my name years ago - she wanted a daughter named Jennifer Jill, so there you go. Anika's name was a whole different story - my parents absolutely could not agree on a name they both liked. Even after she was born, they weren't able to hammer down a name. I believe Anika may have originally come up as Annika Sorenstam was winning a lot of golf tournaments in those days and most of my family LOVES golf. We're also Swedish, so it works. Mom and Dad finally agreed on the name, but they disagreed on the spelling - Mom wanted "Annika" while Dad wanted "Anika". You can see who won. We realized later that we have an ancestor named Anika - and it's spelled exactly that way! My dad chose correctly!

What is in a Hawaiian mimosa? It looks very tasty!

It looks like you were having a very nice time on your sunset cruise, but... a WHALE WATCHING CRUISE?! That sounds AWESOME!

 

[Dugette]

I definitely think willing a toddler to sleep is one of the more frustrating things in life - at least for my kids which never kept a regular nap schedule and tend to think that naps are for chumps. Glad Izzy did get some sleep in though and glad that things worked out with driving to the boat launch vs the shuttle

Yeah, Izzy is really hit or miss these days. She doesn't want to go down for naps (or bedtime), but she's still a pretty decent sleeper. Nights are good and naps are about 50/50 - but if she doesn't fall asleep, she just plays and talks and sings, etc. She's happy to have solo time.

Looks like a nice boat and a nice trip - and $40 (or even the full $50) with the food and drink vouchers doesn't seem to bad). Glad that you liked it so much that you are using them again in January - which, by the way, is getting rather close!

It was actually more than $50, but that was as much as I could get on the voucher, so I had to just pay the rest. I think it was around $80 (and that was just me, since she was free!) So, not the cheapest, but a good use of money, as they do a great job. You may remember in the PTR (WAY back when!) I was originally planning to do a cheaper ($20-$30) "booze cruise" out of Waikiki, but changed my mind when Dug wasn't going to be there with us. For just me and Izzy, I was willing to spend a bit more to have a more manageable environment that was closer to the resort. Glad we did it!

Wow, that is a nice Canadian! To basically apologize for inconveniencing you despite you being the one texting the wrong number ... if you had gotten someone from New York they probably would have yelled at you for wasting their text count

I know, I couldn't believe he kept texting me back, all friendly and concerned. I just thought it would be an, "oops, sorry, bye!" kinda thing.

I appreciate your full transparency as a TR reporter - from head to toes

Thanks!

Glad to hear there was another child on the cruise and that you made friends

It was nice to have a little buddy for Izzy aboard. And nice parents for me to chat with too.

Glad Izzy got in a little nap, if maybe a little short! LOL. The cruise looks like so much fun, I'm glad you decided to still do it with Dug away.

It was definitely short! I am so glad we did the cruise - it was a highlight!

I didn't see anything in your toe photo lol, maybe I need to look closer? Too funny.

Well, that's a good thing, from my point of view. I decided to post it, as it's not too unflattering of a photo from that angle. But, basically, I was born with my second toe sitting above/over the two surrounding toes a bit. Like it sits on top of the edge of the big toe and over about half of the middle toe (both feet are the same). Kinda looks like I wore too many pointy high heels (which I didn't ). It doesn't affect anything for me and never has - except that I don't own any open-toed shoes, as I just don't want to put them out there more than I need to, so more self-consciousness than anything. They're really not terribly noticeable, though, unless someone happens to be staring at my feet, I suppose.

Yeah, I don't think I would have been as friendly with someone from another country texting me a bunch lol! But I deleted my text plan for a bit (just added it back in with a new plan) so I was annoyed when anyone w/o an iphone texted haha.

I totally understand the getting annoyed with texts thing. I hung onto my old flip phone for a LONG time after most people had smart phones and unlimited text plans. I had to pay for every single text I got, though. And my boss at an old job would text me and get annoyed with me for not responding right away, but I was just upset he was costing me money AND I had to do the press-each-number-until-you-get-the-letter-you-need thing on my dumb phone.

I am so jealous of the Aulani figurines. We did NOT see those! I would have totally steered Kate to those instead of the Little Mermaid set of minuscule pieces we ended up getting. It is so cute!

I wonder if they were gone by the time you got there? They were on clearance when we got them (normally $20, marked down to $10) and I think there were only like two on the shelf. They are nice little toys and they were great for the car rides too.

I love her Mermaid shirt. That catamaran looks awesome. I want to do something like that next time.

Thanks! I highly recommend a catamaran ride! I can't wait to do that again!

So funny about your new Canadian friend.

It was so hilarious, yet embarrassing, at the same time!

My kids would never sleep on a boat.... or anywhere besides their room really. So I hate Sadie. Ha ha.... not really. Maybe.

Haha, I couldn't believe how passed out Sadie was for the first part of the ride. They must have really been running her ragged on their trip. I know it was almost the end of their vacation, so I guess she was exhausted.

Thanks for the shout out for my report!

You are welcome!

The catamaran trip looks amazing-you are so adventurous. I honestly dont know if I would attempt to do that on my own,with a toddler, so I take my hat off to you! Izzy is lucky to have a mom who wants to share with her all the wonderful things the world has to offer...

You are too kind! What a sweet post. Honestly, I just REALLY wanted to do a catamaran ride (it was high on my Hawaiian to-do list) and I had no choice but to take Izzy, since Dug was gone and she was too young to stay at Aunty's. Of course, this next trip, I COULD leave her at Aunty's, but I'm going to bring her anyway - I mean, how cool to see whales! I wouldn't want her to miss out on that chance!

I'm always a fan of saving money!

Same here!

I can certainly understand the attachment to shoes, but I can picture her being upset over having to take them off and it makes me laugh!

Pretty much everyone on the boat felt bad for her, as they'd just taken their shoes off and saw her melting down and desperately clinging to her footwear.

Yum! It sounds like a really nice cruise! Beautiful views, yummy snacks, and drinks!

It was really great! Glad I listened to all those rave reviews on Yelp, etc.

What a strange, awkward situation! But I'm glad the Canadian was kind about the whole thing!

It was so crazy! I'm glad he was nice, but it was very awkward, especially since I had felt weird about texting in the first place, as I didn't know the relative at all either.

Beautiful view even if Izzy seems more concerned about her lack of shoes?

Ha, I guess she is looking at her feet.

You met so many characters! How fun! It's too bad that Izzy fell - it's amazing how something as small as a band-aid makes everything better.

The character meets were great! The fall was a bummer, but she felt like a superstar with that bandaid proudly displayed.

I love hearing about the history on Izzy's name! It's always fun to hear the backstory on how people come up with their children's names. My mom selected my name years ago - she wanted a daughter named Jennifer Jill, so there you go. Anika's name was a whole different story - my parents absolutely could not agree on a name they both liked. Even after she was born, they weren't able to hammer down a name. I believe Anika may have originally come up as Annika Sorenstam was winning a lot of golf tournaments in those days and most of my family LOVES golf. We're also Swedish, so it works. Mom and Dad finally agreed on the name, but they disagreed on the spelling - Mom wanted "Annika" while Dad wanted "Anika". You can see who won. We realized later that we have an ancestor named Anika - and it's spelled exactly that way! My dad chose correctly!

Wow, that's a cool story too! I see why Bob likes to ask these questions of his clients!

What is in a Hawaiian mimosa? It looks very tasty!

I honestly don't remember - um, alcohol and fruity flavors? It was tasty, for sure! I could have had a second one with my other free drink ticket, but didn't have a chance while running after Izzy PLUS I still had to drive back instead of taking the bus with the others. It was enough for me, though.

It looks like you were having a very nice time on your sunset cruise, but... a WHALE WATCHING CRUISE?! That sounds AWESOME!

I KNOW! It was too early for whale season on this past trip, but we planned the next one to take advantage of what should be prime whale season. Can't wait! They also have a policy that you get a free re-ride if you don't happen to see whales, so they are basically guaranteed!

 

[Dugette]

Daredevil!

We left off cruising the sea on a very nice catamaran at sunset. I forgot to mention that I had hopes of seeing some sea life on this cruise. It wasn’t a specific dolphin cruise or anything, but I’d read reviews that they sometimes spot them out and about. All we saw were some turtles. Which is cool, but it was right when we first sailed away and I was still chasing Izzy around the deck, so I didn’t really get to see much of anything. I’m looking forward to next trip, though, as it’s whale season!

Anyway, Sadie’s mom was enjoying the opportunity to take some pictures:



Izzy and I enjoyed the view as we continued to make laps around the boat:



(Oh, geez, I just realized my toes are in this picture too! I guess I'll leave it up, though it's not so flattering from this angle. I mean, I don't show them off in real life, but why not let them be seen on the internet? Notice that Izzy has perfect toes, though! I remember having a dream when I was pregnant with her that she would have the same as me and I was so sad. And it was fairly likely, as it can be hereditary, I guess. But I am the only person I know of that has them. )



I finally managed to get her to sit down on the bench in front of the boat, near Sadie’s family:





This is the Ko Olina resort area and Aulani is in there:



By the way, while we were making laps on the boat, Izzy was super brave and decided to walk (with me) over these nets:



I said, “Daredevil!” and she repeated, “Daredevil!” after me! Cute.

Sadie had woken up at some point and we all started chatting:



Turns out that they were staying at Aulani too. We had fun talking and ended up visiting for the rest of the boat ride. Izzy was babbling away to Sadie too, which was adorable (and, back then, she really was babbling and not using nearly as many actual words as she does now). The girls were having a great time just hanging out together as the sun set:



Once our boat docked, Izzy and Sadie held hands and walked off the boat and up the dock together:





(I actually have a really cute pic of Sadie grinning at my camera here too, but I try not to post shots that are specifically of other kids’ faces w/o having gotten parent permission. So, imagine a huge grin on a cute face ).

Back in the car, Izzy played with the random things she’d accumulated in her seat. Namely, she picked up Tigger with chopsticks (guess you can’t really see Tigger here, but oh well):



Bye-bye boat, hope to see you again soon :



Oh, hey, there’s Tigger :



I made the fairly easy drive back to Aulani and we parked and walked into the lobby. Went to the lookout in back and enjoyed watching the singers perform for a few minutes:



We went back into the lobby and grabbed a schedule for the next day, then headed back to the room:



I got our stuff from the day unpacked and changed Izzy’s diaper. I saw on the day’s schedule that we could catch Uncle telling stories by the fire pit in about 5 minutes. Izzy was still awake, so why not?

Before we left the room, Izzy grabbed my little handheld mirror off the counter and dropped it. It shattered on the bathroom floor and she cried and cried. I got it cleaned up and tried to comfort Izzy and tell her it was an accident. I have to say, I was pretty annoyed (but didn't let it show in front of her), as I had just needed to replace this mirror a month beforehand. I was on a business trip and had the little mirror in my carry-on, which is always fine. At the last minute, they offered to check our carry-on bags for free and I let them have mine, forgetting about the mirror. Well, I got my bag back and it was shattered in the pocket I had it in (luckily the glass was contained in the pocket, but I cut myself trying to clean it out). So, I bought a new mirror in AZ that time and bought a new one in HI this time (and I’m still using my Hawaiian one, nearly a year later! ) At any rate, as you may have guessed, I packed up some things so that we could go to Target after the storytelling. We needed a couple other small things I'd forgotten anyway.

Off to see Uncle and hear stories:



Elevator selfie:



We took a seat a little bit back from the fire pit and enjoyed the atmosphere and the stories about the Menehune of Hawaiian legand:



That little toddler you see was running around and around and around the whole time.

A selfie:



Izzy enjoyed having her own chair and her blankie:



She also cuddled with me sometimes:



I have a video clip of some of the storytelling, if you’re interested:

(click to watch)

After we’d heard enough stories, we headed over to the Ulu Café to fill my mug before heading to Target. While we were there, Izzy yelled, “Food!!!” I asked her if she was hungry and she said yes. Keep in mind, we’d only had “pupus” for dinner (and I still didn’t have a strong appetite, since I’d been ill, but I was finally getting better). I got her a Mickey sprinkle cookie:





She enjoyed it, but it was quite messy with all the Mickey sprinkles getting everywhere in the stroller. I think she ate part of it and saved the rest for later. We got loaded into the car and Izzy insisted that I wear my hat that was in the backseat:



She also insisted on wearing her sun hat, despite it being dark out:



We arrived quickly and she wanted to ride in a cart, despite us just picking up a few small, needed items:



We had a quick and successful Target run and were soon back in the Aulani parking garage, on my favorite easy-access lobby level:



It was just after 9pm as we walked back into the resort. Late night for Izzy, but she was having a good time. We saw a bride and groom in the lobby:



When we got back into our room, I got Izzy ready for bed, but she was super playful and silly. She was enjoying her new figurines and didn’t want to go to sleep:



She kept asking for milk, pouches, etc. To amuse her and because I didn’t want to leave the room after she was sleeping, we went down the hall to get ice. She LOVED this. So cute to see a 2-year-old doing a “boring” thing for the first time with so much wonder and enthusiasm. We got back to the room and I got her down in the pack ‘n’ play and hid out over at the table, making trip notes and drinking a White Russian while she slowly fell asleep:



She was on the other side of the TV cabinet and eventually fell asleep (by the way, you can see the wires from the cabinet - if I remember right, there was an electrical plug in strip in the top of the cabinet?):



And, apparently, I also got a picture of the outlet I found to plug my laptop into, in case you were wondering:



Oh, haha. I just read the notes and I guess I took that picture because I just then discovered, at 11pm, that there was a light in that corner. My notes also indicate that the next day was free of plans, but I was hoping to get in some beach time, character meets, possibly the Makapu’u Lighthouse Hike, maybe the Dole Plantation, and potentially the Menehune Trail interactive game, if we had time. We’ll see how much of that actually happens!

Up next: Breakfast, some Photopass shots, and exploring the Menehune Trail.