4th of July Week in Aulani Trip Report (completed 8/14)

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Hello Everyone!

We have just gotten back from Aulani so now is the time to make my trip report. Man do I miss it already luckily we have plans for already going back there since we are owners. This was our first trip to Aulani. Everyone has been to Hawaii before and loves it but my son.

Basics:
Sat July 2nd- July 9th, 2022
2 Bedroom Suite staying on points

Who are we:
4 adults and 1 child
Me: The mom and planner of the group. I am the Disney obsessed person. I also have loved Hawaii since we did our honeymoon in Hawaii. I am the one in the pink.
My Husband: Likes Disney but not obsessed (but is a huge star wars and marvel fan) he goes along with it and loves it. He also loved Hawaii since our honeymoon in Hawaii. The guy without the hat.
My son: 5 years old... loves dinos and Disney. He has lots of energy.
My mom: She loves spoiling her grandson and likes Disney but again not Disney obsessed. She loooves Hawaii and use to go to Hawaii a lot for work that she did for the federal govt but she is retired and was missing her trips to Hawaii.
My Dad: He just likes spending time with grandson and relaxing in places with a view. Give him a drink and a view and he is happy.



I hope you guys enjoy our trip. We did a lot and hopefully you guys can gain from our exps in Aulani!
I will slowly be updating this

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Table of Contents
DAY 1:
Travel day
Made it to Aulani
Pool Time
Costco and ABC store
DAY 2:
Breakfast of
North Shore Beaches
Snorkeling
Turtle Bay Resort
Shrimp and Shave Ice
Made it back to Aulani
Relax Time
DAY 3:
Running along the Beach
DVC membership party
Pool and Characters Time
Lunch
Fireworks
DAY 4:
Morning Walk and Auntie's Beach House
Shopping and Mickey!
Character Brunch
Character Bruch 2
Pool Time
Goofy and Max
Evening activities
DAY 5:
Dinos and a Goat
Movie props
Jurrassic Park
More Jurrasic World
Indominus Rex
Back to Aulani
Sale and Monkey Pod
Monkey pod 2
Monkey pod 3
DAY 6
Paddle Board
Making ears and Moana
Auntys Beach house
Characters
Beach
Olelo room
DAY 7
Change of plans
Resort morning
Poke and Sake part 1
Poke and Sake part 2
Poke and Sake part
Luau
Luau 2
Luau 3
DAY 8
Last morning
Off the hook
Got to collect them all
The end​

 

[SueInBoston]

I've been following your trip planning, looking forward to read the final review

 

[cory30]

Thank you for sharing. We aren't going until next June but love reading about others experiences as the anticipation builds.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Day 1: Travel Day

Well lots of last min packing.


We have a lot of luggage and we live close to the Denver Airport like 7 mins away close. So we decided to drop off luggage and family to the airport. Then my husband drives back to house and takes a lyft and will come back to airport. This worked great. Marcus had his seat and we could spread out the luggage between 2 cars.

Nothing special about check in. My parents are first class so we check in all our bags under them, 5 bags. Then head to tsa. We have the pre clear so it was super quick.

We bought United club passes so we head there next. Wow this place is packed!! We did not find a place together, so we split up. We find our spot and get my son food first. He went with lots of bread and fruit.

Adults in our crew visit the bar and we got mimosas!



Time to relax! Now we know we are on vacation.
They have plugs everywhere and wifi so we charge and put on some utube videos to keep my son entertained.
And here we chill for an hour.
Before I leave I pack snacks for our airplane ride. I will always try to save some money.

Then we board the airplane.
My parents head to first class life... we head to economy plus seats. That is when we find out that my husband is not sitting next to me like we paid for and they switched his seat...bah...luckily the women was fine switch with my husband since it was an alise economy plus seat. What is the point of paying extra to pick your seats when they will just move u....

So this will be a 6 hour and 40 mins flight. My son actually did quite well. I thought he would fall asleep but watched love having unlimited tablet time. He normally has to earn it. He also loved the screens on the back of the seats and watching where the plane was. My husband and me watched movies on the screens provided. I loved this feature and we got to watched Morbius finnally! We have been waiting for it to come out streaming since the reviews were mixed. They even had lunch included. The lunch was not great but hey chicken salad but better than nothing. Then we land. No cool pics, we did not see Aualni when flying in. We land around 2:30.

Next the long walk to get our luggage.. at least it is a preety walk.
Luggage takes a while, even though priority luggage is suppose to be first it ended up last, lol. Oh well.
Then we follow the crowds to car rental.
We did online check in, (so happy they brought this back) and we walked right in to pick our mini van in Alamo. They had an employee out to help direct us. The process super easy. We paid 607 for a week through Costco. I would highly suggest them. Ohh I also video the mini van to prove bumps and scratches were not us. Then we head out to Aulani!!! I will end here.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I've been following your trip planning, looking forward to read the final review

Thank you for sharing. We aren't going until next June but love reading about others experiences as the anticipation builds.

Thank u guys for following along! I am so excited to share with u are trips.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Day 1: Made it to Aulani!!

The drive to Aulani is super easy and then we see Aulani in the distance!!

The plan, my parents unload the min van and drop off my family and check in. While my parents go shopping for food.

It is crowded by this point around 4ish, so takes a little to unload our mini van and we hand it off to valet.

Umm wow... can I just say the videos and pics do not do this lobby justice, it is amazing!! We walk in and we are all just stunned.

I go into the dvc check in line. I tried to check in online a couple of days ago but it did not work and no one on the phone could help me... check in process was easy. Not too long of a line. She goes over the details and said we got our room request! I mentioned we had magic bands and we heard they could work here now and she confirmed and got them all set up!! So excited that magic bands work here now. She also signs us up for the DVC membership party too. We head up to the room with our stuff.
But picture time first!
Our room, 2 bed room dvc room in Ewa tower 981. Love this room. It is a garden/island room with a partial ocean view.
Here is our room.




The 2nd bedroom has 2 beds.






Our view from our deck.


Will continue to next post.

 

[SueInBoston]

Then we follow the crowds to car rental.
We did online check in, (so happy they brought this back) and we walked right to picj our mini van in Alamo. They had an employee out to help direct us. The process super easy. We paid 607 for a week through Costco. I would highly suggest them. Ohh I also video the mini van to prove bumps and scratches were not us. Then we head out to Aulani!!! I will end here.

$607!!!! wow, that was a great price.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

$607!!!! wow, that was a great price.

I started looking for rental really early and would change them when they would get lower on Costco.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Continuing
...


Next we had to wait for luggage to come up. So while my husband and son were chilling in the room I went down to the store to buy my first purchase. The loungefly mickey shave ice bag and ears. I have been eyeing these forever!! I did not bring any of my loungfly bags because I knew I would be getting them. I paid for them using our our rewards disney chase credit card cause this stuff is not cheap. Yeah!




I explore just a tad and do a few pics with my new ears cause u know I have too.




I then went back to room and our luggage arrived!
My son really wants to get into the pool, so pool time!

First pick up our wrist bands. It takes a little bit to find the place to pick them up but no one is in line at least. I get one for today and tommorow. They are soo sparkly!! Yeah bring a dvc owner.

Pool time.




He had soo much fun. But my parents called and said they are almost back to the hotel room and they have dinner! So we head back to the room and a very pouty 5 year old slowly follows.

Continue to next post

 

[SueInBoston]

your son is precious, the smile on his face is priceless.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

your son is precious, the smile on his face is priceless.

Thank u! U missed the sad, whiney face of his when we had to leave the pool though, lol.

 

[alohamom]

following...

Those Shave Ice ears look so good with your hair color, just perfect!

I agree with @SueInBoston your son is so sweet with those big happy smiles!
I see pics like that and it reminds me of how happy my kids always were to get in that first pool swim on vacation,

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

following...

Those Shave Ice ears look so good with your hair color, just perfect!

I agree with @SueInBoston your son is so sweet with those big happy smiles!
I see pics like that and it reminds me of how happy my kids always were to get in that first pool swim on vacation,

Yeah, thank you and the ears and about my son

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next up to room with a very sad 5 year since he had leave the pool. But mommy was hungry soo I win, lol.
My parents and husband were unloading the things they bought from costco and target.
My parents got all the usual things, soda, alcohol, snacks, and lots of food for a picked 6 year old
And then to save money we bought dinner from Costco. Street tacos,

Also my mom got leis from Costco too.


The plan was to buy some beach toys from one of these two store but apparently they are sold out. I could not believe my parents but they swear... so after dinner I went to go do some shopping. I went down to the local ABC store.
The walk is super short like 5 to 10 mins. Very easy. The problem... there was a bunch of bugs swarming the lights in the ABC store in the front, so u had to duck in real quick and get the back. Later I heard they may have been flying termites..... yeah tropics /sarcasm.

I find the beach toys though so yeah!!

Then next I get the surf board I have seen people use to sign. It is technically a cheese board but man is this thing perfect for signing.

Then I decided let's check out the food area and see if there is anything that peaks my interest and that is when I see that have the masalades! I soo get a few.

So they heat them up and my son and husband "help" me eat them. We like the purple ulue ones the best.
We are now very full and have happy bellies, so we head to bed. Tommorow the North Shore!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

DAY 2: North Shore day!!

When planning I decided to do north shore on the first full day, so we all wake up early easily and can beat the crowds.
We wake up early... like super early... like 3am should not be a real time early. I stay in bed though till 5 cause I refused to get up earlier. We eat breakfast in the room, nothing fancy. My parents make eggs, my son is a waffles guy and my husband and me eat our breakfast bars.

Ahh but this view.


We pack up all our beach and snorkeling stuff and are wearing bathing suits. We head out the door 6:30ish.
Ohh and grandpa is staying at the resort, he does not like long days in car.

First stop on our North shore Island tour... u guessed Leonorados!! We go to their food truck which is on the way.



We get there before it opens and there are already people in line before me, only 2 but still.
I wait in the line we the rest of my family relax in the car. Also while waiting I download the Shaka app for our North shore tour.


They open up and I put in my order, I go for a sampler, one of everything. 6 all together.




These are soo good... soo hot warm and yummy. These put the ABC ones yesterday to shame. My husband and me end up like the ones with filling the best. My son likes the ones without. We drive to our next stop listening to the Shaka app while eating hot masalades. Continue to next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next stop Laniakea Beach nicknamed Turtle beach. We are so early there are only couple cars in the parking, score! We walk across the street love the new cross walk and look for turtles.





No turtles

Did a quick family pic though.

Well off to our next beach.

Sharks cove which is right next to it, soo easy drive. There are a lot more people already here at this beach but we were still able to get parking. Early bird gets the worm. Sharks cove is pretty cool. We follow a dirt path down. Our path becomes very rocky, my mom leads down and hurts her foot and broke her sandle. Poor mom.



We make it down. We notice there was an easier path on the other side, should have done that. We find a spot to set up base camp and put on our water shoes and snorkeling gear. Next time water shoes before we walk down.
Marcus starts digging, he loves his new beach toys.




We tried to get him to do a pic but he must dig! Lol. We walk around with him for a bit.

Next post we start snorkeling.

 

[SueInBoston]

I love your marauders map dress!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I love your marauders map dress!

Thank u, I love that dress for beach places cause it is made out of that athletic workout material so it drys really quickly.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Snorkeling time!
Marcus has mix feeling on this... he is afraid of sharks since it is named shark cove, so we could only get him out soo far. It is rocky so I need to be careful going out there and wear water shoes. Also need to make sure u do not step on any sea urchins.



We walked around in the shallow areas pointing out the little fish.




After a little bit Marcus says he is to scared and wants to back to grandma. So we drop him off and head back out.


We go out preety far snorkleing (we both were competitive swimmers) but my mom did not take any more pics... understandable cause now she was entertaining a 5 year old.

We did not have a water proof camera so no pics from us. So u will have to trust me saying this a great snorkeling spot. Lots of variety of fish, lots! I am scuba certified too and some day I would like to come here scubing, I saw quite a few doing that. Highly recommended this snorkeling spot just know water shoes put on before u walk down and parking is limited. Also happy to report to my son, no sharks either here.
Mom waved us back, saying our son is done. So we head back in and do the safer way up the rocky cliff.

Good news, this side has the bathrooms and showers. So do a quick trip to bathrooms and washing of the ocean water.

This place is now super crowded people cannot find parking, i am soo happy we came earlier and we head off to our next destination turtle bay resort!