Aloha Aulani, February 17-25, 2017

mrp4352 · Mar 18, 2017

Hi!

It's finally my turn! I can post a trip report about Aulani!! My mom, aunt and I had a great trip!

A little background: we had originally planned to go in May 2017, but after watching the PGA compete throughout February 2016, we changed our plans to go see waves and whales! We used American miles for the flight over, purchased our ticket on American back to San Jose, CA, overnighted in San Jose, then flew Southwest home. We rented a car early on and was able to snag a sale so I got the mid-size SUV for about $200 for the week! So with that - here we go!!

Friday,Feb 17
We were up way too early. But our ride arrived early (thanks to my brother Scott! I know 4:45am on Friday wasn't much fun)and we quickly made it to the airport. Check in and security was a breeze. We had a yummy breakfast at Twisted Root Burgers, then an easy flight into LA. (I watched Trolls!). Amazingly our plane was the same plane for the next leg! We had about an hour on the ground and didn’t have to scramble across LAX to another terminal!

Then the long flight to Honolulu – 6 ½ hours.

I watched Dr.Strange and Beauty and the Beast. And played more hands of solitaire than I can count. Then I realized from the seat back map that I should be seeing islands – and I was! I love that this island was long and thin – you could see ocean on the other side of the island and clouds!

Here’s Oahu! We passed over Diamond Head crater.

I realized from the map that we’d be passing right over Ko Olina – the area where Aulani is located. And guess what – I found it!

Final descent!

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We made it! (That said – next time we’ll either non-stop from Dallas or overnight in California on the way. The second leg felt like so much more than 6 hours and we were done!)

After landing in HNL, we were starving, so our first stop was a very-late lunch (or early dinner) at the PGA Tour Grill in the airport. Mom and I had great burgers (with cheddar and onion straws and onion jam), while Eve had their pulled pork sandwich. Feeling better and ready to head out - we grabbed our bags and found the Dollar car shuttle. Our Ford Escape was ready and waiting and off we went to find Aulani. The drive took about 75 minutes because of rush hour traffic. The traffic wasn’t bad compared to Dallas standards, but still it was hard to sit patiently knowing what was waiting at the end of the drive.

Oahu is beautiful, lush and green with flowers EVERYWHERE! We did laugh as we passed the ice skating rink on the way.

The moment was finally here - we pulled up (thank you to those who had warned about how easy it is to miss the driveway!) and we were Welcomed Home to Aulani.

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The bellman grabbed our bags to meet us in the room then handed us off to a greeter, who gave us gorgeous leis that smelled heavenly (throughout our entire week-long stay, we’d walk by and shake the leis and the room would fill with their scent) and offered us cold water, then handed us off to the front desk agent, who got us all checked in and plied with more information than our brains could hold! But luckily it was all on the paperwork she gave us.

The lobby is stunning - very reminiscent of Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge (probably because it was the same architect), but still very Hawaiian. It's also smaller than I expected. The pictures make it look about the size of its sister properties, but it's much smaller - however when you look through to the views outside - WOW! It overlooks the pool and lagoon.

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Our room (1276, a one-bedroom ocean view) is in the Ewe tower (the left one when you're looking at the ocean from the lobby) on the 12th floor, we had a fantastic ocean view. The bellman took our pictures of us relaxing in our leis. (Eve is on the left, Mom in the middle and me on the right)

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Looking across the resort:

Sunset from our lanai.

We had booked a one-bedroom – but we were surprised it was a king!

Even the towel Mickeys are Hawaiian!

Cool Mickey surfer dude lamp (and bonus picture of me!)

Looking off to the right at the lobby from the lanai off the bedroom (this room has two that aren’t connected – the other one is off the living room. It’s just a solid wall separating the two – I wonder why they don’t open it up to be one huge balcony?)

Eve’s bed is folded up behind the beautiful angel fish carving on the entertainment center.

We didn’t use it – but the sofa folds out, too.

Another reason we chose a one-bedroom – the kitchen!

Cool detail on the lamp – it only shows when the lamp is turned on! I want one of these lamp shades!

Mickey was wandering down one of the paths heading towards the pool - and after the lazy river closed, we watched a cast member herding lost floaties to their storage location.

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We made a quick run to the gift shop for drinks, ice cream and muffins for breakfast in the morning and collapsed into bed by 8![/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

alohamom · Mar 18, 2017

Awesome report so far! I love the surfing mickey silhouette lamp, cant say I have ever seen these but we have only stayed in the studios so thanks for sharing this.

mrp4352 said:
After landing in HNL, we were starving

This is us, always! I used to bring snacks for the kids like granola bars or Goldfish when they were little but now that they are teens we usually stop somewhere as soon as we land.

Cant wait to read more...

MAGICFOR2 · Mar 19, 2017

I'm in! We leave in 6 days! We're flying to Vegas on SW for a night, then taking off for HNL on Hawaiin in the morning! We are really looking forward to our time at Aulani! Are there refillable mugs there? I am trying to decide if I need to bring coffee or not.

alohamom · Mar 19, 2017

MAGICFOR2 said:
I'm in! We leave in 6 days! We're flying to Vegas on SW for a night, then taking off for HNL on Hawaiin in the morning! We are really looking forward to our time at Aulani! Are there refillable mugs there? I am trying to decide if I need to bring coffee or not.

They do have refillable mugs and you might want to bring a small amount of coffee for your first morning of the trip but after that you have to get the Hawaiian Kona coffee. You can buy it almost anywhere. Target, Walmart, ABC stores(local island chain) and it is more expensive than regular but so worth it. Last summer, the welcome coffee packs in our Aulani studio were Kona and they were actually of a pretty decent quality. One thing I always bring is coffee filters, fyi...

OKW Lover · Mar 19, 2017

mrp4352 said:
We made a quick run to the gift shop for drinks, ice cream and muffins for breakfast in the morning and collapsed into bed by 8!

It seems funny to go to bed that early, doesn't it. We fly from the east coast and its a 6 hour time difference making our body clock feel like its actually 2 am rather than 8 pm.

OKW Lover · Mar 19, 2017

alohamom said:
you have to get the Hawaiian Kona coffee. You can buy it almost anywhere. Target, Walmart, ABC stores(local island chain) and it is more expensive than regular but so worth it.

Read those coffee packages very carefully. Many have "Kona" in large letters, but if you look closely it also says "blend". For the best experience, get the one that says 100% Kona coffee.

alohamom · Mar 19, 2017

OKW Lover said:
Read those coffee packages very carefully. Many have "Kona" in large letters, but if you look closely it also says "blend". For the best experience, get the one that says 100% Kona coffee.

+1 for sure. You can get Kona made for you down at Ulu Cafe as well. Something like $5/cup. Regular coffee is what you get in the refillable cups...sorry for hijacking your report @mrp4352

squirk · Mar 21, 2017

mrp4352 said:
Hi!

It's finally my turn! I can post a trip report about Aulani!! My mom, aunt and I had a great trip!

A little background: we had originally planned to go in May 2017, but after watching the PGA compete throughout February 2016, we changed our plans to go see waves and whales! We used American miles for the flight over, purchased our ticket on American back to San Jose, CA, overnighted in San Jose, then flew Southwest home. We rented a car early on and was able to snag a sale so I got the mid-size SUV for about $200 for the week! So with that - here we go!!

Friday,Feb 17
We were up way too early. But our ride arrived early (thanks to my brother Scott! I know 4:45am on Friday wasn't much fun)and we quickly made it to the airport. Check in and security was a breeze. We had a yummy breakfast at Twisted Root Burgers, then an easy flight into LA. (I watched Trolls!). Amazingly our plane was the same plane for the next leg! We had about an hour on the ground and didn’t have to scramble across LAX to another terminal!

Then the long flight to Honolulu – 6 ½ hours.

I watched Dr.Strange and Beauty and the Beast. And played more hands of solitaire than I can count. Then I realized from the seat back map that I should be seeing islands – and I was! I love that this island was long and thin – you could see ocean on the other side of the island and clouds!

Here’s Oahu! We passed over Diamond Head crater.

I realized from the map that we’d be passing right over Ko Olina – the area where Aulani is located. And guess what – I found it!

Final descent!

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We made it! (That said – next time we’ll either non-stop from Dallas or overnight in California on the way. The second leg felt like so much more than 6 hours and we were done!)

After landing in HNL, we were starving, so our first stop was a very-late lunch (or early dinner) at the PGA Tour Grill in the airport. Mom and I had great burgers (with cheddar and onion straws and onion jam), while Eve had their pulled pork sandwich. Feeling better and ready to head out - we grabbed our bags and found the Dollar car shuttle. Our Ford Escape was ready and waiting and off we went to find Aulani. The drive took about 75 minutes because of rush hour traffic. The traffic wasn’t bad compared to Dallas standards, but still it was hard to sit patiently knowing what was waiting at the end of the drive.

Oahu is beautiful, lush and green with flowers EVERYWHERE! We did laugh as we passed the ice skating rink on the way.

The moment was finally here - we pulled up (thank you to those who had warned about how easy it is to miss the driveway!) and we were Welcomed Home to Aulani.

The bellman grabbed our bags to meet us in the room then handed us off to a greeter, who gave us gorgeous leis that smelled heavenly (throughout our entire week-long stay, we’d walk by and shake the leis and the room would fill with their scent) and offered us cold water, then handed us off to the front desk agent, who got us all checked in and plied with more information than our brains could hold! But luckily it was all on the paperwork she gave us.

The lobby is stunning - very reminiscent of Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge (probably because it was the same architect), but still very Hawaiian. It's also smaller than I expected. The pictures make it look about the size of its sister properties, but it's much smaller - however when you look through to the views outside - WOW! It overlooks the pool and lagoon.

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Our room (1276, a one-bedroom ocean view) is in the Ewe tower (the left one when you're looking at the ocean from the lobby) on the 12th floor, we had a fantastic ocean view. The bellman took our pictures of us relaxing in our leis. (Eve is on the left, Mom in the middle and me on the right)

Looking across the resort:

Sunset from our lanai.

We had booked a one-bedroom – but we were surprised it was a king!

Even the towel Mickeys are Hawaiian!

Cool Mickey surfer dude lamp (and bonus picture of me!)

Looking off to the right at the lobby from the lanai off the bedroom (this room has two that aren’t connected – the other one is off the living room. It’s just a solid wall separating the two – I wonder why they don’t open it up to be one huge balcony?)

Eve’s bed is folded up behind the beautiful angel fish carving on the entertainment center.

We didn’t use it – but the sofa folds out, too.

Another reason we chose a one-bedroom – the kitchen!

Cool detail on the lamp – it only shows when the lamp is turned on! I want one of these lamp shades!

Mickey was wandering down one of the paths heading towards the pool - and after the lazy river closed, we watched a cast member herding lost floaties to their storage location.

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We made a quick run to the gift shop for drinks, ice cream and muffins for breakfast in the morning and collapsed into bed by 8!

What were the crowd levels like, particularly in the early part of your trip?

mrp4352 · Mar 24, 2017

Please everyone - feel free to hijack/help/comment away! (special thanks to Alohamom for answering for me!) I know I devoured all the Aulani trip reports I could find in planning - and the more conversation and tips, the merrier! I'm sorry to have gone silent - I was at a conference this week, and while I normally have some free time to Disboard, that didn't happen!

squirk, the hotel felt full the first few days. Since we ended up not in the water much, it wasn't a problem for us, there were plenty of places to relax and the adult pool never seemed to be too busy. I'm trying to remember and I think on President's Day, there were times the water slide line went almost all the way to the ground (that was an easy gauge for us to see from our room), but by the end of the week, it rarely got halfway down the stairs.

mrp4352 · Mar 24, 2017

Extra note about the room – somehow I forgot to mention the chopsticks! The room not only came with several sets of chopsticks, there was a special tray to hold them in dishwasher!

Saturday, Feb 18th

We were up at 6am and by 8, we had breakfast and were ready to head out. Our only task today is a Target run. List in hand, we were ready to go in, get just what we needed and head out. Our resolve lasted until we picked up a cart. The huge souvenir section at the front (where you would normally find the dollar spot) is a smart move on Target's behalf! Once we drug ourselves away (with fairly minimal damage to our pocket books).

Shopping was an experience! The things are just different enough at times to make you laugh. Who knew there were 5 flavors of Spam available?

We also found a Hencho en Mexico Coca-a-Cola! (We can’t buy Mexican Coke by the six pack in Dallas? But you can in Hawaii?)

All in all, except for the souvenir see did well with keeping to our list. Although sadly they had no Peter Pan peanut butter.

Back at Aulani, we unpacked, then had sandwiches in the room before heading out to explore! We found a cultural ambassador and were able to ask about the bow tie design we keep seeing everywhere. She said it's a butterfly and It's a Hawaiian symbol for 'brining together': overall, a bringing together of the Hawaiian culture and Disney, but more intimately, a bringing together of families.

The ceiling in the lobby is lit to look like water reflecting up on it:

The koi pond between the lobby and the lazy river:

The infinity pool (the three dark heads in a line are at the edge of the pool, the actual ocean is probably 100 yards away):

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We stopped for drinks (mostly because a waitress walked by with some and they had a flower on the top and looked beautiful). Mom had the crushed pineapple mule (the one on the right), Eve had a Sunshine Splash (not pictured) and I had the winner of the bunch: the liliko’i-lada (the one on the left).

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Refreshed, we continued to explore this beautiful resort! We ended up back in the room and played some Chickenfoot.

Luau!! Tonight we have seats at Kawa'a Luau at Aulani. After the conch shell was sounded, beautiful shell leis were received, the official picture was taken, and a mai tai placed in our hands, we were taken to our front row seats (we decided to upgrade to the VIP seating package).

https://youtu.be/ezzvOSBPu2g

We were seated with a sweet family from Seattle. I went to a couple of the crafts - the flower crafts area where I made a wristlet and the bamboo stamp area. The Hawaiians used the bamboo stamps to decorate their cloths.

Dinner was good. I especially enjoyed the Maui onion dressing on the salad, the pulled pork, the taro roll (it was purple!) and the banana bread pudding with caramel sauce. I didn't care for the ahi tuna, the poi and the purple sweet potatoes - but I tried them! And of course, there was this:

During dinner, there was a fantastic band that played: steel guitar, ukulele, guitar and string bass. I was so disappointed to find out after the show they haven’t released any recordings. Disney – you’re missing a sales opportunity here! I would have purchased the music in a heartbeat. (actually, two opportunities – a sound track for the luau would be fun, too!)

Auntie came out to greet us and introduce her brother, Noah, a master storyteller and off the show went! The dancing was fantastic! Noah was a talented singer and storyteller. The outfits were beautiful and everyone was so friendly!

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We even had a quick visit from some mousy friends! A note on Mickey and Minnie at the luau. I thought it was very well done, the kids were brought up and taught the Aulani hula, then Mic and Min suddenly appeared in the middle of the kids, danced the Aulani hula with them, then were magicked away. It was at a good place in the show for kids to get up and get some wiggles out. The only issue was the parents that wanted a picture of their kid dancing with Mickey – it was like rope drop at the Magic Kingdom and the only ride that’s going to be open was the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

One hula I especially enjoyed was the story of the young ladies going down to the shore to try to find a fisherman husband (because they would always be able to provide for her family) and the fishermen all started dancing to impress and attract her. She wore beautiful blue overlaid by fishing nets. (I wish this was my picture – but it’s from Disney’s blog)

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The evening ended with Noah telling the story of Maui stealing the sun from the sky while the dancers told the story with traditional dance (and fire dancing!). It was an amazing evening!!

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heaven2dc · Mar 24, 2017

What a great first day! Love the views from your room - best of both worlds seeing ocean and mountain views.

Thanks for sharing your pics and review of the luau. I've read the good and the bad but I personally think it looks like a great show. Those drinks look so delicious!

mrp4352 · Apr 2, 2017

Sunday, Feb 19th

We were up and on our way around 8am after a quick breakfast in the room. Today is the big island tour. We had our trip all mapped out:

We cut across the bottom of Oahu, taking the H-3 interstate (yes, Hawaii convinced the US government to give them three interstates on Oahu) through the mountains. Not only we were riding a raised highway through the mountains, we went through a mountain in a large tunnel!

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We made our way across to Lanikai Beach. It's a beautiful beach - and home to a windsurfing competition.

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While there, we were admiring a canoe (the seats are so narrow!).

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We saw three ladies paddling by in a canoe.

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They came ashore, but had trouble beaching the canoe. We helped and started visiting with them. They're members of the Lanikai Canoe Club and they were preparing to take a family out to international waters in a canoe so they could spread a family member’s ashes in the traditional matter.

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After enjoying the beach for a little while, we drove to the Byodo-In Temple. It's a lovely Buddhist temple nestled in the valley of monuments (a large cemetery with sections for different religions).

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The temple was used in several episodes of Lost. Outside is a beautiful, huge bell that everyone can ring by pulling back a small log and releasing it to swing towards the bell.

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[URL='https://youtu.be/D4aoXEIhNLc']https://youtu.be/D4aoXEIhNLc

Inside the temple is a huge Buddha statue with a lotus flower. Beautiful and peaceful (at least until the two tour busses arrived).

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And we found one of the temple cats!

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We stopped at McD's for apple pies - but not just any apple pies - FRIED Apple pies! Yummy and crunchy and apple-y!

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Then, I somehow restarted our route map back at the beginning - unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until we were all the way back at Lanikai Beach. Ugh... An hour and a half of driving that we didn't need! Not only that, but we found the world's slowest McD's for lunch in the car.

But, once fed, things looked much better and we were back on track (although we did decide to bypass a couple of the stops on the original plan – like Tropical Farms and one or two of the north shore beaches). We continued to follow King Kamehameha state highway around the edge of the island. It was a gorgeous drive curving around the edge of the island. We stopped for a bit at Kualoa Regional Beach Park for a view of Mokoli'i Island (Chinaman's Hat).

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And this crazy man was out windsurfing.

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Then continued on, stopping at a shrimp truck to share some fresh shrimp. We had the garlic butter shrimp and the tempura shrimp (which was really more like panko fried shrimp), both meals coming with salad, rice and fresh pineapple. YUMMY! And this from a non-fish eater! (This also lead to the deletion of Ted’s Bakery from our list of stops. Heresy I know, but we were SO FULL!)

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Next up, the Bonsai Pipeline! we had watched the waves growing as we made our way to the north shore - and these were unbelievable! We found out later, they had reported 32 foot waves today! Eve was sitting fairly far up from the water and was surprised when the surf made it up to her.

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There were a couple of surfers out, but none stayed up very long. There were some spectacular wipeouts, though! Mom decided to join the fun with her own wipeout (in her defense, when you'd step into the sand, it would almost cover your ankle. I, as one who decided not to sit on the beach, can't image trying to get up in that mess).

[URL='https://youtu.be/8zSh4Gk4cVM']https://youtu.be/8zSh4Gk4cVM

Tired, but happy, we decided to head home. There was a lot of traffic leaving the north shore – it probably added 30-45 minutes to our trip as we crawled along trying to get to the interstate that cuts down through the middle of the island. We passed coffee groves and pineapple plants. We took one look at the parking lot at the Dole Plantation and decided that wasn’t anything we wanted a part of! However, there was an unscheduled stop on the way:

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The fresh, warm Portuguese donuts were delicious, but denser than our yeast donuts. Almost a cross between a baked donut and a fried one. My favorites were the coconut cream filled one!

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Back at Aulani, we settled in for meatballs and pasta in the room and games before bed. Our body clocks have almost adjusted to normal![/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

mrp4352 · Apr 9, 2017

Monday, Feb 20th

We enjoyed another lazy morning in the room and after breakfast headed out.

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Mom and I wanted to see the fish feeding at Rainbow Reef; Eve headed to the beach. The snorkeler that fed the fish was fun! He set the food container on the window sill by the observation window and while the fish ate, he blew water rings at us!

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Mom went up to the lanai to enjoy the breeze and I started the Menehune Adventure Trail game. Sadly, my iPad had connection issues and I ended up stopping in the middle out of frustration. But it did give me the chance to slow down and enjoy some of the resort details.

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Hey look! There’s Mom!

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I struck out again with the Animation class. I was on the standby list, but everyone showed up to take it. Hopefully tomorrow I will make it in!

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I joined Mom and Eve in the room for sandwiches, then changed into my swimsuit. Eve and I went and played in Waikaloha Valley (Waikaloha means mischievous waters) - it's the lazy river, but at times it will squirt at you or there will be a bubble zone to walk/ride through. (That’s me in the purple waving!)

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I started to ride a tube through it, but managed to get myself stuck in the tube getting on it!

. Luckily Eve was there to help me out. (Note to self – no matter how big the center hole looks, over the top doesn’t work.) After that, we decided to just float and walk our way around the river.

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We went to the adult pool for a quieter atmosphere. It's tucked back around a corner and perfectly lovely! Streams of water falling from seashells and a peaceful atmosphere. We stayed in there quite a while just visiting and relaxing. On our way back to the room, we stopped for a snack. Eve had a hot dog and I enjoyed a Mickey snow cone! Sadly, I lost an ear very quickly, but the rest was still good. I had half Haupia (coconut) and half Li Hing Mui (a sweet and sour plum). The Li Hing Mui was FANTASTIC! When I go back to get another later this week (with a camera ready this time), I'll probably have all Li Hing Mui.

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Back in the room, we showered and lazed about until it was time for our dinner at Ama Ama! Mele, our server, was a delight! She's a Honolulu native. We started with a bottle of Dr. Loosen Riesling and we each had a bowl of Maui onion soup (with the sweetest onions ever!). Eve had the sustainable catch of the day - a flakey white fish that none of us can remember the name of and she said it was delicious. Mom had the Aulani Steak Frites - New York strip with spinach and leeks cream, garlic pecorino Fries. I had the orecchiette all Checca - pasta with tomatoes, arugula and mozzarella. I'm not sure I'd order that again. But the tomatoes were lovely.

Our view:

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For dessert, we all had coffee. Mom and Eve had the Chocolate Chantilly cake - a chocolate brownie bottom with chocolate mousse wrapped in a chocolate sheet and served with chocolate ice cream. I had the coconut mochi cake - a cake made with rice flour and sweetened with red bean paste. It had a strange consistency (kind of like the inside of a jelly bean), but was really yummy! The coconut ice cream was a good combination with it. All in all, a good meal, but not one that we'd hurry back for.

After dinner, we took some time and wandered through the resort enjoying the night view before heading up to the room for some games before bed.

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squirk · Apr 9, 2017

mrp4352 said:
squirk, the hotel felt full the first few days. Since we ended up not in the water much, it wasn't a problem for us, there were plenty of places to relax and the adult pool never seemed to be too busy. I'm trying to remember and I think on President's Day, there were times the water slide line went almost all the way to the ground (that was an easy gauge for us to see from our room), but by the end of the week, it rarely got halfway down the stairs.

Thanks. We are going the week before President's Day next year, leaving for home the Saturday before the holiday itself. Hopefully, we will be getting out of Dodge before it gets too bad.

mrp4352 · Apr 15, 2017

Tuesday, Feb 21

Another lazy morning! We awoke to clouds, so decided to just enjoy watching the world from our lanai for a while after breakfast. We did head down for a little shopping and picture taking, then back up to watch the rain and play some dominoes.

A pretty bowl of leis on one of the concierge desks:

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And here’s the beautiful carving from the door to our room:

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After meatball sandwiches, Eve laid down for a nap while Mom and I went in search of dessert. We ended up with pineapple-macadamia nut cupcakes. They were beautiful, and good. (Although nut was pretty much singular in our cupcakes.).

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After our treat, I went down to see Mickey and Minnie. The character set up was interesting. You have to have a resort wrist band or room key to see the characters - and they try to keep non-guests from snagging pictures in between greetings. Their handler was fluent in English and Japanese!

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The elevator Menehune:

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And because you can’t help but take pictures of the beautiful valley below…

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Time to wake Eve up - we need to head into Honolulu! We used Groupon to find a whale watching excursion with Island Divers Hawaii. Captains Joe and Kelsey (Kelsey just passed her test and was still working on the hours she needed to qualify) took great care of us - on what ended up being a private charter! They took us out, despite choppy waters, and we loved being out on the ocean!

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Whee!!!

We passed a floating dock for SeaDoos and these crazy kayakers and surfers (evidently they’ll go out in groups of at least two – they leave one car at the end of their planned route and the other drives them to the starting point).

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It was a little windy out!

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The Oahu coastline:

One of the things that helped us chose this company was the fact that they would also take pictures and they were included with the cost of the excursion. That meant I got to be in some pictures, too! (The email link to the picture downloads was waiting for me when I logged into my email back at Aulani.)

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Eve was on whale-watch duty!

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While we never saw a whale (sniff, sniff) we had the best time! Captain Joe tried everything he could think of - fishing off the back, cutting the engines to stop their vibration, even playing Deb E. Deb music (because the whales had been seen before while that was playing). But no whales... However the music was good (well, except the Deb E. Deb), Captain Joe was interesting to visit with, the sunset over Diamond Head was beautiful and the two-hour ride was outstanding!

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On the way home, we stopped at 7-11. The dive shop manager, Tim, had suggested the spam musubi - he said that surprisingly, 7-11 had the best (after his own, of course). Turns out, it's a pad of sushi rice, with a slice of spam on top held together by a strip of nori. We did all try, (no, that’s not right – Eve and I tried, but Mom promptly wrapped hers right back up), but I don't think anyone ate more than a bite or two. It also kept me from trying the Mickey-shaped musubi that is sold at Aulani.

We decided that we'd try to order pizza to pick up as we got close to the resort - but the pizza place wouldn't answer their phone. So Mom found a Panda Express that we stopped at for a very late dinner. (Although by the time we got to the resort, we might have eaten a little more of that spam stuff, we were so hungry!)[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

PattiPB · Apr 16, 2017

Thanks for writing the trip report! I'm loving all the pictures!

mrp4352 · Apr 17, 2017

PattiPB said:
Thanks for writing the trip report! I'm loving all the pictures!

You're welcome! It's always fun reliving a trip this way!

mrp4352 · Apr 22, 2017

Wed, Feb 21
Bright good morning! We awoke and headed to Ama Ama for breakfast.

Oh my it was so good! We shared the Hawaiian bread basket with guava pastries and macadamia nut muffins and croissants. Mom had the corned beef hash while Eve and I shared two entrees: the macadamia nut pancakes (oh my, so light and fluffy and huge - with macadamia nut nut syrup that was more like frosting) and loco moco- a Hawaiian breakfast, basically a big pile of rice, with a hamburger patty, eggs and onion gravy over the top. Sounds weird, looks weird, tastes amazing! The whole thing was topped off with a gorgeous view of the lagoon and the cheeky pigeons that weren't afraid of anyone as they made their way around scavenging for their breakfast.

This was originally supposed to be our Pearl Harbor day, but after some discussion at breakfast – we decided to through the plan out the window and head out exploring more of the island. We started with the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. It's basically a big Traders Village that specializes in inexpensive souvenirs. We all found some things, and I tried a coconut! First, the lady chopped the top off for me to drink the juice, then I took it back later and she hulled the fruit. (Glad I tried it, but nope, not for me - especially the fruit which was very slimy. I much prefer my coconut dried.)

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We continued our explorations down to the southeast tip of Oahu.

First stop, a beautiful scenic outlook..I loved the layers of rock on the other side of the road!

Hey, it’s us!

Next up, the Halona Blowhole. So cool!

Sorry for the crazy end of the video – YouTube editing is smarter than I am!

A pretty map in the ground in the observation area of the blowhole:

A beach off to the left of the blowhole:

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We followed the highway on around to Makapu'u overlook and beach. According to the signage, this is a haven for whales in the winter. (Yup, again, we managed to avoid seeing any whales.)

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There was a little park just up the road and we could get much closer to the water (the beach from the first picture at Makapu’u is just off to the right from here).

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This rock and water spray had me wanting to sing “Part of Your World”!

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We stopped for a late lunch at Jack in the Box (hey - Eve and I had already been brave once today), then made our way back up to the H-3 to drive through the mountain again back on our way home.

Eve went and played in the lazy river while Mom and I did a little more shopping. Then we all met down on the beach. Here's the mosaic in the ground at the entrance to the beach:

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We were meeting for sunset pictures – but Eve decided to enjoy sitting on the beach. But Mom and I had a fun photoshoot!

I took some more pictures of beautiful Aulani on the way back to our room, where Mom fixed ham for dinner and we played some games before calling it a day.

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mrp4352 · Apr 27, 2017

Thursday, Feb 23rd

Sigh... The last full day...

We headed up the road for breakfast - stopping first at Denny's, but deciding the fish smell was WAY to prevalent for us to enjoy breakfast. So we moved on to Ruby Tuesday's - who knew they did breakfast? Eve had the pancakes and bacon, I had a BLT with scrambled eggs on it (served on slices of King's Hawaiian bread) and Mom had the big breakfast: sausage, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuits and pancakes.

On the way back to Aulani, we explored the shopping center across the street. There were several cute boutiques and the ABC store had a little bit of everything - souvenirs, food, coffee...

Evidently we stopped at the DVC center at some point for a picture. This was a nice freebie for DVC members!

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Back at the hotel, we changed into our suits and headed to the adult pool for some water time. It's a little brisk today, we didn't last long in the water - although I did enjoy one last wander through the lazy river.

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Lunch was in the room and we played games until we couldn't put it off anymore. It was time to pack. I got out of the way, um, I went and took care of the final billing and picked up the photopass CD. I took some pictures of the mural that surrounds the entry way.

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I might also have made a stop for a snack…

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Afterwards, I left Mom and Eve and went down to the fire pit to hear Uncle tell stories. He told legends of Maui - starting with how Maui created the Hawaiian islands.