partyoffive
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2003
- Messages
- 35
We had a wonderful first time visit to Aulani August 21-26.
We are vacation club members but paid cash for our trip and got the 30% off rate along with, one free meal a day for each family member at ULU cafe, a free car rental for one day, free shuttle to and from the airport, $150 credit and free photopass cd! It was a great deal.
We flew United from Chicago direct to Honolulu. Lovely flight can not complain.
Arrived and waited about 30 minutes for our shuttle but they were really nice about the delay so it wasn't an issue. Plus we are pretty easy going travelers.
Got to Aulani, it is beautiful! We were in a two bedroom ocean view on the 7th floor. Room 780. Over the stay we did complain a bit about the dim lighting for us old folks but the kids had no problems, of course! I would have liked a lighted makeup mirror in the bathroom but that's also probably due to age
Other than the lighting we loved the room.
We had dinner at Monkeypod the first night. It was very nice. Service was good and the food was pretty good. We did a little shopping at the market across the street. Got a few things for breakfast there and at the Aulani store.
On Monday our first full day we spent the day at the pool and the ocean. Just hanging out and enjoying the scenery. We had chairs at the adult pool. No problems there. We did have at least one family with kids that were about 10-12 sitting there but the kids never got in the pool and just came for parent checks I believe. No issues for us. We went to the mexican restuarant across the street for dinner. Meh not my favorite, really good chips and salsa, friendly service but so so food.
Tuesday we went on a tour to Pearl Harbor. We left at 8:30am and returned at about 4pm. We used a service through Aulani that picked us up at the resort. Our driver was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed Pearl Harbor. Three boys ages 22, 20 and 18 loved every minute. We had time to tour the Bowfin submarine. Get the audio tour if you go, it was excellent. Also went through the museum with the audio. Had a quick snack and then went to the Arizona. Finally toured the Missouri. Missouri was so impressive. The whole experience is a must if you have not been before. That night we went to the Fai Fai Luau. Loved every minute of the show! The food was ok, some stuff was better than others. But the show was just so good! That night the 2016 hula champion in the world performed! The announcer was funny, dancers impressive. Cant say enough positive things about Fai Fai!
Wednesday we had a cabana at the adult pool. Loved every minute of that as well! We had dinner that night at the Japanese restaurant across the street. Service was good, food was better than the mexican place, about the same as Monkeypod.
Thursday we used our free rental car and I had rented another car thru Costco in case we wanted to split up and see different things. This was probably our only big complaint during the trip. From the time we entered the line at Alamo until we got the cars took an hour and 45 minutes!! We started the adventure at 9am. The Alamo guy was very nice but was by himself. Just took forever! On the plus side Alamo reimbursed us for half the car cost when we very politely complained. That day three of us went to the aviation museum at Pearl Harbor and the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The other three went to Green World coffee, Waimea Falls and a shrimp food truck. Best meal I had the whole trip! We all met up in the afternoon and shopped at the Dole store and then had dinner at Haleiwas Joes. Second best meal I had in Hawaii!!
Friday we left
Another United flight home. Excellent as usual.
Overall I wish we had had more time! The staff at Aulani was excellent. Always friendly, smiling and very helpful. We never experienced the chair issues because we were at the adult pool each day but we did enjoy watching it from our balcony! You must have a dole whip at least once! Still wishing I had had more of them. We would go back in a heartbeat even with the 9 hour flight.
If you have questions feel free to ask, I'm getting tired of typing for now!!
PS I would love to post pictures but can't seem to figure it out! I've tried drag and drop as well as copy and paste to no avail. When I get it I'll add some pics.
We are vacation club members but paid cash for our trip and got the 30% off rate along with, one free meal a day for each family member at ULU cafe, a free car rental for one day, free shuttle to and from the airport, $150 credit and free photopass cd! It was a great deal.
We flew United from Chicago direct to Honolulu. Lovely flight can not complain.
Arrived and waited about 30 minutes for our shuttle but they were really nice about the delay so it wasn't an issue. Plus we are pretty easy going travelers.
Got to Aulani, it is beautiful! We were in a two bedroom ocean view on the 7th floor. Room 780. Over the stay we did complain a bit about the dim lighting for us old folks but the kids had no problems, of course! I would have liked a lighted makeup mirror in the bathroom but that's also probably due to age
Other than the lighting we loved the room.We had dinner at Monkeypod the first night. It was very nice. Service was good and the food was pretty good. We did a little shopping at the market across the street. Got a few things for breakfast there and at the Aulani store.
On Monday our first full day we spent the day at the pool and the ocean. Just hanging out and enjoying the scenery. We had chairs at the adult pool. No problems there. We did have at least one family with kids that were about 10-12 sitting there but the kids never got in the pool and just came for parent checks I believe. No issues for us. We went to the mexican restuarant across the street for dinner. Meh not my favorite, really good chips and salsa, friendly service but so so food.
Tuesday we went on a tour to Pearl Harbor. We left at 8:30am and returned at about 4pm. We used a service through Aulani that picked us up at the resort. Our driver was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed Pearl Harbor. Three boys ages 22, 20 and 18 loved every minute. We had time to tour the Bowfin submarine. Get the audio tour if you go, it was excellent. Also went through the museum with the audio. Had a quick snack and then went to the Arizona. Finally toured the Missouri. Missouri was so impressive. The whole experience is a must if you have not been before. That night we went to the Fai Fai Luau. Loved every minute of the show! The food was ok, some stuff was better than others. But the show was just so good! That night the 2016 hula champion in the world performed! The announcer was funny, dancers impressive. Cant say enough positive things about Fai Fai!
Wednesday we had a cabana at the adult pool. Loved every minute of that as well! We had dinner that night at the Japanese restaurant across the street. Service was good, food was better than the mexican place, about the same as Monkeypod.
Thursday we used our free rental car and I had rented another car thru Costco in case we wanted to split up and see different things. This was probably our only big complaint during the trip. From the time we entered the line at Alamo until we got the cars took an hour and 45 minutes!! We started the adventure at 9am. The Alamo guy was very nice but was by himself. Just took forever! On the plus side Alamo reimbursed us for half the car cost when we very politely complained. That day three of us went to the aviation museum at Pearl Harbor and the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The other three went to Green World coffee, Waimea Falls and a shrimp food truck. Best meal I had the whole trip! We all met up in the afternoon and shopped at the Dole store and then had dinner at Haleiwas Joes. Second best meal I had in Hawaii!!
Friday we left
Another United flight home. Excellent as usual.Overall I wish we had had more time! The staff at Aulani was excellent. Always friendly, smiling and very helpful. We never experienced the chair issues because we were at the adult pool each day but we did enjoy watching it from our balcony! You must have a dole whip at least once! Still wishing I had had more of them. We would go back in a heartbeat even with the 9 hour flight.
If you have questions feel free to ask, I'm getting tired of typing for now!!
PS I would love to post pictures but can't seem to figure it out! I've tried drag and drop as well as copy and paste to no avail. When I get it I'll add some pics.
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