Aulani help (we are back and need help with island hopping) page 5

[Amw1064]

3 weeks from today!!!!! Can you tell who is getting excited? Is there anything else I should know or be doing?

 

[frank808]

Like another poster said the Fia Fia luau is pretty good. Keeps you pretty entertained. It is at marriott koolina that if you do not want to walk there is a shuttle. It stops at aulani every half an hour or so and will drop you off at the marriott. I have been to germaines, paradise cove and fia fia. Out of the 3 the best interaction and entertainment was with fia fia. The others are good but i say the chief makes the fia fia one the best.

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

We really want to see the beach where the turtles are and/or seals. Is this Turtle Beach or something else? Is the waterfall/hike mentioned above near Nothshore or closer to Aulani.

There is an actual Turtle Beach, but the little cove right next door to Aulani (I believe it is called Paradise Cove) has tons of turtles and it's close enough to walk over for a few hours during the afternoon. Because of the construction at the soon to be Four Seasons though, you can't walk around on the Aulani beach side (there are construction fences and a guards on the Four Seasons side that made us turn around). But we just walked out the front of Aulani and headed left towards Paradise Cove Luau, and there is a public access path right before it that will lead you to the beach. We saw several turtles in the cove to the left and one big one in the cove straight ahead. The kids were enthralled!!!

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

This turtle swam *right* up to the kids!! They weren't even looking for one, and he was super friendly. I kept having to remind them to back up because the turtle kept wanting to get closer, lol. It was super laid back and let the kids watch it munch on seaweed from the rocks for like 20 mins.

 

[Amw1064]

Very cool Mommy2Corinne!!!! That would be awesome to see.

 

[TexasTek76]

This turtle swam *right* up to the kids!! They weren't even looking for one, and he was super friendly. I kept having to remind them to back up because the turtle kept wanting to get closer, lol. It was super laid back and let the kids watch it munch on seaweed from the rocks for like 20 mins.

Is there a particular time of day that the turtles are there? Or is it just random times?

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

Is there a particular time of day that the turtles are there? Or is it just random times?

I'm not sure. I would guess random. We were there at about 11 AM on one day and about 1:45 PM another day. The turtles were there both times.

 

[deedisneydream97]

There is an actual Turtle Beach, but the little cove right next door to Aulani (I believe it is called Paradise Cove) has tons of turtles and it's close enough to walk over for a few hours during the afternoon. Because of the construction at the soon to be Four Seasons though, you can't walk around on the Aulani beach side (there are construction fences and a guards on the Four Seasons side that made us turn around). But we just walked out the front of Aulani and headed left towards Paradise Cove Luau, and there is a public access path right before it that will lead you to the beach. We saw several turtles in the cove to the left and one big one in the cove straight ahead. The kids were enthralled!!!

I am tucking that information away for another future visit. We took the "beach" way, and the first year we did it was kind of scary!! Waves were pounding and we were crawling on all fours at some points on the rocky reef. Two years later we climbed along on the beach side...still scary with lots of loose rocks. Did not know there was another public access further up. But that turtle cove is amazing once you get to it. We also saw lots of colorful fish in some of the tide pools around it. Definitely wear water shoes in the water. Lots of coral around and it can give you a nasty cut (speaking from experience here).

 

[alohamom]

This turtle swam *right* up to the kids!! They weren't even looking for one, and he was super friendly. I kept having to remind them to back up because the turtle kept wanting to get closer, lol. It was super laid back and let the kids watch it munch on seaweed from the rocks for like 20 mins.

WOW-awesome pics-thanks for sharing and I guess we will also have to add this to our "to do" list for the next visit!

 

[tksbaskets]

Does anyone know how far in advance you should book the Paradise Cove luau? Also, where can we get a 'coupon'?

Thanks,
TK

 

[Amw1064]

We leave 2 weeks from today. I am in countdown mode!

tksbaskets, I just booked our PC luau last week. I wanted to coordinate my daughter's hair appt for the same night so I went ahead and just booked from their site. Not sure it was necessary so early.

 

[tksbaskets]

We leave 2 weeks from today. I am in countdown mode!

tksbaskets, I just booked our PC luau last week. I wanted to coordinate my daughter's hair appt for the same night so I went ahead and just booked from their site. Not sure it was necessary so early.

Thanks! Please let me know how you like it! I was thinking of booking the deluxe tour with seating up front.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Aloha! I am a cast member at Aulani and look forward to seeing you in 7 weeks! Great suggestions by all of you! Germaine's Luau and Paradise Cove Luau are pretty similar. If you want something near Aulani then definitely go with Paradise Cove! As far as touring the island...I've met so many 'ohana that have plans to tour the island before they arrive at the resort and end up cancelling all of them because they just don't want to leave the resort! LOL! You can definitely wait until you arrive to really see how you feel and if you decide you do want to do some tours, we do have our Holoholo tour desk in our Maka'ala Lobby and they would be happy to assist you in booking tours, surfing lessons, and much much more! Again, definitely looking forward to seeing you in 7 weeks! Mahalo for your time!

Lucky you to work there

If we book a tour through your tour desk, can it include transport

 

[blondietink]

We are from Buffalo, NY and honestly didn't have much problem with the time change getting to Hawaii. Coming home is another story. Most of the flights are overnight flights, which mean you don't get any sleep unless you can sleep on the plane. I always have a problem flying east (Europe), but flying west I am OK. The first day you will wake up early. go for a walk, even if it is still dark and your body will get into the time zone.

You will love Aulani. We are going back for a 2nd trip in April. We did our touring of the island mostly before we got to Aulani as we spent 4 days in Waikiki before hitting the resort. We plan to do the same thing this time. You won't want to leave Aulani once you get there. It is so beautiful and relaxing!

 

[Amw1064]

Today is one week exactly until we leave for our 10 nights at Aulani. If you have read through this, is there ANYTHING I am forgetting? I have booked a hair appt for my daughter in the teen spa. I bought the tickets for Pearl Harbor, booked the luau and a surf lesson. Everything else we will just pick a day to do. I have gotten so much great info on here so we kind of know our agenda.

For anyone looking at car rentals, I read on here to keep checking and that is what I have been doing over the last 3 or 4 months. When I first booked the car, it was $409 for the 11 day rental. If it went down, I would cancel and re book. It is now down to $256 so I highly recommend doing this. Both the Hawaiian Discount Car rental and Costco. (ended up going with Costco) I read on here that a lot of GPS systems do not work in Hawaii. Is there an app that works better? I thought I read that somewhere but now I can't find it.

 

[AZMermaid]

I've just been using the directions on my iPhone and that's been fine so far

 

[blondietink]

We brought our Magellan GPS and it worked fine. It was actually pretty fun listening to it try to pronounce the names of streets in Hawaii. It was accurate in pronunciation most of the time!

 

[swooshbear]

Today is one week exactly until we leave for our 10 nights at Aulani. If you have read through this, is there ANYTHING I am forgetting? I have booked a hair appt for my daughter in the teen spa. I bought the tickets for Pearl Harbor, booked the luau and a surf lesson. Everything else we will just pick a day to do. I have gotten so much great info on here so we kind of know our agenda.

For anyone looking at car rentals, I read on here to keep checking and that is what I have been doing over the last 3 or 4 months. When I first booked the car, it was $409 for the 11 day rental. If it went down, I would cancel and re book. It is now down to $256 so I highly recommend doing this. Both the Hawaiian Discount Car rental and Costco. (ended up going with Costco) I read on here that a lot of GPS systems do not work in Hawaii. Is there an app that works better? I thought I read that somewhere but now I can't find it.

I do the same thing anytime I rent a car, the price usually seems to go down as you get closer to the travel date.

I usually don't have issues with using my phone for GPS/Navigation, using Google Maps or Waze.

 

[JennisSilly]

We will be there the same time as you! We leave Thursday, the 11th, and are coming from Phoenix.

We have a 4 year old so we plan on doing Pearl Harbor (already booked), north shore, and Sea Life and the rest of our stay at Aulani!

 

[AZMermaid]

I just returned today (wahhh) with my 3 and 4 year olds from Phoenix- small world! My 4 year old says he wishes Arizona was Hawaii!