Aulani Honeymoon- November 2016!

[StaceyDarling!]

Hello everyone! I thought I would share a little bit of what me and my husband have seen, done and enjoyed in Aulani on our honeymoon in November! This was our first time visiting Aulani and Hawaii! We only visited Oahu, so we did not jump between any other islands, just as a heads up! We stayed for 8 beautiful days, all at the Aulani resort and spa (OMG the spa, I could cry with how much I miss it!!). I don't want to make this too long, so I plan on sharing a lot of my pictures of the places we went and things we experienced! Hopefully this can help anyone who is looking for some information on Aulani and what to do at the resort, or maybe just some fun for those of you who have seen it first hand already, but still like to immerse yourself in the magic! I would love to answer any questions, or give any opinions that I can so please let me know if you are curious about anything, and I will try my best to help you out!

To begin with I must just mention, we had an AMAZING time. And that is an understatement still. Hawaii, and more specifically Aulani, was the perfect choice for a honeymoon. I am a HUGE Disney fan (addict, freak, nerd, whatever the term, it fits me LOL) so when we originally had to postpone our Disney Cruise for Zika, we thought, obviously we will just go to Disney World... right? Then Zika hit there too. We played around with the thought of Disneyland or Aulani, and ultimately we went with Aulani! We had just planned this HUGE wedding which we were REALLY involved with, so we wanted a nice, relaxing honeymoon where we weren't worried about rushing around and not missing out on anything. And we didn't think we could do that in California, seeing as there are so many things we wanted to do in and outside of the Disneyland Parks in California. So anyways! Long story short, it was an AMAZING experience. It was just enough Disney magic to keep me satisfied and happy, plus with knowing the Disney Company standards and customer service, we felt completely comfortable trusting in Aulani to give us the spectacular Honeymoon experience we had hoped for... and they did not disappoint! Staff at Aulani was relaxed, professional, friendly and helpful, I really don't have a bad thing to say about our stay at all. I will say one tiny thing however, you can DEFINITELY tell the difference between the Cast Members who have been with the Disney company prior to working at Aulani, verses the locals that became Cast Members at Aulani. We just found so many of the lovely CM's that took time to congratulate us, talk to us and really bring that extra level of joy and magic to our trip were CM's who had worked in Disney World or on the cruises, and even a lot of College Program alumni. We just thought that was such a funny thing we noticed. However, with that being said, everyone was professional and friendly, some just really went that extra Disney mile that we are so used to what with being avid Disney World travelers! Enough chatter, on to the pictures!

Up Next: Day 1: Travel and Arrival in Hawaii!

 

[princessluna14]

Congratulations on your wedding!! I'll be following along; my husband and I are hoping to make our first trip to Hawaii next May and are planning 5 or 6 nights at Aulani!

 

[pepperandchips]

Can't wait to read about your honeymoon! Thank you for planning to share it for the rest of us still planning our trips

 

[Amw1064]

Congratulations and can't wait to see pics. We went to Aulani 2 years ago and totally fell in love with the place. We live in Florida and go to WDW and cruises all the time, but Aulani, pure heaven. What an awesome place to have your honeymoon.

 

[alohamom]

Congratulations on your wedding, following your TR!

 

[PattiPB]

Waiting patiently for your trip report and pictures! Congrats on the marriage~

 

[11point5]

Yay I'm excited to follow along! We're going on our Aulani honeymoon 05/06 - 05/16 and are only JUST beginning to decide plans and activities!

 

[heaven2dc]

Congratulations!! I'm so happy you had an amazing relaxing trip - perfect for winding down after months of wedding planning, right? Can't wait to see pics and read more!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

Hello everyone, I'm so sorry for the ABSURD delay in me doing this TR. Honestly, its been so long since I've posted a TR on here, I've completely forgotten how to attach pictures and after an hour of trying to figure it out myself, I gave up in frustration. And just plain old forgot to come back and finish! If someone can assist me (or point me in the right direction of how to post pics here) I would be more then happy to do the TR.

I tried to follow the tips I found in the FAQ section, but I still couldn't get it to work for me! I guess I am clearly doing SOMETHING wrong! LOL

Thank you in advance!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

Oh my GOSH guys, it's a miracle! I swear I figured out this picture thing now. And I also could have SWORN I tried this same method before and it didn't work.....

Anyways! I should start by introducing us a little bit! Steven and I are in our mid- 20's, and have been together for 3 years, and were just recently married in November.




We had a BIG, beautiful wedding with a lot of family and friends, which is 100% what we wanted... with that being said, it took A LOT of work and effort (and sadly... money ) so we knew we wanted to relax, and have a LOW key honeymoon. Something that offered adventure and fun experiences, but didn't require a ton of planning and effort. Aulani was THE perfect choice for what we were looking for.

We traveled all the way from Philadelphia, PA to Oahu, HI. I believe in total it was supposed to be 14 hours, split into two flights. The first leg was a 4.5 hour flight to Dallas (with a 1.5 hour layover, which was fine) and then the 10 HOUR flight (which ended up being about 12 hours with delays). Surprisingly, the flights weren't that bad. The longer flight was definitely long, but really not too bad. You should have seen the way my legs swelled though! Make sure you move your feet around, or get up and walk a little if you can! I got to the resort and my feet were HUGE! I thought I was allergic to the lei they gave me at check in, and I was so scared that this is how I was starting off our honeymoon, with a trip to the hospital! haha. But luckily we realized it was from the plane, and after a soak in the bathtub in cool water, and elevating them for about an hour (then again while I slept) they started to go down and were better by morning!

Here is some pictures from our travel day! You may notice our Stitch tsum tsum crashing some of our pictures! That was just something fun we did for ourselves and nieces and nephews while we were there.

 

[StaceyDarling!]

Congratulations on your wedding!! I'll be following along; my husband and I are hoping to make our first trip to Hawaii next May and are planning 5 or 6 nights at Aulani!

Thank you so much for the well wishes! Aulani is the perfect honeymoon destination for Disney lovers, who are still looking for a more traditional honeymoon atmosphere! I can't recommend it enough! Let me know if you have any questions at all! I know I had A TON!

Can't wait to read about your honeymoon! Thank you for planning to share it for the rest of us still planning our trips

Thank you so much! Good luck in your planning!

Congratulations and can't wait to see pics. We went to Aulani 2 years ago and totally fell in love with the place. We live in Florida and go to WDW and cruises all the time, but Aulani, pure heaven. What an awesome place to have your honeymoon.

Aulani is like no other! WDW is my home, but Aulani was just unbelievable!

Congratulations on your wedding, following your TR!

TY!!

Waiting patiently for your trip report and pictures! Congrats on the marriage~

Thank you so much!

Yay I'm excited to follow along! We're going on our Aulani honeymoon 05/06 - 05/16 and are only JUST beginning to decide plans and activities!

Don't worry! We did a lot of our planning on the fly once we were there, and in the last 2 months before we went and it really worked for us! Of course, you have to take into account when you are visiting and what type of things you are planning on doing! But for us we got to do everything we wanted in a really low stress way! Let me know if you have any questions!

Congratulations!! I'm so happy you had an amazing relaxing trip - perfect for winding down after months of wedding planning, right? Can't wait to see pics and read more!

Absolutely! The best! That spa was my own personal heaven. I think I'm a spa baby now haha!!

 

[pepperandchips]

Hooray! So glad you figured out the pictures. Your wedding dress was absolutely gorgeous!!!

Woof on the swelling but so glad it went down quickly. You poor thing! We are splitting up our journey from Atlanta by doing a flight to Seattle, an overnight layover, and then Seattle to Honolulu. I think both flights are just 5-6 hours each.

Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

November 7th, 2016-- Arrival at Aulani Resort and (heavenly) SPA!

First I'd like to begin by saying, one of the things we decided to splurge on in our honeymoon was renting a jeep for our stay (my husband has a jeep back at home, which he loves), we were surprised that the jeep was the most expensive rental option (along with convertibles), but it makes sense. And let me tell you it was one of the best decisions we made for our trip! There's nothing like driving through the beauty that is Hawaii with the top down, and no windows! GORGEOUS! We chose to do valet parking pretty much every night of our stay (verses self parking), mainly because it was easier and it cost exactly the same. As long as you don't mind having to call down 10-15 minutes before you are leaving so they can pull it up for you. We never put the roof or the windows on all week. We just asked the attendants to make sure it was parked under the roofed in portion of the parking garage, and that was just perfect!

Arriving at Aulani was just as beautiful, warm and welcoming (and well, just say it with me, MAGICAL) as you would expect pulling up to a Disney destination. I can't get over the over-all RELAXED nature of the Island and it's people. Everything was just so smooth and calm, it was truly just fantastic! The resort is GORGEOUS, and in a wonderful area. Literally directly across a very walk-able street from an ice cream shop, and a few restaurants. Monkeypod was delicious, but probably a little expensive in my opinion, but it was very yummy and convenient. Honestly, it's almost just as expensive as staying at the resort and eating. With that being said, we did eat there twice during our stay.

We valeted our jeep, and began the check in process! We received our lei's (I forgot the correct name for the ones the men receive), and we were guided into the resort by a CM, who gave us a little history of the lobby, and little direction of where to go, as well as taking our picture in the breathtaking lobby! After being personally walked to the check in desk, we were so appreciative to have received an upgrade to a partial ocean view for our honeymoon! There's that Disney magic for you! We received the keys to our room and headed up to check it out and relax a little after the long flight! This is when I discovered my feet had swollen! lol







Our best friends surprised us with a wonderful in room surprise! Champagne, dessert and fruit!






Considering we got to the resort around 5 pm, we mostly just walked around the resort to get the lay of the land and see where everything was. We checked out the store, the pools, the beach, and then grabbed something to eat at the Quick Service cafe by the adult pool, Ulu Cafe. We finished off the evening with a cupcake, the champagne and treats from our friends in bed and watched HGTV!

Up next, our first FULL day!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

Hooray! So glad you figured out the pictures. Your wedding dress was absolutely gorgeous!!!

Woof on the swelling but so glad it went down quickly. You poor thing! We are splitting up our journey from Atlanta by doing a flight to Seattle, an overnight layover, and then Seattle to Honolulu. I think both flights are just 5-6 hours each.

Can't wait to read more!!!

Thank you so much!! The swelling thing was a nightmare! haha. I was glad it went down by the next morning, I was worried it was going to last a while. And that sounds like a great way to split up the flights! You are going to have a phenomenal time!

 

[olliesmom]

Joining in!!

Is the photo of the lazy river the view from your room? It looks gorgeous!!

DH reallly wanted to rent a Jeep for our upcoming trip... but the cost difference was almost 800.00 for the week so we decided against it. Now I'm wondering if we should have gone for it.

Looking forward to reading about your first full day!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

Joining in!!

Is the photo of the lazy river the view from your room? It looks gorgeous!!

DH reallly wanted to rent a Jeep for our upcoming trip... but the cost difference was almost 800.00 for the week so we decided against it. Now I'm wondering if we should have gone for it.

Looking forward to reading about your first full day!

Hello there! Thank you for following along!
That picture of the lazy river isn't from our room, it's from right outside our room in the hallway of the hotel, just by the elevators!

Yes, the jeep can be a big difference! It was painful for me to do it, I think it was about a $400 extra charge (verses the cheapest car type price-- we went through Budget, they had the best prices!) However, I wanted to make DH happy, and it REALLY was worth it for us. We did a lot of sight seeing and driving (which is something we love to do all the time), so for us I would say it was absolutely worth it!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

November 8th, 2016-- First full Day At Aulani! Dole Plantation, the North Shore and more!

This was our first full day of our honeymoon! Thanks to the time zone change (which actually worked in our favor!) we were waking up every morning about 5-7 am. Which is amazing even though it might not send like it! Because we woke up bright and early, and we didn't feel tired or worn out, and we didn't waste any time during our vacation! We began our morning with sitting out on our balcony and watching the sunrise! Very beautiful and very relaxing!





Honestly, we didn't have too much of a structured plan our itinerary for the whole trip really. As in, we made of list of places we wanted to go, and things we wanted to do, but we didn't write it out like "Monday we are doing XYZ, Tuesday we are doing ABC", etc. After planning the wedding, we wanted to do things a little more relaxed with our honeymoon and we wanted some flexibility if one day we woke up and wanted to take it easy, or we were feeling more adventurous etc. The only thing I planned in advanced before we arrived was a few reservations at the resort, and one excursion.

We used the morning to kind of "gently" plan out our week. We did end up moving a few things around on the fly but we really enjoyed the way we decided to set up our week. I should also mention, we went in November, and I knew it wasn't as busy of a season. If you are going in the more popular months, planning ahead more is probably a better choice if you really want to make sure you can do everything you want at your ideal times. However, all week we did everything we wanted, when we wanted, so it worked for us!

Our big plan of the day.... GO TO TARGET! Not even kidding! We wanted to get this out of the way the day we had arrived, but we were just too tired from traveling for the last 17+ hours, so we decided we'd go today. Other then that we knew we wanted to do some sightseeing, but nothing specific. We went to the lobby, and decided to take a little look around the resort in the daylight before our breakfast reservations at Ama Ama. The resort was amazing in the daylight, I can't even get over it! Ama Ama was breathtaking!!! Absolutely gorgeous and delicious and completely worth the $$$ in my opinion. Everything in Hawaii is expensive, all the restaurants in the area on the resort and off are pretty much the same. We loved eating at the resort, those were our favorite meals. I had a delicious farm veggie frittata and DH had some sort of eggs benedict dish, I'm not exactly sure anymore! As well as delicious, fresh pineapple juice (which was only like $2, which we were so surprised about it because it was more expensive back at home!) DH had his favorite part of the week as well, his very on french press full of yummy Kona coffee!



















More to come in the next post! I ran out of space for pictures on this post!

 

[StaceyDarling!]

November 8th, 2016- First Full Day at Aulani-- PART 2: Dole Plantation, North Shore and More!

After our delicious, relaxing breakfast at the heavenly Ama Ama, we went back to the lobby and we asked the valet to pull up our car, and went back inside to the concierge and asked them for a recommendation for a scenic drive we could take. This is when we met the nicest cast member! We bonded over both being Alumni of the Disney College Program, she told us she had worked on the cruise as well. This lovely CM went above and beyond! She pulled out a map, gave us a whole days worth of activities to do and wrote us out a route to follow. She suggested we take a drive to the Dole Plantation, then on to the North Shore, and then hit some outlets on the way back. These were all places and things we had on our possible list of activities we wanted to do!


We originally weren't too sure if we were going to stop at the Dole Plantation, but we did and we were SO happy we did! It was actually GORGEOUS! And sooo fun and affordable! And I'm not even kidding, the dole whips there were a million times better then any dole whip I've ever had at WDW! After looking around the big store for about an hour, we shared a dole whip outside, and then we decided to take the Pineapple Express tour, which is on a train. It was really nice, relaxing and scenic! We learned some cool facts too!












After this, we took a BEAUTIFUL drive to the North Shore. The weather was beautiful, and the swells were huge! We stopped off at a beach along the way just randomly, and they were actually setting up for a surfing competition so that was neat to see! We dipped our feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time here at this beach! Which is so fun to get to do together! The undertow was FOR REAL. We weren't in any more deep than our ankles and we were getting pulled bad enough that we only stood there for about 2 minutes. The sand was being eroded out from underneath from us so quickly it actually made me nervous. I would not have swam at that beach! We spent another 20 minutes or so just taking in the beauty of the ocean, and collecting these adorable, tiny shells for each of our nieces and nephews.




We got back in the jeep and continued along our scenic drive! Taking in the beauty of the North Shore, which is a neighborhood that is so cool and artistic. We really enjoyed it! We stopped off in the historic shopping and food area of the NS and we got some lunch and a yummy burger place, Teddy's Bigger Burgers and then we went to Matsumotos Shaved Ice, of course! Honestly, I'm going to say something controversial here, but.... it was just O.K. I wasn't super impressed. I mainly think it's because I am from Philadelphia and we have the best water ice, shaved ice, etc. Although its not the exact same thing at all, it's similar enough. I am absolutely happy we went though. It was definitely something we had to do regardless, and it was good. I just prefer what i am used to.







By this time, it was the afternoon, and we had done A LOT of fun stuff! I'd say it's about 3 or 4 pm, and to us it felt like 10 pm, again thanks to the time zone! So we decided to head back towards the resort. We drove through the shopping center of outlets and we weren't that thrilled with any specific stores there, except for Starbucks and Game Stop!

Then we went on to Target finally, which was very close to the resorts, as I'm sure most of you have read about! It was nice to have it so close. We picked up some snacks and breakfast type things for the room. Of course, we bought reusable bags there as they don't have plastic bags to be used! So try not to forget that if you plan on doing some shopping there!

We headed back to the resort, spent some time in the room and started thinking about dinner. We were pretty tired after a big day, and still pretty full from Teddy's, so we decided to just order something from room service and split it, enjoy the nice comfy king bed and watch HGTV and we made it an easy, early night! After all, we did wake up at 5:30 am!

 

[OKW Lover]

So enjoying your trip report! Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[StaceyDarling!]

November 9th, 2017-- PART ONE-- Resort and Spa Day!

We started off our next morning at Aulani sleeping in (just a tiny bit) til about 8 am. This was the latest we slept in all week! Afterall, we did do quite a lot that first day! We had breakfast reservations at the Character Breakfast at Makahiki. We took a nice stroll through the beautiful outdoor gardens, instead of going through the lobby! Before being seated for our breakfast we got to have a picture and a meeting with Mickey, dressed in his Island best! After that we waited probably another 10 minutes to be seated. The buffet was delicious! I really loved it! I think it is pretty comparable to WDW's best buffet options, but just a little bit nicer!







This restaurant, just like all of the restaurants at the resort (and for the most part, the rest of the island), has a wonderful indoor-outdoor flow to it. We were seated in the best place, in my opinion. Under the cover from the sun, but still out on the porch to enjoy the beautiful weather! The only thing we noticed about this restaurant though was the birds were really eager to come check all around you for any scraps! LOL. The parade was adorable, as well as the characters, and even though me and my husband were there without any children, we had a great time!





After breakfast, we had some time to kill before our spa appointment, but not really long enough to start another activity, like going in the hot tub or lazy river, or to the beach for a swim. So, we decided to take our time going around the resort on our way for a walk on the beach to explore a bit, stopping to take a few pictures along the way.



We went down the furtherest end of the lagoon out back of Aulani, past the wedding chapel, because there weren't many people up that way. We walked along the water, wrote messages for each other in the sand, collected some seashells and really just enjoyed each other's company and the beautiful view in front of us! Today was definitely our total relaxation day!









Coming up next, part two of our day! THE SPA
I ran out of room for pictures, so I'm sorry I'm breaking this up into multiple posts for one day!