Aulani on a Whim? A 10 day odyssey (or Ohio: There and Back Again - my first TR)

[JeffR]

I've always liked sharing my vacations, but have always resisted doing a TR just because it takes so long. But I thought I’d try one, and see how it goes.

We've been DVCers for about 15 years now, and have taken some truly remarkable trips. But this year, with my oldest son in his first year at college and my younger son in his last year of high school, was initially going to be an off year for us.

But as I was logging on to bank the points a few months ago, I decided, on a whim, to check the availability of Aulani. When I saw that 2BRs were still available, I “held” the room, and then texted my wife to see what she thought (I had like 20 minutes before I had to confirm the on-line booking). She called back, and we shared that kind of nervous laugh that said we knew we were going to pull the trigger on this, while at the same time understanding how reckless we were being.

We knew our kids’ Spring Breaks were going to overlap, but we also knew it was a 50/50 call on whether our oldest would even want to join us. We would not have demanded he accompany us if he had already made other plans, and in fact when we first mentioned it to him, he was unwilling to commit because he was still entertaining thoughts of a trip with some of his new college friends.

And so knowing we had a room that slept nine, and that only 3 might be going, we encouraged both kids to invite a friend. But we also knew the odds were against it, given the relatively short time-frame (and the cost of course), we so weren't surprised to learn that neither had any friends that would be able to commit.

But I couldn't get past the fact that we were going to be able to offer what was basically a free bed in Hawaii for a week, and so approached my wife with the idea of inviting someone within the family to go with us. My criteria were simple; they had to be old enough to take care of themselves, and they couldn't be attached (I didn't want to ask a couple). In the end, we ended up inviting my 17 year old niece, who had grown up in our home state, but is now living with her Missionary parents in Tijuana Mexico. Not only was she very close in age to our boys (her cousins), but she was also already “half way there”, and so we could keep the additional costs at a minimum. Thankfully, our oldest did decide to join us, and so we were five.

Always looking for a bargain, we agonized over flights, and eventually went with the “lower-cost” fares we could get by taking long layovers. And because we knew this was likely to be the only trip we would ever take to Hawaii, flew out on Friday, even though we didn't have Aulani reservations until Sunday, in order to maximize our time on the island.

And so it began.

Day 1 - Friday (LAX Layover)
Day 2 - Saturday (Waikiki)
Day 3 - Sunday (Aulani Check-In)
Day 4 - Monday (Resort)
Day 5 - Tuesday (Pearl Harbor)
Day 6 - Wednesday (Resort - will post "generic" pics at the end).
Day 7 - Thursday (Surfing)
Day 8 - Friday (Coast Walk)
Day 9 - Saturday (Last Day in Oahu)
Day 10 - Sunday (San Francisco Layover)

Pool Pics
Snorkeling Lagoon
Court Yard
Sunset Series
Tips & Misc

 

[JeffR]

Our flight arrived at LAX just before noon, and with almost six hours to kill before departure, we had entertained thoughts of taking a tour. We actually found what sounded like a great walking tour of Venice, but in the end, decided to do something on our own.

With two teenage boys, the decision to spend our time at Venice Beach seemed reasonable to me, even though my wife would have preferred the more family-friendly Manhattan Beach. But ever the trouper, she researched some places on the beach where we might enjoy eating, and upon our arrival, we jumped into a taxi and headed for this “hippie Mecca”.

Venice Beach

A quick word about layover tours: We’d never done, and had never really heard of anyone doing this, but we also knew that it would be agony to spend 6 hours at LAX. And so even though we (meaning me) actually put only a little planning into this part of the trip, we (meaning my wife) at least managed to figure out that we would want to pack differently for an “off-site layover”. Because as un-cool as we can sometimes be, pulling wheeled carry-on bags up and down the path of Venice Beach seemed just a bit too extreme, even for us. And so we all found backpacks we could live with, and used those instead of our typical carry-on bags. It was a very good decision.

Venice Beach Skate Park

We were all hungry, and went in search of a place where they advertised hamburgers on doughnuts (my wife and I had tried to drop a couple pounds prior to our trip, and we were ready to cut loose and start our vacation with a carb-busting extravaganza). We never found the place, but did have this place on our list, and so had two orders to share. French fries may not sound like the perfect first vacation lunch, but it worked just fine for us.

Wee Chippy

Our View from the Wee Chippy

We don’t have a lot of shots of Venice Beach, which is a shame, because it really is an incredibly entertaining place. But the most interesting places either “prohibit” pictures (the medical marijuana stores), or want you to pay for them (the laziest dog in America – American Entrepreneurship at its gaudiest).

Laziest Dog in America (Pic from Website)

[Here I speak about the Devil's Weed]
And now just a brief word on Medical Marijuana. While still outlawed by our national government, marijuana is now legal in several states, either for medical use (such as California), or for recreational use (Colorado and Washington), and this was our first exposure to an area where it is “legal”.

As the area got more crowded, it became obvious that Venice has become one of the hubs for the medical marijuana crowd. In addition to at least three store-fronts with "on-site physicians" (with signs suggesting you could get a prescription), the most overwhelming evidence was the odor.

We didn't actually see anyone smoking, but the smell was everywhere.

And I'm not talking about the smell of smoke, but of the smell of the weed itself. There was so much around (in people’s pockets I guess), that the smell of the un-smoked herb actually permeated the air, and was recognizable even to us poor rubes from a fly-over state. If you had wondered before, now you know why French Fry and doughnut-hamburger joints have found a home here.
[/Evil Weed Description Complete - All G rated from here on out]

After a couple hours of wandering about, we decided to walk toward Santa Monica, and if we had the time, to make our way to the Pier. By now the weather had turned absolutely gorgeous, and by the time we stopped to get some sun-screen, had all gotten slightly burned. On the up-side, we are now all able to say we got sunburned on our layover at LAX. How many people get to say that?!

Walking Toward Santa Monica

Although close neighbors, Santa Monica is very different from Venice (much more affluent, and some would say more "family friendly"). It was still relatively early when we got there, and so there weren't nearly as many people out as when we were there years ago. The area where we are standing was a volleyball hot-spot the last time I was here.

The Sign at the Pier (it's famous, it says so on the sign)

At the last moment, we made a decision to stay and eat, which was almost a very big mistake. On our way to the airport, the cabbie told us that if we had stayed even 15 minutes longer, traffic would have been so heavy that we might have missed our flight. That would have been a horrible way to start our trip.

Wife & Youngest Having Lunch

The wheel from the end of the pier.

We arrived in Hawaii around 8:30 that night, picked up our car (we were given a free upgrade from an SUV to a Jeep on the spot – which meant we had a convertible, once I realized I could [manually] remove the top), and headed to our hotel in Waikiki (where we were booked for the first two nights). You know you're not in Ohio any more when you pull up to the lobby of the hotel and there are no walls (no pic ). What a great concept though. Who needs walls when it's never really cold?

The View North from our Room in Waikiki

 

[JeffR]

Waking up before the sun every day (6 hour time shifts tend to do that to you), this was our first view of the ocean.

Waikiki Hotel Ocean View

As we were admiring the view, my wife asked what all those dots were out on the water. Later, as the sun came up, we were able to make out that they were surfers. I guess we weren't the only ones up before dawn

Waikiki Beach Surfers

We were picking up our niece from the airport later in the afternoon, and so spent Saturday morning doing a little sightseeing. First up was Diamond Head, and although the hike wasn't all that difficult for people in reasonably good shape, do your homework and know what you’re getting yourself into. And like others have said, get there early to beat both the heat and the crowds. Doing it early in your trip, while you’re still on mainland time, worked perfectly for us.

Here we're looking back down into the crater (which is where you park).

Waikiki (with Honolulu beyond)

High-rises at the base of Diamond Head

My wife and eldest with Waikiki in the background

My youngest with the inland view in the background

The family on Diamond head

From Diamond Head, we traveled to Hanauma Bay, where (evidently) some of the best snorkeling on the island can be found.

It was a pay-to-play area though, and as we were a bit short on time, didn't go down. The "scum" you see in the water is actually coral, and so is probably an awesome place to see all the fishes.

The "park" at the top of Hanauma Bay.

We then picked up our niece, who had flown in from San Diego, and headed up to the North Shore (via the Dole plantation where we had the obligatory Pineapple Whip ice-cream). From there, we headed to the famous Macky's shrimp truck, where we had a very tasty, if somewhat pricey lunch.

My expression here would seem to indicate that I was unhappy with something, but unless I had just seen the bill, I can't understand what it would be. It is a very hard place to not be happy in.

Driving through Haleiwa, I saw a dive shop and stopped to talk. My oldest took the opportunity to get a haircut.

It was getting a bit late in the day, and we really didn't know where the best North Shore surfing was, but we did see a few. Here's our niece with some surfer dudes in the background.

The “kids” somewhere along the North Shore

Much to the annoyance of my kids, I continued along the North Shore instead of turning around and going back the way we came, and essentially circumnavigated the island on the way back to our hotel in Waikiki.

I must be getting old, because I absolutely loved the drive. The kids, not so much.

Saturday Driving Route

 

[JeffR]

Before heading to the resort on Sunday, we spent a couple hours at the Aloha Stadium Swap meet, a local favorite and a great way to give some of your tourist dollars directly to the locals. But other than some fresh pineapple and a couple “trinkets”, we didn't actually buy much.

(And kids, don’t try this at home. Only old dudes can pull off that safari hat!)

About an hour’s drive from Honolulu (depending on traffic, which is nuts sometimes), we arrived at Aulani and were warmly greeted with a drink of water and the traditional lei (but not a single "Welcome Home").

We checked in, knowing our room wouldn't be ready, spent some time walking through the resort, and then headed back the way we had come to buy some groceries at Costco.

The Disney resort is one of three (or four?) separate resorts along the southwest coast, all situated around four man-made lagoons. There's a nice paved path along this entire stretch where you can walk or run (which I did).

And each beach, by state law, has some type of public access, as there are no private beaches in Hawaii. And so no matter where you’re at in this area, you are sharing the beach with the locals. I actually felt bad because it felt like they were staying to the fringes, which puts you in kind of awkward situation if you’re the kind who likes to meet those who live in the area you’re visiting.

And although I don't have the whole back-story, I'm guessing that these lagoons were carved out in part due to the desert-like conditions on this part of the island. Because while it rained a lot everywhere else on the island, we had only a couple drops all week

Our room, #1652, was available very soon after getting back, and boy did we get lucky.

The view from our balcony looking North.

The tower you see in the background is the power plant (where we hiked later in the week), and the warm water output makes for what someone told me was the best walk-in scuba diving on the island (but no - I didn't dive - sigh).

I've never been much for hotel views, as I figure if you're on vacation, you shouldn't be in your room long enough to need one. But I just couldn't get over how great this view was

The killer view from our balcony.

The resort buildings are setup in kind of a U-shape, and from this view, you can sort of see it (the center is the lobby, which is below the trees in this angle). We think we got extremely lucky on our room, which was on the top floor near the center of the picture.

Our room was the three doors in the top center (the bow of the canoe). We booked a two-bedroom, which in this case was actually a one bedroom with a studio lock-out

With the time shift, I didn't actually experience much Hawaii after dark, but the view from our room was no less stunning.

And you can't have Disney without some characters. There was a half-hour "traditional" show our first night, followed by this half-hour character show.

Even though we were on the top floor, this stage was directly beneath us, and every night we got serenaded by live entertainment. These guys were unbelievably good, and I waited all week for them to return. But they never did (at least I think they were the Sunday night group).

 

[JeffR]

My wife and I got up early on Monday and walked as far south as we could. Across the little bay here was what looked like a working shipyard.

This is the larger of the two Marriott resorts, nearer the southern part of the resort area

Because this was a resort day, I’m going to hold off on the resort pics as so many others have already posted them, and I’ll just post a bunch at the end.

 

[JeffR]

On Tuesday we headed out to Pearl Harbor, which was timed well, because we heard later that the boat that takes you to the Arizona wasn't running on Monday due to high winds and on Wed due to debris in the water.

The Arizona Memorial from the landing dock (taken as we were leaving – yes we followed directions and waited until we left to take our pics).

The ship was left where it lay and declared a graveyard and national monument. The viewing area "straddles" the ship, and here you can look down directly onto it.

When asked, my wife said she and the boys were honoring the solemn nature of the moment by being somber. If my niece is ever somber, we never saw it.

The battleship Missouri

That evening, since we’d never really caught a great sunset before (and since the sky seemed promising), all headed out to the rocks to catch the show.

We had good seats

And then these guys came by (locals, not tourists, with the accompanying rhythmic chant that controlled their oar strokes). It must be hard living in paradise.

Below is a nice pic of the sunset, and then something I stitched together (using Powerpoint). Had I known I was going to do this in advance, I would have been more careful about keeping the settings and zoom the same for each shot.

 

[JeffR]

My wife booked surf lessons on Thursday for her and the kids (I wasn't really interested), through a local company started by, and employing, current and ex-firefighters. We drove to the lessons (about 20 minutes away), but they will also pick you up from the resort.

I highly encourage everyone who is interested to give these guys a call. They are experts at getting you up and surfing in just a very short time. If I had just one piece of advice, it's to "be needy" here.

These aren't very big waves, and so the best rides are those where the instructors are giving you a push. Those that seemed less comfortable, got more attention, and so more pushes, and so better rides.

And if I could give one more piece of advice, it would be to "buddy" up on the photos. We had four in our group, and so got 50 of the 198 photos taken. They are distributed on a flash drive for $50, and if you share that with even a single other person surfing with you, becomes reasonable. Because unless you have a VERY nice lens, you are not going to get these kinds of photos.

The Surf Group

The family "hanging loose" before their lessons.

Only the tall, young & most handsome firefighting surfer dudes get to teach the tourists

Everybody got up and going very quickly:

First on Land...

And then in the water.

But it was my wife who impressed me the most. I've been married long enough to seldom be surprised by her, but she managed it that day. She’s actually pretty athletic, but I just never imagined she would be as good as she was on a surfboard.

When you got your arms below your waist, you just KNOW you own the waves. Relaxed and chill.

She even carved a bit (or at least that's the story - whether she was actually about to fall is not the point here).

And of all my "kids" out there that day, only my wife was relaxed enough to flash the double shaka.

Of course, you have to get off somehow

And while the color of the board proves this wasn't her, I ain't saying it didn't happen (but I ain't saying it did either)

 

[JeffR]

I had been talking about going on a “grand adventure" all week, where we could do a little exploring of the coast, and maybe a little additional snorkeling, but the boys just didn't show much interest. And so my wife and I got up early on Friday, and as we were getting ready to head out, found a note (on my snorkel gear) from my niece asking us to wake her up if we went. My boys would never dream of getting up early just for a bit of adventure, and so just the three of us went out for our little walk-about. I knew there was a reason we invited her along!

Just beyond the resort area, the shoreline gets very rocky, and so provides some great views.

Earlier in the week, my niece and I had made our way just north of the resort and found a great little area to snorkel (where we saw a seal on the beach, a great selection of fish, and even a sea turtle at least as big as my torso). But unfortunately, we didn't have a camera with us. But here’s where it was.

I *think* this is the first lagoon north of the resort, looking south.

I had gotten a little ahead at one point, when my niece pointed out this seal (laying in the pool in the bottom right). He was much easier to see from the other side, but we didn't get a pic. It was very cool, though.

We didn't expect this! But when you're given a rainbow on a Hawaiian island, you don't question. You just shut up and take a picture.

Just me, the wife, and an every-day, run of the mill, no-rain rainbow while out for a stroll on a tropical paradise island.

My camera shy niece.

My niece and I had wandered out to a point when I saw my wife pointing the camera. I shouted for her to zoom in, but I don't think she heard me.

But that's OK, you can always crop and zoom later.

(And remember kids, only old dudes can pull off looking good in that safari hat)

 

[JeffR]

We evidently took no pictures on Saturday, as all we wanted to do was enjoy the final day.

I actually got up and ran that morning (my second run of the week - and although it was only about 2 miles, vacation running miles count double).

We then packed, and I drove my niece to the airport.

My wife and boys hung out at the adult pool, where I joined them when I got back. Our flight didn't leave until 9:30 that night, and so we had one more full day in the sun.

We took advantage of the shower and lounge for arriving and departing guests, and so were able to freshen up before heading back to the airport.

 

[JeffR]

Our flight arrived in San Francisco at 5:45 in the morning, and undeterred by our near-miss in LA, we hopped in a cab to Fisherman's Wharf, where we watched the male sea-lions playing king-of-the-wharf.

Walking along the Wharf area allowed for some beautiful views of the bridge (and Alcatraz, which I think we forgot to take photos of).

We're there, we're tourists, and so of course we're going to ride the cable car.

Look at the reflection. Does this count as a cable car selfie?

The Hyde Street car goes from the Wharf to downtown, and the next few shots are just basically taken from my lap as we went.

Hill, bay & city-scape taken from the top of Lombard Street (the crookedest street in America). My wife and I had been here before, but we didn't get a chance to show it to the boys from the much better view at the bottom of the hill.

Bay windows. Huh, is there a connection? Are they called that because they allowed you to see the bay?

From way down the hill I could see those trees forming a canopy over the road. Too cool.

Basically every single car I saw was parked with their tires turned to "catch" the car if the brakes were to fail. And although us older folks learned how to do that in driver’s-ed, I doubt it's taught any more (and is probably not even needed with today's technology).

Which all makes me wonder if it's a city ordinance or something.


The sign is not lying.

I don't know the city well enough to say which bridge it is (probably the Bay Bridge), but I really like how the support is framed way off in the background straight down the street and between the buildings.

I like this pic because we all know about how small those cars are, and it's basically the width of that building (perspective notwithstanding)

Before we left for vacation, my oldest had only one request, and that was that we eat at In-N-Out Burger.

And so from the end of the Street Car line, we took the train back toward, and then beyond the airport; got out, ran across the street, got our food to go, and then ran back to the station to make sure we got the next train out.

We got to our gate about 10 minutes before boarding, and the burger, and entire trip, was really pretty good.

 

[dreaming4disney]

Great trip report. I loved it! Seems like you all had a great time.

 

[JeffR]

Great trip report. I loved it! Seems like you all had a great time.

Thanks. It was a close to perfect as we could have hoped for, and SO much of that success was due to all the time my wife spent on these boards prior to our trip.

And as I look back through it, I realize I left out so much (like the restaurants, etc.) that also came from tips on this board, and I'll try and go back and edit some of the report to include these.

 

[abthomas]

Thanks. Great read! I really want to try surfing.

 

[Halefamilyof6]

Thanks for posting! I LOVE LOVE your report, and yes...that is the Bay Bridge. I've lived near the city my whole life, and you took some great shots.

How long did it take you to put together your report and how easy was it to upload photos? You've almost convinced me to try and do this for our trip

 

[JeffR]

Thanks for posting! I LOVE LOVE your report, and yes...that is the Bay Bridge. I've lived near the city my whole life, and you took some great shots.

How long did it take you to put together your report and how easy was it to upload photos? You've almost convinced me to try and do this for our trip

Uploading the photos to Photobucket was actually pretty quick and easy.

But as you saw, I didn't really give so much a trip report as I did walk you through the photos, and so I could see someone spending a lot more time telling the story, double-checking where they ate, and stuff like that.

Most people do it more like a day at a time, which I think is the right way to do it, so that you don't have to spend so much time in one sitting.

But I had already posted a lot of these to FB, and with a lot of the same descriptions you see here, and so that saved me a lot of time.

 

[kkmcan]

Great trip report! Love how you had the layover in LA and then a layover in San Fran.

 

[JeffR]

Lazy River

In many ways, the lazy river is what pulls the entire resort together. In addition to being a GREAT lazy river (as one of the other TRs said, not too long and not too short), it also serves to break up the interior, making it appear much larger and more secluded than it might otherwise be.

I'm fairly certain we were on it at least once a day (having the slide empty into it is brilliant), and it was the one place the kids could kind of "lose themselves' (the one time we went looking for them and couldn't find them, that's where they were).

It sounds like they've added a lot of rafts, but it was still sometimes difficult to find one, and on one occasion, I got mad at someone for "making me become someone I didn't want to be". Unfortunately, the idea of fair-play, personal space and waiting your turn are apparently not as treasured by some as they are by me.

(On the other hand, I have no problem taking voyeur-pics of tourists in their bathing suits - probably also frowned upon by some.)

Infinity Pool - Trying to keep the whole "creepy guy with a camera taking pictures of half-naked kids" to a minimum, I asked my niece to "model" for these.

Adult Pool - We used the Adult Pool on two of our resort days, including our final day. It is almost surreal how quiet it is back there compared to the rest of the resort, and as the sun is blocked for the AM hours, almost always has chairs.

I did have one rather humorous encounter back at the bar. As the only place that has TVs, AND will turn up the sound for you, I wanted to watch the 2nd half of a soccer match. But when I asked the bartender to change the channel, he said he could only put on ABC channels (which was ridiculous, because it was March Madness and you know they were playing basketball games). And so I had to run around the resort for 15 minutes trying to find a manger who could give approval to change the channel, and dealing with the incredulity of the other CMs when I explained the situation. I tell you, we soccer fans get no respect.

Kiddie Playground - I had no little ones with me and so didn't spend any time here, but I did try to walk across the structure, and was rebuffed by a CM. Kids Only! (and that's OK - I'm glad they have an area of their own)

 

[JeffR]

Snorkelling Lagoon

At some point in the week I had heard about an area where you could snorkel, but whenever you would ask a CM, they were always very good about only ever directing you to the resort, where of course there was a fee. I know Disney is for-profit, but I have to say I was just a bit miffed about the run-around. But ask enough people, and eventually someone slipped and shared the local insight.

The snorkelling here is really pretty good, even if the pictures don't do it justice (underwater cameras just aren't very good, and the ironic thing is that I bought the camera that took all the other photos in this TR in part because I can buy a dive case for it. I just haven't yet).

The Lagoon

Two Turtles (I saw one in the water earlier in the week that was much bigger)

Poorly Lit, Blurry Images of the Fishies

 

[JeffR]

I took a lot of photos of the Courtyard area of the resort, and although I don't have a lot of narration to include, I thought I'd at least share them here.


The Beach - We're not really beach people, but early in the week it was the only place we could find chairs (we did OK with chairs the rest of the week, although we used the Adult pool twice).

Views From the Beach

The Lawn - If you need a break from the crowds (or if you are looking for grills, Stitch or the show), there's always the lawn. A very quiet, under utilized area where you could get away. When I was taking these, there was only one person in the entire lawn area with Stitch.

The Jewel of the Resort - The Courtyard

 

[JeffR]

I have no idea if anyone is interested in looking at these or not, but here they are.