Hi Everyone!
Two years ago my boyfriend (at the time) and I went to Aulani. It was amazing! I made a pre-trip report back in the day, but alas, never followed through on the post-trip report. Sorry about that...but here I am again, planning another trip to Aulani! A few things have changed since then. The biggest change you ask? *drum roll* This will be our honeymoon trip!
That's us right after I said yes. He asked me at the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. It was absolutely gorgeous and sooooo romantical. Love love love this man.
Anyways, back to the post/pre-trip report. As I was making plans for our Honeymoon trip, I obviously looked back on the trip we took 2 years ago for ideas on things we loved, things that were just OK, and new things that we would like to do. I stumbled across my old pre-trip report and felt a tiny bit guilty about never finishing the report. So now, two years later, I give you a brief post-trip report on our first trip that will also help to explain some of the choices we are making for our Honeymoon pre-trip report.
Here's the link to the original pre-trip report, but I'll copy what our plans were below in black with some additional comments (new comments in blue): http://www.disboards.com/threads/our-aulani-adventure-pre-trip-report.3242687/#post-50837506
Proposed Plans for Day One (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Our flight leaves Chicago at 8am and we have a stop at San Francisco before continuing on to Hawaii. We land at 2pm Hawaii time. We're using Hawaiidiscountcarrental.com for our rental. I'm planning on stopping at Leonards Malasadas truck on the way to Aulani. They look so yummy! Not many plans for today besides that. Just explore the resort and get some food on site.
I am not a good flier. You would think that since I've flown 2-4 times a year for my entire life I would be used to it by now. I am not. I loathe flying. I am trying to convince Mike that we should have about 4 or 5 kids solely so that flying is no longer the most economical choice for vacations and we can start driving to Disney instead.
Needless to say, I was a little freaked about the extremely long flight I was about to have over a huge ocean. After my typical panic attack and crying fit on the way to the airport, I found a bar in the airport that would agree to serve me alcohol at 6am in the morning and proceeded to get a bit tipsy, as per my usual pre-flight ritual. Our flight was delayed by about 30 minutes, normally no big deal...however we needed to change planes in San Francisco and only had a 45 minute layover. I could see hours of Hawaii time slipping through my fingers as I pretty much came to terms with the fact that we would most likely miss our connecting flight. After a few more tears during take off I passed out and all was well until we landed.
By my watch we had less than 5 minutes to get on our next plane. The captain kindly let the plane know that there were some people that needed to make a connecting flight. We RAN as fast as we could to the next plane (full Home Alone mode here) and pull up JUST as they shut the door. Feeling a little bit heart broken I tell the lady that just shut the door that we were supposed to be on that plane. She must have seen the desperation in my eyes, because this lady went full on combat crazy mode. She was a rather large intimidating woman. She grabs my arm and drags me to the little old lady that is at the computer near the door, "Doris! These kids NEED to get on this plane!" Woah...OK...Yes!! Doris slowly starts single finger typing into her computer "Welllllll...let me see heeeerrrreeee...I'll have to seeee about changiiing their seeeeeats and maybe we can...." "No time, Doris!! They need to be walking in that plane now!" She opens the door back up. I didn't even know they could do that! I thought once the door was closed, that was all she wrote...but anyways, she opens the door up, drags me by the arm running toward the plane as Mike is following close behind me, pushes us through the plane door, yells "Just find any seat you can!", and slams the plane door closed behind us.
To this day, craziest thing ever, and I am eternally grateful that this woman took pity on us and got us on the plane. I was pretty much in shock at this point. We quickly had to find seats in this packed plane as they were practically taking off at this point. I pounce on the first seat I see...HUGE mistake. I'm in the back of the plane squished between two pretty big guys and I swear the seat in front of me had to be broken because it leaned so far back that it touched my knees. Great, 5 hours of this should be pleasant, but at least I'm on a plane to HAWAII!!!!! No clue where Mike ended up. Also, at this point all alcohol has worn off and I'm starting to panic again. OK, breathe, I can do this, I can do this, they'll come back and ask me if I would like a drink soon. Ya...this was the most turbulent flight I've ever been on. Just up and down and up and down for the first 3 hours. They couldn't even bring us drinks. Needless to say, worst flight I've ever been on, but we finally landed in Hawaii and I could put all that behind me.
You may be wondering, but where did Mike end up sitting? Well, he ended up near the front of the plane, with an aisle seat, sitting next to a tiny little lady...ugh. That's what I get for jumping at the first seat I saw.
I apologize because I do not remember what car rental company we ended up with, just that it was through Hawaiidiscountcarrental.com. We're using them again this time. Everything went pretty smoothly once we landed and we found the car rental place easily and were on our way in no time. Our bags didn't make the flight, but that was expected. Also, not a huge deal as they were dropped off at the resort for us later that day.
We did not end up going to the Malasadas truck. Once we landed all we could think about was getting to Aulani as fast as possible. Obviously, the resort is gorgeous and everything was perfection as we checked in. We went up to our room to drop off our carry-ons and then walked around the resort. We picked up our refillable mugs and got a couple fruity cocktails to celebrate being in Hawaii. We took a quick drive over to the ABC Store to pick up some essentials. We bought ourselves some snorkeling equipment, stuff to make sandwiches, a salad, and some beer and Captain Morgan. It ended up being about $100. I believe we got a pizza from Ulu Cafe for dinner. We loved their pizza and got it for dinner a few times during our stay.
Proposed Plans for Day Two (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Wednesday, April 2, 2014
North Shore day. Going to wake up and head over to hike Waimea Valley. The pictures look so beautiful. After that, snorkel at Waimea Bay/Sharks Cove/Three Tables/Turtle Beach. If anyone has snorkeled at any of these before, do you have a favorite? Lunch will be at Teds Bakery I think. The garlic shrimp sounds delicious. We need to get some groceries after that. Just some fruit for breakfasts and some simple things for lunches. Does anyone have any opinion is best/cheapest/easiest to get to on the way back from the North Shore? The rest of the day will be relaxing at the resort and Monkeypod for dinner. Originally I wanted to rent some jet skis from Watercraft Connection this day as well, but Mike said $70 bucks for a half hour was too much. Has anyone done this? Did you think it was worth it or is my DBF right?
We actually did wake up and drive over to Waimea Valley. We hiked to the waterfall. This was a cool one time thing, but we're not planning on doing it again. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. It's not really a "hike", but more of a walk through a large property that has little gardens of native plants spread around.
We ate lunch at the little outdoor cafe. It was amazing. Mike had garlic shrimp and I had the best salad that I've ever had that had some garlic shrimp on it as well. One of the best things we ate all trip. We were planning on coming back to eat here, but it looks like things have changed. Not sure if the restaurant closed or is just under new management but from what I can tell, the name changed and so did the menu. Neither of the things we had last time are on the menu so now we will not be going back. Kinda bummed, but we wanted to try something new anyway.
After we ate lunch we drove across the street and parked at Waimea Bay. This beach is heaven.
The surf can change as we found out later in the trip, but this first day there were some rolling waves that weren't too big and were fun to play in. The beach was not very crowded and we stayed and relaxed for a few hours. This was when I think we both realized that we were really in Hawaii. We drove by Sharks Cove, Three Tables, and Turtle Beach but did not stop at any. After all the relaxing on the beach it felt like too much effort to drive, park, unpack, repack. We're hoping to snorkel at Sharks Cove and Three Tables for our Honeymoon trip. We'll probably skip Turtle Beach again because we found turtles much closer to Aulani.
We drove back to Aulani and had dinner at Monkeypod. We really enjoyed eating here. It's been too long now so I don't remember what we ate, but I know that we ate here a few times and never ate anything we didn't like.
Proposed Plans for Day Three (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Thursday, April 3, 2014
Pretty much all day will be spent kayaking in Kaneohe Bay. Theres a sunken island a little ways out that looks fun. Were planning on renting the kayaks from Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks. For dinner I want to go to Haleiwa Joes at the Haiku Gardens. Does anyone have experience here? There website says beach clothes are welcome, but Im a little bit worried about what were going to be looking like after kayaking all day.
This didn't happen. Instead we went to Kualoa Ranch today. And OMG...If you do one thing, do the ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch! The scenery is breathtaking and the 2 hours fly by. I know they have a one hour tour also, but definitely do the 2 hour tour. They show you where some scenes from Lost and Jurassic Park and some other movies were filmed, but honestly it's the scenery that is the big draw here. Words can't do it justice. Honestly, the pictures don't even come close to doing it justice, but I'll add some here anyways.
(Me hiding from the dinosaurs. Mike thinking I'm a big loser.)
They have a small gift shop/cafe in the main building at Kualoa Ranch. Nothing fancy and I remember the food just being OK. I think we bought a bottle of water, some fries, and an ice cream sandwich while we were waiting for our tour to leave. It'll sustain you if you get there and find that you're a little hungry, but I think we're planning on stopping somewhere else before we go this time.
After Kualoa Ranch we had dinner at Haleiwa Joe's in Haiku Gardens. I have one really crappy picture of this place:
Don't let my terrible photography fool you though, this place is awesome! And gorgeous! Here's a picture from their website:
I don't believe they take reservations, but I believe we ate pretty early. I think it was before 6 and we didn't have any trouble getting in and I don't think we waited at all. I don't think that is normal though. Mike had crab legs which he devoured. I had some Ahi Tuna which was also amazing. Everything here was great and the atmosphere was so cool. Dinner was about $100. We are definitely going again for the Honeymoon trip. I can't really say enough good things about this place. It's a little far from Aulani, but you should all definitely go eat here! Best dinner ever. Mike and I still talk about it all the time and when we realized we would be going back to Aulani, the first thing we decided was we wanted to recreate the Kualoa Ranch/Haleiwa Joe's day.
Proposed Plans for Day Four (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Friday, April 4, 2014
Nothing really planned for the morning today, maybe snorkeling at Papaoneone Beach which seems pretty close to Aulani. At 3:30pm were planning on doing the 2 hour ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch. I didnt originally have us doing this, as I heard it was a bit touristy, but reviews seem really positive. Has anyone done this? Mike was a big Lost fan and is interested in seeing where it was filmed.
Obviously we went to Kualoa Ranch yesterday. We had so much fun at Waimea Beach our first full day in Hawaii that we decided to go back again this morning. It seemed a bit more crowded today and the waves were definitely larger. We went in for a bit, but honestly they were too rough and dangerous to be much fun. It worried me because some people were letting their kids play in the waves. A life guard eventually went over a speaker telling everyone that the surf was high today and that playing in the waves could easily lead to broken ankles or backs. Even though the waves were rough we still enjoyed laying out on the sand soaking up the sun.
After a few hours we drove back to Aulani. We ate some snacks and played in the pool and lazy river. This was really the first time we spent much time at the resort during the day. We loved it. There is so much to do. We snorkeled a bit in the lagoon. If you stick to the right near the rocks you can see a lot of awesome fish. After snorkeling we took the path to the right and walked down to the beach outside of Aulani property. We sat on the rocks and watched the waves roll in for awhile and explored a little further down looking at crabs and more fish. Pretty sure we did Monkeypod for dinner.
Proposed Plans for Day Five (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Saturday, April 5, 2014
Wake up early and hike Diamondhead. I would like to stop by the Farmers Market near there as well. Has anyone been to the Farmers Market? Otherwise, just a resort day. Probably doing Mokeypod for dinner again.
We woke up early and drove over to Diamonhead. Obviously not early enough because the parking was already full...we had to drive back down and park at the college near the farmer's market. This kinda sucked. Diamonhead is not easy. It is definitely a work out. Parking at the college near the farmer's market adds a substantial amount of walking uphill for your poor tired legs. Your legs will definitely hate you if you don't get there EARLY and park at the top. Despite the extra work out we still really liked visiting Diamonhead and are planning on doing it again for the Honeymoon trip.
We stopped at the farmer's market on the way back. I would have liked to spend more time here, but we were both pretty tired and I think most places only took cash and we didn't have much on us. Plan for the Honeymoon: get to Diamonhead as soon as it opens, bring cash for farmer's market. We definitely want to do both of those again, just plan better this time. Pizza for dinner again from Ulu Cafe. Their pizza is delish.
Proposed Plans for Day Six (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Sunday, April 6, 2014
Complete resort day. Do as little as possible. Makahiki Buffet for dinner.
You may have noticed that the beginning of our trip we spent a lot of time out and about, not necessarily staying at the resort much. This was on purpose and it definitely worked out well for us. We're planning on a similar approach for our Honeymoon trip. For us, the destination is Hawaii, not just Aulani. We wanted to get out and explore the island at the beginning of our trip and stay back and relax at the resort near the end. Today marks the day where we pretty much stop leaving Aulani property and just enjoy what it has to offer. I won't bore you with the details, but there was much swimming, tanning, snacking, and drinking. I will say that we did do the Makahiki Buffet...not fans. We will not be doing this again. Food was just OK and it cost way too much for what we actually ate.
Proposed Plans for Day Seven (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Monday, April 7, 2014
Planning on hiking Manoa Valley today. After that snorkeling at Kaalawai Beach/Kahala Beach/Hanauma Bay. Has anyone been to any of these beaches? Do you have a favorite? I read that it is possible to get lunch at Happys Grill in the Hale Koa Hotel for very cheap. Has anyone tried this?
We didn't do any of this. Stayed at the resort and relaxed. All snacks that we got from on property were great whether from Ulu Cafe, Off the Hook, or Mama's Snack Stop. Most mornings we started out by getting a coffee and breakfast from Ulu. We really liked the amount of options they had. Lunch was usually Off the Hook or Mama's Snack Stop. I'm a little nervous about this trip, because unlike last trip I am now gluten intolerant. I know Disney does an awesome job dealing with food sensitivities but it's been a bit of a bummer getting used to not always being able to eat some of my favorite foods.
Proposed Plans for Day Eight (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Tuesday, April 8, 2014
No plans today. Its our last full day in Aulani.
Once again, a whole lot of relaxing at Aulani. We really really enjoyed walking down the path to the right of Aulani to the tidal pools. We watched our last sunset from here.
There wasn't really anyone else around and it was a great place for us to just be alone and count our blessings.
Proposed Plans for Day Nine (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Our flight takes off at 7pm so well just be hanging out at the pool until then. With any luck, Ill have Mike convinced that we really shouldn't take that flight.
We checked out, but obviously had some time before we had to leave for our flight. Although we frequently took the path to the right of Aulani, we went further down today than we did in the past. I am so mad that we didn't go further down until our last day because this ended up being one of the coolest things in the whole trip. I brought my snorkel gear with me, but Mike didn't want to get wet and have to shower before we left. Poor choice by Mike because I got to snorkel with a gigantic sea turtle practically all by myself. I almost ran into the poor guy because I had no idea he was there and was just following a pretty fish. It was an amazing experience. He was so big! He just gave me a look like what are you doing here and continued munching on his seaweed. I was careful not to get to close or touch him, but was able to hang out with him underwater for about a half hour completely by myself before it was time to head back to the resort and wash up in the locker room that they have for guests that have already checked out. There was also a smaller sea turtle and a seal on the beach.
That's pretty much it for last time. Let me know if you guys have any questions. If I think of anything else to add I definitely will. I'll be posting our pre-trip Honeymoon plans in the near future. Thanks for reading!
Two years ago my boyfriend (at the time) and I went to Aulani. It was amazing! I made a pre-trip report back in the day, but alas, never followed through on the post-trip report. Sorry about that...but here I am again, planning another trip to Aulani! A few things have changed since then. The biggest change you ask? *drum roll* This will be our honeymoon trip!
That's us right after I said yes. He asked me at the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. It was absolutely gorgeous and sooooo romantical. Love love love this man.
Anyways, back to the post/pre-trip report. As I was making plans for our Honeymoon trip, I obviously looked back on the trip we took 2 years ago for ideas on things we loved, things that were just OK, and new things that we would like to do. I stumbled across my old pre-trip report and felt a tiny bit guilty about never finishing the report. So now, two years later, I give you a brief post-trip report on our first trip that will also help to explain some of the choices we are making for our Honeymoon pre-trip report.
Here's the link to the original pre-trip report, but I'll copy what our plans were below in black with some additional comments (new comments in blue): http://www.disboards.com/threads/our-aulani-adventure-pre-trip-report.3242687/#post-50837506
Proposed Plans for Day One (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Our flight leaves Chicago at 8am and we have a stop at San Francisco before continuing on to Hawaii. We land at 2pm Hawaii time. We're using Hawaiidiscountcarrental.com for our rental. I'm planning on stopping at Leonards Malasadas truck on the way to Aulani. They look so yummy! Not many plans for today besides that. Just explore the resort and get some food on site.
I am not a good flier. You would think that since I've flown 2-4 times a year for my entire life I would be used to it by now. I am not. I loathe flying. I am trying to convince Mike that we should have about 4 or 5 kids solely so that flying is no longer the most economical choice for vacations and we can start driving to Disney instead.
Needless to say, I was a little freaked about the extremely long flight I was about to have over a huge ocean. After my typical panic attack and crying fit on the way to the airport, I found a bar in the airport that would agree to serve me alcohol at 6am in the morning and proceeded to get a bit tipsy, as per my usual pre-flight ritual. Our flight was delayed by about 30 minutes, normally no big deal...however we needed to change planes in San Francisco and only had a 45 minute layover. I could see hours of Hawaii time slipping through my fingers as I pretty much came to terms with the fact that we would most likely miss our connecting flight. After a few more tears during take off I passed out and all was well until we landed.
By my watch we had less than 5 minutes to get on our next plane. The captain kindly let the plane know that there were some people that needed to make a connecting flight. We RAN as fast as we could to the next plane (full Home Alone mode here) and pull up JUST as they shut the door. Feeling a little bit heart broken I tell the lady that just shut the door that we were supposed to be on that plane. She must have seen the desperation in my eyes, because this lady went full on combat crazy mode. She was a rather large intimidating woman. She grabs my arm and drags me to the little old lady that is at the computer near the door, "Doris! These kids NEED to get on this plane!" Woah...OK...Yes!! Doris slowly starts single finger typing into her computer "Welllllll...let me see heeeerrrreeee...I'll have to seeee about changiiing their seeeeeats and maybe we can...." "No time, Doris!! They need to be walking in that plane now!" She opens the door back up. I didn't even know they could do that! I thought once the door was closed, that was all she wrote...but anyways, she opens the door up, drags me by the arm running toward the plane as Mike is following close behind me, pushes us through the plane door, yells "Just find any seat you can!", and slams the plane door closed behind us.
To this day, craziest thing ever, and I am eternally grateful that this woman took pity on us and got us on the plane. I was pretty much in shock at this point. We quickly had to find seats in this packed plane as they were practically taking off at this point. I pounce on the first seat I see...HUGE mistake. I'm in the back of the plane squished between two pretty big guys and I swear the seat in front of me had to be broken because it leaned so far back that it touched my knees. Great, 5 hours of this should be pleasant, but at least I'm on a plane to HAWAII!!!!! No clue where Mike ended up. Also, at this point all alcohol has worn off and I'm starting to panic again. OK, breathe, I can do this, I can do this, they'll come back and ask me if I would like a drink soon. Ya...this was the most turbulent flight I've ever been on. Just up and down and up and down for the first 3 hours. They couldn't even bring us drinks. Needless to say, worst flight I've ever been on, but we finally landed in Hawaii and I could put all that behind me.
You may be wondering, but where did Mike end up sitting? Well, he ended up near the front of the plane, with an aisle seat, sitting next to a tiny little lady...ugh. That's what I get for jumping at the first seat I saw.
I apologize because I do not remember what car rental company we ended up with, just that it was through Hawaiidiscountcarrental.com. We're using them again this time. Everything went pretty smoothly once we landed and we found the car rental place easily and were on our way in no time. Our bags didn't make the flight, but that was expected. Also, not a huge deal as they were dropped off at the resort for us later that day.
We did not end up going to the Malasadas truck. Once we landed all we could think about was getting to Aulani as fast as possible. Obviously, the resort is gorgeous and everything was perfection as we checked in. We went up to our room to drop off our carry-ons and then walked around the resort. We picked up our refillable mugs and got a couple fruity cocktails to celebrate being in Hawaii. We took a quick drive over to the ABC Store to pick up some essentials. We bought ourselves some snorkeling equipment, stuff to make sandwiches, a salad, and some beer and Captain Morgan. It ended up being about $100. I believe we got a pizza from Ulu Cafe for dinner. We loved their pizza and got it for dinner a few times during our stay.
Proposed Plans for Day Two (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Wednesday, April 2, 2014
North Shore day. Going to wake up and head over to hike Waimea Valley. The pictures look so beautiful. After that, snorkel at Waimea Bay/Sharks Cove/Three Tables/Turtle Beach. If anyone has snorkeled at any of these before, do you have a favorite? Lunch will be at Teds Bakery I think. The garlic shrimp sounds delicious. We need to get some groceries after that. Just some fruit for breakfasts and some simple things for lunches. Does anyone have any opinion is best/cheapest/easiest to get to on the way back from the North Shore? The rest of the day will be relaxing at the resort and Monkeypod for dinner. Originally I wanted to rent some jet skis from Watercraft Connection this day as well, but Mike said $70 bucks for a half hour was too much. Has anyone done this? Did you think it was worth it or is my DBF right?
We actually did wake up and drive over to Waimea Valley. We hiked to the waterfall. This was a cool one time thing, but we're not planning on doing it again. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. It's not really a "hike", but more of a walk through a large property that has little gardens of native plants spread around.
We ate lunch at the little outdoor cafe. It was amazing. Mike had garlic shrimp and I had the best salad that I've ever had that had some garlic shrimp on it as well. One of the best things we ate all trip. We were planning on coming back to eat here, but it looks like things have changed. Not sure if the restaurant closed or is just under new management but from what I can tell, the name changed and so did the menu. Neither of the things we had last time are on the menu so now we will not be going back. Kinda bummed, but we wanted to try something new anyway.
After we ate lunch we drove across the street and parked at Waimea Bay. This beach is heaven.
The surf can change as we found out later in the trip, but this first day there were some rolling waves that weren't too big and were fun to play in. The beach was not very crowded and we stayed and relaxed for a few hours. This was when I think we both realized that we were really in Hawaii. We drove by Sharks Cove, Three Tables, and Turtle Beach but did not stop at any. After all the relaxing on the beach it felt like too much effort to drive, park, unpack, repack. We're hoping to snorkel at Sharks Cove and Three Tables for our Honeymoon trip. We'll probably skip Turtle Beach again because we found turtles much closer to Aulani.
We drove back to Aulani and had dinner at Monkeypod. We really enjoyed eating here. It's been too long now so I don't remember what we ate, but I know that we ate here a few times and never ate anything we didn't like.
Proposed Plans for Day Three (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Thursday, April 3, 2014
Pretty much all day will be spent kayaking in Kaneohe Bay. Theres a sunken island a little ways out that looks fun. Were planning on renting the kayaks from Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks. For dinner I want to go to Haleiwa Joes at the Haiku Gardens. Does anyone have experience here? There website says beach clothes are welcome, but Im a little bit worried about what were going to be looking like after kayaking all day.
This didn't happen. Instead we went to Kualoa Ranch today. And OMG...If you do one thing, do the ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch! The scenery is breathtaking and the 2 hours fly by. I know they have a one hour tour also, but definitely do the 2 hour tour. They show you where some scenes from Lost and Jurassic Park and some other movies were filmed, but honestly it's the scenery that is the big draw here. Words can't do it justice. Honestly, the pictures don't even come close to doing it justice, but I'll add some here anyways.
(Me hiding from the dinosaurs. Mike thinking I'm a big loser.)
They have a small gift shop/cafe in the main building at Kualoa Ranch. Nothing fancy and I remember the food just being OK. I think we bought a bottle of water, some fries, and an ice cream sandwich while we were waiting for our tour to leave. It'll sustain you if you get there and find that you're a little hungry, but I think we're planning on stopping somewhere else before we go this time.
After Kualoa Ranch we had dinner at Haleiwa Joe's in Haiku Gardens. I have one really crappy picture of this place:
Don't let my terrible photography fool you though, this place is awesome! And gorgeous! Here's a picture from their website:
I don't believe they take reservations, but I believe we ate pretty early. I think it was before 6 and we didn't have any trouble getting in and I don't think we waited at all. I don't think that is normal though. Mike had crab legs which he devoured. I had some Ahi Tuna which was also amazing. Everything here was great and the atmosphere was so cool. Dinner was about $100. We are definitely going again for the Honeymoon trip. I can't really say enough good things about this place. It's a little far from Aulani, but you should all definitely go eat here! Best dinner ever. Mike and I still talk about it all the time and when we realized we would be going back to Aulani, the first thing we decided was we wanted to recreate the Kualoa Ranch/Haleiwa Joe's day.
Proposed Plans for Day Four (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Friday, April 4, 2014
Nothing really planned for the morning today, maybe snorkeling at Papaoneone Beach which seems pretty close to Aulani. At 3:30pm were planning on doing the 2 hour ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch. I didnt originally have us doing this, as I heard it was a bit touristy, but reviews seem really positive. Has anyone done this? Mike was a big Lost fan and is interested in seeing where it was filmed.
Obviously we went to Kualoa Ranch yesterday. We had so much fun at Waimea Beach our first full day in Hawaii that we decided to go back again this morning. It seemed a bit more crowded today and the waves were definitely larger. We went in for a bit, but honestly they were too rough and dangerous to be much fun. It worried me because some people were letting their kids play in the waves. A life guard eventually went over a speaker telling everyone that the surf was high today and that playing in the waves could easily lead to broken ankles or backs. Even though the waves were rough we still enjoyed laying out on the sand soaking up the sun.
After a few hours we drove back to Aulani. We ate some snacks and played in the pool and lazy river. This was really the first time we spent much time at the resort during the day. We loved it. There is so much to do. We snorkeled a bit in the lagoon. If you stick to the right near the rocks you can see a lot of awesome fish. After snorkeling we took the path to the right and walked down to the beach outside of Aulani property. We sat on the rocks and watched the waves roll in for awhile and explored a little further down looking at crabs and more fish. Pretty sure we did Monkeypod for dinner.
Proposed Plans for Day Five (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Saturday, April 5, 2014
Wake up early and hike Diamondhead. I would like to stop by the Farmers Market near there as well. Has anyone been to the Farmers Market? Otherwise, just a resort day. Probably doing Mokeypod for dinner again.
We woke up early and drove over to Diamonhead. Obviously not early enough because the parking was already full...we had to drive back down and park at the college near the farmer's market. This kinda sucked. Diamonhead is not easy. It is definitely a work out. Parking at the college near the farmer's market adds a substantial amount of walking uphill for your poor tired legs. Your legs will definitely hate you if you don't get there EARLY and park at the top. Despite the extra work out we still really liked visiting Diamonhead and are planning on doing it again for the Honeymoon trip.
We stopped at the farmer's market on the way back. I would have liked to spend more time here, but we were both pretty tired and I think most places only took cash and we didn't have much on us. Plan for the Honeymoon: get to Diamonhead as soon as it opens, bring cash for farmer's market. We definitely want to do both of those again, just plan better this time. Pizza for dinner again from Ulu Cafe. Their pizza is delish.
Proposed Plans for Day Six (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Sunday, April 6, 2014
Complete resort day. Do as little as possible. Makahiki Buffet for dinner.
You may have noticed that the beginning of our trip we spent a lot of time out and about, not necessarily staying at the resort much. This was on purpose and it definitely worked out well for us. We're planning on a similar approach for our Honeymoon trip. For us, the destination is Hawaii, not just Aulani. We wanted to get out and explore the island at the beginning of our trip and stay back and relax at the resort near the end. Today marks the day where we pretty much stop leaving Aulani property and just enjoy what it has to offer. I won't bore you with the details, but there was much swimming, tanning, snacking, and drinking. I will say that we did do the Makahiki Buffet...not fans. We will not be doing this again. Food was just OK and it cost way too much for what we actually ate.
Proposed Plans for Day Seven (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Monday, April 7, 2014
Planning on hiking Manoa Valley today. After that snorkeling at Kaalawai Beach/Kahala Beach/Hanauma Bay. Has anyone been to any of these beaches? Do you have a favorite? I read that it is possible to get lunch at Happys Grill in the Hale Koa Hotel for very cheap. Has anyone tried this?
We didn't do any of this. Stayed at the resort and relaxed. All snacks that we got from on property were great whether from Ulu Cafe, Off the Hook, or Mama's Snack Stop. Most mornings we started out by getting a coffee and breakfast from Ulu. We really liked the amount of options they had. Lunch was usually Off the Hook or Mama's Snack Stop. I'm a little nervous about this trip, because unlike last trip I am now gluten intolerant. I know Disney does an awesome job dealing with food sensitivities but it's been a bit of a bummer getting used to not always being able to eat some of my favorite foods.
Proposed Plans for Day Eight (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Tuesday, April 8, 2014
No plans today. Its our last full day in Aulani.
Once again, a whole lot of relaxing at Aulani. We really really enjoyed walking down the path to the right of Aulani to the tidal pools. We watched our last sunset from here.
There wasn't really anyone else around and it was a great place for us to just be alone and count our blessings.
Proposed Plans for Day Nine (taken from pre-trip report, see above link) Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Our flight takes off at 7pm so well just be hanging out at the pool until then. With any luck, Ill have Mike convinced that we really shouldn't take that flight.
We checked out, but obviously had some time before we had to leave for our flight. Although we frequently took the path to the right of Aulani, we went further down today than we did in the past. I am so mad that we didn't go further down until our last day because this ended up being one of the coolest things in the whole trip. I brought my snorkel gear with me, but Mike didn't want to get wet and have to shower before we left. Poor choice by Mike because I got to snorkel with a gigantic sea turtle practically all by myself. I almost ran into the poor guy because I had no idea he was there and was just following a pretty fish. It was an amazing experience. He was so big! He just gave me a look like what are you doing here and continued munching on his seaweed. I was careful not to get to close or touch him, but was able to hang out with him underwater for about a half hour completely by myself before it was time to head back to the resort and wash up in the locker room that they have for guests that have already checked out. There was also a smaller sea turtle and a seal on the beach.
That's pretty much it for last time. Let me know if you guys have any questions. If I think of anything else to add I definitely will. I'll be posting our pre-trip Honeymoon plans in the near future. Thanks for reading!
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