Aulani questions???? HELP

[amberlynn578]

Our family is heading to Aulani for the first time in a couple of weeks, we are staying in a 1bdrm villa. Does anyone know what kind of hairdryer is in the rooms and are they attached to the wall? (I REALLY don't want to bring mine, but if I can't take theirs out of the bathroom, I'm gonna have to) Do they supply little things like coffee filters, a roll of paper towels, dish soap?
Also, we're bringing our own snorkel kits, are we able to snorkel in the reef with our kits free of charge?
These are just a couple of my questions.....I'll take any and all advice to help make our vacation the best ever! Thanks!

 

[southerngirl528]

Aloha! You are going to love Aulani! It is definitely one of my favorite Disney resorts EVER, anywhere!

The hair dryer is in a drawstring bag on a shelf in the bathroom as I recall from our 2nd trip early this year. So they are NOT the kind attached to the wall. I think the non-wall ones work better.

You will have paper towels, dish soap, DW soap, bath soap and bath liquids like shampoo and conditioner.. I can't recall about the coffee filters since I don't drink coffee but since they do have coffee in the room for you (a starter pack), they surely must have filters for you.

Snorkeling with your own stuff should be fine. Boogie boards are free to use along with sand toys each day as long as supplies last. No charge for beach chairs unless you want to rent a casabella. Happy planning! There are some great threads here on Aulani for you.

 

[amberlynn578]

Awesome! Thanks so much! This has been the hardest vacation to plan for....it's easy to find a friend of a friend to get info on touristy spots on the mainland, but few and far between to find someone who's been to Oahu or Aulani!

Any suggestions on 'must see-must do'?

We are planning on Pearl Harbor, hike Diamondhead, go see the Dole Plantation, the Byodo-In Temple, Nu'uanu Pali Lookout & Halona Blowhole. I know the last two are more travel than 'tour'. And I've got a Luau booked at Germaine's.

I would love your opinion (good or bad) on any of these, and of course any spots we should definitely check out.
Thanks again!

 

[wanderlust7]

There are a few (2 or 3?) starter packs of coffee. It's Joffrey's (yuck), so we bought some Kona coffee at Target. If you want to bring some filters, they are the basket type. We just bought a pack there and took home the rest.

By reef, if you mean Rainbow Reef, then you still have to pay even with your own gear. I think it's more like an entrance charge, not a equipment rental charge.

 

[amberlynn578]

Thank you for the info! Yes, Rainbow Reef was what I was referring to on the fee.......and that's good to know. I know there's a grocery store across the street, is there a Target nearby? I've googled earth'd the island trying to find things lol, and didn't see Target.

 

[southerngirl528]

Sounds like you've got some fun stuff planned! How long are you staying at Aulani, or in Hawaii altogether?

One thing I really, really recommend for first timers to Hawaii is to plan plenty of time to just "be". Hawaii is a special, special place, and I think folks miss it if they're too busy. I have not done the Dole Plantation as many consider it "touristy", but a quick stop for a Dole Whip and a look at their shops could be fun. I can't imagine spending too much time there. I have also heard both good and bad about Germaine's. I think the biggest negative for you is that Germaine's is a good distance from Aulani. Have you thought of doing Paradise Cove which is almost next door to Aulani, to save yourself a lot of time on the road? I've heard that Germaine's is in an industrial area and can be hard to find. I have done luau on Maui, so I had no need to attend one on Oahu. Others can give you input here.

The Gypsy App is pretty sweet, just be certain to entirely download it BEFORE heading out. We really enjoyed our drive over to North Shore and then down the Pali Highway. Very pretty.

Pearl Harbor is a place that has to be experienced. It was awe-inspiring and beyond sobering. Truly a must see. Trip Adisor's Oahu forum has some excellent ongoing posts by "Dusty" that outline Pearl Harbor that I found super helpful. For instance, you cannot take your purse, backpack, etc., with you to the USS Arizona. There's a little booth off to the right of the entrance to the park area where you can pay a small fee and leave your bag. You can take your phone ONLY if it's turned off or silent and ONLY if you're using it for a camera only. Please allow plenty of time for the drive, especially if you are heading in at rush hour which can be beastly. Keep in mind that if you're heading FROM Aulani into the Honolulu area, so are MANY, many locals heading into work. And vice versa on the end-of-work-day time frames.

There is a Big Target and Costco just one or 2 exits back toward Honolulu from Aulani where you can pick up all sorts of goodies for your stay if you like. It's really only about 5 minutes away.

Do NOT miss the Starlit Hui show at Aulani. Make certain to ask when you arrive so you won't miss it as it's only a couple of days a week. Go early to grab a grass mat to throw on the lawn for your "seats" and check out the handcrafts around the perimeter. It's a fabulous show.

There is truly outstanding live Hawaiian music performed in both lounges at Aulani nightly, many are Na Hoku award winners, which is kind of like the Hawaiian music Grammys. Superb!

We loved AMA AMA most for breakfast and lunch. The views are gorgeous and we found the portions large enough to share in most cases.

Do you have kids? Also if you love spas and don't mind a splurge, the Laniwai Spa is fabulous!

 

[amberlynn578]

Wow, that is definitely helpful, esp the Target location!! We're going for a week and I was hoping to do my tourist stuff in 2 days so we could spend the rest of the time at the resort.
I have 2 boys, 17 & 8, the main thing we were going to do at the Dole Plantation was the maze, but it will probably move to the bottom of our list.

Other than travel time, I know the lookout and blowhole were just for photo op's. I'm figuring a couple hours for the hike, a couple of hours for the temple and maybe 3 hours for Pearl Harbor, and I only say that because of our 8yr old. I may be stretching it to think we could do this over 2 days haha! I figured traffic would be difficult and I've read that GPS is not always accurate because roads just change names as you drive down them....I foresee spousal arguing while trying to find places ;-) I'll be sure to have that app downloaded on my phone as well.

I've made dinner reservations for Makahiki & AMA AMA, and we have a Character Breakfast booked. I had originally looked into Paradise Cove, but majority of what I had read was negative reviews. I wanted to do Chief's but it is on the other side of the island, so we decided on Germaine's, which actually shuttles from Aulani on Sat & Sun's.

I've got a notebook (my husband would say binder) for our trip and I'm adding all these tips. I'll make sure to catch the Starlit Hui Show. And I was planning on letting my younger one go to Auntys Beachhouse....any advice on that?
Thanks again, I really appreciate all the help!

 

[wanderlust7]

southerngirl already gave you a lot of good info, so I'll just fill in about Dole Plantation, since we've been there 3 times. Always on the way to the North Shore though, I probably wouldn't make a special trip. It is touristy, but it's fun for little kids. There's a pretty big gift shop, but we noticed some of the food items were way cheaper at Target or Costco. The kids like the train ride through the fields, you get to see different kinds of tropical fruit plants (more interesting when you can see the fruit - but last time we didn't see much, guess it depends on the season). DS was interested in the different harvesters they had in the fields.

One time we did the maze. They give you a card to collect all the stencils (I think there's 8) hidden in the maze. DS enjoyed that. It was a not-so-hot and overcast day, I would imagine if it was a hot day, it wouldn't be so fun. It probably took us 1 1/2 hours to get all the stencils and find our way out. This is with DH navigating with the tiny map provided, if it was up to me we'd probably still be in there. LOL.

On our last trip, we also fed the koi (fish food from coin operated dispensers). I'm not sure why we never noticed it before, but it turned out pretty memorable. There's so many koi all crowded to the edge trying to get food that they flip out of the water onto the bodies of other koi.

 

[wanderlust7]

wanted to do Chief's but it is on the other side of the island, so we decided on Germaine's, which actually shuttles from Aulani on Sat & Sun's.

Chief's is also at the Marriott Ko'Olina Beach Club near door, only on Tuesdays I think. I looked into it, but didn't end up going since others in my party weren't interested. It sounds great though.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Just back from 4th trip to aulani. Love it. Always get a one bedroom. We always stop at Safeway or target, both close to each other in Kapolei, on way to aulani from airport. While there is a roll of paper towels and a few dishwasher soaps I always buy extra because we wash dishes from breakfadt every day. I also get detergent for washer and small package of dryer things. I basically wash every day. We always take way too many clothes. We don't leave the resort at all since we have been all over the island. So we wear swim suits all day and a pair of shorts or pants and shirt at night. The 4 of us could live out of one suitcase! Out of 10 days I nade breakfadt every day and lunches by pool most days. And a few simple dinners. Love ama Ama for dinner. Also like Roys down the street, a sushi place across the street and monkey pods. In Kapolei there is an Italian place called Assagios which is good. Spend time at the resort. The lazy river and slides are wonderful. Fun fitness classes on beach. Paddle boarding in the lagoon. Lots of characters around all day and a pool party a couple times a week we are already planning next years trip. And we come from Chicago do its s long haul. But we absolutely love it

 

[amberlynn578]

Thank you for the tips.....much appreciated.

I've decided to cancel our Luau at Germaine's. We've been to the luau at the Polynesian Resort at WDW and loved it. I've read & read & read...... info on all the luau's and it sounds pretty much the same as Spirit of Aloha.

The the Starlit Hui Southerngirl mentioned sounds like it will be perfect (minus the food, but that's alright).

We are just so ready to get there, our flight lands at 8:30pm and we have to pick up our rental. I'm figuring we'll get to the resort around 9:30-10pm, so the little grocery across the street will probably be the one we go to that evening to get some breakfast things for the next morning....coffee, milk, coffee, cereal, coffee, some fruit, coffee ;-)

We're coming from Mississippi and there's a 5 hour difference, land at 8:30pm (actually 1:30am our time) I've never dealt with jet lag before, hopefully we won't be walking zombies our first couple of days!!!!

 

[PlutoFan10]

We are from NJ and weren't walking zombies from jet lag. We were up pretty early for a good 3 days or so. Tried to stay up as late as we could but usually didn't make it much past 10pm. Totally fine during the day.