Aulani Trip Report!

[spleen]

The pancakes sound good too! Their used to be a place in waikiki that awesome tropical pancakes with macadamia nut syrup...but it closed. How far away is the place you mention? I will drive for good pancakes!

You're thinking of Eggs 'N Things. They reopened after their fire but they've moved locations. They can be found here:
http://www.eggsnthings.com/

Boots and Kimo is located in Kailua which is essentially the opposite side of the island - worth going to if you're driving to that side anyways but I probably wouldn't drive that far just to eat breakfast. Their macadamia nut syrup pancakes are great.

Also, well worth visiting in Kailua for breakfast is Cinnamons. Their red velvet pancakes and their guava chiffon pancakes are legendary!

 

[Shuweb]

Starlit Hui is a show that they have twice a week - I'm sure the schedules will vary over time (Mondays and Thursdays as of this post) - but it's basically an interactive show that is free to Aulani guests. You will be expected to show your room key (which by the way shows the dates of your stay) or the wrist band (but I recommend bringing the card key for your whole family). Reservations are not required, but go there at 6:30, stake out your spot, and let your kids do the pre-show activities. The show actually starts closer to 7:30, even though they say 7:00.

You are given a Daily Iwa, which is a daily schedule of events. You will have a copy of it the night before, and they are available everywhere in the resort. The colorful flyer is about 4 pages long, so I will not be posting, but you will figure out that they start to look the same....

My wife and I thought that 6 days was fine for us, but that we would have been satisfied with 4 or 5. I'm just glad that we did the following:
- Starlit Hui: we saw it twice
- Stingray experience
- the Character Breakfast

Ko Olina itself is rather remote, and there is very little there. I hope that Aulani will attract some new businesses in the area.

Also, regarding prices at the grocery store - I know that it's cheaper and more variety than the resort's convenience store! I think it's comparable to a regular grocery store, I know the water was. I don't normally look at prices when I shop for groceries (my wife does), but what I can say is that the ready made food was fairly priced.

I guess if you have a car, this is a non-issue anyway. We didn't have a car - I didn't want to drive because driving reminds me too much of commuting.

Great TR! I really appreciate the details like which days the character meals are. What is Starlit Hui? An interactive show? Are reservations required?

Are you given a list of activities each evening for the next day or a list for the week at check-in? I wonder if anyone has posted theirs online?

We're going to Aulani in February and thought we would do some other things in Oahu in our 6 days their. Sounds like the resort may keep us busy enough.

The pancakes sound good too! Their used to be a place in waikiki that awesome tropical pancakes with macadamia nut syrup...but it closed. How far away is the place you mention? I will drive for good pancakes! Maybe it will be on the way to one of our excursions away from the resort--if we do decide to go anywhere.

 

[Shuweb]

I agree, Azul is their Ama Ama. But I must say, it was still a zoo. Aulani's casual retaurants (the poolside ones, that is) had a far more pleasant atmosphere than Naupaka Terrace. Naupaka's buffet set up was such that it created crowds just to get food, plates were running out, there was so much noise bouncing off the walls that it was really loud (it's more of a room than an open terrace, really), and there was no view.

Aulani is so much bigger and better thought out in terms of set up. $800M in spending budget to build a resort will out do a $180M budget, of course. But I suppose this is Disboards, so I don't need to convince Disney fans to stay at the new resort.

well, to be fair, the equivalent restaurant at the Ihilani to 'Ama'ama is Azul which is a pretty nice restaurant. I tend to think that holiday restaurant meals are in general overrated so not surprised about the food being so-so at Naupaka for Thanksgiving.

 

[Shuweb]

Alright guys, the "rough draft" of my trip report is now up on www.shuweb.com/aulani-2011.html. You will see photos on there, etc. It doesn't quite work as well on iPad, as some photos come up rotated. Not sure why, but it works well on desktops/laptops.

I will add more photos, captions for photos, and links to other sites over time.

Enjoy!

Shuweb.com

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Drandmomto2boys, when in February are you going? How old are your boys? I have a 9 year old son.You should join us at the Feb 2012 thread here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2830696&highlight=aulani

Thanks! That's great!

 

[ciao_gina]

Thanks so much for the report. Can't wait for more photos.

I am glad you were able to go to Roy's for a date night. I assume they give you a pager. They don't ask you to stay on the premises? I am thinking we may do that for Valentine's Day.

By the way your daughter is *adorable*!!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I really love your pictures! And your TR gave me a very good idea of what to expect. I will make reservations for the restaurants ahead of time.
I'm very grateful we can cook breakfast in our room to skip those breakfast prices most days!

 

[Shuweb]

We called ahead and made reservations; we also tend to eat early (6pm, 6:30), so between the two things, we had very little wait and hence no pager. The place definitely got crowded later during our dinner.

Thanks so much for the report. Can't wait for more photos.

I am glad you were able to go to Roy's for a date night. I assume they give you a pager. They don't ask you to stay on the premises? I am thinking we may do that for Valentine's Day.

By the way your daughter is *adorable*!!

 

[Shuweb]

Yeah... For three of us, a typical dinner was $150 and a typical breakfast was $75. They added up fast. It's definitely cheaper to get groceries, etc.

I really love your pictures! And your TR gave me a very good idea of what to expect. I will make reservations for the restaurants ahead of time.
I'm very grateful we can cook breakfast in our room to skip those breakfast prices most days!

 

[ciao_gina]

We called ahead and made reservations; we also tend to eat early (6pm, 6:30), so between the two things, we had very little wait. The place definitely got crowded later during our dinner.

Sorry, I meant dropping off your daughter at Aunty's and going to Roy's. Aulani doesn't require you to stay at the resort when you do that?

 

[Shuweb]

The way it works is that when you register at Aunty's, you give them your room number and your cell phone number. They will call the cell if there is a need to contact you. I didn't tell Aunty's that we were going to Roy's, but the restaurant is less than 10 minutes walking distance, so we didn't think anything of it. Just make sure you order dinner for your child at the front desk at Aunty's.

During our stay, we did get one call from Aunty's. Our daughter was done playing and she wanted to get picked up. Of course, when we arrived 5 minutes later to pick her up, she was too busy to leave. Anyway, the point is, they use your cell phone number.

By the way, speaking of pagers - we saw one boy without his GPS on his wrist at Aunty's. He was apparently separated from his parents in the resort and he went running to Aunty's. He was so frantic that he couldn't speak, and the staff said that if the boy had his wrist band GPS on, they could have identified him and called the parents right away. Anyway, the dad came walking in just then and all was fine.

Sorry, I meant dropping off your daughter at Aunty's and going to Roy's. Aulani doesn't require you to stay at the resort when you do that?

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Yeah... For three of us, a typical dinner was $150 and a typical breakfast was $75. They added up fast. It's definitely cheaper to get groceries, etc.

Yeah, that's an expensive breakfast to do every day. We have 2 adults and 3 kids over age 3 so maybe we'll try it once (I imagine over $100 for breakfast), but have oatmeal, eggs, or cereal in our room most days. Oh yeah, and a trip to some pancake place one of the days now that I've been tempted with those pictures!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Thanks for sharing... Loved your trip report. We are hoping to stay there on points in July but if not we'll stay in a hotel room.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thank you for your very complete report, and I'm going to be printing out parts of it to reference for our Aulani trip!

 

[ciao_gina]

' Anyway, the point is, they use your cell phone number. '

Great! Thanks.

 

[Shuweb]

Glad to see everyone likes my trip report; I don't get paid to do it, but it's fun to write about them. As you probably saw on my website, I do this regularly.

I used to have details for all my trips, but I cut back on older ones because destinations change so much over time. While my TR to Aulani is very new, please do check with them directly where appropriate.

If you have other destinations that you can recommend, by all means please let me know. That is how I often choose my destinations. Aulani was of course a natural choice - we took our daughter to Disneyland last year, so Aulani this year. A Disney cruise is definitely on the agenda in the next couple of years.

Thank you for your very complete report, and I'm going to be printing out parts of it to reference for our Aulani trip!