Our "dream trip" is now a reality, 4 days at DLR followed by 11 days at Aulani in Sept. Anyone out there been to Aulani? We have done a good bit of research, renting a Jeep Wrangler for our time and have decided to grab the go Oahu card. We know we are going to Pearl Harbor and planning a day trip over to the big island to see volcano national park. Would love to hear from those who have been on things that were worth it and not so much. We are thinking of doing the VIP tour at the Polynesian cultural center however it's a bit $ and wonder if it's worth the $$! Still strange we are not going to WDW this year though. TIA!
Congrats on your trip, you will have a great time! I did Pearl Harbor on my own and loved it. Just make sure you get there early(by 8am). While the tickets for the Arizona memorial are free, they are timed. When I went I got there about 9am because I got lost and the earliest ticket I could get to the Arizona was 12:30. I was ok with that because I also paid to see the Bowfin and USS Wisconsin while I waited. Make sure you check the website about what you can't bring in. Basically, no bags are allowed. You can also purchase your tickets online if you want.
On a separate trip, I stayed on the Big Island for a week and took a tour to Volcanoes National Park. It was sooo worth the money I paid because it meant I didn't have to drive all the way around the island. I think I took the Grayline tour because they spent the most time in the park. If you are doing a day trip by flying over, it is going to be a very long day. It was about 12 hours for those of us being picked up on the island. We had some in our group who flew over from Oahu and they were the first to be picked up at the airport(Kona) around 5/5:30am and dropped off at the airport for their 7pm flight. After the bus picked them up, they came an picked everyone else up and we went around the island. If your flight comes into Hilo, you are right there at Volcanoes--so check to see which airport you fly into. We stopped at the following places on our tour: Black Sand Beach, Volcanoes Nat'l Park(spent about 2-3 hours in the park), Rainbow Falls, Big Island Candies, Waimea Coffee(think that was the name) and then back home--I think I remembered everything. You see a lot of amazing scenery and some of the stops are just bathroom breaks.
The Polynesian Cultural Center was the only Aulani tour I paid for. Again, I was glad I did because I didn't have to drive back late at night. The PCC is huge and we were able to see most of the Polynesian island exhibits. You see the major ones(four of them) and the canoe pageant. On the Aulani tour, we got there about 2pm, just in time for the pageant. You have a tour guide who takes you around and the prime rib dinner was part of our tour. Some people in our group switched to the luau instead, and everyone went to the Ha performance. It was awesome and you forget that none of the performers are professionals. The show lets out at 9:30pm and virtually everyone on our bus slept on the way back. Although we made good time getting back, the driver was safe. He actually had to drive the bus back to the PCC after he dropped us off--that meant a two hour round trip for him.
I hope all this helps. I saw a lot my first trip to Aulani and did most of it on my own: 'Iolani Palace, Honolulu Museum of Art, Bishop Museum, the Spalding House(great view of Diamond Head from here and included in the Honolulu Museum Art ticket), hiked Diamond Head, and Pearl Harbor. I started with Tripadvisor and researched what I thought would be interesting.
