d0naldduck123
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
Aloha! I just got back from my 5-night honeymoon at Oahu and Aulani. I really enjoy reading other trip reports and thought that this time I'd try writing one. So please feel free to follow along and ask any questions!
Before I go on about the trip itself, here is a little background:
My BF and I recently got married and decided to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Both of us had never been to Hawaii, and being a Disney fan, we had to spend a few nights at Aulani. We were leaving the day after our wedding, so due to our budget we decided to go for a split stay and did 2 nights at Waikiki and 3 nights at Aulani. We booked our flights and the hotel at Waikiki through our credit card rewards, and booked Aulani by renting DVC points. It was our first time renting points, so we were a bit nervous, but there were no problems at all. It was surprisingly very easy and ended up saving us a lot of money. We booked towards the end of Feb, so a week or two past the 7 months date. The only availability for a studio room at that time was an ocean view so I think we got very lucky to even have a studio room available. The ocean view via DVC was still cheaper than booking directly, so it was a very easy decision to just go for the ocean view, And I am so glad we did - the view was amazing. With that, here is Day 1!
Day 1: Arrival
Before I go on about the trip itself, here is a little background:
My BF and I recently got married and decided to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Both of us had never been to Hawaii, and being a Disney fan, we had to spend a few nights at Aulani. We were leaving the day after our wedding, so due to our budget we decided to go for a split stay and did 2 nights at Waikiki and 3 nights at Aulani. We booked our flights and the hotel at Waikiki through our credit card rewards, and booked Aulani by renting DVC points. It was our first time renting points, so we were a bit nervous, but there were no problems at all. It was surprisingly very easy and ended up saving us a lot of money. We booked towards the end of Feb, so a week or two past the 7 months date. The only availability for a studio room at that time was an ocean view so I think we got very lucky to even have a studio room available. The ocean view via DVC was still cheaper than booking directly, so it was a very easy decision to just go for the ocean view, And I am so glad we did - the view was amazing. With that, here is Day 1!
Day 1: Arrival
We had an early flight but we got back late from our wedding so I just didn't sleep and spent the time last minute packing. For breakfast we splitted a breakfast hotdog at the airport.
I think I fell asleep as soon as I got on the plane - I don't even remember the take off. We had a couple hours layover at Dallas, so we had another breakfast at McDonalds
Then we were finally off to Oahu! I don't remember take off for this one either...
So the reason we ate again at McD's was because we didn't think the flight to Oahu would give us an in-flight meal since it was a domestic flight. Turns out they did give us a meal - it was a chicken wrap and some chips. I watched Coco, then fell asleep watching Endgame. It was a 9-hr flight, I think, but it wasn't too bad. We landed and went to pick up our rental car from Alamo. We took the shuttle to Alamo and picked out our car and we were off! The first two nights we stayed in Hyatt Centric Waikiki. It was a few blocks in from the beach, but we chose the hotel because it looked very modern and relatively new.
I think it was around 4pm by this time, so we unpacked, changed and went out for dinner. We went to Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, a Japanese place famous for pork cutlets. We got a pork cutlet and a tiger shrimp donburi.
We ground our own sesame seeds and poured the tonkatsu sauce.
We were lucky to have seats. There were only two seats left at the bar table when we got there. The restaurant doesn't have many tables, and the tables were all reserved. So I'd highly recommend making reservations in advance. The food was very, very good. The cutlet was crispy, and the sauce on the shrimp donburi was great! Not too overpowering but still flavorful.
After dinner we just explored the streets. Went to the ABC market and got a tote bag, then went to the Honolulu Cookie Company to buy some cookies. Their seasonal flavors were the cinnamon apple cookie and the pumpkin cookie dipped in white chocolate. They had samples of most of the cookies available and the pumpkin cookie was so so good! We then went out to the beach during sunset.
After watching the sunset, we explored the streets some more. By 8 pm we were tired so we headed back to the hotel since we had an early morning planned.
Coming up next...an early morning at Hanauma Bay, North Shore, and an adventure trying to find a phone charger.
I think I fell asleep as soon as I got on the plane - I don't even remember the take off. We had a couple hours layover at Dallas, so we had another breakfast at McDonalds
Then we were finally off to Oahu! I don't remember take off for this one either...
So the reason we ate again at McD's was because we didn't think the flight to Oahu would give us an in-flight meal since it was a domestic flight. Turns out they did give us a meal - it was a chicken wrap and some chips. I watched Coco, then fell asleep watching Endgame. It was a 9-hr flight, I think, but it wasn't too bad. We landed and went to pick up our rental car from Alamo. We took the shuttle to Alamo and picked out our car and we were off! The first two nights we stayed in Hyatt Centric Waikiki. It was a few blocks in from the beach, but we chose the hotel because it looked very modern and relatively new.
I think it was around 4pm by this time, so we unpacked, changed and went out for dinner. We went to Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, a Japanese place famous for pork cutlets. We got a pork cutlet and a tiger shrimp donburi.
We ground our own sesame seeds and poured the tonkatsu sauce.
We were lucky to have seats. There were only two seats left at the bar table when we got there. The restaurant doesn't have many tables, and the tables were all reserved. So I'd highly recommend making reservations in advance. The food was very, very good. The cutlet was crispy, and the sauce on the shrimp donburi was great! Not too overpowering but still flavorful.
After dinner we just explored the streets. Went to the ABC market and got a tote bag, then went to the Honolulu Cookie Company to buy some cookies. Their seasonal flavors were the cinnamon apple cookie and the pumpkin cookie dipped in white chocolate. They had samples of most of the cookies available and the pumpkin cookie was so so good! We then went out to the beach during sunset.
After watching the sunset, we explored the streets some more. By 8 pm we were tired so we headed back to the hotel since we had an early morning planned.
Coming up next...an early morning at Hanauma Bay, North Shore, and an adventure trying to find a phone charger.