It's My Turn to Press the Button- Aulani with Preschoolers June 2015

[AZMermaid]

Nooooooo!!!!!!! This was our first (but not our last) encounter with the Sign of Doom. The resort was crowded but honestly, it never really felt that way. It wasn't like a the parks when it is wall to wall people. Yes, there were some lines, but nothing out of control. Luckily, we always encountered the sign when our kids were signed up for activities so we were able to laugh in the face of Doom. Ha Ha Ha!! Actually we were a little early for dinner (I believe it is at 5:30). You need to drop off 30 minutes ahead of time and we were about an hour early. Space Goo was finishing up though so they took us in no problem. They were turning people away who were not registered for something though. I am pretty sure those people hated us.

After dropping the kids off, we went up to the room to change. No Ama Ama changing rooms for the adults in our family! We changed and headed out to Monkey Pod. This place gets lots of Dis Boards love. Is it really that good? Is it worth the hype? The answer is yes. It is. Maybe because the other options are not amazing, but we loved this place. It is right across the street from Aulani. I know that is hard to visualize until you are there, but basically you walk out the lobby, down the driveway, to the traffic light and across the street. It is less than a 5 minute walk. There is a shopping center that it is inside of. We had made reservations ahead of time on their website. They have Happy Hour from 3:30-5:30 which involves drink specials, 50% off appetizers and $9 pizzas. I made the reservation for 4:45 in case we had to wait a bit, but we didn't. We were sat right away on the patio. There was a small band playing laid back Hawaiian rock and they set the mood perfectly. Our wautress was super friendly and prompt. We started with the truffle fries and wings. The fries were amazing!!!! The wings we decent too, but not in the same category as the fries.

We ordered the Proletarit pizza which was also really good. We decided we were still hungry and added a Margarita pizza, which we ended up not needing. The pizzas were kind of CPK sized- big personal pizzas.

DH had a couple beers and I had a soda. And then the reason this place is so awesome.... the bill! Remember we had a LOT of food!

If you want to eat off property, this place was really great. There were a few other restaurants in the shopping center- pizza, tacos, sushi. None were as busy as Monkey Pod though. We walked to the ABC store to check it out. This was like a huge convenience store or small grocery store. They had a ton of food and we commented we could just shop here next time. It was slightly more expensive than Safeway, but not much. They also had lots of alcohol and sunscreens, pool toys, medicine etc.

 

[alohamom]

Thanks for the update AZMermaid and the pics from Monkeypod. I just made reservations last week for our (possible) New Years trip and I made two just in case we loved it. We didnt make it last time but I really want to give it a try.
Those close up photos of your kids faces are just amazing!

 

[AZMermaid]

We picked the kids up around 6:00. Kate was sooo tired and Matt was dying to go to the gift shop to buy the Chip and Dale dolls he wanted. These were a $15 with purchase kind of deal, so of course DH HAD to buy some ornaments so Matt could get his stuffed animals. More stuffed animals!!!! They will round up and attack us when we sleep I think. These guys were really cute and he does still play with him, unlike Hawaiian Mickey who seems to have found a home under the bed.

Of course.... as soon as tehy got back, Kate was like "Oh no he didn't get a toy while I was pitifully tired." So DH being the nice Daddy he is, he took her to the gift shop. They came back with.....

Ugh! Really?? We got one of these sets in Disneyland but for Rapunzel. The dresses are impossible for me to get on and off, let along a three year old. And there are teeny tiny parts- like a dinglehopper. They got these things with the $20 their Grandpa gave them so they got to choose. There were really not many Hawaii specific toys. Most of the stuff was the same things you see at the parks. DH said he tried to sway her towards a Frozen play set, but she was insistent. Oh well. She does love little figurines.... Ariel is usually naked now. No-one can figure out those dang dresses!! The kids took a bath and were in bed by 7:30. We were out by 9:30. Tomorrow- Cabana Day #2!

 

[Disdreamprincess]

Ahah I have to make a comment, I had such a good laugh while reading this. Totally having the same sets of figurines with Minnie and Rapunzel, but what is it with the tiny pieces?! I cannot get those dresses off either
Hawaïan Chip and Dale are kind of cool.
Nice pics by the pool, the light is superb.

 

[Dugette]

Oh my gosh I am going to cry!!! I just wrote a super long update and the computer froze on me! I was working on it for like 45 minutes! Argh!!!!! Okay... once I regroup, I hope to update later today!

I always write my updates in Word first, saving often - you lose one due to a website glitch and you never want to do it again! Sorry that happened.

This was my favorite set of pictures. I really appreciated how much time the photographers took with us. It was like a mini photo shoot every time!

Great photos!

So glad you had the reserved time! I need to look into what to reserve, as our return trip is three months out now.

We changed and headed out to Monkey Pod. This place gets lots of Dis Boards love. Is it really that good? Is it worth the hype? The answer is yes. It is. Maybe because the other options are not amazing, but we loved this place. It is right across the street from Aulani.

I loved it too! It was just me and Izzy last time, but Dug is really looking forward to trying it next time.

More stuffed animals!!!! They will round up and attack us when we sleep I think.

Haha, I'm sure the same will happen here too!

These guys were really cute and he does still play with him

They are cute. I need to keep that in mind as a souvenir for Izzy. (Not that she needs more animals to attack us at night).

The dresses are impossible for me to get on and off, let along a three year old. And there are teeny tiny parts- like a dinglehopper.

Oh, I think those are like the little Star Wars Leia set we got at WDW. They are so tiny and obnoxious!

 

[PAdislover]

We picked the kids up around 6:00. Kate was sooo tired and Matt was dying to go to the gift shop to buy the Chip and Dale dolls he wanted. These were a $15 with purchase kind of deal, so of course DH HAD to buy some ornaments so Matt could get his stuffed animals. More stuffed animals!!!! They will round up and attack us when we sleep I think. These guys were really cute and he does still play with him, unlike Hawaiian Mickey who seems to have found a home under the bed.

Of course.... as soon as tehy got back, Kate was like "Oh no he didn't get a toy while I was pitifully tired." So DH being the nice Daddy he is, he took her to the gift shop. They came back with.....

Ugh! Really?? We got one of these sets in Disneyland but for Rapunzel. The dresses are impossible for me to get on and off, let along a three year old. And there are teeny tiny parts- like a dinglehopper. They got these things with the $20 their Grandpa gave them so they got to choose. There were really not many Hawaii specific toys. Most of the stuff was the same things you see at the parks. DH said he tried to sway her towards a Frozen play set, but she was insistent. Oh well. She does love little figurines.... Ariel is usually naked now. No-one can figure out those dang dresses!! The kids took a bath and were in bed by 7:30. We were out by 9:30. Tomorrow- Cabana Day #2!

Hi! just reading through your trip report! thanks for sharing all this info!
few questions: do you have to line up at 7am for aunty's if you want to just drop your kids off there to eat and play during the day or is that only if you want to sign up for the premium experiences? we are not DVC members so we would just be paying the nightly rate (hopefully with a 30% discount if we went during the off time of year). do you think Aulani is really "worth it" vs staying somewhere cheaper on O'ahu?

 

[AZMermaid]

Hi! There are a few levels of things going on at Aunty's:
1- Premium experiences, Surf's Up with Chip and Dale (which my kids did... haven't got there in the report yet) and Fish are Friends. These cost extra, I believe $70 and you reserve ahead of time. I called about 3 months ahead. I believe these were all full because there was no mention of them in the Daily Iwa (newsletter)

2- Free classes ie- Stitch's Space Goo. These are the ones you have to line up for at 7:00 AM. I have read if you pre-register your kids, they will reserve you a couple of these free classes. I think this started shortly after our stay. I would guess if you are pre-registered, you don't line up. But, maybe now you have to be there even earlier because some spaces are already taken, not sure....

3- Free play- Kids go and play and are not registered for an activity. You just drop them off at any time and pick them up. You do not have to register them early in the AM for this. There were times we saw the sign out that Aunty's was full for free play kids. Usually we saw this sign between 2-5:00, but not every day. I think we saw it three times our week.

4- Meals- They serve free snacks all day but at meal times, kids can eat lunch and dinner. Not all kids playing eat necessarily. But, if you want them fed, yes you have to line up at 7:00AM to reserve and pay for the meal. The cost was cheap- I think $7.00.

As far as worth it.... I think that depends on what you are hoping to do. If Aulani is your home base and you will be mostly exploring the Island.... I would say no. It is an AMAZING resort with a lot to do. So, if you plan to take advantage of the activities at the resort (many of which are included with the cost of stay), I would say yes, it is worth it. I have read a lot of people doing split stays, a few days in Honolulu while they explore the Island and then a few relaxing days at Aulani. If we were exploring heavily, I think this is the way we would go. We only went off property one day. We could have done two, but more than that in a week, I think you are losing value over what Aulani costs. One other thing to be mindful of though, if Aunty's activities and good pool chairs are important, getting up early is the only way. My kids are early risers and add the time change to that, this was no big deal to us. But, if you are luckier and get to sleep past 7:00 (OMG, 7:00... heaven!), I think this could be annoying. I hope that helps!

 

[PAdislover]

Hi! There are a few levels of things going on at Aunty's:
1- Premium experiences, Surf's Up with Chip and Dale (which my kids did... haven't got there in the report yet) and Fish are Friends. These cost extra, I believe $70 and you reserve ahead of time. I called about 3 months ahead. I believe these were all full because there was no mention of them in the Daily Iwa (newsletter)

2- Free classes ie- Stitch's Space Goo. These are the ones you have to line up for at 7:00 AM. I have read if you pre-register your kids, they will reserve you a couple of these free classes. I think this started shortly after our stay. I would guess if you are pre-registered, you don't line up. But, maybe now you have to be there even earlier because some spaces are already taken, not sure....

3- Free play- Kids go and play and are not registered for an activity. You just drop them off at any time and pick them up. You do not have to register them early in the AM for this. There were times we saw the sign out that Aunty's was full for free play kids. Usually we saw this sign between 2-5:00, but not every day. I think we saw it three times our week.

4- Meals- They serve free snacks all day but at meal times, kids can eat lunch and dinner. Not all kids playing eat necessarily. But, if you want them fed, yes you have to line up at 7:00AM to reserve and pay for the meal. The cost was cheap- I think $7.00.

As far as worth it.... I think that depends on what you are hoping to do. If Aulani is your home base and you will be mostly exploring the Island.... I would say no. It is an AMAZING resort with a lot to do. So, if you plan to take advantage of the activities at the resort (many of which are included with the cost of stay), I would say yes, it is worth it. I have read a lot of people doing split stays, a few days in Honolulu while they explore the Island and then a few relaxing days at Aulani. If we were exploring heavily, I think this is the way we would go. We only went off property one day. We could have done two, but more than that in a week, I think you are losing value over what Aulani costs. One other thing to be mindful of though, if Aunty's activities and good pool chairs are important, getting up early is the only way. My kids are early risers and add the time change to that, this was no big deal to us. But, if you are luckier and get to sleep past 7:00 (OMG, 7:00... heaven!), I think this could be annoying. I hope that helps!

Yes, thank you! Super helpful! We are not DVC owners. My best friend from high school is moving to O'ahu this January so we are tentatively planning to go see her Feb 2017. I have a feeling we will want to do island exploring so maybe we would be better off staying somewhere cheaper. I have lots of time to think about it though. Flights are so expensive from the Midwest, we are probably looking at $3000 alone for airfare for the 4 of us. Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip report!

 

[AZMermaid]

Wednesday June 3

My notes on these last few days are kind of spotty- but I want to get this finished.... even if it 6+ months overdue! So, I am thinking this will get shorter- or maybe not!

Wednesday brought us to our second Cabana day. We had debated canceling this, but we enjoyed the cabana and felt kind of bad we got rained out in the afternoon, so we kept it. But, we also decided we would go about our day doing resort activities instead of keeping close to the cabana. A look at the Daily Iwa and I saw Canoe Racing with Uncle. Ooooohhhh that looks fun. Wait, what is that? Before we headed out for the day, I called Toon Finder line. Why we never checked this earlier I have no idea. We were hoping to find Donald, but he was angry with us apparently and would not be out and about that day. We did find out when Goofy would be at the Lazy River and that Mickey and Minnie would be at the Great Lawn in the afternoon. We made a mental note to see them later.

I told DH we should head straight to the Community Room to reserve Canoe Racing. DH didn't think it would be too busy and suggested we check into the cabana first- so we did that. We again had Cabana #1 near the Menuhuene Bridge which was fine by us! We headed to the slides and Kate was BEGGING to ride the dark slide. Sigh. No.

We got to the Pua Hauna room at 8:30 and Canoe Racing was full! Part of me was gloating my rightness, but a bigger part of me was sad it was full. DH felt bad but what could he do. We put ourselves on the wait list and hoped for the best! We were the second family on the list.

 

[AZMermaid]

We spent the rest of the morning at the pools. We started at the Bridge but it was cloudy out. Noooooo!!!!! We checked the weather before and there was no chance of rain! Matt loved playing on the Bridge but Kate was not feeling it. I think she was cold and wasn't running around enough to really stop thinking about it. She had brought down her little Aurora figurine and we tried to convince her Aurora wanted to swim with little luck. She stood like this for most of the time.

I loved this picture of Matt

I tried to take a picture for the DVC magazine, but it didn't really work out. I never submitted it.

Okay... a commentary here. I am sorry if it offends anyone! I saw a lot of kids running around the bridge area with floaties on. Many looked a few years older than my kids. I just didn't get this. The water at the bridge is like ankle deep. I can only imagine they were back and forth between the pools and the bridge, but as far as I could tell, they were at the bridge for at least an hour. It just looked uncomfortable to me. But, my kids have never worn floaties so maybe they are horrible to take on and off.

 

[AZMermaid]

I have a note that says M Bridge- Kate dumped scced. Hmmmm.... sot sure what that means!

We took another spin around the Not so Lazy River. The kids had gotten slightly better at staying in the tubes. There were these two kids racing down the river like Michael Phelps. This was kind of annoying as they expected everyone to move for their race, but they were like 11, so how mad can I get? We actually went around twice. The kids LOVED looking for the Menhuene around the resort. These are little statues of the mythical creatures of the Island. Or something like that! We found a few on the river including this guy!

After the lazy river, we headed to the Infinity Pool. We loved this pool but the water was always COLD!!!! We swam in there as long as we could stand it, or as long as DH and I could stand it. The kids would probably still be in there! After a morning of swimming, we headed back to the cabana for fruit and lunch! Our fruit tray was waiting for us. It was different than the first day. No baby poop fruit but instead those bumpy nut things. I can't remember what those were- I don't think we liked them, but everything else was delish and devoured quickly. I will say we liked the fruit tray the first day better. But if we hadn't gotten that- we wouldn't know better and were still happy with this one.

We had a different server this day. Oh we missed Rocky. Our server was nice, but crazy hyper. It was a little stressful talking to him because he was just so fast and hyped up. The cabana menu was the same as Sunday. We asked about the "new menu" Rockey had told us about. Our server quickly returned with another menu for us. I realized later when we were at the bar it was the poolside menu not the cabana menu. This was fine but I am not sure if they ever had a new cabana menu!

I ordered the Coconut shrimp which were outstanding! DH got the fish tacos and also liked them. The kids had burgers but didn't eat much after all the fruit. We should have just got one for them to split. We never ever think of this!

 

[jtba]

love it! can't wait to read the next installment!

 

[AZMermaid]

love it! can't wait to read the next installment!

Thank you!

 

[AZMermaid]

After lunch, I had the 1:00 Mickey and Minnie meet on the schedule. We headed over to the Great Lawn to see them. On the way, we ran into Goofy. For some reason this whole set of pictures, half of Goofy is cut off. I think I had on the high zoom lens. Maybe. I don't really know- but here is a partial shot of Goofy being Goofy!

We had not been to the Great Lawn yet. Is that what it is called? I just realized the call the tailgating area at the Arizona Cardinal games the Great Lawn. So either that's a great coincidence or I am calling it the wrong thing. Go Cardinals!!! Oh where was I.... Anyway, we headed over to the Great Lawn which was behind Aunty's and the secret soda machines. We just sort of walked that way until we came to it. We were a little early so my kids went NUTS on the lawn. I mean crazy. I am sure we got some stink eyes while they ran off a LOT of steam while we waited!

I was just looking at these pictures and Matt said "Oh that's us playing Monster Monster Chase Me. So I guess that is what this game is called.

I have about 20 pictures of this game, but this one cracked me up! She Elsa'd him!

While we waited, Stitch came up. We aren't really Stitch fans, but he was there and so were we- so we may as well go say hello! Stitch was very interested in tiny Aurora.

Finally Mickey and Minnie came out! We were about 5th in line and soon enough, it was our turn! Kate LOVES Minnie and was soaking up every second of this meet.

This was the picture we chose as our free scavenger hunt photopass print later this trip.

And the family shot. I wished we had been in regular clothes. Okay, well, I wished I had been in regular clothes. Everyone else looks fine! But in Hawaii....

After meeting our favorite Mice, the kids wanted to run around some more and I guess hadn't terrorized everyone in sight yet... so I let them run for another ten minutes or so. DH got in on the action a bit too.

Afterwards, we headed to the Pua Hauna room to see if we could get into Canoe Racing....

 

[AZMermaid]

So we went over to the Pua Hauna room to check in for the 2:00 Canoe racing. We got there around 1:40 and were told we would need to wait until 5 minutes before to see if anyone no showed. We anxiously hung out in front of the TVs and watched people trickle in. At 1:55 I sent DH up to check again. It was his fault we were in this predicament after all! He said the CM was sort of snarky and said it wasn't 2:00 yet. Okaaayyyyy.... we will wait. And wait. And wait for an agonizing 5 minutes. I then went up and she reluctantly let us in. I don't think we were annoying... but maybe we were! Well, it didn't matter, we were making canoes! Except, I still didn't really know what that entailed. I must have read it was a fun activity or something because I *really* wanted to do it!

The CMs came around and gave us our supplies and directions on how to put the canoe together. We were told to name our canoe and we let the kids color the boat part and the other part. I know Uncle told the history of the Hawaiian canoe... but obviously it didn't stick! We named out canoe Bxxxxxxx Ohana (our last name). Creative I know!! My kids were the youngest ones there, but they did fine. There were enough pieces for them to color that they were both happy. DH and I put it together. When we were done, we took our Canoe to show Uncle and he took a picture with the kids.

We were one of the first families done so we were towards the front of the line that formed outside to head down to the beach. We didn't wait too long. I would guess there were about 15 families or so doing this activity. Because we were towards the front, we got to chat with Uncle on the way to the beach. As we passed the slides, Kate again lamented that she didn't get to ride the dark slide. Uncle told us he let both of his kids do it at 3- one loved it and the other hated it. Thanks Uncle. BUT- then he said he just made them wear life vests so he knew they would bob back up at the bottom. Duh!!!! Light bulb moment!!! Because Kate can swim, I never even considered the free life vests you can borrow. So..... I now considered letting her ride the dark slide of doom.

We made our way to the beach and were given paddles to push our canoes forward in the ocean. Uncle told us that if they have a lit of younger ones, they do a junior version too where they start closer, but since our kids were the only little ones, feel free to start wherever we felt comfortable. Matt and I went first. And..... I am about to post pictures of myself in a swim suit for the public. You know I love you guys!!! There was a Photopass guy with a Go Pro out there. We got a lot of pictures from this. But here are a few.

Can you see how our canoe is capsized? Yep, we (ahem, me) were awful at this!! We could not get our canoe to stay upright! They had a second race which I did with Kate we were equally as bad. But, it was super fun and this free activity was a highlight of the trip. We never made it to Storytelling with Uncle, so I was glad we got to chat with him a little bit here. The photographer took some pictures of our whole group and then offered family pictures. I think we were the only people who took him up on this, but we knew we were getting the CD, so why not?!

After losing at canoe racing, we headed back to the cabana for our yummy dessert tray. I don't have a picture, but it was the same as the first day... so here it is again! Yummmmm...... this time we just let the kids have what they wanted, which was everything! Kate just walked in and said "When we go back to Hawaii, can we have that dinner? I loved that dinner!"

After dessert, Matt ran around on the bridge a little longer and then we packed it in and went upstairs. The kids had Surfs Up with Chip and Dale this night and we had dinner at Ama Ama.... up next!

 

[jtba]

that does sound like a fun family activity! will def sign up for it!

 

[Gorechick]

Enjoy reading your report. Did you happen to notice if they were strict with the the height requirement at the kid's pool/play area? My DD is a couple inches taller than 48 and would love for her to be around other kids.

 

[AZMermaid]

that does sound like a fun family activity! will def sign up for it!

Just do it at 8:00!

Enjoy reading your report. Did you happen to notice if they were strict with the the height requirement at the kid's pool/play area? My DD is a couple inches taller than 48 and would love for her to be around other kids.

I felt like they got rid of the adults but I never saw them make a child get down, but I wasn't watching for it either. At our local mall play area, there is a height max and it is only enforced when kids are being crazy (and security is called...). I felt like the bridge was similarly monitored.

 

[jtba]

Just do it at 8:00!

lol... getting up before 8 on vaca is just so wrong! but i will if i have to.

 

[mrp4352]

I've been enjoying your story!