Lama pa'ipa'i on the Lanai – an Aulani TR -Aloha and Mahalo Aulani! Link to PTR 11/5

[jedijill]

Wish I was at Elitch Gardens instead of work today.

Jill in CO

 

[eandesmom]

Oooooh I didn't realize you're in Denver right now! Enjoy your bad theme park food!

Lol!

Wish I was at Elitch Gardens instead of work today.

Jill in CO

Well it didn't seem too crowded but feels like we've been waiting forever for the boys at the Mind Eraser

 

[aboveH20]

Aloha, Cynthia (my sister's name is Cynthia)

In prep for our trip I've been reading James Michener's Hawaii.. I think I've got only another 600 pages to go.

He just mentioned lomilomi, and it thought to myself, I read about that on eandemom's TR. I had to go back and reread, but found where you wrote about it. Very cool.

I've been enjoying reading and seeing all of your photos. Time is such a strange thing -- on the one hand it doesn't seem like February will ever come, on the other hand I know in a flash I'll be looking back on the trip and wondering where the time went.

 

[annmarieda]

I can't believe I missed an update! I have been (admittedly)skimming along... and then I caught wind of a burger. A burger? Well, since that sounds super yummy right now... I went back to find this missed update! Sure enough, your picture has confirmed with me that I will be having a burger today. YUM!

Sorry the cost of your lunch was higher than you would have liked... but I imagine if it tasted anywhere near how good it looks... yeah, I be it was totally worth it.

Weird you couldn't get it cooked the way you wanted though at the first place.

 

[englishrose47]

Just checking in !!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Ok... I've just caught up through your spa treatments... and I can feel those hot rocks... I've got massage envy... (I bought some coconut/sugar cane lotion in Savannah so I can at least have a little bit of the scent...)

Ahhh... lovely view in your second room... no wonder you wanted cocktails on your Lanai...

(you mentioned it being warm? what were your temps? For some reason I always picture Hawaii having kind of San Diego ish weather...

LOL What it is with you and the fish selection... didn't you guys have a hard time getting interesting fist in Florida as well? Seattle is pretty well situated for good fish but you'd think Hawaii would have some good selection as well...

The resort itself really looks stunning... I didn't know that was the same architect who did the AKL... (he did the WL and the GF at DLR as well...) very talented...

Looking forward to catching up... I've a cold so am just vegging and catching up on TRs right notw...

 

[eandesmom]

Aloha, Cynthia (my sister's name is Cynthia)

In prep for our trip I've been reading James Michener's Hawaii.. I think I've got only another 600 pages to go.

He just mentioned lomilomi, and it thought to myself, I read about that on eandemom's TR. I had to go back and reread, but found where you wrote about it. Very cool.

Aloha!

so happy to have you here!

Ah James Michner's Hawaii. What a wonderful book. As, frankly are most of his. Just reading this has me hankering for a little Tales of the South Pacific an then maybe a bit of Herman Wouk and Winds of War. What great pre trip choice!

I've been enjoying reading and seeing all of your photos. Time is such a strange thing -- on the one hand it doesn't seem like February will ever come, on the other hand I know in a flash I'll be looking back on the trip and wondering where the time went.

Time is very funny that way! Our December trip is a million miles away...and next week all at the same time.

 

[eandesmom]

I can't believe I missed an update! I have been (admittedly)skimming along... and then I caught wind of a burger. A burger? Well, since that sounds super yummy right now... I went back to find this missed update! Sure enough, your picture has confirmed with me that I will be having a burger today. YUM!

We were supposed to have burgers yesterday but ended up eating too many appetizers...hopefully tonight is a do over!

Sorry the cost of your lunch was higher than you would have liked... but I imagine if it tasted anywhere near how good it looks... yeah, I be it was totally worth it.

It was totally worth it!

Weird you couldn't get it cooked the way you wanted though at the first place.

Yeah, I think it's a counter service thing...and in our mind it was table service but really it's quick serve so not surprising when I think about it that way. Except..for FOURTEEN dollars you should be able to get it cooked to order!

Just checking in !!

Hi Rosie!

Ok... I've just caught up through your spa treatments... and I can feel those hot rocks... I've got massage envy... (I bought some coconut/sugar cane lotion in Savannah so I can at least have a little bit of the scent...)

Ah....I'd love one of those now!

Ahhh... lovely view in your second room... no wonder you wanted cocktails on your Lanai...

(you mentioned it being warm? what were your temps? For some reason I always picture Hawaii having kind of San Diego ish weather...

Temp wise it's similar but it is more humid in Hawaii. 70's/low 80's. Perfect as far as we were concerned! When hiking though, without the winds, it was toasty.

LOL What it is with you and the fish selection... didn't you guys have a hard time getting interesting fist in Florida as well? Seattle is pretty well situated for good fish but you'd think Hawaii would have some good selection as well...

very good memory! Yes, Florida was a disaster..we ended up grilling the same kind of salmon we'd get at home..and that came from home! Hawaii seems to export all it's fish, or only sell it at farmers markets and directly to the restaurants. The local store and Costco selection was abysmal. We are spoiled though for sure, it was just SO irritating that literally the week we got back they had fresh Ono at my local store!

The resort itself really looks stunning... I didn't know that was the same architect who did the AKL... (he did the WL and the GF at DLR as well...) very talented...

Very talented, you can tell it's the same, yet still very Hawaii. It was just stunning!

Looking forward to catching up... I've a cold so am just vegging and catching up on TRs right notw...

TR's are great when you are sick but I hope you are feeling better!

 

[rentayenta]

I don't Photoshop. I don't know how and I don't want anyone to be shocked when they see me in real life. I do filter though every once in a while. Today's anniversary pic was def filtered. Laugh and smile lines are getting pretty deep.

 

[eandesmom]

I don't Photoshop. I don't know how and I don't want anyone to be shocked when they see me in real life. I do filter though every once in a while. Today's anniversary pic was def filtered. Laugh and smile lines are getting pretty deep.

well there's photoshop for making folks look less orange or sharpening up focus or contrast and then there's laugh lines. I'd like to think we've earned all of those and am proud of them but sometimes certain angles are definitely more flattering than others! I don't bother with trying to edit them out though and any attempts to so haven't gone well anyway. Now if I could edit my roots....I would!

it looks like you guys had a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[elphie101]

Joining in!! Looks great so far, nice and relaxing (wish I could be there now!)

 

[eandesmom]

Joining in!! Looks great so far, nice and relaxing (wish I could be there now!)

I wish I could be there too!

 

[eandesmom]

When we left off I’d been being lazy. Again. On a river. I really haven’t been lazy at home though which is why I am so behind on updates! We just returned from a week in Denver visiting Jeff’s mom and really had a lovely trip. One of the benefits of the trip was some uninterrupted time on the plane to edit Aulani photos which I've been way behind on (and making it hard to get updates done). I'm not done but I made a dent!.

I've also firmed up a number of things for our NYE trip so that’s exciting. My folks have plane tickets, park tickets and reservations and sister K and BIL have a room reservation. Sister M and her kids do not yet have tickets nor does my ex SIL and nephew but they are tracking and will, it’s more a matter of dates and prices and it is a little early for deals (my folks used miles). So…some progress. We have our return flight and should be booking the outbound in the next week or 2. I've also gotten rid of several dining reservations so while we still have back up plans, it’s not quite as obnoxious as it was though still a couple more CC holds than I would like. Right now the plans look like this

• 12/28 Red eye for at least 6 of us, possibly all.
• 12/29 Check in at BWV/Swan. Breakfast at Captain’s Grille, boys haircuts at Harmony Barber Shop (CC hold), Dinner at R&C. 2 reservations, 6 for CP package (5:05 dinner, 8:15 show) (CC hold) and 8 for non CP (5;15 dinner). Hopefully they can seat us together. Those numbers are in flux based on the other flight arrivals but should cover as much (more) than we need. I’d have preferred breakfast at Kouzzina but now that my folks are for sure on our red eye, and the others likely, the CG menu is more flexible.
• 12/30 Garden View Tea room for the girls at 1:25 pm, 6:20 pm Dinner at Ohana (CC hold), Pre NYE fireworks from Poly beach
• 12/31 Biergarten Dinner 8:00 pm (CC hold). Yeah, I gave up on R&C. I liked the 8pm dinner MUCH better for NYE and R&C was a good package option for CP.
• 1/1 Trails End Dinner 7:20 pm followed by checking out Fort decorations
• 1/2 This will be our Universal Islands of Adventure Day (Wizarding World of Harry Potter), dinner at Margaritaville. I do have a backup dinner ressie for 6:45 at PTC but can’t see us using that.
• 1/3 Adult only dinner either at Flying Fish (CC hold) if we are 7 adults or at Bluezoo if we are 8. Oddly enough parties of 8 can only be seated at something like 5 and 9pm at FF. No thanks on either! Kids will eat in the Villa.
• 1/4 Move to THV. This looks like it will be another Universal day. Yep, the minions have spoken (collectively) and want to go to Universal this day. This may only be part of the group. Not sure if my parents will go and my sister K and BIL may well be headed back this day. I have a back up ressie at WCC for 7:50pm which is probably doable but most likely it will be dinner in the villa as it would be fun to have one big in-villa family dinner and THV is far more suited to that than BWV. Honestly my only real issue with this as the Universal day is it’s also move day so that’s a bit of a pita but…we need to do the adult dinner the night before and sister K and BIL have no desire to go to universal so timing it on their likely departure day seemed best. If they end up leaving earlier (4th) I’ll probably turn 1/1 into the adult night out and move TE to the 3rd. I should know early enough I think to make that work but I’d really rather the adult night be on the 3rd so fingers crossed they leave on the 5th. LOL!
• 1/5 Raglan road brunch at 11am. Depending on folks departure days the numbers for this could change. I have 3 reservations for different group sizes so will be glad to get it down to one. BoG dinner at 6:25/6:40 (CC hold). I have 2 reservations for dinner, one for 7 and one for 4. We will be at least 6 but that may be it however until I know I am keeping both! You can’t book larger than 7 without special arrangements.
• 1/6 Olivia's Dinner at 7:30pm. We are likely down to 4 at this point. Some chatter about 1 or 2 of the nephews staying later with us but too early to say (and have to see if Jeff is actually up for that lol!)
• 1/7 Check out. Via Napoli lunch at 11:30am. DME around 2:30. WAH!
• Whew!

Let’s go back to Hawaii!
After the lazy river, as we headed up to our room to refresh our beverages, we decided to check out the grill situation and the grill tool procurement. Grills were easily found and as best we could tell, at least 2 of the 4 looked operational. What surprised us was, they were only "open" from 4-7pm! Good thing we didn't try to grill our own cheeseburger for lunch! I’m not sure the rationale behind the limited hours but we were less than thrilled with them. 7:30 or even 8 would have been our ideal grill time especially with the late lunch. Oh well. We went up, showered, changed and I got our dinner prepped. I had packed some of our favorite "rub" so used our salad dressing (an Asian vinaigrette) to lightly marinade and then topped with the rub. We stopped by the community center to check out/pick up our grill tools which came in a nice paper bag. Tongs, grill brush and a spatula I think.







Nice view from the grill area





There are also picnic tables nearby but I didn't take any pictures.
Why not?
Well…guess who was eating there

Owen Wilson! Well his slightly flabbier and possibly younger twin

I kid you not. And his companion, enjoying a nice bottle of wine as well. It would have been really obvious if I'd have taken a picture but I definitely thought about it!

They had a bag of tools so looked like they had grilled as well.

As we were cooking and enjoying our drinks a couple of guys came up and threw some fish on one of the other grills.

"Hey, do you want some Mahi or Ono?" they said

I assumed they were asking if we wanted some of their meal, as in they’d made to much.

Oh no thanks, we have some Mahi on the grill already, thanks though!

And with that they put 2 HUGE pieces of fresh fish directly into the GARBAGE.

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fresh ONO! I swear I reached for the garbage can like a slow motion cartoon.

They had been out fishing and it was freshly caught fish by them, that day. Way more than they could eat. OMG. Had we remotely realized..we’d have taken the Ono in a heartbeat! So very very sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mahi. But I can, and do, get it here on a pretty regular basis. Fish foul in a big way. Our Costco Mahi cooked, we headed up to our lanai, it had a better view than the picnic tables.





It was in time for the tail end of the sunset. Which Captain O has confirmed if you get your behind OFF of your lanai and down to the beach…you can see from the beach as suspected.



But...the wineglass, despite being shatterproof, sits a bit better on the lanai ottoman than it would have in the sand





Cheers!


Ok, this is better, at least I’m smiling even if the photo is darker. Jeff really needs to work on his portrait skills!





Tired of our view yet? We clearly weren't











Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

Continued from previous

Zoomed in but&sun is still hiding from me






















We enjoyed our dinner (mahi, spinach salad and hawaiian sweet bread), the sunset, the sound of the surf and live music from the bar and some lovely wine. I DISed a bit on the phone, Jeff read his book and we just relaxed. It was lovely! After an hour or 2 of this (yes, one loses track of time easily on the lanai) we decided we needed to fix something. We had been remiss to date on the trip. Wed yet to have a Mickey Bar! We headed down to the store to pick one up. As we went to ring up our bars the CM asked if we were members (you get a 10% discount on groceries now, that was a nice surprise, its a relatively new benefit). After letting her know that we were she asked

"So where did you buy your timeshare?"

Huh?

The way she asked through me for such a loop. I have never heard a CM actually use that word, timeshare, when it comes to DVC. It is of course but the use of that word and buy versus own, really thew me. My mind went to where had we physically bought it (like while in FL on a trip, here at Aulani or other). Jeff got what she meant. Which was "Where is your home resort?" Or "Where do you own at?".

Except...

He couldn't answer! For some reason he wanted to say Beach Club. For the record it's SSR and BWV but he always seems to forget about the SSR points. Probably as we've never stayed there. Well for that matter he's never stayed at BWV either so in his mind right now they really are just points. Wherever points I guess.

Mickey Bars in hand we headed down to the Oleo room, we figured wed sit outside and enjoy them, and the last few minutes of live music.



The lighting was not conducive to picture taking



So much for the artsy shot with the Mickey Bar in the foreground



Someone was pretty happy



It shows up better if you take a bite out of it first



Much like Florida, if you don't eat these fast enough, they fall apart and make a mess.

Jeff needed Mickey Bar training. Luckily my clothes survived intact! His...not so much

 

[MEK]

I hope you post before my post goes through.

So - nice plans - love them. Nice long trip. Now that you have that all wrapped up you can start working on our plans for May!

What a shame that the Ono got thrown out. I would have been sick about that too. Can you say fish sandwich for lunch? Your meal looks great and what a view. I'd be totally up for that.

So lovely watching the sunset. Perfect!

Adding that I am surprised Jeff flunked Mickey Bars 101!

 

[elphie101]

Great NYE trip plans - glad you're doing Epcot the 31st instead of MK! (It boggles my mind how many people don't do that, especially since you can see MK's fireworks the night before!) I can't wait for THAT TR! I dream of the day someday when my brothers and I can do this kind of a Disney pilgrimage with our families!

What a fish-aster! (I couldn't resist ) Such a waste of perfectly good fresh fish! No crying of spilled ono I guess...

I swear, there is no better sunset than a Hawaiian one - I feel like I took hundreds of similar photos on our Maui trip several years ago. Simply beautiful!

 

[Pinkocto]

How could they possibly just throw it away! They could have at least explained the situation. Such a waste Glad you were able to use the grill, odd times though.

Glad your NYE plans are firming up and people are getting some of their stuff booked.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Nope, definitely not tired of that view! Absolutely gorgeous!!

Grilling hours do seem very odd. Sorry you missed out on the fresh fish. That would have been a treat. But your mahi looked good! I am very impressed with all the prep you did in order to make so many of your own meals -- and good ones!

Timeshare does seem like an umagical term for it. Guess she hasn't gotten all the training.

Gotta have a mickey bar!

Your December trip plans are shaping up nicely!!

 

[lovetotraveltx]

Loving your report. Yes sad for wasted fish

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hey there! Just checking in after being off the boards for a while. I just got caught up and I have been really enjoying seeing all of the pictures. Again, I've done absolutely NO research on this resort, so it is all new to me.

I'm happy for you that you have discovered you like running! I'm glad that you are able to do the exercise and feel satisfied with it. I started doing the Couch to 5K program (and I HATE running), and I was actually starting to enjoy it about week 3. But then I had my latest sinus surgery and I haven't gone back to it again. I really should, because I think it would be cool to be a runner...if I didn't hate it so much. Seriously, my hatred stems all the way back to my childhood, so I don't know if I'll be able to turn it around.

I can't believe you are going back to WDW for NYE. We have been there the last 2 years on NYE (in fact, the exact dates that you are planning to go), and this year we aren't planning on it. I'm so bummed because we could have planned to meet if we were going again. We really love going during that time of the year, and it feels weird to know we won't be there this year. Your plans look great so far!