Nikodemos
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2013
My wife, 4 year old DS and I traveled from San Jose to HNL on Thursday, December 3rd, returning via Oakland on Saturday, December 12th. This would be our first trip to the Aulani, and the first trip to Hawaii for my wife and son.
We stayed 4 nights in Turtle Bay at an AirBnB condo, picking up a car at Alamo and stopping by Costco before heading to the North Shore. The split stay meant that we could take in a lot of the sites while saving some $$$ and then relax at the Aulani later on.
I originally planned to rent DVC points for a trip in May 2016, but Disney mailed me an offer of 30% off room rates during the Sep-Dec time period. This made a one bedroom rental the equivalent rate of $12.49 per point which was cheaper than I could get via the boards. The downside was that without being on DVC points, we wouldn't get free parking. However, since Alamo has an on-site office, we could drop off the car after doing the North Shore.
One of the great things about the North Shore (and Oahu as a whole) is the great eats at the food trucks. I don't know if it's a zoning issue or just an easier startup cost, but there are a lot of food trunks in semi-permanent locations. We sampled several shrimp dishes at these trucks, and had some tasty lamb curry at a Fijian market.
We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on Saturday. I didn't think anybody could rival great customer service like Disney, but these folks are really friendly. We had purchased Ambassador tickets for the luau type show with the Prime (rib) buffet, which comes with a tour. We knew our son wouldn't last all day wandering around the PCC, so we had arrived around 3pm. One of the hosts was really nice and explained how a tour that late would be abbreviated, so he arranged that we could do the tour on another day (which we didn't take advantage of). All the other staff was equally nice. It didn't hurt that early December is a bit of a low season so they weren't swamped with people. The buffet was ok, but nothing special. While waiting for the show, they had a band from the nearby BYU campus playing, and our son really enjoyed dancing to the songs. The show was really good but DS was done by the mid-show break, so we decided to head back to the condo.
On Friday and Sunday, we went to the Turtle Bay Cove, which is a public beach next to the Turtle Bay Resort. It was an easy 5 minute walk from the condo. The cove is protected by an outer reef, so the waves were tame. Outside the cove, the waves were extreme, which is why Winter on the North Shore is known for great surfing. In fact, the Vans World Cup of Surfing was happening the week were there.
On Monday, we went to the Dole Plantation. I had read mixed reviews about this location, but we enjoyed the train ride and the wonderful pineapple floats and Dole whip. After that we left for the Aulani.
Lessons Learned
If you return your Alamo rental car to the Aulani, then all you have to do is to drive up to the valets at the main entrance.
Since we were dropping the car off at the Aulani, that meant filling up gas beforehand. There are no gas stations at Ko Olina. Both Apple and Google maps indicated the nearest gas stations were: Alana petroleum (an oil power plant) and Chevron Hawaii (an oil refinery). The nearest real gas station is Costco which didn't show up on an Apple map search. For non-Costco folks the Tesoro next to the Safeway would be the best choice.
If you are playing in the pool or on the beach for most of the day, you’ll (and definitely the kids) likely will be tired and not want to do anything after dinner. They were 'redoing the lawns due to excessive rains' and thus the Starlight Hui or outdoor films were not being done the week we went, and I was bummed about that.
We stayed in room 271 in the Ewa wing, and is right off the elevator and very convenient, but the garden view at that level was at tree height so not a lot of view. We had bought some food at Target, so many breakfasts and a few lunches were a lot cheaper. We found that the Ula cafe on site was reasonable, and we could eat there or bring the food back to our room. They had $18 pizzas (comparable to what we pay for a large in California), $12 breakfasts that easily fed two people (scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, french toast and potatoes), and a dinner main entree and hot sandwich that changed everyday. The french dip was very good. Alcoholic drinks are very expensive ($12 with a $5 upcharge for better liquors).
We ate at the Ama Ama once, and the view of the sunset is spectacular, although the food was so/so. We went across the street to the Monkeypod twice and enjoyed that, and I would go to the Coffee House every morning to get my wife an iced coffee. The Taco place in that same plaza was ok, but nothing special. The market there has most items, and I picked up a number of shirts at reasonable prices.
Biggest Lesson
Not that there is ever a low season at Aulani, but the first week of December on weekdays is about as uncrowded as the Aulani gets. Unlike many trip reports I've read, there was no competition for chairs, dining, and you could sign up children for events during the day without lining up early in the morning. So if you are willing to take your kids out of school during this time period, I'd highly recommend it since it makes for a very pleasurable and relaxing stay at the Aulani.
We stayed 4 nights in Turtle Bay at an AirBnB condo, picking up a car at Alamo and stopping by Costco before heading to the North Shore. The split stay meant that we could take in a lot of the sites while saving some $$$ and then relax at the Aulani later on.
I originally planned to rent DVC points for a trip in May 2016, but Disney mailed me an offer of 30% off room rates during the Sep-Dec time period. This made a one bedroom rental the equivalent rate of $12.49 per point which was cheaper than I could get via the boards. The downside was that without being on DVC points, we wouldn't get free parking. However, since Alamo has an on-site office, we could drop off the car after doing the North Shore.
One of the great things about the North Shore (and Oahu as a whole) is the great eats at the food trucks. I don't know if it's a zoning issue or just an easier startup cost, but there are a lot of food trunks in semi-permanent locations. We sampled several shrimp dishes at these trucks, and had some tasty lamb curry at a Fijian market.
We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on Saturday. I didn't think anybody could rival great customer service like Disney, but these folks are really friendly. We had purchased Ambassador tickets for the luau type show with the Prime (rib) buffet, which comes with a tour. We knew our son wouldn't last all day wandering around the PCC, so we had arrived around 3pm. One of the hosts was really nice and explained how a tour that late would be abbreviated, so he arranged that we could do the tour on another day (which we didn't take advantage of). All the other staff was equally nice. It didn't hurt that early December is a bit of a low season so they weren't swamped with people. The buffet was ok, but nothing special. While waiting for the show, they had a band from the nearby BYU campus playing, and our son really enjoyed dancing to the songs. The show was really good but DS was done by the mid-show break, so we decided to head back to the condo.
On Friday and Sunday, we went to the Turtle Bay Cove, which is a public beach next to the Turtle Bay Resort. It was an easy 5 minute walk from the condo. The cove is protected by an outer reef, so the waves were tame. Outside the cove, the waves were extreme, which is why Winter on the North Shore is known for great surfing. In fact, the Vans World Cup of Surfing was happening the week were there.
On Monday, we went to the Dole Plantation. I had read mixed reviews about this location, but we enjoyed the train ride and the wonderful pineapple floats and Dole whip. After that we left for the Aulani.
Lessons Learned
If you return your Alamo rental car to the Aulani, then all you have to do is to drive up to the valets at the main entrance.
Since we were dropping the car off at the Aulani, that meant filling up gas beforehand. There are no gas stations at Ko Olina. Both Apple and Google maps indicated the nearest gas stations were: Alana petroleum (an oil power plant) and Chevron Hawaii (an oil refinery). The nearest real gas station is Costco which didn't show up on an Apple map search. For non-Costco folks the Tesoro next to the Safeway would be the best choice.
If you are playing in the pool or on the beach for most of the day, you’ll (and definitely the kids) likely will be tired and not want to do anything after dinner. They were 'redoing the lawns due to excessive rains' and thus the Starlight Hui or outdoor films were not being done the week we went, and I was bummed about that.
We stayed in room 271 in the Ewa wing, and is right off the elevator and very convenient, but the garden view at that level was at tree height so not a lot of view. We had bought some food at Target, so many breakfasts and a few lunches were a lot cheaper. We found that the Ula cafe on site was reasonable, and we could eat there or bring the food back to our room. They had $18 pizzas (comparable to what we pay for a large in California), $12 breakfasts that easily fed two people (scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, french toast and potatoes), and a dinner main entree and hot sandwich that changed everyday. The french dip was very good. Alcoholic drinks are very expensive ($12 with a $5 upcharge for better liquors).
We ate at the Ama Ama once, and the view of the sunset is spectacular, although the food was so/so. We went across the street to the Monkeypod twice and enjoyed that, and I would go to the Coffee House every morning to get my wife an iced coffee. The Taco place in that same plaza was ok, but nothing special. The market there has most items, and I picked up a number of shirts at reasonable prices.
Biggest Lesson
Not that there is ever a low season at Aulani, but the first week of December on weekdays is about as uncrowded as the Aulani gets. Unlike many trip reports I've read, there was no competition for chairs, dining, and you could sign up children for events during the day without lining up early in the morning. So if you are willing to take your kids out of school during this time period, I'd highly recommend it since it makes for a very pleasurable and relaxing stay at the Aulani.
