San Francisco, Waikiki, Aulani,LA & Disneyland! (Updated 8/20/15 with Aulani & lots of photos!)

[ShellB8585]

yey I found your TR! And i'm loving it naturally. We are still so glad you were able to go as you definitely deserve and needed this. Just seeing your photos you can see how happy and relaxed you are, definitely after the last time we saw you, It's clear this is doing you the world of good!

Your jet lag is making me a little nervous but i guess early starts (maybe not quite so early) and early nights wont be a bad thing for us - our main thing is we want to be up early for our Panama Canal crossing so if we're up early every day before that we either wont have a problem getting up OR will over sleep and miss the first locks!

Reading about San Francisco is making me want to go back desperately. For a little while now I had been wishing we had booked a few days there before heading down to Anaheim. I really loved it there but was in bed with a chest infection by about 3pm each day! at one point I was even looking at internal flights for a day trip It gives me another excuse to go back to Cali in the not too distant future

Now Hawaii has always been on my list of places to go, just wasn't sure when we might fit it in... I might have to try and persuade grumps sooner rather than later as it looks fantastic! (although I expect it still wont be for some time as he wants to go to South Africa for his 30th which will drain my vacation bank for a while!)

I love this picture of the boys!It's so natural and they look like the best friends on Earth (which means they are probably plotting something!!) I might even print it of for my Ohana wall.

I also love this picture of Steve. I know the last few weeks were hard going for all of you but I think this is one of the many photos that epitomize how important this holiday was - carefree and genuinely happy! looking good in his boot

Belated to our favourite 8 year old!!

I'm sad the Hawaii portion is coming to an end but I cannot wait to read the next part of your grand adventure (especially your dining reviews as I still have time to change mine haha.)

Tell Mickey I'll see him soon!

 

[ShellB8585]

And you sneaked in another update whilst I was writing my reply!!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Hi Amy

Glad still enjoying and the cabana sounds fab especially the dessert platter

 

[wdrl]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! Thanks for posting so many photos. . . they are making homesick for Aulani.

A quick question: Does the Daily Iwa still include a weekly breakout of the events around the resort? When we last visited Aulani in October 2014, there was a supplement to the Daily Iwa that listed events for each day Sunday through Saturday. Someone recently posted that Aulani no longer offered advance notice of some events.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

And you sneaked in another update whilst I was writing my reply!!

Hiya

So lovely to hear from you!! Glad you are enjoying the report so far, I'm hoping to finish the Aulani portion tonight, as long as packing doesn't get in the way!

I'm not sure if ill get the chance to post the LA/Disneyland portion of the report before we return to the UK, as I know our plans are quite full on for the rest of the trip & we now lose three hours, which SHOULD mean, no more early morning for me - which is when ive been doing all of my report writing!

You might find you are fine with the jet lag - Steve has been fine. I think my problem is, that I'm an early to bed/early to rise type - no matter what time I go to bed in the UK, I always wake up early - and the same thing happened here!!

If I don't get chance to post the rest of the report before I get home - then I will get right on it as soon as I am back in the UK - I promise!!

I will say though, that sadly my camera stopped working unexplicably last night, so all of the photos from now on will be taken on the iPhone - so apologies if the quality isn't so good!

Hi Amy

Glad still enjoying and the cabana sounds fab especially the dessert platter

The dessert platter was yummy! Though we did miss our peaceful Ama Ama spot!

I'm really enjoying your trip report! Thanks for posting so many photos. . . they are making homesick for Aulani.

A quick question: Does the Daily Iwa still include a weekly breakout of the events around the resort? When we last visited Aulani in October 2014, there was a supplement to the Daily Iwa that listed events for each day Sunday through Saturday. Someone recently posted that Aulani no longer offered advance notice of some events.

Aulani has been truly wonderful - it was exactly what both Steve and I needed after the last couple of months of stress we've both had. We are leaving feeling as though we haven't seen half of it, but I do feel that we have found us! We both needed to unwind so badly, and Aulani has been the perfect place to do that.

I had been looking out for the weekly supplement, as I know there was a question mark over that here on the boards before we arrived, But I must say that I haven't seen one and ive been sure to collect my daily iwa each day. I could of course have missed it, but I've definitely not seen one in the usual spots.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Day fifteen - Saturday August 22nd:

Sadly this is our last day at Aulani!! This past seven days have actually flown by - don't they always seem to when you don't do very much?!

It was also time to say one last goodbye to 'our' casabellas. At $84.81 a day (inc DVC discount), we found them to be definitely worth it for the peace and quiet we received - our own little piece of paradise!

We knew that we had a big dinner planned this evening, but still couldn't resist our 'usual' breakfast in the casabella one last time!

Masaladas for Kai and I....

And cinnamon rolls for Lucas & Steve....

We were also hoping to say goodbye to this little guy....

As each day has gone on in the casabellas, he seems to have gotten to know us and is becoming braver and braver - we actually wanted to take him home with us, although I'm not sure he'd be too impressed with the British weather!! But today he was nowhere to be seen! At least that meant no emotional farewells!!

I'd promised myself that I would try out the rainbow reef today. I've never attempted snorkelling, as I'm not very keen on salt water. I attempted to use the boys snorkel in the Aulani lagoon on Thursday but as soon as I was out of my depth (surprisingly quickly I might add!), then I started to panic and realised I'm not a sea lover!! So this seemed like a safe compromise. The boys agreed to come with me (lucas also wasn't keen, but we agreed we should just try it once!) - well after a couple of practice attempts, I finally managed to overcome my fear and trust the snorkel - and Wow!, it was amazing!!! I felt so fantastic afterwards - it might seem a minor thing to most of you - but I felt like I'd really conquered a fear and it felt terrific!!

Steve opted to spend his last afternoon sunbathing, whilst the boys and I had one last spin around the lazy river, and Kai & I ended off our Aulani pool time with one last ride on the tube slide. After leaving the pool area and 'our' casabella for the very last time (sob!), we went back to the room to get freshened up for dinner. I had made reservations ages ago for our sunset dinner at Ama Ama and we were really looking forward to it.

I had reviewed the menus beforehand, and had concluded that the best thing was for us to order the set menu for two (chef selection of starters, chateaubriand and chocolate chantilly cake for dessert). There was very little that Kai fancied on the menu (as I suspected), so we opted to add a maui onion soup, and a couple of extra sides (mushrooms and soufflé potatoes), and then the three of us shared all of it. Lucas had the tomato soup and cheese/ham pizza from the kids menu.

The starters were interesting - three of the four chef selections involved fish (shrimp, lobster macaroni & tuna poke) and neither Steve or Kai particularly like fish. The fourth option was a duck flatbread. Steve and I both liked the flatbread & I liked the shrimp and lobster - but sadly no one was a fan of the poke.

However, the maui onion soup was a huge hit! All four of us could easily have eaten a bowl of this each!!

As for the main course - the chateaubriand was as succulent and tasty as we'd hoped, and the accompanying fingerling potatoes, carrots, broccoli and mushrooms were all really good. I hadn't realised that there were mushrooms with the main meal, so as I'm the only mushroom fan in the family, the side order was kind of a waste, and the soufflé potatoes really were something and nothing. They were basically very thin shell like chips - totally hollow inside - so they didn't really feel like you were eating anything!

The chantilly chocolate cake, with macadamia nut brittle and accompanying coffee flavoured gelato was really good, and we all enjoyed that.

All in all the meal was lovely - but we all thought the service we received the night before at Just Tacos was much better and all in all, we had a better night at the Mexican than at Ama Ama - but that could easily have been that we had had very low expectations of the Taco place, whereas we had been expecting a lot from Ama Ama.

One thing we couldn't fault was the view, and to end our last evening at Aulani with a gorgeous unobstructed view of the Hawaiian sunset was magical, and was worth the price of the meal alone.

We've had such an amazing, relaxing time here at Aulani, and all four of us are so very sad to be leaving. Thank you Hawaii for the wonderful memories - we've loved every minute!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Hi

Thank you for updating before you left

I am so hoping we feel the same about aulani

The last photo of the boys is fab and your sunset photo

Enjoy LA/disneyland. X

 

[franandaj]

I've enjoyed reading your report so far. I can't believe that you have kept up a live report so well on vacation. It must be all the relaxing. I'll be interested to hear about your Disneyland portion too!

 

[ShellB8585]

What a beautiful end to Hawaii. Really looking forward to the next portion though

Oh no with the camera! it's a shame its stopped working - I always find it a pain taking photographs with my iPhone and would be lost without a camera.

Enjoy the rest of your trip and can't wait to see more

 

[AydensMom]

Loving your trip report!
Been trying to convince the Hubby that we should go to Hawaii on our family vacation next year, unfortunately with the dollar it may not be an easy task to convince him

 

[heybets30]

What a great trip!! I'm excited to visit the Byodo-In Temple. How much time did you spend there? Just curious how your boys liked it too. Thanks!

 

[ShellB8585]

looking forward to the next installment....

 

[BlazerFan]

Thanks for the great TR. We visited Aulani in 2012 while the construction was going on and have a trip planned after Thanksgiving. We can't wait be back.

 

[mistynjas]

Thank you for sharing!