She's Saying Aloha, an April 2022 Oahu and Aulani Trip Report (Completed 7/7)

[FrannyFrogs]

A question for Allie: if we try one flavor of canned boba tea, which does she recommend?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

A question for Allie: if we try one flavor of canned boba tea, which does she recommend?

We asked her, and after much reflection she recommended the plain milk tea, which is the white can, for someone to try first. They are all good though. Melissa and I liked the Taro flavor best, and Allie loves the Green Tea, but they are all yummy, and pretty similar. Give one a try and let her know what you think.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

On Sunday, I woke up early and took the camera out to do some exploring.





I was determined to find the secret beach just North of Aulani that we had heard about, and then to head South along the shoreline to check out the other resorts. It was a nice morning walk, and I got to take some fun pictures.





In all honesty he was scouting drone flying locations for later.

Very true... It took about 20 minutes to walk to the furthest South lagoon, walking past a few large timeshare resorts, each with a lagoon similar to Aulani's.





There was a big walking path running alogn the shoreline, and lots of joggers and people out enjoying the morning.


There was even a beachfront Yoga class going on at one of the other resorts.

I’m sure that was fun to observe. I was in bed, not doing sunrise yoga.

Once I made my way back to the room, I picked up Marshall and we headed down to see about signing up for activities at 8:00. We wanted to build our own mouse ears and take Ukelele lessons, which are offered on a first come first served basis with signups starting at 8:00. I expected there to be a bit of a line, but there was only one person ahead of us when we got there at five minutes till 8.


We soon were able to sign up for the things we wanted at convenient times, but for the mouse ears we had to make all the selections of what we would decorate the ears with right then, so they could make pre-prepared bags with our decorations in them.


He then started texting me asking what we wanted to pick as far as flowers and trinkets and things. Allie and I were just about ready so we just boogied out the door and headed downstairs so he didn’t have to make any more decisions for us.


I had no idea how many decisions would be involved, and it soon became clear that I could use some in-person decisions.

They made it down and picked out their decorations for our decorating session which would be at 10:00, after our breakfast...

The timing was perfect. We had a little bit of time before we had to check in for breakfast so we walked around and saw the Stitch statue. He was so cute.




We just looped through the courtyard a little bit, and enjoyed the scenery. We even found a Hidden Mickey on a lizzard! Talk about detail.


Lol he was a super cute little gecko.

Soon it was time to check in for breakfast, so we walked over and gave them our name. We had reserved this months ahead of time, and fortunately we were on the list since they were fully booked. The meal started by taking pictures with Mickey, then we waited to be seated in the restaurant.



It was so fun to take character pictures again! I wasn’t sure what the character experience would be, again I did no research, but it was so nice to take a picture with Mickey.

It was fun. We got to take a few different pictures with us and the kids. Mickey was even excited to see Melissa's Minnie Mouse earrings that she had gotten online.


As soon as I saw them I knew I needed them for this trip. I got so many compliments on them.

After saying Hi to Mickey we waited just a little bit for our table. We got to take pictures with Goofy on the way to the table.


They did a neat thing with the buffet area, where Goofy was behind the glass playing as a chef. It was hilarious to watch, and was a perfect adaptation.

It made it better than a buffet in my opinion.

We ordered our breakfasts from the menu, and enjoyed the multi-course breakfast. It started with fruit plates and pastry baskets.



When we checked in the hostess asked if there were any food allergies, Marshall overheard and said YES, I’m allergic to blueberries. Normally, we don’t say anything or make a fuss, he’s not incredibly allergic, he just is more comfortable if he doesn’t eat them. Well being Disney she added it to our reservation so he got his own fruit plate sans blueberries and his own pastry basket because one of the muffins has blueberries in it. He loved the special attention.

Allie was a little bummed that she missed out on eating his blueberries, which is usually how we handle it.

All of the food was great, and the main course was really nice. I went with a pulled pork omelette, Allie had bacon and pancakes.




I ordered the cinnamon roll french toast and Marshall got Mickey waffles which included a red velvet Minnie waffle.



The food was so good, I had planned on sharing my breakfast but it was just too good.

I had a bite of yours, and it was super sweet, but I was full of pulled pork. It was a very filling meal.

While we were eating Minnie and Pluto came by, in classic character meal style.



The baby at the table behind us just loved Pluto, and was soooo excited to see him in person. It was really cute.


So adorable. Goofy didn’t have pictures to take about that time and started his “cooking” routine. Allie went over to watch and take video and got another picture with him solo.

They also brought the Mickey pictures to our table, and we decided we needed to buy them.



It was a comparatively small increase in the overall cost of the meal to have digital downlaods of all of the pictures they took.

We enjoyed the songs and napkin waving, and all had a great time.


It was such a fun breakfast. I HIGHLY recommend this during an Aulani stay.

It was an iconic must do at Aulani and I am so glad we reserved it. Check out the rest of our morning in the next update...

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Hmmm, I didn't know they have an upcharge for Mickey pictures. I thought that would have been built into the price of the character meal.

 

[figment52]

I LOVE the Minnie earrings!!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

It was fun. We got to take a few different pictures with us and the kids. Mickey was even excited to see Melissa's Minnie Mouse earrings that she had gotten online.

Your family looks so cute in the pictures. The outfits are very Hawaiian and Allie's earrings were perfect.

While we were eating Minnie and Pluto came by, in classic character meal style.

Allie is taller than Minnie!

It was such a fun breakfast. I HIGHLY recommend this during an Aulani stay.

It looks like it was a lot of fun. I can see why it is so popular.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hmmm, I didn't know they have an upcharge for Mickey pictures. I thought that would have been built into the price of the character meal.

Yeah, it is like many of the WDW character meals. Without PhotoPass, you don't get access to the pictures they take. You can still take your own ones, but theirs were good and all printed out, and it wasn't a terrible extra cost.

I LOVE the Minnie earrings!!!

Thanks, they were just perfect for the trip.

Your family looks so cute in the pictures. The outfits are very Hawaiian and Allie's earrings were perfect.

We did get kind f dressed up in the Hawaiian theme, and we like the pictures too. It was fun to get into the theme.

Allie is taller than Minnie!

Yeah, she's getting so big! We just keep feeding her so I guess that's what happens.

It looks like it was a lot of fun. I can see why it is so popular.

It was a very well done character meal, with far better food than most character meals at WDW (like Chef Mickey's...) It was also kind of the only show in town at Aulani, since it was the only table service restaurant that was open during our stay. We felt it would have been nice to have a non-character TS restaurant as well, something like Whispering Canyon or Kona Cafe, but this was it for sit down Disney Dining. No wonder it was always packed and a tough reservation to get. At least it was a very enjoyable meal.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yeah, it is like many of the WDW character meals. Without PhotoPass, you don't get access to the pictures they take. You can still take your own ones, but theirs were good and all printed out, and it wasn't a terrible extra cost.

Oh, I didn't know that. I had PhotoPass included in my annual pass during the past few years that I went to character meals, and I didn't realize there would have been an extra charge otherwise.

Glad you had a fun time at the character breakfast!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Oh, I didn't know that. I had PhotoPass included in my annual pass during the past few years that I went to character meals, and I didn't realize there would have been an extra charge otherwise.

Glad you had a fun time at the character breakfast!

Yeah, it would have been nicer to have photos included, but we are glad we bought them. It's all part of the total cost in the end.

We really loved the meal, and it was the best character meal we've had in a long time, although it feels like with COVID it has been a long time since any character meal for us.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

After we left the restaurant from breakfast, we had some time so we went back through the courtyard. As we walked by the Koi pond they were feeding the fish, and let the kids each have some food and join in on feeding them.



They both really enjoyed it.

It was a fun surprise and the fish were enjoying their breakfast.

After that we had enough time for everyone to head over to the secret beach.




It was a nice easy walk, with only a few steps off of the paved walkway on the North side of the Four Seasons. We didn't get to see any sea turtles, but the waves were neat and the kids liked the beach.



There were quite a few other people out exploring it too.

There was a marine wildlife volunteer out there too to count turtles if they were there, apperantly there had been monk seals on the beach earlier in the day but we managed to miss the big wildlife.


We had fun watching the crabs on the rocks though.


The kids even practiced their crab walks.


Then we headed back to the resort because it was time to decorate some custom Mickey Ears.


They had everything ready for us at a table and the turned us loose with cordless hot glue guns and all of the supplies we had picked out earlier.


Both kids and Melissa made ears, and I helped Marshall with his. He chose to completely fill in the ears with greenery, which was a structural challenge but we got into it.



It was a neat activity for all of us, and resulted in a set of very custom (although not super robust) souveniers.



I think mine ended up being the strongest of the three but I used like 6 sticks of glue. It was such a fun activity though and I can’t wait to wear mine at WDW next trip.


We spent the full time alloted, which was 45 minutes. The nice CMs kept us aware of the time, while trying not to rush us buit making sure we would finish in time.

It was no pressure, pressured. Lol

Once we were done, and ushered out the door, we went up to the room to get ready for some more swimming.


We had found another pool that we wanted to visit, and the kids wanted to do each of the slides again.

We headed down to the pool with just the essentials so we didn’t have to find a chair to plop our stuff. There are cubby holes around the courtyard for this which we found and made it really nice because by the time we got down there it was really hard to find a spot.

We started with the lazy river again, getting tubes as people were getting off, which we rode around to get in line for the tube slide.



I went down with Marshall this time and we kinda got stuck at the top of the slide.


Slightly embarassing but I don’t think I’ll see any of those people again.

Lol yeah, and I didn't get any pictures. Next up the kids wanted to do the body slide again, so they each did it again. Marshall enjoyed the slide, but kind of forgot to swim at the end of it this time, and I went in to get him.

The lifeguard also hit the water and was a perfect example of why we love swimming in Disney pools so much. He’s such a good little swimmer but you just never know. Sometimes they just forget what to do.

He was fine though and luckily it didn’t scare him too much.

It can be an overwhelming slide exit, even as an adult.

True neither one of us decided to do it again.

After that, we went over to the pool with the infinity edge, which overlooks the beach lagoon.


I couldn't believe I had missed it the day before, but it wound up being my favorite pool area at the resort. I love how it looked like it tied right in to the ocean, despite being 20ft or so higher in elevation.




It was a fun place to hang out and the kids enjoyed swimming there for a bit.


COLOR="RoyalBlue"]I played with the underwater camera and the iphone in a waterproof case and got some fun shots.




[/COLOR]Eventually we got hungry and wandered off in search of food. We started with Shave Ice but then found Mama’s Snack Shop was right next door so we decided to get some acutal food too.



Melissa made it through the food line quicker than I did the shave ice, but soon we met up and sat with both food and dessert. It was a nice lunch, although not an inexpensive one.


I ordered one of each thing that they had, one chicken, one fish, and one shrimp for us all to share.


I brought the shave ice, which we did without ears this time, but we all enjoyed it.

After lunch we headed up to the room to dry off and change in time for ukelele lessons.

[/B]Once we went up to the room and put dry clothes on, it was time to head back downstairs to the activity room for our Ukulele lesson we had signed up for.


Marshall was not excited for this activity. He said he didn’t want anyone telling him how to play his ukulele.

Yeah, it was funny because he wanted the ukele so much, we thought he'd be into it. We still convinced him to go and play along, and the rest of us were curious to see if we'd learn something.

The lessons were very well done, and they provided a ukulele for each of us, along with an enthusiastic CM instructor.


It was so much fun and they did a good job of teaching us non music people how to play a little bit. Allie really enjoyed it alot, so much so that she talked us into buying her a real ukulele after the class. They very convieniently offer 4 different styles for purchase after class.

We anticipated this, but weren't sure how expensive they would be. By offering four levels they kept the cost reasonable, from about $30 to "if you have to ask you can't afford it." Allie got the second cheapest one, and it was nice and a little more substantial than the ABC store one Marshall had purchased.


They even tuned it for her which made the whole purchase easier on the ears.

Lol yes. After that, we felt we had covered plenty of Aulani activities but wanted to go explore beyond Aulani a bit more. Check out that fun in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

From the kois' point of view, maybe the kids were the characters at the fishes' character breakfast!

Was there an option to make your mouse ears light up?

Did Marshall want to bring his own ukulele to the lesson?

Have either of the kids played their ukulele much since returning from the trip?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

From the kois' point of view, maybe the kids were the characters at the fishes' character breakfast!

Lol, there you go! They probably enjoyed the variety of strange characters feeding them their food.

Was there an option to make your mouse ears light up?

Yes, that was one of the initial decisions, since the light up ones were like $5 or $10 more. The kids chose light up ones but Melissa went with standard ones.

Did Marshall want to bring his own ukulele to the lesson?

He chose not to bring his own, although one of the other people in our class did that. We didn't want to make the poor instructor deal with an ABC store ukulele.

Have either of the kids played their ukulele much since returning from the trip?

Marshall digs his out more frequently than we would have expected. He plays it for special occasions, like the unveiling of one of his new toy Top Gun jets... Allie hasn't played hers much, but she likes showing it to her friends.

 

[cgattis]

He plays it for special occasions, like the unveiling of one of his new toy Top Gun jets

I love it!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I think mine ended up being the strongest of the three but I used like 6 sticks of glue. It was such a fun activity though and I can’t wait to wear mine at WDW next trip.

It would be fun to wear the ears at WDW. You may even run into someone who recognizes the Aulani made ears.

There are cubby holes around the courtyard for this which we found and made it really nice because by the time we got down there it was really hard to find a spot.

They should put cubby holes at the WDW pools, especially Storm Along Bay. I frequently just jump into the pool for awhile and then leave, rather than lay around.

we went over to the pool with the infinity edge, which overlooks the beach lagoon.

That looks like a very relaxing place to hang out.

It was so much fun and they did a good job of teaching us non music people how to play a little bit. Allie really enjoyed it alot, so much so that she talked us into buying her a real ukulele after the class. They very conveniently offer 4 different styles for purchase after class.

That looks like fun. Did the lesson include sheet music or some other instruction sheet?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I love the ears! And i am a music person (as in my degree is in musical theatre and I have been singing and playing instruments since i was a small child), and am trying to teach myself the guitar and it is HARD! I recommend buying Allie and Marshall a tuner and a beginner ukulele book that explains the chords and fingering. YouTube also has some great ideas. I have a couple of friends who play Ukulele too and they have found some gorgeous hanging macrame wall mounts holders for them.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I love it!

He is a source of amusement...

It would be fun to wear the ears at WDW. You may even run into someone who recognizes the Aulani made ears.

That is our plan. It would be cool if someone recognizes them.

They should put cubby holes at the WDW pools, especially Storm Along Bay. I frequently just jump into the pool for awhile and then leave, rather than lay around.

It seems like a great idea, since we often just need a place to set our stuff while we swim and very rarely sit around the pool.

That looks like a very relaxing place to hang out.

I think it is my new favorite pool. I just love how it has the ocean view and yet is above and separate from the beach. It also has a shaded cave area that is nice too.

That looks like fun. Did the lesson include sheet music or some other instruction sheet?

They gave us note cards showing the finger positions for the different chords. We got to keep one set of the cards per family, but they are nice and easy.

I love the ears! And i am a music person (as in my degree is in musical theatre and I have been singing and playing instruments since i was a small child), and am trying to teach myself the guitar and it is HARD! I recommend buying Allie and Marshall a tuner and a beginner ukulele book that explains the chords and fingering. YouTube also has some great ideas. I have a couple of friends who play Ukulele too and they have found some gorgeous hanging macrame wall mounts holders for them.

Thanks, that is good advice. Guitars (and therefore Ukuleles) are just different from so many other instruments. I don't know if they have the desire to put a lot of time into it, but if nothing else they have a unique souvenir from Hawaii. The wall mounts might be neat for them...

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

He is a source of amusement...


That is our plan. It would be cool if someone recognizes them.


It seems like a great idea, since we often just need a place to set our stuff while we swim and very rarely sit around the pool.


I think it is my new favorite pool. I just love how it has the ocean view and yet is above and separate from the beach. It also has a shaded cave area that is nice too.


They gave us note cards showing the finger positions for the different chords. We got to keep one set of the cards per family, but they are nice and easy.


Thanks, that is good advice. Guitars (and therefore Ukuleles) are just different from so many other instruments. I don't know if they have the desire to put a lot of time into it, but if nothing else they have a unique souvenir from Hawaii. The wall mounts might be neat for them...

Definitely!
And I only found out about the hanging macrame wall mounts because I run the secret Santa for my theatre company and because we did it virtual again this year, I have to know where stuff is being sent and I got curious lol. Very well made too according to the recipient

 

[HairyChest]

Loving the trip report! Im planning a 4 day trip to Oahu (staying at Aulani). What would be the must do as far as seeing the most beautiful part of the island? I can only do a couple things since it’s a short trip. Thanks!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Definitely!
And I only found out about the hanging macrame wall mounts because I run the secret Santa for my theatre company and because we did it virtual again this year, I have to know where stuff is being sent and I got curious lol. Very well made too according to the recipient

Nice sleuthing, and you found a cool thing!

Loving the trip report! Im planning a 4 day trip to Oahu (staying at Aulani). What would be the must do as far as seeing the most beautiful part of the island? I can only do a couple things since it’s a short trip. Thanks!

That sounds like fun. We all agree that the most beautiful trip is the drive from Aulani over the mountain to Lanikai, and then experiencing the beach at Lanikai. It is just beautiful. Part of what we loved about Oahu was the variety of terrain, and that little trip shows a lot of it, and a spectacular beach.

 

[Sydnerella]

Nice sleuthing, and you found a cool thing!


That sounds like fun. We all agree that the most beautiful trip is the drive from Aulani over the mountain to Lanikai, and then experiencing the beach at Lanikai. It is just beautiful. Part of what we loved about Oahu was the variety of terrain, and that little trip shows a lot of it, and a spectacular beach.

Is that taking the H3 the whole way or going along Pali Hwy/61 as you get closer to Lanikai?