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

[GrandCalifornian]

Hi Everyone! We’re ready to kick off something a little different.


We just got back from our first ever trip to Hawaii, and yes we checked out Aulani, so you have that to look forward to, but first we have a few days at a different resort in Waikiki.


It was an amazing trip, and we can’t wait to share it with everyone!

We decided to cover all of it, because the things we did could be done from Aulani as well, and it all came together to make one awesome trip.

We gotta start with the why we went to Hawaii in the first place I think. It’s been somewhere that’s been on my list to visit but Paul was never really interested.

t just wasn’t anything I really wanted to do when we could go to Disney instead. Aulani had appeal, but I didn’t want to spend our points on it instead of a WDW trip.

So I convinced my bestie that she needed to get married in Hawaii.

And since she runs the office with Melissa I volunteered to stay home and help at work. Since that wouldn’t be a fun family vacation though she lured me onto the trip by renting points for Aulani so we got to experience it in addition to WDW this year.

I also had to rent a Jeep for the whole trip and book an ATV tour.

Those were just extras that made it so neat once we all were going. I did absolutely love the Jeep though, but we’ll get to that.

So lets get into the who what when where’s...

In case you don't know us, I’m Paul a 42 year old Mechanical Engineer and aspiring elevator mechanic, and just like for our WDW trip reports I’ll be writing in blue.


I’m Melissa, I do all sorts of things at the elevator company and am mom to our two amazing kiddos. I’ll be in orange.


This is Allie, she’s 12 and in 6th grade! She was super excited about this trip and had a LOT of fun.


And this is Marshall, our now six year old son who is very active and up for about anything. He would argue that he is actually the bride’s best friend, since they spend a lot of time together at work.


We’ve got a couple of extra characters we should briefly introduce because they’ll make an appearance early in this report. First off is Kathy and Greg, the newlyweds.


Kathy has worked for me for several years now and is my right hand at work and best friend out of work. She’s amazing and I’m so happy she has such a sweet guy as her husband.

Also joining in were Melissa’s Aunt Lorie and Uncle Steve.


Lorie is the CFO of the elevator business and works closely with Kathy and Melissa and was in on the planning as well. Steve is a cool guy and a private pilot who got to take a week off to join in.

Kathy and Greg also had their families and friends there so you’ll see a sprinkling of them too.

Now with The Who and Why’s covered, let’s get to the “Where”. The wedding was based from the Hyatt Place hotel near Waikiki on Oahu.


We figured that despite being on the same island, we didn’t want to have to commute from Aulani for the wedding so we started our trip staying at the Hyatt. This was a practical decision for the wedding, but actually wound up being a neat pairing with Aulani.

We flew in on April 26th and then moved to Aulani on the 29th and then flew home on the May 2nd.

It was a very busy 6 days but we were able to do a lot of cool stuff which we’ll share here.

Join us as we explore Hawaii for the first time.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Table of Contents:
Flight West and Arrival Morning
Waikiki Beach Afternoon
A Wedding on The Beach
Exploring Oahu and an Evening Luau Reception
Morning Island Exploration From Waikiki
Lanikai Beach and following the Southern Shoreline
Morning Drone Flights and Aulani Arrival
North Shore Exploration and Kualoa ATV Tour
Home to Aulani After Dinner and Shopping
A Morning spent Exploring the waters of Aulani
Shopping, Monkey Pod Lunch, and a Trip North
Sunset Drone Flight, and Aulani at Night
Morning Beach Exploration and Dining with Characters
Mid-Day Aulani Activities
Pearl Harbor Area Exploration
Departure Morning Drone Flight
Wrap Up and Summary



Prior Reports:
She's free before she's three, touring the world with a toddler: September 2012 Trip Report
She turned 3, but the DDP's Free, a WL Bounceback PTR: September 2013
She's a Princess, a Superhero, and a Rockstar -a September 2013 Trip Report
She's Turning Five at Disney World - a September 2014 PTR
She's Five at Riverside - September 2014 Trip Report
She's Going to Show Him The World - September 2016 PTR
She's a Big Sister and an Expedition Leader: A September 2016 TR
She's Sleeping on the Top Bunk: An August 2017 WL TR with a Party of 10
She's Staying DVC, a September 2018 PTR
She's On Top of The World, a September 2018 TR at Copper Creek Villas and Cabins
She's Going Back to Back, a September 2019 and February 2020 PTR
She Dodged a Hurricane, Skipped School, and Adopted a Porg, A September 2019 TR
She's a Disney Adult and Feeling Artsy, a February 2020 TR
She's Masking Up and Taking on The World, a Jan 2021 PTR
She's Collecting Castles and Staying at Copper Creek, a Jan 2021 TR
She's Surprised to be back to Disney World, a May 2021 Yacht Club Girl's Trip
She's Adding all the Extras, a January 2022 BCV / WL Split Stay Trip Report

 

[GrandCalifornian]

So let’s kick this off!

We started the trip very much like our WDW trips, by getting up at 3AM and driving to LAX, which is about a two hour drive from home.


There’s prepaid parking now for the structures at the terminals and it saved quite a bit so I was excited to know that we had a spot in a good structure near the Tom Bradley International Terminal that we were flying out of.

t sounded so great, until we arrived and found that access to the parking structure we had reserved was closed off.


Like cones and barricades and everything.

There was a sign that said this one lane was for prepaid reservations, so we wound up moving some cones and pulling in. That didn’t work well, as we had a construction guy tell us that section was closed.

He said we had to go upstairs to the closed gates and call to have them let us in. First though we had to back out into traffic. Oh the joys of LAX.

It was so incredibly frustrating. When we went around the loop and got upstairs we had to move cones there too! But we were able to get into the structure and find a spot. That was way more stressful than it should have been.

Fortunately we left early and we’re able to accommodate the 45 minutes it took to get parked. We then headed to TSA, where we again had pre check and went right through.

We were flying Hawaiian for the first time and had no idea how long the walk was out to the gate. I bet it was over a mile out there, up and down multiple escalators and we even got a ride on a little cart thing.



They added a new terminal as an extension to an old terminal and basically added a long underground walkway to get out to the additional terminal building. The little cart was cool though, especially since the moving walkway was not working.

We finally made it to the gate with a little time to spare, not as much as we normally like but enough for Paul to go find some breakfast and Diet Coke to keep us going.


We wanted some breakfast food, but settled for a couple of pastries and the cokes. Then it was time to board and we were on our way, this time headed West.

Our flight was fantastically uneventful.


I got some photo editing done from a wedding we photographed the weekend before and Paul got to sit next to Marshall for the first time on a flight.


The plane was a dual aisle wide body, with two seats on the outer side of each row, so we had window and aisle seats on two rows, one in front of the other. Marshall was a fun traveling buddy and we got to play Hot Wheels together.



We landed shortly after 11 AM, and noticed that some other passengers had brought their own lifevests, so they were ready for life on the island.


We then headed to pick up our rental car. Like Melissa mentioned, we had reserved a Jeep which made me way more excited about the trip. Alamo did a perfect job, and had our reservation and let us pick our choice of colors from a group of Jeeps.


We settled on a red one for the trip and everyone fell in love with it.


Paul has been shopping for one since we got home.

Yeah, it’s on my bucket list.


We loaded up the Jeep and headed for the hotel.



We hopped on the freeway and accelerated right past the 35 mph speed limit. Yep, they have a four lane freeway with a lower speed limit than our two lane road in front of our house.

That was quite the culture shock for us Californians. We immediatley soaked up the scenery, Oahu is beautiful.

We had heard there was a parking lot across the street from our hotel with $30 a night rates, so we parked there and walked across. We were able to check in to our room early, and got a nice sized room on the 8th floor with a view of the parking garage, which was fine with me and what we had paid for.


We dropped all our stuff off and went in search of lunch. We checked the map and were pretty surprised at how close we were to the beach.


I’m not sure what I thought but I sure didn’t think we’d be that close.

I searched for lunch spots, and found that Cheeseburger in Paradise was a short walk away. We headed over there and we’re wowed by the view of the beach on Waikiki. It is literally just like you see in the post cards.



It was a great place for our first lunch. I ordered the Hawaiian Burger, Allie got a poke bowl.



I got the BBQ bacon burger, and Marshall got corn dogs.


It was a great welcome to Hawaii, with open walls and a nice beach breeze going through the restaurant.

The food was great and I would highly recommend it as a lunch spot in Waikiki

It would be about a 40 minute drive from Aulani, but worth it to come down and see Waikiki.

Check out the rest of our arrival day in the next update.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

Looking forward to the rest of your TRs - hope you have a fantastic time!

You probably have lots of recommendations and plans already. As a former local, I would say make sure you go to Leanards Bakery on Kapahulu for malasadas, and Waiola Shave Ice (they have one near Leonard’s, and another (better) on Waiola street across the canal from Waikiki. They’re always on my first day must do’s when I go back for visits.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Aloha!

 

[nascargirl]

Awesome start to your report. It is getting me excited for our upcoming trip the end of May. First off, back to Florida for a graduation and of course visiting the Happy Place on Earth,

 

[Wood Nymph]

Your airport arrival sounds like a nightmare. The parking lot should have been accessible, especially for prepaid parkers. And the long trip to the gate must have been a bit frustrating, too.

We had a widebody jet for one of our Hawaii trips. I like the larger jets on the long flights. There is more room to move around.

How long was your flight?

we had reserved a Jeep which made me way more excited about the trip

We loved the Jeeps in Hawaii. They were a lot of fun.

We dropped all our stuff off and went in search of lunch. We checked the map and were pretty surprised at how close we were to the beach.

The Hyatt looks like a gorgeous hotel. It is a little crazy how the beach is across the street from the hotels, though.

 

[DLo]

Popping over from your latest WDW TR . Can’t wait to read more.

 

[FrannyFrogs]

Following! We're huge WDW/DL fans taking our first trip to HI next month!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Looking forward to the rest of your TRs - hope you have a fantastic time!

You probably have lots of recommendations and plans already. As a former local, I would say make sure you go to Leanards Bakery on Kapahulu for malasadas, and Waiola Shave Ice (they have one near Leonard’s, and another (better) on Waiola street across the canal from Waikiki. They’re always on my first day must do’s when I go back for visits.

Thanks for joining in. We saw the long lines outside Leonard's Bakery and wondered what they were for. We will have to check out Wailoa's at some point in the future, since we definitely plan on going back.

Aloha!

Aloha to you too, and welcome to another one of our trip reports.

Awesome start to your report. It is getting me excited for our upcoming trip the end of May. First off, back to Florida for a graduation and of course visiting the Happy Place on Earth,

Thanks! Sounds like you have some fun coming up, with a Florida trip and then relaxation time in Hawaii.

Your airport arrival sounds like a nightmare. The parking lot should have been accessible, especially for prepaid parkers. And the long trip to the gate must have been a bit frustrating, too.

Parking was a mess, and the parking company seemed to have no idea their access to the lot they sold was closed off. They sent an e-mail that morning telling us exactly where to go, which was not possible.

We had a widebody jet for one of our Hawaii trips. I like the larger jets on the long flights. There is more room to move around.

How long was your flight?

It was our first time on one with the kids, and we liked not having a middle seat to deal with, so we each had an aisle or window seat. The flight was about 5 and a half hours, so it was pretty similar to a WDW flight for us.

We loved the Jeeps in Hawaii. They were a lot of fun.

They are definitely a popular rental car option there, along with convertible Camaros and Mustangs. We were surprised that ours was 4wd, although we don't imagine it does much serious off-roading. It was the perfect vehicle for the trip, and would be nice to have at home too...

The Hyatt looks like a gorgeous hotel. It is a little crazy how the beach is across the street from the hotels, though.

The Hyatt place was a nice hotel near a gorgeous location. It was not as fancy as the Hyatt Regency down the street or the hotels just across the street from the beach, but it was still nice and a little bit cheaper. The walk to the beach was super short, and it worked out great for us. We kind of liked having the hotels be across the street from the beach, since then the beach is more open to everyone. At Aulani each resort in the area has their "own" beach areas between the ocean and the hotel, bit it is more secluded than the big long beach in Waikiki. Both had their advantages, but there was something special about Waikiki.

Popping over from your latest WDW TR . Can’t wait to read more.

Welcome! We are excited to share something new and different for us.

Following! We're huge WDW/DL fans taking our first trip to HI next month!

Very cool, welcome. We were in the same boat having never been to Hawaii but loving WDW and DL. We have lots to share but overall we were very happy with our Hawaii trip. Similar to WDW, there is just so much to see and do that you can't plan on getting to all of it and still having a relaxing time, but whatever you do make it to will be a lot of fun. We loved having the Jeep for the whole trip, and one of our favorite things to do was to go explore the more remote areas of the island. Where are you staying for your trip? We liked how Oahu is small enough to get places fairly quickly, but big enough to have a whole lot to see.

 

[pinkxray]

I can’t wait to read your report! I love all of your trip reports and get ideas for future trips when I read them.

We were just at Aulani for 8 nights last month too. LOVED it! We are from CT so flights are over 10hrs non stop from JFK but I am hoping to do it all over again in 2 years.

While at Aulani I told Dh I would try to save some points on our next WDW trip to bank for Aulani in 2024, but I am having the same issue you guys did. I don’t really want to miss WDW so will either need more DVC points or will just rent for Aulani

The Jeep looks fun!

-Diane

 

[cgattis]

Just jumping in to say I LOVE your he said/she said format! Fun!! I’ll be following along!

 

[Flossbolna]

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in 2019 and really liked it, too. It’s a great compromise between location, amenities and price. And my mother in law claimed to have had the best bacon at a free hotel breakfast ever.

Looking forward to read more about your trip!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I can’t wait to read your report! I love all of your trip reports and get ideas for future trips when I read them.

We were just at Aulani for 8 nights last month too. LOVED it! We are from CT so flights are over 10hrs non stop from JFK but I am hoping to do it all over again in 2 years.

While at Aulani I told Dh I would try to save some points on our next WDW trip to bank for Aulani in 2024, but I am having the same issue you guys did. I don’t really want to miss WDW so will either need more DVC points or will just rent for Aulani

The Jeep looks fun!

-Diane

Thanks so much! We are always amazed that people enjoy following along on our trips. We did really have reservations (and still do) about spending WDW points at Aulani. It is nice to have the flexibility to do so, but for us renting points for Aulani worked out great. It was easy to get the room we wanted at under 7 months out, and we got to try it without directly skipping WDW. Now that we have done it once, we'd all be more open to doing it again too.
The Jeep was the perfect Hawaii rental car, but the worst part of the trip was having to give it back. I am still trying to get one for home...

Just jumping in to say I LOVE your he said/she said format! Fun!! I’ll be following along!

Thanks, and welcome. We came upon this way of writing back when we wanted to both talk about our first WDW trip when Allie was two. It has worked out really well for us, because we both have things to say.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in 2019 and really liked it, too. It’s a great compromise between location, amenities and price. And my mother in law claimed to have had the best bacon at a free hotel breakfast ever.

Looking forward to read more about your trip!

Ahh, so you understand exactly what we mean about the Hyatt place. It is very close to an awesome location. It worked out very well for us for the price, and the only downside we saw was that the elevators in our tower were pretty slow. We unfortunately didn't experience the exceptional bacon, but it was a decent breakfast and did vary quite a bit from day to day.
We are looking forward to sharing all the fun we had.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

After lunch, we went across the street and explored the beach at Waikiki a bit more.



We let the kids wade out into the water a little and walked out on the pier, just really soaking it up. It was incredible.





It really is a much prettier beach than I expected. It was crowded, or at least there were a lot of other people there, but it was just neat to see in person.



After we introduced ourselves to the beach we had to head back to the hotel so Paul could go pick up Lorie and Steve from the airport. On the way we experienced an ABC Store for the first time.



We had noticed (since it was hard to miss) that there were these stores about every half block, so we went in to check it out. We were pleasanlty surprised to find that they were basically tourist focused convenience stores with a varitey of souveniers and beach necessities. The prices seemed to be quite good, at least better than we expected, or were used to at Disney gift shops.

Allie (who is mildly obsessed with boba) discovered that they sell boba teas in a can and then decided that she must collect them all.


nd by that she not only meant trying them all, but saving the cans. (More on that later...) The canned boba tea was surprisingly good, and became a Hawaii thing for her on our frequent stops by the ABC stores.

It gets comical, or tragic depending on your point of view, stay tuned.


After the ABC Store on the way back to the hotel we got a glimpse of the local wildlife including a potato on a stick that was on the wall next to the sidewalk.


Yep, it was a random potato, on a stick, on the bench. Whatever works...

Once we got back to the hotel, we found that Kathy was just about to arrive back from a day on the beach. Marshall was super excited to get to see her, since he had been deprived of her company for a few days.


The original plan was for me to stay with Allie while Paul took Marshall on the airport run but Kathy offered to watch the kids so Paul and I could go alone to pick up Lorie and Steve.


Either way I was going to get to drive the Jeep, so I was in. It was super nice of Kathy to spend some time on the day before her wedding hanging out with our kids. It was a fun "date" while we saw more of the island going the other direction up to the airport.

Let’s fast forward a little bit here because there wasn’t much going on after the airport trip and before dinner.

We went back up to the room for a bit, then all met downstairs a little later at the Domino's pizza that was in the lobby. This served as a nice meeting spot for everybody who had arrived for the wedding and was staying at a few different nearby hotels.


Kathy and Greg bought a bunch of pizzas, and we got to hang out and have pizza before we headed back down to the beach for sunset.

It made for a great “rehearsal dinner” without the rehearsal part.


We all walked down to the beach to hang out for a bit for the sunset. The kids enjoyed playing in the water.



Kathy even swam with them out to the break water. Marshall wasn't sure at first, but wound up really enjoying it. They were both really glad to be swimming in the ocean.



I got my feet wet but I’m more of a hot tub gal.


Yeah, I didn't go very far in, and it wasn't super cold, but I didn't feel the need to get all the way in.


Despite there being quite a few people on the beach it still felt so amazing to be on Waikiki Beach. I just hadn’t thought a whole lot about that concept before the trip and it was all kinda sinking in.


To me it felt like we were on the beach from a post card. It was really a destination beach, and was very pleasant overall. There were a lot of other tourists, probably more than I expected, but everyone was having a good time.


After we got our fill of the sunset before it got super dark we walked back to the hotel room.

I gave thought to making a trip out to a grocery store, but we heard the parking lot was full so I decided to just grab some water and Coke from the ABC store instead to not loose our spot.

We sent Allie over to Kathy’s room to spend the night with her and keep her company and Marshall was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

We stayed up a little bit longer and did some work, but we too were asleep shortly after 9PM, which was midnight at home...

Stay tuned for Kathy’s wedding day!

 

[alohamom]

We were pleasanlty surprised to find that they were basically tourist focused convenience stores with a varitey of souveniers and beach necessities. The prices seemed to be quite good, at least better than we expected, or were used to at Disney gift shops.

This is a perfect description of an ABC Store!

After the ABC Store on the way back to the hotel we got a glimpse of the local wildlife including a potato on a stick that was on the wall next to the sidewalk.

and here I thought I had seen it all in Hawaii!

 

[cgattis]

This is a perfect description of an ABC Store!




and here I thought I had seen it all in Hawaii!

IKR??! I thought the canned boba tea was going to be the weirdest thing in that post LOL

 

[Wood Nymph]

On the way we experienced an ABC Store for the first time.

The ABC stores are great. You can get food, clothes, souvenirs, etc and the prices aren't bad. I had a favorite Hawaiian canned tea that I loved and of course they sold it at the ABC stores.

I never knew that Waikiki beach had a breakwater, but I guess that is good for the swimmers. Does the beach have a section for surfers?

We love the Hawaiian sunsets and sunrises. They are really beautiful.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

This is a perfect description of an ABC Store!




and here I thought I had seen it all in Hawaii!

We really grew to like the ABC stores. We learned that they get you with quantity and frequency of visits, instead of having higher prices on fewer visits.

IKR??! I thought the canned boba tea was going to be the weirdest thing in that post LOL

We thought maybe it was a thing there…. It definitely was an afternoon of new things for us, including eating in at Dominos…

The ABC stores are great. You can get food, clothes, souvenirs, etc and the prices aren't bad. I had a favorite Hawaiian canned tea that I loved and of course they sold it at the ABC stores.

I never knew that Waikiki beach had a breakwater, but I guess that is good for the swimmers. Does the beach have a section for surfers?

We love the Hawaiian sunsets and sunrises. They are really beautiful.

They really have a lot of good stuff at the ABC stores, and Allie would love to have one of those teas now. We did find that they didn’t have the same tea at the ABC store by Aulani. Selection may vary.

The breakwater was a concrete wall down at the South end of the beach which was by our hotel and the pier. We could see the open beach and people surfing a little bit to the North.

Yes, the sunrises and sunsets are so beautiful there. Later on we made a point to get some nice sunset pics from further North.

 

[FrannyFrogs]

Your report is so informative! Now I'm excited to visit the ABC store lol.

We're staying a week on the Big Island and then a week at Aulani. I am looking forward to reading about the Aulani portion of your trip.