We also live in Florida and have been to Disney to many times to count. We are annual passholders and DVC. We have also been on over 20 Disney cruises over the last 10 years. We went to Aulani last summer for the first time not sure what to expect. Within days, we all knew it was where we wanted to spend our big vacation every year. We had the biggest adjustment coming back home to Florida. I swear I was depressed for weeks. Our trip from Aulani to the airport was like an eerie silence. From friends seeing my pictures on Facebook, we had 2 families join us this year. We had a blast. Sometimes we were all together and sometimes we split and sometimes we were just my daughter 13 and my husband and I. We had 12 days of the best vacation ever.
We had a rental car the entire time although we didn't really use it all that much. The 2 other families had gotten there a few days before us so they were ready to do some sightseeing. Our first day trip we kind of ate our way to the North Shore. We stopped at Dole Plantation, Matsumotos for shaved ice and Mackeys food truck for some awesome shrimp. We went to the beach with all the sea turtles and we searched for sea glass. By the time we got back to Aulani it was pretty late in the day. Our second day trip we drove to the other side of the island and stopped at Lanikea (or something like that) Beach. The most beautiful place I have ever seen. We then stopped at the blowhole and on to Hanauma Bay. Stayed there a few hours and then stopped at the Pali lookout on the way back. Another full day from Aulani. We went over to Paradise Cove lagoon and visited the sea turtles over there a few times as well. We also did the Paradise Cove Luau. We still had 5 days after our friends left so we decided to venture over to the Waikiki area since I was to afraid to do it last year. We made a stop at the big mall there. Can't think of the name at the moment. Maybe Ala Moa? Anyway, we wanted to go to the big
Disney store to get Hawaiian tsum tsums. We found lots of cute Hawaii Disney things there and by the time we left we had gone back twice to pick up more tsum tsums from everyone who had seen my post about the adorable Hawaiian Mickey & Minnie tsums. We hopped the trolley over to Waikiki Beach. It was so pretty but very touristy. The area reminded me of a Hawaiian NYC. Glad we went but was more glad I was staying at the much more relaxing Aulani. We talked about maybe staying there a night next trip.
We were not planning on going back summer of 2017 as it is so expensive flying from Florida but my 13 year old begged me to cancel our 7 day Fantasy cruise next spring to pay for the tickets. We absolutely fell in love with Aulani last summer but just make sure you give yourself enough time to totally enjoy. Last year we went for 10 days and this year 12. Both the other families only came for 8 days and both regretted when it was time to go.
