Ok time to finish my resort report
but I don't think that I have a lot more to say, since all of the excitement pretty much happened the first day or two. LOL
I've already commented on check-in, the room, our pool experience, and housekeeping. What else...
"Wishes" from the concierge lounge:
Oh yeah, I will say that we finally got to view "Wishes" from the concierge lounge and we left to go out to the beach after the first minute or two. They did dim the lights in the seating area of the lounge, but they left the back lights on over where the food is set up and in the stairways (which I fully understand!) but this caused a glare on the inside of the huge windows and we knew we'd have a better view from outside. Also, they did pipe the soundtrack from the fireworks into the lounge, but the tv in the children's seating area was blasting and it really drowned out the sound. One man got up to see if he could turn down or turn off the tv, and he tried for a minute or so, but then gave up when he didn't find any control buttons. Anyway, that was a slight disappointment but not a big deal at all. Watching it through the windows felt sort of like watching it on tv and I thought to myself "What the heck! I'm HERE at Disney World, I'm going to the beach and see them "live"".
We had already seen them from inside the MK and also from the beach a couple of nights as well.
Torch-lighting Ceremony:
We never did make it to the front of the resort to see the torch-lighting ceremony. Maybe next time?!
Music Around the Resort:
We definitely heard Hawaiian music being played from the speakers all around the resort. We heard while walking back and forth between the Hawaii building and the Great Ceremonial House, and also while walking to the TTC, as well as other areas. We also heard the Wishes soundtrack being played from the speakers in front of the Hawaii building, in the area between the Hawaii building and the pool, and over on the beach in front of the pool bar area.
CMs around the resort:
I don't know if it was just me or what, but everyone seemed extra-friendly on this trip! I truly had not heard quite as many "Aloha!"s on past trips, as I had on this trip. The CMs in the Polynesian shops and restaurants all were very friendly as well. Then again, I was in such great spirits just to be at Disney World that when a CM would ask me how I was today I'd say "I am AWESOME, how are you??" and I'd look to see where they're from (their tags list their name and hometown) and I saw so many from the general area that I grew up in, and even from where I live now that I struck up a lot of conversations with CMs on this trip. MOST of them really are very nice people.
Check-Out:
On our last morning I called the concierge desk to request late check-out for our room and our aunt's room. The CM told me that only our room was available for late check-out so we had our aunt bring her luggage and leave it in our room. Our final room-charge statements were hanging on our door knobs that morning and we looked them over and saw no errors, so we were able to do "Express Check-out" which means that we didn't have to go to the desk to check out. Also, one of the concierge CMs printed our boarding passes for us, which was nice, and is also available through bell services if you're using Magical Express. (I believe they may also do it for you even if you're not using ME, but I'm not sure!)
I really can't think of anything else, regarding the actual resort. The place looked great, as always. It looked cleaner than I'd ever seen it before (the parks also looked cleaner than ever and even our aunt commented on how clean it was). If anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to answer
There would be early buses from AKL for the character breakfasts at MK which start at 7:30 I think. The trick would be if they return to AKL or switch to another route. And also how early you would need to be at MK to catch one as the resort monorail doesn't start until 7am. A couple of transportation CMs post on the Transportation board from time to time. Perhaps adodson could get a more definitive answer there.
Out of all of my trips I could count on one hand how many seemed generally just beyond any help of pixie dust but in general the CMs love what they do and love spreading magic. 
Have a super magical vacation!!!! 
