Trip Report--Family of 5 visits Aulani, Kauai, & Maui

[ErinF]

Great report. Looks like the weather was perfect. How were the crowds around the pools and lazy river? Did u have to wait in line long for the slides? Matt

The weather was definitely perfect! Hmmm, the crowds...I think it's definitely a subjective/attitude type of thing. I expected it to be pretty crowded and busy around all the pools, all the water features at Aulani are one of their main selling points. To me, it wasn't bad at all IN the pools and lazy river, which is important to me because it's where my family spent most of our time. The chairs/loungers do fill up fairly quickly, so if lounging by the pool is a priority, one must be out there on the early side. I think the longest we ever waited for the slide was 15 minutes. That's for the tube slide, which is the only one we did. The body slide line was always shorter than the tube slide line. There were definitely times we waited 5 minutes or less, most notably in the earlier morning hours and then late in the afternoon. If you're doing laps in the lazy river, it's easy to see how long the line is because you pass by right next to it.

We also saw several married couples, all of them Asian.

Yep, Aulani and the Ko Olina chapel seem like a top spot for weddings...and I can see why!!

Love the trip report! Very detailed and easy to follow. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your adventures!

Thanks! I've already pre-written much of it so I'll get to other adventures quickly.

Thanks for all the photos of the lagoon next the Aulani one.
I never thought of trying to snorkel there.
We have only tried in the Aulani and Marriott ones and both were not that great for snorkelling compared to other areas of the island and I had just assumed all the Ko Olina lagoons were similar.
From your pictures I can see the rocky outcropping that lies on the beach could be a great little section to explore
I will give it a try next time for sure!

Definitely give it a try. It may be all relative though, we hadn't snorkeled since the last Hawaii trip in 2006 so we were thrilled to see anything!

Thanks for your detailed trip reports! I’m in the midst of planning our Aulani/Maui trip for June 2020. Your reports are such a great help!

You're welcome! So fun to be planning for next summer, for me that's half the fun of the trip. Hope you have an amazing trip!!

 

[alohamom]

Definitely give it a try. It may be all relative though, we hadn't snorkeled since the last Hawaii trip in 2006 so we were thrilled to see anything!

LOL, I totally understand where you are coming from!

 

[ErinF]

Day 3—Tuesday, June 4th: full day at Aulani

Sam and I were up by 6 and everyone else by 6:45. Ty walked to Island Vintage Coffee again while I made breakfast for the rest of us. We were downstairs by 8 again ready to get our towels and wristbands. I wanted to sign up for a ukulele class, there were two classes scheduled for 10 and noon, but I made a critical error here in not making that a priority. I could see that a line was building outside the Pau Hana room where people were waiting for it to open at 8 to sign up. I chose to go ahead and go with my family to get towels and wristbands. By the time I got back to get in line inside the now opened Pau Hana room, I was at the end of a very long line. A few people were signing up for the t-shirt stamping that afternoon, but most everyone was getting on the list for ukulele. And the thing is you can put as many people on the list as you want, so one person can sign up their whole family. Therefore by the time they got to me, there was only one spot left in the noon class, and I’d been hoping to sign up both Sam and I. They do continue to take names for standby in case there are no-shows, so I got one of us on the regular list and one on the standby. I figured our chances were pretty good. But still, if this is a priority for you, get in line early.

While I was there in the Pau Hana room I asked about the schedule for characters for the day and they let me snap a photo of their sticky note. I know I’ve seen others saying you can do this rather than calling the character line.



I found my family at the lazy river. I think they had rope dropped the tube slide and were on their second lap in the river.





Sam wanted to do the tube slide again so he and I went down it. Then we did some more laps in the lazy river.





Next stop was the infinity pool. Some attempts at a family selfie in the infinity pool:







At least I got a good one of me and Ty!



We tried out the hot tub that connects to the infinity pool. It was really hot! But it felt good after a few minutes and then I didn’t want to get back out. It was torture to have to go from that back to the infinity pool, even though the pool water is generally pretty warm!



Continued in the next post…

 

[ErinF]

Day 3 Continued (Tuesday, June 4th: full day at Aulani)

Ty went back up the room to grab the snorkel gear and he and Katie left to go snorkeling. Mason wanted a break so he sat on a chair while Sam and I did the tube slide and lazy river again. There was a very brief little rain shower during this time, but it was really no big deal since we were in the water already. The boys and I rope dropped shave ice again, and this time we were first in line, yes!





Ty and Katie met back up with us then, and I grabbed some fries at Mama’s before heading back up to the room. We ate some lunch while watching them set up for the luau on the lawn.



Mmmm, leftover pizza with a great view!



At this point it was time to go down for the ukulele lesson. Well, Sam decided he didn’t want to go anymore. Ok, I wasn’t going to force it, it was probably more me that wanted to do it anyways, ha! I could have gone by myself, but decided to just lay low with the family for a bit and it was quite enjoyable just relaxing on the lanai for awhile.

I had been telling Ty about the little Paradise Cove beach to the north of Aulani, so he and I decided to walk over and check it out. We took the recommendations I’d seen here and walked on the sidewalk instead of trying to access it from the beach side. There were a handful of people and at least one turtle.







We walked back to the room and Katie decided she would like to go back over there with Ty to snorkel some. While they did that, the boys and I went down and did multiple trips around the lazy river. Can you tell that was a favorite of ours??!!



Sam and I did the tube slide one more time around 4pm because we noticed the line was really short. We all met up together at the big, main pool. This was our first time in it! Well, I actually didn’t get in, just Ty and the kids. While I was lounging there, the most interesting thing happened. Some Aulani CMs wheeled over a cart that had about 8 boxes of pizza on it and they started handing out slices to whoever wanted one. I went over and told Ty what was going on, so he hopped out and got a slice. I think Katie had one, too. Just a little bit of random Disney magic I guess!

We headed up to the room for showers and dinner. Now here’s a sort of hack I used. I had hoped to buy a salad kit for dinner that included dressing, but I couldn’t find one at the Island Country Market, so I just got a bag of mixed greens. I anticipated that might happen, so when we got chicken strips with fries at Mama’s (at lunch that day or the day before) I asked for 3 containers of ranch dressing. There was a sign saying they would give you up to 3 free with your meal. Katie likes ranch with chicken strips so she used 1 of them and I saved 2 for our salad. That made much more sense than buying a whole bottle of dressing that would mostly be thrown away.

During and after dinner, we watched the beginning of the luau from the lanai, mostly just people getting checked in and seated, the activities, and then the food stations opening up.





Continued in the next post…

 

[ErinF]

Day 3 Concluded (Tuesday, June 4th: full day at Aulani)

We then headed down to the beach for sunset pictures. The picture of all 5 of us is the only PhotoPass picture, the rest were taken with our iPhones.













After pictures we went to Ulu Cafe for dessert where everyone picked out their favorite Disney treats. I got a Mickey ice cream sandwich, Ty got a Dole Whip, Katie got a fancy cupcake, and I think the boys got candy. We had a nice last evening stroll around the grounds, soaking it all in. We’d be leaving Aulani tomorrow.



Back in the room we watched the last 30-45 minutes of the luau, including the fire dancers.





Ty checked us in for our Kauai flight tomorrow while I did dishes. Everyone was asleep around 10pm….we were finally pretty well adjusted to the time change.

 

[dachsie]

Love the sunset pics. Will the Photopass photographer take with your iPhone also?

 

[ErinF]

Love the sunset pics. Will the Photopass photographer take with your iPhone also?

Thanks! Sunset on the beach is a real event in Hawaii and many people are out at that time of evening getting pictures. I feel certain that the Photopass photographer would take a picture with your phone, a la the Parks. I don't know why we didn't ask him in this instance. We did have them use my phone for the picture with Mickey.

 

[ErinF]

Some Bonus Pictures

I was just today able to look more closely at some of the GoPro footage that we took. Ty has it all on his computer so it's not as accessible to me as if it were on my laptop. Anyways, here are a couple of screenshots I grabbed.

This is from a video that I took. I happened to be walking up to the viewing windows of Rainbow Reef when the CM put the little Mickey fish feeder right there, and then he blew some air rings at me. It was so cool!



The next pictures are all from videos Ty and Katie took while snorkeling. Some of them are from the lagoon just south of Aulani and some are from the little Paradise Cove lagoon.









Can you spot the fish?

 

[ErinF]

Day 4—Wednesday, June 5th: morning at Aulani and then travel to Kauai

We had a slightly later morning than we’d had previously, with everyone sleeping until around 7. We finished up most of our remaining food for breakfast and started packing up. Sam and I wanted to do the lazy river one more time, but the others decided they didn’t want to bother with swimming and having to shower/change clothes. We hadn’t done any souvenir shopping up to this point so Ty planned to take Mason and Katie to browse. I’m not a huge souvenir person myself, but I did want to get a Christmas ornament. I knew I should have time later. We had to check out at 11, but we weren’t planning on leaving the resort until around 1pm because our flight to Kauai wasn’t until 5pm.

Our collection of wristbands:



Sam and I went around the lazy river several times.





A common sight while we were at Aulani were military helicopters and planes flying overhead.



After finishing with the lazy river, we headed over to the hot tub by the infinity pool.



I witnessed some incredibly lazy parenting in there. I hate to be one to judge because I know I’ve done plenty of lazy things as a parent, but here’s what happened…a dad with 3 kids was getting in the hot tub with them. These kids were probably 3, 5, and 6. The 3 year old little girl was not wearing a swim diaper and she clearly had to go to the bathroom. She was majorly doing the peepee dance and I could even hear her ask to go potty. This dad was maybe 5 feet away from me and he just tells his daughter to come in and sit down on the step. What do you imagine happens when a little kid that need to go potty sits down in very warm water??? Eeeeewwww!!! Needless to say that was our cue to leave.

We made our way back to the villa to finish up our packing. I had done all our laundry the night before, but Sam and I had to use the dryer one last time to dry our swimsuits before packing them. We said goodbye to our villa at 11am on the dot and took all our luggage down to the car. After that we went in the gift shop so I could find my ornament. Another poster gave this tip which I had in my notes: “Be sure to find a little piece of furniture across from Kalepa Store (in the lobby area), with a keyhole. You will have to kneel down but be SURE to look into the keyhole and see what you see!! SO fun!” Here’s Sam checking it out:



We were getting hungry for lunch so we headed over to Ulu Cafe. Ty went to the pool bar to order a hot dog for Mason while I bought some food items for the rest of us to share. We sat at our table at Ulu for awhile just enjoying our last moments at Aulani.



After one more little walk around outside, it was time to go. Goodbye Aulani, we had an amazing time and hope to make it back some day!





Continued in the next post…

 

[ErinF]

Day 4 Continued (Wednesday, June 5th: morning at Aulani and then travel to Kauai)

There was one stop I wanted to make in Honolulu before we returned the car. Well, actually we had to make two stops. We stopped for gas (a whole 3 gallons!) and then we headed to Ala Moana Beach Park. Through the use of Google Maps, I had identified this as the spot where some of my exercise videos take place. Anyone ever heard of Gilad? I work out to his videos almost every day. His programs like Bodies in Motion are mostly on Hawaiian beaches. One series he did was called Total Body Sculpt and every workout was at Ala Moana Beach Park. Here’s a picture I took on my TV:



So I thought it would be neat to see this spot, especially since it’s got a great view towards Diamond Head.





Time to head to the airport. We didn’t know how bad the traffic might get or how busy the airport might be. We were at the airport car return at 3pm and with TSA PreCheck we made it through security easily and were sitting at our gate at 3:30pm. It was a quick and easy flight to Lihue with just enough time to serve juice and water and then collect the trash.





Here’s the first glimpse out the window of Kauai.



I knew there were supposed to be lots of chickens all over Kauai, and I even wondered aloud on the plane when we’d see our first one. Well, we saw roosters on our short little shuttle ride over to Hertz.



Ty had received a text with our rental info and parking space number so we headed straight to our car. I think we had reserved a mid-size SUV but we were upgraded to a Nissan Armada which is definitely not mid-size! Sam immediately nicknamed this car The Beast. It was nice to have all the space inside for the luggage and the kids, but it was sometimes difficult for Ty to park. The parking spaces on all the islands are generally small.



Off to our condo, which was a pretty short drive from Lihue. I’d decided to rent a condo in Kapaa on the east side of Kauai. It’s not as much of a touristy area like Poipu in the south or Princeville in the north, but I liked that it was centrally located to a lot of the sights we wanted to see. The complex is called Waipouli Beach Resort and the specific unit we rented had plenty of space for us, 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It also had a great location ocean front, and when we were in the unit, we’d leave the doors open with the screens closed and listen to the sound of the waves. (And the occasional rooster, which thankfully we never heard first thing in the morning!)





After getting a little settled in the condo, everyone was famished, it was probably around 7:30 by that time. I was hoping to go to Coconut’s Fish Cafe for their famous fish tacos, it was right across the street from us. Alas, it didn’t happen. The kids had spied McDonald’s and Subway, also across the street, and were really wanting some familiar/comfort food. I needed to fit in our grocery shopping as well, plus I was starving, so no tacos tonight. We were all pretty tired and went to bed by 9:45.

Up next….my favorite thing we did on the entire trip, our helicopter tour!

 

[alohamom]

I made a conscious choice not to enter the hot tub in the Ka Maka Grotto pool because of all the kids sitting in there with that 30 second face of concentration. I am sure that hot tub is peed in on a regular basis all day long.

Sam immediately nicknamed this car The Beast. It was nice to have all the space inside for the luggage and the kids, but it was sometimes difficult for Ty to park. The parking spaces on all the islands are generally small.

This is a good point. We had a pretty big car once and we learned quickly that it was hard to park and hard on gas. Now we try to stick to mid sized sedans when we are in Hawaii.

The complex is called Waipouli Beach Resort and the specific unit we rented had plenty of space for us

Ohhhh I cannot wait to hear about this complex. I have never been but always thought it was a fantastic location for touring around Kauai. Also, it has what looks like a fabulous pool system.

 

[nolenbelledavis]

I'm so happy you are doing this! We are hoping to go at almost the same time next year and have been trying to decide how long to stay at Aulani and where else we'd like to go, and the top of my list have always been Maui and Kauai. We're coming from Norman, OK, so we might flight out of DFW as well. We're a family of 6, and our kids will be 15, 14, 10 and 8.

 

[DisneyinPA]

Can I ask what website you booked your condo? I’ve been looking at the Waipouli Beach Resort and it’s looks nice.

 

[ErinF]

I made a conscious choice not to enter the hot tub in the Ka Maka Grotto pool because of all the kids sitting in there with that 30 second face of concentration. I am sure that hot tub is peed in on a regular basis all day long.

Yep, you're right, it probably is peed in on a regular basis.

Ohhhh I cannot wait to hear about this complex. I have never been but always thought it was a fantastic location for touring around Kauai. Also, it has what looks like a fabulous pool system.

We really loved Waipouli Beach Resort and would totally stay there again! If you rent through an agency you can pick your exact unit, which is what we did. The pool was really nice and never very busy (at least while we were there). I've got some pictures of it coming up. The only negative is the beach it's on is not considered a swimmable beach with stronger currents and rough surf. However DH and DD did boogie board out there one evening. We knew we were on nice and swimmable beaches at Aulani and Maui so that was fine for us. Please feel free to ask if you've got specific questions about the complex.

I'm so happy you are doing this! We are hoping to go at almost the same time next year and have been trying to decide how long to stay at Aulani and where else we'd like to go, and the top of my list have always been Maui and Kauai. We're coming from Norman, OK, so we might flight out of DFW as well. We're a family of 6, and our kids will be 15, 14, 10 and 8.

I think early June was a great time to go! It was a little busy, but summer season is not quite in full swing yet. I know the islands get busier as you get more into the middle of summer. Maui is lovely and I was so happy to get to go to Kauai for the first time, it was amazing!

Can I ask what website you booked your condo? I’ve been looking at the Waipouli Beach Resort and it’s looks nice.

Absolutely! The agency was Kauai Calls. They manage a lot of units at WBR so there was a lot to choose from,

 

[alohamom]

The only negative is the beach it's on is not considered a swimmable beach with stronger currents and rough surf.

Right, I have been to Lydgate park which is about 5 minutes up the road and they have a small area sheltered by a little sea wall where my daughter splashed around when she was fairly small but I think it is the same kind of rough beach area there at Waipouli. Lydgate park also has a fantastic kids play area, really really cool

 

[parkhopmom]

Can’t wait for the rest of your report! My DH and I are doing Kauai first, staying in Kapa’a, then Aulani. Interested in your helicopter tour!

 

[ErinF]

Right, I have been to Lydgate park which is about 5 minutes up the road and they have a small area sheltered by a little sea wall where my daughter splashed around when she was fairly small but I think it is the same kind of rough beach area there at Waipouli. Lydgate park also has a fantastic kids play area, really really cool

Wow, that looks like an amazing play area! We never made it over to Lydgate, though I had in my notes that it had that sheltered area.

Can’t wait for the rest of your report! My DH and I are doing Kauai first, staying in Kapa’a, then Aulani. Interested in your helicopter tour!

I just adored Kauai, it is so gorgeous!! The helicopter tour was absolutely my favorite thing we did. I feel like it's a must on a visit there. I'll be posting about it shortly....we have a new puppy and that is taking up much of my attention these days!

 

[johnnyblz20]

Great review so far. Looking forward to more

 

[ErinF]

Great review so far. Looking forward to more

Thank you!

 

[ErinF]

Day 5—Thursday, June 6th: Kauai

I had booked a helicopter tour for this morning with Safari Helicopters.



We were scheduled to leave at 9:20 and they instructed us to be there at 8:40. This helicopter tour was something I was very much looking forward to. A chance to see Kauai from the air, the beautiful Na Pali coast, the scenic Waimea Canyon and all the waterfalls was really exciting! But I’d never been on a helicopter before, and neither had my kids. Now Ty had taken a helicopter tour of the Big Island on one of his past family trips, and as a former pilot he is completely comfortable on any kind of aircraft, so no worries from him. But the kids and I were a little anxious. I really tried not to show any nerves to my offspring, as I knew that could spell trouble. And DD who is the thrill seeker of the bunch (she LOVES rides like RnRC and ToT) was especially nervous and had been saying she did not want to do the helicopter ride. I assured her that Daddy would never put her in an unsafe position. She wasn’t so sure.

At their office where you check in, they weigh you super discreetly and then assign everyone their seat in the helicopter based on weight and balance. Unfortunately Ty got the short straw and had the least desirable seat. The back row has 4 seats and the boys were given window seats while Ty was in one of the middle seats. Katie and I were up front by our pilot, Paco. Once we had been prepped with all the instructions and safety information, they took us in a van to the airport where we waited to board our helicopter.

She's looking pretty nervous:



Mason and I are excited:



And these two are as well:



Once we were loaded in and Paco started talking to us, Katie was better. She is kind of giving the death stare here. (Don't worry, she was taking a few selfies mid-flight so she did alright.)



The flight was amazing!!! Taking off felt just like when you “take off” in Soarin’.



This was definitely my most favorite part of our vacation. As you can imagine, I took a bunch of photos, but here's just a selection of my favorites.

"Jurassic Falls"


Waimea Canyon








Continued in the next post...