PattiPB
<font color=green>I'll be happy to learn the secre
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2000
We took our 3 adult children to Hawaii for their first visit. It was our third visit to Aulani. Below are some general thoughts, and things that were a surprise to me. Hope this helps somebody; I receive so much from these boards, I'd love to "give back".
TRAVEL/WAIKIKI NOTES (3 nights)
1. Safe Travels - soooo much anxiety and frustration with the Hawaii process to get onto the Island. We had people testing in three different states, and coordination was a nightmare. I was terrified of a "false positive". Our last person got clearance Monday afternoon for our Tuesday morning flights. Uploading to SafeTravels was another mess---somehow I uploaded the wrong document, so we didn't have clearance for Hawaii. Fortunately, my tech-savvy daughter fixed it in the Oakland airport using three phones and an iPad, otherwise DH and I would have been quarantined unnecessarily.
2. SWA flights - normal SWA experience. Good thing: at our Oakland stopover, they had a station set up for SafeTravels clearance to get a wrist band. I knew other airlines had this, but was happily surprised SWA is now offering this service. (This is where we found out I uploaded the wrong doc, so my daughter used our stopover to correct the problem).
3. Getting clearance in Oahu - since we didn't "clear" in Oakland, DH and I had to wait in the line to get our QR code scanned in Oahu. It went well. Wait was approximately 20 minutes at 1 pm.
4. Rental car - I got a killer deal at Costco for our 10 days. (Minivan - $705.00 free second driver). Highly recommend. I chose Budget, because they opened at 4 am, and our return flight was 7 am. I had NO IDEA some rental car companies are now ON SITE!!! No shuttle!!! I was thrilled Budget was on that list, and strongly recommend renting from one of the companies on site. So much less stressful coming and going.
5. 3 nights in Waikiki - We were in the Waikiki Beachcomber by Outrigger, and were upgraded to a top floor ocean view. We had two connecting rooms, and it was a great place. First night we ate at the attached Maui Brewing Co during happy hour. Excellent menu and drink specials. Plus, it was in the hotel, and we were all pretty exhausted. Highly recommend both the hotel and the restaurant.
6. Surfing - DH and kids are surfers. This became my youngest son’s favorite activity of the vacation. They rented boards twice, and had a blast. One block off-beach is a DIRT CHEAP place to rent boards. I also got an umbrella and two low chairs for $10 for the day!!!! It's one block from the King statue, and down a few stairs. I'll ask DH if he knows the name of the place. worth the one block walk away from the beach.
7. Catamaran - MaiTai Catamaran Tradewinds Sail was awesome. We couldn't get the sunset sail, so did 3 pm and it was a blast. Approximately $50 per person for 90 minutes. Sons went to the very front of the catamaran, and it was like a water park ride up there. Fabulous views of Diamond Head.
8. International Marketplace - ate in the Asian foodcourt one night, which was great. Ate at the Udon place on the third floor during their happy hour, and it was one of the best meals of the trip. Went during happy hour, and they had $3 Sapporo beers. My people ordered multiple beers, and the waiter kindly served them when necessary, not all at once. Very thoughtful.
TRANSITION TO AULANI (7 nights)
1. Room - Use the thread on here for room requests!!! I both called DVC and the hotel directly to make sure my requests were noted. Got top floor, room ending in "71", so our Island view turned into Ocean view for no additional points. Third time using those requests, and third time it's worked beautifully. Believe it or not, we survived a whole week in a 1 bedroom, with 1 bathroom. Everyone kept their sense of humor, and was VERY neat! It wasn't ideal, but it was all I had points for this year.
2. Amenities - kids loved the pools and beach area, of course. Don't understand why there is no leie or kui nut greeting. Really missed that for my kids. Also unclear why the adult pool is not adult only. Hopefully these things will change soon. Always seating available at the beach, but chairs at the pool were non-existent any time of the day. Just left our stuff behind a towel return station and went into the lazy river on several occasions.
3. Driving around - Go to Mermaid's Cove beach north of Aulani (also called Zablan). Excellent locals beach with great snorkeling and a reef to walk on with small blowholes. Paradise Cove was also awesome - lots of turtles during our morning visit. No turtles during evening visit.
4. Shopping - Safeway was pricey, but we got a week's groceries for five for about $250. Had everything we needed to cook a few nights, and eat our breakfasts and lunches in the room. Visited Target and Walmart, too. Walmart had GREAT Hawaiian shirts and souvenirs. Did a lot of shopping there. ABC Stores in Waikiki were useful for lunch/snacks when we had regular hotel rooms. The one near Aulani was also convenient.
5. North Shore - did a day driving to the North Shore, and stopped at the famous Banzai Pipeline for three hours. Very tough shore break, and not for weak swimmers or the faint of heart!! My sons and DH loved it---I sat on the beach! It isn’t officially called Banzai Pipeline, but that will come up in Maps to get you there. Plenty of awesome beaches on the North Shore, so just pick any of them! Visit to Dole Plantation was fun. They have such a great store. One son got a Covid-specific Hawaii tshirt that was awesome! I got lots of pineapple everything.
6. Polynesian Culture Center - my daughter’s favorite day of the vacation! We were there from opening until closing. Had the buffet dinner this time (had upgraded luau last time) and it was great with live music. They even took a request from my son. Their show - Ha - is absolutely amazing. Highly recommend this excursion, even though it was easily the most expensive day of the trip. Their souvenir shop is extremely reasonable, too (sweatshirt was $20 for example). Kids got a few things.
7. Kualoa Ranch Movie Sites tour - my one son’s favorite day of the trip. They’ve added a lot of movie site locations since our last time there (4 years ago). It was a good 90-minute tour, but not enough time to stop and take pictures. Kids were amazed at the “jungle” so close to the shoreline.
8. Dining - Monkeypod happy hour was better than I remember. We were fairly early and were seated in minutes. When we left, the line was huge. Makahiki price-fixe dinner was the priciest dinner of the vacation. Asked to be seated outside, which was pleasant at sunset. Tried almost everything on the menu since there were five of us. Corn soup was out of this world. Entrees were great - catch of the day was spectacular. Desserts were good, and they brought a Mickey cake to celebrate my youngest son’s birthday.
9. Pearl Harbor - high on my kids’ list for this trip. Their 24-hour before website was harder to manage than RotR virtual waitlist!!!! Failed miserably on two consecutive days, so we just went at 8 am to do standby. SO EASY!!! We were in a line that moved every time they loaded a boat, and were at the Memorial by 9:45 am!!! They weren’t playing the pre-show movie, which I missed, but hopefully it will be back soon.
10. Pictures - desperately wanted family shot, but there were no Photopass photographers out. This one was the most frustrating, because they are out at WDW, so what’s the Covid problem here??? Anyway...we asked other guests to take group shots of us, and people were very gracious. They were also excellent photographers! So on two different evenings we got sunset pictures on the Aulani beach that I absolutely treasure already!
I left out just piles of information, but I’m hoping my experiences help somebody else. PLEASE ask questions (if you got this far in your reading!!!) This was, quite probably, our last family trip with just the five of us, so we splurged on a number of things. We missed a few things on our itinerary for different reasons, so kids are already planning our return!!! As a matter of fact, one son has already started Duolingo to learn some Hawaiian language, and daughter is looking at teaching jobs on the island!!! LOL!!!
TRAVEL/WAIKIKI NOTES (3 nights)
1. Safe Travels - soooo much anxiety and frustration with the Hawaii process to get onto the Island. We had people testing in three different states, and coordination was a nightmare. I was terrified of a "false positive". Our last person got clearance Monday afternoon for our Tuesday morning flights. Uploading to SafeTravels was another mess---somehow I uploaded the wrong document, so we didn't have clearance for Hawaii. Fortunately, my tech-savvy daughter fixed it in the Oakland airport using three phones and an iPad, otherwise DH and I would have been quarantined unnecessarily.
2. SWA flights - normal SWA experience. Good thing: at our Oakland stopover, they had a station set up for SafeTravels clearance to get a wrist band. I knew other airlines had this, but was happily surprised SWA is now offering this service. (This is where we found out I uploaded the wrong doc, so my daughter used our stopover to correct the problem).
3. Getting clearance in Oahu - since we didn't "clear" in Oakland, DH and I had to wait in the line to get our QR code scanned in Oahu. It went well. Wait was approximately 20 minutes at 1 pm.
4. Rental car - I got a killer deal at Costco for our 10 days. (Minivan - $705.00 free second driver). Highly recommend. I chose Budget, because they opened at 4 am, and our return flight was 7 am. I had NO IDEA some rental car companies are now ON SITE!!! No shuttle!!! I was thrilled Budget was on that list, and strongly recommend renting from one of the companies on site. So much less stressful coming and going.
5. 3 nights in Waikiki - We were in the Waikiki Beachcomber by Outrigger, and were upgraded to a top floor ocean view. We had two connecting rooms, and it was a great place. First night we ate at the attached Maui Brewing Co during happy hour. Excellent menu and drink specials. Plus, it was in the hotel, and we were all pretty exhausted. Highly recommend both the hotel and the restaurant.
6. Surfing - DH and kids are surfers. This became my youngest son’s favorite activity of the vacation. They rented boards twice, and had a blast. One block off-beach is a DIRT CHEAP place to rent boards. I also got an umbrella and two low chairs for $10 for the day!!!! It's one block from the King statue, and down a few stairs. I'll ask DH if he knows the name of the place. worth the one block walk away from the beach.
7. Catamaran - MaiTai Catamaran Tradewinds Sail was awesome. We couldn't get the sunset sail, so did 3 pm and it was a blast. Approximately $50 per person for 90 minutes. Sons went to the very front of the catamaran, and it was like a water park ride up there. Fabulous views of Diamond Head.
8. International Marketplace - ate in the Asian foodcourt one night, which was great. Ate at the Udon place on the third floor during their happy hour, and it was one of the best meals of the trip. Went during happy hour, and they had $3 Sapporo beers. My people ordered multiple beers, and the waiter kindly served them when necessary, not all at once. Very thoughtful.
TRANSITION TO AULANI (7 nights)
1. Room - Use the thread on here for room requests!!! I both called DVC and the hotel directly to make sure my requests were noted. Got top floor, room ending in "71", so our Island view turned into Ocean view for no additional points. Third time using those requests, and third time it's worked beautifully. Believe it or not, we survived a whole week in a 1 bedroom, with 1 bathroom. Everyone kept their sense of humor, and was VERY neat! It wasn't ideal, but it was all I had points for this year.
2. Amenities - kids loved the pools and beach area, of course. Don't understand why there is no leie or kui nut greeting. Really missed that for my kids. Also unclear why the adult pool is not adult only. Hopefully these things will change soon. Always seating available at the beach, but chairs at the pool were non-existent any time of the day. Just left our stuff behind a towel return station and went into the lazy river on several occasions.
3. Driving around - Go to Mermaid's Cove beach north of Aulani (also called Zablan). Excellent locals beach with great snorkeling and a reef to walk on with small blowholes. Paradise Cove was also awesome - lots of turtles during our morning visit. No turtles during evening visit.
4. Shopping - Safeway was pricey, but we got a week's groceries for five for about $250. Had everything we needed to cook a few nights, and eat our breakfasts and lunches in the room. Visited Target and Walmart, too. Walmart had GREAT Hawaiian shirts and souvenirs. Did a lot of shopping there. ABC Stores in Waikiki were useful for lunch/snacks when we had regular hotel rooms. The one near Aulani was also convenient.
5. North Shore - did a day driving to the North Shore, and stopped at the famous Banzai Pipeline for three hours. Very tough shore break, and not for weak swimmers or the faint of heart!! My sons and DH loved it---I sat on the beach! It isn’t officially called Banzai Pipeline, but that will come up in Maps to get you there. Plenty of awesome beaches on the North Shore, so just pick any of them! Visit to Dole Plantation was fun. They have such a great store. One son got a Covid-specific Hawaii tshirt that was awesome! I got lots of pineapple everything.
6. Polynesian Culture Center - my daughter’s favorite day of the vacation! We were there from opening until closing. Had the buffet dinner this time (had upgraded luau last time) and it was great with live music. They even took a request from my son. Their show - Ha - is absolutely amazing. Highly recommend this excursion, even though it was easily the most expensive day of the trip. Their souvenir shop is extremely reasonable, too (sweatshirt was $20 for example). Kids got a few things.
7. Kualoa Ranch Movie Sites tour - my one son’s favorite day of the trip. They’ve added a lot of movie site locations since our last time there (4 years ago). It was a good 90-minute tour, but not enough time to stop and take pictures. Kids were amazed at the “jungle” so close to the shoreline.
8. Dining - Monkeypod happy hour was better than I remember. We were fairly early and were seated in minutes. When we left, the line was huge. Makahiki price-fixe dinner was the priciest dinner of the vacation. Asked to be seated outside, which was pleasant at sunset. Tried almost everything on the menu since there were five of us. Corn soup was out of this world. Entrees were great - catch of the day was spectacular. Desserts were good, and they brought a Mickey cake to celebrate my youngest son’s birthday.
9. Pearl Harbor - high on my kids’ list for this trip. Their 24-hour before website was harder to manage than RotR virtual waitlist!!!! Failed miserably on two consecutive days, so we just went at 8 am to do standby. SO EASY!!! We were in a line that moved every time they loaded a boat, and were at the Memorial by 9:45 am!!! They weren’t playing the pre-show movie, which I missed, but hopefully it will be back soon.
10. Pictures - desperately wanted family shot, but there were no Photopass photographers out. This one was the most frustrating, because they are out at WDW, so what’s the Covid problem here??? Anyway...we asked other guests to take group shots of us, and people were very gracious. They were also excellent photographers! So on two different evenings we got sunset pictures on the Aulani beach that I absolutely treasure already!
I left out just piles of information, but I’m hoping my experiences help somebody else. PLEASE ask questions (if you got this far in your reading!!!) This was, quite probably, our last family trip with just the five of us, so we splurged on a number of things. We missed a few things on our itinerary for different reasons, so kids are already planning our return!!! As a matter of fact, one son has already started Duolingo to learn some Hawaiian language, and daughter is looking at teaching jobs on the island!!! LOL!!!
. Flights were a lot cheaper this summer but wanted the whole experience at Aulani and didn’t want to go through all the COVID testing so maybe we’ll try again someday.
