Our trip to Aulani: Has it been 30 years already! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I am brand new to this trip report stuff, although I have read hundreds. So hope that this goes okay and that I am not too long winded or boring.
So here goes:
Cast of characters:
Me- Julie 58 Have been to Oahu once but not since 1974!
DH- Steve 64 Has never been to any of the islands.
DS- Aaron 28 Never been to Oahu either but has been to Maui to visit a friend.
Where: Aulani Resort in Oahu Hawaii, 2 Bedroom villa Island View
When: Sept. 14-21 2015
First off I have to say that if it wasn't for DVC points we would never have been able to stay at this beautiful place. We were originally going to get an ocean view studio but changed when we invited our son to join us. This trip is to celebrate our 30th anniversary.
Dh and I arrived in Honolulu at 9:30 am on Monday and waited to meet with our DS who was coming in from Oregon on Alaskan Air. We flew Hawaiian Airlines and I would highly recommend them. Our breakfast of hot egg, cheese and mushroom sandwich, fruit and a chocolate covered macadamia nut was quite good. They also served not long before touchdown maui chips and a complimentary rum punch that indeed packed a Punch. I also had 2 cups of coffee which was much need after our 4am wakeup call to head to the airport.
We met our son and headed to pick up our car from Thrifty car rental which was located off premises. Not sure that I would recommend them. It is very small with not a lot of cars. Also their cars seemed pretty beat up which I was a little nervous about. I took pictures of the dents and scratches just in case they came back at us. We told them of these and they didn't seem worried. We did however receive and upgrade to a nice dodge charger which had much more room than the Ford Focus that I had reserved. I was pleasantly surprised how good of gas mileage we got with this vehicle.
We were off to "Aulani". Traffic wasn't bad since it was after 9am and before 3pm (Thanks Cheryl for that tip!). So here's Cheryl's tip: Heading towards Honolulu leave after 9am and head back towards Aulani before 3 to beat most of the traffic. This came in handy several times thru the trip.
Another tip: There is not a big sign for Aulani and we missed the turn the first time and had to turn around. So really watch for the turn in as it is a pretty sharp
turn. The greeting at the front is nice as they come out to you, ask your name and give you your lei and hand you a nice glass of water with fresh fruit in it. A second person takes you inside and gets you all checked in and tells you a little about the lobby. We had done online check in so our paperwork was all ready for us. Since it was so early, about 10:45 she told us about the lounge where you can change and then take full advantage of the resort. As we were headed that way she tracked us down to tell us we could get into our room. Yay!
Here's another Tip for room location: On the DIS boards they have a thread for Aulani that shows where all the rooms are located. I read that for a dedicated 2 bedroom if you requested a room ending with 75 or 85 in the EWA building you could pay for island view but get both an island and an ocean view. So that is what I requested plus a high floor. This is what I received, 1575. "The" perfect room view aside from a straight ocean view. Looking over the area where they have the Starlit Hui Hawaiian show but to the right a beautiful ocean view. This was a wonderful location that was close to the elevators but not too close if you know what I mean.
We proceeded to unpack and then headed across the street to check out the ABC grocery store, which by the way is way more than a grocery store. Being that it was 2 in the afternoon for us we first got some lunch. We decided to eat at the Monkeypod restaurant and we were very happy we did. DH had a Big island cheeseburger and said that it was one of the most flavorful burgers he's had. DS had the turkey burger which he said was good but not exceptional. I had the Saimin noodle bowl which was excellent but too big for me to finish. Then off to the ABC store we went to pick up groceries.. Here we got water, rice, steak, chicken, milk, fruit and oatmeal. Our plan was to have breakfasts and dinners in the room and lunches out. This is another great "Tip" that can save you a considerable amount of money if you get a kitchen and cook some of your meals in.
After changing into our suits we decided to give the Lazy River a try. Very relaxing, we just floated for a while and then hit the slides. I loved the tube slide, but the body slide not so much. The body slide you go thru a dark tunnel and then at the bottom you go straight under the water. Not fun for me but a lot of people went over and over. After about an hour or so we got out and wandered the beautiful grounds to get a feel for where things were located. Later went back to the room and used their wonderful rice cooker and had fresh fruit, steak and rice. A quick game of Banana Grams and it was off to bed.
I downloaded the first batch of pictures and I don't know what happened to them.
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Will we love AMA AMA?
Absolutely!
Day 2-
Oatmeal and coffee on the balcony, what more can I say! I was excited for today as I had made our only reservation at AMA AMA for lunch. We are an active gym family and didn't want to fall behind too much so we all hit the gym after breakfast. Nice gym and pretty well equipped. It is nice that they provide water and towels here. It sits right next to the spa. Took a sneak peek in here but they only give tours at 7 in the morning and 8 at night. We never seemed to be here at the right time for the tour.
We headed back and took showers (can I say I Loved the overhead rain shower). Nice having 2 showers as we could get through them pretty quick. It is also nice to have the 3rd bathroom, as it came in handy several times throughout the week. We put on some nicer clothes and headed down.
There is no dress code for lunch other than shoes and shirt, but there is for dinner. Dinner you need to have dress shorts and collared shirts for the guys and dress shorts, skirts or dresses for women. No tank tops for either. Our son didn't bring any collared shirts so later in the week this did effect us as we were going to get a yummy dessert. He is a sports massage therapist so lives mostly in gym shorts and shirts.
On to lunch, My DH and myself had the pulled pork sliders which were served in a sort of steamed bun versus and regular bun. These were delicious! I would definitely order them again. Each one had a different sauce, BBQ, pineapple salsa and a spicy sauce which I had not heard of. If you don't like spicy I would ask to replace this sauce with one of the others as it was pretty spicy. My DS had the poke dish and said that it was very good. Not my thing. I also tried my first "Mango Sangria". Oh my heavens was this yummy! This was my first of many tropical drinks this week. Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the food. My camera was not working for some reason so all my pictures were taken with my phone.
Aaron went back up to the room after lunch so we decided to walk down the path to the other lagoons. What a beautiful walk it was. I will mention here that we had such awesome weather all week. A few sprinkles here and there but nothing that ever lasted more than about 5 minutes or so. It was in the mid- 80's.
Along the way we stopped at "longboards" which is a little restaurant that sits on the beach in the Marriott complex. We picked up a tropical fruit salad in a carved out pineapple for dinner tonight.
Both of the boys decided on a nap so I went back down to the pool and read. I got a little warm so decided on a "Dole Whip" yep they have them here and it just hit the spot.
Later after dinner DH and I headed to the O'lelo lounge to listen to some music. This is the lounge where all the things on the walls are labeled in Hawaiian. They make the best Mango mojito here. The music was beautiful and it is such a pretty setting. We visited this lounge each night as they had different entertainment each night. We enjoyed and it was very relaxing. This was the night of the "Starlit Hui" so we headed back to the room to watch. This show is only done 2 days a week, normally Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was a little disappointed in this show and maybe it would have been better had we gone downstairs and watched it closer. Everyone sits on grass mats.
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