Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section THIS SECTION COMPLETED 1/13 - Page 27 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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The shops across the street from Aulani look quite amazing as well as being so convenient! Nice that you can get just about anything there and the prices seem quite reasonable for Hawaii!
Love the photos of the 1 BR villa. Looks like a great one to stay in.
The Aulani resort is amazing and enjoying more of these photos from the lobby, the lazy river etc. It's quite an amazing placing and perhaps I'll visit some day.
Hope you're enjoying a lovely weekend on Mallorca!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I laughed at your comment about the "too lazy" lazy river. Your photos do inspire one to trek to Hawaii and give Aulani a visit. Guess it's time to add some more DVC points.
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I just thought about something, I see that there is a rice cooker in the one bed room. I personally have never used a rice cooker. Do you know if there are dirctions about how to use it in the room?
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DisneyDeva
1989+1993 Carribbean Beach,1996 ASS+Dixie Landings,1998 DL,2000 CB Hurricaine Floyd!!,2001 DL,2003 CS,2004 WL,2005 POR,2006 seven night eastern carb. disney cruise!!!,2006 Halloween Liki Tiki,May 2007 off site Orange Lake,May 2007 AKL,Sept 2007 CS,Oct 2008 Halloween ASM,May 2009 PC+ a seven night eastern carb. cruise,Feb 2010 GCV,BCV + BLT Sept 2011; OKW 8/12;Kindani 9/13: POR 3/13; Jambo Club Level & SS 6/14; Poly studio 8/15, GF villa July 2016;Blt + AKK June 2018
I just thought about something, I see that there is a rice cooker in the one bed room. I personally have never used a rice cooker. Do you know if there are dirctions about how to use it in the room?
I don't know, as I didn't ask. They told us they put the rice cookers in because Aulani is such a big destination for the Japanese market, so maybe not, as they'd assume the Japanese would know how to use one....
Tuesday 5 November – part ten: our first experience at an Aulani table service restaurant…
Just before 6:30pm, we headed down to Makahiki for our dinner there.
This is a Menehune, and there are literally hundreds of them hidden around the resort – we loved trying to find them
One of the Cast Members told me that this is Pele, the goddess of fire, who watches over them, and her eyes appear to follow you around the room.
This is completely made up of coconut shells!
We were seated out in the “open air” section. I write it like that, as while it technically wasn’t really in the restaurant, it’s still under cover, just open to the air on the sides.
I got a Liliko ‘I-Lada, featuring Whaler’s great white rum blended with cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and liliko-‘I (passion fruit). Our server Norman, who was very good, and looked after us very well, warned me it was sweet, and my goodness it was! It was Ok for me, but for anyone without a really sweet tooth, not a good idea!
The selection of food here was very wide ranging, as you can see from these photos and the menu:
I was especially impressed by the appetisers, including the sushi, some of which was a real winner. The shrimp looked beautiful, but it didn’t have the greatest taste to it, which was a shame. The crab was beautiful, although my goodness, it was a complete pain to extract it!
With the entrees, the grilled mahi mahi with tropical salsa was a disappointment, as the mahi mahi was overcooked, although the overall flavours were very good. The miso glazed salmon was beautifully cooked on the other hand, and was a real winner. The roasted squash with eggplant and bell peppers was good, as was the vegetable chow mein.
I then turned my attention to the desserts, getting the guava cake, which was absolutely stunning, the tropical coconut panna cotta, which was nearly as good, the no sugar added mango cheesecake wasn’t great, while the molten chocolate cake reminded me of Mark’s dessert at the California Grill – i.e. so rich I could only manage two bites.
Mark’s dessert choices
In general, I would describe Makahiki as being a bit hit and miss. Some items were excellent, some were nothing special, and some weren’t particularly good. I wouldn’t mind, but at $50/adult, you do expect some pretty high quality food, and sadly that wasn’t what we got. Would I recommend it? Well, if you go really hungry, you’ll probably get your money’s worth, but don’t expect anything too much from it.
Something which didn’t help during this meal was the clash of music. They were playing music over the speakers in here reasonably softly, but then the band for the night started up at the Olelo lounge next door, and from then onwards, we had both competing with each other for our attention! It didn’t add to the atmosphere, and I’m surprised that Disney had this happen, as it seemed a bit sloppy for them.
Makahiki
Appetiser 8½ 8½
Entrée 8 8½
Dessert 8½ 9
Service 9 9½
Atmosphere 8 9
Value for money 7 8
Average score: 8.46
We headed back to the room to chill out after dinner…
…. before heading to bed early, as we had an early start in the morning to head to Big Island.
The weather today was hot and sunny with just a touch of rain and temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was visiting Pearl Harbour. The worst thing today was the traffic getting there. The funniest thing today was seeing Goofy messing about in the lazy river! Today we tried the lazy river at Aulani And the result was it didn’t exactly move that quickly, and was a bit cold towards the end. The most magical moment today was being on board the USS Arizona Memorial.
As you can see, we're back - hence the update, but there won't be one tomorrow morning, as I've got an early start for work, so don't worry when you don't see one from me...
Hmmmm..... disappointing. I expected something really wonderful and also with fresher-sounding entrees. Everything looks kind of over-cooked. The squash and eggplant sounds good, but couldn't they come up with a more creative Pacific rim dish than veggie chow mein? The music would have driven me crazy. You're right that it's very out-of-character for Disney to do something like that.
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about that. For us, it's Remembrance Day just to confuse things even more.
Guess where we were headed??
It was Ok for me, but for anyone without a really sweet tooth, not a good idea! 
Would I recommend it? Well, if you go really hungry, you’ll probably get your money’s worth, but don’t expect anything too much from it. 
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