Aulani & DL to meet Santa Update 06Jul12 Page 10 Christmas at Disney

[OziJo]

Have a wonderful trip!! You fly home just before we leave so I will have my eye on the boards to see how your trip was and to help pass the time 'til I can say TOMORROW!!!

Be safe and have a Very Merry Mickey Christmas

[alicia1506]

hope you have an amazing time & enjoy your christmas with the mouse!!!

[Caroline NZ]

I hope you have a fantastic holiday.

[Toy Story]

Have a great trip, and an amazing Disney Christmas.

[WAMUMOF4]

Wishing you a very Magical Disney Christmas
Hope you all have a wonderful time and enjoy every moment of it

[areweindisneyyet]

Thanks everyone.

We shall have a very merry time indeed.

All things bar the packing are done.

Will do that in the morning nice and fresh.

Have activated our T Mobile SIM and they are both working here with international roaming. I have the new IPhone 4 and have unlocked it through Telstra with no problems.

Will see what happens when we get off the plane.

This is so unlike us before a trip...

[areweindisneyyet]

I am up, having coffee.

Just the packing to go. We will head off in 5 hours, plenty of time.

An the sun is coming out....

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Originally Posted by areweindisneyyet

I am up, having coffee.

Just the packing to go. We will head off in 5 hours, plenty of time.

An the sun is coming out....

Good luck, have a wonderful time. Don't forget the food porn, you know how we love it

[areweindisneyyet]

Originally Posted by Ms. Shuttergirl

Good luck, have a wonderful time. Don't forget the food porn, you know how we love it

Thanks, onto the next coffee but PACKING IS COMPLETE

Two cases CHECK!
Two empty cases containing the two packed cases CHECK!

House vacuumed. Children fed and dressed.

Finish the coffee, have a shower myself and then I can add the hair straightener to the bag and we are done and dusted.

Adding Christmas music to the IPOD, new Michael Buble and a bit of Disney.


I will get as much food porn as I can, think of it as my Christmas gift. I just have to stop DH every time it happens.

He He He

[areweindisneyyet]

We have arrived safe and sound. Lots of turbulence between Sydney and Honolulu which DD1 thought was great, just like a rollercoaster. Service was the best I have had on Qantas for a while. Our bags didn't make the Sydney flight but were delivered to us at the hotel just as our room became ready at 1.30pm.

Had a beautiful lunch on the beach as we arrived but more on that later...

Off to swim with the dolphins. Will upload photos and check in proper tonight.

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Sounds perfect so far, can't wait to hear and see more. Have fun with the dolphins

[Mum from oz]

Glad you had a great flight. Lunch on the beach, swimming with dolphins. Bliss! Looking forward to seeing photos, have a great time!

[WAMUMOF4]

have fun swimming with the dolphins. good to hear you had good service with Qantas.

[areweindisneyyet]

So our flight from Brisbane was late which meant that our tight connection in Sydney was cutting it close. Grandma and Grandpa were waiting at our gate for us. It was supposed to be the other way around, they had got an earlier flight from Melbourne.

We caught the shuttle from domestic to international easy enough, as we passed our plane from Brisbane on the tarmac I joked to DH I hope our bags make it...

We quickly cleared immigration and without a spare moment grabbed some McDonalds before jumping on board. Despite no inseat entertainment the flight passed by quickly. There was a lot of turbulence but the crew were great about it. Slept for most of it and actually landed 30 minutes early. However they parked us at the furthest gate I promise and that 30 minutes was taken up with the walk to customs. We cleared this very quickly. On board the flight attendants gave us an arrival card for each person and on the form it says one per family. We only need to fill one per family.

Off to get our bags. Grandma and Grandpas were waiting as they are Silver Status members, ours were nowhere to be seen. The lovely and friendly Hawaiian ground staff asked me as I approached who are you on my list

Our bags were following on the Hawaiian airlines flight and would be delivered to the hotel as soon as they had passed customs.

Out to meet our transfer. I had arranged a lei arrival and we were all met with hugs and orchid and frangipani lei's. The smell was amazing and the girls grins were from ear to ear. Before we knew it we were at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Our rooms were not ready yet however they would put a priority on them as soon as those in them checked out.

We headed straight to the restaurant by the beachfront and they were nearly ready to serve lunch. Fish and chips, burgers and pizzas were all ordered with cokes. Certainly reminded us where we had landed.

We then went exploring the hotel grounds. Four days later we are still deliver paths.





The lobby



The Superpool

To be continued

[areweindisneyyet]

I knew there would be wildlife but walking around the koi ponds we also found



Turtles that can be feed daily

Who live with



Penguins who can also be feed daily.

The girls loved the


Flamingoes.

It is like our own personal zoo.

By this time it is after 12 and we are fading. I had packed our togs in the outside pockets of our cases to make it really easy to grab them and swim the afternoon away. Note to self, in hand luggage from now on.

Grandpa suggested ice cream. DH wanted an iced coffee. Not thinking well he got this:rotfl 2:



And yes it tasted as bad as it looks.

We decided to head to the lobby of our tower and they quickly took pity on us and one of our rooms was ready. And just 5 minutes later the bags arrived from their own special journey across the Pacific.



The view was hard to take. We have adjoining rooms which is great.

We then headed to the pool in our tower for a swim as it is only 2.30 and it is far too early to crash. Big people all had a swim during which time the other room became ready. Beers and cocktails were ordered to christen the holiday.

Headed to a Denny's down the road for dinner as I knew that EVERYONE would find something on the menu to eat when really tired. It certainly surpassed expectations. Everyone walked away very happy and with a bill of $70 for the 6 of us with drinks and mains it was a great start.

Back to the hotel and we all quickly fell asleep at 7.30.

A great start to our holiday in paradise I say.