Spring Break at Aulani, April 10-15, 2016 Trip Report (in progress)

[jtba]

Hello! We returned from a 5-night stay in a one-bedroom villa at Aulani last week and I can honestly say it was the most relaxing family trip we've taken so far. Granted I did a lot of research here in the Aulani forum and elsewhere online, but it made the trip even more enjoyable because I knew what to expect in terms of the situation with the beach chairs, Aunty's Beach House, Ama Ama, etc. So here's a huge THANK-YOU to all who have offered guidance and tips along the way!

Topics I'll include:

• Alamo Car Rental at HNL and Aulani
• Aulani:
  • Aunty's Beach house pre-registration
  • lazy river, family infinity pool, lagoon
  • beach chairs and how easy/hard it was to get them
  • Meals at Ulu Café, Mama's Snack Stop, Ama Ama, and Lava Shack
  • Photopass
• Beach with sea turtles 10 minutes away (see preview)
  
• Ka'ena Point Beach
• Dealing with food allergies
• And whatever else comes to mind

So, here goes...

1. Pre-Trip Preparation (see below)
2. Tips re. Aunty's Beach House Pre-Registration, Meals, and Day 1, Sunday, April 10, 2016: SFO-HNL, Alamo car rental, Target, Safeway, and Aulani
   
3. Some random photos of the bathrooms and kitchen area
4. Day 2, Monday, April 11: Lazy river, infinity pool, Ulu Café, lagoon, Aunty's Beach House, Stitch's Space Goo, and Monkeypod
   
5. Days 3, Tuesday, April 12, Part 1: Lazy river, infinity pool, Ulu Café, Mama's Snack Stop, Dole Whip, Lava Shack, Aunty's Aloha Party
6. Day 3, Tuesday, April 12, Part 2: Lagoon, character meet-and-greets, Ama Ama dinner, food allergies, Starlit Hui
7. Day 4, Wednesday, April 13, Part 1: Lazy river, infinity pool, Alama Car Rental @ Aulani, ABC Store, unexploded ordinance (whaaaa?!?), Ka'ena Point Beach
8. Day 4, Wednesday, April 13, Part 2: Turtle place by Paradise Cove, Roy's, Surf's Up with Chip & Dale at Aunty's Beach House
   
9. Day 5, Thursday, April 14, Part 1: Infinity pool, chairs, lazy river, Ulu Café, Mama's Snack Stop, Mickey & Minnie, Stitch
10. Day 5, Thursday, April 14, Part 2: Turtles!
    
11. Day 5, Thursday, April 14, Part 3: Food allergy incident at Ama Ama
    
12. Day 5, Thursday, April 14, Part 4: Sunset photos, scavenger hunt, Photopass photo CD
    
13. Day 6: Coming soon...

Pre-Trip Preparation

We came up with the idea of going to Aulani some time in fall 2015. We are not a Disney family (*gasp*), mostly because we don't let our kids watch a whole lot of TV or play video games, so although they know about some Disney stories they don't know all the characters, and we have yet to take them to Disneyland (we live in northern California).

Having said that, we did take our kids (8 and 4 years old at the time) on a DCL Alaskan cruise in July 2015 (see trip report), and we all enjoyed it immensely. A couple months later DH and I were talking about spring 2016, and he suggested looking into Hawaii because that's a destination we would want to travel to with kids while they're still little--by the time they're teenagers they may be too cool to hang out with us at the beach! So I looked into Aulani and liked what I saw. Around December we booked the room, and I've been hanging out in this forum ever since!

As is our custom we kept the trip a surprise from the kids (we only told our kids about the cruise while waiting in the hotel room, an hour before we departed for the cruise terminal in Vancouver, haha). This time the trip was to take place over spring break. A friend suggested doing a scavenger hunt for clues around the house, or put stuff in a box for them to open; I chose the latter. The week before the trip, I went to the local AAA office in the hopes of picking up a map of Oahu, but all they had was one for the whole state of Hawaii. I found a leftover graphic of Stitch that I used for a Fish Extender gift magnet from the cruise, glued it over where Aulani is located on the map, put the map in an old shoe box, and added:

• a pair of water shoes
• sunscreen
• a bag of sand (gathered from their shoes during preschool years, you know, dump them out in a corner of the garage before entering the house)
• some jelly beans (I always give them munchies on plane rides to ward off pressure during take-off and landing)
• a pack of Crazy 8 cards (to keep them entertained during the trip)
• a pair of swim goggles

We were to depart on a Sunday. The Friday before, DD5 came home from preschool at lunch, When DS9 came home in the afternoon, I had the two of them open the box, and they figured out we would be going to Hawaii. They were thrilled of course, but DD was also miffed at the same time because "Mommy, the teachers asked the kids to raise their hands if they were going on vacation, and I didn't raise my hand. You should've told me!!! Next time you have to tell me, OK???" Oy vey, can't win either way...

I pretty much spent the whole day Saturday packing. I had started a little bit earlier in the week, but couldn't really get into it. I am very organized in general, you know, I'm the type with a ton of lists in Excel and what not, but I also tend to procrastinate a lot. That last-minute rush seems to drive me, and this was no exception. However, once Saturday arrived there was no putting it off any longer, so I packed all day while DH, DS, and DD hung around the house doing what, I don't know. My mind was focused on getting us ready for the early departure the next day.

 

[tralin]

I am very interested in your trip report. I am looking at going in spring break with a then 9 year old myself. Just starting the research so lots of questions!

 

[Iggipolka]

Following along. Too funny that two Northern Ca families were at Aulani at the same time!!

 

[rnorwo1]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, can't wait to read more!

 

[crystal1313]

Can't wait to read more! I'm in NorCal too East Bay Area! We usually surprise our kids too but decided to tell them about Hawaii since it will be their first time flying. Trying to really talk about it a lot, acceptable behavior on the plane, what to expect on take off and landing. Etc. my kids are similar ages. 8 & 6. Also, I have already made my packing excel sheet. Lol. Glad I'm not alone in that!

 

[jtba]

Forgot to mention the following planning-related items in my post above:

Aunty's Beach House

I had read horror stories of people being up early to be in line so they could register their kids for Aunty's Beach House. Whaaa?!?? That doesn't sound like a vacation to me! Thankfully Aunty's has since started a pre-registration process. 90 days before you arrival, go to their webpage and fill out your information on the registration form.

As of April 2016, During the pre-registration process you can select up to three out of the four complimentary activities, which your kids can then attend for free. You can see all of them listed on their webpage listed in the previous paragraph. Based on the length of your stay, you will then be assigned a certain number of them. We stayed for five nights and got two; someone else said they stayed for eight nights and got three. It takes anywhere from a few hours to more than a week for them to reply and tell you to which activities you are assigned. I've also read that if the timing doesn't work for you, you can contact them to try to switch them up.

We signed up roughly 75 days in advance, and got the following:

• 3:00 p.m., Monday: Stitch's Space Goo
• 12:30 p.m., Tuesday: Aunty's Aloha Party

We also signed DS and DD up for "Surf's Up with Chip and Dale" for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, when DH and I plan to have a quiet dinner at Roy's Restaurant across the street at the Ko Olina Golf Club.

Here is a very informative thread about Aunty's (thank you, @twodogs , for starting this one; it helped me immensely when I was planning our trip). For those curious about the premium activities, here's another one that may be helpful to you; @Iggipolka and i both contributed to the reviews, and it covers both "Surf's Up" and "Fish Are Friends".

Meals

DD has been clinically diagnosed to be allergic to gluen, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and fish, and since we were going to be at a strange land, we thought we should bring some foods that we knew would be safe for her. This included:

• gluten-free sliced bread (frozen, so it went into the check-in luggage)
• gluten-free hotdog buns
• gluten-free cereal
• gluten-free oatmeal
• gluten-free pasta
  
• gluten-free pretzels and other snacks
• gummy bears, lollipops, and I can't remember what other sweet munchies (which we would bring out if we couldn't get allergen-free desserts for her at Aulani; also handy for take-off and landing)
• Vienna sausages (good temporary source of protein on the return flight)

Yes, when we travel our carry-on is always full of safe foods for DD. And a huge bag of medicine too, which includes the usual Tylenol, Advil, Benadryl, Pepto Bismo, burn medicine, Neosporin, Pedialite, thermometer, hydrocortisone, etc. Are you laughing at me? I know I know, it sounds silly to bring my whole medicine cabinet, but I like to be prepared! Who wants to have to drive around and look for a pharmacy in the middle of the night while on vacation? Anyway, in addition to the usual stuff other families might bring, we also have DD's Epi-Pens, which are with us 24/7.

Our room was going to be a one-bedroom villa, which comes with a full kitchen. We wanted this because of DD's allergies as well as the relative high costs of food at Aulani and Hawaii in general. The kitchen would allow us to cook some meals, but not stress over everything all the time. We were on vacation, after all.

We also made several dinner reservations (used their online form) at Ama Ama at the 90-day mark. I had googled and learned that sunset would take place around 6:50, so we had a few dinners scheduled around that time. We also made online reservations via OpenTable at Monkeypod and Roy's based on reading recommendations from here and talking to friends who familiar with the Ko Olina area.

All right, onto the actual trip itself now...

Day 1, Sunday, April 10, 2016

Our flight via United Airlines was set for 9:05 a.m. out of SFO (San Francisco), which meant we would need to be at the airport by 7:30 at the latest, which means the following timeline:

• 5:30: get up
• 6:30: get into garage
• 6:40: really leave home (because it always takes longer to get out of the house)
• 7:30: at airport

I don't remember what time I went to bed the night before, but at 4:15 a.m. I woke up to DS coughing in his room. He does this once in a while. Like he'll cough his lungs out for 20-60 (!) minutes, then it goes away and nothing reappears in the morning. I don't know if it's allergies or whatever. But it happens from time to time, ugh. I somehow drifted back to sleep eventually.

At 5:30 my alarm went off, but I was so tired that I lingered in bed until 5:45. I showered first while DH got breakfast ready for DS and DD. Did some last-minute packing, then we finally left the house at 6:50 (hey good thing my time-line above had some built-in procrastination time...). The ride to the airport was pretty smooth, not too many cars.

After we arrived at the airport, DH let the three of us out with all our luggage, then he drove off to leave the car at long-term parking while I checked in our two large suitcases. We had printed out our boarding passes the night before, and also took advantage of Alamo's online check-in as well. More on that later...

Anyway, for whatever reason, at the United self-check-in machine we were only able to get one luggage tag, so we were directed by the airport staff to a group check-in counter, which was a bonus because the regular check-in counter was full of people. I'm not sure why we got to the group counter, but I wasn't gonna argue with the employee!

After we finished checking in, I parked ourselves on some chairs nearby and waited for DH to get there from the parking lot. He showed up at 7:55, but DS and DD were fully occupied by the new activity books they just received that morning that they didn't fuss at all.

We got in line for the TSA security check, which went mostly smoothly except our soy butter in the carry-on luggage got confiscated. What happened was that when our luggage went thru the x-ray scan or whatever it is that the TSA uses, we got pulled off to the side. The agent asked if we had peanut butter, I said well we have soy butter because DD is allergic to peanuts. He explained that's not allowed because people hide stuff in there. Would we like to just give it up or go back out the airport and mail it back to ourselves? Whaaaa??? There's no way I'm gonna go through that line again. We reluctantly bid the soy butter good-bye, then went on our way.

Before we went to the gate, we thought it best to send everyone to the bathroom first. When we came out, we were so sad to learn that our flight had been delayed two hours due to "aircraft maintenance". OK, I'd rather they fix whatever it was they needed to fix over here than finding something wrong between here and Honolulu!

We sat down on four chairs and the kids continued working on their activity books. I had bought them some dot-to-dot things. DD's had 25-30 dots, while DS's had 250 dots. That oughtta keep 'em busy for a while, I thought. I read my magazine while DH walked around to get some exercise. After half an hour or so he sat down and hung out with us. Then after a while he suddenly said, "Uh, I left the cameras and chargers at home, I think." I stared at him and realized the enormity of the situation. This means we had no waterproof camera that we just bought, no regular digital camera, no charges for our phones nor laptop. He was tempted to go home and get it and I'm like, no way will you be able to make it! It was now 9:35, about 90 minutes before departure. He would have to go get our car from long-term parking, drive home, drive back, park it at long-term parking So we decided we would just buy new chargers from Target in Hawaii, where we were headed anyway to pick up sand toys. As for photos, we would just use my iPhone to take photos. I was sad not to have the waterproof camera we had specifically purchased for this trip, but the iPhone is better than nothing, right?

Half an hour after that we realized we actually had the same chargers in the car. But by then it was too late to go to long-term parking and back again. So we resigned ourselves to our fate, and continued passing the time by reading, chatting with the kids, or whatever.

At 10:15 they announced that the new plane was circling and would land soon, and that once maintenance was done. Half an hour after that they said it would take 20 more minutes. But five minutes after that they started boarding the elderly and those with children under 2. We boarded shortly thereafter, behind two very different couples:

Couple #1: The wife was very angry at her husband: "You were supposed to go to the bathroom and come right back. I don't understand how you ended up with a beer. At 11 in the morning!!! Good thing your daughter cared about you. If you came back at 11:30 we would've been gone!!!!! Did you really have to get a beer at 11 in the morning???????" The husband looked very sheepish.

Couple #2: The elderly husband made a kiss-kiss face to his wife, who smiled tenderly back at him.​

Ah.... I hope DH and I will be Couple #2 years from now.

After another quick run to the bathroom for the kids, we sat back, and waited for the plane to take off, which eventually happened at 11:57. We passed the time by first eating the lollipops for take-off, then jellybeans, then blackberries, then the sandwiches we packed (good thing I packed double for everyone; we already each ate one back at the airport while waiting).

I also reset my watch back three hours to match Hawaii time. About an hour into the flight, DD finished her 30-page dot-to-dot activity book. Oops. Well, I do have other activity books squared away so that wasn't a huge problem, thank goodness. Somewhere up there DH realized he forgot his swim shirt, so I added that to the Target shopping list. *sigh*

Two hours into the flight we brought out the laptop and let the kids sit together so they could watch "The Lego Movie", which would kill about an hour and a half. I drifted off to sleep, did the head dropping thing many times, and woke up about an hour before landing.

We landed at 1:50 p.m. local time (4:50 back home). "Mommy, I see an Hawaiian Airlines plane outside!"



Walked outside towards baggage claim (which took a long walk to reach), retrieved our stuff, then got on the Alamo bus by the curb right outside. Now, if you are headed to Aulani and are thinking of getting a rental car from the Honolulu Airport, I highly highly recommend getting it from Alamo. Other companies may not require a bus ride, but the process at Alamo is so highly efficient:

1. Check in online the night before, making sure to use the option to bypass the office and kiosk. Print out confirmation paperwork.
2. Get on bus.
3. Ride for 5 minutes.
4. Get off.
5. Hand confirmation printout to parking lot attendant.
6. Pick out car and leave within 5 minutes of arriving at Alamo.

Couldn't be easier than that!!!

At 2:20 we were out of the parking lot. Since we didn't choose to get the GPS, I used Google Maps to navigate. (It wasn't foolproof though, as it somehow led us down a road that had no outlet, but eventually we figured it out.)

We arrived at Target fairly easily. Got the chargers we wanted as well as the sand toys. At 3:25 (why did it take this long??? The drive was maybe 30 minutes; I guess we goofed around in the store looking at different things we didn't need), we headed to Safeway. That was probably another half an hour, during which we picked up bread, the most expensive bananas in the world ($1.19/lb, which shocked me because they're $0.79/lb back home; it's probably because they're imported into Hawaii), other fresh fruit, more munchies, water, and they filled up the entire cart:



At Safeway we had a good laugh with the cashier:

Cashier, to me: "Could you push your wagon forward a bit?"
Me: "Uh, what?"
Cashier (gesturing to the cart): "The wagon. Can you move it forward?"
Me: "Oh oh! Ok."​

Turns out the locals call what I call "shopping carts" wagons! I told the lady, and she laughed and said the Europeans who stop there call them "trolleys".

At 4:07 we were finally done with Safeway, so we went to get gas first before heading to Aulani. In retrospect since this was such a short drive we should've just done the Prepay option through Alamo and not waste time. Oh well, live and learn.

Hey there's a view of Aulani!!



Very very exciting!!!

At 4:25 we found ourselves outside the hotel. Because of what I learned on the DIS, DH told the valet the car was from Alamo, so the valet took the keys and gave us a receipt, and the bellhop took our luggage, and we received the leis (the kids got menehune necklaces) and mickey water. Walked into the lobby, aaaahhhhh..... We were finally here!!! The CMs greeted us warmly, and the check-in process went very smoothly. The only hiccup was it would take the bellhop 30 minutes to get our all our stuff upstairs due to a backlog of other suitcases waiting. We opted to bring them up ourselves, but instead of the backpacks each of us had, one carry-on, two large wheeled suitcases, we now also had a gazillion grocery bags to deal with. After some back-and-forth with the CM, she suggested that we take up as much as we could and leave some of the grocery in the crate the bellhop had put them in, and they would bring the crate to us as soon as they could. We were grateful for the suggestion, and started lugging all our stuff towards the elevator, which was quite a ways away.

I had booked a one-bedroom villa with island garden view, and had called Aulani a couple months ago to request (as many had suggested here) a room that's on a high floor (to possibly get an ocean view), facing the Waikolohe Valley, in the Ewa Wing (so it's away from the parking structure on the other side). We were very pleased to receive a room in exactly that--on the 16th floor, the top floor, even. First look at our home for the next 5 nights at 4:50 p.m.:



This was the view from the balcony outside our master bedroom:



And the rest of the suite:






We unpacked and settled in. It took a long time because by now it was way past dinner time back home and we were all starved and slightly cranky. We had picked up a roast chicken at Safeway, so I sliced some baguette and blanched some broccoli, and we were eating by 6:25. It was not a fancy dinner by any means, but it hit the spot after a long travel day.

After dinner, the kids took their baths. Lights off for them at 7:45, or 10:45 back home. I was surprised they were still in pretty good spirits, considering they were usually in bed by 8. It did however took them a while to settle in until I gave my empty threat of "no beach tomorrow if you don't sleep right this instant!!!

DH and I stayed up until 9:30 or so, then went to sleep.

And no, we never made it downstairs to check out anything after arrival. We were just too tired. So no pictures to show of the wonderful things that awaited us outside...

 

[jtba]

I forgot to mention it took us 5 minutes to find the murphy bed in the living room. For some reason I had imagined it to be a vertical fold-down bed, so we walked around looking for a tall cabinet. Turns out the thing was horizontal and under the TV, LOL!!!

 

[jtba]

Following along. Too funny that two Northern Ca families were at Aulani at the same time!!

Yes, I've been following along your trip report too and wondered if we ever passed each other while walking to various places! Can't wait to read more in yours!

 

[jtba]

Can't wait to read more! I'm in NorCal too East Bay Area! We usually surprise our kids too but decided to tell them about Hawaii since it will be their first time flying. Trying to really talk about it a lot, acceptable behavior on the plane, what to expect on take off and landing. Etc. my kids are similar ages. 8 & 6. Also, I have already made my packing excel sheet. Lol. Glad I'm not alone in that!

What a small world in terms of geography and age of our kids!

At the airport while waiting we saw that pretty much all the kids around us were on some sort of electronic device, which made me a little sad. But then I thought, how was it any different from my kids' activity books, just in a different form? And then I looked at all the adults and they were ALL engaged on a phone, tablet, or computer, so I just shrugged and chalked it up to the world we live in. :\ This was Silicon Valley, after all, but still, you know, I couldn't help but feel somewhat wistful for the good ol' days (whatever that conjures up). I myself am quite addicted to e-devices also, so I'm trying to put them off for my kids as long as I can.

That's funny you're an Excel fan too!

 

[jtba]

here are some additional pictures.

this is the bathroom between the master bedroom and the full bathroom. this one just has the sink, bath tub, and a closet (not shown):



looking into that room from the master bedroom. the partition doors can be closed:



the tub:



looking into the master:



here's the full bathroom, with a view of the sink and toilet:



i like the seashells in the towels:

 

[jtba]

some random detail shots of the kitchen area:





and a rice cooker! there were laminated instructions in both english and japanese.



whether you want to hand wash the dishes or use the dishwasher, you're covered:



the washing machine and dryer, complete with powder detergent:



and a very shallow but tall safe. the sunscreen shows you the size:



we were able to store our laptop in there standing up.

 

[SplashMom]

Love reading your trip report! We are going in 11 days so your information is very helpful.

 

[Mommyof3inVA]

Loving your trip report!! Great tips so far! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jtba]

Aulani Day 2, Monnday, April 11, 2016

Normally the time difference between San Francisco and Honolulu is two hours, but due to Daylight Saving Time it was three when we were there. I didn't think there would be any problems, but tthose measly three hours really kicked my butt. I turned off the light at 9:30 p.m. but woke up at 11, 3:30, and 5. Ugh.

I should mention something about the bed in the master bedroom. While it was very large and soft and comfy, it was sooooo squeaky!!! Just the slightest movement (like if DD climbed on the bed) makes a sound. Maybe I should've told Mousekeeping, but we didn't, because we didn't want to move the room. Perhaps they could've put some oil on the springs? Anyway, DH was still sound asleep at 5, and I didn't want to wake anyone, so I just lied there very still and IM'ed with a friend via FB. She would be visiting Aulani during the last week of April so we had been very excitingly planning our trip together for the past couple months.

One more thing about the room: Since all was quite, I could hear this woooooooooo sound. I think it was the wind coming through the tiniest crack in the sliding door. If you know musical scales, it sounds like this: C-D-E-F-GGGGGGGGGG-F-E-D-C, C-D-E-F-GGGGGGGGGG-F-E-D-C, C-D-E-F-GGGGGGGGGG-F-E-D-C. The oddest thing ever. During the daytime we couldn't hear it because of the normal sounds in the room, kids talking, etc. But in the still of the night it was very audible. So i'm lying there tapping away on my phone while listening to C-D-E-F-GGGGGGGGGG-F-E-D-C over and over again...

Non-sequitur: There isn't a lot of cabinet space for our stuff. We were on the Disney cruise last year, and there was so much cabinet space that some remained empty for the duration of our 7-night stay. But at the Aulani, other than the 6-drawer chest in the master bedroom, there wasn't too much storage space. Almost all the cupboards in the kitchen had plates, bowls, utensils, etc. in them.

At 6 I couldn't stay in bed any more, so I got out ("squeak squeak squeak", thank you, bed), then I heard little feet. DD came to find me, and pretty soon everyone was up. I took made eggs and ham for everyone on the stove, and served cereal and bread as well. It was a very slow start to the morning because everyone was still tired from the day before. I didn't find the cutting board until Day 3, so I cut everyone on a large plate.

I sent DH down to the lazy river area at 7:30 so he could secure some chairs for us. He took his Kindle with him and just hung out there by the towel shack. Short one pair of adult hands, it took the rest of us 20 more minutes to get out of the hotel room. We found him near the towel stand, so we went to the CM, showed our room keys to get our wrist bands (you get a different one everyday; it's to to differentiate the Aulani guests from visitors, who may walk around the hotel but not use the pools, chairs, etc.), life vest for DD, and a couple more towels.

Note: If you have little ones, you'll want to get those little green life vests as soon as the towel stands open. They have the tendency to run out, so beware.

Then we basically spent the next couple hours in the lazy river. DD first rode on a two-seater raft with me, but she's on the short side so couldn't quite get her feet in the right position. After that first round, I switched her to a one-seater tube by herself, but while I was adjusting my waterproof camera, she ended up flipping backwards into the water. Good thing I saw her at the last second so I was able to lift her up immediately. Of course after that she didn't want to be on the tube any more! But she was happy to float around in the gentle current of the lazy river, which was pretty much what we did whenever we got in there for the rest of the week. DH and DS alternated between the tubes and floating, and we all had a great time!





After we got tired of the lazy river, we went to the family infinity pool, the official, Hawaiian-sounding name for which I could never remember. . A very light drizzle came down around 9:30 but left us within 5 minutes. Since we were already wet, it didn't matter.

At 10:15 we went back up to the hotel room for snack. While the others ate, I had a hot shower to warm up. It was sort of a waste of time, to walk all the way up to the hotel just to eat really quickly, so we decided from then on we would carry our snacks with us.

We went down again at 11. Our original plan was to head to the lagoon, but somehow we were all ready for lunch, so we headed to Ulu Café, which was much smaller than I had imagined in my mind. In this picture, that area you see with the chairs and tables is all the space where you can sit down and enjoy your meal:



Very tiny, ain't it?

We ordered the lunch special (can't remember what it was; nothing special even though its name implied otherwise) for the adults; can't remember what the kids had. Took us an hour to eat, after which we first went to the bathroom, then finally were on our way to the lagoon. There were many chairs available. First we sat down in the second row, then some chairs with shade in the first row (closest to the ocean) opened up, so we moved our stuff there. The water was colder compared to the lazy river (warmest) and the pools (warm), so DH, DS, and DD went in first while I stayed behind. I joined them after maybe 20 minutes, took some photos, but couldn't figure out how to use record videos on our brand-new waterproof camera (yeah yeah I could've read the manual but who does that? ). Here at least are some photos from that initial visit.

Panaramic view of Aulani from the lagoon (the under-construction Four Seasons is the white building on the left):



Looking south:



Panaramic view of the lagoon:



At 1:30 I noticed B's teeth were chattering. Even though she insisted, "No, no no no, i'm, not not not, co co cold! Re-re-re-really!!!" I managed to get her out of the water to dry her up, then buried her in sand. She was better within a few minutes. She wanted to do the same with me so I helped her dig a big hole, then laid down in it, with a view upwards like this:



Can you spot the airplane in the sky? Aulani must be in the path of the landing route for HNL, because we saw that quite frequently. If you're heading towards Honolulu, you should arrange to sit on the left side of the plane, then you may be able to get a view of the Aulani and the four lagoons right before you land. Of course the wind direction may change which also switches the landing pattern, but that's what we saw everyday when we were there.

I signed the kids up for "Stitch's Space Goo" at Aunty's Beach House. The official check-in time was 2:30, so we went back to the hotel room at 2. But it took us a while to clean up and head back down again. By the time we got to Aunty's it was already 2:40. Then I realized I left all our pre-registration paperwork upstairs. *sigh* The CM said it was OK and gave me a clipboard with a form to fill out. After I filled it out, more people showed up so I had to wait for them to finish their business. By 2:53 we still weren't checked in, and the kids didn't even have their magic bands. I couldn't wait any more, so I went back to the counter, then promptly got a lecture about how I need to show up 30 minutes early, blah blah. OK ok, I swear I'll do better next time, but please get my kids into the club already. Finally it was done and I sent them on their way.

Went back upstairs, had some snack, dawdled, then about an hour later DH and I went back downstairs to pick up the kids from Ama Ama. DS and DD came out, each with a little ziplock filled with green space goo. They said they had a great time, and that Stitch came to visit them too. We had them change into their swim gear in one of the bathrooms, then did three more rounds in the lazy river before returning to our room to get ready for our 5:30 dinner at Monkeypod.

Here are two views of the lazy river from near the elevator entrance:





Do not underestimate the time it takes to walk to Monkeypod. It probably would've taken two adults 10 minutes to go from hotel room to the elevator to the lobby, then down the hill, walk one block, then cross the street. But with two kids it took up even more time than that. By the time we arrived at Monkeypod it was already 5:40. The two-story restaurant was packed--good thing we had a reservation.

Due to DD's allergies, I had contacted the restaurant in advance. They wrote back and suggested either the chicken wings w/o the tzatziki sauce (which turned out to be pre-marinated so she couldn't have it) or the keiki burger without the bun. With the waitress' help, we chose the latter for DD, the three-cheese pizza for DS, and fish and chips for DH. I can't remember what I had. Overall it was a good meal, though if you don't like flies visiting you and your food, do not sit outside. They weren't around when we first sat down, but mysteriously showed up as soon as the burgers were served. They left the pizza alone though. Go figure.

Sunset was to be at 6:50, so we hurriedly finished our dinner and walked/ran back to the area outside Ama Ama, where we were hoping to take a nice family sunset photo. We barely got there at 6:50, so I quickly got a shot of DS with DD, but as we didn't have a selfie stick we had to wait for people to walk by so we could ask them to take a photo. It didn't work very well. The first person didn't take a very good photo; by the time the second candidate showed up the sun was already down. Oh well. The next day (Tuesday) we would be lining up for the Starlit Hui around that time, and on Wednesday DH and I would be dining on our own at Roy's across the street, leaving us Thursday night as our one last chance. Here's a sunset shot:



We walked to Ama Ama to move our Tuesday dinner reservation from 6:30 to 5 (so that we could attend the Starlit Hui on time), but were told they were full and that we should try again tomorrow.

We went back to the room at 7:10. Everyone showered, then had watermelon to ward off the effects of the Hawaiian sun. We turned the lights out for the kids at 8, but I heard one of them still rolling around in bed at 8:30.

All in all it was a very fun day at Aulani.

 

[Mommyof3inVA]

I am glad you mentioned the storage situation--I was curious how that might be in the one bedroom. Is there a closet in addition to the 6 drawers? Where did you store your luggage?! We will be bringing an umbrella stroller-do you recall if there is a space to store that when not in use?

 

[jtba]

I am glad you mentioned the storage situation--I was curious how that might be in the one bedroom. Is there a closet in addition to the 6 drawers? Where did you store your luggage?! We will be bringing an umbrella stroller-do you recall if there is a space to store that when not in use?

there are two additional closets to store your stuff:

1. there is a very narrow one near the entrance into the master bedroom from the living room. in it we found a combo safe (see picture in my day 1 report above), a pack-n-play (which has a very thin fitted sheet i think; i didn't unfold it to inspect closely), a broom, a high chair. it was pretty full so we only stored our backpacks and hung up the kids' clothes in there.
2. there is a wider closet in the bathroom with the tub and sink. we only used it to hang up the adults' clothes. it's possible we could've stored our large suitcases in there, but we just left ours on the floor in a corner of the master bedroom. each morning we would lock them up and stack them to give Mousekeeping some room to maneuver around.

your umbrella stroller should fit in the second closet just fine. there are plenty of corners in the whole suite, too, so it can just lean against one.

 

[crystal1313]

Isn't there space under the bed to store luggage? Or am I mistaken?

 

[jtba]

Isn't there space under the bed to store luggage? Or am I mistaken?

there was on the ship! i asked DH why we didn't store 'em under the bed at aulani, and he said he didn't recall that space being very tall, so we just left them out. there was lots of room in the master bedroom so they weren't in the way anyway. we put them in front of the desk in the far corner of the room.

 

[jtba]

hmm DS is claiming there was room underneath (he lifted up the bedspread on the last morning searching for a tiny piece of lego he misplaced). but he's 9, so it's hard to say how good of a judge he is for stuff like that.

 

[jtba]

here's our receipt from safeway for those who are planning to buy grocery there and are curious about their prices compared to on the mainland: