# Aulani Trip Report: Going to Hawaii with a 4-year Old and a Baby



## Schmagurty

Welcome to my trip report where I'll be reporting on our January 2016 trip to Aulani as well as other parts of Oahu. We traveled with a four-year old girl and a 7-month old boy. I will provide insights about traveling to Hawaii with young kids along with plenty of video and pictures to view. It's likely that you're reading this because you're also planning a trip to Aulani with kids. To that I say, congratulations and you're going to love it! As I progress with this report, I will add chapters, but here's what we have so far:

*CHAPTER 1: Intro & How We Ended Up Going to Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 2: Packing for the Trip & The Flight There  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 3: The Room & the First Half-Day at Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 4: The First Full Day at Aulani DisBoards | Tumblr*
*
CHAPTER 1
INTRO & HOW WE ENDED UP GOING TO AULANI*

So, I’m an outlier to the DisBoards demographic and the Aulani customer base. Prior to our trip, I had no idea that Aulani existed. And Hawaii was not very high on our places to travel to. (Not because we didn’t want to go there, but because we always went to Europe when taking big trips and long flights. And because neither my wife or I had ever taken a vacation to a tropical island…ever.)

This is not to say I am not a fan of Disney or Hawaii. I am and have fond memories of going to Disneyworld as a child. I even went to Disneyland after a business trip in late 2014. And Hawaii was on my bucket list. But it was a place that was so far away from us that it seemed more like a anniversary trip down the road. (My how our perspectives have changed since our trip!) 

So with this trip report, you’ll be getting a couple of unique perspectives. One is the perspective of somebody who really didn’t have Aulani on the map as a destination. And the second perspective is of one who is taking a baby along for the trip—who unfortunately was too young to remember his experience! (Another reason to go back!)

So, let me explain how we ended up planning a trip to Aulani. It all started with our daughter and her fondness for Disney princesses and movies. Since I fall under the “softie” category of fathers, I had begun spoiling her—er—purchasing Disney movies and toys on a frequent basis. Along the way, I would sign up for all of the lists that provide news and discounts on products—such as DisneyMovieRewards.com, Disney.com, etc.

In late May of 2015, with my wife due to deliver our son in early June, I was in the office on a Friday wrapping up all of my urgent tasks in anticipation of being out of the office for a few weeks to welcome our new son in to the world.  I had just wrapped up when I received an email from Disney about a fan art competition with the grand prize being an Aulani vacation for four.

With an hour left in my workday, I realized there wasn’t any project I could get done in that time. So, I figured, for a trip to Hawaii…why not! Now, I’m not a master illustrator by any means. But I do know Photoshop and thought I would maybe submit something that could win a runner-up prize like a free toy or something.

A couple of months later, I get an email and it says something about the contest. Because my eyes glaze over at anything with text written by lawyers, I forwarded it to my wife and said “I think maybe I won something, but I don’t know.”

She quickly responded and said,“um, you won the trip to Hawaii!” Fast forward past submitting all the paperwork, going to a notary, etc. we were connected with the Disney travel folks who would help us plan our trip.

(Side note: It took awhile for me to believe this was all real. In fact, a part of me still wasn’t sure it was real until the plane’s wheels left the ground!)

So, long story short: we won a 5-day, 4-night stay at Aulani, round-trip flights four four and shuttle service to and from Aulani and HNL airport. We worked out the plans, extended our stay on the island a few days and set our dates for mid-January—because why not get out of the cold Chicago winters in mid-January!

So, let me introduce to you our travelers:


*Myself* – Creative type and the “spontaneous one.”

*DG* – The planner and Supermom!

*Lily* – 4 year old. Lil’ Miss Independent, comedic goofball and holder of seemingly infinite energy reserves

*Alex* – 7 months old at the time of the trip. The laid back one and celebrity of our group during our trip






I’ll try to break this up in the most logical way possible. And, I’ll be creating a video for each chapter that will summarize that section. This will be a working trip report as editing videos, sorting through photos and writing up all the details takes a long time!


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## crystal1313

Yay!  Can't wait to read more =)  Beautiful family!!  And, I would love to see your entry that won you this amazing trip if you can share it.


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## alohamom

WOW-big congrats on a fantastic win! My hubby and I have been travelling to Hawaii on a regular basis pre and post kids for over 20 years-welcome to the club. Your report sounds like it will be terrific, cant wait for more...


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## Schmagurty

crystal1313 said:


> Yay!  Can't wait to read more =)  Beautiful family!!  And, I would love to see your entry that won you this amazing trip if you can share it.



Thanks Crystal! I've attached the winning artwork. It was a pretty simple design with an abstract perspective of the character I suppose.


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## Schmagurty

alohamom said:


> WOW-big congrats on a fantastic win! My hubby and I have been travelling to Hawaii on a regular basis pre and post kids for over 20 years-welcome to the club. Your report sounds like it will be terrific, cant wait for more...



Wow, alohamom, lucky you to travel there so much! After this trip, we hope to get back soon...but will perhaps wait a little until Alex is old enough to remember it!


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## crystal1313

Schmagurty said:


> Thanks Crystal! I've attached the winning artwork. It was a pretty simple design with an abstract perspective of the character I suppose.



Thank you for sharing!!! I love it. Great job  looking forward to the rest  of your TR!


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## Schmagurty

*TABLE OF CONTENTS:*

*CHAPTER 1: Intro & How We Ended Up Going to Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr
CHAPTER 2: Packing for the Trip & The Flight There  DisBoards |  Tumblr
CHAPTER 3: The Room & the First Half-Day at Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr
CHAPTER 4: The First Full Day at Aulani DisBoards | Tumblr

_______________________________*​*
CHAPTER 2
PACKING FOR THE TRIP & THE FLIGHT THERE*

We booked our trip about 6 months in advance. So when we booked it, there was that initial high of making the reservation.  But over the next several months, we gradually began to forget about the fact that we were going. Then, as the holiday season arrived, our January trip became real again and we had to start buying stuff and thinking about packing. It really snuck up on us pretty quickly.

We knew that traveling to Hawaii with a 4-year old and 7 month old was going to require a lot of forward thinking and planning as well as a lot of purchasing of accessories to make the trip work. But…if you are currently or ever have been a parent of young ones, you know this is true if you are taking a trip to the local grocery store or are traveling to a far off exotic destination! So, we tried our best to think of everything we absolutely had to pack to make the trip work for our family of four! Here is a list of things we ended up buying to bring:

Headphone port splitter – If you want to watch a movie at the same time as your little ones on an iPad.
Bose sound isolating headphones – to make hearing movies better.
Nose and ear plugs – If your family falls under the land loving column
2 swimsuits for Lily – One to wear while the other one dries
2 UV sleeved swim outfits for baby Alex – Protecting the baby’s sensitive skin
1 secondary swim trunks for me – One to hang dry while wearing one
1 secondary bathing suit for mom – One to hang dry while wearing one
Anti-bug balm – We read a necessity if going to Waimea Valley
Adult sunscreen
Kids sunscreen
Baby sunscreen
Swim diapers
Noise cancelling headphones – Electronic devices for your flight are a necessity
Portable battery charger for devices – In case device batteries die
Aquasocks/Water shoes for the adults and 4-year old – Protecting soft soles
Sunhat for 4-year old and baby – Keeping young skin safe
Beach towels – Needed for post-Aulani trips
Beach toys – Aulani provides, but we heard they can run out quickly
Inflatable baby floating raft – A necessity for baby pool fun
Motion sickness pills for adults – If you don’t handle travel well
Motion sickness write straps for mom – Anti-hurl strategies
New cheap toys for the plane ride – These really work!
Beach bag – Definitely a necessity 
Lots of different travel-sized snacks – For the plane and hotels

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but these were the ones I recall. Additionally, there were some things that were absolute necessities that may not seem as such. One, the aquasocks/watershoes were extremely valuable. If you’re not used to visiting beach areas or walking outdoors barefoot, I would highly recommend buying these. When there, you will likely traverse hot concrete, skin-tearing non-slip pool floors, beach sand with small, sharp rocks in it and hilly, rocky areas. After doing research on Amazon, we bought a pair for the three of us who who walk and opted for the Speedo brand shoes after reading lesser brands were known to fall apart pretty quickly.

The other thing that was great to have there was the baby-sized inflatable float. This allowed us to put baby in the lazy river or pools and let him float along with us. The one we brought with us was the “Disney Mickey Mouse Inflatable Kids Float with Optional Sun Cover Canopy.” We liked this one because we could totally deflate it for travel. Additionally, it was easy to inflate. It has a seat in it with holes for baby’s legs and a blow-up steering wheel that makes a noise when pressed--something Alex really enjoyed.

_ANOTHER TIP: Hawaii is far away, so it can be very easy to pack as if you’re traveling to a distant universe.  Try your best to avoid over packing! For one, they are serious about weight limits for baggage on the airlines. And, two, you’re going to a US destination. The money is the same. They have the same or similar stores that you have in your town. And it won’t be hard to buy things you need._

You’ve probably heard that everything in Hawaii is very expensive. I didn’t find this to be true for everything. If you live in or have visited a major city like New York or Chicago, you will find the prices to have that sort of mark up. And, you’re not going to be buying a ton of things, so the mark up isn’t hard to swallow. 

*THE FLIGHT*




Above, I've provided a video I put together about our flight there. Below, I've provided additionally info.

The one element of this trip that caused me the most stress and anxiety was the 9.5 hour flights while traveling with a 4-year old and 7-month old who have never flown before. I planned. I diagramed. I came up with secondary plans. And if those plans fell through, I made emergency plans. Oh, and super backup emergency plans. And emergency backup plans for those super plans. And…I’m sweating just thinking about all that planning!

To our 4-year old—who is an expressive, independent girl—asking her to wait one minute can cause her to react like she’s being asked to wait for nine consecutive lifetimes.  And…we had no idea if baby Alex was going to hate the flight and cry the entire way. We knew the children would survive in these cases, but we weren’t so sure our fellow passengers wouldn’t kill us for forcing them to hear a wailing baby and screaming little girl for 9.5 hours straight!

So, the day of our flight, I can say my emotions ranged from “_oh my God, we’re going to Hawaii!_” to “_Nine and half hours? Are you CRAZY?!?!_” Our flight was at 9 AM, so we had to plan to be out our door by 5:45 AM to account for Chicago rush hour traffic, the usual unending construction on our tollways and getting through the obscenely long gauntlet that is O’Hare airport.

DG’s dad was nice enough to drive us all. This was very helpful as we didn’t really have the option of hiring a cab or limo to get us there because both kids would need a car seat and we were only bringing one for Alex. Additionally, parking at the airport was an expense we didn’t want to waste our money on. Technically, you can park at O’hare for $10 a day. But that $10 lot is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Or, it might as well be. Convenient lots are more like $30/day.

Luckily, traffic was light on the roads and in the airport. And the kids were calm and okay with getting up so early. Lily was still waking up slowly. And, she gets shy and quiet when she’s around people she doesn’t know or is in places she is unfamiliar with. Alex, decided he wanted to get the sleep he usually gets before we woke him.  As we waited in line, one of the security guys was very helpful at explaining the process for taking kids and a car seat through security. I appreciated this because I always find in O’hare that if you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do, the workers act like they’re insulted by your lack of knowledge about the process.

It wasn’t until we had neared the conveyor belt to put our stuff on it did I realize how much stuff we were lugging with us. I had my laptop with the electronics. I brought my MacBook so I could back up our photos. Of course, that laptop has to come out of the back and go in its own bin. We both had backpacks jammed with stuff. We had the car seat. We had our shoes. (Kids shoes don’t have to come off.) We had empty water bottles, Alex’s blanket, Lily’s backpack and breastmilk. I think we used approximately 18 bins to get our stuff through. Ha!

While the people immediately behind us in line were polite, you could tell it was a bit annoying for them to have to wait for us to gradually unload all of our stuff while juggling the kids.

Going through the body scanner/metal detector with a baby is a little weird. One of the parents goes through the metal detector holding baby. But immediately after, they must swipe your fingers and around your child with a cotton swab to check for explosives residue. And, because we brought breast milk, they had to run through some protocols for that as well. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what those protocols were.

After we finished that process, my backpack got flagged for getting a second round of security analysis. It’s probably because in it was the two tablets, several camera cards, a canon camera, camera accessories, a GoPro camera and a plethora of charging cords and wires. In the x-ray machine, it probably looked like I was bringing Baymax along for the ride. So, we’re pulled aside and they swab the bag to check for explosives again.

And then began the hectic process of trying to gather all that disassembled stuff back together again quickly enough so the conveyor belt could move again for those waiting behind us! The security process was quite an ordeal, but getting beyond that felt like we were crossing the threshold to the reality of our vacation and, collectively, our excitement began to grow.




*The plane we'd be on for 9.5 hours*​
So, let’s get to the plane ride itself. Since you are reading this, you have probably already gathered that the other passengers let us live! Joking aside, the flight itself was actually very uneventful, happy and peaceful!

Our daughter had plenty of toys and electronic devices to keep her happy. She was patient and surprisingly okay with sitting in the same seat for that long. And baby didn’t even realize he was on a plane and did a great job sleeping and being his normal happy little self. All of that fretting in hindsight seems silly now. But I’m glad we were at least ready to handle a meltdown if it had occurred.




*The toys helped keep Lily happy during the flight*​
We flew on United. It had been awhile since DG or I had flown a long flight like this and we expected multiple rounds of beverages as well as rounds of snacks and meals to be delivered. Wrong. Things have changed apparently. We only had one round of complimentary beverages. After that, they only came buy with water. Additionally, all food came with a price tag.

The good news was that the food wasn’t too bad. The bad news was it was pretty expensive. I didn’t mind not having the constant service coming by, but I thought there probably should have been more beverage service since it's so easy to dehydrate on a plane.

There’s not much else to report about the flight. But I will share some info about what worked for us:


*DEVICES AND GOOD HEADPHONES*
We brought an iPad loaded with 4-5 movies as well as a Kindle Fire loaded with games and books. These combined with high-quality noise cancelling headphones were very effective at keeping our 4-year old happy. We brought a nice pair of Sennheiser studio headphones that I use for work and a new pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

*INEXPENSIVE, NEW SURPRISE TOYS*
I went to Target after Christmas and found the clearance toys section. In it, I found 3 $5 toy dolls with changeable outfits to buy. Additionally, I picked up a cheap $5 lego set. We kept these a surprise until we got to the airport. And, because they were shiny and new, they worked wonderfully. She enjoyed playing with them quite a bit.

*A SEAT FOR BABY*
We won our flight tickets and considered bringing another adult with us to use the fourth seat and just have Alex fly as a lap child. However, with about 20 hours of flight in front of us, we opted to just use that fourth seat for Alex’s car seat. This worked out great as it not only gave the adults hands-free time, but also made our coach seats feel roomier—since we had four seats to share between four two adults and two tiny ones.
*LANDING IN HAWAII*
We arrived about 3PM at the Honolulu airport. One thing that took some getting used to was going outside and walking through open air segments of the airport to get to the baggage claim. We were timid to walk out the door initially because we have been so well trained to fear that leaving certain parts of an airport means you get locked out. The airport itself is small and a bit dated, but it was a thrill to step out and see some of the hills and take in the warm, fresh Hawaiian air.




*it felt a little strange walking outside to get to baggage claim, but the weather was so nice!*

*

*
*Our first view of Oahu with our feet on the ground.*​
As part of the grand prize for the trip, we got free shuttle service to and from Aulani from a company called Speedi Shuttle. There were two guys with a car near baggage claim to greet us and take our bags. This was our first experience with native residents and what you hear about Hawaiians being very friendly, kind and happy is true.

They acted like they were having a wonderful day and loved what they were doing. They asked about our trip and offered some advice on where to go. One recommended going to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is something we heard virtually all Hawaiians (who we talked to about our trip) tell us to go to.

I gave the guy who moved our bags to the van a tip and he seemed surprised and very thankful that I tipped him. I have a feeling that they don’t get tipped as much as they should. During our drive there, we were the only ones on the shuttle. The driver was very friendly and told us about the island and gave us advice. We talked a bit about Eddie Aikau because I had watched an ESPN 30 for 30 episode about the legendary surfer. (If you get a chance, watch it because Eddie's story is great and he was at true hero in every sense of the word.)

We had heard Hawaii traffic was bad, but it seemed pretty moderate to us. However, there ended up being a traffic accident several miles ahead of us that slowed our journey quite substantially and created a lot of herky jerky, stop and go traffic…which ended up changing things for the worse for us.

This is where we had our first and only negative experience on our trip. First, Alex had become very unhappy in his car seat. He was warm, hungry and tired. And he let everybody hear it. Alex is a sweet little guy who spends 90 percent of his day smiling and being happy. But when he gets upset, he has this way of crying that makes it sounds like he has been thrown to the wolves. It’s very loud and very dramatic. He has that part where he’s crying so hard, he goes silent for a long period of time, takes in a breath and wails again that just sounds heartbreaking!

Additionally, I can even feel myself feeling a dragging feeling. I don’t know how to explain it. It was more than just being tired. It was like the transition from plane to warm island kind of violently yanked me into a different space. Mentally, I was super happy, but physically, I felt a bit beat up. DG later revealed to me she felt this way too. I'm sure it was the adrenaline wearing down and the effects of the long flight. The driver picks up on this vibe I think and kind of gets quiet very quickly.

Next, Lily starts saying she feels uncomfortable. DG tries to console her and let her know we’ll be there soon. Suddenly, I hear DG say “oh my God!” I turn around and Lily is vomiting all over the place. All over her lap, on mom, all over the van. She starts balling. Alex is still screaming. DG is freaking out trying to find stuff to clean everything while trying to help Lily feel better. Lily had never gotten motion sickness before, but I think the flight followed by the stop-and-go, floaty feeling van was just too much.

Eventually, all had calmed and DG had done the best she could cleaning up the mess. Alex slowed his crying down some. And I spent my time apologizing over and over again to the driver for the mess.

Now….If you’re planning a trip to Aulani, you’ve probably watched the videos on YouTube that show the happy families arriving at the entrance, getting the fresh water and leis and laughing and smiling joyfully as they skip through the halls. That’s what I had in my head for our experience.

How we really arrived: half of us covered in vomit, two of us sobbing and all of us a bit beat up and embarrassed. As the driver unloaded our bags, I grabbed all of the tipping cash I had brought for the trip, minus some cash to tip the Aulani bellman, and gave it to the driver and apologized for the mess again. He thanked me and said not to worry about it. But I knew it wasn’t something he was super thrilled about. But who would be thrilled about it?




*Our first sighting of Aulani*​



*The sun-drenched view of the entrance to Aulani*​



*Getting the leis and necklaces*​Even though we all were pretty ragged and not in a great mood, the Aulani staff acted like we were royalty when we arrived. One guy carefully explained how our bags would be brought up to our room for us. A lady warmly greeted us as we made our way to the entrance. They gave DG and I leis—and gave necklaces to the kids—and gave all of us fresh fruit water. Then, a woman kindly walked us over to the reservation desk.

I can say that walking into that lobby is something special. If you’ve never been but have seen video or pictures, those images don’t do it justice. There is the visual beauty of it. The colors are very vibrant and it feels very majestic and epic when you walk into it. But there’s also an aura about it. The music playing in the background…the movement and activity happening inside…the smell. I can’t quite explain it. But I can say that when you walk in, you do feel like you’ve been transported to some place magical and special. And I could feel the weight of that long trip drift off of my shoulders.




*Inside of the beautiful lobby at Aulani. It is a beautiful place.*​
The woman at the front desk who checked me in was very nice. She congratulated me on winning the stay and complimented how adorable our vomit-covered daughter was. Lily’s mood changed for the better upon entrance to Aulani as well, as did mom's and baby's. I tell her we’re checking in with a baby as well. She then says we’ve been upgraded from a standard island-facing room to a room facing the other way. But, then she says it’s going to be on the first floor.

When I heard that, I felt a little disappointed. I had in my head thoughts of waking up in the morning before everybody else and sitting out on the balcony taking in the morning air. However, getting that first floor room facing the pool area turned out being the best room we could have gotten! I’ll explain more about that in the next chapter!


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## alohamom

Schmagurty said:


> How we really arrived: half of us covered in vomit, two of us sobbing and all of us a bit beat up and embarrassed.



Oh my, not exactly how you imagined it, I am sure! 
Loved the video, if you dont mind me asking-where did you find the Hawaiian Zippidy Do Dah music?


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## Schmagurty

alohamom said:


> Oh my, not exactly how you imagined it, I am sure!
> Loved the video, if you dont mind me asking-where did you find the Hawaiian Zippidy Do Dah music?



I bought a Japanese import CD of Hawaiian Disney songs from Amazon as somehting we could listen to and get excited about our trip. It actually arrived with Japanese postage on it. Here's the one I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003APNPRW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Here is the track listing:


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## Schmagurty

alohamom said:


> Oh my, not exactly how you imagined it, I am sure!
> Loved the video, if you dont mind me asking-where did you find the Hawaiian Zippidy Do Dah music?


Also, I should say that it was the only speed bump in our entire trip! Otherwise, we had a blast!


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## crystal1313

Loving your TR!  So detailed which I love!  We are going in July and my boys will be flying for the first time, they are 8 and 6.  Making notes to get them some new toys for the trip.  Thanks!  Cannot wait to read more and so sorry that your little one got sick in the car!  That is never fun.  Also, thanks for the link for the CD and can I ask what program you used to make your video?  I loved it and loved the narrative on the bottom too.


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## Schmagurty

crystal1313 said:


> Loving your TR!  So detailed which I love!  We are going in July and my boys will be flying for the first time, they are 8 and 6.  Making notes to get them some new toys for the trip.  Thanks!  Cannot wait to read more and so sorry that your little one got sick in the car!  That is never fun.  Also, thanks for the link for the CD and can I ask what program you used to make your video?  I loved it and loved the narrative on the bottom too.



Thanks Crystal1313! I found a bunch of great advice on this site so I wanted to pay it forward with my own trip report. It's hard to define the line between enough info and TMI! Glad to hear you got some useful info out of it. You guys are going to love it there. Are you going to other places and islands as well? The flight both ways was so uneventful and other parents I asked back when I was stressing about it said the same thing. The digital devices help. I didn't mention it in the post above, but United also had free movies and tv shows available on seatback monitors. The quality was a little poor though. Inaccurate touch screens and kind of blurry compared to a tablet. 

As for the video, I do a lot of video editing for my job, so I used Adobe products which is a pro-level software. Premiere for the video, Photoshop and Illustrator for the graphics. If you don't have editing experience, it may be a little difficult to use. There is a site I've heard of called https://animoto.com where you can easily create videos for a fee. Also, there is a great app in iTunes that makes putting together videos pretty easy as well. It's free, with an option to buy up to premium templates. It's here: https://replayapp.com/. It doesn't appear to be available in the Android store however.


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## crystal1313

Thanks Schmagurty!  I will look into the adobe stuff!  I have the CS at work, but mainly use InDesign for typesetting (I am a graphic designer).  =)

We are flying Alaska, it was the best deal we could find.  We plan on loading up the iPads!  Santa already got the kids headphones that have volume control so they don't hurt their ears blasting the music!  I am a bit nervous about flying with them, but they are older now and I think will be ok.  We are really playing up the fact that the flight will be shorter than when we drive to Disneyland, so they love that.  They also like that they can get up and stretch and use the restroom on the flight.  I worry a bit because my youngest always has issues with his ears when we go into the mountains, so I hope that his ears do not hurt the entire flight.

Our only main plan is to go to Pearl Harbor one day.  The rest we will play by ear.  My mom, dad and I are going to go to the Arizona, while my husband and boys go to the Missouri.  My husband has been to the Arizona before and while he would love to go again, we aren't quite sure the boys will understand the significance and importance of it at their age.  So we plan to go back when they are older.  

Looking forward to hearing about your room and your thoughts on Aunty's


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## Schmagurty

crystal1313 said:


> Thanks Schmagurty!  I will look into the adobe stuff!  I have the CS at work, but mainly use InDesign for typesetting (I am a graphic designer).  =)
> 
> We are flying Alaska, it was the best deal we could find.  We plan on loading up the iPads!  Santa already got the kids headphones that have volume control so they don't hurt their ears blasting the music!  I am a bit nervous about flying with them, but they are older now and I think will be ok.  We are really playing up the fact that the flight will be shorter than when we drive to Disneyland, so they love that.  They also like that they can get up and stretch and use the restroom on the flight.  I worry a bit because my youngest always has issues with his ears when we go into the mountains, so I hope that his ears do not hurt the entire flight.
> 
> Our only main plan is to go to Pearl Harbor one day.  The rest we will play by ear.  My mom, dad and I are going to go to the Arizona, while my husband and boys go to the Missouri.  My husband has been to the Arizona before and while he would love to go again, we aren't quite sure the boys will understand the significance and importance of it at their age.  So we plan to go back when they are older.
> 
> Looking forward to hearing about your room and your thoughts on Aunty's



Awesome! A fellow "creative type."   Well, if you have CS and are a graphic designer, than using Premiere shouldn't be that hard. If you have questions about it, feel free to reach out to me and I can help or point you in the right direction.

I like how you sold them on the long flight by saying it's shorter than the drive! I'm sure they'll be great on the plane. I assume at 6 and 8 years old, they have developed the ability to control their impulses a bit more and are able to sit through school for that period of time. I wish I could provide some tips on the ear thing. Lily didn't have any issues and my wife breastfed Alex while we took off and landed to prevent that issue. I'm sure there are some tricks out there! 

We did go to Pearl Harbor. Our original plan was to take turns going to the US Arizona while one stays back with both kids. However, we just ended up taking the kids with us because we ended up getting there too late. I'll talk about that in the trip report in detail. But the short of it is that we ended up getting there just in time for the very last boat out to the US AZ. I read horror stories about it being completely overrun by tourists and the staff being very strict. However, it was the opposite for us...perhaps because we got there at the end of the day. Not many people there. We parked in the closest lot. Our tour to the US AZ had only 25% of the boat capacity. It may require more research, but it could be the end of day tours are less busy than the first-thing-in-the-morning tours? Also, they only let you stay out there for like 15-20 minutes. So, I think you could bring the kids with you. For us, Lily was the concern. But I think because everybody else was very quiet and somber, she noticed and stayed quiet as well. Plus, she was interested in trying to understand more about the "underwater boat." 

There'll be plenty I'll share about the room and Auntys! And all of Aulani!


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## Soccerluvinmama

I CAN'T WAIT TO READ MORE!! (yes, I'm yelling)


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## alohamom

Thanks for the CD link. I have debating between that one and the Jake Shimbukuro one called Ukulele Disney. Super expensive for me as I live in Canada and the shipping plus the exchange will make ONE of these the most expensive CD I have ever bought! It was great to hear the clip, gave me an idea of what to expect. What I REALLY want is the elevator music from Aulani. I have read you can access it on Pandora but again, being located in Canada restricts me from legally doing so.


----------



## Schmagurty

alohamom said:


> Thanks for the CD link. I have debating between that one and the Jake Shimbukuro one called Ukulele Disney. Super expensive for me as I live in Canada and the shipping plus the exchange will make ONE of these the most expensive CD I have ever bought! It was great to hear the clip, gave me an idea of what to expect. What I REALLY want is the elevator music from Aulani. I have read you can access it on Pandora but again, being located in Canada restricts me from legally doing so.



Are you talking about the one called "Aulani: Music of the Maka'ala"? If so, I know that one is on Spotify. Since we were on the first floor, we only took the elevators twice...and only up one floor to the lobby level. So I never did hear the elevator music that I keep reading about.

For the "Greatest Disney Hawaiian" CD, I only paid $23 for it with shipping. Not sure why the first list price on that Amazon page is so high. If you look at the "new and used" purchase options, you can get it for a lot less. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003APNPRW/ref=olp_f_new

I bought mine from seller "Nano Japan" and it arrived relatively quickly from Japan. About 2 weeks if I recall. It can only be purchased from Japan.

If you can wait, I will be using more tracks from it for future videos on this TR so you can hear it!


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## jtba

enjoying your TR so far... can't wait for the next installment!


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## alohamom

Schmagurty said:


> Are you talking about the one called "Aulani: Music of the Maka'ala"? If so, I know that one is on Spotify. Since we were on the first floor, we only took the elevators twice...and only up one floor to the lobby level. So I never did hear the elevator music that I keep reading about.
> 
> If you can wait, I will be using more tracks from it for future videos on this TR so you can hear it!



I have toyed with buying "Aulani: Music of the Maka'ala" too- I got very excited when it was released but alas, this is not the elevator stuff. There is a loop of classic Disney songs that play in the elevators and they are sung in Hawaiian. This has terrible sound quality but to give you an idea here is a YouTube link with versions of "You Got a Friend In Me" and "When You Wish Upon A Star" 





Awesome that more videos and music is coming-thanks so much!


----------



## Dugette

So glad you are writing this report!  And also thrilled that you had a great time.



Schmagurty said:


> (Side note: It took awhile for me to believe this was all real. In fact, a part of me still wasn’t sure it was real until the plane’s wheels left the ground!)


I hadn't realized that you won your trip. That is awesome!  I do relate to the feeling, though. Since we got our (first trip) flights for $70/each First Class with the glitch, I was in total disbelief about our trip too. Wasn't real until they actually let us into our seats.



Schmagurty said:


>


Adorable family picture!



Schmagurty said:


> But over the next several months, we gradually began to forget about the fact that we were going. Then, as the holiday season arrived, our January trip became real again and we had to start buying stuff and thinking about packing. It really snuck up on us pretty quickly.


I relate to this from our recent January trip - all distracted by holidays and "oh, it's NEXT year" and then BAM - time to pack and leave! 



Schmagurty said:


> I appreciated this because I always find in O’hare that if you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do, the workers act like they’re insulted by your lack of knowledge about the process.


Glad you had someone helpful. I hate that some have such attitudes.



Schmagurty said:


> It wasn’t until we had neared the conveyor belt to put our stuff on it did I realize how much stuff we were lugging with us. I had my laptop with the electronics. I brought my MacBook so I could back up our photos. Of course, that laptop has to come out of the back and go in its own bin. We both had backpacks jammed with stuff. We had the car seat. We had our shoes. (Kids shoes don’t have to come off.) We had empty water bottles, Alex’s blanket, Lily’s backpack and breastmilk. I think we used approximately 18 bins to get our stuff through. Ha!


Yep, I relate to that too. It's amazing all the things you have to deal with just to get through.



Schmagurty said:


> Unfortunately, I can’t remember what those protocols were.


With ours (cow's milk too), they make us take the tops off, then hold a little tester thing over it briefly, then give it back. Nothing too major.



Schmagurty said:


> The security process was quite an ordeal, but getting beyond that felt like we were crossing the threshold to the reality of our vacation and, collectively, our excitement began to grow.


That's a great feeling! I hate security going home, though - not the same excitement after, except that you won't have to do it again for a while.



Schmagurty said:


> Joking aside, the flight itself was actually very uneventful, happy and peaceful!


I'm so glad that the kids ended up being such good flyers! That is really a treat! I mean, for the most part, we've had good experiences too, but you just never know. And part of it was that you were well prepared with things to keep them occupied, which helps a ton. 



Schmagurty said:


> We flew on United. It had been awhile since DG or I had flown a long flight like this and we expected multiple rounds of beverages as well as rounds of snacks and meals to be delivered. Wrong. Things have changed apparently. We only had one round of complimentary beverages. After that, they only came buy with water. Additionally, all food came with a price tag.


 I guess it has been a while since you've had a long flight like this. And United doesn't even give snacks! (We normally fly Delta and they have snacks, but United was this past HI trip and you are right - they don't offer much for free). I always ask for a full can of pop and get it, though (free). We were fortunate in that we booked using FlexPerks miles (credit card) and they include $25 in-flight credits, so we stocked up on food with those.



Schmagurty said:


> We arrived about 3PM at the Honolulu airport. One thing that took some getting used to was going outside and walking through open air segments of the airport to get to the baggage claim.


Isn't that such an odd thing to us northerners? Open air buildings - so Hawaiian!



Schmagurty said:


> Eventually, all had calmed and DG had done the best she could cleaning up the mess. Alex slowed his crying down some. And I spent my time apologizing over and over again to the driver for the mess.


Gosh, I am sorry you all had to deal with this stuff. What a rough ride over!



Schmagurty said:


> How we really arrived: half of us covered in vomit, two of us sobbing and all of us a bit beat up and embarrassed.


 Quite the picture, there. 



Schmagurty said:


> I can say that walking into that lobby is something special. If you’ve never been but have seen video or pictures, those images don’t do it justice. There is the visual beauty of it. The colors are very vibrant and it feels very majestic and epic when you walk into it. But there’s also an aura about it. The music playing in the background…the movement and activity happening inside…the smell. I can’t quite explain it. But I can say that when you walk in, you do feel like you’ve been transported to some place magical and special. And I could feel the weight of that long trip drift off of my shoulders.


Great description - it really is a special feeling to walk inside.



Schmagurty said:


> complimented how adorable our vomit-covered daughter was.




So glad that your upgraded room worked out so well.

Can't wait for more! Loved your little video too.


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## CampbellzSoup

Your family is absouelty beautiful


----------



## living20057

crystal1313 said:


> Thanks Schmagurty!  I will look into the adobe stuff!  I have the CS at work, but mainly use InDesign for typesetting (I am a graphic designer).  =)
> 
> We are flying Alaska, it was the best deal we could find.  We plan on loading up the iPads!  Santa already got the kids headphones that have volume control so they don't hurt their ears blasting the music!  I am a bit nervous about flying with them, but they are older now and I think will be ok.  We are really playing up the fact that the flight will be shorter than when we drive to Disneyland, so they love that.  They also like that they can get up and stretch and use the restroom on the flight.  I worry a bit because my youngest always has issues with his ears when we go into the mountains, so I hope that his ears do not hurt the entire flight.
> 
> Our only main plan is to go to Pearl Harbor one day.  The rest we will play by ear.  My mom, dad and I are going to go to the Arizona, while my husband and boys go to the Missouri.  My husband has been to the Arizona before and while he would love to go again, we aren't quite sure the boys will understand the significance and importance of it at their age.  So we plan to go back when they are older.
> 
> Looking forward to hearing about your room and your thoughts on Aunty's




What's the best way to load movies on to the iPad? Can I do this on MacBook as well. I feel like people are always downloading movies but I don have any luck. Do I need to buy them from the App Store?


----------



## Schmagurty

living20057 said:


> What's the best way to load movies on to the iPad? Can I do this on MacBook as well. I feel like people are always downloading movies but I don have any luck. Do I need to buy them from the App Store?



There are a number of ways this can be done, but all involve having to purchase or get access to digital versions of movies. In other words, I'm not sure there exists easy ways to rip the files from hard DVDs and put them on your iPad. The industry has been pretty good about shutting down that stuff to prevent piracy. But here are some things you can do:


If you own DVDs that came with a "digital version" code (or have family/friends willing to gift theirs to you), redeem those codes via the respective app they apply to. Most "digital version" codes work in iTunes now. Some older movies will use the Ultraviolet or Flixster apps. Once you redeem the digital version, they should provide you a way to download a local file to your iPad so you can watch without internet.
Amazon's app offers the ability to download local files of movies and TV shows. So, if you're a Prime customers, you can download local versions of free Prime shows. Or, if you buy movies/shows through Amazon, same thing.
Your cable company may have an app that allows you to download local files of TV shows and movies that you have free access to as part of your cable subscription. So, if you have HBO, you would be able to download a local copy to a movie that HBO offers, and so on. I know Comcast/Xfinity has this. 
If you have digital Disney movies you want to be downloaded on your iPad, I recommend using the Disney Movies Anywhere app. For whatever reason, that app downloads smaller files of the movies for you to watch...which means less waiting for downloads and having more space for movies. (Note: you can link your iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google or Microsoft accounts to the Disney app...so if you buy a Disney movie from those stores, they automatically show up in the app and you get rewards points for them.)
iTunes will let you download local versions of movies/shows you buy. You have to use the "Videos" app to do that. 
Note: the plane's internet connection is not fast enough to stream videos. You'll have to have locally downloaded files.
Hope that helps!


----------



## Leevaughn

Re: Ripping DVDs on your MacBook to MP4 iPad format - free app is called: HandBrake. Then import to iTunes and stick it on your ipad.

Re: youtube vids to MP4. There are websites that allow you to copy the link of the youtube vid, then it exports the youtube video into MP4 format that you can import into itunes, then throw on your ipad.

Believe me, just refreshed all content on our ipads for our 3 and 5 yr olds. Flight takes off Monday morning to Aulani; first 7 hour flight with them (usually we break a flight up into two, but this one is direct). I'm nervous about what my 3 yr old will get up to...


----------



## Iggipolka

Loving your trip report! We're taking our 3&6 yr olds to Aulani next month & I think I'm going to bring children's Dramamine!


----------



## living20057

Schmagurty said:


> There are a number of ways this can be done, but all involve having to purchase or get access to digital versions of movies. In other words, I'm not sure there exists easy ways to rip the files from hard DVDs and put them on your iPad. The industry has been pretty good about shutting down that stuff to prevent piracy. But here are some things you can do:
> 
> 
> If you own DVDs that came with a "digital version" code (or have family/friends willing to gift theirs to you), redeem those codes via the respective app they apply to. Most "digital version" codes work in iTunes now. Some older movies will use the Ultraviolet or Flixster apps. Once you redeem the digital version, they should provide you a way to download a local file to your iPad so you can watch without internet.
> Amazon's app offers the ability to download local files of movies and TV shows. So, if you're a Prime customers, you can download local versions of free Prime shows. Or, if you buy movies/shows through Amazon, same thing.
> Your cable company may have an app that allows you to download local files of TV shows and movies that you have free access to as part of your cable subscription. So, if you have HBO, you would be able to download a local copy to a movie that HBO offers, and so on. I know Comcast/Xfinity has this.
> If you have digital Disney movies you want to be downloaded on your iPad, I recommend using the Disney Movies Anywhere app. For whatever reason, that app downloads smaller files of the movies for you to watch...which means less waiting for downloads and having more space for movies. (Note: you can link your iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google or Microsoft accounts to the Disney app...so if you buy a Disney movie from those stores, they automatically show up in the app and you get rewards points for them.)
> iTunes will let you download local versions of movies/shows you buy. You have to use the "Videos" app to do that.
> Note: the plane's internet connection is not fast enough to stream videos. You'll have to have locally downloaded files.
> Hope that helps!



Absolutely helpful! We do have Xfinity. I've never used cable login away from the home. This is definitely something I can do.


----------



## Schmagurty

*TABLE OF CONTENTS:
*
*CHAPTER 1: Intro & How We Ended Up Going to Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 2: Packing for the Trip & The Flight There  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 3: The Room & the First Half-Day at Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 4: The First Full Day at Aulani DisBoards | Tumblr*
*_______________________________

CHAPTER 3
THE ROOM & THE FIRST HALF-DAY AT AULANI*

The walk to our room went down a hall to an elevator that we rode down one floor to the first floor of rooms. (The lobby is located on the second floor of the hotel.) Our room was located where the red “X” is located on the map below—near the walkway to the spa.





As you might imagine, that beep the door makes after you slide the door key into it was a most welcome sound.  Lily and DG decided to immediately get in the shower so they could freshen up from the vomit-covered shuttle ride. With Alex asleep, I had some time to explore the room and shoot the below video:





*SONG: The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room (Disneyland) - Monoa DNA*

These rooms have a few unique creature comforts that I’ll briefly list here—as I assume you have already discovered these features in the videos Disney has put together about the rooms. But I'll share the features that stood out just in case:

The beds have space below them that provides you the ability to store your suitcases under the.
There was already a pack and play collapsible crib in the hall closet—including a fresh sheet to go in it.
There are plenty of Disney channels to choose from on the television.
There is a hidden door that opens in front of the television that provides easy access HDMI/USB/etc. ports that connect to the television.
The sliding glass doors soundproof the room from the outside (which I’ll talk more about later in this chapter)
Room includes a small fridge hidden underneath the television and a coffee maker
The bathtub is an oversized tub that could fit two adults easily (for those who are Honeymooning).
There is one of those hanging lines in the shower that expands and retracts. (We used this quite often to have swimsuits dry).
I began unpacking the room, starting with getting the cooler-packed breastmilk in the fridge. However, I noticed the fridge was not remotely cold. Unable to see any knobs to control the coldness, I called the maintenance staff right away to report the issue. Before I talk more about that, first let me tell you why we loved the first floor room we got.

*WHY A FIRST ROOM FLOOR WAS AWESOME FOR US*
As I mentioned, I was initially kind of bummed that we got a first floor room because I felt we were going to lose out on the balcony experience. However, I was completely wrong to be upset about it because it turned out to be an outstanding room location for us. And while I’ve never experienced a room on the upper floors to compare it to, I would still recommend that if you can request a first floor room facing the pool area, go for it. Here’s why:

*Comes with a built-in, free cabana*
If you’ve looked at cabana rental prices, you know that they’re pretty expensive. With a first floor room, you get your own personal, private cabana in the form of your patio space that comes with a swinging door that offers you easy access to the pool area.  As you can see in the below photo, they build some natural privacy into this area—so as you sit there, people walking by almost never notice you’re even there. We used this patio space as a place to have lunch, take breaks and keep our towels. Because it was a very shady space, we were able to keep bottled water out there as well.




*Perfect for feeding a baby*
One reason I suspect why Disney upgraded us to this room is the fact that we checked in with a baby. As you probably know, babies eat often, which means it requires mom to go back to the room with baby to feed him on a regular basis. If our room required an elevator ride and long walk down a hallway, this would have taken quite a bit of time away from mom and baby to experience the resort. With our room being on the main floor and close to an entrance door, it was much more convenient.


*Ultra sound proofed sliding doors*
I’m sure you’re wondering, “but won’t it be very noisy down there?” To answer, no. You can’t hear much of anything when those doors are closed. Our first morning there, I opened the sliding doors up, only to hear very loud singing coming from the speaker system. (This singing woman is heard every day at 7 AM). Anyway, it startled me a bit because it was pretty loud and all looked so peaceful out there. But when I closed the sliding glass door, I couldn’t hear it. That's how well the door soundproofs.


*Quick and easy access to the fun & food*
Having that immediate connection to all of the fun outdoor stuff at Aulani made the experience fun. For example, if I had to walk over to Aunty’s Beach House to get info. I can walk right out of the patio area and quickly jump into the lazy river and float my way over closer to the area. I could run to get some Dole Whips and bring them back before melt all over my hands. You get the point. The outdoor stuff felt very connected to our room—as what I imagine a cabana rental would feel like (sans the waitstaff).
So, I’ll get back to the report. The maintenance guy showed up and quickly identified that the problem with the fridge was that it wasn’t plugged in. (To do this, he had the pull the entire fridge out from it’s under-the-tv tight cubby.) He was very friendly and smiled a lot. I wanted to tip him, but I used up all my tip cash paying the van driver and bag guys. Plus, I'm not sure if you're supposed to tip maintenance?

DG and Lily had finished showering. We purposefully avoided showing Lily the water stuff outside of the door so she would be motivated to shower first. However, as she came out of the shower and I opened the curtain to show her the water area, she wanted to go out there immediately.

This is that moment that parents feel where you get more excited for your child/children because you know they have no idea how much they’re going to love what they’re about to experience. Kind of a vicarious kid joy mixed with parent pride.

By that time, Alex had woke up and was ready to eat. So, DG said she’d stay behind while dad and daughter went out to explore the area. We quickly put on our swimsuits and slathered on the sunscreen to head out. At this point, it was around 5 PM local time.

*(TIP FOR THE GUYS: Pack lightweight sleeveless shirts you can wear in the pool. Most of the men were wearing them while we were there. It not only protects you from the sun, but you also don’t have to apply so much sunscreen which saves time. And, if you live in 4-season climates like me, that part of your body is not likely exposed to the sun very much and would sunburn quickly)*

Now, I don’t know if it had recently rained or if the crowds were just unusually light this day, but the place felt especially empty…almost like we had the entire park to ourselves. I had thought to myself _“wow, we are going to have free rein of the place for our entire stay."_ (That thought was quickly disproven the following morning and for the rest of our days there. It wasn't crazy packed during our stay. But it wasn't a ghost town like it was on this particular afternoon.)

The first thing we decided to do was to ride the Tubestone Curl waterslide. We walked all the way up there stairs and realized there were zero people in line for it. The lifeguard/staff lady at the top said,_ “lucky you! No line. That doesn’t happen often.”_ I put Lily in the tube first. Then, I sat in it, apparently completely wrong. So, I was asked to stand up and sit back down in it the proper way, which I think I still managed to get wrong, but correct enough for us to go down.

The first words out of Lily’s mouth: _“this is so much FUN!”_

The words that followed: _“we’re going so FAST!”_

The words that followed that: _“daddy, I want to slow down.”_

At that point, I realized she was a little scared by the ride. We hit the bottom and made a bigger splash than I expected. Lily informed me at that point, she didn’t want to ride the waterslide anymore. Now, she wasn’t traumatized. Rather, she just found it to be a bit too much for her to take in. Plus, she has always been the type to not complain or let us know when something is bothering her. So, when she says something like that, I know she’s serious about it—so I didn’t try to get her to ride it the rest of our stay.

Next, we decided to do a lap around the Waikolohe Stream—aka the lazy river. I swapped my double raft for a single raft. Lily was happy just floating with her arm floats.

To put it simply: this lazy river is incredibly fun and it came as a surprise to me. I had even feared that Lily might get bored of it very quickly. It’s a reasonable assumption. Even the term “lazy river” sounds very passive and lacking in stimulation. But there are several things that make Aulani’s version very addicting and fun. I will detail them below. However, there are SPOILERS here, so if you want to have some things still be a surprise for your first trip, then skip past the bulleted list. Here they are:

*The shady and pretty surroundings. *
Unlike other lazy rivers I have been on, including the one at Typhoon Lagoon one—there is a very pretty and serene atmosphere about it. The high-rock walls, colorful and shade-providing trees above, the bridges you drift under and all of the waterfalls along the way all really make you feel like your in a tropical paradise.

Oh, I should note one other feature here that was initially frightening, but ended up being pretty darn cool: the candles/flames that line the lazy river. I forgot to take a picture, but have provided this one that I found on the interwebbings.





When I first saw one, I was like: _“oh, crap. Now I’m going to have to tell Lily not to touch those things because they’ll burn her._” Then, my mind went that normal parent route and I thought, _“why would they put flames so close to the edge of a place where kids will play?_” and_ “what were they THINKING?!?!”_ But as I drifted closer, I realized they were not actual flames at all. Rather, they are little bubbling streams of water that are lit with orange and red lights to make it look like it’s a flame. So, instead of feeling annoyed, I was now tickled by the creative touch they used to create them. (I should have known better, but protective parenting got to me! ha!)


*The volcanic cave*
One cool feature of the lazy river is a volcanic cave section that is carved into the Pu’u Kilo—which is the tall rock formation in the middle of the water area that houses the waterslides. When you drift through it, you’re met with a lot of water streaming down and shooting out of the sides. And, as you drift through, you feel bubbles drifting up from the water—mimicking the roll of boiling water. It's just fun to go through!


*The Occasional Water Fun*
Along the way, there are moments where you’ll come upon streams of water that are shooting down into the lazy river. You can make this an obstacle course and try to avoid getting sprayed. Or, you can soak yourself.

If there is one thing I loved riding as much as possible there, it was the lazy river. Lily loved it. DG loved it. And Alex loved all of it (besides the volcanic cave part where he got sprayed in the face once.) I should mention that it drifted at a pace that made it feel fun. Not so slow that you felt too stagnant, yet not too fast that you felt rushed.

After a trip around the lazy river, we got out and went to the Menehune Bridge. But the water was turned off and it wasn’t working. I was a little confused. At this point, I decided that we should get back to Mom and Alex, but that we should get to our room by circling around the lazy river again.

When we got to the river, a lifeguard said it was closed. It was at this point that I spotted a sign and realized that most of the pool and water stuff shuts down at 6PM. And they close these things very quickly and quietly. You don’t even notice it happening. So, we had to take the less fun way back to our room and go by foot.

At least I could tell Lily—who was in no way ready to leave all this newfound fun—that the pool areas were closed. And it was true! (Not just the parental white lie used to get young kids to listen.)

We headed back to the room where Mom and Alex were sitting relaxing. I let her know that the pool stuff had closed (not realizing that the Waikolohe pool was still open until 8PM). At this point, the day was pretty long for us and we had decided we shouldn’t plan to do a whole lot more.

So Lily and I changed out of our swimwear into shorts. (Oh, how great it felt to put shorts on in January!) And we decided we would go for a walk around the pool area to get the lay of the land—and then find something to eat for dinner.

Here is a video of part of that walk:





*Song: Main Street Electrical Parade (Disneyland) - Vance K. & Scott Agena*

So, here’s the funny part of this walk. As we kind of feeling tired and getting a little bored of walking through a mostly closed pool area, I suddenly remembered something I had completely forgot about: we are right on the ocean and we can go see it! I said, "let's go look at the ocean!" DG had also forgot about it and said, “oh yeah! The ocean!”

I know it sounds silly to forget about the fact that we right by the ocean. But honestly, you don’t really see it much on your journey to Aulani, outside of what you see from your airplane window. The car ride there is inland and when you check in, you don’t see the ocean. (Of course, we didn’t have an ocean view room, which also factored into this.)

So we made our way to the ocean, walking down the stairs and through a electronically locking wooden gate (which was unlocked) and to the beach. This was Lily’s first ever beach experience and it was really quite cute. As we approached the sand, we told her to take off her shoes. She was unsure about the sand. She put one foot in to test it and says aloud, _“It’s getting in between my toes!”_ I let her know that it’s okay and she steps in. She immediately realizes that it doesn’t hurt and that she can play with it.













And of course, we all had to get our feet wet for our first Hawaiian Ocean experience.









We were lucky to arrive at the beach just as the sun was setting as you might have already surmised. I could have taken pictures of it or filmed it, but I wanted to simply experience it…and I knew I’d have other chances later on. I did snap some of these photos after it went down.









*TIP: The sun goes down really fast. If you see it near the bottom of the horizon, don’t assume you can leave and come back even five minutes later and still see it. So, if it is close. Don’t leave. Just stay there and watch it. *

We decided it was time to eat and made our way over to the ULU Café, which was the first time we experienced having a lot of people around us. The place was hopping. Walking into it felt pretty high energy and busy. Lots of people walking about, waiting in lines, etc.

I spotted the reusable mugs for sale and grabbed two of them. DG and I opted for the hot plate special, which was chicken with rice, potatoes and veggies. We got Lily a fruit cup and a PB& J sandwich. Being a bit of a Star Wars geek, I couldn’t pass on getting this Darth Vader cupcake (even if Darth Vader isn’t in The Force Awakens movie as it's labeled on the cupcake.)





Here is where my initial fear of spending too much money on restaurants made an appearance. I had read and heard so much about how crazy expensive the restaurant prices where. However, I found this to not be true—if one puts the prices in context. As I add chapters, I'll describe how Aulani is not expensive to eat at if you plan it right.

Our dinners were about $15 each. A little high, yes. But not much more than a chain restaurant. Lily’s meal was about $10. My total for dinner was about $87. But this is factoring in the two $18 refillable mugs. (I think they were $18?) These mugs ensure we would get all of our drinks for free moving forward, so it was well worth the price.

So how was the food? Well, our chicken plates were really great. I don’t know what kind of seasoning they added to the chicken, but it was very flavorful, moist and tender. (Apologies for using the "m" word. I know some people hate it!) They provided more sides than we needed. And that cupcake was pretty darn tasty too! Overall, every time we ate at ULU, we had a meal we enjoyed. As you can see, we were happy campers. I recall how great the feeling was to be sitting outside in the Hawaiian night and just enjoying a relaxed meal.









After our meal, we collectively felt that blood rush to our stomachs and we began to feel like it was time to go to bed. We made it back, found the Disney Junior channel for Lily, set up the pack-n-play and went to sleep.

I found the beds to be pretty comfortable. They provided a good amount of firm pillows. Of course, we were all pretty tired from our long journey, so I’m assuming we could have fell asleep on a bed of sharp rocks and broken glass!

Up next, our First Day at Aulani!


----------



## Schmagurty

living20057 said:


> Absolutely helpful! We do have Xfinity. I've never used cable login away from the home. This is definitely something I can do.


Yes, just download the Xfinity app and that gets you a great majority of what you can get via your cable. On iPad, they do allow some downloading of shows to watch without internet. Not all though. Important to note. I'd recommend exploring what's available to you through that app!


----------



## cmph

Iggipolka said:


> Loving your trip report! We're taking our 3&6 yr olds to Aulani next month & I think I'm going to bring children's Dramamine!


Our youngest had motion sickness issues, only on planes (since outgrown). Rule number one is to bring a trash bag or 2... or 3... just in case! Those little air sick bags are useless for holding much, or getting a small child to aim into. Seriously, like a white kitchen trash bag. Also - back-up clothes, for everyone. Two extra outfits per person, minimum. Plus back-up shoes. Better to be safe than sorry, if you're already worried. Learned all of this the hard way, b/c our oldest never has had motion sickness issues and we were not prepared for the drama with #2 the first time!


----------



## cmph

Schmagurty said:


> Awesome! A fellow "creative type."   Well, if you have CS and are a graphic designer, than using Premiere shouldn't be that hard. If you have questions about it, feel free to reach out to me and I can help or point you in the right direction.
> 
> I like how you sold them on the long flight by saying it's shorter than the drive! I'm sure they'll be great on the plane. I assume at 6 and 8 years old, they have developed the ability to control their impulses a bit more and are able to sit through school for that period of time. I wish I could provide some tips on the ear thing. Lily didn't have any issues and my wife breastfed Alex while we took off and landed to prevent that issue. I'm sure there are some tricks out there!
> 
> We did go to Pearl Harbor. Our original plan was to take turns going to the US Arizona while one stays back with both kids. However, we just ended up taking the kids with us because we ended up getting there too late. I'll talk about that in the trip report in detail. But the short of it is that we ended up getting there just in time for the very last boat out to the US AZ. I read horror stories about it being completely overrun by tourists and the staff being very strict. However, it was the opposite for us...perhaps because we got there at the end of the day. Not many people there. We parked in the closest lot. Our tour to the US AZ had only 25% of the boat capacity. It may require more research, but it could be the end of day tours are less busy than the first-thing-in-the-morning tours? Also, they only let you stay out there for like 15-20 minutes. So, I think you could bring the kids with you. For us, Lily was the concern. But I think because everybody else was very quiet and somber, she noticed and stayed quiet as well. Plus, she was interested in trying to understand more about the "underwater boat."
> 
> There'll be plenty I'll share about the room and Auntys! And all of Aulani!


Thanks for mentioning that about Pearl Harbor! I'm going to reserve our tickets in advance but I'd rather not fight a crowd and will think about aiming for late in the day, which is the opposite of what everyone seems to do.

Oh - and for the ear issue - anything that gets them to chew and swallow. Lollipops, gummy candies, chewy fruit snacks, that sort of stuff. If it doesn't immediately work, then they are at least distracted by the treat. We do gum now too, although honestly the 7yo still doesn't really like it and would prefer the other options.


----------



## Schmagurty

cmph said:


> Our youngest had motion sickness issues, only on planes (since outgrown). Rule number one is to bring a trash bag or 2... or 3... just in case! Those little air sick bags are useless for holding much, or getting a small child to aim into. Seriously, like a white kitchen trash bag. Also - back-up clothes, for everyone. Two extra outfits per person, minimum. Plus back-up shoes. Better to be safe than sorry, if you're already worried. Learned all of this the hard way, b/c our oldest never has had motion sickness issues and we were not prepared for the drama with #2 the first time!


Those are good tips! Thanks for sharing. I didn't think about the trash bag option!


----------



## Schmagurty

cmph said:


> Thanks for mentioning that about Pearl Harbor! I'm going to reserve our tickets in advance but I'd rather not fight a crowd and will think about aiming for late in the day, which is the opposite of what everyone seems to do.
> 
> Oh - and for the ear issue - anything that gets them to chew and swallow. Lollipops, gummy candies, chewy fruit snacks, that sort of stuff. If it doesn't immediately work, then they are at least distracted by the treat. We do gum now too, although honestly the 7yo still doesn't really like it and would prefer the other options.



I can see why people plan for first thing in the morning because it's something you can go do early and have the rest of the day open for planning other stuff. So, thinking of it that way, it would make sense that mornings are really busy and afternoons are less so. I'm like you. If I can avoid crowds, that's worth it. One thing that also was surprising is that I read about how the staff were really super strict about everything. Like you had to get there early. You couldn't bring stuff with you on the boat. And so on. Our experience was that they were pretty laid back. We had reserved tickets, but got their to late for that tour. When I told the ticket guy, he was like "welp, you missed that one. Here's tickets for the next one."


----------



## Schmagurty

Iggipolka said:


> Loving your trip report! We're taking our 3&6 yr olds to Aulani next month & I think I'm going to bring children's Dramamine!



Exciting you're going soon! We bought those travel sickness wrist bands for Lily. But she was totally fine on the flight. So we didn't use them. (Though, she never tells us when something is bothering her so we don't know for sure!) One tip I've heard from others is that one should always test out a new medication/pill prior to boarding the plane...as to avoid an emergency landing due to an unexpected allergy or negative reaction to the pills.


----------



## alohamom

AGGGHHHH LOVE the Star Wars incorrect cupcake!


----------



## Schmagurty

alohamom said:


> AGGGHHHH LOVE the Star Wars incorrect cupcake!


At least Jar Jar Binks wasn't on top of it! haha.


----------



## crystal1313

Schmagurty said:


> At least Jar Jar Binks wasn't on top of it! haha.



Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! I totally just laughed out loud at work!


----------



## Schmagurty

crystal1313 said:


> Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! I totally just laughed out loud at work!



Nooooooooo! Meeesa Meeesa no like disa cupcake.


----------



## jtba

Schmagurty said:


> Nooooooooo! Meeesa Meeesa no like disa cupcake.



gah!!!! *shielding my eyes*


----------



## crystal1313

LMAO!!!!!!!  So funny!!


----------



## Schmagurty

Dugette said:


> So glad you are writing this report!  And also thrilled that you had a great time.
> 
> 
> I hadn't realized that you won your trip. That is awesome!  I do relate to the feeling, though. Since we got our (first trip) flights for $70/each First Class with the glitch, I was in total disbelief about our trip too. Wasn't real until they actually let us into our seats.
> 
> 
> Adorable family picture!
> 
> 
> I relate to this from our recent January trip - all distracted by holidays and "oh, it's NEXT year" and then BAM - time to pack and leave!
> 
> 
> Glad you had someone helpful. I hate that some have such attitudes.
> 
> 
> Yep, I relate to that too. It's amazing all the things you have to deal with just to get through.
> 
> 
> With ours (cow's milk too), they make us take the tops off, then hold a little tester thing over it briefly, then give it back. Nothing too major.
> 
> 
> That's a great feeling! I hate security going home, though - not the same excitement after, except that you won't have to do it again for a while.
> 
> 
> I'm so glad that the kids ended up being such good flyers! That is really a treat! I mean, for the most part, we've had good experiences too, but you just never know. And part of it was that you were well prepared with things to keep them occupied, which helps a ton.
> 
> 
> I guess it has been a while since you've had a long flight like this. And United doesn't even give snacks! (We normally fly Delta and they have snacks, but United was this past HI trip and you are right - they don't offer much for free). I always ask for a full can of pop and get it, though (free). We were fortunate in that we booked using FlexPerks miles (credit card) and they include $25 in-flight credits, so we stocked up on food with those.
> 
> 
> Isn't that such an odd thing to us northerners? Open air buildings - so Hawaiian!
> 
> 
> Gosh, I am sorry you all had to deal with this stuff. What a rough ride over!
> 
> 
> Quite the picture, there.
> 
> 
> Great description - it really is a special feeling to walk inside.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So glad that your upgraded room worked out so well.
> 
> Can't wait for more! Loved your little video too.



Thanks Dugette! Your Aulani trip report was very helpful to me as I was planning our trip. I'm trying to pay it forward with mine. That flight glitch deal you got was amazing! I can't imagine flying first class to Hawaii for almost free!


----------



## MarbleBob

Joining in.  This trip report is fantastic.  Having fun reading along


----------



## Nikodemos

After going to Aulani last December, I would agree that for food Ulu Cafe is very $$ reasonable and the quality is very good.  For breakfasts, the servings were big enough to share so that brought down the costs too.

Great TR!


----------



## Dugette

Schmagurty said:


> However, I noticed the fridge was not remotely cold.


Weird, we had an incident with the fridge on our recent trip too - it had been working, but one day I went in there and everything in the freezer was melting and nothing was cold - it had somehow gotten turned off.  Kind-of a bummer, but we salvaged most things.



Schmagurty said:


> *Comes with a built-in, free cabana*
> If you’ve looked at cabana rental prices, you know that they’re pretty expensive. With a first floor room, you get your own personal, private cabana in the form of your patio space that comes with a swinging door that offers you easy access to the pool area. As you can see in the below photo, they build some natural privacy into this area—so as you sit there, people walking by almost never notice you’re even there. We used this patio space as a place to have lunch, take breaks and keep our towels. Because it was a very shady space, we were able to keep bottled water out there as well.


That is a big plus to your location and I'm sure it was super convenient. Of course, you miss out on all the preschooler fun of pushing elevator buttons every time you go to and from your room. 



Schmagurty said:


> The first thing we decided to do was to ride the Tubestone Curl waterslide. We walked all the way up there stairs and realized there were zero people in line for it. The lifeguard/staff lady at the top said,_ “lucky you! No line. That doesn’t happen often.”_ I put Lily in the tube first. Then, I sat in it, apparently completely wrong. So, I was asked to stand up and sit back down in it the proper way, which I think I still managed to get wrong, but correct enough for us to go down.
> 
> The first words out of Lily’s mouth: _“this is so much FUN!”_
> 
> The words that followed: _“we’re going so FAST!”_
> 
> The words that followed that: _“daddy, I want to slow down.”_
> 
> At that point, I realized she was a little scared by the ride.


Aw, sorry she was scared of it. I have a little thrill-seeker who insisted we go down that slide repeatedly (on this last trip), so we have now been on it a bunch!



Schmagurty said:


> To put it simply: this lazy river is incredibly fun and it came as a surprise to me.


Isn't it great? They did such a fantastic job with it. Everyone in our party loved it too. Glad Lily enjoyed it.



Schmagurty said:


> Oh, I should note one other feature here that was initially frightening, but ended up being pretty darn cool: the candles/flames that line the lazy river.


Ha, I noticed those too. Wasn't sure exactly what they were, but figured it couldn't be real fire at Disney.



Schmagurty said:


> When we got to the river, a lifeguard said it was closed. It was at this point that I spotted a sign and realized that most of the pool and water stuff shuts down at 6PM. And they close these things very quickly and quietly. You don’t even notice it happening.


Yeah, they close things down so early in the winter (especially the kids areas). I saw them doing it too - they are really on top of things and it is a very smooth process.



Schmagurty said:


>


Great timing to get down there at sunset! So beautiful!



Schmagurty said:


> So how was the food? Well, our chicken plates were really great. I don’t know what kind of seasoning they added to the chicken, but it was very flavorful, moist and tender. (Apologies for using the "m" word. I know some people hate it!) They provided more sides than we needed. And that cupcake was pretty darn tasty too! Overall, every time we ate at ULU, we had a meal we enjoyed. As you can see, we were happy campers. I recall how great the feeling was to be sitting outside in the Hawaiian night and just enjoying a relaxed meal.


Glad you had a good meal at Ulu - sounds tasty. We always enjoyed what we had there too. Love that feeling of just soaking in the atmosphere to start your trip.


----------



## Schmagurty

Nikodemos said:


> After going to Aulani last December, I would agree that for food Ulu Cafe is very $$ reasonable and the quality is very good.  For breakfasts, the servings were big enough to share so that brought down the costs too.
> 
> Great TR!


Totally agree about the portion sizes! Always more than you need!


----------



## Schmagurty

Dugette said:


> Glad you had a good meal at Ulu - sounds tasty. We always enjoyed what we had there too. Love that feeling of just soaking in the atmosphere to start your trip.



When you returned from your trip back to the Midwest, did you think to yourself, "why the heck are we living in this arctic tundra?!?!?" Ha!


----------



## Schmagurty

Dugette said:


> Aw, sorry she was scared of it. I have a little thrill-seeker who insisted we go down that slide repeatedly (on this last trip), so we have now been on it a bunch!



Yeah, I thought she'd like it more than she did. But, it kind of worked out, because after the first day, the line for that slide was always all the way down the length of the stairs. I can say, she did like the waterslide on the Menehune bridge and went on it tons of times.


----------



## Dugette

Schmagurty said:


> When you returned from your trip back to the Midwest, did you think to yourself, "why the heck are we living in this arctic tundra?!?!?" Ha!


Oh, yes, but us Minnesotans think that after returning from pretty much anywhere in the winter.


----------



## AZMermaid

That ground floor room sounds awesome! You sold me! Great report so far!


----------



## Mamapapa

Loving this report so far - I think it's because if we ever brought our kids to Hawaii, it's almost a guarantee that our trip would start the same way at yours. Someone would be wearing vomit...


----------



## Schmagurty

AZMermaid said:


> That ground floor room sounds awesome! You sold me! Great report so far!


Thanks! I think just the fact that we didn't have to stress out about putting towels down on a chair somewhere was a big help. We had tried finding chairs at the other side of the facilities for convenience, but those things really do fill up very early and stay full almost the entire day!

I don't know if Aulani lets you request specific room floors, do they? If anybody knows, please share! We want to go back in a few years when Alex is old enough to remember it, but would like that first floor room access again.


----------



## Schmagurty

Mamapapa said:


> Loving this report so far - I think it's because if we ever brought our kids to Hawaii, it's almost a guarantee that our trip would start the same way at yours. Someone would be wearing vomit...



Ha! I hope not. Well, at the end of the day, that one (vomit) bump in the road really wasnt' such a big deal. I can say that having the Aulani fun outside of our screen door made Lily forget very quickly about it (and the rest of us too!)


----------



## Schmagurty

AZMermaid said:


> That ground floor room sounds awesome! You sold me! Great report so far!



I forgot to say thanks AZMermaid for your Aulani trip report too! It was very helpful to us in planning our trip!


----------



## crystal1313

I think you can request certain floors, but that does not guarantee you will get your request.  I have also read in another trip report that you can ask to upgrade your room upon check in.  I plan to attempt that in July =)


----------



## AZMermaid

Schmagurty said:


> I don't know if Aulani lets you request specific room floors, do they? If anybody knows, please share! We want to go back in a few years when Alex is old enough to remember it, but would like that first floor room access again.



You can request but it is not guaranteed. We requested 4th or 5th floor pool view and got 4th floor. Actually, kind of right above you I think. We were room 412. I will likely request the other tower too- just to be closer to the community hall and Aunty's. But we were totally happy with our room- just preferences we learned!


----------



## Dugette

Also, for room request guidance, there's a big Aulani Villas and Views thread on here somewhere. Very helpful to see what various rooms are like (people have posted pics/reviews - I put ours on there after our trips too).


----------



## patches4me

Schmagurty said:


> *TABLE OF CONTENTS:
> 
> CHAPTER 1: Intro & How We Ended Up Going to Aulani DisBoards | Tumblr
> CHAPTER 2: Packing for the Trip & The Flight There DisBoards | Tumblr
> CHAPTER 2: The Room & the First Half-Day at Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr
> _______________________________
> 
> CHAPTER 3
> THE ROOM & THE FIRST HALF-DAY AT AULANI*
> 
> The walk to our room went down a hall to an elevator that we rode down one floor to the first floor of rooms. (The lobby is located on the second floor of the hotel.) Our room was located where the red “X” is located on the map below—near the walkway to the spa.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As you might imagine, that beep the door makes after you slide the door key into it was a most welcome sound.  Lily and DG decided to immediately get in the shower so they could freshen up from the vomit-covered shuttle ride. With Alex asleep, I had some time to explore the room and shoot the below video:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *SONG: The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room (Disneyland) - Monoa DNA*
> 
> These rooms have a few unique creature comforts that I’ll briefly list here—as I assume you have already discovered these features in the videos Disney has put together about the rooms. But I'll share the features that stood out just in case:
> 
> The beds have space below them that provides you the ability to store your suitcases under the.
> There was already a pack and play collapsible crib in the hall closet—including a fresh sheet to go in it.
> There are plenty of Disney channels to choose from on the television.
> There is a hidden door that opens in front of the television that provides easy access HDMI/USB/etc. ports that connect to the television.
> The sliding glass doors soundproof the room from the outside (which I’ll talk more about later in this chapter)
> Room includes a small fridge hidden underneath the television and a coffee maker
> The bathtub is an oversized tub that could fit two adults easily (for those who are Honeymooning).
> There is one of those hanging lines in the shower that expands and retracts. (We used this quite often to have swimsuits dry).
> I began unpacking the room, starting with getting the cooler-packed breastmilk in the fridge. However, I noticed the fridge was not remotely cold. Unable to see any knobs to control the coldness, I called the maintenance staff right away to report the issue. Before I talk more about that, first let me tell you why we loved the first floor room we got.
> 
> *WHY A FIRST ROOM FLOOR WAS AWESOME FOR US*
> As I mentioned, I was initially kind of bummed that we got a first floor room because I felt we were going to lose out on the balcony experience. However, I was completely wrong to be upset about it because it turned out to be an outstanding room location for us. And while I’ve never experienced a room on the upper floors to compare it to, I would still recommend that if you can request a first floor room facing the pool area, go for it. Here’s why:
> 
> *Comes with a built-in, free cabana*
> If you’ve looked at cabana rental prices, you know that they’re pretty expensive. With a first floor room, you get your own personal, private cabana in the form of your patio space that comes with a swinging door that offers you easy access to the pool area.  As you can see in the below photo, they build some natural privacy into this area—so as you sit there, people walking by almost never notice you’re even there. We used this patio space as a place to have lunch, take breaks and keep our towels. Because it was a very shady space, we were able to keep bottled water out there as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Perfect for feeding a baby*
> One reason I suspect why Disney upgraded us to this room is the fact that we checked in with a baby. As you probably know, babies eat often, which means it requires mom to go back to the room with baby to feed him on a regular basis. If our room required an elevator ride and long walk down a hallway, this would have taken quite a bit of time away from mom and baby to experience the resort. With our room being on the main floor and close to an entrance door, it was much more convenient.
> 
> 
> *Ultra sound proofed sliding doors*
> I’m sure you’re wondering, “but won’t it be very noisy down there?” To answer, no. You can’t hear much of anything when those doors are closed. Our first morning there, I opened the sliding doors up, only to hear very loud singing coming from the speaker system. (This singing woman is heard every day at 7 AM). Anyway, it startled me a bit because it was pretty loud and all looked so peaceful out there. But when I closed the sliding glass door, I couldn’t hear it. That's how well the door soundproofs.
> 
> 
> *Quick and easy access to the fun & food*
> Having that immediate connection to all of the fun outdoor stuff at Aulani made the experience fun. For example, if I had to walk over to Aunty’s Beach House to get info. I can walk right out of the patio area and quickly jump into the lazy river and float my way over closer to the area. I could run to get some Dole Whips and bring them back before melt all over my hands. You get the point. The outdoor stuff felt very connected to our room—as what I imagine a cabana rental would feel like (sans the waitstaff).
> So, I’ll get back to the report. The maintenance guy showed up and quickly identified that the problem with the fridge was that it wasn’t plugged in. (To do this, he had the pull the entire fridge out from it’s under-the-tv tight cubby.) He was very friendly and smiled a lot. I wanted to tip him, but I used up all my tip cash paying the van driver and bag guys. Plus, I'm not sure if you're supposed to tip maintenance?
> 
> DG and Lily had finished showering. We purposefully avoided showing Lily the water stuff outside of the door so she would be motivated to shower first. However, as she came out of the shower and I opened the curtain to show her the water area, she wanted to go out there immediately.
> 
> This is that moment that parents feel where you get more excited for your child/children because you know they have no idea how much they’re going to love what they’re about to experience. Kind of a vicarious kid joy mixed with parent pride.
> 
> By that time, Alex had woke up and was ready to eat. So, DG said she’d stay behind while dad and daughter went out to explore the area. We quickly put on our swimsuits and slathered on the sunscreen to head out. At this point, it was around 5 PM local time.
> 
> *(TIP FOR THE GUYS: Pack lightweight sleeveless shirts you can wear in the pool. Most of the men were wearing them while we were there. It not only protects you from the sun, but you also don’t have to apply so much sunscreen which saves time. And, if you live in 4-season climates like me, that part of your body is not likely exposed to the sun very much and would sunburn quickly)*
> 
> Now, I don’t know if it had recently rained or if the crowds were just unusually light this day, but the place felt especially empty…almost like we had the entire park to ourselves. I had thought to myself _“wow, we are going to have free rein of the place for our entire stay."_ (That thought was quickly disproven the following morning and for the rest of our days there. It wasn't crazy packed during our stay. But it wasn't a ghost town like it was on this particular afternoon.)
> 
> The first thing we decided to do was to ride the Tubestone Curl waterslide. We walked all the way up there stairs and realized there were zero people in line for it. The lifeguard/staff lady at the top said,_ “lucky you! No line. That doesn’t happen often.”_ I put Lily in the tube first. Then, I sat in it, apparently completely wrong. So, I was asked to stand up and sit back down in it the proper way, which I think I still managed to get wrong, but correct enough for us to go down.
> 
> The first words out of Lily’s mouth: _“this is so much FUN!”_
> 
> The words that followed: _“we’re going so FAST!”_
> 
> The words that followed that: _“daddy, I want to slow down.”_
> 
> At that point, I realized she was a little scared by the ride. We hit the bottom and made a bigger splash than I expected. Lily informed me at that point, she didn’t want to ride the waterslide anymore. Now, she wasn’t traumatized. Rather, she just found it to be a bit too much for her to take in. Plus, she has always been the type to not complain or let us know when something is bothering her. So, when she says something like that, I know she’s serious about it—so I didn’t try to get her to ride it the rest of our stay.
> 
> Next, we decided to do a lap around the Waikolohe Stream—aka the lazy river. I swapped my double raft for a single raft. Lily was happy just floating with her arm floats.
> 
> To put it simply: this lazy river is incredibly fun and it came as a surprise to me. I had even feared that Lily might get bored of it very quickly. It’s a reasonable assumption. Even the term “lazy river” sounds very passive and lacking in stimulation. But there are several things that make Aulani’s version very addicting and fun. I will detail them below. However, there are SPOILERS here, so if you want to have some things still be a surprise for your first trip, then skip past the bulleted list. Here they are:
> 
> *The shady and pretty surroundings. *
> Unlike other lazy rivers I have been on, including the one at Typhoon Lagoon one—there is a very pretty and serene atmosphere about it. The high-rock walls, colorful and shade-providing trees above, the bridges you drift under and all of the waterfalls along the way all really make you feel like your in a tropical paradise.
> 
> Oh, I should note one other feature here that was initially frightening, but ended up being pretty darn cool: the candles/flames that line the lazy river. I forgot to take a picture, but have provided this one that I found on the interwebbings.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When I first saw one, I was like: _“oh, crap. Now I’m going to have to tell Lily not to touch those things because they’ll burn her._” Then, my mind went that normal parent route and I thought, _“why would they put flames so close to the edge of a place where kids will play?_” and_ “what were they THINKING?!?!”_ But as I drifted closer, I realized they were not actual flames at all. Rather, they are little bubbling streams of water that are lit with orange and red lights to make it look like it’s a flame. So, instead of feeling annoyed, I was now tickled by the creative touch they used to create them. (I should have known better, but protective parenting got to me! ha!)
> 
> 
> *The volcanic cave*
> One cool feature of the lazy river is a volcanic cave section that is carved into the Pu’u Kilo—which is the tall rock formation in the middle of the water area that houses the waterslides. When you drift through it, you’re met with a lot of water streaming down and shooting out of the sides. And, as you drift through, you feel bubbles drifting up from the water—mimicking the roll of boiling water. It's just fun to go through!
> 
> 
> *The Occasional Water Fun*
> Along the way, there are moments where you’ll come upon streams of water that are shooting down into the lazy river. You can make this an obstacle course and try to avoid getting sprayed. Or, you can soak yourself.
> 
> If there is one thing I loved riding as much as possible there, it was the lazy river. Lily loved it. DG loved it. And Alex loved all of it (besides the volcanic cave part where he got sprayed in the face once.) I should mention that it drifted at a pace that made it feel fun. Not so slow that you felt too stagnant, yet not too fast that you felt rushed.
> 
> After a trip around the lazy river, we got out and went to the Menehune Bridge. But the water was turned off and it wasn’t working. I was a little confused. At this point, I decided that we should get back to Mom and Alex, but that we should get to our room by circling around the lazy river again.
> 
> When we got to the river, a lifeguard said it was closed. It was at this point that I spotted a sign and realized that most of the pool and water stuff shuts down at 6PM. And they close these things very quickly and quietly. You don’t even notice it happening. So, we had to take the less fun way back to our room and go by foot.
> 
> At least I could tell Lily—who was in no way ready to leave all this newfound fun—that the pool areas were closed. And it was true! (Not just the parental white lie used to get young kids to listen.)
> 
> We headed back to the room where Mom and Alex were sitting relaxing. I let her know that the pool stuff had closed (not realizing that the Waikolohe pool was still open until 8PM). At this point, the day was pretty long for us and we had decided we shouldn’t plan to do a whole lot more.
> 
> So Lily and I changed out of our swimwear into shorts. (Oh, how great it felt to put shorts on in January!) And we decided we would go for a walk around the pool area to get the lay of the land—and then find something to eat for dinner.
> 
> Here is a video of part of that walk:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Song: Main Street Electrical Parade (Disneyland) - Vance K. & Scott Agena*
> 
> So, here’s the funny part of this walk. As we kind of feeling tired and getting a little bored of walking through a mostly closed pool area, I suddenly remembered something I had completely forgot about: we are right on the ocean and we can go see it! I said, "let's go look at the ocean!" DG had also forgot about it and said, “oh yeah! The ocean!”
> 
> I know it sounds silly to forget about the fact that we right by the ocean. But honestly, you don’t really see it much on your journey to Aulani, outside of what you see from your airplane window. The car ride there is inland and when you check in, you don’t see the ocean. (Of course, we didn’t have an ocean view room, which also factored into this.)
> 
> So we made our way to the ocean, walking down the stairs and through a electronically locking wooden gate (which was unlocked) and to the beach. This was Lily’s first ever beach experience and it was really quite cute. As we approached the sand, we told her to take off her shoes. She was unsure about the sand. She put one foot in to test it and says aloud, _“It’s getting in between my toes!”_ I let her know that it’s okay and she steps in. She immediately realizes that it doesn’t hurt and that she can play with it.
> 
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> And of course, we all had to get our feet wet for our first Hawaiian Ocean experience.
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> We were lucky to arrive at the beach just as the sun was setting as you might have already surmised. I could have taken pictures of it or filmed it, but I wanted to simply experience it…and I knew I’d have other chances later on. I did snap some of these photos after it went down.
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> *TIP: The sun goes down really fast. If you see it near the bottom of the horizon, don’t assume you can leave and come back even five minutes later and still see it. So, if it is close. Don’t leave. Just stay there and watch it. *
> 
> We decided it was time to eat and made our way over to the ULU Café, which was the first time we experienced having a lot of people around us. The place was hopping. Walking into it felt pretty high energy and busy. Lots of people walking about, waiting in lines, etc.
> 
> I spotted the reusable mugs for sale and grabbed two of them. DG and I opted for the hot plate special, which was chicken with rice, potatoes and veggies. We got Lily a fruit cup and a PB& J sandwich. Being a bit of a Star Wars geek, I couldn’t pass on getting this Darth Vader cupcake (even if Darth Vader isn’t in The Force Awakens movie as it's labeled on the cupcake.)
> 
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> 
> Here is where my initial fear of spending too much money on restaurants made an appearance. I had read and heard so much about how crazy expensive the restaurant prices where. However, I found this to not be true—if one puts the prices in context. As I add chapters, I'll describe how Aulani is not expensive to eat at if you plan it right.
> 
> Our dinners were about $15 each. A little high, yes. But not much more than a chain restaurant. Lily’s meal was about $10. My total for dinner was about $87. But this is factoring in the two $18 refillable mugs. (I think they were $18?) These mugs ensure we would get all of our drinks for free moving forward, so it was well worth the price.
> 
> So how was the food? Well, our chicken plates were really great. I don’t know what kind of seasoning they added to the chicken, but it was very flavorful, moist and tender. (Apologies for using the "m" word. I know some people hate it!) They provided more sides than we needed. And that cupcake was pretty darn tasty too! Overall, every time we ate at ULU, we had a meal we enjoyed. As you can see, we were happy campers. I recall how great the feeling was to be sitting outside in the Hawaiian night and just enjoying a relaxed meal.
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> After our meal, we collectively felt that blood rush to our stomachs and we began to feel like it was time to go to bed. We made it back, found the Disney Junior channel for Lily, set up the pack-n-play and went to sleep.
> 
> I found the beds to be pretty comfortable. They provided a good amount of firm pillows. Of course, we were all pretty tired from our long journey, so I’m assuming we could have fell asleep on a bed of sharp rocks and broken glass!
> 
> Up next, our First Day at Aulani!



I'm enjoying this report so much!  Thank you.  We are going for the first time in September.  We're celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.  I can't swim, and I was wondering if the lazy river was safe for me?  I've done the Aquaduck ride on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship because it doesn't empty into a swimming pool.  Is this similar do you think?  As long as I'm in the tube and can't tip over or need to swim, I'll be OK.  What do you think?  Thanks so much, and I can't wait to read more.  You have a lovely family.


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## alohamom

patches4me said:


> I'm enjoying this report so much!  Thank you.  We are going for the first time in September.  We're celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.  I can't swim, and I was wondering if the lazy river was safe for me?  I've done the Aquaduck ride on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship because it doesn't empty into a swimming pool.  Is this similar do you think?  As long as I'm in the tube and can't tip over or need to swim, I'll be OK.  What do you think?  Thanks so much, and I can't wait to read more.  You have a lovely family.



I am 5'1" and I was able to stand when I wasnt riding in the tube. There is a slow current that moves the tubes along and I think if you fell out of a tube it might be a bit shocking because of the flow of the water but most adults would just be able to stand up and walk out or back to the tube in that case


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## Schmagurty

patches4me said:


> I'm enjoying this report so much!  Thank you.  We are going for the first time in September.  We're celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.  I can't swim, and I was wondering if the lazy river was safe for me?  I've done the Aquaduck ride on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship because it doesn't empty into a swimming pool.  Is this similar do you think?  As long as I'm in the tube and can't tip over or need to swim, I'll be OK.  What do you think?  Thanks so much, and I can't wait to read more.  You have a lovely family.



I'm seconding alohamom's comment. The water is maybe only four feet deep and there is never a moment where the current is so strong, you can't easily stand up. I am a terrible swimmer and I felt comfortable in the lazy river the entire time. I'll even go further in saying that you'll be pretty hard-pressed to find any part of Aulani that is intimidating to those who can't swim or are not very good at it. I take that back. There is one. The snorkeling thing. That clearly says on the signage that you should be a strong swimmer if you want to snorkel. For that reason, I chose not to do it. 

Excluding the adults-only pool and faster of the two waterslides because I didn't use either, I can say all of the pools and water areas don't get very deep. Maybe the deepest area of any of the pools is five feet deep. Even those are small enough where you are not going to be very far from an edge to grab onto. Even the ocean by Aulani is very easy to navigate. It, of course, gets deeper, but you're not going to get a lot of strong waves that carry you out farther than you want to go. So, from one swimming-challenged person to another, I can say that you'll be comfortable at Aulani! Congrats on 50 years and I hope you have a great trip!!!


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## patches4me

alohamom said:


> I am 5'1" and I was able to stand when I wasnt riding in the tube. There is a slow current that moves the tubes along and I think if you fell out of a tube it might be a bit shocking because of the flow of the water but most adults would just be able to stand up and walk out or back to the tube in that case



Thank you


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## patches4me

Schmagurty said:


> I'm seconding alohamom's comment. The water is maybe only four feet deep and there is never a moment where the current is so strong, you can't easily stand up. I am a terrible swimmer and I felt comfortable in the lazy river the entire time. I'll even go further in saying that you'll be pretty hard-pressed to find any part of Aulani that is intimidating to those who can't swim or are not very good at it. I take that back. There is one. The snorkeling thing. That clearly says on the signage that you should be a strong swimmer if you want to snorkel. For that reason, I chose not to do it.
> 
> Excluding the adults-only pool and faster of the two waterslides because I didn't use either, I can say all of the pools and water areas don't get very deep. Maybe the deepest area of any of the pools is five feet deep. Even those are small enough where you are not going to be very far from an edge to grab onto. Even the ocean by Aulani is very easy to navigate. It, of course, gets deeper, but you're not going to get a lot of strong waves that carry you out farther than you want to go. So, from one swimming-challenged person to another, I can say that you'll be comfortable at Aulani! Congrats on 50 years and I hope you have a great trip!!!



Thank you so much!  Yes, we are so looking forward to it and glad to know I will be able to use the lazy river


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## Gorechick

The lazy river current sometimes doesn't even push you along. I found myself at a stand still quite a few times and had to use my hands to paddle along or push off a wall with my hand or feet. It can also bottle neck too if many people get caught up in the same area.


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## Mommyof3inVA

Enjoying your trip report!! Thanks for the great tips on flying with children---preparing for our children's first flight is making me nervous!! This is probably a dumb question but do they serve kids meals on planes?!


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## Schmagurty

Mommyof3inVA said:


> Enjoying your trip report!! Thanks for the great tips on flying with children---preparing for our children's first flight is making me nervous!! This is probably a dumb question but do they serve kids meals on planes?!


I think every airline company is different. I can speak about United Airlines. On our flight, all meals and snacks had to be purchased. Nothing automatically provided for free. The items they had were similar to what you'd find at Starbucks or Panera. Sandwiches, cheese plates and fruit plates. If I recall correctly, I ordered Lily a fruit and cheese plate sort of thing that came with crackers, cheese and a small cup of fruit. They had junk food stuff too. Candy, chips, etc. 

If I had to do it again, I probably would have packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two to bring on the plane for her. There wasn't many options for her and I made the mistake of assuming that the meals would be provided for free on a 9.5 hour flight!


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## Mommyof3inVA

Good to know!! I have 3 picky eaters so I will probably plan on bringing their food/snacks. I read somewhere that juice boxes are allowed but they have to be a certain size. I am surprised there wasn't free food on a 9.5 hour flight! Just curious about how much were the adult meals @Schmagurty ?


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## Schmagurty

*TABLE OF CONTENTS:*

*CHAPTER 1: Intro & How We Ended Up Going to Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 2: Packing for the Trip & The Flight There  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 3: The Room & the First Half-Day at Aulani  DisBoards |  Tumblr*
*CHAPTER 4: The First Full Day at Aulani  DisBoards | Tumblr*


*CHAPTER 4: 
The First Full Day at Aulani (DAY 2)*


_Apologies for the long span of time since my last post! Things have been a bit busy. My employer recently hosted a conference in Orlando—so things were quite busy leading up to that event and during it.

I imagine some of you may be thinking: did you get a chance to go to the parks while you were there? The answer is yes. The whole family flew down and visited with DG’s parents at their Orlando-area property. DG, a big Harry Potter fan, and I had an opportunity to visit Universal to see the two JK Rowling worlds. We initially decided that the kids were too young for the parks and had planned to just go to Typhoon Lagoon one of the days—figuring it would be similar to some of what Aulani offered.

But being the impulusive, spontaneous guy I am, I made last minute changes and we we ended up spending a day at Magic Kingdom. Both kids loved everything about it—except for the 80 minutes it took to get from paying for parking to walking through the gates and some poor customer service at Casey's Corner. And, despite riding it twice, none of us got the "It's a Small World" song stuck in our heads!

But I digress. This is an Aulani trip report and I’m sure that’s what you want to read about! So, this chapter will cover the first full day we had at Aulani. Without further adieu, here it is:_

-----------------------------------

I’m a morning person. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I hate that we have to spend one-third of our lives sleeping. So, as you might guess, I did not sleep in late after our first evening staying at Aulani. Considering the drastic time change, the jet lag and the adrenaline boosts, I had expected to sleep past 7 AM Hawaii time. But there I was…bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 AM ready to start the day.

And…as anybody who has had a baby knows, sleep patterns revolve around the youngest one in the family. As I laid there with the blue glow of my phone keeping my attention, I heard our little one stir and then cry. This woke both DG and Lily as well. So, by 6:15, we were all up with vacation adrenaline pumping through our veins.

As DG fed Alex and Lily played on her Kindle, I decided I would go get DG and I some coffee from ULU Café using our refillable mugs. On top of my desire for some caffeine, I was also driven to do this because I wanted to maximize the value of the mug purchases. (It's why buffets and open bars have led to less-than-rewarding outcomes in my lifetime!)

It was still dark as night out, so I opted to go alone despite Lily’s pleas to go with me. I knew that it’d likely be pretty boring for her to walk a very dark path to a coffee carafe and back again. Plus, in the event she couldn’t control her urge to go into the pools, I didn’t want to try to stop her with two cups of hot coffee in my hands.

Here are a couple of pictures that show you just how dark it was out there.









Living near a major city, it is not common for me to be outdoors at night and not have the sky shining with the orange/pink glow of the city lights. So, for me, walking in what felt like pitch-black darkness felt a little eerie and unusual. Plus, they have minimal lighting at that time through the outside area, so it did make for a rather dark journey.

I made my way to Ulu Café and located the coffee carafes. And this is when I have one of those “bar set too high in my head” moments. As you all know, Disney puts a lot of effort into the little details to create an immersive experience—such as those water candles I talked about in the last chapter.

So, for some reason, I expected to see some elaborate coffee station that was themed with intricate Hawaiian artwork. Instead, what I found was a pretty industrial stainless steel station that was littered with the mess of prior coffee drinkers who are too freaking important to throw their emptied sugar packets into the garbage.

The fact that some people become complete slobs when it comes to getting their own coffee is probably the reason why the station had to be so industrial. As the saying goes, _“this is why we can’t have nice things!”_

I made my way back to the room and DG and I enjoyed our coffee as we collectively waited for the sun to rise and the day to begin. So, let me talk about the coffee. I’ve read and heard reviews about the Aulani coffee that have ranged from _“it’s awful”_ to _“it’s amazingly good.”_

Here’s my opinion on it. It is not as bitter (dare I say or as burned) as Starbucks coffee. It is a smooth cup of coffee that’s easy to drink. But, it seems to lack the interesting flavor notes that create a great cup of coffee. So, I’d say it is a good but somewhat neutral tasting cup of coffee. (I don’t know if they rotate coffees or stay with the same blend on an ongoing basis or not.)

Okay, moving on from coffee. The sun seemed like it took forever to rise and I began to get a bit restless with my morning-person energy reserves being mixed with caffeine. DG, on the other hand, was happy waking up slowly on her bed—and Alex had already fell back asleep.

So, I enlisted our four year old to accompany me on a walk around the property. The sun wasn’t fully up, but it was up enough to see more of what was to be enjoyed later. Lily was eager to go and got dressed very quickly.

_SIDE NOTE TO PARENTS: You know how you have those times you have to beg your young ones to get dressed and ready to go? Yeah. You probably won’t have that problem very much in Hawaii._

It was about 6:45 when we ventured out. So, here’s my first tip of this chapter to future Aulani guests: if you’re a morning person, go out at least one morning before the sun is fully up and just walk the property. The way they early morning sun blends with the way they light the property makes for a unique and very pretty experience—as you can see with these photos.





















It’s a very peaceful walk. All is very still and quiet—even the ocean—or at least it was on this day. As you can see, we made our way down by the beach area where we encountered the first bit of non-tranquil activity going on in the form of the Aulani early-morning fitness classes. We saw guests doing cone drills in the beach sand.

As we watched them sweat, hustle and grunt, I thought to myself, _“now THAT LOT are morning people._” I must admit part of my mind was confused why some would choose that self-torture amidst this paradise?!?!"

Another benefit of taking this early morning walk is that it does provide you with a great way to get a lay of the land without having to navigate through all the guests and workers. As we scouted the location, our first experience with the Hawaiian woman song/prayer blasting over the speaker occurred.

From outside, it’s pretty loud. It startled Lily a bit and she asked what it was. At the time, I had no clue and just told her somebody felt like singing a song to everybody. And, I took that audio cue as reason to think about heading back to our room for breakfast. As I discovered later, that this Hawaiian chant/blessing/prayer/song is heard every morning at 7 AM. As I mentioned earlier, with the sliding door closed, you can't hear it. But I imagine it could work as a great automatic alarm clock for those who wanted to use it for such. If somebody has more details about this that they can share, please do!

After we got back to the room, we decided that we would go to Ama Ama for breakfast. So, this seems like a good time to talk a bit about Aulani restaurants and why they’re not as “insanely expensive” as some have reported.

Let’s start with Ama Ama. This is the priciest restaurant of the lot because it offers ocean view dining and imaginative dishes. This is the one I had heard the most about being way overpriced. Here’s my thoughts: only dinner service is expensive. Like, $40-60 per meal expensive...which is pretty darn expensive. However, breakfast and lunch are actually quite reasonably priced and offer you the same spectacular views—though maybe without the pretty sunset.

Breakfast dishes ranged from $12 – 19. In the hotel/resort universe, that’s actually less than what many charge. Additionally, it’s only marginally higher than what one would pay to go have breakfast at a big chain restaurant like IHOP, Bob Evans, etc.

Lunch is the same story and similar prices. We ate lunch at Ama Ama once and found the food to be very good and the prices to be reasonable.

With young kids, avoiding dinner service there is an easier choice than it is for a couple that is visiting and perhaps Honeymooning—but, if you want to avoid the high dinner prices there but still watch the sunset as you eat dinner, you can go to Ulu Café and get some to-go food and sit on the beach and watch the sun set as you eat.

As I had mentioned in a previous chapter, Ulu café had the most economical prices and the food quality was also very good. Typically, you’ll pay about $10-12 per meal there. With the refillable mugs, you can also save by not having to order drinks.

We ate at Ulu everyday and had either breakfast, lunch and/or dinner there. Breakfast offers a lot of great variety there. Not only do they have hot plates with eggs, bacon, etc., but they also have a wide selection of a la carte pastries—including malasadas (which were quite good!).

It’s hard for me to comment much on the Makahiki restaurant because we only went there once and that was for the character breakfast. I’ll talk in greater detail about that character breakfast experience in a later chapter, but I will talk about the price now.

That breakfast is $35/adult and $18/child. Initially when we planned our trip, we had decided not to do that breakfast based on those prices. However, after seeing how excited Lily got to see the characters, we decided to do it and I’m glad we did go. For one, it was a fun entertainment experience that was very interactive for Lily.

With young kids, restaurant experiences can vary from pleasant to meltdown-mode nightmares. With all of the characters and interactivity, the character breakfast provided mom and dad with some rewarding time to actually sit, relax and enjoy our meals. It felt odd for both of us being there, not having to multitask, just eating our meal!

Two, the buffet is really quite good and features an insanely wide variety of food from Asian specialties, savory lunch like foods and all of the traditional breakfast stuff you can think of.

We also visited Off the Hook a couple of times and, again, found the food to be good and the prices reasonable and in that same $12 – 19/meal range. Our first visit there was to have some drinks while Lily was in Aunty’s beach house. Very tasty mixed drinks and, for nursing mommies, some good virgin mixed drinks as well.

Our second visit to off the hook was for dinner on our last night, which I’ll discuss in a later chapter. The sneak-peak bit of information I’ll share about that is the food at Off the Hook tended to skew more towards the fast food spectrum. Sandwiches, burgers, fries, etc.  Tasty food, but I often found it difficult to want to eat heavy meals like that while there.

The Oleo room is the last dining option to discuss. Unfortunately, we tried to go there to grab one of the creative desserts, but it was totally booked. It’s kind of a confusing place to find and go to. It’s more of a wing of the Makahiki restaurant than it is it’s own place.  So, if anybody can comment on Oleo food and prices, please do!

To sum it up, don’t worry about restaurant prices. With a little basic strategy, you really won’t feel like you’re spending too much to dine out. Compared with typical hotel/resort food prices, even on the mainland, the cost is actually pretty low.

Back to our breakfast at Ama Ama. This was a very good breakfast! DG ordered Macadamia nut pancakes with a coconut cream and caramel sauce. (I drooled a little after typing that.) I had the egg white farm vegetable frittata that was topped with macadamia nut pesto and goat cheese. Don’t they both sound amazing? Well, they were. Lily had some fresh fruit and yogurt. Here are some pictures of our experience there. You can't beat that view!

































So where else would you find those things on a menu? It’s very unlikely you’d find them anywhere. And that is why we were so glad we went there for breakfast!

My theory about vacations is that one should pay for experiences you can’t get close to home. Sure, we paid a little more for Ama Ama breakfast. But we also got to sit at a table overlooking the Pacific, with an ocean breeze and warm sun enveloping our experience. We ate from a menu that had unique, original items and, at the end of it, we found it to be a rewarding, pleasant experience that we’ll remember.

So, here’s the part of this chapter where I start running out of stuff to report—because we honestly spent most of the rest of the day just having fun. I went into this trip knowing I’d write this trip report and I had planned to take a lot more photos and videos.

But I really just got sucked into having a lot of fun and decided to enjoy the present tense experience. Was I missing some great photo opportunities? Yes. But, I know I never missed out on anything at Aulani this day by worrying about any of my little gadgets and devices.

To each their own. However, I do recommend that you try to leave your phone behind as much as possible and work in some “don’t worry about pictures” times. I personally don’t post anything on social media during my vacation time for this reason—and instead will post stuff after returning home.

For one, part of me feels uncomfortable flaunting my good times while others may not be living it up at that time. Two, I don’t like advertising that my home is vacant. And three, vacations take a ton of planning, time and money and are such unique experiences. I always feel like there is some value in not documenting 100% of it…saving some of it for special sections of one’s memory bank.

Sorry, I got off topic a bit there! Anyway, much about day one was purposefully unstructured and free of scheduled stuff to do. When we planned, my concern was that we still may be adapting to the time zone, the long flight, etc. and that starting our trip off with less hustle and running around would help us ease in.

And, I have to say it was the right call. I wouldn’t say we were necessarily dragging or having trouble adapting, but we weren’t exactly at 100 percent. Plus, this strategy gave us some front-loaded “reward” to our trip. I have been guilty of jam packing vacations with activities and then feeling completely exhausted by the time it’s time to fly home. So, it was nice to have some carefree time to start this one off!

If you’re a “jam-everything-in-to-our-schedule” type of person like me, I recommend keeping the first couple days at Aulani open and free. You’ll feel an itch to plan stuff. But just avoid it. What’s nice about Aulani is so much of it is just “walk up and have fun” stuff that you’ll still have full and fun days without planning them out!

So, a lot of our day was spent just enjoying all of the water-related fun. This is really hard stuff to report on. After all, how much can I tell you about what it’s like to be in a pool? Or go into an ocean? So, my apologies that the rest of this chapter will be a little thin!

As I mentioned in a prior chapter, the lazy river is a ton of fun and we got to go in it as a family on this day. It was really fun to see Alex enjoy himself in his little floating device. And, as you can tell in this GoPro video that shows you a full cycle of the river, it is a smile-inducing attraction.






_TIP: Learn how to use a GoPro properly if you're new to one. I borrowed this one to use and I kept on shutting it off instead of stopping it, which corrupted several of my videos beyond rescue. Also, practice using it. It's kind of shaky and feels awkward using at first! Apologies for the bouncy video and my occasional awkward facial expression towards the GoPro! _

There is one bit of new information I can share about the lazy river and that is that the water temperature was comfortable to everybody—except Alex would get too cold after about 20 minutes. We found this to be true about all of the water areas in Aulani except the little splash area and the main, big pool—which you can instantly feel is heated to a higher temperature upon entering it. Maybe the water is warmer during summer months? We were there in January and temperatures were typically in the upper 70s and low 80s while we were there.

The next water area I’d like to talk about is the Menehune bridge—or the kids-only splash water area. Visually, this is a very cool-looking area to play in. Water is splashing everywhere and bridges lead to random places including a kid-sized waterslide. Everything seems to be in some sort of perpetual motion and it just looks like a fun thing to play on.

Lily really enjoyed Menehune and I don’t think she would have ever tired from going down that little waterslide that hides inside of it. However, there are some things about it that I didn’t expect that I thought I’d share:

*The Splashing Water is Pretty Intense.*
This area is more than just some faint lawn sprinkler splashing. There are sections where you are literally dumped with water. For older kids, this is fun. For Lily, it made her very timid going through it. She already wasn’t a big fan of getting splashed in the face (as she takes after her dad). So, when she would go up the bridge to go down the waterslide, she’d cover her face with both hands and very slowly walk through the parts where water splashed pretty heavy down on her. In general, I’d say this area isn’t really made for kids who are five years old or younger, unless they are very natural and experienced with being in splashy water areas...or will endure it long enough to get used to it. Lily did endure and figured out patterns around the things she didn't feel comfortable with.

One area where this is especially true is at the bottom of the little waterslide where there are about a dozen sort of “landmines” to avoid in the form of giant buckets that fill up with water overhead and tip out once full. This is a substantial, heavy amount of water and it’s kind of hard to navigate around because there a so many of them. However, there is a path from the waterslide out of that area that you can figure out after a few attempts.

*No Adults Allowed is Strictly Enforced*
With Lily’s first few experiences on the bridge, she would get a little overwhelmed and nervous about the water and sort of freeze up. And, parental instinct tells you to go up there and help out, which I did. However, my voyage up the bridge was very short lived because a staffer told me that no adults were allowed onto the bridge at all. They don’t fool around when it comes to this. Somebody is typically always monitoring this and won’t let you get too far up the bridge before you’re booted off. I witnessed several adults get kicked off pretty quickly after walking up.

This can create a little parent anxiety, especially when you can’t see where your child has gone out of view and you can’t go up there to find where he/she is. A couple of times, I had small talk with a mom or dad there who expressed some discomfort not being able to keep an eye on their kids very easily. And it was always a parent of a child who was 3 – 5 years old and still trying to figure out their coordination, balance, water comfort levels, etc. Older kids were mostly left to play unsupervised by their parents...which leads me to the next point.

*Unsupervised Kids and the Chaos They Can Create*
Parents of younger kids know the concern this brings. Older kids are faster and more athletic but are not fully aware of their surroundings and can be a bit impulsive. When you have a child half the size of them who moves slower and has less coordination, often you see times where the older kids will knock the younger ones over or just push the younger ones out of the way.

When the older kids are unsupervised, it seems like the erratic nature of play gets worse. This can add up to a little bit of parent anxiety. For me, I’ve witnessed several times in the past where Lily has been knocked over and hurt by older kids who unknowingly harm her during their playtime. It’s 99.9% innocent rambunctiousness, but it still causes a bit of concern. On the bridge, there is obviously a higher concentration of kids and many are unsupervised with no parents allowed on it at all. Additionally, all of the water elements and twists and turns in the bridge creating blind spots. This adds up to kids slamming into each other, falling over, etc. Luckily I saw no injuries.

So, if you have younger ones, this will take some supervision and parental assistance. Lily was totally fine the entire time and never had any accidental bumps or bruises. But some others weren’t so lucky.

So, that’s my summary on Menehune Bridge. I hope that what I wrote didn’t make you fear it, because Lily really did have a lot of fun on it. It’s a really fun area and so many kids were having a blast on it while we were there. I just wanted you to know what to expect going in, especially if your kids are as young as mine.

Next, I’ll talk about the beach area. We decided that before lunch, we’d make our first voyage out to actually immerse ourselves in the Pacific ocean. This was a special moment for us because it’d be the first time the kids fully swam in the Pacific ocean. We went back to our room and grabbed a beach back, our sand toys, goggles, bottles of water, sunscreen and diapers/wipes and put them in the beach bag.

We also brought our own beach towels. Though, after our first trip, we decided the towels Aulani gives out worked just as well as the beach towels.

_*NOTE: Bring a beach bag. Or plan on buying one while there. It’s an absolute necessary thing if you plan on going to the beach area. I guess if you don't bring much to the beach with you, you could avoid it. But, it sure does make life easier as the walk to the beach isn't short for most rooms on the property.*_

We made our way to the beach area and, I can report that it’s a pretty spectacular beach that is great for kids and adults. While we were there, there was plenty of beach chairs open to grab. We put our things on two of them and made our way to the water.

The sand is soft, though not pillowy soft. There are some occasional rocks in the sand. Again, I highly recommend having water/aqua socks if you aren’t used to barefoot outdoor walking. It’s a very clean beach and offers pretty nice views to either side of it—except for perhaps the new hotel construction that was occurring while we were there.

The ocean on this side of the island seemed to be very peaceful when compared to other areas. There were not a lot of waves at all and the waves that were noticeable were muted by the barrier created by the lagoon walls. I can say that the water is pretty cool—again we were there in January and perhaps the ocean is a little cooler at that time? However after the initial dunk into the water, it was pretty easy to adjust to the water temperature and be comfortable in it.

However, Alex’s ability to adapt to the cold water was a different story. It was pretty apparent after his first dip into the ocean that it was just too cold for him. He was immediately unhappy with being in it. But he did love being held by dad and looking down at the water as it rippled reflections of the sun.

Lily on the other hand really enjoyed being in the water—as did her mom and dad! Here are some pics of us enjoying the ocean and playing in the sand.


























After our beach trip, we decided it was time for lunch. Lunch is a pretty tricky meal at Aulani for families because if one wants to go to a place where there are tables or service, this requires going back to your room and changing out of your wet swimwear into dry clothes. This doesn’t sound like a big deal. But it can quickly take precious time away from your day—because you also have to return and change back into your swimwear.

So, our solution for this was to buy our lunches from either Ulu Café or Mama’s Snack Shop and bring the food back to our room to eat outside on our porch/balcony. This way, you can stay in your swimwear while you eat and you don’t have to worry about rushing back to change back into swimwear.

And, I can report that this strategy worked great for us. The mid-day break without having to hustle in and out of swimwear felt more like a respite to us than a hurried transition. Plus, it was nice sitting back, outside in the warm air and people watching as we ate. On this day, I went back with the kids while DG went to ULU to bring back some of the to-go sandwiches, chips and drink refills.  DG had the turkey wrap, I the roast beef sandwich and Lily enjoyed another Mickey-shaped PB&J. All were filling and good quality.

During this time, I looked over the daily activity newsletter to see if there was anything we should do this day. However, we didn’t see much on it that we wanted to do (that we hadn’t already missed anyway.) So, we spend the rest of our afternoon having fun in the water.

When things began to shut down for the evening, we made our way back to our room.  At this point, our adrenaline had been spent and we were all pretty collectively pretty tired, so we decided to be conservative and stay in the room for the evening.

Part of our fatigue was from the previous day’s travel and rapid time zone change. Another part was that we came from the dead of winter in Chicago where we spent our days mostly inside and bundled up. Spending a full day out in the sun playing in water was just something for which we just didn't have an established level of endurance.

I went to Ulu again to grab a pizza to go and some drink refills—as well as some cookies. I will avoid reviewing the pizza in this report because, being from the Chicago area, we have a standard of pizza that I have discovered is a lot higher than most other places in the country. It’s common to hear from my friends who have moved out of state to complain how they "can’t find a good pizza anywhere.” (And, no, it's not all deep dish! We rarely eat deep dish.)

After our meal, Lily watched some television and DG took care of Alex while I took some time to organize our room. Lily was asleep pretty early that evening and the rest of us were not too far behind.

*UP NEXT: 
DAY 3 AT AULANI: Pools, Aunty’s Beachhouse and Starlit Hui Fun*


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## crystal1313

Yay!  You are back!!  FL sounded like fun =) Totally hear ya on the getting the kids dressed thing....and the actually being able to eat a meal and relax thing, LOL!!


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## Schmagurty

Florida was fun! Slightly less hot than the surface of the sun! Ha. I must admit I prefer Disneyland because of less people and superior weather. But, joking/complaining aside, it was pretty fun seeing both kids' faces light up when on the rides for the first time! Both absolutely loved It's a Small World. 

Eating in peace is so rare. The ironic thing about it is when we go out on our rare "date nights," we just end up talking about the kids most of the time! ha. 

I hope to get the rest of these chapters done this month! The longer I wait, the harder it is to remember all the details!


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## cmph

This report is such fun to read! I am ready for Ama'Ama breakfast NOW!


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## crystal1313

Schmagurty said:


> Florida was fun! Slightly less hot than the surface of the sun! Ha. I must admit I prefer Disneyland because of less people and superior weather. But, joking/complaining aside, it was pretty fun seeing both kids' faces light up when on the rides for the first time! Both absolutely loved It's a Small World.
> 
> Eating in peace is so rare. The ironic thing about it is when we go out on our rare "date nights," we just end up talking about the kids most of the time! ha.
> 
> I hope to get the rest of these chapters done this month! The longer I wait, the harder it is to remember all the details!



I've never been to WDW.  We plan on going when the kids are a bit older.  Sounds........Hot!  LOL.

Ha!  We do the same thing on our "rare" date nights, talk about the kids!!  Looking forward to reading the rest


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## jtba

enjoy reading your TR! sounds like you had a better full day than your arrival! 

thanks for the fun video too... i got to re-live that lazy river! agree that the temperature there was the warmest. we were able to last much longer in the water there than in other pools.

can't wait to read day 3...


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## Schmagurty

jtba said:


> enjoy reading your TR! sounds like you had a better full day than your arrival!
> 
> thanks for the fun video too... i got to re-live that lazy river! agree that the temperature there was the warmest. we were able to last much longer in the water there than in other pools.
> 
> can't wait to read day 3...



Thanks jtba! Yes, all of our days there after that initial one were great! It's tough writing this, because it makes me want to go back much sooner than we will be able to!


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## Schmagurty

cmph said:


> This report is such fun to read! I am ready for Ama'Ama breakfast NOW!



Thanks cmph! I'm glad you're enjoying reading it!


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## Leshaface

@Schmagurty I do hope you come back and finish your TR!  I've been enjoying it immensely and it's been very helpful.  Planning our first trip to Aulani in October with our (at the time of the trip) 4 year old and 5 month old boys!  92 days and counting!


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## heaven2dc

Mommyof3inVA said:


> Good to know!! I have 3 picky eaters so I will probably plan on bringing their food/snacks. I read somewhere that juice boxes are allowed but they have to be a certain size. I am surprised there wasn't free food on a 9.5 hour flight! Just curious about how much were the adult meals @Schmagurty ?



I also would recommend packing food and/or snacks for the plane.  Most airlines no longer automatically offer free food (in fact some no longer offer snacks, sometimes just complimentary drinks) so we always check the airline's website ahead of time to see what they do or don't offer.   Also another tip is to provide plenty of in-flight entertainment.  My daughter brings her tablet and coloring or activity books/crayons and favorite comfort toys esp for little ones.  Here's a link to TSA for liquids allowed (you mentioned juice boxes):  https://www.tsa.gov/travel/special-procedures/traveling-children     Of course, it's at the discretion of the TSA agent too as to what they might allow (we've encountered one agent who dumped all of my granddaughter's formula even though it met the criteria and made it through the first leg of the trip).  Hope you enjoy your trip and have a safe flight!


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## Schmagurty

Leshaface said:


> @Schmagurty I do hope you come back and finish your TR!  I've been enjoying it immensely and it's been very helpful.  Planning our first trip to Aulani in October with our (at the time of the trip) 4 year old and 5 month old boys!  92 days and counting!



Hi Leshaface, Thanks! I do plan to post another item soon. I'd had hopes to get further along in the review by now, but it's been a busy time! Congrats on the new baby boy!


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## jlwhitney

This has been so great. We are going at the end of September with a 3 year 9 month old and 9 month old


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## disnygirl55

Fantastic trip report - looking forward to the next installment!


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