Aulani & Disneyland - September 2016 Honeymoon PTR! Update 3/25

[Vernie822]

ALOHA!!

I'm Ashley & I hope you'll join me (and my future husband) on our whirlwind 14 day trek to the west coast and beyond for our honeymoon!

I'll go into detail about our trip planning later - because let me tell you, there's LOTS OF IT. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to Hawaii or Disneyland. But that's what DIS friends and trip reports are for.

It's a lot between planning a wedding, a honeymoon, and work and such, but we've had a nearly 2 year engagement so it's all fun now. (Until I have to do the seating chart or something..)

For now, I'll give an easy run down of the fun trip we have planned. I am an uber planner in real life (which is why I love having all of your uber planners around with me )

Here's our basic itinerary:
Saturday 9/3: Eat, Drink, and BE MARRIED!
Sunday 9/4: Fly from PIT to LAX (with a layover in PHX), stay at Marriott LAX
Monday 9/5: Fly LAX to OGG (Maui), staying at Grand Wailea Resort
Thursday 9/8: Fly OGG to HNL (Oahu), staying at Aulani in a deluxe studio oceanview
Wednesday, 9/14: Fly HNL to LAX, staying at Fairfield Inn across from Disneyland
Thursday, 9/15 & Friday, 9/16: Disneyland days
Saturday, 9/17: Fly home to PIT
Sunday, 9/18: Cry
Monday, 9/19: Drag ourselves back to work

So there you have it! I am not jam-packing our honeymoon with a crazy schedule (we want to relax for once) but we are choosing some activities and touristy type things that we've decided are things we really want to do.

If you have any suggestions along the way, please feel free to chime in! Because a) like I said I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to DLR/Aulani and b) I know you guys have so much knowledge, it would be crazy not to share it! ​

 

[Vernie822]

Reserved for Chapter Links

Travel Plans
Flight Plans

Maui Plans
Aulani (Oahu) Plans
Disneyland Plans

Disneyland Food

Transportation​

 

[Vernie822]

ABOUT US

Helloooo, fine people of Disboards!

Generally you can find me (Ashley, the shorter & geekier half of this dynamic duo) lurking around the restaurant reviews board. What can I say, I love to eat and I love reading about other people's Disney dining adventures. I'm 25 and I'm an insurance actuary from Pennsylvania. I grew up going to WDW with my family. I'm the oldest of 5 so our Disney trips usually consisted of a 2 day drive down from PA, a week or so at Disney and a week or so at Daytona Beach, and a 2 day drive back. All of the trips we took, we had at least 2 under the age of 2. (God bless my parents, right?!)

Now that I'm an adult (or at least some days I try and act like one), my fiance Justin and I love to travel to WDW together! Justin just turned 28 and he works in the corrections field. He actually went to Disneyland once at the age of 7, he was there the year of their 40th anniversary. He remembered nothing! Once we started planning our first trip together in 2014, we both were hooked on the magic.

Justin proposed on our September 2014 trip! This is us a few minutes later at MNSSHP.

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And again on a quick trip last summer:

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Needless to say, I'm incredibly happy and I can't wait to marry this hunka hunka burning love!​

 

[Vernie822]

TRAVEL PLANS

I could probably write about 4 posts about this, but I'll try to keep it brief. Until about six months ago, we had no idea where we wanted to go on our honeymoon! None. It took us over a year and a half to finally make a decision. A lot of our friends have gone to the Carribbean to an all inclusive. Being from the northeast, flights are often direct and reasonably priced to places like Jamaica and Mexico.

Here were our options...

Hawaii was our first thought, but it didn't seem possible. Airfare alone is so expensive, and it would be a long vacation, plus it would just be pricy in general.

Mexico: We both vetoed that one after a quick discussion.

Jamaica/Grenada/Antigua/Caribbean somewhere at a Sandals resort: This was a contender for quite a while. You can get good airfare deals, sales at Sandals happen somewhat often, and we would really be in paradise away from all phones and such for a while. The problem here, was that Sandals didn't totally wow us. We aren't big beach bums and like to see/do things while we're on vacation. Friends of ours said the food left room to be desired and it just seemed like we were going to go there because that's what everyone else did. Eventually, we decided against this, although it would've been a (somewhat) reasonably priced option.

Italy and Greece: We thought about this one for a quick second. I would love to go to Europe, but we decided we'd rather have a good blend of beaching and relaxing as well as touring. Plus, neither one of us speak a lick of Greek or Italian, so we decided to save that trip. We would love an ADB or guided tour, but decided that wasn't honeymoon friendly.

Mediterranean Cruise: Along with the Italy/Greece idea, this would be too long of a trip. If anything, we'd be able to get on a cruise the Friday after our wedding, which meant we would miss two full weeks of work AFTER that, plus some before the wedding. Neither of us wanted to go back to work for a few days after the wedding. Plus, this was extremely expensive. Like, way too expensive.

WDW/Cruise to Caribbean: We briefly considered this, for comfort and ease with some luxury. We love WDW, it wouldn't be too busy after our wedding (Labor Day), and we'd get to cruise for the first time. We ultimately decided against this because we wanted to do something different. We have never cruised but we visit WDW often enough that we decided to branch out.



So, how'd we end up with Hawaii!?

1. We both really, really wanted to go here.

2. Financially, we could make it work. I'll talk about this in future posts, but we ended up with a 2 week Hawaiian vacation for about what the cost of a nice week-long Sandals vacation would've cost us.

3. We could stop at Disneyland on our way home.. WOOO!!

When I say we mulled over this for ages... we did. Back and forth. We were going to the Meditteranean (FOR SURE, we decided) at least once, Hawaii twice, Disneyland once, and the Caribbean probably twice.

But, now we have a destination!

​

 

[Vernie822]

TRAVEL PLANS AGAIN.. FLIGHTS!

So where were we, oh yes! Travel plans.

Once we number crunched.. and number crunched.. and number crunched some more.. we decided that we could make Hawaii work.

We had enough Southwest points to get us to LAX and back FOR FREE. We'd just need to wait until February for their schedules to be released.

And my brother, while studying abroad last year in Germany, was given a $500 United credit for some inconveniences.. which he so kindly gifted to us.

And I had $160 in cash back I'd been hoarding on my Discover card that could be used towards our flights.

I mulled over our flight options for a few days. Originally, we'd planned to fly to LAX on 9/4 and do Disneyland days 9/5-9/7 (3 full park days). We'd fly to Aulani on 9/8 and stay there until 9/14. On 9/14 we'd fly to Maui and have most of the day there 9/14, 2 full days, then fly the whole way back to PIT on Saturday 9/17. That left us with 3 full days in Disneyland, 5 days in Oahu, and 2.5 days in Maui. We both dreaded the idea of coming back any later than Saturday (we'd have to drive 2 hours home from PIT anyways, having not been home since August 31st!)

The biggest pain was waiting for Southwest schedules to come out.

At some point in January we decided to book our United flights. I was nervous they'd sell out, or we wouldn't get the flight we wanted. We ended up deciding that it would be easiest to do Maui first, Disneyland last.

We'll be flying in the afternoon on Sunday 9/4 from PIT to LAX. We'll stay the night at a nearby Marriott and just relax that night, with our flight to OGG (Maui) the next morning. We decided this would be the best option to break up the flight and give us a relaxing first day, even if it included a flight to LAX. We did not want to fly Pittsburgh to Honolulu the day after our wedding!

United was really easy to book through, as I was able to do "multi-way" and book the first leg from LAX - Maui, and the second leg from Honolulu - LAX. We ended up with a decent flight from LAX to Maui, landing before lunch time, and a great flight from Honolulu back to LAX. It will pretty much be a travel/take in Anaheim kind of day, but we probably won't mind the downtime. It was SO NICE of my brother to give us his $500 credit (he's in college and said he just wouldn't use it), so that made a serious dent in those flights.

Once I booked our United flights, I was able to find our Maui to Honolulu flights via Hawaiian Airlines for $79/person. United had some too that I could've bundled with everything else, but I think it ended up being $129 for that leg alone. No thanks!

So I booked separately with Honolulu airlines and used $160 of cash back from my Discover to cover those flights.

Once Southwest released their flights in February, we jumped on them! We ended up with a mid-afternoon flight from PIT to LAX, and a mid afternoon flight from LAX to PIT. It ended up costing us just shy of 40,000 points which was less than we thought. Bonus, our return flight is nonstop!

Overall, we saved about 70% on our flights. I am more than happy with that outcome!​

 

[Vernie822]

MAUI PLANS

About the same time as we booked our United/Hawaiian Airlines flights in January, we also chose a hotel for our 3 night stay in Maui.

After a lot of back and forth, and some help from a coworker who recently took a trip, we decided to stay at the Grand Wailea. We also considered staying near Kaanapali, which would be closer to where we wanted to zipline, but further from where we would need to be for the Halekala crater tour. Ultimately at my coworker's recommendation (he said he preferred the Wailea beaches as opposed to Kaanapali), we went with Wailea.

We booked with a rate that includes a $50 per night credit, so we plan to use that to eat at one of the nicer restaurants. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a sounds really fun, and the menu looks great!

So here is our general plan for Maui..

Monday 9/5: Arrive in Maui around lunch time. Pick up a rental car, drive to Wailea. Probably grab a quick lunch, unpack, check out the resort and the beach. Maybe do a nice early dinner that night to kick off the trip, maybe this will be dinner at our resort.

Tuesday, 9/6: The Halekala crater tour was one of the first things that jumped out at Justin and I as something we really wanted to do. Pick up is around 2 AM, so we plan to get to bed early the night before. My coworker suggested doing this on our first morning because we'll still be jetlagged and Pittsburgh is 6 hours ahead of Hawaii so I anticipate we'll probably be tired and hopefully won't have a problem getting to bed early Monday night and getting up early on Tuesday morning. After that, we'll come back for some beach time. We'll probably do a somewhat casual dinner, maybe something nice.

Wednesday, 9/7: We plan to drive to Ka'anapali for our last full day in Maui. We both want to zipline and see the beaches there. I can't recall exactly what my coworker said about the beaches (I feel like there was a name of a particular one he recommended, I wrote it down somewhere). I've also heard good things about Duke's and Roy's restaurants. Both are in Ka'anapali and in Oahu, so we'll probably do one here and save one for Oahu.

Thursday, 9/8: Departure day! We have to check out of the Grand Wailea that morning. We plan to spend the morning at the beach relaxing before having a quick lunch and heading to the airport. Perhaps we'll grab food at the airport or on the way. We have to return our rental car & our plane ride is only about an hour. So this day will be split between Maui and Oahu, with some pool/beach time in the morning and the flight in the afternoon.

I'm planning on a separate post for dining and excursions, but please feel free to make any suggestions!

Pros to this section of our trip.. It will get us started in a relaxing but fun way. We have 2 activities planned, the Halekala Crater tour takes about 9 hours but the ziplining is only 4. So we'll still have some relaxing downtime and pool time during those days.

Cons.. I'm nervous about not having enough resort time. I know at Disney we try to pack so much in that we don't ever get to enjoy the pool and I always wish I'd spent more time at the resort. We do plan to spend at least 2 or 3 full days at the resort at Aulani.​

 

[kpearl]

Yaaaaaaaaay I'm so excited for the PTR, I'm glad you decided to do it

My fellow September wedding twin, we both work in the same field of work. I handle operations of Commercial Lines Auto policies for MA. So I kind of feel you on the Sunday 9/18 Cry plans. That will be me on Monday 9/26.

Your excursions for Hawaii sound fab. The crater tour is so cool. That would be RIGHT up Rob's alley. Why do you have to leave so early?! I would have to be dragged out of bed for that one. Woof.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a - for a second I thought you were just making this name up and I laughed. Then I found out it is a legit name. I won't even try to pronounce it... Good grief.

Include some wedding updates - I'm so curious to see all your planning and what not! We're registering this weekend at Bed Bath & Beyond and maybe Crate & Barrel if we have enough time, we can always complete what needs to be done next weekend. I'm already having anxiety - the idea is so overwhelming!

Yaaaay for the discounts on your airfare. Holy moly! 70% is insane savings. Your brother is a swell fella. Southwest was killing me this year as well waiting for the September releases. I gave up after finding out the flights were going to cost over $100 more per person than Jet Blue. So after all that waiting for the deal of all deals, we went with Jet Blue. Womp womp.

Following along and looking forward to further update!

 

[Vernie822]

My fellow September wedding twin, we both work in the same field of work. I handle operations of Commercial Lines Auto policies for MA. So I kind of feel you on the Sunday 9/18 Cry plans. That will be me on Monday 9/26.

OMG, I have a reader! HA! Thank you for joining. That is crazy that we both work in insurance! I work in life insurance but my company mainly sells personal and commercial.

Your excursions for Hawaii sound fab. The crater tour is so cool. That would be RIGHT up Rob's alley. Why do you have to leave so early?! I would have to be dragged out of bed for that one. Woof.

I know, right!? 2 AM pickup. If we would've stayed farther west, I think my coworker said the drive was an hour. Ours will hopefully be 30 mins. I think it's because by the time they get you all the way up the mountain, it's sunrise. I'm not crazy about the early wakeup, but from what I hear it is so worth it!

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a - for a second I thought you were just making this name up and I laughed. Then I found out it is a legit name. I won't even try to pronounce it... Good grief.

LOL I thought the same thing. Like holy moly I wonder what that word even means hahaha.

Include some wedding updates - I'm so curious to see all your planning and what not! We're registering this weekend at Bed Bath & Beyond and maybe Crate & Barrel if we have enough time, we can always complete what needs to be done next weekend. I'm already having anxiety - the idea is so overwhelming!

I need to! I'll get on that soon. We registered at Macy's last weekend and we are going to Target tonight. We wanted to do Crate & Barrel but the only one near us is like 45 minutes away. Good luck, it's lots of fun! And I have been playing with the online stuff for the past week. No matter how much I thought we registered for, there was so much I forgot!

Yaaaay for the discounts on your airfare. Holy moly! 70% is insane savings. Your brother is a swell fella. Southwest was killing me this year as well waiting for the September releases. I gave up after finding out the flights were going to cost over $100 more per person than Jet Blue. So after all that waiting for the deal of all deals, we went with Jet Blue. Womp womp.

It was SOOO incredibly nice of him! I could not thank him enough! Southwest drives me crazy, especially when you need the second leg of airfare and can only book the first. This has happened to me at least twice. BUT I love them! We don't have Jet Blue in Pittsburgh, but since we are only a few hours from Buffalo we've flown out of there before. Jet Blue seems to have some pretty decent deals sometimes!

 

[Vernie822]

AULANI STAY


On Thursday, after 2 full days and 2 half days in Maui, we will be flying to Oahu. Originally we planned to spend the whole time at Aulani, but I’m glad we added the Maui portion as well.


When we booked our flights in January via United/Hawaiian Airlines, we didn’t yet have the Aulani portion booked (was not 7 months out at that point) so I was a little concerned, but I figured we’d waitlist if we had to. I watched the DVC site and in early February, I was able to book us for 6 nights in a deluxe oceanview studio at exactly 7 months out.


This would require all 150 of our 2016 points which I figured was pretty good. A week in an oceanview studio = a year’s worth of points. We’d considered a 1 BR, but honestly we don’t need the extra space, and that was even more points, so we’d have to give up the ocean view. We decided the ocean view was important to us and stuck with the deluxe oceanview.

I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT TO ARRIVE HERE!

The flight is only about 50 minutes long, which I imagine will go by pretty quickly. Our plane lands around 4 PM, which after reading a few TR’s, concerns me a little because hello, RUSH HOUR! I’m hoping by the time we get luggage and get a rental car, it won’t be too bad, but what do I know. It probably will be. And god knows the only time Justin and I ever argue is when one of us is driving in an unknown area and the other is trying to co-pilot with the GPS.. LOL!

FYI, we decided on a rental car but I have also read there are shuttles you can use. Or, you can get a rental car and drop it off at Aulani, which would be good for a grocery stop or something. Since we are planning a few off-site activities, we thought a rental car would be best. It's $37/day to park at Aulani, but if you're a DVC member, it's free.


The plan is to stop by the shopping center on the way to Aulani and pick up some groceries and drinks for the week. My stomach is somewhat sensitive, and after about a week of vacation food I just can’t do it. So for that purpose, and to save on cost, I think we’re going to do all but a few breakfasts in our rooms, and probably about half of our lunches.


We don’t have a Costco at home so unfortunately we can’t take advantage of the good prices there, but we plan to stop at Target and Safeway. We’ll probably do bagels and cream cheese, some fruit, lunchmeat and cheese, bread, snacks, case of water, case of Diet Coke, some beer/wine/liquor.


At first, Justin was against making our own drinks. But if I’m going to sit at the pool and have a few cocktails, it would be nice to do some in our room and some via the pool bar.


It will be nice to sit on the balcony and have breakfast and a mimosa!


Our first night, I’m not sure if we’ll do dinner somewhere or just grab something quick close to Aulani. That is probably our best option. I’ve heard good things about Pizza Corner which could be good for a quick stop.


We don’t have any concrete plans yet for our 5 full days at Aulani, but here are some ideas we’ve been throwing around:


1. Spa for a couples massage (we will probably do this on a resort day)

2. Pearl Harbor (I think we’ll do the free tour)

3. Hike Diamondhead and check out Waikiki

4. Luau at Paradise Cove (could probably end a resort day here)

5. Snorkeling at Aulani

6. North Shore, maybe!?

7. Dole Plantation, also a maybe.


With 5 full days, my goal is to have at least 2 full resort days where we can swim, do the spa, lay at the beach, and do some snorkeling, paddle boarding, etc. I know we want a good mix of relaxation and activity. I don’t want to schedule us too much but I want to make sure we see and do the things we’ve decided are a MUST!


Justin isn’t really into swimming. I love it, but I’m also afraid of sea creatures. However that’s usually in the not-so-clear Atlantic Ocean beaches, so I think I’ll be better off here. Note to self, consider water shoes. I don’t care if I’m nerdy, I got bit by a crab once on my toe and I’ve been scarred for life ever since. Anyhow, I think Justin may like paddle boarding. I did it once in Charlotte, NC while visiting my cousin. We just did it on a river, but it was loads of fun. I really want to try and snorkel, I think that would be a blast!


I’m also thinking of renting a beach cabana for one day, but I don’t know yet. If we’re going to be spending a ton of time swimming and laying out, maybe it would be worth it to have the space. DVC members get 10% off! I think the beach cabanas are only $45 which is totally reasonable compared to the pool casabellas that are much pricier.


My current thought is to try to space it out so we’re doing Resort day / Activity Day / Resort day / Activity Day / Resort day, with the flexibility of changing our days around if we need to. The only one that will probably be concrete is Pearl Harbor. I read for Pearl Harbor that you can reserve tickets 60 days out, so I need to research that a little more.


Another activity I have heard about is the DVC Mahalo Member Mingle. Some TR’s I have read say it’s in the evening, some say it’s in the morning. Disney’s website I think has it as being a morning event. So we’ll need to look into that and possibly stop by.

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[Vernie822]

DISNEYLAND PLANS


This part of the trip almost didn’t happen. Twice.


First, when we said we wanted to go to Hawaii, we didn’t even consider Disneyland. Then when we were still in the “where are we going to go” stage, we decided to tack on 3 days at DLR just for fun.


Once we ballpark estimated how much it would cost, we thought, well if we’re on the west coast (and possibly flying into LAX), WHY NOT!? So we planned it that we’d have 4 nights in Disneyland, with 3 park days. Once we arranged our trip and had Disneyland at the end, it worked out to only 2 park days (1 more day in Maui). It was a struggle to decide what to do, but I think 2 park days/3 nights will be just fine.

This is provided we don't fall in love with Aulani and decide to stay forever.


Our plan was to get online at exactly 7 months out and hopefully book at the Grand Californian Villas.

Did we get a room at GCV? Of course not (which I’d expected after seeing how in demand they are).

After not getting into the Grand Californian Villas at exactly 7 months out, we decided to waitlist. A week later and I’d had enough of the waitlist anxiety. There was a possibility we’d get it, but I don’t have the patience for that. It could be a month out (2 weeks before our wedding) and we’d be scrambling to find a place to stay. So, we decided to book offsite at a good neighbor hotel. We considered the Disneyland Hotel, but it saved us about $800 to go offsite and stay at the Fairfield Inn, literally across the street.

We booked through Disney and it was a no-brainer for us. Save the $800 and allow us to spend more on other things!

So we purchased (literally 2 weeks before the price increase), a package with 3 nights @ the Fairfield Inn and 2 day park tickets. I also added on a character breakfast since we plan to do that. Disneyland doesn’t offer a dining plan, but offers you a character breakfast add-on.

I'd love 3 days, but 2 is all we could really swing. Neither of us wanted to come back on Sunday and go to work Monday morning. We'll need a day to decompress.


Here is our rough itinerary for Disneyland:


Wednesday 9/14: Land in LAX around 3 PM. Hire a car service to take us to Anaheim. Check in to the Fairfield. Hoping to do the chefs counter at Napa Rose. This is the one thing I REALLY want to do food-wise in Disneyland! Hoping for the later sitting which I believe is 8:30 PM, I figured that’s 5:30 Hawaii time so we’d be OK with it.


Thursday 9/15: Disneyland, of course! Hoping to see some nighttime shows.


Friday 9/16: California Adventure. I really want to see World of Color! Justin loves Cars, so that & a WOC FP+ are a priority for us that morning.


Saturday 9/17: Our flight is nonstop back to Pittsburgh, which I was happy to see as an option. I think that's new with Southwest. It doesn’t leave until about 3 PM so I figured we’d do breakfast at Storytellers’s Café (Grand Californian) and maybe check out Downtown Disney if we have time before the airport. Downtown Disney isn’t a huge priority here but if we have time we’ll go.


Andddd that’s it, we will fly back to Pittsburgh with smiles on our faces after the best honeymoon ever!


I’m planning to break down what excursions & stuff we decide to do next, as well as the dining options we’ve considered.​

 

[ariane37]

Hi Ashley! It's almost here, so exciting

I know NOTHING about Aulani and very, very little about Disneyland since it's been 20 years since I went, so it's interesting to see your plans. Incidentally when I did go to DL, it was on my first honeymoon

2. Pearl Harbor (I think we’ll do the free tour)

Since I'm old enough to be your mom I'm going to sound like a mom and say I think you should do this! I know it's not romantic nor the most "fun" honeymoon thing, but it will certainly be interesting and it's something you definitely can't do anywhere else!

Justin isn’t really into swimming

Yeah, gotta say I'm with Justin here. Not a swimmer. BUT, I guess if you're going to Hawaii you kind of have to at least go to the beach, right?? And then at least try the water lol?

 

[pepperandchips]

I'm here! Loving the report so far!

 

[yesvirginia]

Hi!! Congratulations!! Your honeymoon sounds like so much fun!

 

[Vernie822]

I know NOTHING about Aulani and very, very little about Disneyland since it's been 20 years since I went, so it's interesting to see your plans. Incidentally when I did go to DL, it was on my first honeymoon

Haha! I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to DL, I am going to go with I think a "loose" itinerary of where we want to be at different times.. we definitely want to just enjoy ourselves and take it easy but I want to see everything!

Since I'm old enough to be your mom I'm going to sound like a mom and say I think you should do this! I know it's not romantic nor the most "fun" honeymoon thing, but it will certainly be interesting and it's something you definitely can't do anywhere else!

Yes! I definitely want to see this. Just can't decide between a 2-ish hour tour or the all day thing - I think 2 hours of history is good but I am really looking forward to it!

Yeah, gotta say I'm with Justin here. Not a swimmer. BUT, I guess if you're going to Hawaii you kind of have to at least go to the beach, right?? And then at least try the water lol?

Lol, I think it's a requirement! I keep telling him that (apparently) the water is pretty clear and there is a whole lagoon that Disney built, so it is probably perfect for swimming and hanging out.

I'm here! Loving the report so far!

Hi, thank you so much for reading!

Hi!! Congratulations!! Your honeymoon sounds like so much fun!

Hi, thank you! I am so excited!

 

[Vernie822]

OTHER WEDDING TIDBITS

I wanted to share some of my fave engagement pics from our engagement session! We live on Lake Erie (well, like 5 minutes away from it) so we had our wedding photographer take some photos there. It was a rainy day, so I was worried, but they ended up being even better because the clouds were pretty and it wasn't super sunny.

We're having a Catholic ceremony at my childhood church - it's also where my parents got married, all of my siblings and most of my cousins were baptized and confirmed, and 2 of my cousins got married there.

Our reception will be at a Marriott in downtown Pittsburgh.

We're going to have just a few Disney details in our wedding; things like the cake and cake topper, little things that are subtle. Didn't want too much Disney in there, but enough to show our Disney side.

Here are a few of our favorite engagement pics!

This is probably our favorite - we used this on our save the date.

OK, now I'm done!
​

 

[CMNJ]

Congratulations. I'm so jealous-Maui was my absolute favorite vacation ever and I would love to go back but with a toddler that won't happen for a long time
It has been several years since we were there but we stayed in a timeshare building on Ka'anapali Beach. There is (or at least was) a nice outdoor shopping mall there called Whaler's Village. That would be a good place to get lunch on your Ka'anapali Beach day. If you plan to snorkel there is a great place right off the beach at the one end called Black Rock. You can see sea turtles there as well as Humuhumunukunukuapua'a which is the state fish of Hawaii

We ate at Roy's and Duke's both of which are really good.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm in!

 

[Vernie822]

Congratulations. I'm so jealous-Maui was my absolute favorite vacation ever and I would love to go back but with a toddler that won't happen for a long time
It has been several years since we were there but we stayed in a timeshare building on Ka'anapali Beach. There is (or at least was) a nice outdoor shopping mall there called Whaler's Village. That would be a good place to get lunch on your Ka'anapali Beach day. If you plan to snorkel there is a great place right off the beach at the one end called Black Rock. You can see sea turtles there as well as Humuhumunukunukuapua'a which is the state fish of HawaiiView attachment 157231

We ate at Roy's and Duke's both of which are really good.

Thank you!!! I am so excited.

Thank you for the recommendations, I swear my coworker told me about Black Rock as well so we will have to research that and maybe check it out. So funny that you mentioned that Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the state fish, because there is a restaurant at our resort w/ the same name, my friend asked me "what the heck does that mean!?" and I said "I don't know, probably fish or something.." so good to know that it really is a type of fish, ha!

I'm in!

Yay, thanks! Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

 

[jrathburn]

Following along! Can't wait to hear about Aulani and Disnryland!! Also Congrats! Married almost 9 years here, second best decision ever (right under having our son).

 

[skier_pete]

Hey there! Joining in from you visiting my TR. If you have any DLR questions, feel free to ask.

Just reading your plans one thing jumps out at me - the choice of breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe. We've been there on our ABD trip, and it was OK and all, but it is a buffet and a character meal, and if that's what you want - great. But if you want a really GREAT breakfast - head over to the Disneyland Hotel (a little longer walk) and eat at Steakhouse 55. Plus then you can check out the Disneyland hotel, which is much cooler than the Grand Cali in my opinion.

That and you definitely shouldn't miss out on World of Color! But also don't miss out on the Disneyland Paint the Night Parade and the fireworks if they are still doing the 60th show. (Not sure by September, they might have ended by then.) Paint the Night blows the MSEP out of the water.