Aulani - 07/06/2013-07/14/2013 - day 5, Wednesday!
- Thread starter magicron
- Start date
Sorry about the delay in the trip report. Back to work, and now getting ready to take DD17 to college. Here's day 5. I need to start working on the remaining days before I forget 
Aulani Day 5
Today is our tour of Pearl Harbor. I waited too long to make a free reservation online, so I signed up through Aulani for a tour. We probably could have made it standby, but didnt want to risk missing this tour, so we paid our way on this one. Also, the tour operator knows where to get you, by when. Enoa tours is the tour operator, and I looked on their website to see if I could book something direct with them. From what I could tell, they dont book tours from Aulani on their website, so I believe you need to book through Aulani in order to get picked up at Aulani.
Pick-up was at Aulani at 7:30am, and when we arrived at the lobby around 7:20, the driver was already looking for us. We loaded a small bus, and there were a total of 18 of us on the tour. Noah was our driver, and he added lots of humor to our drive from Aulani to the Punch Bowl. It took about 50-60 minutes to get to the Punch Bowl, since we were in weekday rush hour traffic. But, Noah took a few back roads to work around the traffic. The Punch Bowl tour is a drive-through, not a stop. We saw a large tour bus that was also just driving through.
Our next stop was Pearl Harbor, and we arrived around 9:30. You cannot take bags or purses in, so those are checked at the front gate. Checking bags was neither a problem nor time consuming, but there is a charge of $3 per bag checked. Noah gave us about a half hour to tour the gift shop. There were a couple Pearl Harbor survivors in the area to greet us, and one was signing a book that he had authored.
Our group met up again around 10:15, and Noah drove us to the USS Missouri for our first tour. We took a guided tour while on the ship, and met back up with Noah about an hour later so he could drive us back to the main area for our tour of the USS Arizona memorial. The USS Arizona tour was scheduled for 11:45. We had about 30 minutes to go get a hot dog, as Noah had suggested. We lined up for the movie, and then boarded the boat to the memorial. We were at the memorial for only about 10 minutes, when the rangers said we needed to get on the boat because it was the last one for the day. So, everyone, including the rangers hopped on the boat to head back to the main entrance. When we arrived, the next tour group was just exiting the movie, but was not allowed to board the boat. Apparently, they were told that conditions were too windy, and they were shutting down tours for the day. So, in essence, we were the last tour of the day! Our meeting time with Noah was 1:15, and our short tour got us back to the main entrance around 12:45, so we had a little time to stop in the book store, and buy a soda at one of the shops before boarding the bus.
We were back at Aulani around 2:00, and spent the afternoon enjoying the pool, getting an ice cream treat from the Lava Shack, and some Shave Ice. We were able to find some chairs by the pool. We noticed that around 2-3:00pm, some young families start going in for a break and so some chair become available. One of the CMs who monitors a certain area of chairs, helped us find a spot The girls went down to the beach for a teen activity North Shore Beach Zone (about an hour).
Remember the older gentleman (91) we met at church, who is a distant relative of DW? He called earlier in the morning and invited us to join him, his wife, and son for lunch at Ama Ama. I called him back this morning to let him know that we were at Pearl Harbor today, but could be available sometime later in the week. We set a date for tomorrow night for dinner their treat! They live across the street from Aulani, probably in one of the condos on the golf course, and Ama Ama is one of their favorite places to eat.
We had dinner reservations for Makahiki grille this evening, and enjoyed the buffet.
After dinner, DW and I went to Explore the Stars, an event that requires a reservation and costs $40 (but there is a 10% DVC discount). There were some scattered clouds, but the host felt that there was enough visibility to have the event. Theres a man who comes to Aulani a couple nights a week and brings two large, programmable telescopes, pre-programmed to view various objects. About 15 minutes into the event, the clouds came in and covered everything up, so he cancelled the remainder of the hour, and refunded our money. Unfortunately, he was not scheduled to be at Aulani for the remainder of our stay, but what we did see was interesting. There were two sessions one at 8:00pm for families, and the other at 9:00pm for adults only. While we were at this event, the girls were with the teens learning to hula.
Our plan for tomorrow is to just stay and enjoy the resort, since we spent
much of the day away yesterday.
Aulani Day 5
Today is our tour of Pearl Harbor. I waited too long to make a free reservation online, so I signed up through Aulani for a tour. We probably could have made it standby, but didnt want to risk missing this tour, so we paid our way on this one. Also, the tour operator knows where to get you, by when. Enoa tours is the tour operator, and I looked on their website to see if I could book something direct with them. From what I could tell, they dont book tours from Aulani on their website, so I believe you need to book through Aulani in order to get picked up at Aulani.
Pick-up was at Aulani at 7:30am, and when we arrived at the lobby around 7:20, the driver was already looking for us. We loaded a small bus, and there were a total of 18 of us on the tour. Noah was our driver, and he added lots of humor to our drive from Aulani to the Punch Bowl. It took about 50-60 minutes to get to the Punch Bowl, since we were in weekday rush hour traffic. But, Noah took a few back roads to work around the traffic. The Punch Bowl tour is a drive-through, not a stop. We saw a large tour bus that was also just driving through.
Our next stop was Pearl Harbor, and we arrived around 9:30. You cannot take bags or purses in, so those are checked at the front gate. Checking bags was neither a problem nor time consuming, but there is a charge of $3 per bag checked. Noah gave us about a half hour to tour the gift shop. There were a couple Pearl Harbor survivors in the area to greet us, and one was signing a book that he had authored.
Our group met up again around 10:15, and Noah drove us to the USS Missouri for our first tour. We took a guided tour while on the ship, and met back up with Noah about an hour later so he could drive us back to the main area for our tour of the USS Arizona memorial. The USS Arizona tour was scheduled for 11:45. We had about 30 minutes to go get a hot dog, as Noah had suggested. We lined up for the movie, and then boarded the boat to the memorial. We were at the memorial for only about 10 minutes, when the rangers said we needed to get on the boat because it was the last one for the day. So, everyone, including the rangers hopped on the boat to head back to the main entrance. When we arrived, the next tour group was just exiting the movie, but was not allowed to board the boat. Apparently, they were told that conditions were too windy, and they were shutting down tours for the day. So, in essence, we were the last tour of the day! Our meeting time with Noah was 1:15, and our short tour got us back to the main entrance around 12:45, so we had a little time to stop in the book store, and buy a soda at one of the shops before boarding the bus.
We were back at Aulani around 2:00, and spent the afternoon enjoying the pool, getting an ice cream treat from the Lava Shack, and some Shave Ice. We were able to find some chairs by the pool. We noticed that around 2-3:00pm, some young families start going in for a break and so some chair become available. One of the CMs who monitors a certain area of chairs, helped us find a spot The girls went down to the beach for a teen activity North Shore Beach Zone (about an hour).
Remember the older gentleman (91) we met at church, who is a distant relative of DW? He called earlier in the morning and invited us to join him, his wife, and son for lunch at Ama Ama. I called him back this morning to let him know that we were at Pearl Harbor today, but could be available sometime later in the week. We set a date for tomorrow night for dinner their treat! They live across the street from Aulani, probably in one of the condos on the golf course, and Ama Ama is one of their favorite places to eat.
We had dinner reservations for Makahiki grille this evening, and enjoyed the buffet.
After dinner, DW and I went to Explore the Stars, an event that requires a reservation and costs $40 (but there is a 10% DVC discount). There were some scattered clouds, but the host felt that there was enough visibility to have the event. Theres a man who comes to Aulani a couple nights a week and brings two large, programmable telescopes, pre-programmed to view various objects. About 15 minutes into the event, the clouds came in and covered everything up, so he cancelled the remainder of the hour, and refunded our money. Unfortunately, he was not scheduled to be at Aulani for the remainder of our stay, but what we did see was interesting. There were two sessions one at 8:00pm for families, and the other at 9:00pm for adults only. While we were at this event, the girls were with the teens learning to hula.
Our plan for tomorrow is to just stay and enjoy the resort, since we spent
much of the day away yesterday.
jerseygal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2008
Magicron,
Thank you for your informative trip report!
I have enjoyed reading the details and I have learned a lot so far! Sounds like you had an awesome trip!
We are "thinking" about a family trip for four celebrating our son's high school graduation in May, 2014....
We are also DVC members and would be interested in booking a 1 BR at the 7 month mark. Is the Sofa Bed Comfortable? I have a tall son, so I am wondering if the pull down bed is comfortable and is it a regular twin size?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TRIP REPORT AND ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN PROVIDE!
Thank you for your informative trip report!
I have enjoyed reading the details and I have learned a lot so far! Sounds like you had an awesome trip!We are "thinking" about a family trip for four celebrating our son's high school graduation in May, 2014....
We are also DVC members and would be interested in booking a 1 BR at the 7 month mark. Is the Sofa Bed Comfortable? I have a tall son, so I am wondering if the pull down bed is comfortable and is it a regular twin size?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TRIP REPORT AND ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN PROVIDE!
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