Experience the Aloha! June 2021 Oahu/Aulani TR *COMPLETE* 3/7 Final Aulani Day!

[khertz]

Day 4 Continued: Thursday June 4th

Then we headed over to the Ali’i Luau where we were greeted with fresh orchid leis. The greeter had the kids present each other with their leis, then DH and I.

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DH and I did this same luau in 2009, and I seem to remember we paid extra for strawberry smoothies in a hollowed out pineapple. There are no alcoholic beverages since this whole center is sponsored by Brigham-Young University in Hawaii. This time, the smoothie in a pineapple was included but it was pina colada flavored.

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DD had been asking and asking when we were getting a drink in a pineapple, so she was SUPER excited about these coming right to the table as we sat down!

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Unfortunately, she was not nearly so excited once she tasted it.

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Before the show started, we wanted a picture of the kids in front of the stage. DS was being so silly!

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Soon, the show started and it was time to eat! This luau was a buffet, and they had us going up just a few tables at a time. We also had disposable gloves to wear when serving ourselves with more available if you went back up to the buffet for more.

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After a little bit of hula dancing, we got to see them take the pig out of the underground oven that would be carved up for us to have as part of the meal too.

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DD was really funny when she was watching the dancers. She asked me if I thought they were handsome, and I said yes. Then she said, “More handsome than daddy?” When I said no, she replied, “Well since I don’t have a true love...I kinda think I want to marry them.”

The kids ate more than I expected, but certainly not a ton. But the food was really good, especially the pork! DH and I each made a couple of trips to the buffet, and got an assortment of the desserts they had available. The kids were excited to eat purple bread.

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But probably the highlight for everyone was purple ice cream! They had soft serve that was ube flavored (made with a purple yam but tastes like a very sweet vanilla) and mango, or a swirl of both. We all tried the Ube and it was really good, plus it just looked cool!

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I think DD ate her weight in fruit during dinner and again as more dessert after her ice cream.

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Once we finished our meal and the luau was over, we went over to take some photos of the waterfalls at the stage area and offered to take a photo of a couple, who took a family photo of us in return.

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We had a little time to head back to the Hukilau Marketplace before we needed to get in line for the nighttime show, Ha: Breath of Life.

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We walked around a little bit and used the restrooms before getting in line for the Pacific Theater. We had bought the lower level of the two options for entrance, the luau, and the nighttime show, so our seats were a little off center from the stage, but we were right down in front!

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Photos are not allowed at the nighttime show, so we don’t have any from the actual performance. Words cannot accurately convey how amazing this show is! It weaves the story of the main character Ha from childhood through all of the major milestones of his life, and each one is presented through the lens of the traditions of each of the villages represented at the PCC. It was so beautiful and well done, I just never wanted it to end! It even held the kids’ attention really well. This show was honestly worth the price of what we paid for the entire day on its own.

It made for a late evening, since we weren’t back in the car on our way back to Waikiki until 9:15. The kids were very tired, and the drive was rough as it was pouring rain the whole time, so we got back very late. But it was absolutely worth it! This was probably my favorite day of the entire trip, and I would highly recommend doing the full day experience with the luau and nighttime show. The only thing I was disappointed in was that it doesn’t open earlier in the day, because we didn’t have time to experience Tahiti due to the limited time before the luau. I would have loved another hour or two! This one gets an A++ from me!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great time at the Polynesian Cultural Center! The meal looks wonderful! I'm glad the nighttime show was amazing too!

LOL had to laugh at DD wanting to marry one of the dancers!

 

[rdkeim]

What a great day! I think I would have passed on the hike too. Nice he brought back some treats. The cultural center sounds like it's very well done. Wish you could share pictures of the nighttime show. I'll take your word that it was awesome!

 

[khertz]

Sounds like a great time at the Polynesian Cultural Center! The meal looks wonderful! I'm glad the nighttime show was amazing too!

LOL had to laugh at DD wanting to marry one of the dancers!

This was my favorite thing we did all week! It was so cool to experience all of the islands and the nighttime show was absolutely incredible. I'm so glad we were able to have this as part of our itinerary. I know people who have been trying to book more last minute have been missing out on luaus and such because they are all sold out.

She cracks me up with the crazy stuff she comes up with!

What a great day! I think I would have passed on the hike too. Nice he brought back some treats. The cultural center sounds like it's very well done. Wish you could share pictures of the nighttime show. I'll take your word that it was awesome!

DH even said, we were better off passing on the hike. He had a tough enough time, it definitely wasn't for the rest of us!

It really really was. I doubt even photos would do it justice! I'd pay the price we did for the whole day all over again even if it was JUST for Ha! It was so beautiful and well done.

 

[khertz]

Day 5: Friday June 4th

Since we had gotten to bed so late the night before after the Polynesian Cultural Center, we didn’t set any alarms for today. We were up around 7 and made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then decided to tackle the Diamond Head trail hike. This was something else we knew we wanted to do but didn’t necessarily know when we would get to do it. Since Hanauma Bay tickets hadn’t worked out, we’d decided this would be the best morning to do it.

We arrived at 8:45 am and the small parking lot at the base of the hike was already full. But there was a line over to the side they let us wait in for a space to come available. There were a few cars ahead of us, and after only about 15 minutes we were able to park. You can park further away and walk in, but I’m really glad we didn’t do that and add all that unnecessary walking.

While DH went to buy our tickets, I sat to the side with the kids, and DD started throwing a fit over something inconsequential. I only mention this at all to explain the reasoning behind this gem of a photo.

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DS wanted one of himself since he wasn’t in a horrible mood.

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DD soon got over her bad mood, and I have to say I had really expected that one or both kids would be a total whiny mess during this hike, but spoiler alert: They did AMAZING! I swore DH would be carrying one of them by the end, but they had endless energy for this, and were actually hollering for ME to keep up!

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These stairs nearly killed me, but the kids ran right on up.

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Finally we made it up to the top, and were rewarded with this gorgeous view of Waikiki!

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Our car is one of the tiny dots down there in the center of the crater!


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The longer we stayed up there at the top, the more crowded it got. So after DS did a quick Pokemon opening for his YouTube channel, we decided it was time to start heading down. DH took more photos on his nice camera on the way down.

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Unfortunately, on the way down I lost my footing and scraped the heck out of my knee on one of the jagged rocks on the path. It can be very uneven, so another TIP: Wear a great pair of shoes with grip! I think I just stepped right on the rock on the wrong spot to where my tennis shoe couldn’t grab it and I just kept sliding forward. The sore on my leg made for a pretty uncomfortable rest of the trip as it didn’t mix well with saltwater! But I was glad if someone had to get hurt, it wasn’t one of the kids.

By the time we got to the bottom, DD was asking for a happier picture of her with the sign. And she was proud of herself for accomplishing the hike!

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At the base of the hike, there are several food trucks with lots of items including pineapple treats! I felt like after injuring myself, I deserved one!!

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After enjoying our pineapple twist, we looked through the small gift shop kiosk and DH got a t-shirt while DD picked out a Hello Kitty “I Hiked Diamond Head” keychain and DS picked up a pin.

We headed back to the resort at that point and had some lunch and relaxed. There wasn’t too much else we felt like we needed to do, so we decided we would spend our last real afternoon in Waikiki at the beach since we’d be spending the next day, our last full day before moving to Aulani, on the North Shore.

 

[missangelalexis]

The views from the top look incredible! This is something on my list, though I am scared it might be too challenging for me I’m glad the kids did well, Im sorry about your scrape though!

 

[cgattis]

The views from the top look incredible! This is something on my list, though I am scared it might be too challenging for me I’m glad the kids did well, Im sorry about your scrape though!

Unless you have any real disability or previous injury/damage to say a knee, you should be ok. Just wear good shoes and take plenty of water, then just take your time.

 

[happybaker]

Unless you have any real disability or previous injury/damage to say a knee, you should be ok. Just wear good shoes and take plenty of water, then just take your time.

How do you think a senior with a knee replacement would do? My dad has interest in doing this but has some concerns.

 

[cgattis]

How do you think a senior with a knee replacement would do? My dad has interest in doing this but has some concerns.

I saw people of all shapes and ages up there. I guess in his case, I’d just ask how active he is. If he could keep up with you at Disney, I think it’s no problem for him. If he takes 2 hours just to grocery shop, maybe not. And it’s not treacherous, just a lot of uneven ground and incline. So if he has trouble/pain, he could always turn back—the “down” isn’t any worse than the “up.” They won’t have to airlift him off with a helicopter LOL The views are so unique, looking down into the crater. And the pillboxes are so cool. Hope he can do it.

 

[happybaker]

@cgattis thanks for the info. My dad's pretty active so we'll give it shot this go round. Last time we were there we passed on Diamond Head because he still had his old, crappy knees. We did manage to get him to snorkel and go on an outrigger with us.

 

[khertz]

The views from the top look incredible! This is something on my list, though I am scared it might be too challenging for me I’m glad the kids did well, Im sorry about your scrape though!

I really think you would be fine! I only struggled with the stairs at the end. One person I was passing as I went up and he was coming down was like, "You can do it, you're ALMOST there!" I guess it was pretty obvious the stairs were tough for me. But if I could make it, you certainly can!

 

[khertz]

Day 5 Continued: Friday June 4th

After a nice hike in the morning to the peak of Diamond Head, and a break in the room, we were ready to spend the afternoon at the beach. On our past trip, DH and I spent NO time at the beach because we are just not "lay on the beach" kind of vacationers, even when in a place like Hawaii. However, with kids, the beach was a must. Since Waikiki Beach was in walking distance of our resort, so we changed and started walking. There was a beach access path with a bunch of surfboards stored there that I thought looked really cool!

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We found a spot but it was much more crowded and the waves were quite a bit rougher than where we had been when DH and DS were doing their surf lesson. But the kids had an absolute blast in the water and in the sand.

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We had to practically drag them off the beach to get back for dinner and showers because they were having so much fun! But with a very early morning ahead of us to get to the North Shore, we knew we couldn’t stay out too late. And as we cleaned up, I remembered why I dislike the beach so much...there was sand EVERY. WHERE. We cooked jambalaya for dinner, and spent the evening packing up everything we’d need for the next day so that everything was ready to go and all we had to do in the morning was get dressed and eat a quick breakfast.

 

[khertz]

Day 6: Saturday June 5th

Never before have I willingly woken up at 5 am on a Saturday, and yet here we were on vacation doing just that! We had our alarms set EARLY because we were heading up to the North Shore and we had a date with SHARKS! The last time we were in Hawaii, we had done a catamaran tour to go snorkeling, and I ended up sick as a dog from motion sickness and did not enjoy the experience at all. So this time, I had prepared by taking a less drowsy Dramamine like I do when visiting Disney or Universal parks and hoping to enjoy myself more this time.

We had organized everything we’d need for the day the night before so that we could get every moment of sleep possible, and all we had to do was dress, brush teeth, and force down some breakfast before we got in the car and headed up towards Haleiwa. Our first adventure of the day was a shark cage dive with North Shore Shark Adventures. We needed to be there by 6:30 am to check in for our 7 am tour. After checking in, I took DD to use the restroom before getting on the boat, and was SHOCKED to walk in and find that neither of the 2 stalls had doors!!!! That was a bit disconcerting. There was one handicapped stall with a longer wall separating it from the other stall, so we went to use that one and took turns being lookout for each other. We had arrived in our swimsuits already, but I was NOT looking forward to changing out of our wet suits and back into clothes in there!!

After that not so pleasant surprise, we were on the boat by 7 am and heading out about 3 miles to where the cage was. Our captain told us that if they spotted anything interesting along the way, we could stop so everyone could stand up to see and take pictures.

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After a few minutes, they stopped so we could see some spinner dolphins! They were coming right up next to the boat, and there were so many of them!

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After letting us enjoy watching the dolphins for a few minutes, we continued on our way out to the dive cage. They split us into 2 smaller groups of 6, and our family plus a couple would be going second. While the first group got ready with their snorkels, we were checking out all the Galapagos sharks swimming right up to the boat.

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As we were leaning over watching the sharks swim around...suddenly I didn’t feel so hot. Like, REALLY not so hot! They called our group to the back of the boat to get ready to go out, and I ended up losing my breakfast over the side of the boat while DH and the kids took these.

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You can really see in these photos how WHITE their faces are from the reef safe sunscreen. That stuff just didn’t rub in at all!

I managed to stumble over and get my snorkel on when it was time for us to climb into the cage. DD had been apprehensive about doing this, but agreed to go in and give it a try. Oh man, BIG mistake. So suffice to say, no one but DS had a great time doing this. He was diving all around checking out the sharks. But DH and I were taking turns holding on to a freaking out DD who refused to put her face in the water for even a second to see the sharks. I was trying not to get sick again because then it would be floating all around in the water around us. The rolling of the waves and the saltiness of the water getting in my mouth made me feel 1000x worse, and the 3 of us just wanted them to bring us back to the boat ASAP. I did manage to put my face in a few times to see the sharks, and it was actually incredibly cool to see them close up! But I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much as I could have. Same for DH. He got to check them out a few times when DD would let me hold her, but she wanted her daddy to be holding on to her. Unfortunately, no underwater photos (we should have let DS hold on to the camera!) but DH got a little bit of video on the GoPro and I’m hoping he will put a lot of our video footage together in a vacation video.

It was a long ride back, but I managed not to get sick again as we made our way back to shore. I have seldom been happier than I was to step off that boat! But then DD and I had to go change in that awful bathroom, but thankfully we managed not to get walked in on.

We still had more planned for our North Shore day, and as we left the Haleiwa harbor, we hoped the rest of the day would be a little more enjoyable than our shark adventure morning had been.

 

[pinkxray]

The dis keeps crashing and erasing my comments so I’ll keep this short.
Love the pics and you guys are getting a lot done!

 

[SomeImaginationHuh]

All caught up and really enjoying your trip pics!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

loving your trip so far!

 

[rdkeim]

Sorry for the bad shark experience - I could feel your pain! Did you kiss the ground? Hope your nausea got better and the rest of your day was fun!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a fun beach day!

Omg so funny I was going to comment how ghostly DD looks with that sunscreen on!

I am sooo sorry you got sick on the boat Sounds like it wasn't the best excursion, but at least 1 person enjoyed it!

 

[khertz]

The dis keeps crashing and erasing my comments so I’ll keep this short.
Love the pics and you guys are getting a lot done!

Thanks so much!!

All caught up and really enjoying your trip pics!

Thank you!

loving your trip so far!

Thank you!

Sorry for the bad shark experience - I could feel your pain! Did you kiss the ground? Hope your nausea got better and the rest of your day was fun!

Ugh, YES, I have never been so excited to see the ground as I was in that moment stepping off that boat!!! Thankfully it was limited to the boat ride and the rest of the day was MUCH more enjoyable!

Sounds like a fun beach day!

Omg so funny I was going to comment how ghostly DD looks with that sunscreen on!

I am sooo sorry you got sick on the boat Sounds like it wasn't the best excursion, but at least 1 person enjoyed it!

That reef safe sunscreen was THE WORST! It never rubbed in, and it was even impossible to scrub off! I'd be in the shower just scrubbing my legs raw and you could still see the white film on it!

Yeah, definitely a miss for us overall, but I'm glad we tried it. It was a pretty cool experience aside from the seasickness.

 

[khertz]

So sorry that I have been MIA...a LOT has been going on!! My sister had her first baby on 8/25, evacuated for Hurricane Ida on 8/28 and they are now living with us because their house is STILL without power! It's been rough lately, for sure. But I do want to get this TR finished up so I can start sharing our Universal trip that we took at the end of the kids' summer break!

Day 6 Continued: Saturday June 5th

I had looked at several things to do on the North Shore, but the one I really wanted to do was Waimea Falls. It was plenty early enough that we could make it over there fairly close to their opening time, so that’s where we decided to go next. Waimea Valley is a large botanical garden that ends with a waterfall that you can actually swim in. In my research, it sounded like it would be an easy hike for all of us, and we were interested in seeing the waterfall. On our previous trip, DH and I had hiked to Manoa Falls and it was a pretty easy and nice hike, but up until our trip that trail had been closed, so we figured this was a good alternative and something new. It was a bit pricey at $20 for adults and $12 for kids. However, at the time they were offering free admission for healthcare workers and first responders, so I got in for free just for bringing my badge for work that shows I am an RN. I’m not sure how long that will be available, but it made it a more affordable option for us to do.

Once we got inside, there were several little creeks and waterways around. The kids and DH had worn their water shoes so the kids were all too eager to check it out.

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There is a large main pathway up to the waterfall, and there are little paths that branch off. We decided to stick to the main walkway on the way there and save the paths for the way back down.

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Eventually, we made it up to the waterfall!

TIP: There are changing rooms available, and free life vests for those who want to enter the water!

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Since the three of them had their water shoes on, they decided to wade in for a little while. I was ok missing out on this. The kids were bummed that we hadn’t brought their bathing suits so they could fully go in, but it just seemed too impractical and too much of a hassle to change in and out of wet bathing suits again after the shark dive that morning. They were ok with just getting to put their feet in for a little while though.

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After about 15 minutes in the water, they came out so we could start heading back down. There was a bridge we had crossed over with a nice view of the waterfall on the way there, so we stopped on the way back for some more photos with the waterfall in the background.

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