trip report; Aulani. Jan 5th-11th

LPnerd

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Day one, get up bright and early to fly from SC to ATL. then on to San Jose/Santa Clara CA. for first leg. Flew on Delta, flight was perfect. Seats comfortable, TV on seat backs, no downloading of anything. Spent 2 days in San Jose, mainly to adjust to time difference, and to see that part of country. Hotel was great, I left my wallet for 5 min, came back $600.00 bucks down. My fault, but still. We drove back roads to The jelly Belly factory( 7 yr old with us), and it was such a great day! MTs, farms, cows up on some really steep hills... must be part goat, I swear. Friendly people, clean, solar on roofs everywhere, No plastic allowed , period, it was great. ( If they can do it, so can the rest of us).
day 3 up early, flight to airport, flew alaska air, seats comfortable, snacks ok, had to download their apps to watch TV ... meh. Flight was into honolulu 20min. early. Great! Car we thought we were renting was not available, luggage was REALLY beat up, Airport is under construction, it's a HOT MESS! Do not even try to get out of there without GPS app of some kind. ( after several days, we found WAZE to work best there). Off to the resort.
Our first impression of Hawaii was not a good one, 10:30am on a sat. morning and traffic was horrendous. No island feel at all, except for the 25MPH wind, and the 80F temps. Felt like we were driving in LA. not joke.
The first thing you notice is concrete everywhere, from the roads, to the over building, industrial complexes, to the subdivisions stacked houses like sardines in a can. In short, it's depressing.
when you get closer to the resort, and off the interstate things get a bit better. It's still filthy, but you can see some grass and trees, The entrance to Pearl Harbour is on the way, and then the town for groceries. We stopped at Safeway, heeding the traffic warnings about Target which are no exaggeration BTW, and saved so much money buying food for simple, easy meals to cook together in our kitchen. and by so much money I mean HUNDREDS. I spent 130 bucks at grocery and we ate well for 6 days. ( 3 of us),not much more than I would have spent at home. Bring bags ( I always have them), or you will be paying for them. ( I wish our country would adopt this ).
Got to the resort, Beautiful! Being DVC members we don't pay parking, and they greeted us with leis and a special necklace for our granddaughter. Room was not ready, but we were ready for lunch. So we checked bags and groceries, and went exploring! Night mare. You can't find your way easily around this resort until you have seen it from above because of all the vegetation. It was frustrating, and stressful after a 5 hr flight, and a hungry 7 yr old. A cast member, stepped in and took us to exactly where we needed to be, a cafe. A nice mix of grab and go, and a selection of hot food as well, I got a poke bowl with shrimp avocado rice and some delicious sauce.GD got a salad with chicken, and sister got a salad with ham. We were all very happy and full by the time we got buzzed that our room was ready. It was 1:30pm. we had been there one hour. GREAT!
We went right to our room, ocean view two bedroom, WOW! Spacious, with 2.5 bathrooms. a throwback to the old Old key west feel with plenty of room for all. ( We find the newer resorts put in that 3rd bath but didn't make up for it in living space. If we have a full house it's a bit tight at meal times and in the AM). Beds comfy, furniture comfortable and ample, patio perfect, kitchen very workable!) We got out our antibacterial wipes, and got to work on doorknobs, all knobs, remotes, every flat service, LOL. Laugh if you must, but we don't get sick on vacations. Next we got settled in, plenty of space as well! Only C/O the TVs are all wifi streaming... not great, but not horrible.
Next, down to register for Aunty's Beach House. We went during a open house time, so it was a bit nuts, but very pleasant and WONDERFUL! They check in, go through the little gate, and right there, is a sink and everyone has to wash their hands before they go one step further. The place is neat, clean as a whistle, and there are wipes everywhere, LOL. Our GD loved going there everyday, she asked, so we got a free hour and a half each am, and usually 2-3 hrs later in the day. They do a premium thing with Moauna so we signed her up for that. OMG! she's still talking about getting to play games and make a wooden paddle with her. Well worth it! Love this place!Love Love Love.
The Pools. I recommend first you get map in hand, go up to a higher floor, and figure it out from there as you have no shot at ground level. It was so frustrating the first two days. Listen, I'm 68 yrs old, with arthritis and fibromyalgia, we saw many in our age range suffering the same fate. This resort is HUGE, if walking miles in one day , in 80-84F weather is not something you love, use this trick to figure out the layout of the pool area. You will take fewer advil, and have less stress. IMHO, the refill cup is not worth it, there are not enough places to fill it, and you will walk miles trying to find them. Ask early and often how to get to them.
We spent most of our time at lazy river and the water fort. The hotel was about 1/2 capacity and finding a chair, just one, to set down your towels and things was a 20 min. search on a good day. Nowhere near enough places to sit. The pool is very nice, but a good swimmer like my GD is in love with that river and swimming there after the first time. Also the water slide. It's amazing too. WARNING:, stay with your kids, I had to pull our 7 yr old out from underneath another kid in that river twice a day. Many of these kids and their parents have not taught their kids to be considerate of others, respectful and kind. They pay NO attention to anyone or thing around them and just jump, dive and go. I had a problem with the same young girl twice and her parents were with her! She dove right on top of my underwater Gdaughter twice, in a row. Didn't even look, had a diving mask on and was oblivious to her surroundings. I have a feeling she was autistic. BUT her parents weren't. The second time it happened I pulled that child up and back off my grandaughter by her hair because that was all I could reach and I could see my GD was struggling and the girls father was clueless. I yanked her up, grabbed mine, and asked him if he was stupid. I told him when you have a child that doesn't pay attention to what's around her, then you have to do it for her, so pay attention! It could have gotten ugly I suppose, but I had my say and let it go. I saw it happen again, and saw the lifeguard talking to the parents. The child had to remove her mask. I hope that helped.
I'm not a huge fan of other people's kids, but I have to say, for the most part, everyone was respectful and friendly. Most of the families were asian. We have a lot to learn. That's all I'll say, on this subject.
We also spent some time at the little beach, it's lovely! Day 3 we went out and about. We usually love a road trip, seeing the sights and hawaii is suppose to be so beautiful. This island, not so much unless you can find your way to the north part of the island, and ignore the fact that the islanders really wish we would all go back to the mainland, and leave them alone. In speaking to one, we found out, americans are loud, rude, disrespectful and racist. Being a american, this was hard to hear, and a little heartbreaking that this is the reputation we have brought on ourselves. Their island has been ruined by industry, pollution, shipping, fossil fuels, and plastic. ( which they are working on), Street signs are removed all the time, signs are up basically telling us to stay away. When they see you are respectful, things get better. Our granddaughter was happy to see many Hey heys ( that chicken in the movie), eat shrimp and fish, see the beautiful MTS of the north. and drive on roads that went through the MTS. We also enjoyed the dole pineapple tour. My advice, is stay away from the bigger cities, and from the resort turn left and go to Dole, and that side of the island and come back to resort using the road that comes closest to mid island. OR drive all the way round the north end and come back on 63 or 61.
We skipped pearl. GD is too young to understand, and it's just so sad. I couldn't do it as I knew it would ruin my day. I would have cried through the whole thing, and not a good way to spend the day with a 7yr old.
Jan. 12th flying back to mainland. Turned in car, had 2 hrs to spare and needed every min. of that! Holy disorganization that airport is a a nightmare. You can't check in until you have tagged your own bags! It would have been nice to know before we got to the check in person!!! Plus those machines are slow, and very easy to make a mistake and there is NO ONE to help, you are on your own. I strongly suggest allowing 30 extra min. to stand in the bag check line just outside the door. I mean.. this place gets the worst airport award hands down.
Flew hawaiian back and they served us the best airplane food I have ever had. I mean delicious! The seats were comfy, but we had no TV unless you had a phone or tablet and had downloaded their app. what a load, LOL. I get a window seat and am asleep sometimes before the plane takes off. It's great! The more turbulence, the deeper the sleep, LOL. We flew into long beach in a little over 4.5 hrs, then took shuttle to Paradise Pier at disneyland . The drive was 20 min long and cost $80.00 for all 3 of us. We sat back and enjoyed the ride. Check in was easy, our room was ready as it was 8pm. we wiped all down, and went out to watch fireworks in the cold, then came back to room to watch light show and have dinner. (We were in room 1042, this will matter later.). Great view of CA adventure! the TV has a station that plays the show music . The food was very good, we showered the airport off of us, and went to bed.
next day was CA adventure. Crowd was moderate. We used fast passes and waited in line. Nothing longer than 20 min. A wonderful day The Cars ride was our fav, and soaring. The fastpass system is a pain. You run all over the parks trying to get them, or pay even MORE money for max pass. No thanks. what a scam. I will never complain about magic bands again, promise. We were finished about 5pm. walked through CA grand, and back to hotel. MUCH faster and easier. OH we had a coffee and snack in the hotel. Nice.
I have no memory of eating that night, but I'm sure we did. I think we got food delivered, ate in jammies and were all in bed by 9pm. Day two was disneyland, and it started out bad. I took advil for sore knees and off we went. we had pastry for breakfast, and I got a churro at the park. We took the monorail, which was the best thing we did all day. I mean, what a horrible park it is. People are crowded and unhappy so they are mean, not enough staff on rides, pathways are poorly marked, and dark at night. We made the mistake of riding the matterhorn that has the same warning as every coaster on the planet. WRONG! it should read:" your life and limb are in danger, unless you have a chiropractor standing by, do not ride."
I thought WDW food was overpriced, (and it is,) but prices for food in this park are a crime IMHO. Positive things, big thunder MT is as good as it is in WDW, and the cartopia is better than WDW. The rest of this park should be broken down and started over. We should have listened to so many and went to knotts berry farm instead. By 2pm. I was feeling awful. a bit of a chill, achy all over and done. so, we went back on monorail, walked back to hotel where I had a hot shower, a bowl of soup, and several drinks left for me at bedside, and slept the rest of the day and much of the night. weird because I had no other flu symptoms and never got any except a headache.
The next day we flew home on delta, it was so nice, and uneventful. About half way home on the plane I started to have a itch on my back, and eyebrow. I ignored it as I get dry skin. Back home at 9:30PM. right into shower where I found a HUGE red shingle looking hard circle,covered entire L lower quadrant of my back. Also my eye was now swollen and I had two more places on each thigh. YEP, BED BUGS! thankfully I was the only one of the 3 of us with them. We keep dirty clothes in tied off plastic bags that go right into washer, and this time we also thoroughly cleaned inside of both used suitcases. I took advil for fever, put melaleuca oil on the bites, and benadryl for the reaction. stayed in bed for two days, and drink lots of fluids. nothing else to be done.

Forget the bedbugs, and the strong dislike of disneyland, just hawaii and the resort, for my time and money, ( flight would have taken 13 hrs had we flown right to hawaii), and we paid around 1,300 for two, the trip was not worth the huge effort. The resorts at WDW world are every bit as wonderful, the people are happy your there, and the parks and rides are all pretty good. Also, the offerings on RCI are great, we use that and have not been disappointed. A trip to the caribbean, by land and or sea, would have been much more relaxing and just as beautiful and warm.
We plan on a cruise to hawaii and then on to the south seas at some point, I might cruise to hawaii and stay at the resort a couple days waiting for next phase of cruise, but other than that, we won't go back.
This is just our opinion, based on our likes and dislikes, and flying from east coast of US. Plus our age should also be considered. A young family without physical limitations and who loves walking, for miles, would probably love it. For us, to spend so much on a vacation, we saved for a year and a half to be able to afford, it was a fairly gutting disappointment. The saving grace is my granddaughter loved it, San jose CA and santa clara was so nice, and that lazy river was a joy when it wasn't packed.
 
Interesting trip report! I have a question - when you were referring to "islanders really wish we would all go back to the mainland, and leave them alone. In speaking to one, we found out, americans are loud, rude, disrespectful and racist", did not the islander realize they are Americans too? Unless I'm mistaking that you were referring to Asians visiting the resort :scratchin

So sorry that your granddaughter had to be subjected to that little girl swimming over her - that could have turned out so differently (and bad) if you weren't there! I agree with you that parents need to be responsible for their kids and pay attention more.

All in all I hope you had a some great memories even if the trip didn't turn out as you hoped!
 
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nope, islanders, and they apparently do not consider themselves americans, only Hawaiians. They have been treated only slightly less poorly than our american Indians. Now, this was the opinion of the only one of two that would really engage with us. so.... however the signs all around and inland on the Northern part of the island leads me to believe in general, that's the way they feel.
 

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