Waving Goodbye To My 20s - Aulani Trip Report - Update 9/25 Going Home (The End)

[Dis_Yoda]

Table of Contents

Pre-Trip
Introductions
Hotel Plans
Hotel Plans - Already Changed
Activity #1 Booked - Adult Cabana
Hiking Options
Flight Booked
July 2nd Plan Updates
Waitlist Surprise
Dining Options
Paradise Cove Booked
July 3rd Plans
July 5th Plans
Dining Reservations
Trip Update

Trip Report

July 1st
Leaving On A Jetplane
Jetlagged

July 2nd
Early Morning
Pineapple Express
A Beachless North Shore Visit
Paradise Cove Luau

July 3rd
A Misty Dinosaur Morning
A Bad Choice
A Better Choice
Compromise
Our Cheapest Dinner

July 4th
How To Be Healthy, Then Ruin It
Utter Relaxation
Sunsets and Fireworks

July 5th
The Start Of The War: USS Arizona
The End Of The War: USS Missouri
A Visit To A Local Strip Mall
Noe

July 6th
Hiking
Cute Aquarium
"A Cold Beer In My Hand. Life Is Good Today"
"You're Never Too Old To Become Younger"
Alan Wong's

July 7th
Learning Why American Businessmen Suck
More Beer!
Hoku

July 8th
Attempt To See Sea Turtles
Saying Goodbye to Aulani
Easy Afternoon
Anxiety Attack
Do We Make It?

July 9th
Saturday Travels​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Introductions


Dis_Yoda

At the beginning of this trip, I will be 29 years old. By the time we get home, I will be 30. I am a lover of Disney and good Food & Wine! My husband lets me pretty much plan all the vacations which is how he got himself into this long plane ride I grew up in Florida and do love the beach! We have talked about going to Hawaii for my 30th for a couple of years now. I love Stitch and can't wait to see him at his 'home'

Mr. Dis_Yoda

On this trip, he will be 32 years old. As he works in retail management and has a December birthday, when he turned 30, we got to only have a 36 hour trip to Walt Disney World as it was what we could accomplish with his schedule. He felt a little jibbed by this. He is the fitness nut of the two of us and he hates flying. He is a huge Star Wars fan, thus one of the reasons why we are both running the Rebel & Dark Side Challenges this year at Disneyland & WDW.​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Hotel Plans

My husband and I have been DVC Members since 2012 at Animal Kingdom Villas and added on to Villas at Grand Floridian in 2013. Since we don't own at Aulani, we had to wait until 7 Months out until we would be able to book this trip. This does present the risk that not all the nights would be available during this trip, especially as it is a holiday weekend. That unfortunately was the case. At this time, we have the following booked:

July 1st thru July 3rd, 2016 - Deluxe Studio - Island Garden View
July 3rd thru July 4th, 2016 - Waitlist for 1 Night Deluxe Studio - Island Garden View
July 4th thru July 5th, 2016 - Waitlist for 1 Night Deluxe Studio - Island Garden View
July 5th thru July 8th, 2016 - Deluxe Studio - Island Garden View

The flight home will take an extra day.

I decided to keep the waitlist to single nights as from my experience, I have a greater chance of them being filled that way. I'm also stalking the DVC Member website on a daily basis to see if something opens up for a studio - any view. I'm going to risk not booking a back up plan until this spring in hopes that the wait list fills. We may end up paying for an Aulani Hotel Room or possibly island hopping for those two nights. Island hopping isn't something I'm planning on doing though.
​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Hotel Plans - Already Changed

When looking at the DVC Website this afternoon, I was shocked to see that 6 Nights were open for a Deluxe Studio - Ocean View room in a row! It made total sense for me and helps me not feel as nervous about a wait list filling. If it doesn't fill for the 1st night of the trip, I can easily just get us a place by the airport before heading over to Aulani early in the morning!

July 1st thru July 2nd, 2016 - Waitlist for 1 Night Deluxe Studio - Ocean View
July 2nd thru July 8th, 2016 - Deluxe Studio - Ocean View​

 

[alohamom]

When looking at the DVC Website this afternoon, I was shocked to see that 6 Nights were open for a Deluxe Studio - Ocean View room in a row!

Awesome! Dont you love when something like that happens-good for you guys!

 

[Mom2m&k]

Clearly you were just supposed to have that Ocean View! I would have done the same thing!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Awesome! Dont you love when something like that happens-good for you guys!

It makes me very happy as when I was looking at the availability tool prior to my booking window, it seemed July 3rd & 4th were booked no matter what even 8/9 months out! Probably stole it in enough time that someone didn't get their wait list if they had one!

Clearly you were just supposed to have that Ocean View! I would have done the same thing!

Exactly! The extra points it took just mean I'll have a shorter F&W trip this year but I think thats totally an acceptable trade off! I think after this trip, I may not be able to do as many F&W events as the past few years. I've been looking at the cost of the events we want to do in Hawaii and its totally adding up.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Activity #1 Booking: Adult Cabana

I convinced my husband that a cabana was a good idea. He didn't take too long to convince! When picking a day, we have discussed having two resort only days. July 2nd will be a resort day as it will be use getting used to Hawaiian Time. He decided for July 4th to be our other resort day as he figured it would be busy around the island. This will be a good day to have 'our' spot for the pool & beach.

​

 

[Mom2m&k]

I think that is a fantastic idea! I find on too many of our vacations we don't give ourselves any downtime. I think your hubby is right and 4th of July will likely be busy so a spot of your own will be awesome!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I think that is a fantastic idea! I find on too many of our vacations we don't give ourselves any downtime. I think your hubby is right and 4th of July will likely be busy so a spot of your own will be awesome!

We try to make ourselves do a good mix of downtime and activity no matter what the vacation is. When we go to Disneyland in 3.5 weeks, I think that is the trip we'll have a complete lack of rest in it due to the parks plus the 3 races we are doing. I'm debating on giving up seeing the Tar Pits in LA and just planning on the movies or something that afternoon or taking the shuttle to the mall to keep walking (we have one day here we won't be able to in the parks as we only have 5 days worth of tickets)

For Hawaii, I want it to be a great mix. I know that the first full day there is going to be a time adjustment day. I hope to get to enjoy some of the various activities they have there. I'm in the midst of debating what hikes for us to do - Diamondhead is a no brainer but I'm debating on a couple others that our guidebook was talking about. I know we have the endurance to get through another hike that day - I'm just debating if it should be a 3 mile, 5 mile or a 10 mile one.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Hiking Options

On July 3rd, we are going to hike Oahu.

I was researching between an online article here: Honolulu Magazine - 20 Great Oahu Hikes & Hawaii Trails E Hawaii Website and my Lonely Planet guidebook.

The first hike is the no brainer:

Diamondhead

This is the most popular hike on the island. It goes to the extinct volcano. Its an easy 0.8 mile climb to the top. I imagine we can have this done in about an hour early in the morning as they open at 6AM.

Here the other options I'm torn between:

Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Trail





5 miles round trip

This is supposed to be the easiest of the ridge hikes. Still a lot of elevation on it though.

Waimano Ridge

15 miles round trip



This is probably just wishful thinking on both of our parts. The views are supposed to be amazing - it will take a good 6 to 7 hours for the hike so it would involve us prepping for it and packing food to have along the hike and enough water with us.

Maunawili Falls



2.6 miles round trip

Lulumahu Falls

2.5 miles round trip

The ruins here are the remnants of King Kamehameha III's summer palace + 50 foot waterfall!
​

 

[alohamom]

You seem to be experienced hikers so this is probably something you already know but just watch your weather-if it has rained the day before, some of the higher elevations can become treacherous with mud. Here is a link for a site I have used http://www.everytrail.com/best/hiking-oahu-hawaii.

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like good plans so far. The hikes sound exhausting! As you know my trips are much more sedentary. Do you have your flights yet? I was wondering if there was anything fairly direct or if you had to change in LA or SF.

I like the idea of the cabana on the 4th. I've heard that they are quite relaxing, plus you get some snacks and beverages as well.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

You seem to be experienced hikers so this is probably something you already know but just watch your weather-if it has rained the day before, some of the higher elevations can become treacherous with mud. Here is a link for a site I have used http://www.everytrail.com/best/hiking-oahu-hawaii.

We actually aren't the most experienced hikers - we haven't really hiked together since shortly after we got married almost 8 years ago! We know we have the endurance though thanks to the running we do and we have the right shoes for it. Thank you for that link!

Sounds like good plans so far. The hikes sound exhausting! As you know my trips are much more sedentary. Do you have your flights yet? I was wondering if there was anything fairly direct or if you had to change in LA or SF.

I like the idea of the cabana on the 4th. I've heard that they are quite relaxing, plus you get some snacks and beverages as well.

We are trying to do a mix this trip between active and relaxing.

We haven't purchased our flights yet - I was waiting until after Disneyland to really start hunting them. We'll have have a layover no matter what but it seems we can get away with a single layover and switch in either Dallas, TX or Houston, TX on either United or American. We already have the most Frequent Flyer Miles with American so we will most likely go with them if the costs remain the same. I'm debating if we want to spring for First Class or not but something recently came up family wise that I know that discussion wouldn't be a smart choice to have with my husband yet.

I've heard some great thinks about the cabanas as well! I hope we get as much enjoyment out of it as the reviews suggest we will.

 

[ljcrochet]

We are goin to aulani this summer as well. The day our 7 Minh window opened DH texted me "1br ocean view or 2 br island view." The 2 bedroom is only 30 more points for the week. So as of now we have 4 of us in the one bedroom. We have a flight there booked on airmiles. Still need flight home.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

I am so excited for you! First, we became DVC members at AKL-Kidani in 2013 and VGF in 2015, so we are DVC neighbors!

Second, we just went to Aulani in Aug/Sept with my BIL and SIL. It was a blast! My DH, DD, and I mostly hung at the resort, but BIL and SIL went off roading and went to look at condos. My BIL is in the Air Force and based in LA so they have been to HI a few times. There is a military resort in Honolulu and they do a luau that was only $45 per adult. That was really fun.

One thing I HIGHLY recommend is surfing lessons! We took a private family lesson from the North Shore Surfer Girls and it was the most magical and memorable thing. There were sea turtles all around us! We had 3 instructors with us, they had one who just surfed with our daughter. Carol, the owner, also had a friend who is a photographer come out and take pictures of us. It was $25 per person to buy the pictures. It was so worth he. He would surf next to us taking pictures!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip planning. Oh there is a small stip mall across the street with a really good restaurant. I will have to look up the name for you. There is also a super Target not far from the resort that we drove to to get groceries. Word of warning, HI banned plastic bags so you have to bring your own bags to Target or buy their reusable bags.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We are goin to aulani this summer as well. The day our 7 Minh window opened DH texted me "1br ocean view or 2 br island view." The 2 bedroom is only 30 more points for the week. So as of now we have 4 of us in the one bedroom. We have a flight there booked on airmiles. Still need flight home.

Ocean > Island View! I get why a 2 bedroom is appealing but for 4, the view hopefully should be so worth it!

How nice to get your flight on Airmiles! We had to pay but it is what it is! My miles will be looking pretty after this trip though

I am so excited for you! First, we became DVC members at AKL-Kidani in 2013 and VGF in 2015, so we are DVC neighbors!

Second, we just went to Aulani in Aug/Sept with my BIL and SIL. It was a blast! My DH, DD, and I mostly hung at the resort, but BIL and SIL went off roading and went to look at condos. My BIL is in the Air Force and based in LA so they have been to HI a few times. There is a military resort in Honolulu and they do a luau that was only $45 per adult. That was really fun.

One thing I HIGHLY recommend is surfing lessons! We took a private family lesson from the North Shore Surfer Girls and it was the most magical and memorable thing. There were sea turtles all around us! We had 3 instructors with us, they had one who just surfed with our daughter. Carol, the owner, also had a friend who is a photographer come out and take pictures of us. It was $25 per person to buy the pictures. It was so worth he. He would surf next to us taking pictures!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip planning. Oh there is a small stip mall across the street with a really good restaurant. I will have to look up the name for you. There is also a super Target not far from the resort that we drove to to get groceries. Word of warning, HI banned plastic bags so you have to bring your own bags to Target or buy their reusable bags.

We are totally DVC neighbors! We are actually staying at Kidani for the first time this month for the Princess Half Marathon - we've always stayed elsewhere or in Jambo House.

Thats awesome that you were able to do a $45 per person luau! My mother is going to cover our luau at the place near Aulani that you can walk to. I should give her the date we want so she can book it.

I want to do surfing lessons but my husband isn't a fan of that idea at all. I may wear him down yet!

Super Target being close is good for in room stables like breakfast bars and drinks. Thanks for letting me know to pack our reusable tote bags from home! We have enough in storage that I don't want to add to the collection!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Flights Booked!

I'm officially done shopping for the month (well until Princess Half...)




First Flight:


Second Flight:


First Flight:


Second Flight:


I paid extra for the long flights from Dallas to Honolulu and back to be in the exit row so we could have the extra legroom. Figured it was worth!
​

 

[franandaj]

Those are some pretty reasonable flights. I hope that you are able to sleep on the plane for the trip home!

 

[franandaj]

Those are some pretty reasonable flights. I hope that you are able to sleep on the plane for the trip home!