Final Aulani Review/Tips/Links

I know my Aulani posts are long, so here are links to each day. I also wanted to give my overall thoughts on the resort and some tips for any friends thinking about going.

LINKS:
Aulani Trip--Day 1 (Thursday)
Aulani Trip--Day 2 (Friday)
Aulani Trip--Day 3 (Saturday)
Aulani Trip--Day 4 (Sunday)
Aulani Trip--Day 5 (Monday)
Aulani Trip--Day 6 (Tuesday/Wednesday--last day)

VIDEO:
Eric made this awesome video of our trip. I love it so much.

TIPS:
Flights: Don't be afraid of the long flight to get there. If I can do it, with three crazy kids and a pretty high fear of flying, anyone can.

Red eye: We loved taking the red eye home at 11:30pm. It gave us an entire extra day in Hawaii, and the kids slept for the whole first flight.

Stroller: If you have a kid younger than 4 years old, I recommend bring a stroller, mainly for using at the airport on the first and last day. There is no way we would have made it through the airport on our last day if we didn't have a stroller for Deke to conk out in.

Character meals: If you can, do both the character breakfast and dinner. Both were so fun, the food was delicious, and the character interaction was great.

Memory maker: Don't bother. There are photographers supposedly all over the resort so you don't have to worry about taking pictures, but we rarely saw them. It wasn't needed.

Breakfast: If you get Ulu Cafe meal credits with your room package, use them on breakfast. It's definitely the best meal of the day. The breakfast platter was more than enough food for two kids, the breakfast wraps were delicious, and I'm still dreaming about the cinammon roll that we had the last day.

Aunty's Beach House: Use it! The kids just loved it. It's pretty similar to the kids club on Disney cruises, where 3 years and older have full run of the place, but the staff really looked out for the little ones. Everyone had a blast, especially Eric and me, because dropping the kids gave us some down time (and I think we all needed some separation from each other). The only negative I'd say was that checking the kids in and out of the club wasn't nearly as efficient as the cruise, but it wasn't a big deal.

Stores: There are several really nice stores across the street from the resort--an ABC store with everything you might need, pizza place, Mexican restaurant, ice cream shop, etc.

Waimea Falls: If you're looking for a day trip, definitely head to this place. We all had fun, and it isn't a huge tourist spot so it wasn't overly crowded.

Rental car: This is an Alamo rental car right at Aulani, making car rental easy.

Travel agent: Use a Disney travel agent to book your trip. I love ours (Laura at Glass Slipper Concierge). She got us a great deal that included quick service meals, a day rental car, and free shuttles to and from the airport. I could have saved some money on our room by rental DVC points, but we actually got a better deal going through an agent when you added on the extras. Plus, it takes all the hassle out of booking.

Crowds/time of year: I had read a lot of reviews about how crowded Aulani can be but we didn't find that at all, probably because we went during low season. The weekend was a bit crowded, but not overwhelming. It was a bit of a challenge to find chairs at the pool but we always managed.

REVIEW:
Property: This resort is 100% amazing. It is a gorgeous property, and probably one of the--if not the--nicest hotel that I've ever stayed at. When we got off the plane and were trying to find our shuttle, we ran into some minor issues, but as soon as we walked into the hotel, we knew all was right in the world. You feel the Disney magic the second you get there, from the greeting with the leis and cold water to the stunning views from the lobby.

Activities: The resort has a lot of activities, although many of them require paying an extra premium. We didn't sign up for many of them because there is so much to do without paying more money. There aren't quite as many planned activities for kids as the Disney cruise, but still lots to do.

Dining: Overall, the food we ate was really good, but they didn't have a huge selection of casual places to eat. It was basically just the Ulu Cafe and then poolside dining. It would be great to have a larger quick service restaurant with more selection. Our room package came with one quick service meal per day at the Ulu Cafe, which we used for breakfast daily because the options the rest of the day were pretty limited.

Room: Our room was a really large and had two balconies, both with ocean views. Definitely worth the extra money. I posted some pics of our room at the bottom of this post. There was definitely enough space for all of us. We also loved having the full kitchen as well as the washer and dryer.

Disney-ness: The hotel isn't oozing with Disney, just the perfect amount, between the character meals, activities at the kids club, hidden Mickey's, and the availability of Mickey bars. What was 100% Disney was the customer service. It was amazing, just like you always get from Disney.

Final Thoughts: If you are all thinking about going to Hawaii, head to Aulani. Just do it! It was a wonderful trip. And, I think 5 nights there is perfect. A few more days and we might have gotten a little bored. If anything, I wish we could have stayed in Hawaii longer and gone to a few other islands, but we couldn't afford it this time.

A lot of people commented to me before we left that we were crazy for traveling on such long flights for just 6 days, but that didn't bother us at all. Because the vacation was so amazing, it made the flights well worth the time and expense. The kids are already asking when we can go back. I asked them which they liked best--Disney World, Disney cruise, or Aulani. As of today, they're all saying Aulani. :)

  

Aulani Trip--Day 6 (Tuesday/Wednesday--last day)

On Tuesday, it was great to have a final day to relax before our 11:30pm flight. The kids slept in until after 7am again, and we hung out in the room and packed up. Then, we went to breakfast and right to the pool. However, it was really breezy and the sun kept going behind the clouds, making it too cool to swim. After about an hour at the pool, the kids were shivering and asking to get out so they could go to the kids club. We brought them back to the room, changed into regular clothes, gave them snacks, and dropped them at the kids club around 11am. They were so happy to go.

Eric and I walked across the street to the shops and bought candy for our offices, and then went back to the hotel to check out of our room because we had to be out by 12:30pm.

We stored all of our luggage except a bag of clean clothes and pool stuff in bell services, and then spent the rest of the day at the adult pool. It was perfect. Around 3pm, we went to the hotel's departure lounge, for people on late flights, and took showers and got dressed in regular clothes. Then, we walked over to the shops again and picked up takeout for everyone for dinner, and then walked back over to the hotel to get the kids from the kids club. Even when we picked them up, they were still requesting to stay longer. We got them out, ate dinner, and then tried to do this Disney scavenger hunt using resort-provided ipads. It was REALLY hard. After about 10 minutes, the kids weren't interested, and Fletch said the music "creeped him out" (weird) so we returned the ipad. They asked if they could go back to the kids club, so we dropped them back over there for about another 90 minutes, while Eric and I relaxed in the lounge.

Finally, at 8pm, it was time to get our luggage and take the shuttle back to the airport for our 11:30pm red-eye flight. The kids fell asleep in the shuttle. Piper kind of zombie-walked through the airport, but Deke never really woke up. Thank goodness we had the stroller with us for him. We had about 90 minutes to kill at the crappy Honolulu airport, and then got on board around 11pm. The flight back was bumpy, but the kids did great. I sat with Fletch and Deke, and Eric sat with Piper. We all fell asleep right away. The kids and Eric slept all 5 hours without making a peep. I slept on and off. We made it to Phoenix, and had about an hour, just enough time to buy breakfast and go to the bathroom. Our second flight left on time, and the kids were great there too. Watched/played on kindles the whole time, and barely made a peep.

Now, we're home and back to reality. I'm so glad we made this trip. It was so beautiful, the hotel was incredible, and we had a great time together.

Aulani Trip--Day 5 (Monday)

By Monday, think the kids finally adjusted to the jet lag because they all slept in until after 7am. We hung out in the room for a bit. You can see the amazing view from our room in the pics below.

We went to eat breakfast and then to the beach and pool. It was nice except Fletch and Piper were both in bad moods. We stayed at the pool from about 8:30am-12pm. On the way back, we stopped to look at the fish in the man-made snorkeling reef.

We got the kids lunch, and then took them to the kids club because they were asking to go again, and we were happy to take them. Dropped them off around 12:30pm, and then Eric and I just relaxed all afternoon, eating lunch by the pool, reading, etc.

I felt guilty for leaving them there so long, but when we picked them up at 4:45pm, all three of them begged to stay longer, so I know they love it there. We checked them out of the kids club, and walked to the really nice shops and restaurants across the street. We ate at a pizza place, and then walked back, and got Mickey ice cream bars (which you can ONLY get at Disney properties and are so yummy), and ate outside looking at the stars. A great last evening here.

Aulani Trip--Day 4 (Sunday)

The kids slept until about 4:30am, which was an improvement. We hung out until 7am, and then got breakfast at the outdoor cafe. After that, we went to the gift shop and spent an ungodly amount of money on souvenirs that we all wanted. 

We came back to the room to drop our stuff off, and then got in line to meet Stitch from the movie Lilo and Stitch. He's one of the few characters that we've never met. The kids were so excited. (The movie is set in Hawaii, so there's lots of Stitch stuff here.) 

By that point, it was 9:30am, and the kids club was open. The kids were begging to go, so we dropped them off. We were even able to sign the up to eat lunch in the kids club. It was awesome. After dropping them, Eric and I went to the adults only pool and just relaxed for hours--drank iced coffee (me), read, played on our phones, sat in the sun, napped, went in the pool, ordered lunch brought to our sun chairs, etc. It was perfect and what we'd both been dreaming off for months.

We stayed there until about 1:30pm, and then picked up the kids, and took them down to the beach. When we picked them up, they all reported having a great time, and even ate all of their lunch. I think that Fletch mainly played video games, while Piper did arts and crafts and video games, and Deke colored and did a few other activities.

They LOVED the beach after the kids club. They had made friends with kids from two other families, and we kept seeing them at the beach and while walking around, so they were happy to see them at the beach. We had to drag them out at 3:45pm to come back to the room to shower and get ready for our 5pm character dinner. 

The dinner was really great--with Chip, Dale, Stitch, and Donald. Plus, they do a little show and let the kids march in parades, sing songs, play instruments, etc. We all had a great time, and ate way too much.

Dinner ended around 6pm, and the kids weren't ready to go back to the room, so we took them to the kids club. Eric and I just relaxed outside at sunset, listened to the live music and enjoyed being kid-free for a while. 

At 7:30pm, we picked them up and went back to the room for the night. 

Aulani Trip--Day 3 (Saturday)

Another good, but long day. Deke woke up at 2:30am, and didn't go back to sleep, so we had to entertain him all night because he wouldn't even sit still due to the jet lag. He was just UP. Piper got up at 6:30am, and I had to wake Fletch at 7:15am because we just couldn't handle hanging around the room with Deke anymore.

We got breakfast at the quick service cafe, and then picked up our rental minivan. We drove to Waimea Valley Park on the other side of the island, about 40 minutes away. Thankfully, Deke slept the whole way there. Unfortunately, when we got there, he didn't want to get up, so he was extremely cranky. The park has a 0.75-mile walk up to a waterfall, going through botanic gardens and archaeological sites. And yesterday, they had a special annual hula festival (we didn't even know until we got there) and had discounted prices to get in.

The walk up, while less than a mile, was extremely painful though becuse Deke basically cried and screamed and whined the entire time. It was a really nice walk though, with some interesting sites to see along the way.

We finally got up to the falls, after watching part of a hula show, and it was really cool. They had lifejackets and lifeguards so you could swim at the base of the falls. The water was really cold though, and it was rocky getting in, so Deke didn't like it. He and I got in for a second, and then we just hung out on land while Eric and P&F swam.

After that, we got some shaved iced, walked back down, and Deke was in a much better mood. We ate lunch there, and then got back in the car.

We attempted to go to a few beaches to snorkel, but the waves were unusually high today so they weren't allowing swimming, so we just took pictures.

By that point, the kids were getting restless, so we drove back toward the hotel. Got back there, and made the kids dinner in our room, and then went back out to go swimming at night, partially because it's fun and in part to keep Deke awake longer.

That was really fun. We swam for about 45 minutes, and then we all came back to the room, put the kids to bed, and Eric and I ate dinner and watched TV and then all went to bed.

Aulani Trip--Day 2 (Friday)

This was an awesome day. The kids were up at 3:30am, so that was a bit rough, but they watched TV, did kids yoga videos on YouTube, and played with toys while I showered and sat on the balcony and drank coffee.

Around 7am, we went to the character breakfast. It was so yummy and fun, and I'm so glad we did it.

After breakfast, we walked to Aunty's Beach House (the kids club) to get the kids registered, and they were having an open house for all parents and kids, so the kids could take a tour of the space before being dropped off. It's an awesome place, and we had to drag them out.

After the open house, we walked out of the resort and across the street to the small grocery store to get soda and sandwiches for lunch (less expensive than at the hotel).

We came back, put our bathing suits on, and then head to the pool/beach area. We spent from about 11am-3:30pm out there. The weather was gorgeous, and the pools were so fun. We did the lazy river, the sprayground, P&F rode the big kids water slides, and then we ate lunch outside.

After lunch, we walked down to the beach. It's the perfect beach because it's a lagoon, with really small waves and relatively shallow. The kids LOVED it. They just played in the sand (the resort provides sand toys), made friends with other kids, and swam, all while Eric and I just sat in beach chairs by the water. Awesome.

\

We came back to the room around 3:30pm to get the kids showered and back into clothes.

We took them for dinner at the quick service restaurant, and around 5pm, we dropped them off at the kids club. We were nervous that Deke wouldn't go in without us, but he walked right in and didn't look back. Of course, P&F are never nervous about that type of thing, so they went right in and didn't look back either.

Immediately after dropping them off, Eric and I headed to the beach/poolside bar and had dinner. It was the perfect place b/c we could sit outside but at the bar (which we love), have yummy drinks and burgers, hear the ocean, etc.

After eating, we walked on the walking path all along the beach, and then went to pick up the kids at 7pm. When we got there, of course, P&F didn't want to leave. Deke, on the other hand, was sleeping. They put him on a small cot and laid him down in the movie room with a blanket on him and just let him sleep. It was so awesome that they didn't call us to come get him and just let him sleep.

We came back to the room after that, and everyone was happy to go to sleep after a fun day.