Need help selecting excursions from Aulani

CT15

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 1, 2005
Hello,
We are planning to go to Aulani in Sept. [no kids] - I am looking for some info on the excursions offered on the Aulani website - there are a number of really nice excursions to the other islands.

Can anyone give me feed back on the Waimea Canyon & Fern Grotto excursion or the O‘ahu to Big Island Gold Hawai‘i Volcano Adventure?? Or if you have taken any of the other off island excursions your thoughts? I don't think I will have enough time to do more than one, and want to be sure!

This will be our first time to Hawaii, so I am in the early planning stage, and am overwhelmed!
..but in a good way!
:0)

Thanks any help/advice is MUCH appreciated.
 
We're doing the POA cruise, so seeing both Kauai and the big island. Personally, I can't go to Hawaii and NOT see a live volcano, so that would be my choice. We have a day and a half on Kauai, and we still haven't decided for sure if we're going to Waimea Canyon or not. But I've read quite a lot of negative reviews on that Fern Grotto cruise, so I'd say read up on that. Again, we haven't been yet--I've just been doing a ton of reading. Hopefully you'll get some first-handbinfo here soon :)
 
Hello,
We are planning to go to Aulani in Sept. [no kids] - I am looking for some info on the excursions offered on the Aulani website - there are a number of really nice excursions to the other islands.

Can anyone give me feed back on the Waimea Canyon & Fern Grotto excursion or the O‘ahu to Big Island Gold Hawai‘i Volcano Adventure?? Or if you have taken any of the other off island excursions your thoughts? I don't think I will have enough time to do more than one, and want to be sure!

This will be our first time to Hawaii, so I am in the early planning stage, and am overwhelmed!
..but in a good way!
:0)

Thanks any help/advice is MUCH appreciated.

I've visited Waimea, the Grotto, and the VNP, though own my own and with no time-constraint (was on Kauai for 4 days and the BI for 5 when I saw them). However, I can say that the best part of the VNP was the Halemaumau crater at night. I saw it from the Jaggar Museum on the recommendation of a Park Ranger and the view was stunning! I'd seen it during the day, and it was still spectacular, but at night...wow! Just. Wow! I'm not sure if your tour will let you stay that long, but if it does, I'd pick that one without a second thought.

I feel the need to emphasize that active volcanoes are dangerous and unpredictable. This is not to sound condescending because we all know that, but sudden changes in lava flow direction, explosions, collapses, high level of VOG, etc. are constantly changing which places we can and cannot visit. Because of that, tour companies may plan a more "safe" route by taking you through dried lava fields, bike paths, seeing petroglyphs, the black sand beach, and the lava tube. If you wanna be where the action is, I would check and see if your company makes effort to take you to a place where there is surface flow or perhaps use a boat to see ocean entry. Some people assume wherever they go, they'll see flowing lava, but I made one visit to the park and didn't see any. The park updates their website daily with conditions and if a place is safe or dangerous to visit, but tour companies may not take you there because of liabilities.

As for Waimea and the Grotto, in terms of experience, I find both to be incredibly cathartic. The Grotto made me feel like I was in some sort of fairy story, which is probably why people get married there. Waimea is just amazing to look at. I felt so at peace when I was up there. It looks like someone painted it! But there was something solemn and beautiful about the lava fields in the VNP - especially where there is plant life starting to grow back. I literally spent a full hour just walking around in them, taking pictures, and smiling benignly. They are both extremely wonderful places to be, but I think knowing the details of what you're experience will be might help you make the best choice.
 
We're doing the POA cruise, so seeing both Kauai and the big island. Personally, I can't go to Hawaii and NOT see a live volcano, so that would be my choice. We have a day and a half on Kauai, and we still haven't decided for sure if we're going to Waimea Canyon or not. But I've read quite a lot of negative reviews on that Fern Grotto cruise, so I'd say read up on that. Again, we haven't been yet--I've just been doing a ton of reading. Hopefully you'll get some first-handbinfo here soon :)

Thanks for the info-
 


I've visited Waimea, the Grotto, and the VNP, though own my own and with no time-constraint (was on Kauai for 4 days and the BI for 5 when I saw them). However, I can say that the best part of the VNP was the Halemaumau crater at night. I saw it from the Jaggar Museum on the recommendation of a Park Ranger and the view was stunning! I'd seen it during the day, and it was still spectacular, but at night...wow! Just. Wow! I'm not sure if your tour will let you stay that long, but if it does, I'd pick that one without a second thought.

I feel the need to emphasize that active volcanoes are dangerous and unpredictable. This is not to sound condescending because we all know that, but sudden changes in lava flow direction, explosions, collapses, high level of VOG, etc. are constantly changing which places we can and cannot visit. Because of that, tour companies may plan a more "safe" route by taking you through dried lava fields, bike paths, seeing petroglyphs, the black sand beach, and the lava tube. If you wanna be where the action is, I would check and see if your company makes effort to take you to a place where there is surface flow or perhaps use a boat to see ocean entry. Some people assume wherever they go, they'll see flowing lava, but I made one visit to the park and didn't see any. The park updates their website daily with conditions and if a place is safe or dangerous to visit, but tour companies may not take you there because of liabilities.

As for Waimea and the Grotto, in terms of experience, I find both to be incredibly cathartic. The Grotto made me feel like I was in some sort of fairy story, which is probably why people get married there. Waimea is just amazing to look at. I felt so at peace when I was up there. It looks like someone painted it! But there was something solemn and beautiful about the lava fields in the VNP - especially where there is plant life starting to grow back. I literally spent a full hour just walking around in them, taking pictures, and smiling benignly. They are both extremely wonderful places to be, but I think knowing the details of what you're experience will be might help you make the best choice.

Hello- thanks for the info- couple of quick questions- do you think that it is better to have a tour for the VNP? or are there enough rangers around to make it worth wild. I am leaning on getting a car and doing the tour on our own. Any suggestions?
 
Has anyone booked one of the Aulani excursions? What was your experience? I am a little hesitant, I called them and got no answer and finally got through to someone, who could not answer any of the most basic questions. I was interested in the Oahu to Hawaii VNP tour, and she not tell me what airline they used, what times they would be leaving returning, how much time they would be in VNP. Every question I asked she responded with oh I'm not sure.. or Oh I don't know. Which did NOT give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. So I started looking at tours external to Aulani. I have to say I was very surprised that Disney would affiliate themselves with a tour group that doesn't "seem"to have their act together. Perhaps I just got a newbie.

Does anyone have any experience with the Aulani tours?
Or taken a tour that you would highly recommend? Going in Sept., with no kids, and want to get the most out of our stay!

Any an all advice WELCOME!!
 
Hello- thanks for the info- couple of quick questions- do you think that it is better to have a tour for the VNP? or are there enough rangers around to make it worth wild. I am leaning on getting a car and doing the tour on our own. Any suggestions?

You don't really need rangers at the park - I just like talking to them. :) I think either Crater Rim Drive or Chain of Craters Road will give you a good experience. Each one has a checklist of things to see, kind of like the drive up to the North Shore here on Oahu. If you want to see live lava, check out the Kalapana viewing site. That's the only place I've been that had flowing lava, but there may be other places based on what Pele feels like doing. There are some tours that take you from Oahu to Hawaii, give you a tour, and brining you back again. I'd look into one of those companies (like Discover Hawaii Tours, Roberts, etc.) and see if their itinerary look like something you'd want to do. It's hard for me to give you advice in terms of approach because I had 4 full days there. Maybe the park's "plan your trip" section could be more of use?
 



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