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

[khertz]

Day 6 Continued: Saturday June 6th

One of the things we passed was a small elevated clearing, so we went to check it out. There was an employee up there who came over to teach us some of the traditional games they had set up there. They were different but similar setups where 2 people stand on opposite ends and try to get an object through an obstacle. One was with sticks, and the other was a round piece of wood.

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The kids, especially DD, were hesitant to try them out at first. But once we got going, they actually found it to be a lot of fun! One not so fun part for me was that I was still dealing with the injury to my knee from the slip on Diamond Head, and then DS rolled one of those pieces of wood right into my shin!

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DD had gotten a hold of the camera, and it cracks me up the photos she was taking.

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A super close up of some leaves she liked! Lol And I took a photo of her taking the photo because I thought it was so funny.

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She also really likes taking selfies!

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There was a pathway with replicas of some different types of buildings.

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They had these scoopers to pour water on the leaves to show how the water beads up and rolls off. That was pretty cool!

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By now we had made it back to the beginning of the trail, and it was well past our usual lunchtime. They had a food location there at the Valley, so DH went to check out the options & prices while DD and I went to the restroom. There was a surprise visitor walking around!

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One of the famous places to eat on the North Shore is Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, and that had been our original plan for lunch. But by now, we knew the wait would probably be very long as it was peak lunchtime. One of the other places I had put on our list was Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. It looked like a fast casual place to eat that we would probably enjoy, and it had a few different locations around Oahu. After pulling up the menu and comparing it to the options at Waimea, it looked like we could get more for our money at Teddy’s, so we left Waimea and headed there instead.

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It took a little while to find a place to park on the street, but eventually we found something that was within walking distance of Teddy’s. Once there, they had a sign at the counter for a family box that included 2 burgers, 2 children’s entrees, 2 large fries, and 4 drinks for $30, which seemed perfect for us! We devoured that food, we were all so hungry by then!

After lunch, we still managed to find some room for shave ice! It was only a couple of minutes down the street to get to Matsumoto Shave Ice, which had a long line outside. But there was some Hawaiian dancing and singing going on in the little courtyard area, and they move very efficiently inside so it moved quickly.

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Seeing people come out with their shave ice, we knew we didn’t each need one. We decided on one rainbow (strawberry, lemon, and pineapple), and one watermelon to share.

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They also give you straws for once it starts to melt. DD couldn’t wait to have hers with the straw!

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There are lots of shops in Haleiwa to check out, so we looked through several hoping to find something to bring back for my nephew who is due in September, but there was a real lack of good things to get for an infant unfortunately. We shopped until about 3:30 and finally that early wake up was starting to get to us. We were TIRED. I had a couple of beaches I had wanted to check out on the North Shore, one that is famous for sea turtle sightings and one that was the main beach for the survivors on one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Lost. But really by then, the effort of driving around, trying to find parking, and dealing with sand didn’t sound appealing, so we started back to Waikiki.

It was also our last night in Waikiki at the Wyndham resort, so we had to spend the evening packing. We had leftover pizza for dinner while washing clothes and packing and reorganizing for our move the next day over to Aulani!

 

[alohamom]

We LOVE Teddys Bigger Burgers and because there are quite a few locations on Oahu we usually make a stop in Kailua before we hit the beach there.

 

[rdkeim]

What a beautiful hike! The waterfall was a real bonus at the end. You got so many great pictures. On to Aulani!

 

[khertz]

We LOVE Teddys Bigger Burgers and because there are quite a few locations on Oahu we usually make a stop in Kailua before we hit the beach there.

It won't be the last time Teddy's shows up in this TR! We really enjoyed it, and the price was just great for what we could get to feed us all! It was nice that they were in several locations.

What a beautiful hike! The waterfall was a real bonus at the end. You got so many great pictures. On to Aulani!

It definitely was beautiful, and very easy to walk which was nice. The waterfall was great, especially since the one DH and I had hiked to on our previous trip before kids was closed and we really wanted to see a waterfall with the kids.

 

[khertz]

Day 7: Sunday June 6th

We had reached the halfway point of our trip! Sunday was moving day. We were checking out of the Club Wyndham Waikiki Beach Walk and heading over to Ko Olina to check in at Aulani!

First order of business was breakfast. We made a big one to use up some of the cold items we had left so we didn’t need to pack and transport them. That meant we had a lot of eggs, bacon, and some biscuits. After packing up our last minute items, we brought our big luggage down to bell services to hold while we went to 9 am Mass at Sacred Heart Church.

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The priest was very nice, and on the way out he was greeting all of his parishioners by name, so he knew we were travelers and stopped us to ask where we were from and chat with us a little.

We went back to Wyndham to collect the rest of our bags and then we were hitting the road to Ko Olina. Soon enough, we could see Aulani out in the distance!

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We were all bouncing with excitement as we drove up and were told Welcome Home!

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It didn’t take too long to get checked in. We did need to show our Safe Travels information that we had been screened and were exempt from quarantine during the check in process. The CM who checked us in gave us some Welcome buttons. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready upon arrival, but we were able to leave our bags with bell services and had immediate access to the amenities. We took a little time to walk around and explore the resort. I think all of us were feeling like it was a bit of a surreal experience to actually be at Aulani!

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One of the things the kids had been looking forward to the most was looking for the Menehune! If you’re not familiar with them, this is how the Aulani website describes them:

As legend has it, the Menehune (men-neh-HOO-nay) are shy, mischievous people of the Hawaiian Islands.

They are said to be gifted—possibly magical—craftspeople who are capable of mighty feats of construction overnight. If you come across a work-in-progress bridge or canoe at Aulani Resort, chances are the Menehune are responsible.

While not immediately obvious, evidence of the Menehune is represented by carvings hidden throughout Aulani Resort—many in places where they're likely to be discovered by children first. They are in the landscaping, in the lobby, under tables, tucked in the corners of buildings and nestled under rocks all over the Resort.

We saw a few just while walking around the lobby and common areas.

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We of course took a peek around the store to see what kind of goodies we’d like to acquire over the week. And DD modeled her Aloha button.

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Since it was lunchtime, we headed across the street to have lunch at Pizza Corner. We ordered a whole pizza to share because it was cheaper than getting everyone a slice. While we were waiting for our pizza to be ready, the owner came around to welcome us, and brought us some cinnamon twists to enjoy after our meal! He was very nice and spent some time talking with us and telling us about visiting the beach near Paradise Cove to see the sea turtles early in the day.

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While we waited for the pizza, the kids made up a game with parmesan cheese packets and battled until lunch was served.

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The pizza was huge and plenty for the 4 of us!

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After lunch, we went back to Aulani and grabbed the bag we had packed with everything we needed for the pool from bell services and used the restroom near the pool area to change. Once we were all changed and had started putting sunscreen on, we got the text that our room was ready (it was about 1:30), so we pivoted our plan for the afternoon. Instead of going to the pool, we got the rest of our bags and decided to go check out the room and unpack. We were in room 1512 of the Waianae tower with an ocean view.

 

[khertz]

Day 7 Continued: Sunday June 6th

I took some quick cell phone photos of the room because I knew the kids would tear into it quickly.

Upon entering, the kitchen was to the right.

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Part of the split bathroom was to the left with the shower, a sink, and a toilet.

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There was a second bathroom with a tub and another sink attached to the master bedroom.

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We had 2 balconies, one in the master bedroom and one in the living room.

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The view was absolutely beautiful!

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While I unpacked and organized, DH made a trip to Target to replenish our grocery items and get more sunscreen.

TIP: Bring your own reusable grocery bags if you have them! I forgot to mention this when we went to Wal-Mart earlier in the trip. We have SO many at home but didn’t even think to bring them with us on vacation, and there are no plastic grocery bags in Hawaii. We ended up purchasing one at Wal-Mart and managed to fit enough stuff in it that we only needed the one. But then DH forgot to bring it with him to Target, so that’s how we ended up with yet another one!

Once he returned and we put all of the groceries away, we were ready to head down to the pool! It was pretty crowded, but there was a family leaving from some chairs near the Menehune Bridge children’s play area, so we didn’t have to walk around and look for any.

The kids went straight to Menehune Bridge, giving DH and I a little bit of time to relax.

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I ended up relaxing in the chairs and reading the book I had brought with me, The Woman in Cabin 10, while DH and the kids hit the water slides a couple of times, and the lazy river. There are 2 slides, one body slide that ends in the main pool, and a tube slide that ends in the lazy river.

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We didn’t hang by the beach that afternoon, but we did go down just to take a peek.

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The beach at Aulani is a small lagoon, one of 3 in the Ko Olina area, so the water is very calm without any big waves like we experienced in Waikiki.

After an hour or so at the pool, we headed back up to the room to settle in for the night. Once we had showered, we cooked some dinner and then we relaxed in the living room and watched Lego Masters, one of our favorite shows. It was so exciting to go to sleep at Aulani and know we had several more days to enjoy there!

 

[rdkeim]

Looks like heaven on Earth! Both the pool and the beach look so inviting. I like that the beach is a calm lagoon. Your room looks great and what a view!

 

[Isabelle12345]

WoW aulani looks amazing!
We have become DVC members during the pandemic and have yet to use a single line point (being from Canada travel is a lot more complex these days!) but seeing how amazing Aulani looks makes me really excited for a future vacation!
Looking forward to reading more!

 

[pinkxray]

That view is amazing! I had planned on trying to request something similar

You have hit many of the places I have on my to do lists. It is nice to see such detailed reports from someone with kids.

How did you like the location of your hotel in Waikiki? We are booked for a few days at Embassy Suites which looks pretty close to where you were. It is free since I have Hilton points. Was it a quick walk to get to the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian?

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

Your trip report is so fun to read! Aulani looks like it was definitely worth the wait! Your room and view are gorgeous!

 

[khertz]

Looks like heaven on Earth! Both the pool and the beach look so inviting. I like that the beach is a calm lagoon. Your room looks great and what a view!

It FELT like Heaven on Earth!! We are not usually the "relax on vacation" types, so this was a really nice change of pace for us after such a fun & busy week in Waikiki. After the adequate accommodations at the Wyndham resort, we were really blown away by both the view and the room at Aulani. It was absolutely gorgeous there, inside & out!

WoW aulani looks amazing!
We have become DVC members during the pandemic and have yet to use a single line point (being from Canada travel is a lot more complex these days!) but seeing how amazing Aulani looks makes me really excited for a future vacation!
Looking forward to reading more!

How exciting!! What home resort do you have? We have loved having access to DVC resorts, it has totally changed the Disney travel experience for us. I hope we get to stay at them all at some point! Really never thought when we bought in that Aulani would be a possibility, so I am incredibly thankful this all worked out for us. And hopefully it does for you too!! Hope you get to travel again soon. I am so ready for things to get back to normal!!!

That view is amazing! I had planned on trying to request something similar

You have hit many of the places I have on my to do lists. It is nice to see such detailed reports from someone with kids.

How did you like the location of your hotel in Waikiki? We are booked for a few days at Embassy Suites which looks pretty close to where you were. It is free since I have Hilton points. Was it a quick walk to get to the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian?

It was incredible! I don't know that we would do an ocean view again, but it was amazing to do once and for our first visit. If there are future visits for us, we might use less points per night to stay longer in another room type.

It was a VERY quick walk to the beach!! And we had easy access to a lot of shops & restaurants within walking distance. Aside from the North Shore and the Kualoa Ranch/PCC areas of Oahu, it was also very close to a lot of the activities we wanted to do for the week, so that made it easy to get a lot of our sightseeing done before going to Aulani.

Your trip report is so fun to read! Aulani looks like it was definitely worth the wait! Your room and view are gorgeous!

Thanks so much! It was absolutely 100% worth the wait to get there. Aulani was an incredible experience all on its own!

 

[khertz]

Day 8: Monday June 7th

On our first morning waking up at Aulani, we slept in a bit and took our time getting out of bed. But we did have a reservation for breakfast that morning, so we did eventually need to start getting dressed and ready to go. It was so incredible to wake up to this beautiful view out our windows!

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DD got this dress before our first Disney Cruise, and it was still pretty big back when we got it. It still fit for this trip, but just barely!

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Our Makahiki character breakfast reservation was for 8:45 am, so we left our room around 8:30 to walk down to the restaurant.

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We were able to check in right away, and then we were directed to go out to the patio to meet Mickey & Minnie!

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This photo is NOT included in the Photopass service; during the meal someone came around to show us our photo and gave us the opportunity to purchase prints or a digital version separately from the Photopass. However, unlike the luau photo later in the trip, they allowed us to take photos with our own cameras (obviously), so that was a good enough replacement for us and meant we didn’t have to miss out on photos with Mickey & Minnie.

After taking this photo, we were led inside and over to take distanced photos with Goofy & Pluto. These photos were included with the Photopass. Masks were required for the photo since it was indoors.

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To start our meal, we got our drinks, a basket of pastries to share, and we each got a plate of fruit.

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DD absolutely LOVES fruit, so she loved having her own plate. And since DS does not like fruit, she was even more excited to get to eat his too!

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While we were eating, there was a singer playing the ukulele and singing all kinds of fun songs, including the entirety of “I Lava You.”

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DH ordered the Cinnamon Bun French Toast: pastry cream, honey pecans, blueberry compote, warm Vermont maple syrup

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I got the Belgian Style Waffle: fresh berries, country cream, warm Vermont maple syrup

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Both kids ordered the Mickey and Minnie Waffle: Belgian Mickey and red velvet Minnie waffle with maple syrup

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DH and I were pretty stuffed from our own meals, but not enough to skip trying that red velvet Minnie waffle. It was SO GOOD!

DD ate a little bit of her waffles, then went back to the fruit.

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Breakfast was expensive and we missed having the characters come around to the tables, but overall I’m glad we did this during our trip! I would have felt like we were missing out on an experience if we had missed it. As for food, it was very good and very plentiful, so we were absolutely stuffed walking out of there.

We spotted some more Menehune as we left the restaurant.

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We stopped by the DVC desk to see what they member gift was, and got a print from the movie Luca.

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Before getting on with our day, we had to make a run to Target for a couple of items we had forgotten to get the day before. But once that was done, we changed into our bathing suits and spent the rest of the day in the water! We were down at the pool for about an hour and a half, letting the kids play at Menehune Bridge, going down the water slides, and swimming in the pool.

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While we were down there, we ended up getting the refillable popcorn bucket to use for the rest of the trip. It was $8 for the bucket, and $2 per refill. The refills were generous because instead of taking your bucket and refilling it, due to Covid restrictions they were giving you a big bag of popcorn to dump in your bucket. But the bag held more popcorn than the bucket so it was a lot of popcorn! We used the heck out of that during our trip! Later on, we were told we could get free refills as DVC members, but as with other things, it was hit or miss whether you needed to show a blue card to get it. Sometimes they gave us the free refills just for having the DVC pool wristband (we only have the white card).

We went up to the room in the afternoon for lunch and a break from the sun. Then around 3:20 pm we went back down but decided to check out the beach this time. I am not a big fan of sand and saltwater, so while the kids played and buried themselves in the sand, I read my book and listened to podcasts and watched them play.

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They swam and ran around on the beach until 5:30 when we dragged them back up to the room to clean up and have dinner. We made tacos in the room, and had a lazy evening until we went to bed around 9:30.

What should have been a nice restful night was rudely interrupted at 11:30 pm when the fire alarm in our room started going off! It took a second for our brains to clear enough to figure out what was happening, but we grabbed the kids and hurried out of the room and down endless flights of stairs to the ground floor, a little scared and wondering what was going on. We really never found out for sure, but overheard some people saying they think a kid pulled the alarm as a prank. I was beyond annoyed. We got all the way down to the pool area (that is 15 flights, y’all), and the alarm was cleared. Of course the elevators didn’t come back on right away, soooooo… there we were at midnight hiking back up 15 flights of stairs with 2 tired kids!!! Definitely NOT how I wanted to spend our night, but at least it was nothing serious!

 

[Isabelle12345]

What a view to wake up to in the morning!!!
Your daughter is precious in that moana dress

How exciting!! What home resort do you have? We have loved having access to DVC resorts, it has totally changed the Disney travel experience for us. I hope we get to stay at them all at some point! Really never thought when we bought in that Aulani would be a possibility, so I am incredibly thankful this all worked out for us. And hopefully it does for you too!! Hope you get to travel again soon. I am so ready for things to get back to normal!!!

We are owners at the poly… hopefully we will get to go within the next 6 months! (We have two tentative points planned…)
We are also white card members

Aulani looks really amazing
Can’t wait to read more!

 

[rdkeim]

What a nice way to start the day - that lovely view and a character breakfast. Then plenty of time to relax by the water. What a great day! Sorry for the rude awakening - yikes. I would have been annoyed too. I bet that wasn't a fun trip back up 15 flights Hope it was an isolated incident.

 

[carone0318]

Enjoying your trip report. I am in full planning mode (May 2022, I can make reservations on October 19th - the 7 month window) and your report has been enjoyable!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

WoW aulani looks amazing!
We have become DVC members during the pandemic and have yet to use a single line point (being from Canada travel is a lot more complex these days!) but seeing how amazing Aulani looks makes me really excited for a future vacation!
Looking forward to reading more!

It's incredible. And bonus... once you stay there you'll be cured of any temptation to use your points at the Polynesian ever again.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Sometimes they gave us the free refills just for having the DVC pool wristband (we only have the white card).

I think TECHNICALLY you're not supposed to get the special wristbands, either. (I'm white card but have only stayed at Aulani on cash.)

 

[khertz]

What a view to wake up to in the morning!!!
Your daughter is precious in that moana dress

We are owners at the poly… hopefully we will get to go within the next 6 months! (We have two tentative points planned…)
We are also white card members

Aulani looks really amazing
Can’t wait to read more!

She got a lot of attention that morning in her Moana dress! I'm so glad it still fit for this trip.

Hopefully you get to go on your trips! I think it will be 2023 before we are able to go back. We do have a night at OKW booked for before our cruise, but I'm still not totally sold on the pandemic experience on DCL considering how expensive it is...

What a nice way to start the day - that lovely view and a character breakfast. Then plenty of time to relax by the water. What a great day! Sorry for the rude awakening - yikes. I would have been annoyed too. I bet that wasn't a fun trip back up 15 flights Hope it was an isolated incident.

It was a great day, for sure!! The fire alarm sucked, and climbing those stairs... Thankfully that didn't happen again on our stay!

Enjoying your trip report. I am in full planning mode (May 2022, I can make reservations on October 19th - the 7 month window) and your report has been enjoyable!

So awesome!! Just a few more days to book! Hope you get what you want!!

I think TECHNICALLY you're not supposed to get the special wristbands, either. (I'm white card but have only stayed at Aulani on cash.)

You're probably right. It was pretty inconsistent with blue vs white card for many things there!

 

[khertz]

Day 9: Tuesday June 8th

After our unintentional lack of sleep the night before, we all slept in a bit the next morning. We made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then got dressed and decided to head out to see some characters! Along the way, we stopped in the shop because the kids really wanted some Wishables. The one they were hoping to get was the rainbow Mickey shave ice, and we were able to feel the packages and got it right on the first try.

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Today, the character meets were scheduled on the Halawai Lawn, so that was our next stop. I don’t know if I remembered to check the character meet schedule on the phone this morning, so I’m pretty sure this first character meet was a surprise.

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It was Stitch & Angel!

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We got the Photopass photos from this one, but Stitch was in so many shadows you can barely see him there behind us!

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After that meet, we decided just to walk around the grounds a little bit. We found more menehune hiding around outside.

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And we found where Aunty’s Beach House was located. We were pretty disappointed that this didn’t reopen before our trip, because I think the kids would have enjoyed it a lot. If we ever get back, I think it probably wouldn’t be until the kids have outgrown it, if not both of them then definitely DS.

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We made our way back to the lawn for the next character meet at 10:30, and this time it was Chip & Dale.

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We went back up to the shop after that because we were about ready to head back to the room, and there were a few things I wanted. We picked up a Christmas ornament, a magnet, and I picked up an Aulani t-shirt for myself. In the meantime, DS had decided he wanted the Mickey ear Spam Musubi Wishable, so we had to feel some more packages. We found one we thought was right, but since both had Mickey ears, we ended up with a second rainbow shave ice, so he was disappointed. We went up to the room after for lunch, trying to console DS and let him know we would try again to get him the musubi one. Then DH and I had a great idea...there are several Aulani FB groups, so I decided to post it in there to see if anyone had the musubi that they wanted to trade. I thought it was probably a long shot, but within 10 minutes of posting in 2 different groups, I had someone who wanted to trade! Her nephew had gotten the musubi one but really wanted the shave ice.

After a quick lunch in the room, we changed into swimsuits for the afternoon. Since DH and DS were done quicker, we made arrangements to meet up for the trade and they went down to the lobby to do that while DD and I finished getting ready. It worked out so perfect, and now both kids had the Wishable they wanted without having to keep buying more!

 

[rdkeim]

A nice start to your day. Fun to be able to just wander the grounds and also get a few character meets. It will be so nice when the meets don't have to be distanced - maybe that's changed by now? What a perfect solution to the Wishable dilemma! Then an afternoon at the pool/beach - I can see that a Disney vacation without the parks would be a nice change of pace.