polyforme
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2008
If I don't sit here now and write about our excursions, I won't get around to it later, so here goes!
While we LOVED the resort, 3/4 of us had never been to Hawaii and we couldn't justify staying put the entire trip. So we rented a car for the entire stay (8 nights/9 days), b/c it was cheaper to do that and pay for parking then pay for a day at a time and airport shuttling for 4. Had a great deal from that discount Hawaii car rental site, about $300 for the entire time in a small SUV from Alamo. We ended up with a Jeep, which was fun, and also useful on the return to the airport b/c the road was flooded (I think a fire hydrant issue). DH was gleeful to take that thing through flooded roads.
Traffic: it sucks. I am not used to quiet small-town traffic. College and almost my entire adult life was in the Baltimore/DC metro area until we moved to Phoenix last summer. I have family in Chicago and have driven through rush hour there more than once; I have driven through LA rush hour more than once. So every time I read about the Oahu traffic, I thought meh, can't be that bad. Sadly, it was! We were on the road at 3:00pm from the airport and it took us 45min to go the first 5 miles. Not pretty. Traffic is better on the weekends, but even attempting to only drive mid-day on weekdays is unpredictable. Accidents abound. We hit traffic b/c of accidents on practically every trip away from the resort - along the North shore, coming back from Honolulu, coming back from Pearl Harbor, even coming back from Safeway on a Saturday evening (that took us more than 30min!!). Assume every trip is going to take 20-30min longer than you expect, and if there isn't an accident - pleasant surprise that your journey wasn't awful! Perhaps we had terrible luck with all the accidents, who knows. I meticulously planned to avoid weekday rush hours (both AM and PM) and it just didn't matter. Just be prepared mentally for it to be bad, and have snacks and water in the car for the kids. The kids hated hated hated the traffic and it provoked a fair number of near-meltdowns for the 7yo.
Having said that, I'm glad we did all that we did away from the resort. I purchased the 3-day Go Oahu card and was determined to get more than our money's worth out of it. It saves A LOT of money if you use it wisely, highly recommend if you want to save money. I think we would have spent about twice as much out of pocket otherwise.
Day 1 on the Go Oahu card: jungle jeep tour at Kualoa ranch, then Byodo-in Temple, then Sea Life Park with the dolphin encounter. (Note: at this point, the Go Oahu card has just about paid for itself, and 2 more days remain - so serious savings!) The drive to Kualoa is amazing; words can describe the green mountains you drive through. If you have a Jurassic World fan in your family, the jeep tour is perfect; you drive through the indominus rex enclosure movie set. DS was thrilled beyond the telling, and everyone in the jeep went "OOOH" as soon as we drove up to it. Very cool. Lots of other movie/TV filming info from the guide, plus general site/area/Hawaiian history. Highly recommend. Next we drove to Byodo-in, which was on the driving route from Kualoa to Sea Life park. We picked up Subway across the street from the cemetery and picnicked out of the Jeep. It was serene, lovely, kids got to hit a giant gong, and we thought driving through the giant cemetery was cool (it's segmented by religion/culture). It's not out of the way at all if you're going to Kualoa, so in general, I would recommend it if you are going to Kualoa; probably not worth the drive to get there just for that, though. Then we continued south to Sea Life. Again, gorgeous drive, and the coastline as you approach Sea Life is amazing. I have mixed feelings on Sea Life Park; it's not nearly as impressive as the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and it's slightly sad, but the animal caretakers seem very happy and genuine and love their animals. We elected to go there b/c DD really wanted to meet a dolphin up close and DS was apprehensive (which is not his norm) when we talked about doing a wild dolphin snorkel tour out of Ko Olina. The 3 day Go Oahu card offered the dolphin encounter as one of the 3 premium activity options, and that was more "controlled" than wild dolphins, so we went with it. Thank goodness we didn't pay $500 for the wild dolphin snorkel tour, b/c DS ended up refusing to get in the water with the dolphins and sat to the side on a bench. Sigh, can't make everyone happy! DD, DH and I loved it, got to pet, kiss, "dance" with one of the dolphins from 50 First Dates. It wasn't a waste of an excursion for DS, b/c he did love the sea lion show and the hammerhead sharks. Would I recommend Sea Life? I don't know. Without kids, probably no... go see the local wild dolphins and turtles in a natural environment they're meant to be in (like I said, mixed feelings on this one!). With kids who want to see dolphins up close? Yes, but not if you paid full price out of pocket at $130pp. That's crazy expensive.
After a couple days at the resort, we had a short day off-site planned. In order to maximize the Go Oahu card, we needed to do the swap meet and USS Arizona tour on a separate day from the paid Pearl Harbor stuff. I decided it wasn't that stupid, b/c parking is free there anyway, and if we did the USS Arizona first, it was kind of like focusing on the beginning of US involvement in WWII one day, and during/end-of-WWII the next. Not saying I recommend doing this to everyone, but it did work for us, and the kids got more out of Pearl Harbor when we spaced it out. That will depend on your kids, of course. If you are a true history buff adult, I can't see how you can do ALL of Pearl Harbor in a single day, so I would also space it out this way for those who want to see absolutely everything in depth. So we did the swap meet late in the morning, followed by 2pm pre-scheduled timed tix for the Arizona. The swap meet was fine, as expected, nothing I would purposely drive to buy if you weren't already headed in that direction. The kids got jewelry/trinkets cheap and were happy. FYI on the Arizona: they want you there an hour early, but they don't mean at the ticket booth an hour early. We got to the booth 30min early and it was fine. You don't actually need to be present at the departure zone until 15min before. An hour is smart though if you want to see the free exhibit next to the Arizona departure area first.
The next day was day 2 on our Go Oahu card: paid Pearl Harbor stuff followed by 1pm Makani catamaran ride. This didn't allow nearly enough time for the paid Pearl Harbor stuff, really. We skipped the aviation museum b/c we had the good fortune to have been to the DC area Smithsonian Air and Space museums enough that the kids weren't interested. (I'm sure it's not the same, but there was no point in dragging anyone to something they had no interest in!) We did the entire Bowfin experience, which the kids enjoyed. Note to older/taller folks: this may not be a good idea for you. You have to climb through the air locks. I'm 5'10" and the whole time I kept thinking that my 6'5" dad (now in his 60s) would have a really hard time with it and would have whacked his head about 20 times on equipment. I would tell my claustrophobic mom to skip too. There is a museum with the Bowfin, at least, if you don't want to go in the sub itself. Then we headed to the Missouri. We should have eaten at the Bowfin eatery first. The Missouri food truck line is long and slow; food sounds good but yikes, who wants to take 30min out of your touring time to stand in a food line (and this was 11am, not even 12 or 1). We pushed through with snacks until we returned to the main visitor area. The shuttle bus ride itself was very informative! You need at least 2 hours to tour the Missouri thoroughly, which we didn't have, but we hit the main parts at least. My dad, even skipping going into the sub itself, would have needed a full 8 hour day to see the Missouri, Bowfin museum, and aviation museum with a stop for lunch. Adding the Arizona (with exhibit) would have pushed the limits of time. I wanted to make a point of saying this to anyone who really enjoys WWII history and is visiting for the first time (um, without kids, probably!). The Makani catamaran ride was a good follow-up, b/c we could relax and sit there after walking around all morning with the kids; one drink pp is included. The boat was nice, had big viewing nets you could sit on, wasn't too crowded at all. I didn't see anyone get seasick, but I had prepared by taking meds (and giving it to the kids) just in case. We saw a pod of wild dolphins, lots of fish, and a sea turtle, and the route took us from Ala Moana past Diamondhead... this is the best way to see Waikiki: without traffic, ha! I'd definitely recommend it on the Go Oahu card, but maybe encourage people to find something closer to Ko Olina if you don't have one. Traffic was not fun heading back to the resort.
Our last day on the Go Oahu card: big plans to go to Waimea Valley and PCC and possibly stop at Dole on the return for whips. Somehow we got a late start (I think this was the day no one was awake until 8:30). By the time we approached Dole, I knew we were never going to make it to Waimea without an early lunch (despite the late breakfast... have I mentioned how much my kids eat??), and Dole was right there... so we just stopped. I got in line for train and maze tix, DH got in line for food. The food was actually pretty good, surprisingly, but it was a busy place. After eating, the line for the train was a bit tedious. I noticed when we left, the lines at the ticket booth and for the train were much much shorter, so aim for Dole post-lunch rather than morning/lunch time if possible. We rode the train, did part of the maze, skipped the plantation garden tour. Regarding Dole in general: it's a bit of a tourist trap, as expected. If you have little kids, they'll like the train, the maze and the pineapple photo op... but if you have teenagers or only adults, I would only stop if you want a "true" Dole whip float (made with fresh juice) and are passing by. Once was enough for us, wouldn't make a point of going back there again. We stopped in Haleiwa to toss the frisbee that came with the Dole kids' meal then drove along to Waimea. For $10pp, you can take a shuttle up and down to the falls, otherwise it's about a 30min walk unless you book it. Could definitely be longer if you pause to look at the various things along the path (a craftsman making things, shrines, etc). We didn't swim, but that was available, with a lifeguard who played the guitar for tips, and mandatory life vests. My ungrateful kids said "that's it? that's a tiny waterfall" but we grown-ups loved the walk up and down. I think they were more enchanted with the peacock who strolls around the restaurant/store/parking lot area. And at this point we have thoroughly given up any notion of going to PCC b/c the kids are done!!
All that we did would have cost $1130 at the booths, and we spent $600-something on the Go Oahu cards. We didn't even hit the aviation museum, or go on the plantation garden tour at Dole, so I'm not including those in the cost (purely including what we did), so savings could have been greater. Doing PCC instead of Waimea and/or Dole would save more b/c it's pricey.
Whew, that was a lot, but I'm glad I got it all down before I forgot bits of it! What will we do next time? Well, we've seen a lot of Oahu, so we'll island hop for sure. We'll start on one of the other islands (that have much less traffic!!) then end with maybe 4 days at Aulani so we can relax and thoroughly enjoy everything the resort has to offer. We'll probably try to take a single day to go to PCC and maybe stop in at Kualoa for a different tour, b/c we loved seeing that part of the island so much. We won't rent a car for the entire time, just one day.
Family favorites from the whole trip:
DS7 - Uncle's Mo'olelo fire pit story telling and the sea lion show at Sea Life Park, followed by the Kualoa jungle jeep tour and making sand creations on the beach
DD11 - Makahiki character breakfast, animation classes, and meeting the dolphins at Sea Life, followed by the catamaran ride
me - the drive to Kualoa, walking around Aulani after dark, and sipping on a cocktail made from Hawaiian coconut vodka and passionfruit/guava/orange juice on our balcony or the beach
DH - at work, will have to ask him later.
Love all the info!!! Thanks so much! Sounds like you had a blast. Couple of questions if you don't mind. We are going to Kualua Ranch Monday at 8am horseback ride. What time do you suggest we leave Aulani? Next, my DD11 loves art and would love the animation class. Can you please tell me how I sign her up? Is it on a particular day? $??
Thanks Kathy
They get up between 6-7 in CA. My DH keeps telling me not to assume they will get up early.....but I am prepping for that! If they sleep in, fantastic!!
