Before starting this trip report, a critical factor is Baxter - the dog child we behind left at home, an intentionally bred Maltese-Schnauzer. DH and I miss our canine companion horribly when we travel. We took solace in knowing that our dog was kind of on vacation himself, since our DS dogsitter comes along with his Pomeranian-Boxer, Izzy. (Izzy is a rescue dog we thought was a Corgi until we got her DNA tested.) The dogs play ferociously, and Baxter worships Izzy like a goddess. He does what Izzy does, even if it is not a good idea, like walking into a closed screen door. Here are Baxter and Izzy last summer at Duck, NC; she is tricky to photograph because she runs away from cameras, even without flash, like they are lightening storms.
Half of our party (me, DH, DS, DIL) flew on United out of Dulles, Virginia at 6:30am. Much thanks to other DS for driving us to the airport. We landed at San Francisco at 9:30am. I got delicious sushi at Tomokazu during the hour layover, then we arrived after the next flight at Honolulu at 1:30pm. In-flight movies were free: The Three Musketeers (I thought it was visually spectacular, but boring) and In Time (fun). I didn’t buy anything in-flight, but found out that United is cashless and accepts only credit or debit card.
The last flight had a “Halfway to Hawaii” game, where you are given basic flight data and then you guess the time when the airplane will hit its halfway mark. I did not play but DS came in 2 minutes short. The prize of a travel book went to a passenger who guessed 10 seconds over. Too bad for him that the game didn’t follow “The Price is Right” rules of not going over. We thought we might get served lunch in flight, but alas that was for non-coach passengers. The flights were all fun, as you would imagine with a Hawaii destination where most are looking for a good time
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The large HNL airport and much of Oahu reminded me we are on a “commercial” island, as I remembered from my first visit 20 years ago. We quickly retrieved our 3 checked bags and found that one of them had clear goo smeared on it, thankfully only on the outside. We took a shuttle bus to our Ford Escape rental at Thrifty. I thought most cars in Hawaii would be light colored, but we got black. It fit all four of us and our luggage comfortably. The Thrifty service included a counter with “directions”, which was really an RCI timeshare ploy in Waikiki offering free brunch and $100 off the car rental, which I politely declined. Since my husband loves to be the passenger and navigator, and my DS and DIL are under 25 years old, I decided to be the only driver
and save $. Later I would get to hear their interpretations of the names on street signs!
The drive from Honolulu to Aulani at Ko Olina was uneventful on H1, about 25 minutes. There were some interesting tall, thin buildings along the way, the ocean, minor foliage, not a lot. It reminded us of Florida in many ways. At the Ko Olina left lane entrance, I told the guard my name and he radioed the info to the resort (although anyone can pass through in the right lane without stopping for the guard). Aulani is on the right just after Paradise Cove and the Marriott Iliani.
I drove in to the Aulani check-in area and was greeted by name. I think they said “Welcome Home” in Hawaiian and English, a nice touch. They also draped white orchid leis over the ladies’ necks and brown kukui nut leis for the men.
You can’t park in the garage without a room key unfortunately, wish this was an option for DVC members. So we had the valet Paak the Caa. We got our online checkin packet, and the porter took the bags up to our 9th floor rooms. Our Phase II tower had 6 fairly fast elevators. I forgot to get change so I gave the porter a bigger tip than I usually would. The resort looked wonderful, just as expected from what you see online. DS predicted it would be a cross between the WDW Polynesian and Animal Kingdom resorts, and he was right. The room layouts are similar to what you see in WDW as well, I guess Disney found a floor plan that works; know I love all the space and storage. We immediately did what I guess most people do when entering their room – went straight to the balcony and admired the views. Our triangular balconies faced the pool area, with the ocean to the side. From the balcony, here are the awesome views to the left and right:
We were starving so we unpacked just a few things, walked across the street to Just Tacos, had a wonderful meal, and planned to eat there again. This restaurant is in the Hawaii Entertainment book discounts, which I purchased online before the trip. I pigged out on nachos (as usual) and ceviche so much that I had little room for my meal of 3 tacos with different fillings. Well, that’s what the kitchen in the villa is for – reheating delicious leftovers! Here is DS wearing his nut lei and enjoying his Queso Fundido, though it had a bit too much cheese.
While we were dining, the rest of our party arrived from Grand Rapids, Minnesota and Richmond, VA. BIL grumbled that the DirecTV service he paid $10 for on United stopped working. Apparently they did a good job of advertising DirecTV without mention of its CONUS limitation.
We picked up a few food items from the very well stocked and reasonably priced Island Country Market/ABC store before heading back to park our car in the garage.
Then we connected with the rest of our party and ah, soaked it all in. It was still early enough to head down to the pool, so we settled in for the first sunset. Young love, ahhh.
With the resort on the dry, leeward (west) side of the island, sure enough, every evening at around 6:21 we were greeted to one awesome sunset after another. In fact, every view seemed like a picture postcard.
While the other half of our party dined at Just Tacos, we went to the Starlit Hui. It was brightly lit, and we sat on straw mats on the Makaloa Garden lawn waiting for it to begin at 7pm. Around the edges, activities were led for children including lei making, weaving, and games. Finally an Uncle announced that little girls could come up to learn the hula. 15 minutes later and still no show began, so we decided to retire for the night. A few nights later my Sister and others tried to attend another Starlit Hui, but it was rained out.
The bed was perfect for me
– mattress and pillows. I can’t sleep in complete silence, which is what I get at most Disney resorts. I need white noise, so at home we keep a small fan running. Leaving the balcony door at Aulani open brought in nice water sounds, but that also cut off the air conditioning. That wouldn’t make it too hot, just humid. Also the band also played until 10pm, and I didn’t want to hear it (yes, I felt like an old fogey). I ended up installing White Noise Lite on my iPad and playing the sound of crickets all night long, every night. It didn’t annoy DH. It was just right.