It's My Turn to Press the Button- Aulani with Preschoolers June 2015

Just got caught up on your last few updates. Interesting how my perspective has changed now that I have recently brought a 3 year old (vs. the barely 2-year-old she was last time). Izzy really wanted to do the dark slide too, so I'm interested to see if Kate did it. I considered sending Izzy down (in a life vest), as the lifeguard said she'd be fine - but she stopped asking and was having so much fun on the tube slide with me (and the Menehune Bridge ones) that I just didn't bring it up again and she never asked, so didn't go.

Also fun to see your cabana experience now that I've had one too. Love the dessert for dinner!

Looks like a fun activity with the canoe racing! We did the ukulele lesson and that was fun too.

Looking forward to more!

Oh - and it's the Halawai Lawn. :goodvibes (Cute character meets there, by the way!)
 
He did not bring her goggles, which I would have thought would have been fine, but her eyes got bright red and swollen. Have you read that article that says it is not chlorine, but pee that irritates your eyes in the pool? EW gross!! I also thought the pools were salt water... so the pee theory makes sense, but she was pretty miserable by the time I got back and DH felt awful. I told him not to be so hard on himself, Mary Ingalls went blind and had a good life. It took a couple hours for her eyes to fully recover and she still talks about that time in Hawaii with Daddy (she always remembers who the culprit was- ha ha) that she got the owie eyes.

I am only half way through but loving your TR! We leave in 39 days for Aulani! However, my "children" are now 17 & 14! I remember those days & I MISS THEM!! Anyways, the red-eye thing from a medical professional standpoint, not sure if it's true but I carry "Lacrilube" and hydrating drops for my boys (as well as goggles). I do this because one year, we stayed at a new hotel that just opened their new pool and my son's eyes were "fried"! I made a midnight trip to Walmart to pick these things up & now I make sure to pack them! The eyes are your fastest healing organ, so luckily all was good by the next morning!
 
I've been enjoying your story!

Thank you!

Just got caught up on your last few updates. Interesting how my perspective has changed now that I have recently brought a 3 year old (vs. the barely 2-year-old she was last time). Izzy really wanted to do the dark slide too, so I'm interested to see if Kate did it. I considered sending Izzy down (in a life vest), as the lifeguard said she'd be fine - but she stopped asking and was having so much fun on the tube slide with me (and the Menehune Bridge ones) that I just didn't bring it up again and she never asked, so didn't go.

Looks like a fun activity with the canoe racing! We did the ukulele lesson and that was fun too.

Oh - and it's the Halawai Lawn. :goodvibes (Cute character meets there, by the way!)
Stay tuned for the continuation of the slide saga ;)

Oooh I bet the ukulele was fun!

I knew that wasn't the name!

I am only half way through but loving your TR! We leave in 39 days for Aulani! However, my "children" are now 17 & 14! I remember those days & I MISS THEM!! Anyways, the red-eye thing from a medical professional standpoint, not sure if it's true but I carry "Lacrilube" and hydrating drops for my boys (as well as goggles). I do this because one year, we stayed at a new hotel that just opened their new pool and my son's eyes were "fried"! I made a midnight trip to Walmart to pick these things up & now I make sure to pack them! The eyes are your fastest healing organ, so luckily all was good by the next morning!

Good tip! She was so pathetic looking with her poor red eyes!
 
So.... I was a bad trip reporter and took no notes for Wednesday evening. Seeing as it has been almost 10 month...I'm going to have to wing it! :eek:

We went upstairs and rested for a bit before changing for our evening activities. The kids were signed up for the premium activity- Surf's Up with Chip and Dale, I called to book this about 6 months prior and they weren't booking it yet. Then I called back at 5 months. Still not booking. Then at 4 months- boom- booked it! Neither this nor Fish Are Friends was ever listed in the Daily Iwa, so I would assume it was booked up before we arrived. I was somewhat stressed because they never sent an email confirmation and I called to confirm once. But all was good and they were on the list. There were about 40 kids signed up based on the group picture. I am sorry- I can't really remember the details. I think this was from 5:30-8:30PM. Dinner was included and the kids reported they had Mac and Cheese, Chicken Nuggets and Hot Dogs. Probably pizza too- but my weirdos don't really like pizza. I do know it was $79 each and DH about fell on the floor when they told us that at check in. I may have omitted that detail before. :cool: Once he recovered, we dropped the kids off. Before we left, I bought a Hawaiian Chip and Dale shirt and gave it to this awesome local company (that has since moved to CO I believe) called My Daddy's Shirt. Basically they take old shirts and turn them into adorable kids clothes. I had it made into a dress for Kate for this activity. It came out adorable, but I didn't get a great picture of it.

They said they played and danced and made these pretty heavy wooden surf boards. They didn't give me a ton of details.... but they both loved it! It is hard to say this was worth $160 for us... but we knew they were secured for the evening so we could eat at Ama Ama and that was a good thing! Here are some pics.

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We had ressies at Ama Ama, but not till 6:00 and check in took .06 seconds, so we did like any good childless couple and went to the bar! This was our only time at any of the bars this trip. We went to the outside one right near the pool and Ama Ama. This is when we discovered we had been given the pool bar menu at the cabana!

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We ordered drinks which I can't tell you the names of- but they were refreshing and had pineapples, so I am sure they were good!

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While we were there, I could not help but take a picture of this guy. I know it was a casual pool bar.... but this was an interesting get up! He hung at the bar with his wife and kid for like 15 minutes! Note the headphones! Yep... I am a snarky people watcher. Now you know.

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Finally our much awaited Ama Ama dinner! When Aulani first opened, this place didn't get great reviews. They seemed to improve in recent years, so we wanted to give it a try. We knew it would be pricey... we just hoped it would be yummy! We arrived and were seated right away. We were taken to a ocean view table- score! There had been a wedding a little before on the patio in front of Ama Ama and it looked lovely. The Aulani stuff was tearing it down as we ate, but it was not at all obtrusive. The Menu-

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And of course- the view.... ahhhh I wish we were there right now! You can sort of see the wedidng stuff on the right side.

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We started with the Big Eye Tuna Poke. We enjoy sushi at home so we knew we would like this! It was small but delish! Oh... apparently we got wine too!

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For dinner, I went WAY outside my dining comfort zone and ordered the Seafood Boil. DH was like... what???? He was sure I would get the lamb. I figured I can get lamb anywhere and I am in Hawaii so I am getting seafood! I was hoping this was not a huge mistake! It came out and looked impressive. But.... uh, oh. How am I going to eat this. Once I figured out how to get the clams and mussels out without flinging them across the room- I was all set. To be honest, I don't love clams and mussels, but these were still very good. I am sure there was a little butter in them! But that bread in the back dipped in the broth- so good! I actually really enjoyed this and I would order it again- even though I am not terribly fond of some of the pieces. I ate them all- they just weren't my fave, if that makes sense! Now everywhere we go that has some version of this dish, DH asks me if I am getting it because obviously it is my new favorite. Uh. No. I liked it in Hawaii. Not in Arizona.

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DH played it much safer than me and got the Pork Chop. He really liked this. It was tender and cooked well. But cmon Man.... you got the pork chop!!

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Did we get dessert? Uh... of course! This time- I went with my fave- the creme brulee! DH got some chocolate thing. He said he liked his better than mine. I didn't try his becauise I don't like chocoalte, but I am sure mine was better. I forced myself to eat the whole thing! As we ate dessert, the sun was setting. DH took about 700 pictures of this but I will include one.

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It looks like I ordered a Coke Zero at some point as well. Now the tough part.... the receipt! Eek! Honestly, it was expensive, but not more so than a "fancy" restaurant back home. The service, food and view were phenomenal... and we really enjoyed this experience. If you are on the fence- do it! I wouldn't say this place is not kid friendly.... it is just pricey and for us.... we have a hard time justifying that money if we are entertaining our kids too. Our kids are actually really good at restaurants (they are heathens at the grocery store- so don't worry, they aren't perfect). But for a 90 minute meal.... this would have been a lot on us to keep them well behaved. We have a sitter every other Saturday at home so we can do a "date night" (not this nice though!) and we very much enjoy that time together. But- that is just us! I am sure everyone has a comfort level both financially and parenting-ly (nice word there, huh) and it is all good!

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After dinner, we had time before we needed to get the kids. We went to the room for a bit. Then we decided to go pay down our room balance with our gift cards. We went to the front desk to find that we had exceeded the $1500 hold and at that point, they run your card. Eek! Oh man!! Remember those two cabana days- yeah, we were now! So... we had some racked up over the $1500. We paid that off and decided we would use the gift cards for all our meals the next two days. We knew we wanted to get the photopass CD and we were all having breakfast at Ama Ama the last day and those two things alone would almost knock out the remaining gift card balance we had. It worked out fine.... just not as planned. I think we could have pushed for a refund to the card and to have it reran on the gift cards, but since we were pretty sure we could spend the gift cards on our own- twist my arm Aulani- we didn't press it.

After this we walked around and ended up laying on some pool loungers facing the ocean just watching the stars and chatting. This was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. It was so quiet and peaceful and beautiful. We discussed going in the hot tub, but our suits were in the room and we didn't feel like getting wet. Soon enough, it was time to get the kids.

They were in the middle of a dance party when we picked up. Most of the kids were dancing up a storm. I would say 80% of the kids were between ages 3-7. There was this one 11 year old girl who looked miserable. I had been that kid stuck at a kids club with the "babies" so I felt for her. But at the same time- I was like, buck up- it's Hawaii! The kids were thrilled to see us and show us their surfboards and talk about dancing with Chip and Dale. We went back up to the room and everyone went to bed quickly!
 
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Dinner was included and the kids reported they had Mac and Cheese, Chicken Nuggets and Hot Dogs. Probably pizza too- but my weirdos don't really like pizza.
Izzy is with your kids on that. Won't touch pizza, but has a nightly dinner rotation of the other three. :rotfl:

We had ressies at Ama Ama, but not till 6:00 and check in took .06 seconds, so we did like any good childless couple and went to the bar!
:rotfl2: Makes sense to me.

And of course- the view.... ahhhh I wish we were there right now! You can sort of see the wedidng stuff on the right side.
I love the views at Ama Ama...we've had an ocean view each time. :cloud9:

Uh. No. I liked it in Hawaii. Not in Arizona.
:lmao: You crack me up.

I wouldn't say this place is not kid friendly.... it is just pricey and for us.... we have a hard time justifying that money if we are entertaining our kids too.
I totally agree with you on this. On our first trip, Izzy was too young for Aunty's, but we lucked out in that she slept through the whole Ama Ama dinner in her stroller. On our second trip, we were going to bring her to dinner, as it was our arrival night and we didn't know that we could get her into Aunty's for dinner last-minute...but we were able to do so! Worked out great and allowed the dinner (with family) to be much more relaxed for us.

I think we could have pushed for a refund to the card and to have it reran on the gift cards, but since we were pretty sure we could spend the gift cards on our own- twist my arm Aulani- we didn't press it.
We've had our card refunded at WDW many times in this circumstance, so I'm sure Aulani would too. But glad it worked out anyway.
 


I just have to comment on the presentation of your creme brulee, that is phenomenal! Are the little jelly cubes guava or passion fruit or something like that? So nice that you guys made time for each other...
 
Okay... I am back. Does anyone want to hear about Aulani from 18 months ago? Can I remember what we did? The answer to both is probably not, but I got a hankering to finish this thing! Where were we.... Okay... Thursday... hmmmm..... that is the day after Wednesday....

This was a pool/resort day. We had no firm plans but since the kids' cute goggle lab coat pictures didn't come out the other day, I signed them up for Stitch's Space Goo again. I went downstairs that morning to sign them up. I snagged some pool chairs on the way to Aunty's. I know, I know... but when in Rome. I read you can't actually do that anymore... which is probably good. This is the only day I did so. It was at about 7AM and all the first 2-3 rows of the main pool was taken. I ended up getting 3 chairs over on the side. This was the PERFECT spot for us. It was near the grotto that the slides dump into. The pool stairs were right there so the kids could swim and we could just watch. The bathrooms were super close and the food was also right there. It was in the shade and the chairs seemed a tad more spaced out. There is only a single row so it was pretty quiet. When I came back to the chairs after signing up for Stitch's.... I noticed all the chairs on either side of us were "reserved" with one shoe, one shovel, another shoe etc. This ended up being a large extended family, which I thought might be annoying- being in the middle of their 12 chairs, but it ended up being no big deal. We thought if we had found this spot first, we would not have done the second cabana day. Here is the best pic I have of that spot... Oh look we had shaved ice at some point!

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After swimming a bit in our amazing spot... we went and got Kate a life vest... so we could try... the dark slide. Cue dramatic music. Uncle talked me into it. Kate stuck with her story that she wanted to go on it. She did... said she liked it... but then said she didn't want to go on again. I think she was being stubborn and actually hated it, but wouldn't admit it. The life vest worked out great actually because then she could bob away in the water for hours. We could watch her perfectly ell from the chairs and all was good. I sort of wish we would have gotten one sooner... but then she couldn't really have swam underwater which she likes to do- so it was probably better we didn't. PS- Doesn't it look like a butt on the side of the pic? It is my fingers- hahahaha!

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Honestly... I am not sure what we did this day! I think we did a lot of repeats at the resort- lazy river, water slides, swimming etc. Mickey came by and Matt wanted nothing to do with him :(

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At some point, we went back to the room and the kids went to Stitch's Space Goo. We got some pictures taken on the way! We packed up while they were Goo-ing... so sad to be going home the next day.

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Eventually we went back to change and the kids and I were planning on doing the family hula class while DH took the photography class. He really enjoyed the photography class and said there were about 6 people and they walked around the resort and beach learning different photo tricks and techniques. This was a new class and was free, but they made it sound like once they had it fine tuned, they would start charging for it. At some point, they came by the hula class.

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Speaking of the Hula Class... this was super fun! We learned a dance and got to practice it with some Disney friends. We found these family classes to be well worth the time. Here is one of the 1,265 sunset pictures DH took during his class.

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We had plans to meet up in line for the Starlit Hui. I like to be early so I got the kids Mickey Bars and lined up about an hour before the show. This was.... somewhat smart. We were about 10th in line. But... somewhat crazy as the Mickey Bars dripped EVERYWHERE and I am pretty sure my line mates were cursing me and going to hex any child who got chocolate on them! They were covered and of course I had no napkins. I thought I had a picture of this insanity, but I guess the evidence has been erased! We had to wait quite a while and the line got longer and longer and longer behind us. Finally we were let in just as DH returned. Phew. I was getting nervous. We got the front row- score! They handed everyone little mats to sit on as we walked in. The kids and I went to check out the activities while DH stayed with our stuff. They had 3-4 stations where they taught the kids about Hawaiian culture and art. This was really well done and fun. I know they Hui isn't offered anymore so I don't know if this is part of the new luau, but I hope it is. Here are a few pics from that and the Hui.

Oh... look what I found!
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The line grows....

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Learning to play the Hawaiian Way

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Front row! Because the show on Monday had been cancelled... this one was filled to capacity- all the way to the VERY back of the lawn and standing room all over the sides.

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This was a fun last day and we went straight to bed with plans for Ama Ama breakfast and buying our photopass CD before we headed to the airport the next day.
 
I don't know where I found the link to your Trip Report- but it was fantastic! Thanks for sharing your vacation- I really want to go to Aulani now! You should really write a blog!
 
I don't know where I found the link to your Trip Report- but it was fantastic! Thanks for sharing your vacation- I really want to go to Aulani now! You should really write a blog!
Awww.... thank you! I feel bad I never finished it!

The last morning we had breakfast at Ama Ama which was amazing and a great way to finish the trip! We had a debacle redeeming our photopass and it took WAY longer than we anticipated but we finally got it! Except we forgot to add the Stitch's Space Goo pictures to it. Doh! Then we flew home uneventfully. The end!!
 

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