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

[justkeepswimmin]

I am in the early stages of planning our 3rd trip to Aulani and stumbled across your trip report and couldn't leave without telling you how much I am enjoying it. You have a great sense of humor that really comes through in this TR (I totally get your feelings on chocolate btw). It also brought back memories of our first trip to Aulani 4 years ago when our girls were a bit younger and had a couple epic button pushing battles in the Aulani elevators. I am also an AZ girl and our home resort is VGC though debating whether or not we should add on at Aulani is pretty much my dh and my favorite hobby while at Aulani. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report!

 

[Keira1387]

Just wanted to say that I am following along, and am enjoying your TR. We are taking our toddler to Aulani in June, and appreciate all the tips!

 

[AZMermaid]

I am also an AZ girl and our home resort is VGC though debating whether or not we should add on at Aulani is pretty much my dh and my favorite hobby while at Aulani. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report!

Yay for AZ DVC members! I feel like there aren't a lot of us... but maybe we are all just in hiding! We just added on resale at VGC- waiting for our new membership paperwork to come, so we are in the home stretch! Aulani is our home resort, but we think as the kids get older we will need that home resort booking at VGC since we go there so much more often.

Just wanted to say that I am following along, and am enjoying your TR. We are taking our toddler to Aulani in June, and appreciate all the tips!

Thank you! It is such an amazing place!

 

[AZMermaid]

So Monday was our run around the island day. I only really planned one day to venture out because we knew we would be back eventually with older kids who would probably appreciate thing we saw more. In hindsight, two days probably would have been good, but we never felt bored at the resort. I picked up the Daily Iwa the night before just to see what was going on. I thought the SAS thing sounded cool, but I did not sign up. You can see, more Space Goo and Keiki Hula at Aunty's. It was around Monday I realized I did not really need to rush that first day to get into these two activities as they repeated every day. I thought the Coconut Kings of Comedy sounded right up Matt's alley, but it was never offered during the day. The Starlit Hui was cancelled this day due to weather. It seemed like it rained again a lot at the resort this day, but we never encountered rain on our adventure. We weren't planning on seeing it today anyway, but this impacted the Thursday show quite a bit.

We all woke up at 6:00 and had cereal and watched Chip and Dale solve the world's problems. I picked up the room a bit as I planned to run a load of laundry on Tuesday. I was using the Washer as a hamper for the clothes I knew I needed to wash. I packed the kids outfits in ziploc baggies which was a trick I first tried when we went to Alaska on DCL. This worked well and I just made a note on later bags if something needed to be washed to complete the outfit. I packed two bags to bring with us- one my new $15 with a $40 purchase Aulani towel bag and the black cooler bag. I packed snacks, extra clothes, swim suits, cameras etc. Again, I was a sherpa. We were signed up for the Members Mingle this morning. Our first stop was the tide pools at Shark's Cove and checking the tide charts, I knew low tide was at 7:30 and high tide was at 3:00PM. What I didn't know was how the tides would be in the middle and I worried way too much about whether going to the Mingle was wrecking our good timing at the tide pools.

Kate was bound and determined to bring her wallet. I talked her out of it by suggesting she bring a coin to make a wish on the way out. Matt brought that bunny so I am guessing I let her bring a small figurine. At some point, we found the stairs. I have not talked about the elevator drama, but it appears everyone with multiple kids feels my pain here. Every time, the both sprinted to the button and the loser would fall down with this look on his or her face.

So, every time I am trying to remember who pressed the outside button last time because the inside button, well that is a crap shoot. There could be someone else in the elevator who has the audacity to be going to the same floor we are going to and who has already pressed the button. I know, what a jerk, right? Kate I could let press the button again but Matt, oh no, he knows that's just futile. So, finding the stairs was a small sanity saver, they were right across from the DVC preview center, but really not very well marked. Being on the 4th floor, we started taking the stairs whenever we went to the lobby level, which is the third floor. So, we set off with each kid with a toy and a coin.

We got to the lobby and went outside to the fountain. I told each kid to make a wish and throw in their coin. Kate went first and reeled back and threw that coin in with all her wishy might. Right as the coin hit the water, the fire alarm went off.

Oh, apparently she brought her mermaid doll! We all looked at each other in shame. What have we done! Somehow our dime of dreams is bringing down the whole resort. And- Matthew has not wished yet!! So, we tell him frantically to throw in his coin- maybe he can wish for Aulani's protection.

You can see that man in the background looks very concerned. And those people sitting on the chairs, yep, this is a real emergency. We are good rule followers so we evacuated the resort (as the alarm was instructing us to do). We walked out the front door and down the driveway about halfway. As we turned around, we realized that about twelve people were going to be safe from the destruction our wish had caused, but at least we were four of them. No-one evacuated! I mean, this was nothing, but what if it had been. People would have lounged to their deaths! After about two minutes, the alarm stopped and we were given the all clear to go inside and we headed over to the Member Mingle.....

 

[AZMermaid]

So, we headed into the Member Mingle and selected some juice and danishes. There were quite a lot of people there. All the tables were taken and they ran out of danishes. On each table was a fresh lei for each guest, the same leis that were given upon arrival. No-one was putting theirs on yet, so we didn't either. We sat with a nice couple from CA and chatted with them a bit before they started the presentation. This lasted about an hour and was a mix of slides about the island and the resort and trivia. We were told all about traditional lei greetings and then instructed to lei our loved ones. Hey, I've got two kids- I've got that part covered. They did some trivia and drew a few raffle tickets. the big prize was a basket full of DVC and Aulani swag. There were also some license plate frames, key chains, and picnic blankets. And..... I got called for a picnic blanket- whoo hoo!!! I never get drawn in raffles so this was pretty exciting for me! Matt was pretty bummed we didn't win the big basket because he has not yet endured a lifetime of losing at raffles. Everyone was given a pretty cute hat on the way out. Matt wore it the rest of the day so you will see it in the pictures. We were on the road just after 9:00.

The frive was pretty uneventful. At one point we went through a little town and I was sure we were lost but after consulting my iphone, I saw we were on teh right track. The kids were laughing and talking nicely the whole time. It was one of those, I should look back there but why ruin it moments. We were a little unsure where the tidepools were exactly so when the iphone said we were close we started looking for somewhere to park. We came up to a lot at this park next to a fire station. We parked here but it didn't seem quite right. DH thought he saw the tidepools a block or two down the coast. There were quite a few people just sort of milling about the lot aimlessly. There were also chickens- but those didn't worry me! DH asked this very nice looking fireman where the tidepools were and sure enough, they were down the streetjust on the other side of the station. The fireman offered to show Matt his truck which of course was a hit! We decided to just leave the car there and walk to the tidepools. This made me nervous, but we had nothing in the car so I figured it would be fine. Oh, I mean we had nothing but a HUGE MESS in the backseat of the car. Remember my nice sweet quietly playing children? Oh yeah, they decided to pluck all the flowers from their leis and throw them around the back seat. They got a stern talking to and said they would never do it again, but really, they were done. Of course they won't do that again- there is no more lei.

We walked over to the tide pools and at first the kids just waded in their clothes. I wish I would have brought their water shoes, but I was thinking about the waterfall hike and had put them in their sneakers. So, they were barefoot wading around.

I realized pretty quickly this was not going to work, so I changed them into their suits. It was about 10:00 and the tidepools were getting busier quickly. They were never super crowded, but there were probably a couple dozen people there. I wish I would have had my suit so I could have explored a little deeper or even snorkeled. We saw lots of little fish and crabs. This was a pretty neat place and I would like to explore it sometime I am better prepared. We spent about an hour here. I chatted with a CA couple about Aulani. They were going on and on about how friends stayed there and it was so much money. This always makes me feel awkward. Yes, Aulani is expensive, but owning DVC makes it cheaper for us to visit there than WDW. But, I don't really want to go into DVC ownership with strangers who aren't interested. They weren't rude at all, it was just awkward for me. It was tricky getting everyone's shoes back on with minmal sand. In fact, I failed here- but I did the best I could!

We returned to the car and I was very relieved to find it had not been touched. I think I read a little to much about North Shore theft and was pretty paranoid about it. We drove back towards Haleiwa to find a shrimp truck. I put in the coordinates for Giovanni's after reading reviews here, but we would have been happy with any of them. It was about a 15 minute drive and we found Giovanni's! It was in a little parking lot with 4-5 other trucks. I am not sure these trucks move, they had picnic tables set up. There was the shrimp truck, a crepe truck, a shaved ice truck and a hamburger truck- which we didn't see until we were leaving. We headed for the shrimp. Matt likes shrimp but this is a new thing for him and Kate... well, I wasn't sure she would eat it. I glanced at the crepe menu and nothing sounded like anything they would eat. Here is the menu for Giovanni's. I saw the hot dog and decided to play it safe and the kids split it. At $1.75 each this was the cheapest meal all week! DH and I both got the scampi. The shrimp had to be peeled, but OMG it was just as good as everyone says. Matt tried it and also gave it two thumbs up, but because it had to be peeled, I am glad we got them the hot dog as it was easier and both kids inhaled it. Seating was a little tight and we ended up sitting at the ends of two adjacent tables- so sort of together but not at the same table. I was not sure of the etiquette of taking the shrimp to the other truck's tables as it seemed like 90% of the people eating in this complex were at Giovanni's.

I approved- even if I did get butter on my shirt! We headed back towards Waimea Falls, which was right next to Shark's Cove- so it was a good thing we liked the shrimp!

 

[heybets30]

AZ Mermaid! Love your posts!! May I ask what camera(s) you are using!? The cabana ones & the ones off the Menehune Bridge are fabulously clear. I know you are using a GoPro too ... We have 4 people and about 6 cameras!! Just curious what camera you are using because the images look like ones I hope to get when we're there! 82 days and cojnting Funny too ... I avoid most chocolate, except fudge ... Hubby gives me fruit for chocolate too. I too have been overly paranoid about thefts from cars, I've traveled the world to high-theft cities and never worried, but a trip to Oahu to beaches outside Aulani where we'll have cameras/clothes/snacks has me paranoid!!!! Can't wait to read the rest!!

 

[AZMermaid]

Thank you! I was very paranoid about theft, I don't want to say overly so because it does happen- but luckily, we did not experience any.

The clear ones are from the Cannon Rebel t3i. We have a few lenses for it, but I think DH had the longer lens (75-300) on most of the time. We also used our old Olympus waterproof point and shoot. It is not an Olympus Tough, but I am pretty sure that is what replaced it. We actually have two of these cameras. Why? Well, we borrowed a friend's when we went to Hawaii when we were dating. DH had a bajillion airline miles and Hilton points and he was trying to woo me- so we went to the Big Island and stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa (very nice place). We liked their camera a lot, got engaged (which has nothing to do with Hawaii or the Camera, we got engaged at Disneyland) and decided to go to Aruba for our Honeymoon (nice place- very far from AZ, Hawaii is easier). So, we bought ourselves our own waterproof camera because you can't be a mooch forever. This is when they were pretty new so it was like $300. We bought it a few months before the wedding and used it a few times around the house. Well, we start packing for Aruba and we can not find the camera anywhere. We tore the house apart looking and could not find it. We figured we must have donated it to Goodwill on accident or threw it away. Both horrible fates for our brand new camera! So, the day we left, we went to Sam's Club and bought a new camera, went to Aruba, took lots of fishie pictures and lived happily ever after.

We moved a year later and never uncovered the missing camera, so we must have donated it/thrown it away. Five years go by. Every once in a while we tell the story about the missing camera because it is so fun to tell the same stories repeatedly. One day, we lose something more valuable then the camera- the remote control!!! One of the kids must have done something with it and I want to watch Big Brother right this minute! We tear the house apart again. We look under the couches and pull off all the cushions and there is nothing there but nasty old cookie crumbs. So, we go to put the couch back and hear something rattle inside. Huh? How in the world did the remote get inside the couch? DH does some major contortion moves while I flip the couch all around to get the "remote" into the right spot so he can grab it. It was the long lost camera!!! We about died laughing. It was the craziest thing! And we must have found the remote because we are still married!

the Go Pro's pictures were not the best. They were kind of blurry. The videos were great though. There are some iphone pictures in the mix too. DH took a photography class at the resort while we were there with the t3i and he enjoyed it a lot. It was free, but they implied it was a new class and would not always be free. He took about 72,000 sunset pictures but when I get to that day, I'll just use 1!

 

[heybets30]

Awesome, thanks! We have the Canon Rebel T3i as well as our "big" camera ... We'll definitely bring the big lens too. Glad to see such detailed pics with it!! I misplaced the charger ... Hoping I find it before our Oct 1 departure !!! Our waterproof is a fujifilm xp80 (we love it so much we got the kids - 6 & 8 - the xp70 bundle from Costco so they can take their own pics!).

 

[alohamom]

Enjoying and wishing I could eat some shrimp from Giovannis right now, despite the fact it is not even 7am here in Toronto!

 

[AZMermaid]

Mmmmm shrimp!

DH and I are doing a little stay cation this weekend at a local resort. I just asked him, "Wanna read my trip report?" He said "didn't I live your trip report?" Hahahaha!! I hope to update on Monday!

 

[AZMermaid]

I forgot the part about the purple bunny! As we are leaving the Member Mingle, Matt realizes he does not have his bunny. We retraced our steps but couldn't find it. I was anxious to get going (rising tide and all) so we promised him we would check lost and found when we came back for his free inside an Easter egg but apparently favorite bunny in the whole world. He is my easy going kid, so he was sad but fine with checking later....

 

[Dugette]

DH put in Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers for the kids.

Hmmmm, I'll have to remember this. I'm sure Izzy would be mesmerized by it too.

They were taking photpass postcard pictures in the community room so we did this.

I had no idea that was there. Nice picture!

As we walked out, we ran into another photographer right outside the community room next to the Lazy River. He took a bunch of pictures and was really great. We saw him a few times throughout the resort and always stopped to see him as he took a long time with each family.

We had a great photographer that we kept visiting like that too. I wonder if it was the same guy? I think ours was named Bob? At any rate, those are some great pictures!

The slides were super fun and fast!

I can't wait to get another chance at these! Only had a chance to try each one a single time. I'm impressed that Matt enjoyed the dark one!

I figured the worst that would happen is he would be terrified and cry himself to sleep for the next year, so let's go for it.

They ran around here like crazy people for about 45 minutes.

Glad they enjoyed it. Izzy was terrified of it. Hoping for better results next time.

They liked going in the tunnels and under the waterfalls and we made a big show of steering the tubes into the falls.

Haha, we were doing the exact opposite - steering clear of the waterfalls (NOT easy!)

But, Mickey stops for no child when he is strolling about. A lot of families were trying to cut him off for a picture, but he was a Mouse on a mission.

Bummer. We actually chased Mickey and got a picture once on our trip.

I think this party involves characters dancing and swimming with the guests around the pool area. I say I think because it was canceled due to the rain.

Yes, Mickey and Minnie led the kids in a little dance number. But, as we learned, NO HUGS!

YUM! I will happily take those brownies off your hands.

My kids rooms aren't quite ready for an episode of Hoarders, so by all means- more stuffed animals!

Same here.

The kids went right to sleep at 7:00 again, so not napping was really working in our favor with bedtimes.

There could be someone else in the elevator who has the audacity to be going to the same floor we are going to and who has already pressed the button. I know, what a jerk, right?

And..... I got called for a picnic blanket- whoo hoo!!! I never get drawn in raffles so this was pretty exciting for me!

Congratulations on breaking your losing streak!

They were going on and on about how friends stayed there and it was so much money. This always makes me feel awkward. Yes, Aulani is expensive, but owning DVC makes it cheaper for us to visit there than WDW. But, I don't really want to go into DVC ownership with strangers who aren't interested. They weren't rude at all, it was just awkward for me.

I suppose it's hard to explain DVC in that situation. We were lucky that we rented DVC points and it was easier to explain that we paid a timeshare owner about $175/night for our rack rate $500/night room. That seemed to go over well.

Oh, wow, Izzy has that same shirt (but sleeveless) and wore it to the North Shore too!

Good to know there are hot dogs at Giovanni's. Hoping to get there next time and Izzy and I would enjoy the hot dogs while Dug has shrimp!

 

[AZMermaid]

We drove back over to Waimea Valley. There were people parking along the road to go in and we almost parked there but decided to keep driving towards the entrance. There were a few open spaces and we were happy we hadn't followed the masses! It cost our family $40 to enter the park which is like a botanical garden with a waterfall at the end of the hike. DH balked at the price, but I reminded him this is less than it costs us to go to the zoo at home. They had wagons you could rent to haul your kids down to the falls, but we didn't want to lug them that far so we figured we would take our chances and walk.

Side note- I just booked Disneyland for next June and I am going back and forth on the stroller. They will be 4 and 5.5. I think we will not rent or bring one but know we might need to rent one at the park. I am hoping out of sight/out of mind works for us. We do still have our trusty City Mini at home, but haven't used it in like a year. Any thoughts on this would be great!

They had maps and bird guide. We got each kid a bird guide and they were fairly obsessed with them for a while. We propbably only saw 4-5 different birds, but they were into looking for them!

The hike to the waterfall was about 3/4 mile each way. It was not very hard but we were getting a little hot and hadn't brought any water (bad bad Arizonans!). We stopped for a 15 minute break about halfway there. Here are some of the things we saw, but this place was gorgeous! Pictures don't really do it justice. I bet there are free hikes that are just as pretty, but this was easy to find and well marked.

Lilypads in the front

Big trees

The sign here says "Pink Dainty" and DH thought he just had to get Kate's picture. He was tempted to move the branch, but decided to leave it untouched.

By the time we made it to the waterfall, we were all pretty hot and tired. The kids were starting to whine. Luckily, there was a little snack bar. Unluckily, the Popsicle flavors were all really weird- like coconut, raspberry, mint (that's one flvavor, not three). It sounded good to me, but there is no way my kids would eat the weird combinations. They didn't have just good old "Red" flavor. They did have Dibs, so we got some of those and some waters. It was cash only and I just barely had enough to cover it. I think I had 14 cents left in my pocket! While we ate, a woman came by with the shuttle and asked if we needed a ride. We declined, but hoped we would run into her again after we saw the falls.

Matt wanted to swim in the waterfall. They had life jackets you could borrow but to really swim in the waterfall, you had to cling onto the side of the cliff and then sort of shimmy yourself in. This plus the many posted warnings of bacteria in the water, I told him you had to be five to swim. Bummer. DH and I went on a similar guided hike on the Big Island and there we did swim in the waterfall which was a fun experience.

That's my $15 with purchase towel/backpack again. You can see the people clinging to the cliff here.

When we were ready to walk back, the shuttle lady was nowhere to be found, so we had to walk it. It was easier going back, although we took less of the side pathways than we had coming up, so that may have been part of it. We did detour off the main path to see a recreated village. It was interesting to see how Ancient Hawaiians had lived and how Men and Women were kept pretty separate and things.

We took another couple breaks and made it back easily. The water helped! When we got back to the visitors center, this guy was hangning out.

We really enjoyed this place. The walk was not too difficult for our bunch, but next time we will bring water for sure! I would do this again and I would guess we were here for about two hours. If you are faster walkers, it would be shorter, but if you did all the side walkways (which were really beautiful) it might take longer.

 

[Dugette]

Nice update! Izzy and I did Waimea Valley too (while Dug was gone). We took the stroller, so I didn't wander off on all the side trails, but they looked like they'd be pretty fun. It was really beautiful there with all the trees and flowers. The waterfall was nice too - we just observed and didn't consider going in either. Glad you enjoyed the time there.

 

[alohamom]

Thanks so much for posting the snack bar at Waimea info, I will make sure to have some cash!

As far as the stroller issue for Disneyland, we had an interesting experience with our kids when they were 6 and 8. We were at MNSSHP at WDW and had arrived about 4:30. The Disney rental strollers were a free perk so we took one just in case and I gotta say it made the whole evening go so much smoother. We could have done the night without it and our kids had not been in a stroller for years but they took turns and it really allowed us to extend our time and made it that much more enjoyable, especially towards the end of the evening. Plus it gave us a place for all the bags of candy!!! Both are tall for their age and fitting into the Disney strollers, even at that age, was not an issue. My eldest really rode around for fun and to prove she is just as loved as her brother!

 

[lorimay]

Waimea Falls is one of my must sees. Do you think sneakers are ok or should we wear water shoes? Is it slippery? The water looks a little dark there LOL, not sure I want to swim now. Maybe just walk and watch.

As far as strollers and Disney, my daughter went last month with my grandkids 5 & 6.5. Her husband gave up on the strollers on day 2. He said it was time for them to walk. They did fine. I'm glad I wasn't there for this trip I would have had a hard time watching them walk in the June heat. Grandma gives in a lot. My grandson (6) is very lazy and he walked without complaining, that shocked me. My granddaughter has a lot of energy to burn so she was good too. So give it a try, worst case you can always rent one.

 

[AZMermaid]

Nice update! We took the stroller, so I didn't wander off on all the side trails, but they looked like they'd be pretty fun. It was really beautiful there with all the trees and flowers. .

We didn't do them all but the ones down by the water especially were pretty nice.... and shady!

As far as the stroller issue for Disneyland, we had an interesting experience with our kids when they were 6 and 8. We were at MNSSHP at WDW and had arrived about 4:30. The Disney rental strollers were a free perk so we took one just in case and I gotta say it made the whole evening go so much smoother. We could have done the night without it and our kids had not been in a stroller for years but they took turns and it really allowed us to extend our time and made it that much more enjoyable, especially towards the end of the evening. Plus it gave us a place for all the bags of candy!!! Both are tall for their age and fitting into the Disney strollers, even at that age, was not an issue. My eldest really rode around for fun and to prove she is just as loved as her brother!

I go back and forth on this so much! I do agree it would be great to have a place to put our stuff. We sold our double and DL only rents singles on property. We could get a double off site if we HAD to, but switching off might work too.

Waimea Falls is one of my must sees. Do you think sneakers are ok or should we wear water shoes? Is it slippery? The water looks a little dark there LOL, not sure I want to swim now. Maybe just walk and watch.

No, it isn't slippery at all. The main path is all paved and the side trails are packed dirt. If you do decide to swim, you may want water shoes for that part, but I don't think you need them. The water was muddy but there were a ton of people in it. If my kids were a little older, we probably would have done it.

Thanks for the stroller advice, I am hoping if it is not an in sight option, they won't even consider it a possibility. But, we will budget to rent one just in case. We walked up to McDonald's on Friday and we all survived- but of course, that is like two blocks!

 

[AZMermaid]

After leaving Waimea, we headed back towards Aulani, stopping at the Dole Plantation. I originally had penciled in getting shaved ice after Waimea, but we were getting tired and saw the LONG lines when we were driving to get Giovanni's at lunch time. On the way, we passed tons on pineapple fields which was pretty neat to see. We got to Dole around 3:00. I was hoping because we were going later, it would be starting to empty out, but as we pulled into the packed parking lot, I saw this was not the case. DH got mad at a couple who "stole his spot" and was yelling/swearing/hand waving. I am not sure they even saw his little fit, but I was embarrassed enough! We found a spot after a few circles of the lot. There is no fee to enter the property, just to do the activities. I had been told the maze took average people around 45 minutes to complete. WE figured it would take us at least an hour and sounded pretty frustrating with preschoolers- so we were here to ride the train, cmon ride the train!!

Matt is really into trains so we knew we had to do this. Side note, when researching, I found out about the Hawaiian Railway Society. This is really close to Aulani, but it just didn't fit in our schedule. Someone, please do it and report back!!

We bought our tickets and as we were in line a giant tour group sauntered past us. Okay. They were all about 75, so saunter might not be the right word. But, during Disney's Year(s) of A Million Dreams, I won a bunch of free Dream Fastpasses, and I felt like a rock star every time I had one of those pieces of plastic gold around my neck. That was these people. I didn't think much about it at the time...

We go up to the line and they have it pretty well organized. The first two switchbacks have benches for you to wait on in order. So you don't have that awkward "Am I cutting in front of the bench people. If I am on the bench, are people cutting in front of me?" I teach first grade. I spend my life dealing with cutting. Maybe others don't have these thoughts!Anyway, if you were in the first two switches, which were about 50 people each, you got to sit. The third one was against the rail and after that was the dreaded open space where who knows when those people got there compared to us! Maybe they don't have to use the open space much- but they did that day. I had also read the train only runs every 30 minutes. Groan. We are in for a long haul. Well, good news, last spring they got a second train so now they run every 15 minutes on busy days. Woot!

As the first train pulls up, we see the last car filled with about 20 people from the tour group I saw earlier. What? Who are these people with their last car filling ways? Why am I not with them? The rest of their group filled the last car on the next train as well. We got on the third train and waited about 40 minutes. As we were waiting-

Just ONE picture where you are both smiling and looking at the camera? Is that too much to ask?

All aboard!

Ms Hair Twirler made her appearance. Someone is getting tired!!

As you get on the train, they take your picture with a pineapple. I thought they took one with our camera too, but maybe not as I don't have it. I chose not to spend the $30 on our own copy of the four of us with a pineapple. I cando that at Safeway ourselves! The train is an out and back tour about 20 minutes long. They take you by a bunch of old machinery and talk about the history of pineapple farming in Hawaii. It was pretty interesting and 20 minutes was the right amount of time before getting boring. They intermixed the information with songs from some CD they were trying to sell in the gift shop.

While we were waiting to roll, I got some love from my sweet boy.

Someone perked up!

There were lots of signs like this near half dead or disappeared trees.

pink pineapple!

Is she gonna make it?

DH's favorite! He has requested some sort of nut tour next time we go to Hawaii.

And, she's out!

After the ride, Kate was a little grouchy from being awoken from her snoozie, but she cheered up quick when she was promised ice cream! We went and got some Dole Whips. DH does not like pineapple (well, buddy, you are in the WRONG place!) so he got the quesedilla- which he said was decent. Again, all the table were taken, but we managed to find one waaaaaay at the end of the building.

Mmmmmm..... Dole Whip

Now this girl knows how to eat a Dole Whip!

Uh-oh, there is a pineapple on that plate! I think I helped him with that problem!

Then we wandered the gift shop. DH collects shot glasses and golf balls so of course we had to get those. He actually found a guy who collects both those things too while looking at the short glasses, go figure. This is a HUGE store with more pineapple merchandise than you can imagine existed. They had a lot of yummy looking treats, but they were super expensive. I bought some local honey and the kids each picked up a small toy for hanging in there on the long day. Matt got a Pineapple 18 wheeler and Kate got a pink stuffed sea turtle (another stuffed animal????). We drove back to the resort which was uneventful and we didn't hit any traffic. If we had gotten back before 5:00, we told the kids we could do Menhuene Trail, but we didn't get back until about 5:30. Matt was a little bummed about that, but we promised him we would do it the next day. Again- my easy child! DH took him down to the Lost and Found where they had found purple bunny- yay!!!! All is right in the world again! They went to the Pua Huana room and rented Frozen sing along and Rescue Rangers for the night.

We cooked hot dogs and sausages and reheated the mac and cheese from the in room meal for dinner. It was easy and simple. Again the kids were out at 7:00 and we made it till 9:00.

Next up- let's go surfing now!

 

[Dugette]

Matt is really into trains so we knew we had to do this. Side note, when researching, I found out about the Hawaiian Railway Society. This is really close to Aulani, but it just didn't fit in our schedule. Someone, please do it and report back!!

I had the Hawaiian Railway Society as a "maybe" for our trip too, but it didn't end up fitting in. For what it's worth, I'd read some reviews (maybe on yelp?) and they were very mixed. Generally, people seemed rather bored, but if you have a big train fan, then still worth it, I guess? We did the Dole Plantation train ride too.

I chose not to spend the $30 on our own copy of the four of us with a pineapple. I cando that at Safeway ourselves!

So true! Pineapple selfie!

Hey, those look like nice kid-sized Dole Whips! They told us all they had were these massive bowls:


(note the familiar shirt! )

Matt got a Pineapple 18 wheeler

Like the semi-truck? That's what Izzy got too. I think she played with it that day in the car, then never again.

DH took him down to the Lost and Found where they had found purple bunny- yay!!!! All is right in the world again!

Great news! What a relief!

We cooked hot dogs and sausages and reheated the mac and cheese from the in room meal for dinner.

Mmmm, sounds like my kind of comfort food dinner!

 

[Girimama33]

Great report!
We felt the same way about whether or not to keep the cabanas during our trip. Whenever it started raining, I was always thankful we kept them.