Aulani to WDW: The Lurkyloos' Anniversary Vow Renewal: THRILLING CONCLUSION 8/5!

[lurkyloo]

This is the story of our anniversary trip to Aulani and Walt Disney World, starting with our Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings vow renewal and six days at Aulani and ending up in Orlando for Disney’s Fairy Tales Weddings’ Bridal Showcase plus a dessert-less anniversary dessert party in Epcot’s Italy Pavilion!

Also on the itinerary were major sightseeing all over Oahu and our first peek at New Fantasyland, plus dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant and Monsieur Paul. And three different Disney cakes!

And You Are...?

Lurkyloo & Mr. Lurkyloo, a Disney bride-turned-Disney-wedding-obsessive and her puppeteer husband, who’re wringing every last penny from their Disney Parks Premier Passes for trips around Disney’s world.


The Trip

Who is in your party?
Carrie & Patrick, with special guest appearance by wedding-photographers-turned-pals Nate & Jensey Root!

When did you go?
February 1–10, 2013

Where did you stay?
Aulani + The Contemporary Resort

Where did you eat?

• Alan Wong’s Restaurant (Oahu)
• ‘Ama ‘Ama (Aulani)
• Makahiki Restaurant (Aulani)
• Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck (Oahu)
• Matsumoto’s Shave Ice (Oahu)
• Zippy’s (Oahu)
• Poke Stop (Oahu)
• Ted’s Bakery (Oahu)
• Biergarten
• Be Our Guest Restaurant
• Monsieur Paul
• The Wave

Any special plans, events, etc.?

• DFTW Vow Renewal at Aulani
• USS Arizona Memorial & USS Missouri
• Doris Duke’s Shangri-La
• ‘Iolani Palace
• Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve
• Kualoa Ranch Movie Tour
• North Shore Driving Trip
• Laniwai Spa Day
• Aulani’s Starlit Hui
• Dole Plantation
• Polynesian Cultural Center
• New Fantasyland
• DFTW Bridal Showcase
• “Dessert-less” Dessert Party at Italy Overlook for IllumiNations

If you get bored and can't wait until the next installment, here are links to my past trip reports and various other online time-wasters...


Some Light Reading: Past Reports

All my past reports are available on the DIS via the links in my signature, but its much easier to find and read them on my blog.

How to Get Married at Epcot and Survive a 12-Day Honeymoon


Haunted Mansion at WDW and Disneyland on the Same Day - Plus Free Dining!


Return to the Scene of the Crime: 1st Anniversary at WDW


Wedding Crasher: 4 Parties in 3 Nights with 2 Cameras and 1 Fabulous Hat!


A Very Lurky Christmas: Holiday at Bay Lake Tower… of TERROR!


Tokyo Disney on Two Weeks’ Notice: A Photo-Packed Account of 17 Days in Japan


Trick or Tweet! Halloween at Disney World & Disneyland


Epcot 30: Lurkylooking Back on Tomorrow!


Vow Renewal Planning Thread

I'm putting all the nuts-and-bolts details of planning a wedding or vow renewal at Aulani in this thread over on the DIS' Weddings & Honeymoons board.



Assorted Other Ways To OD on The Lurkyloos

• Twitter
  
• Disney Travel Babble
  
• The Disney Wedding Podcast
  
• PassPorter's Disney Weddings & Honeymoons
  
• Swazzle (Patrick's puppet company)

 

[lurkyloo]

Introduction

When Aulani debuted, I was desperate to get out there. But then I started reading reports of overpriced, underwhelming food; a location in the boonies that meant commuting to see any of Oahu’s tourist attractions; and crowded pool and beach areas overrun with locals and tourists who had nothing else to do out there. The only thing that might tempt me, the availability of Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings, was similarly unappealing due to its high price tag, large room-night requirement, and hefty per-person food and beverage minimums that made it unfeasible for a small vow renewal.

Then Disney introduced its Memories Collection of elopement-style events at Aulani, and suddenly I was interested again. Every other year we do something at Disney to celebrate the anniversary of our Disney wedding, and if our Tower of Terror 3rd anniversary dinner party topped our IllumiNations 1st anniversary dinner party, I knew our 5th anniversary was going to have to be pretty spectacular to top that! I started talking with the Roots, who became our friends after shooting our wedding and have since made guest appearances in several of our Disney trip reports. We’ve loved spending previous anniversaries with them, but it’s gotten harder to connect since they moved to Nashville and their schedule has filled up with weddings around the globe. So the idea of getting to take a whole trip with them was very appealing (to us, anyway!).

As soon as they were in, I started planning. I found a Disney Vacation Club member to rent points from for our stay, slashing the cost of accommodation by 50%. I contacted Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings and put a deposit down on a Memories Collection vow renewal. I used our frequent flyer miles to book all our flights.

And then Disney announced a huge construction project to fix some of the things Aulani guests were complaining about (like crowded pools and a lack of inexpensive food options). The gorgeous, ocean-view Wedding Garden became a dirt pit on its way to becoming an expanded pool area, and construction walls went up around most of the other ceremony sites. I almost canceled the trip three times (basically every time Disney announced another phase of construction, with its accompanying depression-inducing photos of more construction walls). But when you’ve already made nonrefundable deposits on your ceremony and accommodation, it’s hard to swallow the idea of losing all that money, so I stuck it out.

Planning

The one thing I don’t like about our anniversary is its proximity to Christmas. Who wants to be planning some big trip (or a whole production like a vow renewal) during the holidays? So a lot of my planning was done just about a month before we left. Among my resources were...

• This detailed DIS Boards trip report (no photos, unfortunately, but tons of info!)
• The Oahu Revealed guidebook by Andrew Doughty
• This thread on Chowhound’s Hawaii board

Change of Plans

Originally we were going to spend 10 nights in Hawaii, dividing our time between Aulani and either a resort in Waikiki/Honolulu or flying to the Big Island for a few days to see the volcano. Then Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings announced its second Bridal Showcase would be held a few days after our vow renewal. Since going to these things is kinda my job, I had to cut short the Hawaii part of our trip, book a day of travel between Hawaii and Florida, and add three days at Walt Disney World to our anniversary plans. Rough, I know...

To entice Patrick into continuing with me on the WDW leg of the trip, I made a dinner reservation at Biergarten, a place he’s always wanted to eat but I never let him, and promised at least one full day of exploring New Fantasyland. To entice myself, I added a dessert party in an Epcot venue I’d always wanted to try (Italy Overlook, the staircase that runs up the side of the front building) and a custom anniversary cake made by the Contemporary Resort.

 

[lurkyloo]

Our first day didn’t really count—it was almost Day 0—cuz all we did was sit on a plane. Initially we were going to arrive in Hawaii on Saturday for our Monday vow renewal, but I realized that with the airline’s schedule and the 2-hour time difference between LA and Honolulu, we could leave Friday night and not have to take any time off work. The woman we rented points from was great about adding on an extra night, and she even took the initiative to eventually combine our two reservations when it was possible, with no prompting on my part.

We flew American, the only option for using my British Airways frequent flyer miles, and started the trip off with an absolutely terrible experience with their gate agent. (I knew it was going to be bad when she snarled, “What do you want?” as I approached the podium.) The flight was packed. We’re so used to flying Virgin America that we were scandalized to learn the plane had no seatback TVs, no electrical outlets—not even WiFi. What year is it???

Honolulu International Airport was indeed the 1960s Brutalist masterpiece we’d been warned about, all concrete and linoleum as far as the eye could see. The signage for the baggage claim was a bit confusing, but the place is so small, it’s hard to get lost. The luggage carousel started up the moment we arrived, and we had our bags and were flagging down the Alamo shuttle within minutes.

Patrick would like you all to know that this would be a great place for a wedding... if you wanted to get married at Honolulu International Airport...

Transportation to Aulani
Despite being 20 miles from the airport, Aulani does not offer any shuttle service like WDW’s Magical Express and, to add insult to injury, they charge you $30 a day just to park the car you’re forced to rent. UNLESS you’re staying on DVC points, in which case parking is free. Another reason to rent DVC points!

Your options are to book a private shuttle service or to rent a car. I think there’s probably a bus that goes all the way out to Ko Olina, but we’re from LA. We don’t do bus. We do car. Plus, we wanted to be able to see something besides Aulani, like Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, and to drive around the island.

You can rent a car just for a day or two from the Holoholo tour desk at Aulani. The Roots were quoted about $80/day when they asked at Aulani. Our 5-day rental via www.DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com cost $180 (incl. taxes) which was at least $40 cheaper than any of the quotes I got directly from the various car rental companies’ websites. Discount Hawaii Car Rental’s site looks a little sketchy, but they were reliable and really easy to work with. When I first put in for a quote, they assigned me to Thrifty, but I’d read some bad reviews on Yelp. I just replied to the confirmation email, and they switched my reservation to Alamo.

As for shuttle service, I can recommend the one I booked for the Roots, Go 808 Express (http://go808express.com). They cost $55 one-way between the airport and Aulani, but they were very friendly on the phone, and the Roots said they were also friendly in person, even offering sightseeing tips. One thing to note is that they have a 72-hour cancellation policy, so I was charged the full amount even though the Roots cancelled their return trip when we all ended up driving back to the airport together in our rental.

All the rental car companies are offsite at HNL. Some claim to be onsite cuz they’re slightly closer, but you still need to take a shuttle, so it kinda doesn’t matter where you book (although, like I said, I decided to pass on Thrifty). The trip to Alamo takes about 5 minutes, and at 10:30pm we had zero wait for the friendly counter agent or our car.

We dubbed our car “The Silver Surfer”

The trip to Aulani was very easy that late at night. We kept remarking on how much it seemed like driving to from MCO to Walt Disney World because it was dark and we had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. I think it took us about half an hour, and we had no trouble finding Aulani using Google maps on my phone. The Ko Olina development feels like an office park, and Aulani is wedged in between two bland tower hotels. It’s definitely the best-looking of the bunch!

I’m going to put in some photos Patrick took a couple days later just so you can get a sense of what everything looked like (even though we never saw any of this in the daylight until the third day of our trip!)


First, here’s the shopping center across the street from Aulani. I kept reading about this thing in trip reports and imagining one of the grim, low-slung kinds of strip malls we have in Los Angeles, but it turned out to be THE best-looking strip mall I’d ever seen!

Looking back toward Aulani

You hear a lot about this shopping center because it has an Island Country Market, where you can get food, sundries, snorkeling gear, beach accessories, and some of the same souvenirs sold at Aulani but cheaper.

There are mask and snorkel sets for $12.99

Some of the same Hawaiian Host brand treats you’ll find at Aulani and the airport, but cheaper!

There’s also Two Scoops Ice Cream Parlor (nothing to write home about—more on that later) and a restaurant called Monkeypod Kitchen that people seem to like primarily because it’s cheaper than either of Aulani’s restaurants.

Monkeypod Kitchen

And here’s Aulani!

“Aaa-LO-haaaaaa! Sorry! Did I scare you? Sorry! That always happens...”

Wow... they are serious about their feather dusters!

 

[lurkyloo]

This was my favorite of all the conversational groupings in the lobby, just in case you’re keeping track...

OK, that’s enough of a peek for now! Here’s what it looked like on the actual night of our arrival:

Check-in went smoothly, but if you are booking with DVC points, just know that there are NO upgrades. It doesn’t matter if you’re celebrating your anniversary and you called a few days before to note it on your reservation and you beg and plead with the agent at the desk, whatever room type you booked on points is the only one you’re gonna get.

In addition to a nifty (faux) kukui nut lei for Patrick and a flower lei for me, they gave us a special pin as compensation for the construction going on all over the resort. Because I was very very tired, I blurted out, “That’s rich! Six weeks ago they were comping members two nights’ stay because of the construction, and all we get is a PIN?! Oh wait... did I just say that out loud?”

We also got two generic celebration pins that they customized with a Sharpie. Classy!

They had no trouble locating the two boxes I’d shipped ahead, and a bellman was called to bring them to our room.

Shipping to Aulani
Really look at how much it will cost you to ship things ahead vs. paying for extra checked luggage. Because we’d had such great luck shipping things to WDW for our wedding and honeymoon, I blithely packed up a box to send to Aulani containing Patrick’s vow renewal clothes; our snorkels, masks and fins; some breakfast bars, cereal and almond milk; and other stuff I thought we needed. But I forgot that Oahu is an ISLAND! That means no cheap FedEx Ground shipping like we use for WDW.

FedEx wanted $100 to send the box to Hawaii, and they kinda had me over a barrel because we were going straight from there to Walt Disney World. If we brought the stuff in our checked luggage instead, we’d be toting it all the way to Florida afterward—and paying three separate baggage fees. In the end, a pal reminded me that, you know, the US Postal Service also ships boxes, and I sent it that way for a mere $52. We later paid about $100 to have the Aulani concierge ship home three boxes of the same stuff, plus souvenirs and dirty laundry, to lighten our load to Orlando. Oof!

Off we went to room 457!

Originally I’d planned to book a one-bedroom villa to share with the Roots. I was looking forward to soaking in the Jacuzzi tub with a glorious Standard view of the JW Marriott’s Dumpster or whatever while Patrick cooked a four-course meal and the Roots played chess at the dining room table—you know, like in the brochures. But then I saw that—unlike the one-bedroom villas in DVC’s other new resorts, which have two bathrooms—Aulani’s only have one bathroom. And the doors on them are not solid, they’re slatted. I don’t know how four people who are not related could share a room like that and not run into some embarrassing situations. So we booked two studios instead.

We could only afford the points on a Standard View, and let me just say that after later circumnavigating the resort to inspect the views from other rooms, I believe Room 457 to have THE WORST view of any room at Aulani.

Standard View Studio #457 (Ewa tower, fourth floor, overlooking the convention center passageway roof)

Nighttime

Daytime!

At least the other low-floor rooms have views of the convention center lawn and fountain, or the pretty landscaping at the front of the resort. Which means, unless you happen to get Room 457, your view's gonna be pretty good no matter where you are!

Here's the view of the convention center area from the ground, looking back at our room...

We asked about switching but were told no other rooms were available in our category for the length of our stay, and that if we switched the next morning, we'd be charged a $75 cleaning fee. They offered to move us to the next view category up for 6 points more per night (we were paying $11.50/point) or to upgrade us to a one-bedroom... for 500 more points!

So we had to suck it up. Even Patrick—who’s usually happy as a clam no matter what the room is like—was bummed out by the view. Every time I looked out the window, I tried to pretend we were looking at the Peoplemover track, but my brain wasn’t buying it.

Paging Mr. Tom Morrow!

Probably because of the view, and also because it was night, and mostly because we were exhausted, the room felt very dark and cramped and not like a place you'd want to spend any time.

 

[lurkyloo]

That’s my lei on the lampshade...

Kinda cheaty that they just give you notepaper instead of Aulani-themed stationery like the stuff you find at other Disney resorts

There was another bit of compensation for the construction in the room, a lithograph that’s not worth anything on eBay.

Things We Liked About the Room

• Everything’s new!
• Comes with bathrobes, and they’re super-soft (still don’t understand why the Grand Floridian is the only other Disney Deluxe resort that provides robes when every mid-range chain hotel does!)
• TV’s HDMI and other ports are easily accessible behind a panel in the front of the armoire
• Bed is high enough to hide suitcases under

Things We Didn’t Like

• Dark
• Shallow drawers
• Tiny closet
• No coat rack? How hard is that?
• Rainfall showerhead has zero water pressure, even after you figure out how to adjust the flow between that and the handheld showerhead

Things We Didn’t Understand

• No Stitch wakeup call? In HAWAII???
• No awesome Japanese toilet, even though half the clientele appears to be Japanese
• Washers & dryers are free (and behind a locked laundry room door that keeps out non-DVCers) but still require tokens, which requires you to schlep all the way to the front desk to get them

...Which is not to say we didn’t like Aulani—we ended up loving it! But it is to say... Do not pay rack rate to stay at Aulani! These are not $400/night-quality rooms, they’re more like $250/night quality. Take advantage of one of their “Buy X Nights, Get X Free” offers or rent Disney Vacation Club points if you want to get your money’s worth.


Up Next: Pearl Harbor Memorial, Doris Duke’s Shangri-La, ‘Iolani Palace & Alan Wong’s Restaurant—All In One Day!

 

[lurkyloo]

....And, to disguise this shameless bump, here's another sneak peek at our vow renewal!

 

[librarygeek]

I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip! Your trip reports are always so detailed and organized!

That's a bummer about the view that you had. What bad luck. :/ And I def. agree with you that those don't seem like $400/night rooms, so if we ever make it there I think we'll try to rent DVC points. But your vow renewal pics are gorgeous and I can't wait to hear all about that!

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah, once we realized we had the single worst view at the resort, it kinda made us feel better. It was like, "That's what makes our room unique!" And then we could just laugh about it.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I'm subbing! Long time fan of your blog and all of your work on the Cake Thread! You helped me out once last year when I was trying to order a simple cake for DW's birthday cruise.

Anyway, it was such a pleasant surprise to see your TR here and I have your "shameless bump" to thank for. I might have missed it since you stealthly snuck your first posts in the middle of the night.

Sorry about the view. If I squint my eyes (and I mean reeeeeally squint) on the pictures of your view, it almost looks like the Kennedy Center! (This is what I get for living in the DC area)

Can't wait to read more!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Hi, Carrie!!

I'm not a Disney bride, but I did read your most fabulous wedding TR!! And I just know that this one is going to be fantastic as well!!

I dream of renewing my vows in Disney one day, so I can't wait to read about yours. I can only imagine how beautiful it was in Hawaii!

I'm sorry about the stinky room view. How terrible!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

Yeah! Another Carrie trip report! I so love reading them and glad I got in reasonably early. Thanks for sharing your pictures and thoughts on Aulani. I don't know if we will ever make it out there as I hate to sit on a plane that long. Plus, while it sounds nice, I am not sure I would want to give up time at DW to go there.

I thought of you a couple of weeks ago when I ended up at DLR on a surprise long weekend trip. We loved it and I really want to go back someday. Unfortunately there are so few DVC units out there it is tough to get in. Luckily I found an offsite resort that was decent and cheap. We were back in our rooms less than twenty minutes after we left the parks. That is tough to do on site at DW unless you are at the BCV and walk out the international gateway at Epcot.

Can't wait to read more and the vow renewal picture is stunning!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Joining in. So sorry you got a room without a view. I know you aren't always in your room but it would be nice to look out at the water or pretty gardens.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[lvjen777]

Subbing .. Love your TR's !

 

[BurleyGirl]

Oooh, I want to subscribe, too! I was looking for your other TR that I had read where you detailed your involvement with Dick Van Dyke's home Halloween decorations, as my DS14 has become a big fan of Dick Van Dyke's and I wanted him to see how real people got to meet and interact with a celebrity/legend, and so I stumbled upon your newest reports...count me in as another Lurkylook fan!

 

[tric8783]

Hellooo! I'm excited to see what you guys did off property since we didn't really leave when we went! Also excited for your VR and dessert-free dessert party?? Hmm

So sad to see and hear about your room/view! We had a poolside gardens view room and it was amazing. So sunny we had to shut the curtains to take naps, etc. We had a 1 bedroom for the 2 of us so more than enough space and closet room. Hopefully next time you go back you can get a different room!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Yipee! Another Luryloo TR! Cant wait to see how the Hawaii trip goes, this is definitely on our bucketlist. But while i would love to stay at Aulani, i am not married to the idea and would love to hear your perspective.

 

[luckylady]

Wow you did have a crapy view. Can't wait to read about your trip.

 

[Mel*Pie]

Yay, a Lurkyloo trip report! I'm here. This is the first time I will actually be following along on here and not on your blog. Consider me subscribed!

 

[Izzy Pooh]

So looking forward to following your trip report! . DH & I stayed at Aulani last May and browsing through your pictures now has made me realize how much I miss Hawaii.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

You had me at Lurkyloo! Can't wait for another awesomest adventure with the two of you! Congrats on your vow renewal!