Best Vacation Ever!!!

KristieGriggs

kmgriggs
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
We just returned home from ten days in Oahu. (We stayed two nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and one night at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore before arriving at Aulani for seven nights). I really liked staying on the other side of the island first so we could see things on that side of the island before relaxing at Aulani.
Our first morning on Oahu we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay. So happy we did that first thing in the morning. We only stayed a couple hours and the parking lot was full when we left. Next we stopped at Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail. Very kid friendly and the views were amazing. Then we stopped at Lanikai Beach and snorkeled some more before heading back to Waikiki. We had dinner at Duke's that night. (Highly recommend that too!)
The next morning we hiked Diamond Head before heading to the North Shore. Loved that too! It was a workout but the views were amazing and we saw a rainbow at the top.
At the North Shore we zip lined at Climb Works. That was definitely the highlight of our trip. We all LOVED it! If your kids are over age 7 I highly recommend it.
I only wish we had more time on the North Shore. We should have stayed two nights there. There was construction going on up there and there was only one lane open, so it took a few extra minutes, but that was the only traffic we ran into.
After checking into Aulani we were blown away at how much we loved it. We loved the other hotels we stayed at too, but so glad we chose to stay at Aulani last.
Our first night we drove up to Yokohama Bay and had a family photo session with Kim Ebert. She was amazing and I can't wait to see the photos! I'm glad we chose to drive up there for our session since I have tons of photos from Aulani on my camera. And the mountain views were amazing from there!
The next day, we still had our car so we went to Pearl Harbor. It was a Sunday, and again, no traffic driving there...maybe because it was a weekend. Stopped at the swap meet on the way there. After Pearl Harbor we just asked the valet to return our rental car, so the rest of the week we stayed at the resort. We did do one excursion with Dolphins and You during the week. They picked us up from the hotel. That was another really great day!!! We saw lots of dolphins and the crew was awesome.
Aunty's Beach House was great for the kids. My girls are 9 and 11. I thought they may be a little old for it, but they really enjoyed it! The only time they didn't was when we left them there a little later when we went out to dinner across the street. I think they start closing down sections of it at the end, so they mentioned they were a little bored then. But the activities I preregistered them for they loved.
We didn't do any of the family activities that you have to stand in line for. But my kids were happy to just play in the pools and lagoon. We rented a paddle board one day and loved that too. And many walks to Paradise Cove.
It was such an amazing week!!!
Thank you to everyone who gave hints and suggestions! :-)
 
Thanks for the review!!!

Question: If you were to return to Hawaii next year would you do the same thing? Would you cut down on the time at Aulani? Increase it?
 


Sounds fantastic! Glad to hear your girls liked Aunty's. What activities did they enjoy there?
 
Sounds fantastic! Glad to hear your girls liked Aunty's. What activities did they enjoy there?

They enjoyed the keiki hula and the Stitch's Space Goo. I had signed them up for the comedy show too, but it was the same night as the Starlit Hui. And the only one we were able to make it to that last week so we did that instead. The activity they weren't crazy about was the tween activity. They basically just colored a necklace with sharpie markers and it wasn't that exciting. That was the night that I left them there longer so we could go to dinner and they started closing sections of the beach house. So that may be why they weren't as crazy about it.
I had asked if my 9 1/2 year old could do the tween activity too since my older daughter and their friend were there together. The CM talked to her supervisor and they said yes, but then they gave my daughter a hard time when it was time for the tween activity. Made her cry too. So that could have been another reason.
 
You were there probably the same time as us. We spent 12 days at Aulani but did 3 all day trips to North Shore, Waikiki and then Hanauma Bay/Lanikai Beach/Blowhole/Pali lookout. We loved absolutely everything we did. Also visited the turtles over at Paradise Cove.
 


So glad to keep hearing how much folks love Aulani!! Sounds like a great trip. Can I pick your brain a bit??

About what times did you do Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head? Keep hearing "go early" but not sure how early! We'll be there in June next year.

Are your kids very strong swimmers? Did you use any kind of life vest? I've never snorkeled with both my kids out in open water, and I'm a little nervous--thinking about taking some snorkeling vests.

And same question about Pearl Harbor...what time? We're going on a Sunday too, specifically for traffic and to hit the swap meet. I'm hoping it's not shutting down by the time we finish...maybe we should do that first like you did.

Love any advice and other tips you might have! Thanks!
 
Yes, we did Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head early. Glad we did those when we stayed on Waikiki. (Even though we live in FL, we adjusted to HI time fast. None of us were up crazy early.) We had planned to get to Hanauma Bay before 7. But it started raining on our way, so we stopped for breakfast close by. (Island Brew Coffeehouse). We stayed there about an hour until it stopped raining so we were at Hanauma Bay around 8. We did get a parking spot, but the line to get tickets was already pretty long. It went pretty quick though. We stayed a couple hours. It was pretty cold the morning we went, probably because of the rain and wind. And it wasn't really sunny. So we didn't stay long. Maybe a couple hours. Which worked out well since we wanted to see many other things that day.
My girls are strong swimmers. Many families had pool noodles with them. It would have been helpful to have those even though my kids are good swimmers. They wanted to go deeper than they could touch and would tire out and try to hang on to my husband. And he couldn't touch either then, so the noodles or vests would have been helpful.
We rented snorkel gear for my husband and I. I bought my girls snorkel sets on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ABT6N9...1NYTGE57E&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&psc=1
For Pearl Harbor, we did not go early. I did not get tickets for the Arizona early. So when I bought online all they had left were tickets for 2:30pm. (And it was the last day that Arizona was open for maintenance on the dock for a couple weeks.) I did try to go online the day before at 7am to get earlier tickets, but since I already had the 2:30pm tickets it wouldn't let me...should have tried from my husband's phone...and within two minutes they were sold out. So we stopped by the swap meet first. (They closed at 3pm.) My kids enjoyed getting cheap souvenirs for their friends. We got to PH around noon. We found a parking space easy since people were leaving by then. We checked out the museums and the submarine before the Arizona memorial. If we had more time we would have done more things there, but my kids were fine with just the two things. Someone else we met in line did the 8 hour tour and felt like they were there too long.
 
We had also heard to go early to Hanauma Bay but decided to go the opposite. We left Aulani around 9-9:30 and went to Lanikai Beach first. It was absolutely beautiful. We also live in Florida with beautiful beaches but this was even more so. Stayed there a few hours and husbands and kids went snorkeling. They all loved the snorkeling there. We went to get some lunch and then ended up at Hanauma around 1:30. We had 2 cars to park and there was not a problem at all at that time. I did not go in the water there as it was way to cold for me and the sun wasn't really shining. Everyone loved it who did. Water seemed very calm but we are all good swimmers as well. There were mongoose everywhere there!!!!!!!

As for Pearl Harbor we did that last year on a Sunday and did that early. I had bought the tickets online 60 days out. We went over to the swap meet after that. I can not say one bad thing about Aulani. If I had to say something, I wish the water was a touch warmer.
 
We had also heard to go early to Hanauma Bay but decided to go the opposite. We left Aulani around 9-9:30 and went to Lanikai Beach first. It was absolutely beautiful. We also live in Florida with beautiful beaches but this was even more so. Stayed there a few hours and husbands and kids went snorkeling. They all loved the snorkeling there. We went to get some lunch and then ended up at Hanauma around 1:30. We had 2 cars to park and there was not a problem at all at that time. I did not go in the water there as it was way to cold for me and the sun wasn't really shining. Everyone loved it who did. Water seemed very calm but we are all good swimmers as well. There were mongoose everywhere there!!!!!!!

As for Pearl Harbor we did that last year on a Sunday and did that early. I had bought the tickets online 60 days out. We went over to the swap meet after that. I can not say one bad thing about Aulani. If I had to say something, I wish the water was a touch warmer.

Sorry to highjack the thread but quick question for you Amw1064-going to Hanauma Bay in the afternoon, did the people in your party find the water murky or churned up? This was a huge problem for us last time we were in Maui, all of our great snorkelling was done early morning on that trip which is great but as you say, it can be cold. Just interested if they found the water to be murky by mid day with so many people coming in the morning..thanks
 
Sorry to highjack the thread but quick question for you Amw1064-going to Hanauma Bay in the afternoon, did the people in your party find the water murky or churned up? This was a huge problem for us last time we were in Maui, all of our great snorkelling was done early morning on that trip which is great but as you say, it can be cold. Just interested if they found the water to be murky by mid day with so many people coming in the morning..thanks
No, the water was not murky. Just very cold for us.
 
We had also heard to go early to Hanauma Bay but decided to go the opposite. We left Aulani around 9-9:30 and went to Lanikai Beach first. It was absolutely beautiful. We also live in Florida with beautiful beaches but this was even more so. Stayed there a few hours and husbands and kids went snorkeling. They all loved the snorkeling there. We went to get some lunch and then ended up at Hanauma around 1:30. We had 2 cars to park and there was not a problem at all at that time. I did not go in the water there as it was way to cold for me and the sun wasn't really shining. Everyone loved it who did. Water seemed very calm but we are all good swimmers as well. There were mongoose everywhere there!!!!!!!

As for Pearl Harbor we did that last year on a Sunday and did that early. I had bought the tickets online 60 days out. We went over to the swap meet after that. I can not say one bad thing about Aulani. If I had to say something, I wish the water was a touch warmer.

Yes! I said the same thing to my husband. I'm surprised the water wasn't warmer at Aulani. The lagoon water was warmer than the pools. So I spent the most time in there.
And yes, mongoose everywhere there at Hanauma! I had never seen one and didn't know what they were. Reminded me of all the squirrels we have here in FL!
And I agree, Hawaii beaches are much better than FL beaches!!!
 
Yes! I said the same thing to my husband. I'm surprised the water wasn't warmer at Aulani. The lagoon water was warmer than the pools. So I spent the most time in there.
And yes, mongoose everywhere there at Hanauma! I had never seen one and didn't know what they were. Reminded me of all the squirrels we have here in FL!
And I agree, Hawaii beaches are much better than FL beaches!!!

Haha, I said to my friend, "I just saw the strangest looking squirrel". I was quickly corrected that it was a mongoose. Somehow we did not see them last year. I must confess that I spent most of my time in the adult infinity hot tub!!!!! By the second week I had gotten more use to the water so I did the lazy river quite a bit. Wasn't in the pools all that much.
 
My family is headed to Hawaii in September, on an almost identical itinerary. We are staying a few days at Hilton Hawaiian Village before heading out to stay at Aulani for 6 nights. Any tips on your stay at HHV or other things we should consider while staying in Waikiki? We also have two girls with similar ages (10 and 12) Thanks so much!
 
My family is headed to Hawaii in September, on an almost identical itinerary. We are staying a few days at Hilton Hawaiian Village before heading out to stay at Aulani for 6 nights. Any tips on your stay at HHV or other things we should consider while staying in Waikiki? We also have two girls with similar ages (10 and 12) Thanks so much!

Oh you are going to have such an amazing time!!!!
HHV is a great place to stay in Waikiki. Make sure to sign up for the HH honors program before you go. Then you can check in online. I think I even downloaded the app. It made check in so much easier. There was a long line at check in. But since I checked in online with the app, I got to go to a different line, with only one person ahead of me. And they upgraded our room to a view of Diamond Head without me even asking. So it's worth it to make sure you do that.
The place is HUGE! Much bigger than Aulani. To me it was harder to find things. I knew they had a pool with a slide, but it took us forever to find it. And when we finally did, the slide was closed since the lifeguard got off work at 5. (On the other side of the lagoon...) We really didn't spend much time there since we were out touring the island while we stayed there.
Our first night we ordered pizza and brought it up to our room and ate on the balcony since we loved our view. (30th floor of the rainbow tower.) The next morning we went to Hanauma Bay, Makapuu Trail, and Lanikai Beach. Then we went to Duke's in Waikiki for dinner. I made a reservation in advance. It was awesome. We went early and walked on the beach and saw the Duke statue first.
The next day we hiked Diamond Head and then checked out and drove to the North Shore. I wish we had one more day in Waikiki. But there is never enough time on vacation! Ha!
Oh, and we just got our photos back from our session in Oahu. I'll see if I can post one. I loved how they turned out! We used Kim Ebert Photography. I HIGHLY recommend doing that while you are there. Her prices were awesome and she was great with our family.
 

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Thank you! I found her on Instagram. I think she posts her most recent work there. She really is amazing.
Those are absolutely stunning. And how cute that you and your hubby each have an adorable mini-me :)

Where and what time of day were those taken? I might have to look her up!!
 

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