Saturday - May 18th
I know, I know, I said it would be up two days ago, but I am on vacation.
I couldn't sleep all night. I was over tired, over excited, and already over sleeping with 5 people in one room. If I had a complaint about the studios in DVC is the queen bed. I think a king bed is way more versatile. I have very practical reasons for wanting a king bed on this trip.
My two year old has just gotten his "big boy bed" and the notion of sleeping in a crib is just horror to his pride. We knew it would be difficult to get him into a pack and play as this was just like a crib. Friday night he cried and cried so we kept him in our queen bed. Had it been a king it would have been much better but alas we were in a queen.
My son rolls and tumbles in a bed like sheets in a dryer. It was a long night.
I slept maybe 2 hours. I waited until just long enough to justify geting up and touring the resort. I think it was 5:30am. I took a tour to see how my "home" was looking. Things were looking pretty good.
SIDE NOTE... I don't have an adapter for SD cards for the new lightning plug so the only photos will be from my iPhone for the time being. I didn't bring a computer, just an iPad mini.
I remembered that we had a Pohaku and went to find ours. Based on the layout I was the 30 member to own at Aulani. Don't try and argue, I know the truth!!
The saying means "you have my love always".
I will say that being ahead 3 hours helps in Hawaii. You can start your day early and things quiet down earlier than at home. I actually think I am keeping my normal 730-8am to 12am routine.
I think this applied to my family too because they called at 7am wondering where I was..... It was time to get this thing started.
Aulani has worked out a bit different that our trips to WDW. At WDW we get in about 5pm and head to the grocery store and then check in. Most of the pre-work is done the first night we arrive so we can hit the ground running. Both times we have been to Hawaii we don't get in until 9-11pm so the pre work happens on our first full day. My wife and I agreed that going forward we will take the morning flight out of Seattle. There doesn't seem to be a noon flight on Alaska which would be better. Oh well...
The big events for today were going to be getting the collection of food for the room. I had mentioned early on in planning that there was a swap meet at Aloha Stadium that people recommended and all in my family wanted to go, we decided to hit that up early in the trip.
Our first stop on the way out was breakfast which was Starbucks and McDonald's. I tried the "local plate" and found it to be good. Eggs, Rice, Spam, and Portuguese Sausage. Nothing says Hawaii like SPAM!!!!
After we got that out of the way we headed to the swap meet. I highly recommend this!! The items are super cheap. It is a great place to pick up gifts for your trip. They have a range of items and most of the people barter. I hate bartering but some people love it....
No hat cooler than dad's.
His new COOL DUDE glasses
When in Hawaii
It was nice out then it started raining....
When that hit we decided it was time to hit the road. Next stop COSTCO!!!
I love Costco..... The one in Kapolei (5 minutes from Aulani) is great. They have a range of everything you need from food to Hawaiian clothes, gifts and more. May I recommend the Mauna Loa variety pack. It is AMAZING!!!
The rest of the day was pretty boring. We wrapped up at Costco, went to Target then unloaded at the resort. I took a swim in the lazy river because that is going to happen EVERY DAY!!
For dinner we went to Monkey Pod. VERY GOOD. However, the service is very slow. This isn't normally a problem unless you have a 2 year old. Try the fish and chips!! YUM. We missed the happy hour but it looks like a great way to save money. The server told me it is available in the entire restaurant. You can make reservations on opentable.com
By 8pm we were all dead tired. We wrapped up the day on the balcony taking it all in. We love this place!!!!