Hawaii/Aulani/Disneyland Trip Report

[Nalshersmom]

Tuesday, June 18- Goodbye Hawaii

This day came so fast! We were determined to soak in our last hours. When I began packing up the night before I noticed my youngest was completely out of underwear, despite me packing more pairs than I thought he would need. I am unsure how this happened. This was our second trip with packing cubes, and they help tremendously! I figured I would wash one last load of clothes. I had to travel into the main building on the 3rd floor. I still had Tide pods and fabric softener sheets, but it was $8 a load. Yikes!



They did have a filtered water dispenser which dispensed cold water which was great to refill our bottles we had received at the Sunset at the Beach movie thing.



I also had one last amazing coffee experience.



This was a beautiful resort.





We also saw these 2 people surfing with their dog again.



It was too soon time to check out and return our rental car.



The return experience was pretty average, and we soon boarded the van to take us to the airport terminal. We soon learned that 30 minutes after we left, there was a crazy panic after a couple's lap tops started making popping noises. The article said everyone including kids were getting trampled while the TSA agents were screaming "shooter." I am incredibly thankful we missed this!

To be continued...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Wow - sounds like they really pampered you at Turtle Bay. Love that cottage!

Greg was amazing! This was definitely an experience! Our favorite hotels are usually Holiday Inn Expresses that have free parking and breakfast included.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Your cottage and the view from your lanai were gorgeous!!! I love riding horses so your horseback ride looks amazing! And yes, it can be hard to keep some horses focused when they just want to eat the grass.

The resort was gorgeous! My horse was hyper focused on that grass!

 

[Nalshersmom]

Tuesday continued

Our plane back was Hawaiian, and it included a lunch again.



They also came around 2 more times for a beverage service.





One of the best surprises on the way back was that all the in flight entertainment was included! This was a big change from the way there. We asked a flight attendant, and she said that it had just started a week or so before.

After about 5ish hours of flight, we arrived in San Diego. It was after 10pm there. We took the van to pick up our final rental car. This was again rented through Costco and Alamo. It was fairly easy, and we were able to pick up from a self service station which were lacking in Hawaii. A rental car was our cheapest option when comparing it to taking the Amtrak for 5 people. We then went through Mcdonald's which was the only place we found open and went to our nearby Holiday Inn Express which I had used points on. We tried to unpack as little as possible since we were just staying the night there.

Wednesday, June 19- drive to Disneyland

We slept in a little but got up in time for the continental breakfast. It was typical. We also had a little porch in our room with a view of the local BBQ place.





The weather was a little chilly in the morning.

Our next stop was Anaheim. We stopped for a quick lunch at Carl's Jr. because we were excited to check in and did not have to have a long lunch.

My husband then dropped us off at the Grand Californian with our luggage while he dropped the rental car off at the Paradise Pier Hotel's Alamo. The staff seemed clueless, and he had a slightly difficult time finding where to turn it in. The line for check in was pretty long. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel last time and loved it. I only chose the Grand due to it's amazing location. Also when I was planning this trip, there was a lot of construction scheduled around the Disneyland Hotel which was cancelled soon after. When we reached the desk, they said our room was not ready even though it was past check in time, so we found an open spot and camped out. They told me to call in about 30 minutes to check on the status of the room. It appeared that many other people were also waiting on rooms.



After waiting and calling, the lady on the phone said she found me a different room that was ready, but I had to wait in a line for a new key. We did this and then started out on a long walk to our room.

It was close to the monorail and California Adventures, but all we could see were trees.








The room was really nice, but I still preferred the Disneyland Hotel's rooms.

The lobby and fireplace are gorgeous!


We then headed out to Downtown Disney.

to be continued...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Wednesday continued

We then got a delicious shake from their fancy shake shop. There was no line for the shake express line.



We also picked up some patches, our lanyards from our hotel package, and adopted a baby Groot. It soon became our mission to find a Mickey hat for it that we saw another Groot wearing.



We then had a Lego race and recreated some pictures from our trip 2 years ago.









As we were walking back to our room to go swimming, we ran into Pluto.








The pools were okay, but we loved the Disneyland Hotel pools.



We then grabbed some dinner from White Water Snacks. The nachos were delicious. They also told us that if we show our room key in the morning, we could get coffee and hot chocolate for free, which I did not know.

We then tried to go to sleep early because we had an appointment with Galaxy's Edge bright and early the next morning and a Fantasmic package at night.

 

[mkb3]

Awesome trip. We were there for a portion of your trip to Oahu as well. Super disappointed I didn't know about the Jurassic World Tours that would have been awesome.

 

[Fred M]

This was our second trip with packing cubes, and they help tremendously!

First off, love all the photos you've posted! Second, I've always wanted to get packing cubes. Did you use a compression cube or just a standard cube?

 

[ErinF]

Y'all really had a fabulous trip!!! So fun that you got to end it at Disneyland. We've always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian, I'm jealous! We always stay across the street at the HoJo (even though we always stay on property when we go to WDW). I've had the nachos twice at White Water Snacks, they are definitely delicious! That's one of my favorite things to do for lunch when at DCA, head into the GCH and get nachos at White Water. It's always pretty quiet in there so it makes for a peaceful break.

 

[Nalshersmom]

First off, love all the photos you've posted! Second, I've always wanted to get packing cubes. Did you use a compression cube or just a standard cube?

I think they were just standard. The best thing about them was how they just kept everything together. All of my 9 year old's clothes fit in one big one. I had only bought two sets, so everyone else had one for their shirts and another for their swimsuits, socks, and underwear. Our shorts were just in suitcases. It would have been fabulous if everyone had their own color and could pack everything in them.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Y'all really had a fabulous trip!!! So fun that you got to end it at Disneyland. We've always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian, I'm jealous! We always stay across the street at the HoJo (even though we always stay on property when we go to WDW). I've had the nachos twice at White Water Snacks, they are definitely delicious! That's one of my favorite things to do for lunch when at DCA, head into the GCH and get nachos at White Water. It's always pretty quiet in there so it makes for a peaceful break.

I was not especially impressed with our room there, but the location could not be beat. We have also stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Theme Park Entrance across from the HOJO and enjoyed it more for the price. We also stay onsite at WDW, but usually do split stays at Disneyland. The main reason we wanted to stay onsite this time was because of rumblings of Galaxy's Edge preference to hotels which turned out to be true.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Thursday, June 20- Disneyland

Our goal was to leave our room by 6:30, which we came pretty close to. We stopped by for coffee and hot chocolates at White Water Snacks. We had already eaten our kid's favorite Pop Tarts in our room before we left.
We then lined up at Disneyland and were let in for the Extra Magic Hour at 7am. We wandered around and took some pictures in front of the castle. I was also adding MaxPass at this time. We were last here 2 years ago right before MaxPass, so I had to figure out how to use it. I love it, but I don't love paying for it.






We then went in the direction of Tomorrowland and stopped by the Astro Orbiter because the kids wanted to. I can't do spinning rides.



We then stopped by Star Wars Launch Bay for our wrist bands. We only had about 25 minutes left, so we joined the line to get in. We ended up in line be the tea cups.

We were soon being led into the land behind this crowd.



We did not plan on making a light saber or a droid. We were also not interested in the Canteen. Our only missions were to ride the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, get a Coke and Diet Coke for my brother, and to try the blue milk. We looked around for a while and then saw the line for Smuggler's Run was only 15 minutes, so we joined the line. It went by fast. While in line I got a job on the app. My husband was unable to find a job. I was unable to scan what I needed to, so I later was fired. My battery got super drained, so I gave up on the Play Parks app and charged up my battery to use my MaxPass.

Soon we were in the room where they hand out colored job cards. They did not put a sixth person with our group, so I became the sole engineer. We then posed for a picture at the table and pushed a lot of buttons with nothing happening.





Our family was soon called.





We did not do well, but it was pretty fun.






to be continued since I have so many pictures...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Thursday continued

I did have to close my eyes a couple of times, because the older I get, the more motion sick I get.





We explored the land some more and took pictures.



Then the PhotoPass people.





We then checked out their market places and pet store.





The bathrooms and water fountains were also well themed.





We then got our blue milk. It was okay, but we prefer Butterbeer.



to be continued because of pictures...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Thursday continued

We also had to visit the $25,000 R2D2. My husband was hoping it would be active, but it just sat in a corner.



We also posed for this picture just because of the PhotoPass person.



The only characters we found were Chewbacca and some Storm Troopers. They only interacted with a few people and kept walking.



This was my 1 year old telling Chewbacca about two of her favorite Build-A-Bears named Natbacca and Baltibacca. She loves Chewbacca!

We looked around, bought our Cokes, and then decided it was time to use our MaxPass to ride attractions. We said any early goodbye with no regrets.



We then headed to several attractions including Indiana Jones, Pirates, the Tiki room and also got some beignets. The seasonal ones were butterscotch, and we got some of each. Crowd levels were so much better than our past trips in June and September.



After riding even more attractions, we mobile ordered a pizza at Pizza Planet.



It was okay. We tried not to eat too much, because we wanted to be hungry for our Fantasmic package at 4:45. That was the best time I could get for this day. I forgot the first day I could get a reservation until that night. I checked many times after that with no availability.



We were also able to ride Hyperspace Mountain which everyone enjoyed. We used MaxPass to ride all the rides throughout the day with minimal lines. It was awesome!



We also found Red.



We also visited Toon Town before our reservation time.



We also rode all of the other major and many minor rides that day.

We checked in at the Blue Bayou on time and then waited 30 minutes for a table by the water.

to be continued...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Thursday continued

We have been there once before and ate the Monte Cristos, but this time we could just order off the special menu for the Fantasmic Package. This time is was really hard to see our food. We have a night mode on our cameras which I used so I could see my food better. It really seemed darker than last time. I was excited to get a mint julep! We went to the Kentucky Derby this past May, and their mint juleps were not good to me with bourbon.



My youngest ordered the beef off the kids menu, my husband ordered the ribeye, and the rest of us ordered the surf and turf. We all got the gumbo.





It was all really good!



We then rode many more attractions, and it was one our before we needed to line up for Fantasmic, so I ran back to the room for sweatshirts because I was getting cold.



This was our first time seeing it here, and it was way better than the Hollywood Studios version. Our view was also super good! We were also happy with the seat cushions even though they were not convenient to carry around. We also loved the Disneyland Forever fireworks!



We made it to our last FastPass for the Matterhorn Bobsleds, but the ride went down. We were glad we had ridden it earlier. We then went on the Storybook Canal boats before calling it a night at 11:30.

 

[ErinF]

I was also adding MaxPass at this time. We were last here 2 years ago right before MaxPass, so I had to figure out how to use it. I love it, but I don't love paying for it.

We were also at DL in June of 2017 right before MaxPass, so when we went this past November it was all new to us. I agree with your sentiment, I really loved it (got so many Fps!!) but I hated paying for it. At least it comes with Photopass.

I did have to close my eyes a couple of times, because the older I get, the more motion sick I get.

I'm the exact same way! I used to be able to handle anything, but not as much anymore.

Crowd levels were so much better than our past trips in June and September.

I'm super jealous of the low crowd levels DL is having right now, it looks like it would be so much fun to be visiting right now!

 

[Nalshersmom]

Friday, June 21- California Adventures

Today was the Extra Magic Hour for California Adventures. We came down at about 6:30, and the line was about 15 people back, so everyone hopped in line while I got a coffee at White Water Snacks.



We were all a little tired but excited. The line soon got crowded, and people started heading to the main entrance. Security was fast, and we were in an almost empty park soon. It was crazy!





It was a complete walk on to Guardians, which is our favorite. I can actually ride this ride, but I have to space our my rides. We could have gotten many rides in if not for motion sickness It was amazing, though.



I also got the MaxPass again and made a Fastpass for Guardians again at 8:00 to space our rides out. We then headed to Soarin Over California, which we have not seen in years. There was very few people in line, but it felt like it never moved. This ride took the rest of our mornings. I still really liked it, but the rest of the family agreed they like the one around the world better. We all loved the orange smell, though. Soarin took up the rest of our hour, so we headed back to Guardians for our our Fastpass time. We all loved it, and I felt good. We then got my brother a hat that I got 2 years ago and still wear that he wanted. We also did Cars Land and the Incredicoaster before having to return to move hotels. We also stopped by most Photopass people







This was their first time on the rethemed version. The kids loved it, but it made my husband a bit queasy.



Forky looks cute, but we have yet to see Toy Story 4. We may see it this weekend.

At about 9:30 we returned to the Grand Californian to pack up. It was so expensive that I could not justify more than our 2 nights so we could get in early. My biggest mistake was seeing that if was about half a mile away to our new hotel and thinking we could easily walk it. We were moving to the Holiday Inn Express which I paid for in points. It is right behind the Courtyard Marriott Theme Park Entrance where we stayed before. The last time we changed hotels, we had a car. All of the routes tried to take us through security of Downtown Disney with our luggage. We ended up at the Paradise Pier Hotel, and I again realized it was trying to take us back to Downtown Disney, so we took our first Lyft XL ride. It was completely worth it, and it was what I should have done in the first place. They had a room for us ready, and we were super happy not to have to store our stuff. We then headed to Jimboy's for tacos on the way back to California Adventure. We tried this place last time after hearing about it from Tony on the older Disneyland Unplugged podcast which I still miss.



We also stopped by the Disneyland Hotel to check their gift shop for the hat for our Groot and finally found one! Our day was now made. I also stopped for a coffee at Downtown Disney because I was starting to drag. I have to admit that I cannot handle rope drop to closing days in a row like I did before.

To be continued...

 

[graviela]

Which packing cubes did your buy for the trip? I want to purchase some for our trip but there are to many choices.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Which packing cubes did your buy for the trip? I want to purchase some for our trip but there are to many choices.

These are the 2 sets I got. One of them was borrowed from my brother, and the black ones I ordered off Amazon.






I agree that is is overwhelming to purchase them because they all start to look alike. I ended up just going with the cheapest with the best reviews. I have washed my, and there have been no issues. I only wish I had bought them for all clothes.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Friday, June 21 continued-


We then were able to return to California Adventure! We used our MaxPass and rode Guardians for the 3rd time.

We also got a Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers for the 2nd time. We also got shakes at Flo's, which we loved last time. We had a super hard time trying to drink them with the paper straws they gave us. We finally gave up and used spoons. We then headed back to Pixar Pier to ride the Pixar Pal-A-Round swinging side. Well, they rode it, and I explored the shops around it. They loved it again.



We also used a Fastpass for the Incredicoaster and Toy Story Mania. Again, MaxPass helped us tremendously. We then headed to the Animation Academy. On the way we stopped for a cone at the Adorable Snowman.



There was also a Photopass photographer at Forky now, so we jumped in line.



The girls were too cool for another picture with him. We finally saw the movie last night. We all enjoyed it, but it was not our favorite.

We drew baby Groot during our last visit, and we now have them displayed. This time it was Steamboat Willie. The artist was pretty funny, but my drawings never turn out super well. I always laugh a lot at my drawings, and we all enjoy the class.







We are hoping to display a mix of all our trip art.

My kids also explored the Sorcerer's Workshop, and we had to pry them away after about 1.5 hours.





It was a cute little area.




Of course, we had to get a picture here



To be continued...

 

[Nalshersmom]

Friday continued

We then headed to Cars Land for a snack at the Cozy Cone and hopes of seeing Sha-Boom. We had great timing. They had just started, so we joined in on the fun.



The lights were fun to watch coming on. This is a beautiful area, and one of our favorites.

We also got a mac n cheese cone, which was really good.



There was one Photopass photographer there, so we got a picture.




We then went to our FastPass for Goofy's Sky School, which my kids love.

My husband and oldest then went on to ride the Golden Zephyr. My husband texted me he saw the bully from the movie Friday in line. People were taking pictures with him, but he left soon when his daughter got off the ride. I then saw him walk by us on our way, but I did not know what to say.



I am usually not observant and would probably not notice anyone famous unless I am looking for them.

We had gotten a Fastpass earlier for World of Color, but we were getting tired. We tried the dessert party last time, which we will never be able to beat. We also had a Fastpass for Soarin' for later. We were tired, and we had rode until we could ride no more, so we said our goodbyes to Pixar Pier and went on Guardians one more time using a Fastpass.



This was our 4th ride of the day.



I am the one with hands in front of my face.

We then headed back to our hotel. We grabbed some Mcdonald's /Panera on the way back. My youngest fell asleep with his soup right beside him.

I really enjoyed both parks on this trip. The longest line we waited in was for the Adorable Snowman for ice cream. This trip made Disneyland tie with Walt Disney World for my favorites!

Saturday, June 22- Flying home

We woke up, got ready, packed, and ate the continental breakfast.



Groot loved his new hat!


We used Lansky to bring us to the airport. I chose them after learning about them from the Disneyland Daily website. They also seemed like the best option that would bring us directly to the airport terminal. They had us at the airport 2.5 hours early. It was a comfortable ride. My kids fell asleep fast.



We then flew Delta to Atlanta. There were weather delays and some turbulence.
We had many different configurations on the flights. This time was 3 and 2, so we let all 3 kids sit together in front of us. They did really well, and the flight attendant commented on how polite they were. My poor husband sat in the middle, and the guy beside him kept falling asleep on him.



Our flight arrived 30 minutes late, and our flight to Birmingham kept getting delayed.



We ended up arriving in Birmingham a few minutes after 12 am. We were happy to be home in our own beds with all the memories of our trip. This is the 1st time that I can remember not having a trip planned in the future. I think our next Disney trip will be to the World. We are 8 hours away, so that is our main park. The price increases (from Disney and our kids turning into Disney adults) have made our trips fewer between and less elaborate. Hopefully we will plan another trip soon!

Thanks for reading my trip report! I love reading the trip reports of others, and this has given me a chance to relive so many amazing memories!