Woke up and opened to the curtains, and yes, I was not dreaming.
We had booked the Buffet Breakfast at the Makahiki Restaurant with Aunty. Aunty visits three days a week and some of her Disney friends drop by. Other mornings it is just a normal buffet breakfast.
DH and I had already been downstairs on a coffee run to the Olelo Room which is located right next door. People were coming to enquire about breakfast to be told without a reservation they would not be seated. This breakfast was my dad's belated birthday present so I told DH I would just confirm to be sure. They had no record of our reservation.
I also knew that I had a printed confirmation upstairs so I popped up to get in and went back down and all was good.
At 8 we headed down for breakfast. After going through the whole lost reservation thing AGAIN our Ohana (Family) were seated at one of the outside tables overlooking the pool area. It was beautiful but a little fresh so DH went back up to the room to grab an extra layer. We were greeted by Mickey at the door for a photo that we could have purchased. On sitting down our drink orders were taken and we headed to the buffet which had a great range of island, Japanese and Western breakfast food. My favourite was the Eggs Benedict version which came on purple muffin and used a Spanish Sausages as the meat. It was just a little hard to get of the buffet with dignity.
During our breakfast both Minnie and Goofy visited our table. Minnie stopped for a short visit and Goofy came and made us wave our napkins along to a song sung by Aunty. Aunty talks to dinners throughout the meal talking of Hawaiian customs. She also sings songs and has puppet fish and coconut shells that she gives to the children to follow her in a conga line through the restaurant. She also sings a special birthday song to birthday children and teaches them a hula. A special birthday cake was bought out for my dad and the waiters sung him happy birthday.
After a few trips to the buffet a light rain began which certainly encouraged us to finish up as there was little protection from the rain at our table and it was full inside and nowhere to go. So watch out for this if the skys are grey.
We then went to the Pau Hana Room which is like a community hall where they offer craft activities and board games to register for the Menehune Adventure. This is a bit like the Kim Possible Challenge at WDW with a mobile device sending messages and signals throughout the resort. We handed over a room key and signed a form saying we would pay for costs of not returning the device and headed out for the free activity. We chose to start outside but there is a lobby version.
With one child per 2 adults we set off around the resort helping Aunty with our tasks. Aunty talked a little too much at times but the activities and magical mischief we created was lots fun and got some great reactions from other guests who were quite unsure why things had just happened around them. Our younger daughter chose to do a second stage of the adventure by our eldest had enough after the first. Our two groups only doubled up on two activities over the hour or so that we spent. It was lots of fun and would be great for the children to go off and explore on their own.
We took a quick look at the gift shop - Kalepa's Store which had some unique Aulani souvenirs and pins. The shop is also a refillable mug station and stocks some basic food items and frozen meals. The Dooney and Burke bags were beautiful. The sun was coming out so we decided to hit the pools again and wait for my brother to call as they were arriving today. We found a great spot with four chairs by the spa near the lobby. It was very private. We made camp there for the day and hit the slides and pools. The girls wanted to go snorkelling in the snorkel lagoon so I purchased tickets for them and my dad to join them. There arm band for the day got a special clip allowing them entry all day. Like all things Disney you become an adult at 10 so for DD1 and my dad it was $30 for the day and $20 for DD2.
They had a great time with lots of fish. They were not allowed to kick and they were not allowed to put their feet down. They also had to wear a life jacket to make it easy for the life guards to see them. One lifeguard is always in the water and one on pool deck.
Around 1.30 we got a call from my brother so I headed down to the gate at the beach as they were staying next door at the Marriot. They share the lagoon. We caught up with them for an hour before we got a call to say their room was ready so they went to get settled and we decided to meet at 5 at their hotel for some dinner so they could get an early night.
DD2 wanted to check out Auntys Beach House which a kids club type place. They take children up to 12 years of age. On our way we went past the day spa and Painted Sky Spa which is an area for teens and tweens to hang out. There are computers and games for them to play with a frozen yoghurt bar. DD1 was not much interested in staying but she is an introvert. We then went and dropped DD2 at Aunty's. She just had to let a member of staff know when she wanted to be collected and they would phone us.
We decided to head out of the resort and across the road to the small Ko Olina Shops.
There is a Country Store which is an ABC Store where you can make your own salads, purchase some grocery items, drinks and alcohol, souvenirs, tourist clothes and some pharmacy items. There is an ice cream shop, a local takeaway that serves Asian, Hamburgers and Fish and Chips and a Mexican Restaurant. There is space for more shops and would imagine that it will keep growing. We tried the takeaway shop for lunch which was just fine. With the limited food options this certainly expands the selection. If you have a car the Kapolei Village is around 4 miles away with supermarkets, Target and other takeaway establishments. If staying in a Villa you would probably cook more or have simple meals.
We ran into Grandma and Grandpa and DD1 went back to the hotel with them. DH and I went to check out the Wailana Pool which is a quiet more adult pool and grabbed a Mai Tai at the Bar.
We looked over the wedding area out to the ocean. Before we went upstairs we thought we would go check on DD2 at Aunty's. As we walked in the door one of the staff members was coming out to ring us - Perfect timing. She showed us around, she had lots of fun doing crafts, playing video games and playing outside in the playground. She was very keen to come back the next day. We grabbed her a quick snack from One Paddle, Two Paddle as she had missed lunch to keep her going until dinner.
One Paddle Two Paddle
We all got dressed for dinner and headed to the Marriott. They had struggled to find somewhere to eat there for us all so we head to the Mexican place at the Ko Olina Village. They managed to find a table for 10 for us and we all had a very pleasant meal. I had a beef taco salad which was so light and lovely after days of heavy food. Just perfect. Had another awesome margarita as well.
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for another Aulani day.