Trip Report: Hale Koa 6-6 to 6-8 and Aulani 6-8 to 6-15

Retired Air Force here as well, so willing to share a little secret. (Shh :ssst:) If you are doing Pearl Harbor, you may want to look into the Remembrance Barge instead. For Military only, but includes Retirees. Launches from the CINCPACFLT Boathouse and takes your guest around all of Ford's Island (versus straight to the Arizona) and details the progression of the Dec 7th attack. It does stop at the Arizona at the end of the tour. Very unique, and well worth the time. If interested, PM me and I'll send the link.
Thank you soo much for sharing this "secret". My hubby is retired Navy so I just called and booked our tour!
 
June 14th was our last day at the resort. We decided to just hang out and enjoy Aulani, especially because my husband's neck was still hurting from the body surfing incident the day before. I wanted to get our Photopass Scavenger Hunt completed, so we did several rounds trying to find the photographers at the different points. It took us until about 6:00 p.m., but we were successful. We did many loops around the lazy river, and finally explored the infinity pool, which was really neat. The lifeguard there told me about the animals in the rocks along the lazy river, so of course we had to go back and do a couple more laps to see them. There are images of different animals somewhat hidden in the sides as you go along. Many are artistic versions of animals, so you have to use your imagination. We also enjoyed our last round of Dole Whips after dinner. Hubby and son grilled up our final Costco burgers, which are delicious BTW. I think we got the frozen sirloin burgers.

This was the only day we attempted to find chairs in the morning--I think it was around 9 a.m. I put towels and a pair of flip flops on 2 chairs (for 5 people). The only chairs I could find at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday were in the back row by the little kiddie area with the fountains in the ground ( I didn't go down to the beach however). I figured it was kind of a test to see if the CM's would indeed move things after they were left. We went a couple different hour+ periods and then once for at least 3 hours, and everything remained exactly where we left it. I saw no attempt to fold towels and control the chairs in any way. Very interesting as the signage went up just a week or two before our trip.

We loved Aulani and would definitely go again! It was a wonderful family trip!

Most of these pictures are attempting to complete the Photopass Scavenger hunt.

DD by the koi pond, in a dress we bought at the swap meet.




We found Mickey out on the lawn, with Bob the photograher (who we met the first day--he is great!). Bob took a ton of fun photos of us with Mickey






Finding some characters:





Playing with the waterproof camera in the infinity pool



Our final photopass spot--by the beach. They don't come there until getting closer to sunset apparently.


My daughter has mad old school selfie skills: turning the camera around and trying to aim it.


View of Aulani at night from our balcony


The last Dole Whip . . . .


My son has a tradition of making faces in his Dole Whip
 
Great trip report. My parents surprised us a few weeks ago saying that they want to take the whole family to Hawaii next year and I want to stay at Aulani. We will be going the first full week on June and my only fear is reading how overly crowded the pool area is. Was that a big negative on your trip or wasn't a big enough issue? Thanks.
 


Great trip report. My parents surprised us a few weeks ago saying that they want to take the whole family to Hawaii next year and I want to stay at Aulani. We will be going the first full week on June and my only fear is reading how overly crowded the pool area is. Was that a big negative on your trip or wasn't a big enough issue? Thanks.
Thanks! Wow, what an awesome surprise! I definitely would do early June again. It did not feel overly crowded to me. The only issue was the chair thing, but that really didn't affect us at all. I just thought it was silly to make a big deal (lots of signs) about no saving seats and then do nothing to enforce it (even though the signs say they will be removing things). If we had made a point of going down early to get chairs, we probably could have found some. But we are not sit around in chairs type of people, nor do we need a chair for every person in our family all day. We were always able to find somewhere to put our things, and never had to wait for an inner tube for the lazy river. The only thing that I would change would be to do North shore on a weekday instead of a weekend. If you are DVC members and own elsewhere, be forewarned that you will have to be prepared to be on before 8 a.m. EST opening time and be ready to hit the button on the nose at 8 a.m. (this meant a 4:45 a.m. wake up for us to get it right at 5 a.m., and the only thing left for 6 people was an ocean view 2-bedroom lock-off). If you aren't DVC members, you might want to look into renting points. Have a ball planning your trip! :goodvibes
 
@sgrap I just want to say I have loved your TR! Thank you for taking the time to put it together! I loved all the photos and seeing all the adventures you went on. Hoping that DH falls in love with Aulani, and we will plan another trip when our boys are a bit older and we can take advantage of more of the offsite excursions, because everything you did looked incredible! Thank you again for sharing =)
 
@sgrap I just want to say I have loved your TR! Thank you for taking the time to put it together! I loved all the photos and seeing all the adventures you went on. Hoping that DH falls in love with Aulani, and we will plan another trip when our boys are a bit older and we can take advantage of more of the offsite excursions, because everything you did looked incredible! Thank you again for sharing =)
Thanks so much! I think you all will love it! Something for everyone there.
 


Thanks for the trip report! We're planning 7 nights at Aulani and 3-4 nights at either Hale Koa or Bellows AFS (they have cabins available right on the beach and condos just a bit further back that we've heard are amazing). I'm torn between being in Waikiki or having an amazing beach right there and just driving down into town daily. Grateful for all the information!
 
Thanks for the trip report! We're planning 7 nights at Aulani and 3-4 nights at either Hale Koa or Bellows AFS (they have cabins available right on the beach and condos just a bit further back that we've heard are amazing). I'm torn between being in Waikiki or having an amazing beach right there and just driving down into town daily. Grateful for all the information!
Thanks! A friend just told me after we got back that they like to stay at Bellows. She said the cabins are their favorite, but harder to get. They usually end up with a condo. The beach there is amazing but of course it is a lot farther away from Pearl Harbor, etc. So I guess it depends on whether you want to do the city stuff or be by an awesome beach. :goodvibes Although the beach by the Hale Koa is nice as well, but it's much more crowded of course and just a completely different feel. Either choice is fabulous. But definitely go to Bellows Beach on a weekday, no matter where you stay. Have fun planning!! :thumbsup2
 

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