"What ocean are we on?" - An Aulani/Hawaii Honeymoon Trip Report! NOW COMPLETE & WITH PHOTOS!

[nkereina]

Just back last week from an amazing 16 day honeymoon in Hawaii! DH and I are from Buffalo, NY and were married in the Finger Lakes in upstate NY at the end of August. DH used to have a job that allowed him to travel the world, but Hawaii was one of the few places he had never been! So we were excited to experience it together. We were also pumped for Aulani, since we are frequent WDW visitors.

Feel free to ask any questions, or ask for any other pics (I have A LOT more than what I'm posting). We did a lot of things that I read about here on the boards, and heeded a lot of the advice I always see here, so I'm happy to share my opinion or give advice of my own now that we have lived it!

Thursday September 15th

We left Buffalo at 6am on a Delta flight bound for Atlanta. Our flight was on time, arriving in the B terminal at the Atlanta airport. We had two hours to kill so we got breakfast and then headed over to the E terminal. Our flight from Atlanta to Honolulu was on an Airbus 330 - a wide body plane with a 2-4-2 seat configuration. Our travel agent messed up and booked us economy class, when we had requested comfort plus. I was nervous I'd be cursing her name during our 8 hour flight, but honestly, we could not have been more comfortable. Literally on the day we were flying, it was Delta's first day they were to begin providing meal service to all fare classes. And free alcohol to all fare classes too! Around lunch time, we had the choice of chicken or pasta so we chose the pasta dish. I was astonished at the amount of food they give you! Raviolis, a breadstick, caesar salad, shrimp, cheese & crackers, and a brownie. Throughout the entire flight, they frequently came by offering drinks, water, snacks, headphones, eye masks - whatever you needed. Everyone also had a pillow and blanket at their seat when they boarded. When we were about an hour out from Honolulu, they gave everyone a turkey sandwich. It was far superior service than what I was expecting, and we were very pleased with how quickly the flight seemed to go by. In addition to the great service, there were entertainment options galore - hundreds of movies and TV shows available to you for free on the TV at your seat. DH and I each watched two movies, slept a bit, and read a little - and then we were there!

We arrived on time in Honolulu, around 2:30pm local time. Hawaii is 6 hours behind us on the east coast, so it was really 8:30pm back home. We had a VERY difficult time adjusting to the time change, and I don't know if we ever fully did - we had a several early nights/early morning days throughout our whole trip.

I was a little surprised at how old and seemingly run down the Honolulu airport is. Much smaller than I anticipated and not what you picture when you see people stepping off the plane in movies, receiving a lei welcoming them to paradise. But, they got our luggage out very fast so we were in cab on our way to our resort in Waikiki within 30 minutes of landing.

A cab from the airport to Waikiki ran us about $50 including tip. We spent our first 3 nights at the Waikiki Beach Marriott. We did not have a rental car during our stay here. We had a partial ocean view room in the Kealohilani tower, which is the tower I'd recommend if you stay here. When you come off the elevator, your steps from Kalakaua Ave, which is the main drag of Waikiki. I think our tower also had refurbished rooms, but I can't confirm.

The Marriott was a good price point for us, and also in a great location on the strip. The pool was nothing to write home about, but we were not planning on pool time during our stay here. The hotel is also across the street from the beach, rather than right on it. Our room was large, as was the balcony which had two chairs, a small table, and a lounge chair. Our view was a true partial ocean view, and we also had a bottle of champagne in our room for a honeymoon gift. Our stay here was only 3 nights, but it was good and I would definitely recommend the hotel.

Our view from our room at the Waikiki Beach Marriott.
Sorry for the white borders. First time using Shutterfly to upload here

After checking in and getting settled in our room, we set out on foot to explore! We first walked over to the beach which was a little crowded.

Waikiki Beach

Eventually, we made our way to the Outrigger Resort for dinner at Duke's. I had made reservations by phone about two weeks prior, but did not realize the outdoor patio was separate from the dining room area. We preferred the outdoor patio, so we put our name on the list out there instead. It was about 7pm and we had about a 30 minute wait. DH had a chicken sandwich and I had the fish tacos. We also split the Hula Pie - highly recommend!!

Duke's patio/outdoor seating

Hula pie!

After dinner, we were exhausted so called it an early night. We wanted to be rested up for Diamond Head the next morning!

​

 

[nkereina]

Friday September 16th

On our first full day in Hawaii, we had an 8am pick up for a Diamond Head tour. But with the time change, we were wide awake at 5am! So, we leisurely got up and got ready and decided to grab breakfast at the Marriott's breakfast buffet at the Kuhio Beach Grill. It was a decent buffet, nothing special, and very pricey at about $35 a person if I recall.

The cool thing about the Marriott is they have a tour lobby on the side of the hotel, where you go to meet your tour operator. It was nice to have a centralized location so you didn't have to worry about whether you were in the right place. Our Diamond Head tour was through Oahu Nature Tours. Our tour guide Bethany was on time, friendly, and very knowledgeable. The tour picked us and a few others up at the Marriott and other resorts in the vicinity, and consisted of about 15 people in total. The bus parks at the very start of the Diamond Head trail near the sign. We did learn that parking is at a premium there - the lot is tiny, and many people have to park quite a ways away, so you'll be walking a bit before you even get to the trail!

The tour was go at your own pace, and our guide had us meet her at the top. I have to admit that the hike was harder than I thought it would be! I'm 30 years old and in relatively decent shape, but the combination of going uphill, stairs, and in the heat/sun all made it harder than I was expecting. The trail also gets more crowded and hotter the later you go, so definitely go early. The view from the top was great, but the top was also very crowded. Our tour guide met us there and took our photos, and pointed out landmarks. We then hiked down at our own pace and met our guide at the bottom. On the way back to our hotels, she took the long way and pointed out more sights along the way. We were back at our hotel by 11am.

Views on the way up Diamond Head.

View from the top!

After showering and getting cleaned up, we were hungry. A block up from our hotel on Kuhio Ave is the Hilton Waikiki Beach - but not to be mistaken with the Hilton Hawaiian Village. This Hilton is not on the beach and is much smaller. Anyway, inside the Hilton is MAC 24/7 - a contemporary 24 hour diner style restaurant. We saw this on Man Vs. Food and they are known for their pancakes and pancake challenge, so we decided to give it a try. DH ordered a pork sandwich and I got a short stack of pancakes. Neither of us were up for the 3lbs pancake challenge! Service was unfortunate here though. After waiting quite a while for our food, we saw our waitress looking at our table with a puzzled expression. About a minute later, she came running over explaining she had forgotten to put our order in and couldn't remember where she put it, so she needed to take our order again. Never had that happen before! She was very apologetic and gave us a fruit platter, and we were not in a hurry, so it was no biggie. Just odd! The food itself was decent, but our final verdict was that it wasn't worth anyone going out of their way for.

After lunch, we walked out in front of the Hilton and noticed a stop for the Waikiki Trolley so we decided to wait for it. The Pink Line is the shopping line and it's a hop on/hop off double decker bus. It's $2 per person, exact cash only, although I think there are multi-ride passes you can buy. We waited maybe 5 minutes when one pulled up and we rode it all the way to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I highly recommend taking advantage of the Waikiki Trolley, even if you have a car. It was fast, inexpensive, has a lot of convenient stops, and just easy to use.

The Ala Moana Center was one of the nicest and largest shopping malls we had ever been to! Most of it was open air and it had every store you could think of. We both really like to shop, but didn't have much room for souvenirs or other purchases, so we spent most of our time browsing. We killed a couple hours there, got a Jamba Juice, and rode the trolley back over to the strip. We walked around the area some more, and ended up getting a drink at the Moana Surfrider. This is a gorgeous Westin hotel, and the outdoor bar is very cool with a large banyan tree in the middle. Really nice atmosphere. We made our way back over to the Marriott and we were hungry again, so we went across the street to the Aston Waikiki where there was a Wolfgang Puck Express - just like the one in Disney Springs! We split a pizza - very good!​

 

[nkereina]

Saturday September 17th

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for a tour to Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Swap Meet! We were booked with Discover Hawaii Tours who picked us up from our hotel promptly at 6:15am. Because of our early pick-up, we had bought muffins the night before from an ABC Store to eat quick in our room. There are ABC Stores everywhere with almost anything you could need, but one was conveniently located just off the Marriott.

Our tour guide, John, was friendly and knowledgeable. We got to Pearl Harbor shortly before 7am, and the gates had not opened yet. John took our group to the end of the line, and instructed those of us with bags to go take them to bag check and then just hop back in line. I did have a bag, so I checked it for $3. It was very easy and quick, so don't be discouraged by it or try to get by without a bag on your Pearl Harbor day.

Once inside, John handed out our tickets for our tour to the Arizona Memorial which was for 9am. This gave us two hours to explore the museums and gift shop. This was more than enough time for us to check everything out. Around 8:55am, we lined up to go inside the theater and view a movie before getting on the boat to head out to the Arizona. The movie was very moving and really set the stage for what you were about to see.

You have maybe 10 minutes to explore the memorial before the ask you to line up to board the next boat to take you back. Once we got back, we were instructed by John to meet him back at the bus. Half our group (including us) were being driven to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium, while the other half of the group was staying for a tour of the Missouri.

The Swap Meet was a very quick drive from Pearl Harbor. It cost each person $1 to enter. It's true that the Swap Meet is full of cheap souvenirs and quirky tourist stuff, and that's about it. Every other booth also seemed to have the same things - leis, macadamia nuts, plastic toys, etc. We got a shave ice which was bad - more like crushed ice, and the breads being sold at one of the kiosks looked and smelled good but were covered in flies, which grossed us out. The tour allowed us two hours at the Swap Meet, but we finished in one hour. We spent the last hour sitting around and killing time. Needless to say, we weren't overly impressed with the Swap Meet and I would not call it a must do by any means.

Aloha Stadium

John picked us up promptly at 1pm, and we swung back by Pearl Harbor to pick up the folks who did the Missouri tour. We then started making our way back towards Waikiki - or so we thought! After being stuck in traffic for a bit, John parked on the side of the road and had us all get out for 20 minutes. We were parked in front of Iolani Palace, and I guess photo ops of the Palace were part of the tour. No one on the tour, including us, knew this was an included stop and it was omitted from our tour paperwork. It was about 1:30pm at this point, and the paperwork said we'd be dropped off by 2pm. Everyone on the bus was tired, but we got out and took some photos.

Iolani Palace

Once we finally got going again, John told us that he also intended to stop at Punch Bowl Cemetery after the Palace, but they were closed for an event. Thank God it was closed, because this would have been a second unplanned stop. After getting through more traffic and making some other hotel drop-offs, we finally got back to the Marriott at 4pm. It was a VERY long day.

We were pretty hungry at this point, because the tour did not include any meals and there weren't many dining options at Pearl Harbor or the Swap Meet. We walked up the street to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. It was a good casual stop, nothing special. By this time, a festival was being set up on the main drag so the street was closed to traffic. We walked up and down the strip and saw many craft vendors, food vendors, etc. Being so tired, we didn't have the energy to hang out any longer, so we headed back for the Marriott. And that's when I saw it - Leonard's! The famous malasada mobile I've heard so much about. Of course we had to get some, and of course it was insanely busy! But boy were they delicious!

Leonard's Malasadas

This was our last night in Waikiki, and our overall impression of the area was that it was very nice with lots of shopping, but definitely on par with that city feeling you'd find in any other major city. We were glad we stayed in the area though, and would do it again the same way. It was nice to have so many options in walking distance. Next stop: Maui!

​

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

Great report so far. Congratulations on your new marriage. Looking forward to reading the rest of your story.

 

[nkereina]

Sunday September 18th

We woke up around 7am, still adjusting to the time. We took our time packing up the room, and then decided to head across the street to Wolfgang Puck Express for breakfast before checking out and heading to the airport for our flight to Maui. We each had a breakfast pizza which was so good, and it was nice to sit at a table facing the ocean for breakfast. It also was nice to have a relatively inexpensive breakfast. After breakfast, I wanted to walk to the end of the pier that was across the street. Beautiful views of Waikiki Beach from the pier, and we also a met a crazy guy feeding the birds!

After, we headed back to our room to get our bags and then we hopped in a cab to head for the airport. Our flight to Maui was at 11:30am and we got there around 9:30am. The airport was not busy at all and it took us no longer than 15 minutes to check our bags and go through security.

One tip I have regarding island hopping - I'd suggest making your flights for very early or very late in the day. We did 3 inter-island flights during our trip, all of which I intentionally scheduled for mid-day. My thought behind this was that we could sleep in, get breakfast, leisurely pack up, and then by the time we got to our new resort, our room should be ready. All of this was true, but we really took a big chunk out of the best part of the day and essentially lost almost a full day.

Our flight to Maui on Hawaiian Airlines was quick and uneventful. When we arrived, our luggage came out super fast so I decided to hunt down the hotel transfer our travel agent arranged. We did not have a rental car in Maui because the majority of what we had planned was in the close vicinity of our resort. Our transfer van pulled up, and we made the 45 minute drive over to our resort on Ka'anapali Beach - the Westin Maui. Beautiful resort! One thing I'll mention about Maui is that it was noticeably very windy the entire time we were there. Extremely windy by the airport, but still pretty windy in our area too. It did make it comfortable for walking around.

The Westin's resident swan.

Large pond and flamingos just off the lobby.

View from lobby.

We arrived at the resort around 2pm, and we were anxious to get in the amazing pool at the Westin! We were told they had upgraded our room from mountain view to partial ocean view and we'd be on the top floor - but it would not be ready until 4pm. We were a little tired from traveling and were anxious to get in a room, so we decided to take a room in the same partial ocean view category on the 4th floor instead.

View from our room. Just below us was the Whaler's Village.

We quick put our swimsuits on and headed down to the beach. With the wind, laying on the beach was not all that enjoyable and we kept getting sand in our faces. We moved to the pool deck which was better. There were always ample chairs on the pool deck.

We laid out for a couple hours, and then showered to get ready for dinner. We decided to walk next door to the Whaler's Village for dinner and some shopping. This was a super cute outdoor shopping center with some cute shops. Nothing big, but good for a casual stroll. I had made a dinner reservation at Hula Grill on Open Table. Similar to Duke's, Hula Grill has a casual patio area and a more formal dining room and my reservation was for the dining room. Since the patio had an hour wait, we decided to take our chances in the dining room even though the menu wasn't really our speed. Luckily, since the dining room was slow, our server offered us the patio's menu so we were able to order from that! DH and I split the fish tacos and had a few drinks, while watching the musicians and hula dancers. Very nice atmosphere.

After dinner, we walked back to the room and got ready for bed. The Whaler's Village was literally a stone's throw from the side door of the Westin so it was very convenient, and in my opinion made the Westin one of the best options in the Ka'anapali area for location.

View just outside the Westin. Golf course across the street.
​

 

[nkereina]

Monday September 19th

On our first morning in Maui, we had breakfast at the Westin's breakfast buffet. We had the option of a table with an ocean view so we took it. The buffet was decent, and on par with other breakfast buffet pricing we experienced during our trip.

I had reserved a cabana for this day by the adult pool. Cabanas here are similar to the casabellas at Aulani - they are two person lounge chairs with a retractable awning. If you want the tent style with seating for multiple people, those are known as gazebos at the Westin. I had reserved our specific cabana through the Westin's web site two months in advance. They have a very detailed map so you can strategically pick your spot. We chose cabana #9 which was one of three cabanas in the adult pool area, but this one was the most private. It overlooked the main pool with views of the ocean, and we didn't have anyone on either side of us. It was perfect and so nice to have our own space. We had waiter service all day, which was also convenient, as well as a girl who would bring us fresh towels, pineapple, and pitchers of water.

A tip for the women - I had purchased a KYSS bag prior to our trip, and use this as my pool side bag. For those not familiar, it has a combination lock/chain, so you can affix it to your pool chair. It locks the zippers so no one can steal out of it, and no one can take it. I felt very comfortable leaving it at my chair for an hour or two whenever we wanted to sit in the hot tub, check out another pool, or walk down to the beach. Definitely recommend.

View from cabana #9.

View of the adult pool behind our cabana. Our cabana area was roped off with a "reserved" sign.

Around 3pm, we headed back up to our room to get ready for the evening. We attended the Feast at Lele luau on Front St. in Lahaina. I mulled over which luau to book, because they all had mixed reviews. We decided on the Feast at Lele because it had private tables and servers, as opposed to communal tables and a buffet at the Old Lahaina Luau, which is the other main luau on Maui.

We took a taxi to the luau and got there around 6pm. It was about a $20 ride including tip, and the driver gave us his card for the return. Turns out we didn't need it because there were taxis waiting when the luau was finished. Once the doors opened, we were shown to our table. I knew from reading reviews that tables were assigned in the order by which your reservation was made. I had made our reservation back in February, so I was expecting a good seat. And it was - front and center! Tables were on the beach, so sandals were recommended. Before the show started, they had plantain chips on the table and there was open bar for the whole evening. There was also a professional photographer taking sunset photos of families and couples on the beach. Everyone was given a lei when they entered.

The Feast at Lele celebrates several different Polynesian cultures. The show and the menu correspond to cover each culture individually.

Much of the food was good, some of it was not to our taste. But it was a lot of food! We were stuffed even though we didn't finish a few things. The service was also great.

The show was also great. My only minor gripe is that there was too much downtime between performances. There would be a 5-10 minute performance, then they would break while the servers cleared plates and brought out the next course. We would often finish our next course before the performers came out again. But each performance was very good and entertaining.

At the start of the Maori (New Zealand) performance, the young man in the center of the above photo came out doing one of the Maori war chants. If you've ever seen the Haka, you know it can be intimidating and intriguing. The particular chant he was doing was a peace offering of a braided palm, and he selected DH to come up and receive it! DH walked to the stage and the performer handed him the palm while everyone clapped. It was the only audience participation moment of the show, so kind of cool!

The finale was the fire dancer, who was a Samoan chief. He juggled the fire and also ate it, which was crazy! He was very close to us and it was a really cool experience.

The show ended around 9pm. We ended up buying our photo from the photographer at the end of the night ($30!) and he gave me a hard copy as well as emailed me the digital version. Came out nice. ​

 

[nkereina]

Tuesday September 20th

Tuesday morning/afternoon was a repeat of Monday. We had breakfast at the buffet and lunch by the pool, and had reserved cabana 9 again for the day. We spent the day going between the pools and ocean. The resort is relatively small and never felt crowded. If we didn't have the cabana booked, we would not have had an issue getting pool chairs at any time of day.

Tuesday night we took the Westin's shuttle into the town of Lahaina. The Westin, Westin Villas, and Sheraton all share an area shuttle that makes several stops in the Lahaina area. We wanted to walk Front St., the main drag in Lahaina, so we got off at the outlet mall. The outlets were small and nothing special. Front St. was very cool. Lots of fun, unique shops and several places to eat and grab drinks. We ended up eating at Lahaina Pizza Co. which was a super casual open air deep dish pizza place on the second level, above some of the shops. It was very good, and they are known for their bruschetta which was awesome!

Cruise ship off Front St. in Lahaina. I believe this is a tender port.

After dinner, we continued up Front St. to the banyan court. It's my understanding this is one of the oldest and largest banyan trees in all of Hawaii, and it was really something to see! All of the branches you see in the below photos are all connected - this is all one tree!

On our way back up Front St., we stopped at Fleetwood's for a drink. I'm a big Fleetwood Mac fan so I had to check it out - it's owned by Mick Fleetwood! There was a cool gift store, and we were told the dining room of the restaurant was designed to look like Mick's mother's living room. After that, we stopped by a shave ice stand which was in a little alley right of Front St. We noticed it as we waked by. Boy were we glad we stopped - we got pineapple/passion fruit shave ice with vanilla macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. May have been the best we had the whole time!

We eventually made our way back to the outlets and caught the shuttle back to the hotel. The shuttle was a really nice convenience, and definitely a big perk for any of the Starwood properties in Ka'anapali. ​

 

[helenk]

Great report, I can't wait to read more.

 

[nkereina]

Wednesday September 21st

Wednesday was sadly our check-out day, and it was a lot harder for me to leave the Westin and Maui than it was for me to leave Waikiki. Maui was exactly how I pictured Hawaii, and I was really into the swing of things on vacation now. But I was excited for our next stop - Kauai!

Our airport transfer was scheduled to pick us up at 11:15am for our 2pm flight. It's about a 45 minute drive to the airport. We got the breakfast buffet for the last time, and then killed some time in the lobby watching the flamingos, swans, and coy fish. The airport transfer was on time, and everything at the airport was smooth and fast. Never encountered any lines or delays.

We arrived in Kauai by 3pm, and got on the Alamo shuttle to head over to the Alamo office. This was our first experience (ever!) renting a car, so I was a little nervous about what to expect. The office was a bit understaffed which made for about a 25 minute wait in line to get the car, but we eventually got out of there and into our midsize rental - a Dodge Dart. Nothing fancy but got the job done!

Our hotel was the Kauai Marriott Resort which was literally around the corner from the airport in Lihue. We finally got there around 4:30pm, and self parking was very easy. This resort was considerably larger than the Westin Maui but as equally gorgeous! Our room was in one of the back towers, and was very spacious and updated. We were given champagne as a honeymoon gift again (we got it at the Westin too), which was a nice touch.

Some pic of the grounds...

One thing we didn't expect with Kauai - there were chicken and roosters everywhere! You could hear the roosters crowing all day every day. Pretty funny!

Once we got settled, we walked just around the corner to a little strip mall where we had dinner at JJ's Broiler. It's a very casual sports pub, but they had a nice patio on the beach we sat on. DH had chicken wings and I had a pulled pork sandwich - both were good. There was an ABC Store next door which we stopped at for water and beer. Across the street was another strip mall with a mexican restaurant and pizza place, but we never ate at either. On the Marriott property, there was a Duke's and an Italian restaurant, and it looked as though a new pizza place was under construction.

Duke's at the Kauai Marriott

We had a drink at the hotel bar after dinner, and then called it a night. The resort was pretty quiet at night, and we didn't want to venture off in the car not being familiar with the area.
​

 

[nkereina]

Thursday September 22nd

Our morning started off - can you guess where? At the breakfast buffet! This one was probably the best one yet, with the most options. After breakfast, we sat by the pool for a few hours. Around 11am, we headed back up to the room to get ready for our adventure that day - a sunset dinner cruise!

The dinner cruise's check-in time was 1:30pm in Port Allen, which was about a 30 minute drive from Lihue. It was pretty much a straight shot from our resort, so very easy to find. We got there around 12:45pm, so we got a drink at the sports bar next to Capt. Andy's Sailing Adventure's office. Around 1:45pm, our captain came for our group and walked us to the boat.

There were about 45 people on our sailing, which was on a large sailboat. I did not know what to expect with this boat ride, and by the way others were dressed, neither did they! The captain asked us all to remove our shoes and leave them at the dock before boarding. We complied, so we were barefoot the whole time which turned out to be a good thing because there was a lot of standing water around. The boat was choppier than I anticipated and I think everyone on the boat got wet at some point, especially in the front. That coupled with the salt water in the air left everyone looking pretty messy after the first hour, so I felt bad for the women in dresses!

The cruise was 4 hours long, with the first 2.5 hours going along the coast of Kauai up towards the Na Pali Coast. At one point, we slowed down and were sailing next to a school of spinner dolphins which was very cool! The views were fantastic and in between waves, we managed to get a few pics - highly recommend a camera with a cord though!

Our boat.

Dinner was served around hour 3 of the cruise, around 5:30pm. The bar was also opened at that time, and was open bar for the last hour of the cruise. The dinner was surprisingly really good - steak, asparagus, potatoes, and salad. Coconut cheesecake for dessert. As we made our way back to port, we caught the sunset.

We got back to port around 6:45pm. Overall, it was a really good cruise and value for the money. I'd definitely recommend it, but it's not good for anyone prone to motion sickness or that might have trouble getting around.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Safeway to pick up a few toiletries we were running low on as well as breakfast items for the next morning. Tomorrow would be an early one with a helicopter tour!
​

 

[alohamom]

I am really enjoying all the details! One quick question for my future reference, how much was the cabana at the Westin Maui and do you feel it was necessary? I have been there for breakfast and I know the pool deck area is kind of compact, even thought it circles most of the pool area. I have stayed a couple of times at the Hyatt down the boardwalk and always found space but I think there are more chairs are actual square footage around that pool area.

 

[nkereina]

I am really enjoying all the details! One quick question for my future reference, how much was the cabana at the Westin Maui and do you feel it was necessary? I have been there for breakfast and I know the pool deck area is kind of compact, even thought it circles most of the pool area. I have stayed a couple of times at the Hyatt down the boardwalk and always found space but I think there are more chairs are actual square footage around that pool area.

Most of the cabanas were $65 for the day and you have it all day long. You can even use it at night if you wanted to. The cabana we booked was $100 for the day, because it was a prime piece of real estate - overlooked the pool/ocean and was on a secluded little platform with no neighbors. It's the most popular one, which is why there was an upcharge. I felt it was worth the price. That being said, I didn't think it was particularly necessary for the time of year we were there. There were always pool chairs in the back row available and the pool deck never felt crowded. The adult pool deck did tend to fill up, however.

 

[cgattis]

Thanks so much for all the details! Would you mind sharing how much you paid for the Diamond Head tour? We were thinking of going on to Hanauma Bay afterward--sounds like you were too tired for that...? I might need to rethink my plan there. Plus everyone says you need to be at both places "first thing" for parking, so we might need to split those days. Love to hear your thoughts.

 

[nkereina]

Thanks so much for all the details! Would you mind sharing how much you paid for the Diamond Head tour? We were thinking of going on to Hanauma Bay afterward--sounds like you were too tired for that...? I might need to rethink my plan there. Plus everyone says you need to be at both places "first thing" for parking, so we might need to split those days. Love to hear your thoughts.

Our Diamond Head tour was about $32 per adult. The tour itself, including the hike, was about 3 hours left. We still had some gas left in the tank after the hike, and probably could have gone snorkeling if we had planned to do that. I wouldn't say we were tired, but just felt yucky and sweaty from the hike and heat. But not a problem if you were going snorkeling after!

We never did Hanauma Bay so I can't speak to the timing on that, though I have also read it fills up if you aren't there early morning. For Diamond Head, we were there by 8:45am and the lot was full. On our way down, around 10am or so, the trail was pretty congested with people coming up and it was much warmer. I think it's doable later in the day, but not as enjoyable. Plus snorkeling afterwards would be a great way to cool off!

 

[alohamom]

Most of the cabanas were $65 for the day and you have it all day long. You can even use it at night if you wanted to. The cabana we booked was $100 for the day, because it was a prime piece of real estate - overlooked the pool/ocean and was on a secluded little platform with no neighbors. It's the most popular one, which is why there was an upcharge. I felt it was worth the price. That being said, I didn't think it was particularly necessary for the time of year we were there. There were always pool chairs in the back row available and the pool deck never felt crowded. The adult pool deck did tend to fill up, however.

Excellent-thank you!

 

[nkereina]

Friday September 23rd

Friday morning in Kauai had us up bright and early for a helicopter tour! Check in time was 7am, but luckily the airport was minutes from the resort. We booked through Island Helicopters and opted to do the Jurassic Falls tour. On this tour, the helicopter lands at the falls featured in Jurassic Park. The falls are on private property and are so secluded that they can only be reached by helicopter. In addition to the landing at the falls, we also flew along the Na Pali coast and over Waimea Canyon. The tour itself was about 90 minutes, with about 15 minutes to enjoy the falls.

We really enjoyed the helicopter tour, got some beautiful pics, and it was a unique experience being that neither of us had been one before! All that said, we did find it to be overpriced. We paid just under $700 for this tour, their most expensive tour, and while it was cool for us Jurassic Park fans to see the falls, I don't think it was worth the extra cost. Had we done their standard island sightseeing tour, I think it would have been closer to under $500. This was definitely a splurge that I don't know if I'd recommend.

View from the helicopter of Norwegian's Pride of America in port on Kauai.

Jurassic Falls!

Waimea Canyon

Na Pali Coast

Our tour ended by 10am, so we headed back to the Marriott. We grabbed a quick lunch at the Beach Hut, which is a cute local shave ice/burger stand right next to the Marriott. It was super good! I had reserved a cabana by the pool, which like the Westin, was two seater lounge chair. The pool at the Marriott is gorgeous and huge, never once felt crowded. We did find the weather in Kauai noticebaly warmer and more humid, far less windy than Maui. The ocean waves also seemed more manageable here as well. In Maui, they were constantly pulling us down.

After spending the rest of the day at the pool, we stuck around the resort and had dinner at Duke's which is on Marriott property. This Duke's was considerably smaller and far less busy than the one on Waikiki. Food was good!

Overall, DH preferred the island of Kauai and I think I preferred Maui. Kauai seemed much more exotic and secluded, like we were in another country. Maui was a good mix of commercial/tourist and natural/local beauty which I think I like better. Both islands were beautiful though, and different. We had a hard time choosing between Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island when booking but were happy with our choices.​

 

[nkereina]

Saturday September 24th - Start of Aulani!

Saturday morning was our flight back to Oahu to begin our final week of our honeymoon at Aulani! Our flight back to Honolulu was at 11:30am, so we left our resort around 9am since we had to return the rental car. The car return took minutes and was much faster than we anticipated. The Kauai airport was also very small and not busy, so we were far too early!

We arrived back in Honolulu around 12:30pm and headed out to the area with the rental car shuttles to get a ride over to Alamo. A large bus for Alamo pulled up, and we were at the Alamo office in less than 5 minutes. This office was adequately staffed so our wait was minimal. After completing the paperwork, we headed outside and the lot employee informed us they were out of midsize cars so we could take any car we wanted in the full size row. That's when we stumbled on a Chevy Camaro Convertible!

Get a convertible - you won't regret it!

DH's friend who honeymooned in Hawaii a few years ago told him he HAD to get a convertible. We inquired about an upgrade before our trip, but it was nearly $200 more to upgrade at the time so we couldn't justify it. This couldn't have worked out better for us! The only downside was the lack of trunk space, which meant some luggage had to go in the back seat, but we were fine with only the two of us.

After getting the car, we headed towards Aulani and stopped at the Kapolei exit for lunch and groceries. We ate at Kua Aina Burgers which was just ok, and then went across the plaza to Target. Our room at Aulani was a standard DVC studio, so I knew we'd have access to a fridge, microwave, and toaster. We picked up easy breakfast items like pop tarts and muffins, snacks like cookies and chips, bottled water, beer, more sunscreen/toiletries, etc. Spent about $100. I had forgotten that Target does not provide plastic shopping bags, so I bought two of their resuable bags for 99 cents. They ended up coming in handy to use as garbage bags, since we did not receive daily housekeeping staying on DVC points.

Target was less than 5 minute drive to Aulani and very simple to get to. We found Aulani quite easily, and were greeted by bellmen and a lady from the online check-in desk. Our room was in the Ewa Tower, Room 564. Our view was of the conference center courtyard which we were fine with. There was a wedding there one day, and later in the week, the Secretary of Defense held a speech there! We actually preferred being on a lower floor (lobby is on 3rd floor), because it meant less time spent on elevators and we could take the stairs if need be. Higher floors have the better views, but have to contend with the elevators which moved slow at times.

Our view from Room 567 in the Ewa Tower, standard studio room.

The room itself was decorated nicely, but was definitely the smallest of the rooms we had stayed in over the course of our trip. The bathroom was spacious, however. We also found the room to be dark and being on a lower floor, we didn't get much natural light. We commented a few times how the room and hallways of Aulani reminded us of Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Standard Studio room with a queen size bed.

The first thing I did after getting settled in the room was pack up a rolling suitcase and head for the laundry room! I went down to the first floor of the Ewa Tower and was surprised to find only 3 washers - 2 were out of order, and 1 was in use. So I trucked it over to the Waianae Tower and found their laundry room. Luckily, 2 of the 3 washers were open. This was around 4pm on a Saturday, so I'm not sure if there are "busier" times for laundry, but there were always a few loads going whenever I went in there. I had brought dryer sheets and Tide pods from home, and was given free laundry tokens from the front desk due to our DVC reservation. I will say that both the washer and dryer were efficient - I checked each after about 45 minutes, and both were done!

Since we were tired from traveling and I was busy with laundry, we decided on a quick dinner across the street at Pizza Corner. We got a pizza and garlic knots - both were good, and it was an inexpensive meal. We had some leftovers that we were able to heat up for lunch the next day.

We spent the rest of the night walking around the resort to check things out. It took a while to get my bearings at Aulani - many twists and turns, pathways, etc. The map didn't really help, and I didn't want to miss anything. I made wrong turns more than once, and there were hot tubs and corners we were still discovering later on in our trip! It'd be hard to study any layout or map beforehand, but I did find it to be the toughest layout of the resorts we'd been at.
​

 

[nkereina]

Sunday September 25th

We had character breakfast reservations for our first morning at Aulani, but I could tell DH wanted to watch football which is on at 7am Hawaii time. I decided to cancel Makahiki breakfast at the last minute, and headed over to Ulu Cafe to pick us up some cinnamon rolls and malasadas. Both were good, but the malasadas are no substitute for Leonard's!

Around 9:30am we made our way to Rainbow Reef to check into the casabella rental I had booked months prior. We had reserved the upper deck casabellas in front of Ama Ama. This consisted of two sets of casabella chairs, but my main goal here was having a reserved space since I had read so many nightmares about the pool chair situation. While waiting to get checked in, I heard the CMs at Rainbow Reef explaining the pool towel/chair policy to guests receiving their wristbands for the day. They had a photo of a pool towel folded on a chair, and were showing this to guests to explain what they do. We saw a CM only once going around folding towels, but I have to say we saw ample chairs available at all the pools all throughout the day. There were always chairs available in front of Ama Ama - one day there was not a single person there. And there were several times we saw 2-4 chairs together near the zero entry pool and children's play area. And there were always tons of chairs on the beach.

As for the upper deck casabellas at Ama Ama, we were quite disappointed. First, they are WAY off the beaten path. On the very border of the resort property, in fact. And as I mentioned, no one was sitting in the standard lounge chairs in front of Ama Ama, which were in between us and the pool. This made the whole area dead and we felt like outcasts. It was also entirely shaded, which is not what we were expecting. We wanted some sun with the option of the umbrella if we wanted shade. I mentioned all this to the CMs at Rainbow Reef and they were more than willing to refund us the cost, which I was appreciative of. At $150, it just was not worth it to us. We ended up reserving a beach casabella that day, since it was our first day and we were still learning the ropes of how busy it would be. A beach casabella was $75 and not worth it, IMO. Waiter service was available for all chairs (although VERY slow/infrequent) and the cushions were nothing special. Save the money or spend it on a full fledged cabana!

View from near our beach casabella.

The casabellas have the awnings.

The lagoon was awesome, and we had picked up goggles and floats from Target to use there. We did have to buy a hand air pump from the ABC Store across the street from Aulani, because they will not inflate anything for you. I wasn't brave enough to go too far out in the lagoon, but DH did and saw some fish, coral, etc.

For dinner Sunday night, we went across the street to Monkeypod. When we were getting ready, I made a reservation on Open Table and they had any time you wanted available, so I made one for 30 minutes later. We got to Monkeypod exactly 30 minutes later, and were seated almost immediately while walk ups were being quoted a 45 minute wait. So definitely make a reservation on Open Table before you get there!

We were seated on the first floor patio and the weather was perfect. We both had the pulled pork sandwich, and I had the truffle fries while DH had the jalapeno mashed potatoes. He's still raving about the potatoes! All of it was very good, and our server explained the premise of Monkeypod is farm to table with everything locally sourced and freshly made. Helped us to appreciate it that much more. I hear Monkeypod gets mixed reviews, but we really enjoyed it.

Some photos of Aulani from the sidewalk:

​

 

[nkereina]

Monday September 26th

We decided to venture up to the North Shore today! We got up early and had breakfast in the room. Our first stop was the Dole Plantation, which was about 25 minutes from Aulani and on the way to Haleiwa.

We got there around 9:45am, shortly after they opened. We briefly browsed the gift shop and then made our way to the ticket booth to buy tickets for the train ride which were $10pp. We were informed the line for the train was only 15 minutes and would only get longer, so we decided to ride right away. It's first come first served, no set times. The train ride itself was about 20 minutes long, taking you through the fields and narration providing you with facts and history along the way. It was cute.

And of course we couldn't leave without getting a Dole Whip! We bought a few souvenirs at the store, and left around 12pm to head up to Haleiwa in the North Shore. Once we arrived, we parked and walked around to some shops in the immediate area. Eventually, we made our way to Kono's for lunch, which is a little hole in the wall QS place. We had the pulled pork bombers, and they may have been one of the best things we ate the whole trip! SO good - a great stop for a quick and inexpensive lunch.

Giovanni's famous shrimp truck!

After lunch, we took a drive to Waimea Valley. We didn't know much about it, but wished we had done more research because there was a beautiful waterfall at the end of the trail that you could swim at. We just walked around the grounds and checked everything out, but I do recommend swimming there! Looked awesome!

After, we headed back toward Haleiwa and stopped by Laniakea Beach to see if we could see any sea turtles. You'll know the beach when you see all the cars and traffic! We were lucky enough to see a turtle so it was worth the stop.

We finally made our way back to Haleiwa, and our first stop was Matsumoto's. We LOVED it. DH developed a shave ice obsession on our trip, so this was mecca for him. We each bought two t-shirts, shirts for our niece and nephew, tank tops. LOL! It was delicious. We even considered going all the way back to the North Shore another day JUST for Matsumoto's!

After, we walked around the area for a bit and got some Pineapple Margaritas at the Mexican restaurant, across from the now closed Pizza Bob's.

We were back at Aulani by 5pm or so and decided to go to Ulu Cafe for dinner. We were a little disappointed by the menu offerings, which were on the side of authentic fare. We ended up ordering the pizza they have available after 5pm which was good, and gave us lunch the next day as well.

We decided around 6:30pm to line up for the Starlit Hui, as this was the only night during our stay that it was playing. I believe it's since been discontinued so I won't spend time reviewing it, but as two adults, it just wasn't our speed. Great for kids/families though!

This day was probably one of my favorite days of the trip. I can't recommend visiting the North Shore enough - we loved the area and wished we could have spent more time there! ​

 

[pepperandchips]

Great report! I am learning lots and loving your photos!