A few weeks ago, we snuck away for a little farewell to summer trip! When we got back from Europe, we immediately had travel blues and knew we wanted to do some sort of getaway before the end of summer. We actually rode bikes to the beach one weekend and were sitting on the beach when we were saying we wanted to do another trip, I was thinking along the lines of a mini road trip or something, but then we got the bucket list out (or my little version of a bucket list on my notes app on my phone). Disney’s Aulani Resort is on the list and I said it out loud, just kinda casually, like oh what about Aulani in Hawaii? And bless this husband of mine, he goes “let’s do it.”
So one thing led to another and we started looking up dates and if they had any availability. There were two weeks end of August where my daughter’s summer camp ended and school hadn’t started yet, so essentially 2 weeks where we were without child care- i.e. meaning I was going to be working from home or taking time off anyway to be able to be home with her, SO the math mathed and we just decided to take advantage of her last week of summer and to book the trip! I’m so glad we did because it was so much fun spending time with each other and just having that extra family time before my daughter starts Kindergarten! So here’s the trip breakdown!
Trip Length: We booked 5 days at the Aulani Resort! Check in Wednesday, August 26th- check out Sunday, August 30th. Our flight left out of Long Beach Airport at 7:25 am, and landed at 10:18 am Hawaii time (that time change is really great going out there, not so great when you’re coming home lol).
Day I
After landing, we got a rental car and drove straight to a local breakfast spot that had great reviews. I got a breakfast burrito that was out of this world. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place, but it wasn’t too far from the airport- and actually- thank you phone, is located in the Moanalua Shopping Center.
Then we drove straight to the hotel to check in. It was around 1 pm when we finally got to the resort. We got to our room, changed into swimsuits and then went straight to the beach! We got some beach chairs and spent basically the entire first day in the water. At the resort, you can get boogie boards for kids for free, my daughter loved boogie boarding!
Not far from the shore, they have a snack shack that serves dole whip (Little ‘Ōpihi’s – Beachside Kiosk)! I got a pineapple, vanilla swirl dole whip, which was AMAZING and my husband and kids got some Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches! After reapplying sunscreen, we switched up the views and hit the lazy river! We literally stayed in the river and sliding down the water slide till 6 pm, when we finally decided we should head up to the room to get ready for dinner.
I plan on writing an entire Aulani Review post shortly, so I’ll keep everything brief here, but the Aulani has a few different options for food. Night one we went to their casual Off the Hook restaurant, it is poolside and we just sat out on the patio for dinner- I ordered their lobster roll and it was so so so good! I love lobster but am always hesitant of where I’m ordering it from, but at Off the Hook, it was delicious!
After dinner, we went shopping in the gift shop, you know my daughter and I just had to get some exclusive Aulani Mickey ears! Then it was off to the room to shower and get in bed. I think I mentioned this in previous trip posts, but every night we usually end by laying in bed all together to watch a movie to wind down from the day. It’s one of my favorite little vacation traditions!
Day II
We were up bright and early for day 2! Hawaii is 3 hours behind our time in California. So my kids were up at 5:30 am Hawaii time, and they were definitely hungry and ready to rock! The cafes and everything open at 6 am and the pools don’t open till 8 am so we had some time to kill. We grabbed breakfast to-go from Off the Hook once it opened, I also grabbed their famous “Aulani Special” iced coffee- a macadamia nut flavored coffee which was super good! Then we grabbed some pool chairs to sit and eat on. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones out so early lol, we saw a lot of moms/dads out saving beach chairs super early! It was wild. But necessary, because the beach/pool chairs do get snagged quickly! Especially the ones in the shade. Because the pool wasn’t open yet, we went to the beach and ended up just enjoying some time in the sand, a little mini rain storm came threw, like literally one cloud and it was really like a misting that happened, and it was so cool because it passed by fairly quickly and then we got to see a big beautiful rainbow over the ocean!
When it was finally about 8 am, we walked back to the pool- every morning, you have to check in to one of their pool cabanas to get a resort wrist band (different color each day) and then you can ask for towels when they check you in. This was kinda exciting for our daughter who every morning made a bet on what color wrist band we’d end up with that day.
With our towels in tow, we grabbed some pool chairs to rest our things and immediately got in the water! The Aulani has multiple pools, some with slides, a lazy river, and then of course a few that are 18 years + only. The most beautiful pool has this gorgeous mermaid cove theme that was so fun for my daughter and I to swim around in. I’ll never forget the sound of her asking me to play mermaids with her and then telling me what color her fin was and asking what color fin I wanted to have 🙂 core memory for me definitely.
At the Aulani, they have something called Aunty’s Beach House, which is a kids club where you can drop your kids (ages 4-12) off for supervised activities throughout the day. You do need to make a reservation on the app and some activities do require additional fees. They had a fun little paint your own board craft that my daughter wanted to do, so we signed her up for it- unknowing at the time that it was kids only lol, so when we checked in, they told us to come back in an hour to pick her up- of course they took our phone numbers if she wanted to leave early, but she stayed the whole time and had SO much fun, she couldn’t stop talking about it when we picked her up. She painted a little wooden turtle and watched Disney movies as she did it. It was so cute, now her little wooden turtle is in her bathroom at home!
We spent the entire day between the beach and the pool and lazy river. They even have a splash pad/jungle gym area where kids can run around and go down water slides that aren’t connected to a pool space but rather soft, spongy ground. My daughter loved that! While she was running around in that area, we ordered lunch to our pool chairs and my son, daughter, and husband all shared a pepperoni pizza, I got the BEST poke nachos everr!!!
Day II we had booked the Luau at the resort, so at around 2 pm, I took my son upstairs for a nap while my husband and daughter stayed behind at the pool. I wanted him to get a good nap in because the luau started at 5:30 pm and went till 9:30pm, and with that 5:30 am wake up call, I knew it was going to feel like a long day! So I got us upstairs and down for a nap, which was nice for me too because it allowed me to shower and get ready for the luau in peace, which as a mom, is SO rare!
My daughter and husband came up around 3:45 pm and showered and then we booked my daughter a little Hawaii makeover at their Painted Sky: HI Style Studio for 4:30pm! They have a little studio set up for kids ages 3-12 where they do Hawaiian hairstyles and makeup for kids! It was basically the island version of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Disneyland! They did even sell a few princess dresses and crowns. Because we already had our outfits, we just booked her the hair and makeup portion! She got the cutest little Hawaiian braids that we ended up keeping in until the day we left to come home.
Then it was off to the luau!!! If you’re going to the Aulani, 100000% you have to make sure you book the luau!!!! It was such an amazing experience!!! My kids loved it and were so immersed in the performance! Before dinner and the show they have different activities to do- temporary tattoos, ukulele lessons, plumeria bracelet making, and taro root pounding! It was so much fun, I’d been to a luau before on Hawaii as a kid and this one was a million times better! Definitely do not miss doing the luau at Aulani! It’s also so cute because in the middle of the performance, Mickey & Minnie even come out!
At the end of the luau you can even meet with and take pictures with some of the performers! After, we went back to the room for bed before day 3!
Day III
The luau ended around 9:30 pm, so we had a little bit later of a night and definitely slept in because of it. BUT we were still up and down at the coffee bar by 9 am! They had 2 seasonal drinks on their coffee menu- a toasted coconut iced coffee and then a banana bread iced coffee. For day III, I tried the toasted coconut, which was pretty good but I didn’t like the texture of the added coconut shavings, next time, I’d probably ask for the coffee without! But it was still pretty good, a much lighter coffee than their Aulani special flavor!
The Aulani has a snorkeling area called Rainbow Reef where you can snorkel with fish! It is a man-made lagoon, so it is definitely much cooler than the normal pools. You can buy a length of stay pass or a day pass- the day pass is $30 for guests 12y/o+ and then $25 for children 11y/o and younger. Before purchasing, if you have a little one, they actually recommend that you take your child to the reef to let them touch the water before purchasing your pass, the passes are non-refundable and non-transferable. We took my daughter to feel the water first and she said she thought it would be okay, so we ended up purchasing her and I day passes!
Once we signed waivers, we were given the snorkel and life vest- everyone is required to wear a life vest while in the reef. Once we got in, my daughter ended up feeling a little scared of the fish, so one of the workers actually pulled us out of the water to let her feed the fish and “make friends” with them before going in. It was so sweet, they even let my son feed the fish as well. After feeding the fish, she was feeling a little more confident, so we got back in the water and started swimming to the deeper area of the reef. She braved her fears for a little bit but didn’t really like the idea of the fish swimming all around her, and I wasn’t allowed to hold her in the pool, aside from holding her hand. So I quickly ended up swimming her back to the shore area, getting her out and passing her off to dad before I went back in to keep snorkeling!
Afterwards, we went back to hunt for a beach chair and got some of the famous Mickey Mouse shaved ice! It was SO good and they put vanilla ice cream underneath it which is really just genius and now I don’t think I’ll ever have Hawaiian shaved ice without it.
We spent the remainder of the day between the pool and the lazy river, stopping for ice cream sandwiches here and there. We finally got out for lunch around 3 pm and just went to Off the Hook for a casual lunch by the pool, then it was straight back to the pool and water slides!
The main pool has two water slides: one where you go down on a floatie or a double floatie, and then one where you go down solo. My husband did the solo one and said it was pretty fast and very dark (it’s throughout the volcanic structure so it’s basically “indoors” the whole time), I opted not to try it and we didn’t have my daughter do it either. We stuck with the floatie slide- doing a double floatie with one of us with my daughter and one with my son, this particular slide drops you off in the lazy river, which was our favorite area anyway!
My son ended up taking a little pool nap on my chest (my favorite) from like 5-6 pm while my daughter and husband kept swimming. When he woke up, we went back up to the hotel room to get ready for dinner. The Aulani has two really nice restaurants, one being Ama Ama, which we actually had a reservation too, BUT after looking at the menu, we did not feel like spending $57 for my daughter to eat mac & cheese (no offense lol). The menu is a pre-set 3 course meal for kids // 4 course meal for adults, maybe once my kids are older, we’ll make it a point to eat here.
So after watching the sunset at the beach (stunning), we ended up driving across the street, not to far from the hotel, to eat at a Mexican restaurant- which while definitely not as good as our food in California, was pretty good considering. And my kids loved their bean and cheese burritos that did not cost $57 lol.
DAY IV
So we originally did not plan on getting a rental car and were just going to stay at the resort the entirety of our trip, BUT my husband did all the math and getting an Uber to and from the hotel was going to cost more than just renting our own car. SO we just decided to get a rental and I’m so glad we did because Day IV, we decided to go on a little North Shore adventure!
If you do go to the Aulani, depending on how many days you’re staying, I definitely believe you can get away with staying at the resort the entire time, they have enough activities going on for sure. For us, since we had the car, we decided we wanted to go for a little adventure and headed to North Shore!
While we were driving to one of the beaches where it was said there are usually turtles (Turtle Bay), I started to look up some things that were along the way. I came across Waimea Valley, a cultural and natural landmark where you can walk (or pay for a tram) to a waterfall where you can even get in and swim! We decided to go after going to Turtle Bay. Turtle Bay was a short lived excursion because there was not a single turtle in sight lol. So we literally walked straight back to the car.
When we got to Waimea Valley, we paid the tram fair, which was $10 per person each way (the kids were free) and they dropped us off just a short walk to the waterfall itself. There are life guards on duty and you are required to wear a life vest before getting in the water. They also have a section roped off and told us before we got our jackets to stay away from the roped off area because the current from the waterfall is very strong and sucks people into the rock, so trust me when I say we definitely stayed FAR away from that rope to say the least.
After swimming for awhile, we rinsed off in the shower they had nearby and then drove to the Haleʻiwa Town Center to shop, grab some lunch, and then get some famous Hawaiian shaved ice from Matsumoto Shave Ice. We ate at Teddy’s Bigger Burgers, and it was so good! After shopping and getting our shaved ice, we drove back to the hotel.
It was about 4 pm when we got back, we changed into different swimsuits and then immediately jumped in the lazy river! This day my husband booked my daughter and I the “make your own Mickey ears” activity at 6:30 pm, which was located in one of their activity rooms just right off the pool. This was nice because we were able to stay in our swimsuits and just casually head over when it was time.
The activity you do have to reserve on the app and then you pay when you get there. They had a few options for us to choose from- you can choose light up ears($37) or non-light up ears ($27) and then you pick 5 items to decorate your ears with: some are wooden symbols like surf boards, turtles, etc, plumeria flowers of different colors, and then of course bows of different colors!
My daughter and I had so much fun making the ears!
Afterwards, we went up to the room and showered and changed. It was a little after 7 pm at this point and my husband was craving a teppan dinner so he looked up a place not too far away and we drove to dinner! We both forgot the name of the place (sorry), but we were basically the only ones there! We got in right before they were closing and it was SO good!
Once we got back to our room, it was close to 10 pm, we got the kids in their pjs and let them watch a movie in bed while we packed. Our flight home left Hawaii at 12:10 pm, so we packed everything up and then went to bed.
DAY V
We got up around 7 am Hawaii time, so we walked to a nearby cafe for breakfast (Eggs ‘n Things a block away from the hotel), I had macadamia nut pancakes that were the best pancakes I’ve ever had. They were so good. Then we walked to a nearby beach to try to find some turtles (fail lol) but we did get one last rainbow over the ocean on our last day!
We walked back to the hotel to get one last banana bread iced latte for me and to get our pool wristbands, we weren’t planning on swimming before leaving but guessing the wristband color became such a thing for our daughter that we had to check in to get one last wristband!
Then we checked out, loaded up our rental car and head to the airport!
I’ll do a full Aulani review with the different activities available but 1000000/10 we loved it! We definitely already want to try to go back this next summer. It was just so much fun and so easy- that’s the thing about Disney vacations, like say what you want about how expensive it is or whatever but it’s guaranteed to be a great time for everyone, safe for everyone, and you know the quality is top tier. I’d rather pay a little extra for the peace of mind for that alone.
