It's My Turn to Press the Button- Aulani with Preschoolers June 2015

AZMermaid

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Aloha! We are back from our first vacation to Aulani in Hawaii. All I can say is WOW!!! Ok. That's not all I can say. If that was all I had to say, why would any of us be reading this? In preparing for this trip, I read any trip report I could find, especially those with young kids. I thought I would return the favor and write my own. This is my first ever trip report, so I am open to tips, compliments and complaints! So, who are we? We are DVC owners from Arizona. Aulani is our home resort, but we wanted our kids to be at least 3 so they could use Aunty's Beach House and we could get away from them, I mean, enjoy some time to ourselves. Traveling are:

Myself- 34, Disney nut
DH- 35, sports nut turned Disney enthusiast, big "collector" of various things
Matt- 4.5, energetic, easy going, enthusiastic
Kate- 3, passionate, funny, a girl who knows what she wants NOW

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(not at Aulani- ha ha)

I have been loosely planning this trip for about two years but really started planning around a year ago. The plan is:
Friday May 29- 8:00AM flight, arrive 12:00, rental car, Rainbow Drive In, Safeway, arrive at resort
Saturday May 30- Beach day, Character Breakfast
Sunday May 31- Cabana at Mehuehne Bridge
Monday June 1- North Shore tide pools, Dole Plantation, Waimea Valley waterfall
Tuesday June 2- Resort/ beach
Wednesday June 3- Cabana day (maybe), kids Surf's Up with Chip and Dale, us Ama Ama
Thursday June 4- Resort Day, Starlit Hui
Friday June 5- Home- wahhhhh!!
 
Book marks Here (assuming I can figure that out)

Side note, I am using photobucket for the pictures, but did I read somewhere there is another easier way to do that?
 
So, we had been talking about this trip for probably too long. Every time my three year old sees a lot of palm trees she says "Look Mommy, it's Hawaii!" Um. No. We have to fly across the ocean, This happens at least twice a day for months. So, we are all excited. At about 30 days out, we made a little countdown chain and every day the kids take turn pulling off a chain. They were pretty good at taking turns and remembering whose turn it was, which is good, because I always forget. Finally... the day arrives! We have no more chains- woot!!!
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We flew on Hawaiian Airlines. We generally fly US Airways for the miles, but we also usually sit 2 and 2 with the kids on the window and us in the middle. We didn't really want to be in the middle for 6 hours, corralling our kids next to a poor unfortunate stranger. So, when Hawaiian popped up cheaper and the seating configuration is 2-3-2 AND we get free meals, well, sign us up! This worked out way better, although I am still lamenting the loss of frequent flier miles which we are saving for WDW in a few years. Hawaiian also rents out portable tablets (iPad minis) for people to use for the flight. We planned to load up our own iPads with stuff for the kids and then watch stuff ourselves on their iPads. I bought the kids some new coloring books and cheapy toys to occupy them. I didn't want them to watch TV for 6 hours, but really, push comes to shove, I would let them. Plane rules- if it keeps them from freaking out, it's all good. Actually they are both good travelers, so I was cautiously optimistic.

We packed the night before and DH and I woke up around 4:45. Matt woke up around 5:00 and got himself dressed and his morning milk. He was ready to go by 5:03. Kate was not as chipper but after her milk, she realized it was Hawaii day and perked up. She started dancing around the house singing "We're going to Hawaii." We wanted to leave between 5:30-5:45, so we were pretty stoked when we left at 5:33! A minute or so down the road, we realized we didn't have Matt's sunglasses, but decided he could survive and kept going. Another few minutes, DH asks me if I grabbed my iPad. Uh. No- you are the electronics guy. Oops. We turn around to get it and I quickly looked for the sunglasses but couldn't find them. Now it's 5:47 and we are officially on the road to the airport. We got there around 6:10. We decided to just park at the airport because traveling with young kids is hard enough. If you prepay, you save 40% which makes it only like $30 more for the week than short term parking, so we decided that was worth it, especially since we would be getting back after 10PM.

Check in was a little hectic trying to keep the kids contained and get everything weighed and checked, but soon enough we were through security and at the gate. We were given TSA pre-check tickets both ways, which was nice but I am not sure why. At the gate, DH got in the LONG line at the counter. I was freaking out that we wouldn't get the tablets and be forced to read books on the flight! But, although the line was long and slow, no-one was in it for the tablets and we had no problems renting two.After that, DH went to Starbucks. I am a teacher so I get lots of Starbucks gift cards but I don't really drink coffee. So we tend to save them for vacations. The line was crazy here too. I took the kids to the bathroom and put Katie in her pull-up. She is fully potty trained while awake, but I was planning on her napping and I wanted her protected for nap. DH came back from Starbucks with 3 danishes, 2 coffees, 2 chocolate milks. He looked confused and said all that was only $13. He realized he didn't get charged for the coffees, but the line was way too crazy and we were getting ready to board so we just went with it. Matt and Kate were over the moon at the prospect of chocolate milk. I am not a health nut, I wish I was, I'm just not. My kids have had more than a few chicken nuggets in their time. But for some reason, chocolate milk is where I draw my line. They only get it in airports and on vacation. Matt has been talking about his airport chocolate milk for weeks. Boarding with two kids, 4 backpacks, 3 suitcases (one of which looks like a treasure chest from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) a bag and adding a tray full of drinks to the mix was nuts, but nothing spilled and we all sat down. My kids fight over who gets to sit next to Mommy every chance they get (poor Daddy) so we already decided I would sit with Kate the way there and Matt the way back. I am glad we settled this ahead of time- it saved some tears! We were on our way!!

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I forgot to warn you, my kids, especially Kate, might be the worst picture takers ever. They hardly ever look at the camera!


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So, we are now 3 minutes into the flight and Kate has asked me for the iPad about 612 times. I told her she needs to wait for the "ding ding." I know she doesn't really, but I wanted her to. She is obsessed with watching this guy open Easter Eggs on You Tube. I had already warned her it was not going to work on the plane but I was grimacing waiting for that reality to set in. At some point, the plane dinged and she settled in to watch Finding Nemo. I told her after Nemo she needed to play a bit. I have no idea what the boys were doing, but I didn't hear anything from them, so I guess all was good. At some point Matt watched Planes: Fire and Rescue. After about 45 minutes, they delivered our tablets. I took notes as to what was on them because this is apparently a well guarded secret. Beforehand, I looked and looked as to what was on these things to decide if it was worth my $15. Was it good stuff, or reruns of the Brady Bunch and movies from 2003? Well- mystery uncovered! For Movies the choices were:

Zero Dark Thirty
The Ride
Imitation Game
Future Perfect
some Japanese choices
Descipable Me 2
Robots
Frozen
Into the Woods
Man of Steel
Taken 2 and 3
Hobbit
Pitch Perfect
The Heat
Horrible Bosses 2

TV shows- a few episodes of:
Doc McStuffins
Girl Meets World
Glee
How I Met Your Mother
Hawaii 5-O
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Mickey Mouse shorts
NCIS
The New Girl
Phineas and Ferb
Big Bang Theory
Simpsons

I was hoping Pitch Perfect was one of the choices so I was happy. I hadn't seen it yet and heard it was pretty funny. It was but our breakfast came and I have to help Katie and then she started playing with her toys and talking to me a lot. I know, the nerve. So, broken up into 20 minute segments, it lost something, but it was still good. I wanted to watch Into the Woods, but realized I wouldn't have time, so I watched a few Big Bang Theories instead. They pick up the tablets about 45 minutes from landing. DH watched Despicable Me 2 and some Big Bang Theories as well. We both enjoyed the tablets and thought they were worth the money.

Breakfast was a fruit plate that was pretty good and we all ate most of it. The kids didn't eat the melons. It also had cheese, some crackers, and a chocolate covered Macadamia nut. That little cup thing was water, which was weird because they offered juice and water at the same time. One nice thing was they poured the water right into the kids' water bottles which I appreciated. Kate played with her butterfly cracker for a good 20 minutes, but then never ate it. She was highly impressed that it was shaped like a butterfly.

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After that, I told her it was time to nap, which she agreed to, but then never did. So after 20 minutes or so of trying to nap, I let her get up. I bought her a Tinkerbell magnet dress up game at a garage sale and saved it for the plane which passed some time. At the one hour mark, they brought us some chips which Katie wouldn't eat and she started getting antsy. She talked like a Robot for a while and then wanted to color. Upon coloring, she got very upset that she could not write her name. Ugh!!! So.... I went to the dark side and went for the sure thing- Dora? That was a hit and held us over until we landed. All in all, the flight was pretty smooth and easy, even if no-one napped.
 
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After we landed and waited for the luggage and all that fun stuff, we had to wait for the rental car van. I had rented a full size car for a week through Costco for $168 which I thought was a good deal. I started at $229 and rebooked every time the rate dropped. Right as we walked out, we saw the Avis van pull away- doh! There was a sea of humanity waiting for the rental shuttles. There was no line or signs for the various companies and it was every man for himself. I was a little nervous the kids would a) get pushed off into the street or b) get left behind. I told DH he needed to be the aggressive one and I would protect the kids and stay back. About 10 minutes later, another Avis van came around and DH did a good job waving him down in front of us. We got on and were happy to be out of that craziness. Then we started moving. One foot at a time. It was awful!! It took about 30 minutes to get to Avis which was like a mile away. We chatted with a friendly couple and looked at Hawaii, which thus far, looked like an airport. When we got to Avis, we tipped the driver. I don't always tip shuttle drivers (I am always sort of unsure of the protocol here), but he stopped right by us and we had a ton of stuff. DH tends to run off without us when we travel. He used to travel a lot for work and tends to get tunnel vision and forget us. So, I reminded him on the bus to let everyone else off first since we are slow. Prevention :rolleyes1 So, of course, the line inside was pretty long. The kids and I waited outside and I fed them some goldfish I had brought for the flight and never used.

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The wait wasn't awful, maybe 20 minutes and DH was on the way out with keys to our new to us for the week VW Passat. At first, I was like what? This is NOT a full size car. It was like 4 inches shorter than the Altima next to it, but he said it was all they had. Which again, we passed like 4 Altimas in the lot. In the end, it had a huge trunk and worked out well, so I huffed and puffed for nothing.

Our original plan was to go to Rainbow Drive In for lunch. My husband is a big fan of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and this place was on there. I had read about reports of theft around the island and I was extremely nervous to leave all of our stuff in the car, especially since a few things had to go in the back seat. Add that to being tired and wanting to head in the right direction, we scrapped this plan and drove straight to Safeway. Once we got there, the kids were whiney and tired and I realized we needed food. It was 2:00 in Hawaii, which is 5:00 back home and we hadn't eaten since the fruit plate on the plane at like 10:00 AZ time. So, when in Hawaii.... we need something authentic. To Kentucky.
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Yep, we ended up at KFC. What can I say, it was in the same lot as Safeway. We also rarely eat there at home, so it was kind of new to us- ha ha!. I didn't take any food pics here, but imagine the two piece meal with mashed potatoes. This was a good decision as our moods all improved after a little lunch. We went into Safeway and the kids were floored that it looked just like the one at home! We planned on eating 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 4 dinners in the room. We bought the necessities for that and some snacks, soda, and beer which all came to $178. That felt like a lot until I realized it broke down to $10+ a meal (factoring out the drinks). We almost bought these- but then decided that was too much work for vacation breakfast! DH was also happy to find our Just For You deals also worked in Hawaii. I was relieved to find our car didn't get broken into while we shopped!

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Now, we are finally on our way to Aulani!! The kids were a little smooshed by groceries, but I told them to deal with it! Side note, Kate is still in a 5 point harness Britax at home, but I bought this high back booster for the trip because it was way easier to travel with two high back boosters. Other side note, I swear I took pics of Matt, I think...

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I took some pics as we approached. It was very exciting to see it get closer and closer! It's way off in the distance in that first pic. Squint. You'll see it!

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Blurry- but we stop for no picture!

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We made it!!!!
 
I need more! What did your boy think of the resort. I have a five year old son, so I'll be taking notes on Matt.
 


Awesome so far-I feel like I am on the trip with all of you!

Thank you!

I need more! What did your boy think of the resort. I have a five year old son, so I'll be taking notes on Matt.

Thank you. He LOVED it. I really can't think of anything he didn't like. Maybe the shaved ice. They both loved everything. I will preview that this will be a mostly puppies and roses Trip Report. We had such a good overall experience.
 
We arrived just after 3:00! We pulled up and were greeted and directed where to pull in. We got out and they asked us if we had checked in online and we had. We were wisked to a little stand outside the lobby. I was given a lei, DH was given a nut necklace and the kids were given Menuhuene necklaces. They did not explain the Menehuene to them and this pat felt a little rushed. Kate seemed like she was going to cry that she wanted a lei too so I quickly ripped open her necklace to satisfy her. I think they were explaining how the cards worked or where our room was as I was doing this. Of course, I had to take a picture of the Mickey Head lemon water.
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I also tried to get a picture of the kids looking excited to be there. This was the best I got.

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After this we were whisked into the lobby and Matt was now whining that he wanted his necklace open. I should add the necklaces were the kind you have to clasp, so no throwing it over their heads to keep them quiet. The Cast Memeber that walked us in was trying to tell us about the lobby and things to do there and things not to miss. I missed every thing struggling with the dumb necklace. But, I had read a million things about Aulani so I figured we were good. The lobby is beautiful. I didn't really get to appreciate it that day, but later I realized how beautiful it is. The open air makes it just so relaxing and tropical. Oh yeah, as we walked into the lobby, this Hawaiian song that we have heard in a bunch of You Tube videos was playing. Both kids instantly recognized it and turned to me and said, Hawaii! DH took the car to park it and I took the kids to our room. To get there we had to go on the elevator and hence the name of my trip report. Here begins the epic battle of who gets to press the elevator buttons. I could never remember whose turn it was and half the time this encounter ended with someone in tears- maybe me, silently in my pillow at night.

We had room 412 which was a 1 bedroom Pool view room. I had requested either the 4th or 5th floor (the highest pool view floors). We were right off the elevator in the Wainae tower. If you think of the lobby as the front and the beach as the back, our room was in the front corner. We were happy with the room and location, but in hindsight we agreed the Ewa tower would have been better. The Wainae tower is close to Ulu Cafe, the main eating spot, but we cooked a lot and didn't need that. The Ewa tower was where Aunty's and the Community Hall was and the pool access was easier from that side. It wasn't awful being in the other tower, just less convenient. Here are some room pics:

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The bellman, Mike, came super fast- before DH was back even. He was very friendly and the kids bugged him with their new wallets and their tricks and he was really enthusiastic with them and friendly to us. This was the first of many wonderful CM experiences. I got an online survey yesterday and I am so glad I was able to recall his name for the survey! We unpacked and rested for about 30 minutes. It was after 4:00 by this time. At home, our kids have a 7:00 bedtime. It is now 7:00 AZ time and no-one napped today. They were starting to show their tiredness so we decided we should go explore and look around. Both kids wanted to bring their wallets (these were new this trip). I convinced them to just bring a few coins. We had seen a fountain outside the lobby that people were throwing coins into. That made them happy and we were off after I preheated the oven, hoping not to burn down the resort. We walked past the Koi ponds which Kate loved throughout the whole trip. We stopped at the fountains so the kids could wish their coins away. We basically took a circle tour of the resort, which was a good idea in hindsight. We got the lay of the land before we were on our way somewhere in particular.

Notice, Kate has changed her necklace and Matt is not wearing his. Those necklaces were worn for 30 minutes that first day and then never again.
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No, there was no-one else taking a picture. No idea what they are looking at.

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We stopped off at Aunty's and registered the kids. I had done the paperwork online so this just took a few minutes. The kids were given these bands that looked like Mickey Bands that they wore the whole time. They did not come off, although maybe we could have asked. We were charged $27.11 for them and told to save our receipt and we could return them the last day. She also reccomended we be in line by 7:00AM to sign up for any classes, but only one person has to be there to sign up.

Now we were walking past the pools and Kate went from whining that she wanted to swim to asking if it was "night-night time." We were determined to have them stay up until 7:00, but that was 10:00 AZ time. For kids who never stay up later than 7:30, this was rough! We came back to the room and cooked the pork tenderloin we bought. We have these at home and know you just put them in the oven. Well, just like at home, the first time, they were not done and we had to put them back in. The kids played and watched Disney Jr while we cooked. We also used the rice maker for rice and had raspberries. I had stashed away a few soy sauce packets over the few weeks before the trip. I brought those with us to use with the rice. The kids ate surprisingly well since this is not their favorite meal at home.

This is what I call the vampire picture...
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After dinner, we still had an hour to go. Eek! The kids played on the balcony while I finished unpacking and setting up the beds. The kids came in and were all over everything- me, the luggage, the beds etc. DH was outside on the balcony still playing on his phone. At this point, I had a bit of a Mommy tantrum. I was unpacking everything and the kids were all over me! I was DONE!!! To be fair, DH had unpacked a lot before our walk, but that was not the point! Anyway... after that, DH took the kids outside with him, which was great, except now I really had no help. I did it alone to prove my point (to who, who knows). Matt slept in the couch bed and Kate in the bed under the TV. We thought it would go the other way, but that was how they wanted it, so whatever.

I got the kids ready to bed while DH went down to get the Daily Iwa (schedule) for the following day. The kids fell asleep easily at 7:00 and I was out by 8:00.

Tomorrow- Character Breakfast and the Beach!
 
Can't wait to read more, heading to Aulani in Sept.
The kids are adorable.
Understand completely about the elevator fight, my grandkids (6,5) have major battles over it every time we have to use one.....LOLOLOLOL
You can't ever make them both happy..........
 
Following along! I can't wait to visit Aulani, but with a 4.5 yo and 20 mo old I'm going to wait another year or two!
 
Loving your report! Haha, brings back so many memories of when my kids were little, fighting over elevator buttons, etc! Hoping we can get to Aulani in a few years! Something to plan for! Can't wait to read the rest of your report!
 
We are here now. We arrived on Wednesday. Wow is about how I would describe Aulani as well. Can't wait to see more pictures. These reports are what helps everyone so much with their planning. Everyone is so helpful.
 
It has been a super busy week with Kate's dance recital. But that is over and I am back! Fun Disney news this week. I got an email from Prize Fulfillment. I enter a fair amount of contests, but it was from The Disney Movie Rewards 101 Dalmatians London trip! I won.............. a free Dalmatian plush. Oh well, it's something! Anyway, back to Aulani.

This was our first real day and I had read a lot of people's kids have trouble with the time change. From Arizona, there was a 3 hour time difference. My kids generally wake up at 6:00 at home and I was NOT looking forward to the possibility of them waking up at 3:00. When Matt was a toddler, we went through a 6 month stint where he woke up at 4:30/4:45. Kate was a baby (they are 17 months apart- oh boy that is rough) and it was pretty brutal. Luckily, my DH is wonderful and got up woth him. After a while, he got older and we decided enough was enough and bought this clock. The idea is at the pre-set time, bunny wakes up and the child knows it is okay to get up. We slowly set it back 5 minutes at a time, and that is how we now have the 6:00 wake up time. It worked well (although sometimes he comes in and complains that Bunny is not waking up). We have since got Kate one as well. As a last minute addition, I threw the bunny clock in the suitcase. The first morning I set it for 5:30 figuring we could live with that. Well, Kate cried out in her sleep at 12:30, 2:00 and 3:00 waking me up, but not DH of course. She does this at home and it is like a 20 second cry in her sleep, just enough to wake me up. At 4:30, I heard Matt go to the bathroom, but he went back to bed until bunny woke up at 5:30. Of course, I hardly slept after 4:30, but I laid in bed until 6:00. DH got up with the kids and turned on Disney Jr for them. I took my first shower in the rain shower. OMG, this was heavenly. I told DH we need one at home. He and I seem to have different definitions of "need." I sported the Aulani robe for a while and it is as nice as everyone says. This was the only day I wore it though. As soft as it was, I got really hot. We had 8:15AM reservations for Aunty's Breakfast Celebration today, so we had a snack to tide us over- Kate had an apple, Matt- yogurt, me and DH- cereal bar. Here is the Iwa for the day:
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I went down to Aunty's at 7:00AM and was about 15th in line to sign up for the activities. I had heard great things about Stitch's Space Goo, so I knew I wanted to do that at 3:00 and I thought Kate would like the 12:30 Keiki Hula. I chatted in line with a few people and the time passed quickly. At 7:25, a few CMS came out and handed out clipboards and explained the process. One CM also went down the line with the paperwork if people had not signed their kids up for Aunty's yet. Basically, at 7:30, a CM comes down the line with a little case of tickets. You tell her what programs you want and she hands you the tickets. You fill out your child(ren)'s names and room number and hand them back in when they come back down the line a few minutes later. If you want dinner or lunch, you have to stay in the line until 8:00 to pay for the meals (they are $8). It was very Best Buy on a Black Friday without the pushing and trampling. It was pretty straight forward and I was done by 7:50 and got both programs. There were about 40 people behind me in line. I went back to the room and met up with everyone. We set down to breakfast, of course arguing about the elevator on the way.

We got to Aunty's right at 8:15 and checked in quickly. As we were checking in, I saw Aunty leading a parade and was worried we missed it. We seem to have bad luck with character meals (Minne and Friends, I am looking at you), so I was hoping this would be our day! We were led to a short line for Mickey and waited about 5 minutes to see him. My kids were super excited to see him and Matt was a little bit obnoxious with his jumping and rough hugging. They have Photopas people taking your pictures but these are aonly available to buy separately. They were using everyone's personal cameras too and I felt like the ones on our camera were good enough.
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After this, we went in and rechecked in and were seated to wait for a table. This took five minutes or so and the kids were starting to melt down. It was 11:30 AZ time and they had hardly eaten. As we were seated (behind a pole- thinking, uh oh... character meal disaster impending) I was trying to settle Kate down promising her food quickly. The characters were nowhere near us, so I went to get the kids their food. I got them Mickey waffles, chocolate chip pancakes, strawberries, blueberries and sausage. I just went to the kids part and the fruit part and was frantically putting things on their plates! I liked that the kids part was in line with the main part so it wasn't a trek to get the kid friendly stuff like it often is. After I sprinted their food to them and frantically cut up Kate's waffles, I was able to return and get my own meal. On this first run, I got the Pork Hash (YUM!), pancakes, strawberries, portugese sausgae, pineapple and I figured while in Hawaii.... I got the Loco Moco, which was basically an egg on some meat. It was okay. It didn't taste bad, it just wasn't my style.

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DH went up and got his food. I have no idea what he ate, but he was happy they had Guava juice and drank that stuff right up. We did comment later about how excellent all the food was. They had a large Asian selection as well. As we are eating, no characters are coming over and we are starting to get nervous that we are in a bad spot. I assured DH they probably purposely don't sit you right where the characters are so you can eat first. We are fast eaters, so we just need to slow down. The kids were obviously famished and ate all their food. We went back up and got them more berries and waffles. We decided the key to getting your money's worth at a Disney breakfast is starving your children to the point of mutiny ahead of time! Sure enough, the characters started coming. First Goofy tried to eat Kate

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In the rush to eat... I forgot to talk to Matt about proper character etiquette. I remembered after this encounter.

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Apparently, Goofy didn't mind and he remembered he and I have that "special" bond.

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Aunty started to lead another parade and we didn't get picked. There was a large table with a ton of kids and it was basically just that table. But, when they got to the front, they did a little music dance and I saw they had extra instruments so I led Kate to the front. Matt wasn't interested. She clapped some coconut shells and danced with Minne and the kids, she loved this!

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After the parade and show, which are about 10 minutes or so, Minne came over to our table. My Minnie loving girl was in heaven!

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I took the kids to the bathroom while DH waited for the bill. In the bathroom, Kate wanted privacy, so I tried to help her with her shorts (under her dress) and she freaked out yelling I can do it myself. So, I shut the door and held it and she just screamed and cried. Every time I offered to help her, she insisted on doing it herself, yet she was doing NOTHING. It was super frustrating and embarrassing. I finally just pulled down her bottoms and plopped her on the toilet. Now she is all upset and won't go. Ugh!!! Finally she calmed down and went to the restroom and we washed up. I had a hard time with the sinks at Aulani. I am not sure if they didn't work well or I didn't have the magic touch, but all over the resort, I could not get sinks to turn on. We finally made our way back to DH to find out we just missed another parade. Boo. I guess the parade was not meant to be. I tried to get a picture of the kids before we left.In the end, we had a great time and thought we got our money's worth out of the breakfast.

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Next up- Morning at the beach!
 
Hi! :wave2: Saw you started your report and loving it so far! So great to see how someone else experienced Aulani with a toddler (and sibling). And what is it about those elevator buttons? :confused3 Izzy was obsessed with them too, but luckily didn't usually have anyone fighting her for the opportunity. :rotfl:
 
LOL-that "special" bond with Goofy, too funny! If you dont mind me asking, where did you get that mickey head shirt you are wearing. love the subtle little mickeys that make up the big Mickey.
 
WOW-you had a fabulous view!

Yes, we had a great time people watching!

Can't wait to read more, heading to Aulani in Sept.
The kids are adorable.
Understand completely about the elevator fight, my grandkids (6,5) have major battles over it every time we have to use one.....LOLOLOLOL
You can't ever make them both happy..........

Thank you. It is SO annoying!! Just today we had a battle over who got to press the handicap door opener at the mall.

Following along! I can't wait to visit Aulani, but with a 4.5 yo and 20 mo old I'm going to wait another year or two!

It is such an amazing place. Waiting until Kate was 3 was a good move for us.

Loving your report! Haha, brings back so many memories of when my kids were little, fighting over elevator buttons, etc! Hoping we can get to Aulani in a few years! Something to plan for! Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

Thank you! We hope to go back in 4-5 years which seems like forever! Well, really it is Matt's whole life!

We are here now. We arrived on Wednesday. Wow is about how I would describe Aulani as well. Can't wait to see more pictures. These reports are what helps everyone so much with their planning. Everyone is so helpful.

It is amazing isn't it?

Hi! :wave2: Saw you started your report and loving it so far! So great to see how someone else experienced Aulani with a toddler (and sibling). And what is it about those elevator buttons? :confused3 Izzy was obsessed with them too, but luckily didn't usually have anyone fighting her for the opportunity. :rotfl:

I was inspired by your report!

LOL-that "special" bond with Goofy, too funny! If you dont mind me asking, where did you get that mickey head shirt you are wearing. love the subtle little mickeys that make up the big Mickey.

To be fair, no contact was made, but that pic pic cracked me up! DH got it online at the Disney Store for Christmas. I think it was in the Disney Parks section.
 

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