TR June 17th -24th in Paradise (Completed)

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Ohh my husband just told me this is when my son and him did the scavenger hunt game while I was at the spa too!! He sent pics to of it. My husband said my son liked it and thought it was cool. One issue there were some effects not working so that did make my son a little disappointed in a few areas though.




They earned these.

So while my son was pretending to be a sea creature. We were doing spa, ate a left over hamburger from the night and decided to some more shopping. Specifically we wanted to check out the Tommy Bahama store since they have some unique disney shirts here.

When walking over decided time for the sign pic!


So I love how easy it is to walk over to the shopping center. My mom bought a non disney shirt and I bought this bueaty!!! It is soo cool!!!


We head back to the room. I change into the new shirt... of course. There is still a little time to kill before I pick up my son. I check the app and there is a Moana play... so I go get a refill on soda and popcorn and head out. Well this was a hard place to find I thought it was the normal lawn area where the luau was... but not it is next to the conference center. It took a while to figure out how to get there. Me and some other families were having a hard time. But we got it! Fyi if u need to find this spot go to the front lobby area, go outside front doors and go right.
This play is on fake turf so I would bring a towel next time to sit on. The play is super cute and funny. This is the kind of stuff that I love in the parks. Moana comes in the play too! I laughed and cheered during the play. Jokes for the kids and the adults in the play. It reminds me alot like the frozen retelling/play in Hollywood studios.



I highly suggest coming to this play. I saw it only posted once the whole week while we were there but I could have missed it. Wish my son could have it seen it.

I would love if Aulani did even more of these kind plays!! They could lilo and stitch or Finding Nemo to keep it all in theme.

I had to leave just before the end of the play to pick up my son from Aunty's.

Continue on to next post.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

I love the tank top and Olu bag.

Too bad Aulani can't have a Becoming a Sea Creatures for adults, haha. Olu greet is worth it alone.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

I love the tank top and Olu bag.

Too bad Aulani can't have a Becoming a Sea Creatures for adults, haha. Olu greet is worth it alone.

Thank u. Tank top I got last year on sale too.

I know right?! Olu mel meet and great and then learn about sea creatures for adults would be soo fun.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

nice update! Nice to see some pics of Aunties. We didn’t get to do it last time but definitely want the kids to do it next time. We love the tommy bahama and crazy shirts as well! They always have some unique designs.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Monkey Pod time!!

We had reservations over here. We did a 4pm so we get do happy hour. Happy hour is the best time!! We walked over and got a table on the 2nd floor.

And of course we all order the famous Mai tias!!!


These are best!!!
I order some truffle fries from happy hour. Love their fries here.

My mom orders the lobster devil eggs even though not on happy hour menu. But hey are really good.

Then for dinner we did the pizza. The pizza is also on the happy hour deals. This is the one place I will get Hawaiian pizza. Pineapple can actually taste good on pizza here. This is the pork and Hawaiian pizza.


Here is the pizza with some peppers on it.

My husband got fish.

My mom had the tacos. Soo good.
Also save room for dessert.
Soo good.


Continue on next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

More desserts at monkey pod!!


Soo good!
We roll ourselves out of Monkey Pod. I think this is the best value here in this area. The happy hour prices and the quality of food and drinks are just wondeful. I am so happy this is close to our resort.


Here is a pic of the happy hours times and prices.

Next we are on the hunt for vanilla ice cream. My son did not want any of those cool dessert, he wanted just plain vanilla ice cream. We thought no problem we will just go next door and check out the ice cream shop....
They do not have vanilla ice cream... cue sad 6 year old.



We try to convince him to try other flavors but nope...
Next we went to the old faithful ABC store...
And there we get a tub of vanilla ice cream. Yeah!!! We do get a Hawaii company one cause might as well and head back to our room.
We scoop out the ice cream for my son and now we have a happy camper and vanilla ice cream in our room when ever he wants it.
We then chilled out in the room and headed to bed.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Black sheep ice cream has some interesting flavors that are really good,but they really need the basics as well. Chocolate and vanilla.

The Roselani ice cream you can get at ABC or foodland is really good. If you like coconut the Halpeia flavor is amazing!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Day 5:
I did another run in the morning. As always this is the most bueatiful run.


Then I do my daily check of the secret beach to see if I could see anything and then finally I see a seal!!!!


The effort has finally paid off!!! A cute monk seal!!
I called the family and woke up my husband and son. I told my husband just bring my son in his pjs cause I was not sure how long he will last.
The family made it down. My son thought the seal was soo cool.

We just sat and watched him for a bit.



What a great way to start the day!!!
After a while my son said bye to the seal and we went back inside to change for the day.
Continue on the next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Black sheep ice cream has some interesting flavors that are really good,but they really need the basics as well. Chocolate and vanilla.

The Roselani ice cream you can get at ABC or foodland is really good. If you like coconut the Halpeia flavor is amazing!

Good to know for the future!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Next we head to Leonardo's. I love this Leonard's no line and close to Aulani. I decide on 4 malasadas. The 3 stuffed ones and the original. I looved the stuffed ones.



So hot and yummy!!

Then we head to a great look out point. Tantalus Lookout - Puu Ualakaa State Park, Nutridge St, Honolulu, HI 96822
It is famous for an Elvis movie. The drive up is scenic. We found out our son does get a little car sick. My husband had to take the curves a little slower. The views are great. They have bathrooms and a picnic tables up here.





The views are just spectacular! We can see so far... I think this is worth a trip. This was completely different then anything we have seen before.

Continue on to next post.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

That's good news about the monk seal. I never expect to see land wildlife at Oahu, so any wildlife sightings on land is a bonus.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Really enjoying the TR. We are headed to Aulani over Labor Day. You are making me excited for Monkey Pod. We go all the time on Maui (Kihei) but it's a little spotty. The menu looks better at this one!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

So preety.



Next we walked back the lawn path to the bathrooms and parking spot.
It is nice they have bathrooms.

Next we do a little picnic with the rest of our malasadas.


After we are done, we head down to Waikiki.
We are Parking at the Ohana East Hotel, rate $6 for 4 hours if u validate at Duke's. So not a bad price for parking.


Next we wanted to do some shopping.
So our parking is next to International Market Place. So we head over here. This place is a very pretty mall.
Mom wanted some coffee so we stop and get a drink.

They have some cute photo stops here too.

Continue to next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Really enjoying the TR. We are headed to Aulani over Labor Day. You are making me excited for Monkey Pod. We go all the time on Maui (Kihei) but it's a little spotty. The menu looks better at this one!

Thank u! Loove Monkey Pod just make sure u hit their happy hour.

That's good news about the monk seal. I never expect to see land wildlife at Oahu, so any wildlife sightings on land is a bonus.

We were soo happy!

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

We look around and check out some stores. Some neat things, nothing we want to pay for though. My son sees a toy store and we do end up getting a dinosaur toy. Lol.
More photos with the tree cause it is really cool. And u can see the new dinosaur he is holding. He is so happy. Lol.


We slowly head to Duke's. We are heading there for lunch. We see a cute store in the hotel. Look at this cool wave merch!.
I really wanted the wine glasses but we were afraid of the breaking. Then we saw these! Soo cool and will not break. They were reasonably priced so we ended up with these cuties.

Also bought my son a shark tooth necklace cause u have too it.
Then we went to the famous Duke's.

We checked in waited.

We were brought over to our seats. Sadly no great views at our seats.. seated to far away for good views. But our server is nice.
Drink time!



Here is the lunch menu and they have a lunch buffet too.

Continue to next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

My husband got the buffet. He liked all the choices on there while the rest of us ordered meals. I just was not sure if I had enough room for buffet level.
This was all from the buffet.

Calamari app was good!

My fried shrimp was great and can we talk about these fries!!! They are really, really good.

My son looved his burger.


Mom loves her fish tacos.

More drinks!!

And their famous hula pie!!! Order just one and share they are huge and tasty!!


After lunch we checked out thr beached and walked a little of it. And yep we confirmed we like Aulanis Beach better. Just way too crowded here.


Over all Duke's was good. We are glad we did since it has soo much cool history. Our service was super nice and good about getting our drinks. But I do not think we will go out of our way to come here again. Wakkii is just so crowded. We love Koolina area and just the rest of the island better then Wakkii.

After a little walk we went back to the resort.
Continue on next post.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

We head back to our hotel. We see chip and dales goofing around.
Already love being back in Aulani over wakkii.


We relax in the room. We also change into our nice clothes. Today we are going to get some family photos at the beach. We head down and we grav some drinks at off the hook and relax and look at the ocean and listen to the live music Aulani has going.



This is pardise
Now time for photos... my son decides time for a meltdown... ohh 6 year Olds. He does not want to do pics. We bribe him... and we get in line for the photos. Now the photographer knows how to work with kids and really did a great job to get him in a better mood.

Then some individual pics.





Continuing on next post...

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

More pics..




Next we go to meet Stitch. They have meet and greats in the evening in auntys some times. The only sucky part no photographer so u have to use your phone.






My son loved meeting stitch.
Next the rest of the family wanted to head back to the room. My husband and me wanted to sit and watch the sunset some more. So pretty.
And we decide hey let's do a couple more pics with this preety sunset.



I like the light better in the darker sunset pics. But my dad was not going to wait that long to do it. So early sunset pics are all we going to get.
Time to head to the room and relax. Then we head to bed.

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

DAY 6:
Good morning. We decide to get some breakfast at ABC store. So we do the quick walk over. Having a 2nd floor room really makes it handy to get to the lobby by just taking the stairs up one floor. We really love eating there. Good food and prices. Got pastries for my guys. They were in a pastries mood. They have a great selection.

I get banana packages. This is the best banana pancakes. The syrup on is lthe best!!!

We also pick up our free gifts. Save all your abc receipts and turn them in at the end. We picked out this towel.

Then this resuable bag.

Love getting extra gifts.
Then we take it back to eat. ABC store is the best.
Then next my mom and me get ready for our workout. We are doing a free Aulani workout which is a called total body circuit. Man this was a workout. We met down at the beach again
They had everything set up and ready to go.

Here is our instructor. Super great and motivating!

We had to take off our shoes and we did different circuits like running up and down the beach to doing push ups and sit up... etc..


We had a great group of people with us too. We joked around while doing it. I have to say doing jumping jacks while looking at the ocean really is the best way to do it.
I highly recommend this excersise class esp since it is free. They had water and towels for us too. Such a class act. The instructor is really good in making sure u workout to your level in a safe way too.
I love still be able to get workouts in on vacation but getting to have gorgeous views and an instructor while doing it.

Continue on to the next post.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

My husband got the buffet. He liked all the choices on there while the rest of us ordered meals. I just was not sure if I had enough room for buffet level.
This was all from the buffet.

Calamari app was good!

My fried shrimp was great and can we talk about these fries!!! They are really, really good.

My son looved his burger.


Mom loves her fish tacos.

More drinks!!

And their famous hula pie!!! Order just one and share they are huge and tasty!!


After lunch we checked out walking beach. And yep we confirmed we like Aulanis Beach better. Just way too crowded here.


Over all Duke's was good. We are glad we did since it has soo much cool history. Our service was super nice and good about getting our drinks. But I do not think we will go out of our way to come here again. Wakkii is just so crowded. We love Koolina area and just the rest of the island better then Wakkii.

After a little walk we went back to the resort.
Continue on next post.

I agree on your Waikiki opinion. The only thing I like about Waikiki is the dining options.