[00:00:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
What I love, just to round us out. What I love about Aulani as a resort is that it is on a major, you know, Honolulu is like the biggest city in Hawaii. I'm fair, I'm, I'm positive. And. But it is close enough that you can go in and do all of these great things that we were able to do to visit the North Shore, but you can go off and do all of these fun adventures off property. And then when you want to be on property, you're kind of away from the hustle and bustle, and then it doesn't feel like you're at Disneyland or Disney World. Like it's, it is a celebration more of Hawaiian culture than it is of Disney.
Welcome back, everybody, to a special Aloha edition of the DCL Duo Podcast brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. We are fresh back from Aulani only about a week since we flew home. In fact, a week to the day since we, we flew home, although did not get home until 3 o' clock in the morning Monday a week ago. But we're here. We're feeling Aloha today in this dreary, drizzly Seattle evening. But we wanted to talk to you about our stay at Aulani. Right, Sam?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I love the Aloha edition of the podcast. That's a perfect title for this episode.
I am so sad that we are home in Seattle and not still on Oahu. Brian, how about you?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah, just, you know, looking to podcast Aloha, as they like to say in Hawaii. All the signs everywhere could talk about Drive Aloha to drive Aloha. So we're to podcast Aloha this evening.
Let's start off. Sam, why don't you give some folks some of the particulars about our trip and then we'll dive into some of the. I think we should talk about some of the unique things that we did off property, some of the fun things we discovered on property. And of course, you got to talk about the fabulous opportunity we had to get a tour of Aulani from the Aulani ambassador. And also we were hosted at the Aulani Luau this time around.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, so we went to Aulani for two weeks over our son's Christmas break.
So we spent. Actually it was 15 days, not just 14 days. So we left on a Saturday and we came back on a Sunday. We were there for all of Christmas and New Year's.
It was a fabulous time spent in a one bedroom room, meaning we were in a DVC room. We actually own a fixed Week contract, which means we get basically week 52 every year automatically booked at Aulani and in a one bedroom, because that's the point contract we bought. And because we have been planning on doing this every other year, we basically banked our points from the previous year. And because of that, we were able to kind of piece together DVC reservations to book the entire 15 nights in the one bedroom. It was fabulous. Highly recommend, especially for those of us on the West Coast. It's, of course, easier to get over to Oahu and fly direct to Honolulu from Seattle or LA or several other airports on the West Coast. So we were very happy to spend our Christmas holiday over there. We did rent a car for this trip. We were also traveling with our friends Tracy and Michael, who had their own room. They had a one bedroom for part of the trip and I think a studio for the other part of the trip because they were sort of piecing together two different reservations.
Um, so we had a rental car for the five of us. Uh, it was a little bit of a craziness with the rental car, but we don't need to go into details on that. Um, but we did that because we had planned on going off property several times throughout the trip. I would say maybe, like every couple of days we did something off of Aulani property. And then the other days we were, you know, hanging out by the pool or the beach at Aulani. One thing I will say for Aulani over Christmas is it's quite crowded. It's quite heavily booked, and so the pool is quite oversubscribed. Meaning if you want a pool chair, you've got to be down there, I kid you not, before 8am, before the pool's open for the day.
In order to grab lounge chairs for you and your family, if it's before 8am you actually have to have your butt in the seat after 8am if you have your stuff there. If you leave your stuff unattended for more than an hour, they will remove your things.
So as long as you're back at your chairs once an hour, you are fine.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah, the chairs were definitely really oversubscribed at the pool. There were a couple days where I felt like it lulled a bit. And I think those are probably the prime DVC departure days.
So Christmas was actually, I think, not as bad as New Year's ended up being, in my opinion.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, I think both were pretty crowded. But maybe you're right. I'm not sure. I will say that if you couldn't get chairs by the pool. You could generally get chairs on the beach. Like the beach is actually less, I don't want to say desirable because the beach is beautiful. But of course, a lot of people love swimming in the pools and the lazy river at Aulani. And the beach is open to the public, although the chairs are not. The chair area is, you know, exclusive to Aulani. But yeah, I would say you could always find space down by the beach if you couldn't find something at the pool.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
Let's start with a few things that we got to do. I want to come back to the pools because we had a couple special days at the pools that folks might want to hear about and we can talk about those. But I want to start with some of the things that we did off property because I think a lot of people think about going to Aulani and like spending the whole time at the resort when it is on the island of Oahu and it is, you know, not, I wouldn't say near Waikiki, but you know, 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic to get into Honolulu itself and be at Waikiki Beach. So plenty of folks, I think also spend some time at Waik, then spend a couple nights at Aulani as opposed to what we did, which was spend the entire time at Aulani.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: But I think you're right. I think a lot of people who go to Aulani do kind of like a split stay and we'll stay a few days at Aulani and Kauai, you know, Ko Olina, and then they'll spend some time in Honolulu, usually in Waikiki.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So let's talk about a few of the special things that we did. So I think the first thing that we got up to in Oahu off property was our Blue Hawaii helicopter tour.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: I don't remember what was first. We'd have to look at our. We have a little spreadsheet so you have to open that to figure out what was first. But that was definitely the most exciting. It was not the least expensive of the adventures, but we had a fantastic hour long helicopter flight. We had to drive over by the airport. It wasn't at the airport, but it was just like just outside of the airport to get to where the helicopter place was. But yeah, it was called Blue Hawaiian Helicopters.
They were super easy to book. You could call or book online.
They were really, really nice. They fit six passengers to a helicopter. And there is a weight limit if you're over that weight limit. I don't remember what it was, but it's Online, if you're over that weight limit, you basically can pay for like two seats or a seat and a half or something like that. But. So there were five of us that booked together. Myself, Brian, Nathan, and then our friends Tracy and Michael.
And it's about, I want to say, $400 a person for an hour long helicopter ride. It was phenomenal. I mean, we had a fantastic pilot with us. The pilot was our tour guide. He narrated what we were seeing.
A lot of what we got to see. You can't actually see by either foot or car. Like, there was a waterfall that used to have a trail that you could hike to, but they had a landslide and so that. That trail is no longer open. You just got to see parts of the island that are either either you can't see or very difficult to see if you're not up in a helicopter. But it's really quite beautiful to, you know, see through the rolling hills and mountain ranges, I guess, hill ranges, because they're not really. They are mountains from underneath the ocean, but not mountains from land.
But it was just a really beautiful ride. I will say there was way more turbulence on that helicopter ride than the helicopter rides we experienced in Alaska and Norway, which are the other two times that Brian and I have both been on helicopters.
Probably because there were, you know, there was some rain that we hit when we're kind of traveling over Kualoa Ranch on kind of the. What is that? The east coast?
[00:08:37] Speaker A: The rain really hit us on the north shore. I think with Kualoa Ranch was pretty, Pretty clear sailing. And I.
I remember there being some turbulence that we experienced, especially in Norway, over the glacier, because it was the cold air coming off the glacier up against the helicopter. So, you know, look, I. There was definitely some turbulence we experienced. I don't think it was anything that would make me shy away from doing it again. And I thought overall the. The weather was fairly clear for the ride. And one thing I really liked about. Well, two things I really liked about this experience. It's definitely expensive, but I feel like we've spent almost as much per person before on helicopter tour and only gotten about, you know, 20 minutes up in the air or 25 minutes up in the air. And this was, you know, nearly a full hour. And then the other nice thing was that the cabin and the exterior of the helicopter had cameras all over it. So at the end, when we got back, we were able to purchase like basically a video of the entire ride, which was really cool. And then you could hear the cabin discussion. Most of it was just the pilot giving us, you know, narrating the. The experience of the tour. So. But that was really cool to have that option to buy that footage, which we have not had on the other experiences that we've done. So.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: And they did take some pictures of us as we're getting on the helicopter and getting off the helicopter. So we got. We purchased basically the package that had those photos. So that was an addition that wasn't the per person. So, yeah, that was a great experience. Would definitely recommend.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah, the one we skipped over, the first experience we actually had is. Wanted to thank a listener, Megan and Jeff.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Who reached out, and I think it was on the Monday after we arrived. So we got in on Saturday. Sunday we just spent by the pool. Maybe we'll talk about the spa for a minute here in a second. But on Monday, we were graciously invited by a listener and her husband, who is a service member, and they showed us around the base a bit. And the Arizona Memorial.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that was fantastic. So they took us to the USS Utah Memorial, which is actually on the base. I'm not sure if you can access it if you are not with somebody who is a service member. This was the naval base. But that was really impactful to see. We had. Neither of us had ever. We'd been to the Arizona Memorial before, but neither of us had been to the Utah Memorial before. So a much smaller, you know, memorial, but you actually can see sticking, you know, above the water, you can see a portion of the. Of the ship. And so. And of course, they've got a plaque and a flag.
And so we took a picture in front of that. And then we drove over and parked kind of where the Pearl Harbor Visitor center is. And Megan and Jeff had actually done the reservations or got on the wait list for us to get the boat over to the Arizona Memorial. And Brian and I had been there, but it was actually Nathan's first time to any kind of, I think, war memorial that I can think of. I mean, I guess we did some of that stuff over in Europe, but I think this was the first American one that we had taken him to. And I was super impressed with how he handled it, frankly. I'm really glad that we waited to take him until now. He's 12 now. We've been to Aulani before, so we could have gone on Oahu previously to Arizona with him.
But I'm glad that we. I'm glad we waited because he really understood the solemnity of it.
And, yeah, I thought it was A really beautiful experience and it's a really beautiful memorial for anyone who has never been. I would highly recommend paying tribute to all the men that we lost that day.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah. We did not do the USS Missouri, which is right next door. You can typically board and kind of tour the USS Missouri. We've done the aircraft carrier down in San Diego, the name of which is escaping me at the moment. But so we. We've done that before. But, you know, the Arizona memorial is not to be missed. I do agree with Sam. It's good to wait until you're sure your kids can kind of really understand and appreciate what they're doing.
Because it is, you know, it's an active memorial. It's an active gravesite, essentially for service members. So really great day at the memorial. We had a lovely lunch at restaurant 604.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: 6. Yeah, I think 6:04. Yeah.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Really good. Oh my God. That had really good garlic chicken there. They had good chicken drinks there. Yeah.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Pokey nachos. It was a local spot too. Megan was telling us a lot of the locals get together there for their, like, little Christmas celebrations with family and friends and stuff. So really nice day. And just a big shout out again to Megan and her husband Jeff for taking us, taking us on that tour for the day. It was really, really fabulous.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Yeah. And the restaurant was casual, so that's also nice. And. But it was. Was kid friendly too.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
Continuing the trend here of things that we did off property.
We. We did. We'll talk about Luau's here in a minute. But we did this time take a trip down to the. The stadium. The Aloha Stadium that they are getting ready to tear down for the swap meet. Yeah, we did the Aloha swap meet. I don't know about you.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: In the parking lot of the Aloha Stadium currently.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it's in the parking lot of the stadium. There's like a $2 per person kind of entry fee at the gate when you park your car.
I'd heard a lot of great things about it. I'll say. I was pretty underwhelmed by the law. Swap meet. Yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah. I would say wah wah. Like, honestly, it was. You know that story about another one man's junk is another man's treasure. Well, I don't know here. It was one man's junk was another man's junk, in my opinion. I mean, if you wanted some. Some cheaper tchotchkes and you could definitely find that. If you wanted jewelry, that was something you could find there as well.
But I. I didn't find most of the things there to be that nice. I. I feel like you. There were plenty of.
More like souvenir and gift shops around Honolulu and even around Ko Olina that had nicer things. So.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
Let's talk for a second. We also finally made it over to Kualoa Ranch. We did not do the ATV tour of all the movie sites. We did something a little different because it left it up to Nathan what he wanted to do. So we did some ziplining.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: On the ranch.
I will say.
I don't know, Sam. I don't know if I'd go back to Kualoa Ranch or not. It was fun.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: So I really liked this. I would. So I don't know that I would go back. I think it's kind of a one and done experience, but I would highly recommend it. And I would highly recommend the zip lining because instead of doing the full like movie tour, we did have to take a bus ride from like the main area to the start of the zipline, like the zipline camp, I'd call it. And they. We basically got an abbreviated movie tour on the way. And so that was like a 10 or 15 minute ride. Probably like a 15 minute ride and with not like a full narration but basically pointing out different sites. And I thought that was a great way to see like quite a bit of the property without us actually having paid for the either. You know, there's several different movie tours that they offer, so we got to see like the sights from Jurassic park and Jurassic World.
And I felt like it was perfect, like an abbreviated version. And then we had like, what was it, seven zip lines that we went across.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Seven ziplines. But I think this is the part that I was just like not super stoked about. It was seven ziplines, but none of them were all of that fun, in my opinion.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Oh, I liked them. See, but I'm not.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: I thought the tour guides were excellent. But you know, we've done a really steep zip line in the Caribbean. Nathan and I did some ziplining in Vancouver before we got on our Alaska cruise.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And you and I did a like a more rain top rain Rainforest Rainforest Canopy 1 in St. Kitts as well where we made. Maybe went on like five or six zip lines. But I, I really liked this. I thought it was a great one. I would recommend like I.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And the tour guides were outstanding, by the way. The tour guides were fun. They were having fun with the group that we were with. And there was, you know, there's at Least a dozen of us on this tour. And it was. It was a lot of fun. They had little games to play sometimes around the zip lines. They were asking us fun questions before we took off each time. So it's.
It was an overall fun experience. It was not the greatest ziplining I've ever done. And I felt like it's pretty far out of the way and maybe a little overpriced for what it is. So I know a lot of people love to go. If you're big into the Jurassic park movies or the films that have been filmed on Hawaii Lost, the TV shows and all that sort of stuff.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Pearl Harbor.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Yeah, Pearl Harbor. Great spot to go see some filming locations there. Although even that, as we drove by, I was like a little sort of underwhelmed by what they were showing.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Well, that's why I thought what we did was perfect. I think I would have been a little underwhelmed to spend like two hours just touring around and seeing these movies sites. But going through them at like a. A faster clip for 15, 20 minutes seemed like a better use of time.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: So one thing I wanted to highlight from this day is that Megan actually gave us the recommendation to try out a local. I'm going to call it like a fast casual chain. It borders on fast food, but there's actually a section.
Yeah, it's a diner. It's called Zippy's. And they serve like a traditional Hawaiian fare, but kind of in a fast casual atmosphere. So we went. You could go order at a counter and take it out, or you could sit down and they would make it and bring it out. And I don't know about YouTube. I had a fabulous lunch. It was like a big plate full of Hawaiian favorites. And it was delicious and I really enjoyed it.
I thought it. I will definitely go back to this spot the next time that we're.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: And there are several of them. They're apparently like a Hawaiian chain. So it's not just the one that we went to in Kailua, but that was. Just happened to be the one that was closer. But yeah, I would definitely go back to Zippy's.
The one thing I would say we kind of had to wait a while for a table. So services is they're on aloha time. So that's kind of what Hawaii is about, though. It's about aloha time. So the driving. Aloha means drive slow and casual.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And then we did. Tracy and Michael have been talking to us for two years now about this shave ice spot called Island Snow, and that is the best shave ice on the island. And we were Team Matsumoto's for a long time.
I won't spoil it. Sam and Nathan did get a last shave ice on the way out of Hawaii that I think they preferred more than even island snow. But I will say I am team Island Snow now.
It was fabulous.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: It was really good.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: The ice was just like. It was like, what's in the name? It was like powdered snow with flavoring. So I'm going to say team.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: I'm going to say I'm team Ululani Shaven Ice, which is a Maui brand, which is the one that Nathan and I got on the way to the airport.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: So, yeah, boutique shave ice is what they got.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Bougie shave ice. Anyway, it was really, really good. But yeah, the. I would say Island Snow was fantastic also. Matsumoto's, though, is the classic. They're like the original. So I feel like you still have to go there. And they're great.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Although we'll talk. Let's head there. Because we. We went to the North Shore, and I will say we went to Matsumoto's, and I did not think it was as good this time around as it's been in the past.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Maybe you just got the wrong flavors.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: No, I think the flavors are great. They just. There wasn't enough syrup on there to penetrate all the ice. And I found the ice to be like what Alani's ice used to be. We should comment that Nathan really loved all of the Alani shave ice that he had. So they may have. Actually, I didn't get a chance to try it, but they may have tried it. Yeah. I don't know if they changed up the ice mix or something at Aulani, but he really loved it.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: I thought it was good, but it's definitely on the harder side. And Matsumoto's. You're right. This time was on the harder side. I think you're right. They didn't put quite enough syrup on either your shave ice or Nathan's shave ice at Matsumoto. I didn't mind kind of the lighter amount of syrup, but, yeah, you're right, they didn't. Whoever was making our shave ice just didn't put enough syrup.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Well, the condensed milk was a little different this time. If you don't know, shave ice isn't always just ice and flavoring. They have some, like, traditional stuff. Like you can get toppings of a red bean, a sweet red bean that they sometimes put on it that people really like they have.
You can get it snow capped or topped with condensed milk basically, which helps sweeten things up. So now they're putting ice cream. Cream on the shave ice. Feels like overkill to me. And then mochi. They put mochi in.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: It sometimes feels like everything basically.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: But I will say I will put a plug in for putting the condensed milk on top of your shave. I think it makes it so much better.
While we were at the North Shore that is a very packed place. We did not go to the Dole Pineapple Plantation this time. I've been when a kid and we.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Went before last time. Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: We really just focused on going out to the North Shore and we ended up stopping at a beach. Parking is challenging along the North Shore.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Especially some of the spots park.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah, but parking is challenging for like the turtle viewing and things like that. So we went to the Halloway up. Hallo. Hallowaya Park.
All right, we've said it enough.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Park.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: And we were able to park there and get out. We kind of wandered along the beach. Then we wandered out to a point because there were a ton of surfers out. And so we're able to wander out to this point and really watch just like. I mean there must have been 50 surfers in the water trying to catch waves. And so that was really fun to watch for a bit.
And then we headed off to try a spot that we haven't been able to try before, which everyone raves about, which is Giovanni's.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: We actually did go there. We just went to a different location. I know.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: I think it was Giovanni's.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: It was. Because I remember how everybody writes on the truck and I actually found that.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: We have pictures or somebody else also just did that, you know.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but we have. We have pictures. I found pictures from one of our previous trips. So we went to a different location.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: The shrimp was fantastic at the Giovanni's truck that we went to on the North Shore. Had a fabulous lunch there. Did stop at a McDonald's to get Nathan a cheeseburger and our some sodas and also kind of bogart their parking.
So went to Giovanni's.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: We did hit up Aviator Nation, by the way. I have to.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Let's hold off. I want to talk about the shopping stuff that we did a little bit separately. I just wanted to call out that we went to the North Shore, had some shrimp. We did do some shopping. We'll come back to that in a minute. In terms of things to do off property, one thing that we really wanted to do this time that we couldn't do was hike Diamond Head because they've implemented a reservation system now to further limit the number of people hiking Diamond Head. And we did not know that heading into the week. And so it's apparently a new ish system. And so we were not able to secure a slot while we were there. So we're adding that to the list of things to do the next time we go to. We go to Hawaii. I think I'm also going to add on that list proactively, just from my own memory here. This is like a note to self. I've heard great things about this spot called the Rainbow Drive, in which I suspect is like Zippy's.
And so I really want to try that spot. It's also supposed to be kind of like a drive in traditional Hawaiian food.
In terms of other spots we ate at. While we're talking about this, we did go to Duke's. Again, Great spot in Waikiki. Yeah. Great spot to hit up Waikiki and see Waikiki Beach. I mean, it's. It's not Hawaiian fare. We had some fish tacos, and, you.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Know, they do have, like, Kahlua pork chops.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Sure, sure, sure. Everybody has kalua pork in Hawaii. I'm surprised McDonald's didn't have it on.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: The day Nathan had chicken teriyaki there. That's.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Yeah. But it's good. It's. It's. It's good food. It's casual. There's a long wait, really. It's the view and the drinks and the stuff at Duke's that sign up for the nostalgia. Yeah. And obviously it's. It's an homage to one of the original Hawaiian surf legends.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: And so we went to Duke's. We did go to Roy's again, and Roy's is always a hit because it's near Alani and you can walk to it.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: And it's delicious.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: It's delicious.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Great spot. Fantastic. Fantastic. Chilean sea bass there.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yep. Of course, we hit up Monkey Pod, which needs no introduction. If you need a Mai Tai, go to Monkey Pod, full stop.
We went to the Mexican restaurant that is now across the street from Aulani, has been there for a few years.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Makiko, I think.
Something like that.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: It's good. We had some challenges with our service and drinks, you know, a little bit.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: But the food was good. My drink was terrible.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And Sam just didn't like the drink that she had because of some of the components of it. But they were gracious. They took it back, got her a different Drink.
The food was good. So that's another great addition to that shopping center there across from Aulani that you can walk to.
The pizza place is gone.
It has been replaced by a brew pub.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: Yes. 808 craft pub or something like that.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Which from their website, it doesn't look like they take reservations, but they do.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You go on OpenTable as reservations. It doesn't say it on their website, but go on OpenTable. But you don't really need a reservation if you don't mind waiting 15, 20 minutes. But that place has excellent food, really good wings, really good fish. Like, yeah, I would. Very, very casual. Great to bring kids to as well.
Yeah, really good food. And then don't forget, we went to Mina's Fish House next door at the Four Seasons that you need a reservation for. I think you can book those reservations like three months in advance.
But I'm. I was on top of it because they do book up, especially over the holidays. And that's like my favorite.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: If you don't get one, though, just hit the app. Because, like, we were looking one night and I was like, oh, we can go to Mina's at such and such a time.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: So it was just kind of like a late night.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: It was somebody who probably late cancel. But Mina's is always a hit in our book. We did a lot more cooking this time at Aulani than we've done in the past, which was just a fabulous change of pace, especially with Tracy Michaels.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: So let's shift food to go to food and entertainment for a second and talk about. We went to 2 luaus this time. So we initially had opted to venture off property because we had done the Aulani Luau so many times that we booked the Paradise Cove Luau.
Come to find out that the Paradise Cove Luau is now closed. It closed on December 31st. So we, we were some of the last to experience the Paradise Cove Luau. I. I don't want to give a review of it. It's closed now and you can't really book it.
I. It was a nice alternative to the Aulani Luau, for sure.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: I think in our book, after experiencing the Paradise Cove Luau and the Aulani Luau, I still tend toward the Aulani luau. It was two different experiences, though. The Paradise Cove Luau was focus, kind of a traditional Hawaiian luau with, you know, talking about the food and the dancing and the historical aspects of the luau. Whereas the Alani Luau is much more of like a storytelling luau about kind of the family that used to inhabit the land and they're celebrating their family history and trying to tell some of the Hawaiian history through the lens of that kind of family experience.
I also don't want to over pivot here because, you know, look again. Paradise Cove Luau is closed. But, but also we don't know how good the show was or was not and how good the food was or was not, considering it was like the last week of its, its operations.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: It was basically. We went there literally a week before it closed.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So enjoyed venturing off and I might, you know, the next time we go to Hawaii, I might look for an alternative luau to try on the island because we've done the Aulani Luau so many times. But I will say, having we were invited by Disney, the Disney PR team invited us graciously to attend the Aulani Luau this time. And it just doesn't disappoint. I mean, that's the wrong time.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: And then when you compare, like I have to say, while food was better.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: The show was better even.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yeah, the service was better. The even, like they had real plates instead of like paper plates and stuff like that. Like, it's, it's just top notch. Aulani's luau is like just so well done. The storytelling aspect really keeps your attention also. So you don't like. And then even the music choices, the.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Stages out in the crowd too. They have like stages out in the crowd.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: So good.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Paradise Cove was just one stage stage. So like you couldn't keep everybody engaged. I feel like the Alani Luau also has the hook for kids. Like it's got story to tell to keep the kids engaged. Whereas the Paradise Cove Luau.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Oh, it did not keep kids engaged at all. Even though it's, it's a lovely luau. But I will say like the luaus go long. Like they go till, you know, 8:30, 9 o'. Clock. Well, actually, I think Aulani Luau ended around 8. The Paradise Cove Luau maybe ended at like 8:30 and so it's longer there from like, you know, 5 to 8:30 or so or even 4:45.
And it, yeah, it's just, it's a long time between, you know, sort of the show and then dinner sort of mixed. Dinner's kind of like in the middle.
But yeah, I don't think, I think younger kids especially, it's hard to keep their attention. I'm not sure that even the Aulani Luau keeps like the younger, the youngest kids attention just because it does go into you know, late.
But I will say much more entertainment, entertaining and much more keeping your attention at the Alani Luau than the Paradise Cove Luau.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: My only disappointment was Nathan had to go to the bathroom right at the point the fire dancers came out and so we missed the entire fire dancing component.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: I think you caught the very end of the. It was only. So the fire dancing part is a short part. At the Aulani Luau. I actually taped the whole thing. I think it's like five minutes long. And so I think you missed like the first half of it.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Basically.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: It's fine. I've seen it before. We will see it again.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: It's really good. They tell the story of Maui with it. It's really good. Really well done.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at Mypath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
Yeah, before we move off food completely, Sam, Battle of the malasadas. So we did go to Leonard's again, but Alani has is now offering malasadas. I will say Alani and we went.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: To the other one, pennies in Waikiki.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't even think that's an also ran for me. But I will say Alani does not do any of the filled malasadas. So if you were a filled malasada person, you got to go someplace off property. They're just doing plain malasadas. Which for those of you who don't know, malasada is kind of Local treat, kind of like a beignet or a donut.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: They were adopted from Portuguese, but, yeah, they're.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: They're, like, very similar all throughout the Hawaiian islands.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: And they're similar to a beignet, but round and fluffy. And they. And they don't have powdered sugar. They have granular sugar or sugar cinnamon on the outside, typically.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Sam, give us the review, because I did not. I mean, I thought the Alani malasadas were okay, but I'm a filled malasada guy, so I like the. I like the cream filled malasadas. And I.
So I did not. I did not like pennies as much as I like Leonard's, and I did not like Alani as much as I like Leonard's.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: But, yeah, so when. When I first. My first time having Aulani won, I was like, this is good. I'm not sure if it's as good as Leonard's. I need to do a direct comparison because it had been two. Two years since we had had Leonard. So we went back to Leonard's, and then we went back to Alani again. So I had Alani's nalasadas twice, Leonard's nalasadas once, and then Penny's nalasadas once. Months. I gotta say, Alani's malasadas beat out Leonard's. Leonard's were.
The one thing that was better about Leonard's is that they were, like, hot when we got them versus Alanis when we got them. They were no longer hot. They were just warm. But, like, Leonard's are a little bit too greasy and a little bit too dense. Whereas Alanis were a little bit more fluffy and less greasy, like, less oily.
So I gotta say that the flavor and the texture of Alanis was better. But if you are a filled malasada person, you're gonna still want to go to Leonard's or to Penny's or someplace else because Aulani just doesn't have the filled ones. But if you're a plain malasada person, like I am, and like Tracy is, you're gonna be really happy with Alanis. The one criticism I gotta say is Alanis are two times plus the price of Leonard's. So Leonard's.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: That's not shocking, but.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah. But Leonard's malasadas are, like $2 each. And then the filled one is like 220something. And then the filled ones are, like 2:40something. Alani's malasadas are $5 each. These are not big donuts. These are, like, rel. I mean, they're not like donut holes, but they are like the size of a beignet. So they're not a huge donut. But $5 is kind of expensive. But the convenience factor and they're delicious. So I can't do anything but recommend Aulani malasadas.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
Let's shift gears for a second. I just want to say briefly, do not sleep on the Alani spa. If you were staying at Aulani for any length of time, the Aliwana spa is. Or the Lani y Lani y Lani Wai spa is amazing. And it's like an experience. It's not like just going to a spa. They have kind of like a. I'll put in air quotes. You can't see a rainforest room type of outdoor indoor experience that you can do. I think Sam has a fun video of me up, or maybe not up yet. I don't know. Trying to go into the cold plunge pool three times.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: I have it up. It's actually, it's a tour of the spa and then it's actually you in all the showers and then you go trying to. And eventually getting into that cold plunge. Yeah, it's the. I think it's called the Kula y garden. And it's basically like Brian said, a rainforest room. But it's an outdoor garden and you can use it. You can have like an hour before and an hour after your spa appointment. As long as you're not just doing like a nail or a hair appointment.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: It'S be a massage.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Yeah, massage, facial, anything where you're actually going into the spa, not just the salon.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: I don't know if facials count because I didn't get access with my shave.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: No, because shaves don't count, but facials do. So a facial, you actually go into like a room. This the shave, you only go into the salon.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah, so we, we had manicures, pedicures. I got a shave massage. It was excellent. And then we had a couple's massage. We got to. And it was just. It was great. That spa is fantastic. There was like zero upsell of product. There was like zero, like trying to get you to like, they just include tips and they don't even put a thing in front of you to add more tip. I had to like ask because, like, my shave was so good. I was like, I really want to give this guy something more.
It's just a low pressure spa situation.
Gorgeous facilities, great treatment. So do not sleep on the Alani Spa.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: If you're going to Alani and That Rainforest Room thing is included, meaning it is free and only for adults. But again, you can come like an hour, an hour and a half included.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: With your treatment, not included with your stay.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: And you can't just book a pass.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Correct. They don't sell passes. It's only on the day of your treatment. You can go early and you can stay after. And they have like early robes and there's a sauna and there is a steam room and the locker room and there's. It's just really lovely.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Before I hand it over to you, Sam, to talk about some of the stuff that we. That you got to do on Aulani, because the only place I went at Aulani was the pool, and I spent the bulk of my days there. I did just want to talk briefly. We did get a cabana poolside on Christmas Day at Aulani. And then we also had the executive lanai that we booked on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
The cabanas are lovely, but impossible to book.
We had four people calling. Was it 90 days out from our reservation?
[00:36:06] Speaker B: So it's not 90s out from your reservations. 90 is out from the day you want to book.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: And it's at 8am Honolulu time. So whatever your local time is 8am Honolulu time, which of course, you know, changes because they don't do daylight savings. Whether it's two hours or three hours off of the west coast is different depending upon time of year. And so, yeah, we were four of us on the phone. You have to call like the Aulani front desk basically to book it. And so Tracy was the one who basically had the magic touch every time she got the cabana for Christmas Day. And then we didn't get. Sorry, we didn't get it. Not.
Yes, Christmas Day. We were unable to get anything for Christmas Eve. She was able to get the cabana for Christmas Day. And then we were able to get all that was left by the time she got through for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, respectively, were the executive lanai, which is basically like a kind of patio area between the pools and the beach. And so it's a private reserved area, but it's not.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: And there's only one of them. It's got. It's basically got two of the covered, like round settings.
Yeah. Casabella chairs. It's got two stretcher type lounge chairs. And then it's got a couple of like smaller, just more chair, like chairs with a table. It's supposed to have two umbrellas but one of our umbrellas was broken due to a storm, which caused a lot. It was very hot on the lanai. The two days.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: There's no shade from like a cabana. That's. That's the, that's the one negative.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: It's not really close to anything. That's, it's like, it's like halfway between the beach, halfway between the pool, but on the far side of where. So like, like, it's a nice option if you want to have a guaranteed seat. So, like, what we loved about it was we didn't have to be up early because if you want, as Sam said at the beginning, if you want chairs, you got to get up super early. This was a way for us to be like, okay, we're gonna have a leisurely breakfast and walk down, and we're going to have a guaranteed spot by.
In the sun, by the pool kind of thing. So definitely the cabanas, I think, are worth it as a splurge if you want to like, you know, have a nice day with your family and celebrate something.
Executive lanai is like, not anywhere near as expensive as the cabanas.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: It's about half the price, but, you.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: Know, and I'd probably book it again, but, you know, especially if I wanted to have guaranteed seats where we're going at a busy time. But frankly, if you can get chairs by the pool, you're just as well off.
There's not, there's not a huge number of benefits.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah. If you're willing to send somebody down early and they're willing to stay in the. In one seat and put stuff out on the rest of the seats that you need at 7:30, you'll be okay.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: So, Sam, why don't you round us out? As I said, I sat by the pool most of the time.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: I don't know what, I don't know.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: If you want to talk to anyone about some of the characters you got to see.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Or if, you know, I know, like, I, I. You've done ukulele. I don't know if there was any like, you know, like, meeting Santa. Like, I don't know if you want to talk about any of that stuff.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Okay. So we did meet Santa. So Santa visits Aulani on Christmas Eve. I believe it was, yeah, Christmas Eve day during the day. So he arrives like in the morning and he's there through about 2pm because then, of course, he's got to get busy delivering presents. The day actually, the day before that, actually, they had cookies and hot cocoa in the lobby. We missed the cookies and hot cocoa because we were, I think, off property in Waikiki that day.
But, yeah, there's definitely some. That's kind of the Christmas stuff. The other really cool thing is the characters have Christmas outfits. So I don't know when they start wearing their Christmas outfits. I imagine it's sometime in November, but all of December, they are wearing their Christmas outfits. And actually, they were wearing their Christmas outfits until we left. So I think they switched over on Sunday, January 4, to their regular outfits. So we got to see many. Well, I didn't take pictures with every character because there are lines and they have certain times that they meet. Not every character meets every day, but you can meet basically the Fab Five characters. You can meet Stitch. You can meet Stitch's girlfriend, Angel. You can meet Max, meaning Goofy's son.
You can also meet Duffy. You can meet Olumel and Shellie Mae. So there are some great characters.
Duffy, Shelly Mae, and Olumel being the primary ones that you really can't see at the Disney parks in the US Occasionally, you'll see Duffy in a race, but other than that, you really don't see them around so much.
And so you can see them in the Asian parks, but you can really see them and interact with them at Aulani and especially in their Christmas outfits. So that was really cool. There's also a cool interactive game called the Menehune Trail, where you get a tablet and you have to go to basically the. I can't remember the name of it, but there's this, like, family activity room on the first floor of the EVA tower. So when you're out at the pool, you can and go and find it. But that family community room, you can, like, do different activities there. And you can pick up an iPad to do what's called the Menehune Trail, which is kind of this interactive activity around, kind of the garden area of Aulani. It's really fun. We didn't do it this time because Nathan and I had done it previously. And honestly, we're just packed with activities. I would have made extra time to do it, except Nathan seemed to always want to do something else, so. But I did go and meet a lot of characters. There are lots of classes that you can do, some of which are for an extra charge, some of which are included, but all of them you actually now reserve online. It used to be that you would go down early in the morning and put your name on a list for, like, a ukulele lesson or make your own Mickey Ears and things like that.
Now you can book them all, I believe, 45 days in advance. They even have like a. A painting activity that you can do. The same thing goes for kids activities and Auntie's Beach House. So Auntie's Beach House is their version of the kids club and they have some activities that are included and some activities that are premium activities that you pay an extra fee for. But you can find those all through the website. And I would highly recommend that if you're interested in booking them that you do look in advance because especially when we were there, basically everything was booked up because if the reservations were open for 45 days. And so there were a few things that we could have booked, usually mostly premium activities for like, the second week that we were there, but we weren't really interested because we had plenty of stuff to do. But, yeah, but all the free activities were pretty much booked.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: I did promise people we would go back and talk a bit about shopping. So let's, let's, let's. But let's start with Aulani itself and the merch that they had available around the holidays and New Year's Eve. I will say I was, I was pretty over, or sorry, over, underwhelmed by some of the Alani offerings this time around. From a merch standpoint.
Like, I was also, like, it was weird. Like, they had no men's swimwear at all to speak of, except for like, you know, the Alani swim shirts, which I just. Yeah, the swim shirt I don't need another one of.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: They didn't have any swim shorts, which was a little odd. But, yeah, I would agree with you. I would say this time around, like, we've had better luck in previous visits with the Aulani merchandise. They always have Christmas shirts, shirts out. And they did again. But they're. They're too similar year over year. So I have, like, ones from previous years that are kind of similar to the one that they had. So I didn't want to buy a new, like, the same exact color green. I didn't want to buy in the exact same. Excuse me. In the exact same color.
But we did get a couple of ornaments. They do have some Duffy and Olu Mel merchandise that is, you know, unique to Aulani. So that's kind of cool if you're looking for that.
So there's like two main shops. One is, I'll call it the regular shop that's got more merchandise and also has like, in all DVC resorts, also has like, some food items that you can buy and you know, stuff in a cooler, even stuff that you can cook. And then there's like the Fancy Shop. I'll call it the Fancy Shop has like Tory Richards dresses and Tommy Bahama clothing and. Oh, that one had some good stuff, Peter Millard stuff. So it actually, yeah, that one actually, I would say we found a few things we liked in there. We only ended up buying, buying, I think two or three things.
But I, I, I thought that stuff was really nice.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So we also hit up some stores throughout the island. I know Sam mentioned up front, so I've become a fan of this now. She's a fan of this brand called Aviator Nation. It will be the most expensive sweatshirt you've ever owned in your life if you do.
[00:44:32] Speaker B: Maybe not the most expensive. There are people there are more expensive. Like Gucci makes sweatshirts. Sure.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: But if you're buying Gucci sweatshirts, it will never be the most expensive sweatshirt. But they're, they're a California based company. So I don't want to spend too much time except to say that if you're aware of this company and you like their stuff, they've got an outpost on the north shore of Hawaii, which was kind of nice of Oahu to see near, near the Giovanni's shrimp truck, actually.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: But the cool thing about them and the reason why they're more expensive is they make all their products in the U.S. yeah, yeah.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Also, I don't know if it's true or not. I find this to be a lot like the, you know, the people throughout the US Are like, we're the home of the cheeseburger. But we, Michael and I found some nice, nice aloha shirts, Hawaiian shirts. For those who aren't familiar with the, with the nomenclature there that they use in the island at this place called Kahala, which is apparently the home of the original aloha shirt. And so they had some nice stuff there. Great. There's, I would just say this. There's great, obviously great shopping in Waikiki.
A lot of high end shopping in.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: Waikiki and exclusive Lululemon.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Well, Lululemon and Stussy, among other stores, seem to have hopped on the bandwagon of clothing. You can only buy of their stores in Oahu and so have like a print of the Hawaiian islands on it or flowers or something. It was like completely sold out by like 8:30 in the morning or 10:30 in the morning, depending on when they opened. But a lot of high end shopping in Waikiki on the North Shore, just a lot of like I think unique shopping.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: Yeah, we went to a cool surf shop called like, it's called North Shore Surf Shop, I think it was called. And it was like really cool stickers and T shirts. Nothing was really expensive there. We bought. You bought like several T shirts. I bought T shirt. I think we bought like 15 stickers there because all their stickers were really cool.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah. 1. And then I would say the other spot that we didn't get as much time to check out, but Island Snow had like a store attached to it. But like that whole area that it was in. Kailawea.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: Kailua.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Kailua had it's. It's apparently like a great spot for local kind of shopping, food, stuff like that. Because it's near Honolulu. But it's more like. I don't want to call it a.
[00:46:42] Speaker B: It's more neighborhoody.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Yeah. But I don't call like the bedroom community of Honolulu that overstates it. But like it's A lot of folks who work in Honolulu live over in that area of the island. So that's a great spot for some local shopping as well. Maybe a little less expensive than Honolulu. And of course, spare yourselves from the stores from across the street from Aulani where everything's going to be marked up quite a bit. Although I did find a nice piece of jewelry that replaced my wedding band in one of those stores and there was my favorite Thai Bahama.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: So yeah, there's a full time ibah store. Store in the little Ko Olina shopping.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: Center and places we just still have not tried despite like five trips is eggs and things or eggs and more or whatever. Eggs and things right across the street. We had a reservation for breakfast one morning. It was just too early for us. But we're gonna try it. We're gonna get there one of these days. Cause we hear good things. So we.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: We gotta talk about the tour that we got from Shaunie.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Oh, yes, we do. I am. Oh my gosh. Yes. We had a special opportunity to meet the Aulani ambassador and we would be remiss in not sharing some of which what she shared with us about the resort is amazing. The level of detail. And we've had others on the show talk about this in the past and you can go in our back catalog and find it. But the level of detail that they put into the design of Alani. Expect nothing less with a Joe Roy project.
But.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: But even just like so. So Shani is. So. Let me say. Explain who Shani is. So Shani is a longtime employee. Meaning I think it's like 13, 14 years.
Sorry. Shawnee Mori is. Yes. She's been a cast member at aulani for, like, 13 or 14 years. She's worked in a bunch of different capacities. I think she worked in, like, entertainment. She's worked in the restaurants. She's now she works in the, like, family programming activities and stuff like that.
She's fantastic. And basically, each Disney Resort, like Walt Disney World, Disneyland and Aulani, they all have what's called an ambassador or two. There are actually two at Walt Disney World and I believe two at Disneyland, just one at Aulani. And that person, basically it's somebody who get. Who interviews, and they have to be a current cast member. And they interview to basically represent the employees of the property. And then they act as an ambassador both to the media, but also to the greater community, to guests. And so they are like the representative for the cast of aulani, which is 1700 people who work at Aulani, many of whom are native Hawaiians.
And she's just fabulous. She's like a fabulous cast member, fabulous person, really bubbly and full of life. And just was telling us even about how when they were considering, when Disney wanted to build a resort in Hawaii, they were originally considering the Big island.
And the. They were working with cultural consultants from Hawaii and were very quickly steered away from the Big island and steered to Oahu. Oahu is known as the gathering place. And so it was sort of the perfect place to have a Disney resort. And also they were steered away from, you know, like, Waikiki and other sort of places, even though they wanted the access of Honolulu and the airport, because, of course, it makes it easier for people from the mainland or people even from Japan to come and visit Aulani. They did not want to be in one of these, like, already highly populated areas that have a ton of, like, hotels and other things that they'd sort of be competing with. They wanted a special place that was a nod to the Hawaiian culture, but also would feel, you know, somewhat Disney.
So they did a wonderful job in finding this spot in Ko Olina and of course, in consulting these cultural experts about even how to build the resort, even the shape of the resort. If you notice, there's these, like, arches, right? That's the very iconic logo for Aulani. But also the arches are the way it's built. And those are actually representative of, like, upside down canoes. And those are the canoes that the Hawaiians, you know, of course, used for fishing and travel and all of that. And so. So they just did such an amazing Nod to the way that, you know, the Hawaiian architecture is built. And even just like, one end of the resort is the Ava Tower, and one is the Waianae Tower, and the Eva tower is the feminine side. The Waianae Tower is the masculine side. Like, all of these, like, amazing pieces of information that Shani pointed out to us and. And different, you know, pieces of artwork and different things that, you know, just represented parts of Hawaiian culture. Like, there was even this.
I'm going to call it, like, it's kind of like a sculpture, but kind of like a painting also was hanging on the wall. And Nathan actually asked Shani about it, and she explained it was representative of the men fishing together and how there's this philosophy or saying, I can't. I don't remember the Hawaiian word, but it directly translates to. To many hands. And the whole point of that is, it's. The Hawaiians work together in order to accomplish a goal, whether that's fishing or agriculture or whatever. But that. It was really. It was just really cool to see those nods throughout the resort. And I don't know that we would have noticed some of these things. I mean, even the story of the mural that she told us in the. In the sort of. I'm going to call it the grand hall, but the lobby area is really just kind of beautiful. It tells a story of Mother Earth and Father sky, who had a baby, and the baby passed away, and the baby was buried and became the taro root plant. And so she just pointed out all of these things in the resort that we probably would not have been aware of.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: Yeah. What I love. Just to round us out, what I love about Aulani as a resort is that it is on a major. You know, Honolulu is, like, the biggest city in Hawaii. I'm fair.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: It is the biggest. Yeah.
[00:52:43] Speaker A: And. But it is close enough that you can go in and do all of these great things that we were able to do to visit the North Shore. I mean, you have to have a rental car. There is a rental car counter at Aulani. We. We had a car for the whole two weeks from the airport.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: So we got ours at the airport.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: We got ours at the airport. But you need a car. But you can go off and do all of these fun adventures off property. And then when you want to be on property, you're kind of away from the hustle and bustle. And then it doesn't feel like you're at Disneyland or Disney World. Like, it's. It is a celebration more of Hawaiian culture than it is of Disney and it's that culture with Disney touches. And so like the luau first and foremost is not about Mickey and Minnie. They make an appearance, but it's not short. But it's short and it's not character filled luau. It is about the Hawaiian culture. And so all of these little touches, it's just a little slice of paradise in a Disney resort in a way that I just have not found at any other Disney resort with the exception of taking a Disney cruise.
[00:53:38] Speaker B: So, yeah, I have to say that this is our favorite way to vacation us aside from a Disney cruise. And this is actually a more relaxing vacation for us than being on a Disney cruise.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So with that, we will wrap it up here. Just a special thank you again to both Megan and Jeff for the day that we were able to spend with them touring the USS Arizona Memorial. A special thanks to our friends Tracy and Michael. Michael did most of the cooking.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: Most of the cooking, Yeah. I mean I cooked breakfast like every day, but he did more of the dinners.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: He was also my Uber delivery driver in the morning for coffee. It was amazing. But thank you to Tracy and Michael.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: Five stars.
[00:54:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:54:15] Speaker B: For spending five stars to Michael for his Starbucks delivery service.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: So thank you to Tracy and Michael for being, you know, being with us for the whole two weeks. It was an amazing time.
Special thank you to the Disney parks and Aulani and the Alani PR team for hosting us at the luau and for giving us the unique opportunity to meet with Shani, the Alani ambassador. It was a fabulous two weeks. I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who is looking for just that great vacation away from it all with the family. With the level of Disney service, Disney touches and attention to detail that you get get. Alani is just a fabulous resort and we, we love, love, love owning there and cannot wait to go back. So with that, we'll wrap it up there and say see you real soon.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: Mahalo.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review. We will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written, so DCLDuo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Dual Podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Trap Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo. Good night.
