Welcome to the daily recaps from our Oahu trip. Each post will include highlights of the day, followed by a summary by Melody (age 11), then photos (by Joyce (mom) and Norm (dad) with captions by Emily (age 9 (age 8 during the trip)). We will be sharing reviews to the places and restaurants we visited after the recaps are all done. Enjoy!
Day 1 – Tuesday, May 8
– Arrive at OAK + quick breakfast
– Complimentary Lunch on the flight
– Arrive at HNL
– Pick up the rental + drive west
– Check into Aulani Disney Hawaii Resort
– Snack from Little ‘Opihi’s – Beachside Kiosk
– Treat at Pāpālua Shave Ice
– ‘Ohana Ho‘okani Pila – Learn the ‘Ukulele
– Dinner at The ‘Ōlelo Room
Summary by: Melody
Captions by: Emily
Extra comments (in italics) by: Joyce (mom)
Photos by: Joyce (mom) + Norm (dad)
Note: Some links in the post will direct you to our reviews of the places. Links to all related/previous posts are at the bottom of this post.
We took Hawaiian Airlines. They actually served a complimentary brunch. Drinks were also free but not extra food. I fell asleep on the plane once and then since I didn’t have much to do I went on the RELAX feature on my FitBit for seven minutes. Then, when we landed, it was rocky. I think I like taking off better than landing.
Once we arrived, we missed the Enterprise shuttle so we had to wait. We finally went to our hotel to check in. I got fruit water and leis as we walked to the entrance. Our room was on the top floor of the resort so we had a great view. Also, we went to Little ‘Opihi’s after we found out how the TV worked (we love to watch Food Network and HGTV on our trips since we don’t own a TV). It was a shack on the beach, not like we were expecting. We brought it up to our room since we were worn out from an early flight. After resting, we went to Pāpālua Shave Ice but it was kinda sticky and I didn’t know how to eat it. We had to go to a ukulele class after that. It was a simple class but I learned the G6 chord. Next, we went over to The ‘Ōlelo Room for dinner which I liked!! I liked their sliders, Mac and Cheese, and, well, everything! I’d give it a very high rating.
Now we are very tired, especially from this super long day; we woke up at 5:00 am today! Gotta go to sleep. It was an 8am flight, so by the time we finished dinner in Hawaii which was an early-ish dinner it was already past our typical bedtime in California. We knew we had a full day ahead the next day, so we were thankful for hotel room blackout curtains. :p
Arrive at OAK + Quick Breakfast
We woke up at 5:00 a.m. and Gung-Gung (grandpa in Chinese) picked us up from our house, got us through morning traffic, and dropped us off to get through security and grab a quick breakfast. There were croissant sandwiches but we had to eat them quickly.
Complimentary Lunch on the Flight
The strawberry yogurt was not very cold. The cheesy bread was like cake with cheese on it. I had apple juice. Daddy had passion fruit with orange juice and guava (POG).
Arrive at HNL
We looked at the information and the map and then we went to get our Jeep. The bus took us to the Enterprise-Rent-A-Car place where they gave us our car. The shuttle driver (who was not a young lady) seem to get a good workout each day as she picked up our suitcases with ease and lifted them onto the racks.
Pick up the Rental + Drive West
We got in our Jeep and we headed to Aulani which is on the west side of the island. The speakers were loud.
We went to Aulani. The gardens outside Aulani were really pretty. When we got to Aulani, we looked up at it, and it was huge. There were like four tower hotels.
So we parked there in the garage. So we parked there and the places where we parked there was so expensive. We didn’t know things were so expensive because on our last trip to Oahu we took taxis. In this pic, the girls were being silly and trying to make their mouths into big Os to be like the tire on the back of the Jeep.
Check into Aulani Disney Hawaii Resort
It took kind of long to check in. We were on the top floor, and they gave us one key for each person. I don’t know why they call them keys. They’re cards.
The lobby is huge. Everything is huge at Aulani and there are a lot of cool designs. Also, there were a lot of Japanese people. It looked like there was a huge conference going on since they all appeared at once and there was some kind of registration table.
Snack from Little ‘Opihi’s – Beachside Kiosk
Little ‘Opihi’s is on a beach. So if you aren’t wearing beach clothes you shouldn’t be there. We had just arrived and didn’t unpack or change before heading down for something to eat. The quick places ended up to be kiosks on the beach so you had people in their swimwear and then us who woke up at 5am (which is 2am Hawaii time), just got off the plane arriving from somewhere cold and definitely not tropical. It was quite a sight.
Melody and I got roast beef sandwiches which were HUGE and Daddy got a Dole Whip. He also got a hot dog wrap.
Mommy got sushi. And the top thing on the chopsticks is cool; you just snap it off instead of having to pull apart the chopsticks like the usual wooden ones.
Treat at Pāpālua Shave Ice
The shave ice is really cool. It has big ears like Mickey! But it’s hard to eat. It was also windy which made it challenging to not make a mess.
Did you notice that I have a necklace and Daddy has a necklace? Everybody got necklaces. (We also got fruity water when we arrived)
‘Ohana Ho‘okani Pila – Learn the ‘Ukulele
There was a free ukulele class. So we took that. But we didn’t learn any new chords. The girls have been learning a few things in the past couple of year, but while the chords weren’t new, the songs that were taught were new to us.
Mommy and Daddy got the ukuleles too. The guy was funny. The person did the hula. We only signed the girls up because when we went to sign up there were no spaces left but as we were being put on the waitlist some people came in and said they won’t be making it to the class and would have two spaces. Some people who signed up didn’t show up to the class, so they had some ukes left over for us to play too.
Dinner at The ‘Ōlelo Room
The ‘Olelo Room is really cool because you have to learn at least one or two new words from the wall.
We got mac and cheese and we really liked that. And Mommy got sliders. Melody liked them. That’s it for day one. That’s only our first day!
Related Posts: Oahu Trip 2018 Recap
Have you been to Oahu before? What were some highlights from the trip? Do you have any travel tips?
Click on the link to view some more photos from DAY 1.
Moy Chronicles 
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