April, 2018 | WeirdBeerGirl.com

Welcome back to another batch of unsolicited Disney Aulani protips and suggestions. We last reviewed (mostly) food and drink, but today is where we really get into the Disney ‘tribal knowledge’ end of things – knowing When to Line Up and What to Buy.

Aunty's Beach House

Aunty's Beach House is the kids' club at Aulani; there are freeplay and 'premium' activities for potty-trained kids ages 3-12 – you could, in theory, leave your children there from morning until night for your entire vacation. Although we have Young People at both ends of that spectrum, the larger one skipped any of the structured activities the resort offered, despite the wealth of tween and teen options; our little one, though, fully embraced the Aunty's Beach House lifestyle and did not want to leave. As with many Things Disney, a little tribal knowledge goes a long way; some of these suggestions aren't necessarily spelled out on the website, so it's worth doing a little digging and advance planning:

Register online before you go - you'll still need to bring your child and your printed form to finish registration, but this will get you in the system; once you arrive, stop by as soon as you can to complete registration - you'll also need to provide a secret codeword to pick them up, so be sure to think of something memorable.
Call to book premium experiences in advance - they fill up. You'll have another *opportunity* to purchase photos from the event (more on photos in a bit). We did Kakamora Chaos with Moana, and it was a much-loved activity (including facetime and photos with Moana, plus some really quite nice crafts to take home) - we got the last spot by calling about a week in advance, and the other premium activities that week were completely full when we got around to calling.
If you want Aunty's to serve your child lunch or dinner (for an additional fee), line up outside before they open to make sure they can get a lunch or dinner ticket. We found arriving around 7.40 am was a good time, and our daughter loved the food.
The open house from 8-9.30 is the only time you can go into Aunty's Beach House with your child (and take your own pictures) - but if you want to make sure they get in immediately when it opens for drop-offs at 9.30, it's worth leaving a little early to go line up (again) to check them in.
If you want to do an evening dropoff, you may need to get them there in the later afternoon - it was filling up by 3.30-4 pm.
While you can send your child to Aunty's Beach House in a swimsuit and coverup, they do need to be dry - make it a pre-pool or beach activity, rather than a post-water one, unless you've had them change.

Once you get through the administrivia, Aunty's Beach House is a breeze - your child has a special green bracelet they can use to scan in and out (they can keep it or you can give it back at the end of your stay for a refund, if you kept your receipt), and there is plenty to do. Characters like Stitch come by to dance and play, there are Hawaiian crafts including lei-making, there's a very nice (fenced) outdoor play area and an enchanted living room (there's the occasional 'storm outside,' similar to the Tiki Room at the Disney parks) with child-sized furniture for watching, say, Moana. The Aunty's Beach House staff were excellent - they kept the kids happy and engaged for hours. Our daughter keeps asking to go back, and compares it favorably to her much-loved pre-school.

Tech Quibbles

If you've been to Disneyland in the past few years, you know that the Disneyland app is incredibly useful - you have a map, ride wait times and character events, plus the ability to book and track dining reservations. The PhotoPass feature in the Disneyland app is also great; it's simple to access your photos and a relatively low-cost add-on. There is no Aulani app, alas; it would be fantastic to make speedy dining, spa and Aunty's Beach House reservations from your phone, but the real miss is the DisneyPhotoPass situation. Your Aulani photos are much, much more expensive than your Disneyland photos, and they are not nearly as easily accessible; you can't get them in the Disneyland app, and on your phone, trying to log in to the DisneyPhotoPass site dumps you in to the Disneyworld login screen; it really only works properly on a desktop computer, so you'll need to save the wristbands you get from the various photographers and add the codes manually once you are back home (unless you are a terrible person who brought a laptop to do work on vacation). You can preview your photos from the TV in your room, or have them added to your account from KÄlepa’s Store, but it's not nearly as seamless (or affordable). It seems like it would be a straightforward add - you'd assume all the Disney photo experiences use the same codebase - but having worked in Big Tech forever, I know that's an unsafe assumption.

Beyond the DisneyPhotoPass pictures, you'll also have other *opportunities* to buy photos - the luau and character dining photographs are also available, albeit for a separate charge, and they arrive via CD(!) - we had to really think whether or not we had a working CD drive before buying them. As always with Disney photographers, the pictures themselves are usually great and very flattering (I suspect that's the real Disney magic), but not having one single digital location (and the additional upcharges) is a bit of a pain. However, there is some pretty interesting metadata on the photos - you can confirm your suspicion that the luau photos of the performers were taken a few years ago, presumably with ideal lighting and weather, and not on the evening you went, but given the team has about an hour to process and make up the photo CDs, it's a reasonable tradeoff.

Additionally, the wifi is not amazing, but you're on vacation, right? Of course, if you are, say, nearly 13 and want to spend your beach and poolside time streaming music and TV (FOR EXAMPLE) this is a bigger issue, but if you don't care about eating through your parents' data plan, you are fine. Just saying.

Merchandising, Merchandising

This being a Disney resort, there are certainly opportunities to take home a bit of the magic, whether that comes in the form of t-shirts, bags, Mickey ears or, of course, Disney pins. (A slight aside for the uninitiated - Disney pins are A Thing, whether you simply buy and collect them or go all-in on pin trading - find out more here). I was actually slightly surprised that there are really only two shops - one with a fairly broad array of merchandise, including essentials like sunscreen, and a higher-end one that focused more on purses and the like. Neither shop is as heavy as they could have gone on Moana items - indeed, while Moana is a prominent character in person at the resort, the range of items for sale is practically restrained by Disney standards. There is a strong focus on the characters that are popular in Japan and China; Gelatoni, Shelliemae and Duffy, all hailing from Tokyo DisneySea, are on offer. I also discovered a secondary Lilo and Stitch character I knew nothing of - one Angel - and now that we are home, we're (naturally) looking to find her in the many and various Lilo and Stitch spinoff properties that seem to exist, since we picked up a not insignificant number of Angel-related items.

One thing has always puzzled me about Disney merchandise - why does Disney not have a dedicated coffee table book division? I would have absolutely made room for an enormous, photograph-heavy hardcover book detailing the design and evolution of Aulani, with a focus on the business decisions, cultural considerations and planning of the resort. I'd equally buy similar books on many of the classic Disneyland attractions - there's an excellent book on the Haunted Mansion, but there could be equally-detailed ones on, say, It's a Small World, the Enchanted Tiki Room, Space Mountain, etc. - there's a wealth of amazing documentation that's is beautifully-arranged in the Walt Disney Archives that would be more accessible (and remuneratively-rewarding) in a fancy book - someone at Disney Publishing should get on this.

But hey, we did get some really nice pins.

Next up: pools, beaches & entertainment

We've just returned from a much-needed (if barely-planned) trip to Aulani, Disney's Hawaiian resort. Although we're relatively recent coverts to the Disney vacation lifestyle, having a bit of Disney-specific knowledge helps make the vacation even more stress-free and relaxing for the whole family. In that spirit, I offer more than a few entirely unsolicited protips and suggestions.

Setting & Rooms
Aulani is a 20-ish minute drive from the airport in Honolulu; we used the recommended Hele Hele shuttle, which is essentially the equivalent of the Disneyland Express bus that runs from LAX and John Wayne airports to the Disneyland and 'good neighbor' hotels. It's not a large, branded bus, but a van (carseats are included for the smaller kids); the service was prompt and friendly. We arrived at night, and the resort is lovely even in the dark - the tree-hung lanterns and torches created a positive impression, even on very tired children (and adults). Despite the late hour, we were warmly greeted with leis and infused water (we didn't notice the Hidden Mickey in the water until the next day), and check-in was very speedy.

The lobby, largely open to maximize the warm breezes, is amazing day or night, though during the day it's possible to take a tablet-driven self-guided tour of the art and design features that provides much more detail and context. Aulani has the world's largest collection of contemporary Hawaiian art, and it's thoughtfully displayed everywhere in the hotel. There are, of course, even more Hidden Mickeys - and Menehune (more on them, and the art tour, later) - to be found all over the property.

We booked at the last minute, so had relatively few room options, but even our standard room with 'limited' ocean view had a great vantage point from which to see the ocean and the amazing pools and landscaping below. We ended up with two queen beds, which was a little tight with two kids with a huge age/size gap (and they don't have the extra sofabed that similar rooms have in the Grand Californian - though perhaps we've always just lucked out?), but certainly very do-able for our short stay.

Our flight home was late at night, well after check-out, but the luggage room is very straightforward and there's a suite with lockers to shower and change, so you can fully enjoy your entire day (and you can still charge things to your room until midnight, so no need to carry around your wallet if you're swimming - have that last Dole Whip).

Food & Drink
Speaking of Dole Whips, Aulani offers the Dole Whip Twist, which cuts the pineapple with vanilla, and it rather was wonderful - I wish they offered them at the Disney parks. At the resort, you can get them poolside or beachside. But perhaps my favorite spot at Aulani was the 'ÅŒlelo Room; only open in the evenings, it had amazing cocktails and food - even great vegan tacos (and I say this as a non-vegan who happens to like good vegan tacos). The Hawaiian-language theme and design of the ÅŒlelo Room was well thought-out and beautifully-executed, and I enjoyed their specialty drinks that weren't available at the other resort bars (or, for those that were available at the poolside bars, were much more expertly mixed and presented - the others weren't actively bad, just not quite up to the same standard).

There were one or two reasonable Hawaiian beers from Maui Brewing Company there as well, but most of the 'locals' were from Kona Brewing Company, and no different from their mainland offerings. For more interesting beer, you had to LEAVE THE RESORT and go across the street to Monkeypod, which had friendly, knowledgeable staff and a good selection of locally-brewed beers. I was intrigued to see more brown ales, stouts and porters than I usually see in the Pacific Northwest, so that was a pleasant surprise. There were a few other restaurants and shops in the same complex, so it was handy for cheaper sunscreen and basic groceries.

But back to Aulani: the Ulu CafÃ©, the quick-service restaurant, has quite decent breakfast wraps, and the quality of the tea was another positive surprise - it was rather good! It was even good enough to drink without milk or cream, which is important when your 'cream' option is of the shelf-stable cartridge variety, so perhaps best skipped. For the caffeine addict, you can buy a refillable mug for $18.99 that gets you 'free' refills on tea, coffee or soda throughout your stay (soda refills are located throughout the resort; tea and hot water are at the Ulu CafÃ© checkout, and coffee is outside the cafÃ©); we did find this useful, given the 3-hour time change.

We went to 'Ama 'Ama for a few of our 'fancier' meals, both with and without our smaller one (it's right next door to Aunty's Beach House, discussed in an upcoming post, so very easy to manage a child-free meal) - the brunch was outstanding, and the lunch and dinner options were also wonderful, though just enjoying the beach view from the tables (some covered, some open) was a major factor in enjoying the meal.

While I'm not normally a fan of buffet-style dining, Disney usually makes the effort worthwhile - and the breakfast and dinner buffets at Makahiki were both fantastic. We did a character breakfast, as is our wont at any Disney property, but this had much, much better food than the versions at either the Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian; of course, there are the standard Mickey waffles, but the Hawaiian breads (and the French toast made with them - with amazing coconut syrup) made things a little more interesting, as did the Asian breakfast options. It’s possible we have now developed a need for taro bread. We enjoyed seeing Mickey, Minnie and Goofy at breakfast, and an appearance by 'Aunty,' leading the smaller children in song, dance and activities around the restaurant was incredibly well-done. Across the board, the performers at Aulani are outstanding.

The dinner buffet was also excellent; the mix of Western, Hawaiian and Japanese options made it more interesting than usual, and the food was well-selected and properly-prepared, which I rarely find to be the case at non-Disney buffet restaurants. The range of desserts was amazing, and I appreciated that they were (nearly) bite-sized; it made it easier to try more of them. As with the rest of the resort, Makahiki has striking Hawaiian artwork throughout, and once again, I'm glad we were able to take the art tour to find out more about the artists and their inspirations for the pieces.

Another Disney protip: make dining reservations, especially for character breakfasts which are often packed, before you travel; while this is a lot easier at the parks via the app (again, more on that in a future post), don't be the party of 10 that showed up behind us without a reservation. Yes, you'll need to call (or arrange it when you arrive), but it's good to be prepared. There are plenty of places you don't need a reservation (ÅŒlelo Room, 'Ama 'Ama,Ulu CafÃ©, the poolside bars), but for Makahiki, call ahead.

Of course, this is Hawaii, so you can also get a shave ice (with or without Mickey ears, though the Mickey ears option isn't amazing when it comes to structural integrity); I can only compare to the slightly-less-tasty ones I've had in Seattle, but I was pleasantly surprised by the flavors - yes, they were sweet, but they weren't overpowering, and there were more than a few more unusual options to add that made it well worth seeking out. An extra towel from the pool area may be useful if you are supervising a small person with the Mickey ears version.

All told, you can eat and drink well without leaving Aulani – and there’s still much more to talk about.

Up Next: Aunty’s Beach House + other activities

Disney Aulani: Aunty’s Beach House, Tech & Merchandise

Disney Aulani: Getting There, Eating & Drinking There