I often help my travel clients with booking surprise trips for their children to Disney World.  My daughter has visited the World going on twenty times since she was born so surprising her has never been doable.  This year, the hubs and I crafted a quick trip to Disney near her birthday to celebrate.  Amazingly, we kept it a surprise until we parked at the airport to fly to Orlando!  She had no idea and it was great to finally be able to pull one over on her!

We flew to Orlando on Friday morning, arriving around 9:30am.  From there, we went straight to Downtown Disney and shopped, stopping for lunch at T-Rex Cafe.  The food there was yummy as always and we enjoyed sitting at the Octopus bar for the first time and watching the aquarium as we dined.  I was tempted by the Amphicars at the Boathouse restaurant but not enough to shell out $125 to ride for 20 minutes.

After Downtown, we went over to the Boardwalk resort to check in to our room.  We had to wait a bit for the room to be ready so we explored around the resort as it has been awhile since we stayed there.  Everything looked fresh as the resort has been undergoing renovations this year.  When we checked in, we were delighted to have gotten a room upgrade to a Boardwalk view, which was spectacular!  The room itself had been renovated already which was super nice with all new furnishings and soft goods.

Dinner was next, taking us to Trattoria al Forno on the Boardwalk.  This is a relatively new restaurant that moved in to the space formerly occupied by Kouzzina by Cat Cora.  Trattoria is SUPERB!  This restaurant reminded be a great deal of Palo on the Disney Cruise.  We all greatly enjoyed our server and meal.  Definitely will be a place we stop next time we’re at Boardwalk.

After dinner, it was Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party time!  For this special, hard-ticketed event, the Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm and re-opens to guests with party tickets.  From 7pm to midnight, you enjoy a special Boo To You parade, Hallowishes fireworks, trick-or-treating around Magic Kingdom, special character appearances, all guests can come in costume, and the majority of the attractions remain open.  We LOVE Not So Scary and have been several times in the past.  This year, to celebrate the birthday, we opted to add the Hallowishes Dessert Party for an additional cost.  It was expensive but worth it as the cost included reserved seating for the parade and Wishes as well as the dessert party itself.  Their little treats are so delish!  After we pigged out and enjoyed the park more, we closed Magic Kingdom down at midnight and crawled back to Boardwalk for some much needed sleep.

The sleep was short-lived though as we got up for an early seating at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club resort, just a quick walk over from Boardwalk.  Cape May is a buffet and features Minnie, Goofy, and Donald in their beachwear finest.  The typical breakfast fare is offered at Cape May including the ever popular Mickey waffles plus a crepe station; I love some crepes!  A birthday song and autographed card wrapped up the meal.

The last stop was to pack up the room and head over to Typhoon Lagoon for some fun in the sun.  It was super hot and humid these two days so the waterpark was a great place to spend the rest of our time.  Gangplank Falls, the family raft slide, was so much fun that we rode four or five times in a row.  The hubs and kiddo loved the fruit slides at the Crush n’ Gusher.  I loved the shallow pool area nearby so I could watch them shoot out of the slides and just relax in the water.  I loved it so much that I sunburned myself fairly well while enjoying the water.  Sheesh.  As always, the wave pool didn’t disappoint and I think we spent at least half of our total time in the park enjoying the waves.  After about five hours, it was time to dry off and get over to the airport to come home.  Boo!  We finally pulled into the driveway around 11:30pm and crashed shortly thereafter.

So our quick trip was less than 48 hours but filled with so much fun!  We all agreed that while we were only gone such a short amount of time, it felt like a much longer trip since we packed so much excitement into it.  Would we do it again?  You bet.  In fact, I’ve already got the next short trip booked.  Stay tuned!

After flying from LAX to Honolulu, we were six hours behind our normal East Coast time.  Time zones are so hard to get used to.  We landed in Honolulu, grabbed a rental car, and started the drive to Aulani.  Aulani is Disney’s resort in Ko Olina which is on the island of Oahu, about 20 minutes from Honolulu without traffic.  We did land right in gridlock time so that added probably 30-45 minutes more to our drive time.  No worries though, as is the mantra there.  The traffic eventually cleared up and we were on the way.

I had read that Oahu had a weird road system when planning the trip and that was an understatement.  Lots of roads that change names, even though they are the same road, just to change back to the original name.  For this Virginia girl, all the Hawaiian names really threw me for a loop too.  The crazy thing is that our GPS voice, who can’t pronounce normal words correctly half the time, didn’t even stumble on those Hawaiian words.  Super strange.

So Ko Olina.  I could live there.  This is a newer development on the west side of the island and features vacation and residential properties, like a gated community.  (OK, so I like my fanciness.)  There are resorts in the area and they sit on four man-made lagoons which provide protected access to the Pacific.  Aulani sits at the first lagoon and man, color me impressed.  This resort blows anywhere I’ve ever been out of the water.  The attention to detail here, the grounds, location, service, and hospitality were mind-blowing.  Most all of the staff seemed to be native Hawaiians which really added to the comfort and ambiance of the resort.  Super friendly.  At check-in we were given gifts: a traditional lei for me, a Menehune necklace for my daughter, and a Kukui bead necklace for the hubs.  More on Menehune later.

Our room was perfection, overlooking Waikohole Valley at the resort.  That’s what Aulani calls the water feature area in the center of the resort buildings.  A lazy river, waterslide, child waterplay area, infinity pool, hot tubs, koi pond, etc. are all found there.  Talk about amazing.  I’m not a huge fan of waterparks and things like that but Waikohole Valley might have changed my mind.  We spent so much time drifting on tubes in the lazy river and bobbing at the edge of the infinity pool that it was heavenly.  The lagoon area was super nice too with abundant beach chairs, umbrellas, watercraft options, etc.  I could give you a lesson on how to climb up on a floating “island” raft in the lagoon but no videos, please.  I have never laughed so much trying to haul myself up onto something and not fall back off into the ocean.  So much fun.

Back to the Menehune.  Menehune are little shy, mischievous little people in Hawaiian legend that Disney uses throughout the resort as a fun way to tie in culture to the property.  There is a Menehune Bridge play area for the kids (and adults because you have no idea how much fun it is to run through a good six inches of water and have buckets of water being dumped on your head at the same time, seriously!) and an interactive game where you solve puzzles and riddles related to the Menehune around the resort.  You’ll find Menehune statues all throughout the property so that by itself becomes a neat scavenger hunt.

Food at Aulani is quite the mixture with grab and go all the way to high end.  Being a vegetarian, I don’t tend to go for high end as it can be hard for me to get my money’s worth.  We spent a lot of time at the Ulu Cafe, the grab and go location at the resort and have no complaints.  Great service there and a wonderful Margarita flatbread that I think I ordered every day.  You can also get the famous Dole Whip and Hawaiian Shave ice in Waikohole Valley which make for quite excellent snacks.

We did venture to a nearby small shopping area and had dinner at a place called Just Tacos.  It didn’t disappoint either.  We ate there twice and I wouldn’t hesitate to do so again with their plentiful options, yummy food, and caring service.

I had high hopes of day trips from Aulani and visiting the touristy places on Oahu.  Didn’t happen.  We went out one day to Pearl Harbor and stopped at Punchbowl (the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and also an extinct volcano) with lunch in Waikiki but that’s it.  The resort had so much to do that I couldn’t pull myself away.  Next time maybe.  Pearl Harbor was moving, to say the least, and I’m so glad we took the time to go there.  The USS Arizona Memorial is beautiful yet heartbreaking for the men and their families that so needlessly died there.  The Honolulu traffic and crazy roads led us back to Ko Olina though, calling us to get back in the pool.

In typical Disney fashion, Aulani offers so many things to do with some at a fee and some for free.  We like free so we enjoyed a nighttime hulu show that also featured traditional Hawaiian music, craft making, and had all of the guests sitting on warm straw mats.  Fun!  We also participated in an animation class where we learned to draw Stitch and painted our own animation cels.  On our final night, Aulani was celebrating Halloween Hawaii style so we had a costume party, craft making, and carnival type games for small prizes.  The characters were out in full force in their Halloween costumes too which were a treat.  So much to do and never enough time.

When our time was up, we loaded onto the plane and spent the next nine hours in the area flying back home.  What a long flight and nowhere near enough sleep!  It was completely worth it though and I hope to be back at Aulani, floating in the lazy river, soon!

Earlier this year, I started planning a trip for my husband’s 40th birthday.  After a few ideas popped up and were tabled, the best thought ever came to mind.  How about Disneyland?  Since we live in Virginia, a trip to California is no small overnight trip but it is one we’ve been talking about for years.  The idea of mixing it up and heading west quickly grew on us.  One thing we had always discussed was that whenever we finally made it out to the west coast, we would seriously consider continuing the trip and going on to Hawaii.  So after awhile of settling into the idea of Disneyland, I jumped at the chance to add Disney’s resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii — Aulani — into the mix.

So it was set!  Three nights at Disneyland in the beautiful Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort in Anaheim followed by four nights in Hawaii at Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa.  Really, you can’t go wrong with any Disney resort, anywhere.  We are such Disney addicts that there was no question that Disney would have the honor of introducing us to Hawaii.  We are also Disney Vacation Club members which gives us the ability to use Disney’s resorts as a part of the program, based on availability, advance booking, yada yada, which is a huge money saver.  That membership was one of the best purchases we’ve ever made.

After flying out on the hubby’s birthday to Anaheim, we landed at LAX.  Not my favorite airport by any means.  Since it was my first time flying there, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I definitely didn’t enjoy the construction and overall layout.  Way too many people in too small of a place.  I guess that’s what happens when an airport is built in a metro area before it really turns super metro.  We had a car service drive us to Disneyland (thankfully, driving in that traffic wasn’t the way I wanted to start my vacation!) which was quick and efficient. Upon arrival, we dropped our carry-ons and headed out to California Adventure.

When planning this trip, I was a bit confused about the layout of Disneyland versus Disney World.  It was hard for me to grasp the layout differences without being there to see it and once we were actually on the ground, it still took awhile for me to wrap my head around how different the two resort areas are.  There’s no walking between theme parks at Disney World (well except for Epcot and Hollywood Studios) but Disneyland and California Adventure are literally steps from each other.  Super weird.  The Grand Californian also has an entrance directly into California Adventure and another into Downtown Disney which were fabulous but also so different from Disney World.  The closeness of everything turned out to be so great though and quickly grew on me.

Overall, no complaints about Disneyland and I most definitely will return, sooner rather than later I expect.  I had heard that I would only need a day or so per park and didn’t find that to be the case.  We spent almost three full days in the parks and I could have easily spent another two or three.  Even though they are more compact, there is still a ton to do and lots to explore.  A big favorite turned out to be Cars Land in California Adventure where we spent so much time.  The Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree ride is easily one of my new most favorite things, giving me the non-stop giggles as the little tractors slung us all over the ride.  The authenticity of that section of the park was absolutely amazing with no detail spared in making you feel like you were standing in the middle of Radiator Springs with all of the Cars friends.

One thing I didn’t understand involved other park guests and California Screamin’, a big roller coaster in California Adventure.  I saw multiple guests buy full cups of beer, in plastic cups with no lids of course, and then attempt to load onto the roller coaster.  They actually were confused when they couldn’t take the beer on the ride.  I’m not sure where these people kept coming from or why they thought a full cup of beer on a roller coaster that goes upside down was a good idea but I’m grateful for the cast members that tried to give them a common sense lesson.  I’m not talking one or two people either, several groups and both times we rode the coaster!  Bizarre.

We experienced Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland and a Welcome to Disneyland Tour, both of which were phenomenal.  The tour was about 2.5 hours and pointed out highlights of California Adventure and Disneyland plus included riding Pirates of the Caribbean and the Disneyland train, watching the It’s Tough to be a Bug show, getting reserved seating for Mickey and the Magical Map show, and FastPasses for the World of Color show that night.  For $20 per person (we got a slight discount), that was money well spent and we had a great time.  Mickey’s Halloween Party was a separate ticketed event at Disneyland from 6-11pm one night and featured trick or treating throughout the park, special parade and fireworks, character appearances, etc.  So much fun and I’d have to say that I probably liked it better than Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World.  The trick or treating was ridiculous with gobs of candy handed out in so many places in the park.  You couldn’t come away without a full bag of candy and not the cheapo candy either.

With the Halloween holiday, Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain at Disneyland had their Halloween overlays which were excellent!  Haunted Mansion with its Jack Skellington and the Nightmare before Christmas theme was one of the best things I’ve experienced in a long time.  I am flabbergasted that Disney’s Imagineers put that much into redoing a ride every fall to change it up.  I was expecting something cool but I was floored by everything that was changed.  It was the best.

To wrap it up, the Grand Californian resort didn’t disappoint either.  Talk about swanky!  No spinning door but my daughter was definitely pleased.  The woodsy feel and beautiful decor of the resort added to the overall experience that was pure delight.  I couldn’t have asked for more there.  The amenities and convenience to the parks couldn’t be matched.

Part 2, Hawaii bound!