The resort does an excellent job of catering to both kids and grownups and its not overly kiddie by any means.
Breakfast was good, but at 32 bucks a pop, it’s a lil pricey for all you can shovel into your face. They had Mickey waffles, so for me, it was totally worth the arm and a leg.
Stuffed, it was time to explore the resort grounds, and by that I mean plopping ourselves on beach chairs in front of the pool and soaking up the sun until our friends arrived.
They had great timing. We had finally digested out breakfast so it was time for swimming, water sliding, lounging in the lazy river and playing in the water playground designed for kids …. but we are big kids so it was cool =)
While I was showing them around the joint, we stumbled across a place where you could feed Hawaiian Brown Stingrays. We inquired about the cost, but with it costing $50 to feed them stinky fish, we decided to just watch other people do it.
We did, however, pay the nominal $20 fee to snorkel, shark free, in the Rainbow Reef. It was so cool to swim through schools of brightly colored fish. One even looked me eye to mask. The water though was chilly, so after about 30 minutes we were over it.
The grounds at Aulani are amazing and the imaginers did a heck of job. One of our favorite places to lounge and take in the views was from the double decker hot tub infinity pool.
The inner kid came out in all of us and we played in the water until we were pruny all over. Playing in the sun and water really makes ya hungry, so in the spirit of vacation we ordered food, pool side!
After a few more hours of lounging and exploring, it was time to head in to get washed up for dinner.
We all walked next door to the JW Hotel for dinner at Azuls. It was fab! The setting was picturesque (read sunset in the gardens), the service impeccable and the food was amazing. The hotel even has mini hammer head sharks and string rays swimming around it! Sometimes fancy restaurants complicate their food and I’m left either confused, unimpressed or starving. This was not the case here. The prices were also very reasonable. As much as I liked Ama Ama, we got more food for our money at Azuls and we will def. be coming back!
They had a great prix fix menu that our server graciously let us mix and match because the menu was so hard to chose from!
For starters, Chris got seared tuna with a yellow tomato gazpacho.
I got Steamed Mussels: Spanish Chorizo, Azul’s Spicy Tomato Broth, Rosemary Foccacia Bread.
Marissa got Carpaccio: Grass-fed Free Ranged Beef, Parmigianino, Balsamic Citrunette Dressing.
Chris got Lobster Bisque: Shrimp and Lobster Meat, Chives Infused Oil. Our server told us it takes the chef eight hours to make this soup. It took Chris less than eight minutes to eat it!
In between our meals we got an interesting and floral tasting pallet cleanser. Marissa looked down at said “Oh look at that cute little caper!” Perplexed why a caper would be in our sorbet, I looked down at my dish to find a frozen blueberry. This is what I love Marissa.
For our meals, I got a mozzarella stuffed, double cut pork chop in a creamy mushroom sauce.
My Chris got Beef Tenderloin: Grilled Tenderloin of Grass Fed Free Ranged Beef, Caramelized Shallot Confit, Classic Port Wine Sauce.
Her Chris got the Surf & Turf Special: Grilled 4oz. Fillet Herb Grilled Jumbo Shrimp stuffed with a scallop, Mango Chutney, Citrus Butter Sauce.
Even with all the goodies in our hotel room, we all couldn’t pass up dessert. Well and that fact that dessert came with all of our meals except for Marissa and my Chris’ hehe.
Chris B and I both got a chocolate opera cake and the pastry chef sent out a fancy desert that was not on the menu for me and my Chris’ anniversary.
Marissa ordered the best dessert: Maui gold pineapple tart tatin with warm crème anglaise and caramelized Maui pineapples and macadamia nut liqueur, topped with macadamia nut ice cream.
Today was so fun, I cannot wait to do it again tomorrow!
Today was so fun, I cannot wait to do it again tomorrow!
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