dachsie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
Hey all! Am home from my trip and wanted to do a trip report for you. I haven’t done this before so bear with me. But I got so much help in planning by reading others reports, I wanted to hopefully help someone else. My co-worker/friend and I are audiologists so we got permission from our employer to go to a conference on the Big Island. Both our names are Kim so I could have named it “Kim & Kim take on Hawaii”. LOL
Anyway, preview of the report is Big Island first then to Oahu. We packed in a lot for 11 days and had the trip of a lifetime. Neither of us are sure we could ever go back so wanted to do as much as possible. I took so many pics so will try to get as many in as possible so you may see multiple posts for same day since you are limited to 10 in a post.
Day 1 - Arrival in Kona
Woke up at 3amCST to head for airport in Austin. We didn’t plan to until 3:30 but were excited so both woke up before alarm. I spent the night at Kim’s house and her husband brought us to airport. We flew from Austin to Denver and thought we had a decent layover but only enough time to grab a sandwich and the were calling the flight to board. We both had aisle seats next to each other and soon we were off to Kona. Long plane ride to say the least. Kept busy watching movies, playing on iPad and chatting with seat mates a bit. Found out my seat mates were headed to same resort - Hilton Waikoloa Village. Finally we approached the Island and my seat mates helped me get some great pics out the window. Landed and retrieved luggage
Not sure why the plane pics are sideways. Not sure how to fix either, sorry.
After we got the luggage we took shuttle to Avis for car rental. Our employer made us cancel all reservations we had made and had to use their travel agent so we originally were going to be at conference hotel - Marriott Waikoloa Beach - and we had a small SUV booked but the changed us to mid-size car. So while at counter I said to Kim that it’s too bad we had to give up the SUV rental and the lady heard us and gave us a GMC Acadia. Score!! We loaded up and headed to Waikoloa.
Arrived at resort and I stood in line to check in, only to find out we had to check in to the Oean Tower building instead. So we unloaded the luggage, parked car and then had to transport it to the Ocean Tower. They have 3 means of getting there - walking, boat, or monorail. It’s a 62 acre resort so we took the monorail. The car rental lady said it was the Disneyland of Hawaii and we told her we were going to Aulani and she said we were going to the WDW of Hawaii too. LOL
Check-in took a bit because the lady could not find the credit card from my employer that was to pay for room but she finally took info and we would figure it out in the morning when I could call in. So we get to the room and have a perfect view of Mauna Kea.
the beds were a little rickety and one was more so than other so Kim took that one and I the other. We were hungry so went downstairs to the Boat Landing Cantina. We got the Kalua pork tacos and the fish tacos and each had one of each. Both were really good but I liked the pork ones better. Then we decided to take the boat ride around to see the resort.
went to other side and back and we were lucky enough that we were catching the sunset on the way back. Stay tuned......
Anyway, preview of the report is Big Island first then to Oahu. We packed in a lot for 11 days and had the trip of a lifetime. Neither of us are sure we could ever go back so wanted to do as much as possible. I took so many pics so will try to get as many in as possible so you may see multiple posts for same day since you are limited to 10 in a post.
Day 1 - Arrival in Kona
Woke up at 3amCST to head for airport in Austin. We didn’t plan to until 3:30 but were excited so both woke up before alarm. I spent the night at Kim’s house and her husband brought us to airport. We flew from Austin to Denver and thought we had a decent layover but only enough time to grab a sandwich and the were calling the flight to board. We both had aisle seats next to each other and soon we were off to Kona. Long plane ride to say the least. Kept busy watching movies, playing on iPad and chatting with seat mates a bit. Found out my seat mates were headed to same resort - Hilton Waikoloa Village. Finally we approached the Island and my seat mates helped me get some great pics out the window. Landed and retrieved luggage
Not sure why the plane pics are sideways. Not sure how to fix either, sorry.
After we got the luggage we took shuttle to Avis for car rental. Our employer made us cancel all reservations we had made and had to use their travel agent so we originally were going to be at conference hotel - Marriott Waikoloa Beach - and we had a small SUV booked but the changed us to mid-size car. So while at counter I said to Kim that it’s too bad we had to give up the SUV rental and the lady heard us and gave us a GMC Acadia. Score!! We loaded up and headed to Waikoloa.
Arrived at resort and I stood in line to check in, only to find out we had to check in to the Oean Tower building instead. So we unloaded the luggage, parked car and then had to transport it to the Ocean Tower. They have 3 means of getting there - walking, boat, or monorail. It’s a 62 acre resort so we took the monorail. The car rental lady said it was the Disneyland of Hawaii and we told her we were going to Aulani and she said we were going to the WDW of Hawaii too. LOL
Check-in took a bit because the lady could not find the credit card from my employer that was to pay for room but she finally took info and we would figure it out in the morning when I could call in. So we get to the room and have a perfect view of Mauna Kea.
the beds were a little rickety and one was more so than other so Kim took that one and I the other. We were hungry so went downstairs to the Boat Landing Cantina. We got the Kalua pork tacos and the fish tacos and each had one of each. Both were really good but I liked the pork ones better. Then we decided to take the boat ride around to see the resort.
went to other side and back and we were lucky enough that we were catching the sunset on the way back. Stay tuned......
Last edited: