I threw my heavy coat in the car at the last minute because it was soooo cold - only in the 30's and I knew there was going to be a bit of a walk to get to Smashburger at the outlet mall. I was prepared for the warmer weather and a nice dinner wearing a dress with a thin sweater but I spent most of the night freezing cold. I had purposely left the heavy coat in the car when we got to the airport and had forgotten to pack a jacket (oops #1). Our flight to Las Vegas was pretty unremarkable except that we actually ran into a large group from our hometown who were on their way to Vegas for the weekend. That was the largest group of Enidites I've ever been on a plane with.
We arrived into Las Vegas right on time and had a very brief wait for our luggage to arrive. We collected our bags and took a taxi to the Palazzo where we had dinner reservations at 9 pm. We checked our bags in with the bell desk and headed to Cut to see if they could seat us early. It was just after 8 pm. There was a 15-20 minute wait for a table so we poked around a little in the shops until the restaurant called. We had last eaten about 7 hours ago so even though it was dinner #2 for the day, we were all hungry.
There was good news and bad news at Cut this evening. The good news was the much anticipated return of True Japanese wagyu kobe beef - the last time we had dined at Cut, there was a ban on importing kobe beef from Japan so we had to settle for either Australian kobe or local "kobe". The rib eye wagyu kobe was $165 for 8 oz and the ny strip kobe was $135 for 6 oz. I opted for the smaller cut while Seth got the larger one. Having tasted both cuts together, I couldn't tell you I thought there was a big difference between the two types of Kobe on the menu - both were simply delicious.
The bad news was that Lisa's long-awaited truffle mac n cheese had to go truffle-less. For whatever reason, the area was "out" of truffles per our waiter. The mac n cheese still quite good. Seth and I shared the pork belly appetizer and we (Seth, Tim, and I) polished off 2 bottles of wine during dinner. What a fabulous start to our vacation - the first of many many memorable meals on this trip.
We went down to the taxi stand of the Palazzo and the bell desk brought our luggage to the taxi and we were off again to the airport. We had plenty of time when we returned to the airport after dinner. We by-passed a long line to check in because we had opted to fly first class with Hawaiian Airlines. I'm glad that we opted for this upgrade because it saved us time standing in line at check in and once our bags were checked, we headed to the Hawaiian Airlines club lounge which offered free internet, drinks, and snacks. We relaxed in the lounge for about 1 1/2 hours and then made our way to the gate. We waited for a good amount of time before being allowed to board. I thought this was our first taste of the "islands" as they seemed to be very relaxed and in no hurry whatsoever to get the plane boarded. About 15 minutes before the flight was to take off, we were finally allowed to board. We took our seats and I barely remember the flight after that. It was about 4 in the morning for us so we were very tired. I was asleep for the majority of the flight and only woke to hear the announcement that we were landing.
So I have to say that flying First Class on Hawaiian Airlines felt worth it to me - the expedited check in process and use of the club lounge was nice. We definitely had a lot more leg room in first class but the seats were old and it took several tries to get the seat to do what I wanted it to do. Having flown first class on Air France - with their electric fully-reclining seats - there was definitely a lot of room for improvement but I think we still got a good deal for the amount that we paid. I did try the "late snack" that the airline offered - it was a traditional shrimp rice porridge that I did not care for. The vegetable chips were good though.
We arrived into Honolulu right on time and were so excited. Now, no vacation is complete without a hiccup or two or three - here was two of our hiccups. Our first boo-boo was minor - we followed the signs to baggage claim and didn't realize that there was a shuttle to baggage claim. It was a fair walk to baggage claim but we were so happy to be in Hawaii and the majority of the airport had that recurring "open air" theme - we rather enjoyed the walk and warmer weather.
Again, I felt that the upgrade to first class was worthwhile but as a first class, our luggage was tagged "priority" and should have been the first to be off loaded. This was definitely not the case and we had to wait and wait and wait for our luggage. There was some technical difficulty with the carousel we were at and we were directed to the next one over to wait for our luggage. The carousel started up but no bags showed up. When the original carousel started to spit bags out again, we all migrated back to that carousel to wait. Eventually, we got our bags, but Seth's suitcase was missing - odd since we had no lay over - it was a direct flight from Las Vegas. We went to the lost luggage counter and made a report but when we made our way back to our travel buddies, Tim had found Seth's suitcase. Apparently while we were redirected to the 2nd carousel, someone had started taking suitcases off the belt before they had made their way around to us. How annoying, but we were on vacation and were about to get to our fabulous and lush resort.
We boarded the shuttle to Thrifty car rental and had a smooth process to get a black dodge charger. Putting all our luggage in the car was a bit of a challenge but with a little pushing and shoving, all bags but one fit in the trunk so Tim and I sat with a suitcase on the seat between us. We had forgotten to bring our GPS but my google map GPS worked pretty well to get us to Aulani. The traffic was a little slow on the freeway but that didn't last very long. It was just before 8 am and with only one u-turn (we missed the entrance to the resort on Ali'inui Drive) made, we arrived at the resort just around 8:30 am and pulled into valet. As DVC members, parking was free for us and we were instructed to check in and then return to move the car to the self-parking lot.
We were greeted by the cast members and turned over to a female cast member who offered us fruit water (see the "hidden mickey" in the picture) and bestowed upon each of us either a tuberose lei or kukui nut necklace. Lisa had mentioned at the airport that she had "wanted a lei" (amongst some chuckling from us) so she was happy to receive a wonderfully fragrant lei at the resort. We were walked into the grand open-air lobby where pictures were taken and the CM explained the 2 sides of the entrance...the "male" side with the "jagged", "rougher", and "sharper" angles to the right and the "female" side with the "smoother", "relaxed", "rounder' angles to the left. Straight ahead was the gorgeous view of the property including the volcano and ocean beyond that.
Our rooms were not yet ready so our first order of business was to acquaint Lisa and Tim to the DVC mugs. It was a long night and we were looking forward to some coffee. I purchased 4 mugs for $19 each (forgot my DVC discount!) and we helped ourselves to something to drink which we sipped on as we made our way downstairs and strolled past the pools. We found ourselves at Ama Ama restaurant and decided to have breakfast. While we waited for our breakfast, we remembered our rental car still sitting outside so Seth went and moved the car to guest parking. Breakfast was ok - Seth and I shared the bagel and lox. Lisa really loved her crepes and ended up having this same breakfast for the next few days. The CMs were very accommodating to Lisa's severe tree nut allergy - our waiter, Ian, even went to get one of the chefs to come out and discuss Lisa's breakfast options. There was a small snafu when Lisa's crepes came out with granola but before Lisa could eat it, another CM came and took the bowl back and replaced it with a crepe that didn't have granola on it.
I had gotten a call during breakfast that our room was ready. Lisa had insisted that we take the ocean view studio so we went back to the front desk to exchange our room keys. Their studio wasn't ready yet so we went to ours and got our luggage and relaxed for a bit. I did run down to the DVC preview center to get another copy of my DVC card that I couldn't find at home. With just my driver's license, I got a new DVC card but couldn't get Seth one since he wasn't with me and I didn't have his driver's license.
I searched local restaurants on Open Table and saw that there were openings at the Monkeypod Kitchen just across the street for lunch so we walked from Aulani to the restaurant - a very easy walk. The decision maker was the garlic truffle fries on the menu. We were very very happy with our lunch at what was to become affectionately knows as "Monkeypox". I had the South Shore Sangria, an order of the garlic truffle fries, and then shared the Bourgeois pizza (lobster, wild mushroom, white sauce, truffle oil, and parmesan) with Seth.
Our lunch was delicious and eating out on the patio was wonderful. We finished up lunch with a slice of their specialty: pie. I had the banana cream pie and it was excellent.
We later had to Google what a "monkeypod" was - it's a very common tree in Hawaii and one that we came to recognize easily for the rest of our stay.
We returned to Aulani and finished sorting out our rooms as Lisa and Tim's studio was now ready. We rested for the remainder of the afternoon and met up just after sundown for a leisurely stroll next door to the JW Marriott for dinner at Azul. The menu was Italian and I had the gnocchi with their homemade bolognese sauce. We shared another bottle of wine with dinner. I'm not a big fan of al dente pasta and at the recommendation of the waitress - opted for the gnocchi which was quite good. We were pretty wiped out by this time and retired to our studios calling it an early night.
A couple of notes about our studio. The view was wonderful. We had a queen sized bed which is smaller than we are used to. The weather was so nice outside that, like most people, we left our balcony door open all the time - even through the night. Seth and I both prefer a cooler room (65 degrees or less) to sleep in and this posed a problem at Aulani. We tried each night to set the thermostat to 65 but the room temperature never budged from 73. I think that's what bothered me each night - the comforter on the bed is way too heavy for a 73 degree room - I found myself cooling off, pulling the covers over me, then awakening a little later to kick the covers off because I was too warm. The wireless internet was great - very fast. We were given a pin at check-in that I didn't pay attention to and later realized that it was to apologize for the ongoing construction at the resort. I was fast asleep by 9:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment