I was ambivalent leaving Disney Aulani. We dragged out our stay taking advantage of the hospitality suite, going down the slides and around the lazy river a couple more times, as well as getting several more PhotoPass photos, before moving literally next door to the Beach Villas.
We had somewhat mistakenly thought the Beach Villas was the Marriott Vacation Club because the photos on VRBO were similar, and the prices were close. Marriott has more fun pools, but the Beach Villa was great in its own respect.
The view as we walked into our suite 1406 was breathtaking.
Beyond the wall sized patio doors was the endless Pacific. Whales breached the water in the distance and the occasional boat went by. The sunsets were unparalleled. We enjoyed every meal on the patio, or lanai, as they call it in Hawaii.
The condo was a departure from the busyness and crowd at Aulani. There wasn’t any schedule to see the characters. The pools were quiet, and the lagoon beach was more private – no rows of beach loungers and umbrellas. The condo itself was a two bedroom and probably twice as large as what we had at Aulani. All finishes were first class and new. There were two pools accessed by walking through meticulously manicured gardens, koi ponds and bridges. The fun pools with rounded decks connected by a channel that went under a bridge attached to a coarse shallow beach for kids was unfortunately not heated and too cold to really enjoy, especially for the kids. Oddly, the hot tubs of these pools was way too hot. The “quiet” pool was rectangular with a lane for lap swimming, but perfect in temperature playing in. The hot tub to this pool was more comfortable for a soak afterwards. We spend most of our time here with swimming with the kids.
Everett is now able to stay above water! He’s been able to doggy paddle, or tiger-tiger, as named after a Youtube video of this, consecutively to just barely pop his head above water for a breath. He still hates the back float and won’t do it without a life jacket. He has no problems on his front whenever he has his goggles on. We bought some rings for diving which he really likes, but needs a good push down to the bottom to overcome his buoyancy.
The water in the lagoon was rougher than at Aulani, partially because the weather was windier, but also because the lagoon was smaller, so waves and surf carried further into the beach.
Whether it was because we were now well settled in to our vacation and routine, or if it was the new condo compared to Aulani, staying at Beach Villas felt much less hectic. We took a walk over to Paradise Cove a couple of times in the morning in an attempt to see turtles. We ran into the Prevosts along the way. The kids were happy to see their friends, and we had good company even though there were no turtle sightings, I think because high tide was not high enough. The little Paradise Cove was cute and fun for the kids to play at. We made a couple more trips over to the shopping centers and walks over to Aulani to visit with the Prevosts.
We discover one day a stage being set up between Aulani and the adjacent Four Seasons resort. It turned out American Idol was filming there and we took advantage!
Again it was sad but exciting to leave the Beach Villas for our next destination, Hilton Hawaiian Village at Waikiki. We soaked up as much view as we could before checking out for the next part of the vacation.
