‘LIVE!’ from Aulani – Greetings from Kelly Ripa
posted on February 20th, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
“LIVE! with Kelly” is at Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa, this week leading up to the wedding of the winning couple of “LIVE’s Hawaiian Dream Wedding Giveaway” on Friday. Daniel Dae Kim from “Hawaii Five-O” co-hosts with Kelly today, and other co-hosts this week will include “Glee” star Matthew Morrison on Tuesday, Honolulu native and “Dancing with the Stars” judge Carrie Ann Inaba on Wednesday, and Mark Consuelos on Thursday and Friday.
Each “LIVE! With Kelly” broadcast will be set against the backdrop of Aulani’s beautiful beachfront lagoon, and throughout the week “LIVE!” will showcase the best of the island of O‘ahu and highlight all that Aulani has to offer.
‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ Visits Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa
posted on February 10th, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
The fun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” met the fun of Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, recently when AFV went on location at the Hawai`i resort.
AFV host Tom Bergeron took time during the shoot to slide down Tubestone Curl into Waikolohe Stream …
…and to join the dancers of the “Starlit Hui.”
Looks like he had a great time! Aulani will be featured in two upcoming episodes of AFV, airing May 6 and May 13 at 7 p.m./6 p.m. Central.
Aulani Excursions Showcase Hawai‘i With a Touch of Disney Magic
posted on January 31st, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
Although it’s tempting never to leave the Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, grounds and adjoining beach, the resort offers an appealing lineup of off-property excursions to illuminate the wonders of Hawai‘i for all ages and tastes. Many of the excursions have been specially designed by Adventures by Disney and feature knowledgeable Adventure Guides weaving stories and magic into the experience.
I haven’t had a chance to experience all the excursions on offer – it’s a lineup that includes Hawaiian cooking lessons, hiking to Waimea Falls, horseback riding at Kualoa Ranch … and I’ve heard especially good things about the Hawaiian Fire Surf School conducted by Honolulu City Firefighters.
I did get a chance to go on a catamaran excursion with some visiting travel writers the last time I was at Aulani, and it was great! We spotted a couple of pods of dolphins (or maybe it was just one playful bunch, trying to fake us out) and, after getting a terrific distant view of Aulani from its ocean side, we went snorkeling a bit further up the coast. The waters off the coast of Oahu offer a sensationally colorful array of fish and other sea life and, while we were snorkeling close to the surface, members of the crew dove deeper and brought up sea urchins, sea cucumbers and an unusually chunky starfish for us to look at.
Catamaran Captain Doug also told us that his craft is rated as dolphin-and-whale friendly, consciously keeping a safe distance from these fun and fascinating creatures while still giving us the opportunity to view them. It’s the kind of thing that helps make a Disney Aulani excursion special.
When Five Nights at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa are Not Enough…A Special Offer
posted on January 24th, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
UPDATE: The deadline for booking this “Sixth Night Free” offer has been extended! You may now book anytime through Saturday, Mar. 31 for travel March 1-17 and April 15 – June 9.
Visiting Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa on O`ahu, is definitely one of the top benefits of my job. And each time I visit, I’m reminded of how much there is to do at the resort – pools and water slides, restaurants and lounges, entertainment, excursions, Aunty’s Beach House kids club, Laniwai spa, etc., etc.
So how many days do you need to take it all in? If your guess is somewhere in the vicinity of a week, I’ve got news for you. From now through February 29, Aulani is offering a sixth night free, plus daily continental breakfast (in the fun ‘Ōlelo Room lounge), for guests booking a five-consecutive-night stay.
To take advantage of the offer, visit DisneyAulani.com or call toll-free (800) 824-1146 and mention offer code E7D. The offer is available for stays most nights* from March 1 through March 17, 2012, and April 15 through May 31, 2012.
And here, for your enlightenment and enjoyment, is some additional information:
*The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Excludes Resort fees and taxes. Not valid in combination with any other discounts or offers. Offer excludes suites and three-bedroom Grand Villas. Additional per adult charges may apply if more than two (2) adults per room. Offer applied once per reservation and not valid for previously booked rooms. Check for offers for other lengths of stay. Limit two (2) rooms per reservation and subject to room occupancy limitations. Advance reservations required. Subject to restrictions and change without notice. Breakfast entitlements expire upon checkout, and are for guests ages 3 and older in the traveling party.
Show How You and Your Family Live Healthy and You Could Win a Trip to Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa!
posted on January 17th, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
If your New Year’s resolution was to live a healthier lifestyle, you’ve got to check out the TRYit! Photo Contest from Disney Magic of Healthy Living, a program aimed at creating healthier generations by inspiring kids and families to discover a healthy new world full of flavor and fun! Show how you and your family strive to be your best by TRYing new foods, fun moves or incorporating simple changes in your everyday life and you could win a trip to Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa!
Do you and your family get together once a week to try new, healthy recipes? Or maybe you’re waking up early on the weekends to learn a sport you haven’t played? Whatever you and your family are doing to stay healthy, Disney Magic of Healthy Living wants to hear about it!
Send photos and explain in the caption the ways you and your family are TRYing to stay healthy and active. And as if getting in shape, spending time with your family and being healthy isn’t enough of a motivator to TRY something new, how about a grand-prize that will send you and your family packing to a tropical paradise?
Disney Magic of Healthy Living will choose five families from all the photo submissions to serve as “Magic of Healthy Living Ambassadors” at the first-ever TRYathalon at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa. Families will compete in a two-day competition filled with fun obstacles, thrilling challenges and special surprise guests.
And each Grand Prize-winning family will also have the opportunity to give others greater access to healthy living by helping to select a community who will receive a grant from KaBOOM! for Imagination Playground in a Box, a breakthrough mobile play space designed to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play in communities.
Five runners-up will also receive a Disney Consumer Products Healthy Gift Basket, and $100 Disney Store gift certificates will be awarded to five families selected as “Voter’s Choice” on the Family.com website.
Time is of the essence – the TRYit! Photo Contest from Disney Magic of Healthy Living is only open until March 12! For details on criteria and eligibility, and to enter, visit Family.com/TRYit.
No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Open only to persons, who are, as of Entry, the age of majority, and who are legal residents of, and physically located within, the 50 United States or D.C. and who are the parent/legal guardians of at least one child between the ages of 6 and 14. Entries must be received between 12:01 a.m. (PT) on 1/17/12 and 11:59:59 p.m. (PT) on 3/12/12. Click here for Official Rules.
A Dream (Suite) Come True in Disneyland Park
posted on January 11th, 2012 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
It’s still an experience money can’t buy, but (if it doesn’t sound too much like bragging) let me tell you how my family and I got to stay overnight in the Disneyland Dream Suite.
You know how sometimes at a party you’ll be given a half of a ticket with a number on it while the other half goes into a bucket for prize drawing? I had one of those ticket stubs at a big gathering of Disneyland Resort cast members. And my number was picked from hundreds of others for the overnight Dream Suite stay.
I was especially thrilled by this because in 2008, when Dream Suite stays were being awarded to random guests as part of The Year of a Million Dreams, I spent a lot of time in the Suite, showing it off to news media as part of my job in Public Relations. More than once I thought, “How can I arrange to let my wife, son, daughter and granddaughter at least have a look at this incredible place?” And then…I got the opportunity to actually stay there with them overnight!
The Disneyland Dream Suite, as you may know, is located upstairs from Pirates of the Caribbean. The space was originally planned as a private apartment for Walt Disney to entertain special guests, but he passed away before it could be completed. For two decades, beginning in 1987, it was the Disney Gallery. (And yeah, I did PR for that, too, when it first opened.) Preparing it for The Year of a Million Dreams, a team of Imagineers did an incredible job recreating Walt’s original vision for a luxury suite.
Every part of the Suite is beautifully designed and full of surprises. The two bedrooms are themed, respectively, to Adventureland and Frontierland, based on their proximity to those lands. The Suite is spiced up with special effects – a “goodnight kiss” in each of the main rooms that can be switched on as bedtime nears.
Back in 2008, I thought the most over-the-top aspect of the Suite was the bathtub in the Master Bath, decorated with a stained-glass window and lit by Imagineered starlight. My granddaughter certainly agreed.
And for those of you who remember the Disney Gallery, I have to report that I think the Suite balcony is still THE best place to watch “Fantasmic!” I stayed out on that balcony past park closing to watch the last guests depart, and went out again before park opening to watch the first guests coming in. When you’re a cast member, there’s something special about being able to witness the reluctance of guests to leave Disneyland park at night and the eagerness with which they enter in the morning. I had a special vantage point to watch that.
And when the last guests had departed that night and some of us had put on our PJs, we took a walking tour of Disneyland-after-closing.
The 999 Happy Haunts of Haunted Mansion Holiday were our neighbors, so of course we stopped by for a visit. My daughter even posed for a photo in their…um… driveway.
Needless to say, it was a very, very special experience for all of us. I’m happy to be able, in a small way, to share it with you.
It Isn’t Just About Shopping – The Kālepa Story at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
posted on October 14th, 2011 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
Many guests at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa will naturally want to take home souvenirs of their visit. They’ll also want to know where they can get sunscreen, cold drinks and snacks.
So Aulani has shops but not ordinary hotel/resort-type shops. Like the rest of Aulani, inspired by the traditions of Hawai`i, the shops at Aulani have their own stories to tell.
Yes, there are lots of Aulani-exclusive items available at Kālepa’s Store just off the Aulani lobby, and The Lava Shack at poolside, but you might want to look in just to see how they take their inspiration from the old stores that still dot the island of O`ahu.
Kālepa is the Hawaiian word for “merchant” or “peddler.” It literally translates as “to strike the flag” because in traditional times, salesmen hoisted a small flag to show they were ready to sell. In the story of Aulani, the Kālepa of Kālepa’s Store might be Aunty’s father-in-law, said to have had a store in Ko Olina long before Aulani was built.
Like the traditional Kālepa stores on O`ahu, Kālepa’s Store and The Lava Shack have some whimsical “found object” décor touches such as old license plates and vintage black and white photographs. A Grand Opening cast member at Aulani actually recognized her mother as a child in one of the photos.
See the posts below for more from Aulani:
- Fairy Tales Come True at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
- Some Favorite Eats at Aulani
- Just Like Nemo! – Learning from Mr. Ray at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
Just Like Nemo! – Learning from Mr. Ray at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
posted on October 7th, 2011 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
We’ve already taken a look at the snorkeling in Rainbow Reef at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, but the finny residents of Rainbow Reef are small fries compared to the stingrays Aulani guests can encounter in the waters of Makai Preserve.
The little boy’s face was turned partly away from the camera, so you sort of have to imagine the look on his face as the ray sucks the food out of his hand. Is “thrilled” the right word?
A portion of the fee Aulani guests pay to experience Makai Preserve goes to support research and conservation efforts in Hawai`i through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.
Laniwai – A Spa With the Magic of Aulani
posted on September 19th, 2011 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
OK, so sue me. I have to say, I am not a spa guy.
But I also have to admit that Laniwai, A Disney Spa, is very cool. As with a few other very special and unique parts of Aulani, just walking through Laniwai is an exciting, surprising experience.
Here, Spa Director Lucia Rodriguez takes you on a tour of some of the wonder of Laniwai. From the moment you enter, you’re touched by the magic of the place: the water wall, the wish stones, the transformation rotunda.
And I’ve never seen anything like the outdoor hydrotherapy garden. Some of those features, especially the six different rain showers, are very temping … even for someone who’s not a spa guy.
In addition, there’s no keeping the teens away from Painted Sky, their own spa attached to Laniwai. It’s a place for relaxation, sure. But some days, it’s lively as a club!
It’s a Real Beach House! Aunty Makes a Place for Kids at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
posted on September 13th, 2011 by John McClintock, Disney Public Relations
Now that Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, is open and vacationing families are discovering and enjoying it, I have to say that one of the great surprises for me, even after supposedly being told everything about it, is Aunty’s Beach House. This is the “kid’s club” at Aulani, where children hang out while their parents are doing other things, but it’s a unique experience: a little piece of island lifestyle tucked into the resort.
For one thing, it really does look like someone’s beachside home. It’s easy to believe that Aunty and Uncle have lived here for years, collecting and displaying the souvenirs of their life and travels together while creating a cozy place for younger family members to play and learn.
Once you enter, you’re immersed in the rooms of the house – each one serving as a different kind of play space. There’s a dress-up area in the living room (which also includes a magical fireplace and skylight, both featuring surprising images that appear unexpectedly). There are video games in separate rooms targeted to older and younger children.
A tropical storm can be created right outside the windows of Uncle’s Study when children need an excuse to stay indoors and watch movies. There’s also Uncle’s Garage, where kids can build fun stuff; there’s a place for them to gather ‘round while Aunty tells stories; and there’s a place for a visiting “professor” to help them conduct really messy experiments.
Of course, I never doubted that Aunty’s Beach House would be a fun place for kids and a place where parents could confidently leave children in the care of Aunty, Uncle and the members of their extended ‘ohana. I just wasn’t fully prepared for this fully imagined Beach House experience. Kids at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, really do have a house of their own to play in and make new friends.
Disney resorts offer something for every member of the family, and yet … Aunty’s Beach House is one of those features that make me wish I was six years old again. How about you?
