Hindsight is 20/20 right? When a deal popped up for an Aulani staycation in March, we decided to only do one night since we planned to do another staycation in the summer. Well, our staycation weekend and the arrival of COVID 19 lined up perfectly. Looking back, we are so thankful we could take this trip, but man I wish we would have stayed longer. We've been in lockdown pretty much ever since.

Aulani is what I call "fake Hawaii", but that doesn't make it any less amazing! It's Hawaii with Disney magic. We had so much fun playing in the pools. We didn't even do much exploring of the resort or even stick our toes in the sand because, well, you know... we thought we were coming back shortly. I cannot wait to go back soon!

The last part of the boy’s Christmas was to visit Aulani for dinner. We really want to stay here, but we figured dinner was a nice way to get our Disney fix in the meantime.

On select nights, they have the Menehune Mischief Character dinner where Uncle tells stories and you get to meet some characters. In true Disney fashion, everything was extremely well done.

We arrived a little early to walk around and explore the resort. It was decorated for Christmas which made it extra fun.

Just like other character dining meals at Disney World, you take a picture with one character (this one was Donald) while you are waiting for your table.

Like most Disney Character meals, it’s becomes a little chaotic at times. I think the best tip I have is to leave the camera on the table so you are ready to go at a moment’s notice. We also start watching the flow of characters because they will all follow the same sequence of tables. We’ve also asked the character attendant too if we were worried. Anyways, Rhett started off a little timid, but quickly warmed up. I’m not sure if it was because the restaurants wasn’t full, but Chip and Dale came to our table a few times.

As far as the food, I was pretty impressed with the buffet. It was full of seafood, sushi, a carving station and a awesome dessert bar. We definitely ate our money worth. The Chef was great and walked me down the line telling me things Rhett couldn’t have due to his egg allergy and things he could make special for him. I was pretty impressed and Rhett was able to eat fruit and pizza. Landon ate about 10 dinner rolls.

We also got our beloved juice from the Ohana breakfast at the Polynesian. Then our waitress told us it was local so now we always have some in the fridge! It’s POG (Passion-O-Guava Nectar) and it’s the most delicious thing in the world! As Trip said, “it taste so good there is no way it’s good for you!”

Throughout dinner there was a little show/ story telling. Honestly, it wasn’t anything too amazing, but the kids enjoyed it. It was interactive so they got to shake bananas and walk around the restaurant with Chip and Dale which they thought was fun.

We ended the night with the boys spending some of their Christmas money in the gift shop. Landon picked a Hawaii Mickey keychain for his book bag and Rhett picked Hei Hei plush from Moana.

We are looking forward to another visit to Aulani soon!