Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section part 2 THIS SECTION COMPLETED 2/3 - Page 18 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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what a wonderful Grand Villa - so glad you were able to tour it and take photos to share!
I liked the fact that DVC Members could tour the Grand Villa a couple of times a week - very different to the Grand Floridian, where you really luck out if one's empty, as that's the only way to tour one there.
Now, see that seems doable.......with the bottle of wine
Well, I thought all 12 people would be bringing a bottle of wine with them each... After all, you can plenty of stocks from the shop over the road from Aulani!
Thursday 7 November – part two: Minnie, you’re such a romantic!
Once we’d finished in the Grand Villa, we headed back to the room for a short break, as our character breakfast at Makahiki was fast approaching. We headed down there, stopping to get some photos in the lobby on the way…
The way it works at Makahiki is that you check in, then get your photo taken with Mickey. This is a package that you pay for ($32 I think if I’m remembering right for an 8 x 6 photo and two smaller 6 x 4 ones, which we declined), but the Cast Member grabbed my camera and got some shots for us…
We were taken inside just a few minutes later, and what a wealth of options awaited us here. We didn’t even get as far as the section with the pastries and Mickey waffles, as we were stopped by all the other options. I started off with some cheese and fresh fruit, then moved on to some strawberries and Hawaiian honey yoghurt, followed by some of the hot items, including the vegetable omelette, which was pre-made and had some excellent taste to it. You could also get a fresh omelette made for you while you waited. I tried the Mahi Mahi, which was a bit dry, the hash browns, which were fine, and the egg white and vegetable frittata, not something I’d rush to try again.
I also went for the eggs benedict, but when I got back to the table, Mark warned me against it, as it had meat in it. I collared our server Natalie later on, and asked if it was usual for eggs benedict to have meat in it, as that wasn’t something I’d come across before, and I could’ve ended up eating it without realising what it contained. She said she was going to raise that with the chef, as apparently there’s a similar issue with the minestrone soup, which contains meat too.
I asked if I could get a version without the meat, and she went off to sort it out. It was quite a wait, but my goodness, it was worth it. It came out with spinach, and to me, this was 100 times better than trying to put meat with it. Natalie agreed, and said she much preferred it, and she’d pass my comments on to the chef.
Now on to the characters. We’d already seen Mickey, and sadly they were lacking in number here, with only Goofy and Minnie working the tables, which isn’t what we’re used to from a character meal. Having said that, we certainly got our money’s worth from both of them. I think we saw them each twice for proper photos, and we saw them at least once more as they walked past and said hello to us.
The first encounter with Goofy was quite something. He grabbed hold of me, gave me a huge hug and wouldn’t let go, then after the photos, I got another one. Had we been in Disney World, I would’ve said that it was almost as if he knew me, he was that familiar…
Minnie was charming as always…
… but it was the second round of visits that were the highlight. Goofy absolutely loved Mark’s T-shirt.
Obviously he wasn’t paying attention during his first visit…
Minnie did too…
Now here I need to add in a bit of background. This is Aunty’s Breakfast Celebration, the same Aunty who runs the Beach House where children can go for supervised activities. This Aunty was perfect, just as Mark said like a real life Lilo, and so much fun.
Anyway, she did fun stuff with the kids, like parades around the room, and even napkin twirling. Gosh, I wonder where they got that idea from? In that respect, it reminded me of a cross between ‘Ohana and Chef Mickey’s. She played the ukulele and was generally a lot of fun, and really the life and soul of the party.
During one of the parades, she stopped dead to read Mark’s shirt, and actually came over to explain afterwards, saying she doesn’t usually do that, but she’s a huge Grumpy fan, so she wanted to see what it said.
So, she already knew who we were when she asked if there were any honeymoon couples or any couples celebrating anniversaries. Both Mark and I put up our hands, even though he was sitting at the table, and I was up at the buffet, and of course she came over to see us, asking how many years. This caught Minnie’s attention, and she came over to congratulate us. For a moment, we couldn’t work out what she was trying to do, as she grabbed both our hands, and then we grasped it – she wanted a photo with our wedding rings. Such a romantic!
We did ask her where her ring was, and she told us that we needed to go and talk to Mickey about it. As Mark said, he holds all the money!
I think I can probably sum this meal up best of all by the fact that, at the end of it, Mark asked where on earth the last hour had gone. It really had flown by, a sure indication that we’d had a great time. The food had been good, I’d say better than dinner, and we’d had an absolute ball with the characters. All in all, we thought it was good value. It was $32 each, a heck of a lot cheaper than the Princess Storybook breakfast we’d had just a few days earlier.
Aunty’s Breakfast Celebration at Makahiki
Food 8½ 8½
Service 9 8½
Atmosphere 10 9½
Value for money 9 9½
What a great breakfast! Breakfast certainly seems like the meal to have at Makahiki. Interesting about the eggs Benedict. I've NEVER encountered a vegetarian version of this without asking to have the ham or Canadian bacon left off! It's occasionally offered with smoked salmon instead of the meat, but the traditional preparation is with Canadian bacon. The same with minestrone. I always ask what the soup base is, as it is often made with beef stock! More and more I see it on menus made with veggie stock, which is very nice. Even risotto you have to be careful with, as it's traditionally made with chicken stock. At any rate, it's nice that they made the eggs for you with the spinach.
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What a great breakfast! Breakfast certainly seems like the meal to have at Makahiki. Interesting about the eggs Benedict. I've NEVER encountered a vegetarian version of this without asking to have the ham or Canadian bacon left off! It's occasionally offered with smoked salmon instead of the meat, but the traditional preparation is with Canadian bacon. The same with minestrone. I always ask what the soup base is, as it is often made with beef stock! More and more I see it on menus made with veggie stock, which is very nice. Even risotto you have to be careful with, as it's traditionally made with chicken stock. At any rate, it's nice that they made the eggs for you with the spinach.
It's obviously very different on each side of the pond, as the usual presentation for minestrone here is vegetarian. I do usually check, but the veggie symbol is present most of the time. It's the same with eggs benedict. It's good to know things are very different in the States - forewarned is forearmed...
Just catching up...the grand villa is just gorgeous! And at $80 per person, per night is quite doable...As if!
What a great breakfast! All the choices sounded yummy! I think the Eggs Benedict with spinach would be delicious! But yes, traditionally, in the states it includes Canadian bacon. Love that you had so much interaction with the characters! Their Hawaiian outfits are so cute!
Just catching up...the grand villa is just gorgeous! And at $80 per person, per night is quite doable...As if!
Sadly it's not $80 per person, it's 80 points per person on those calculations. I just priced it up for a value season week long stay in cash in a Grand Villa and it comes up at $14,550, which works out to $173 per person per night if you had 12 people... bit of a difference...
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What a great breakfast! All the choices sounded yummy! I think the Eggs Benedict with spinach would be delicious! But yes, traditionally, in the states it includes Canadian bacon. Love that you had so much interaction with the characters! Their Hawaiian outfits are so cute!
They're lovely, aren't they? I just wish they had a few more characters out there. I get not having the princesses, but Lilo definitely and maybe characters like Donald, Daisy and Pluto too would look good in Hawaiian outfits...
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Sadly it's not $80 per person, it's 80 points per person on those calculations. I just priced it up for a value season week long stay in cash in a Grand Villa and it comes up at $14,550, which works out to $173 per person per night if you had 12 people... bit of a difference...
They're lovely, aren't they? I just wish they had a few more characters out there. I get not having the princesses, but Lilo definitely and maybe characters like Donald, Daisy and Pluto too would look good in Hawaiian outfits...
Oh, yes 80 points is what I meant! Either way...it's not in our future!
And yes, additional characters in Hawaiian outfits would be fun!
It's obviously very different on each side of the pond, as the usual presentation for minestrone here is vegetarian. I do usually check, but the veggie symbol is present most of the time. It's the same with eggs benedict. It's good to know things are very different in the States - forewarned is forearmed...
Agreed! You've always been ahead of us with the veggie options in general, so that makes sense. Eggs Benedict is an American creation and the original had ham, so that's how it's usually made.
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After all, you can plenty of stocks from the shop over the road from Aulani! 
I collared our server Natalie later on, and asked if it was usual for eggs benedict to have meat in it, as that wasn’t something I’d come across before, and I could’ve ended up eating it without realising what it contained. 
She said she was going to raise that with the chef, as apparently there’s a similar issue with the minestrone soup, which contains meat too. 
It came out with spinach, and to me, this was 100 times better than trying to put meat with it. Natalie agreed, and said she much preferred it, and she’d pass my comments on to the chef. 
In that respect, it reminded me of a cross between ‘Ohana and Chef Mickey’s. She played the ukulele and was generally a lot of fun, and really the life and soul of the party. 
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