DISNEY AT KO OLINA

In my continuing series of experiences at outstanding hotels on Oahu, I spent the night at Disney's Aulani at Ko Olina:

Disney is a $40 billion plus company with 11 theme parks at five world locations.  The Aulani is probably the smallest of all, and only a hotel.

They attempted to make Aulani look Hawaiian, but it still reminds me of a typical resort.  There are Disney characters walking around, but that is about it.  A significant fraction of visitor were from the Orient.  I noticed they had no bottle of water, and after I sipped from the tap, discerned a high chlorine content, so I went down to the store and bought a small bottle, plus a bottle of beer.  Back in my room I noticed there was nothing to open the cap, so I went back and had to buy an opener.  The total bill was close to $20.  To this you need to add  $35/day for parking, and, of course, the room, which was, for Kamaainas (local people) reasonable, but still very expensive.  However, I did not have to fly here and catch a cab to this hotel.

I had dinner at Ama Ama, where they do allow "dress" shorts, which means just about anything you want.  Fortunate, because I only had shorts with me, and they are the ones I use for golf.  I joined Connie and Harry Olson for dinner:

I had a fabulous and gigantic rack of lamb and Kahuku corn salmon soup with a glass of Merlot from Oregon:

The staff is exceptionally friendly and helpful.  That was last night.  Today, I played at the Ko Olina Golf Club.

Honolulu Magazine readers voted it the Best Golf Course in Hawaii.    The cost is $189, but $169 if you stay at a Ko Olina resort...and only $75 if you are a Kamaaina (local person).   Roy's is located in the clubhouse with a view of the course.  The LPGA plays here in April.   View of Aulani from the golf course:

I was initially intimidated and had a 10 on the first hole.  However, I finished under 100.  I golfed with Andrew, originally from Nigeria, but now a successful dot-com enterprise entrepreneur out of Texas.  We had an especially mature discussion about religion.  We agree on about just about everything related to that, business philosophies and enjoyment of life.   We both had very favorable opinions about the layout and the GPS system on the cart was state of the art.

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