There are a lot of reasons to love starting a day at Aulani – we especially love to make sure one of those days also includes breakfast with Mickey & the gang at Makahiki. To kick it off you queue up and meet Mickey. There’s just something so awesome about Mickey in his vacation gear with the beautiful Aulani backdrop that says magic!
On this trip we booked this for our first morning at the resort – basically everyone woke up (I took an insane 630am beach bootcamp class with Jason!), got dressed, and headed down for our 7:45a reservation.
Back to the experience – once you’ve met mickey from here it can be confusing (if nobody is standing there guiding you) but basically you’ll go wait inside and be called by a hostess for your table. This usually isn’t long at all – we waited about 5 minutes. Once you’re inside it runs like any character meal or buffet – you go get food, eat, enjoy, and characters come around to you.
What is unique? The food here is really good (not EVERY item was to our taste, but there are loads of choices!), and it’s just a fun atmosphere. Note that with older kids (10-17) this trip every one of them was giddy to meet the characters and each enjoyed a bountiful breakfast that lasted us all through the day. The food is a mix of Asian, Hawaiian, and traditional American fare which is fun – we were able to try new to us stuff while having things picky eaters would welcome too.
To share more thoughts, videos, and loads of images Rebecca and I made a video of our experience for YouTube:
We have done this buffet four times now (once per Aulani trip) and while I do wish they’d add new dishes and mix it up more – each time over the years we have found great quality and had a wonderful time. Our server was a very friendly woman who made us feel so welcome to sit, relax, and enjoy for as long as we would like.
The characters this time around included Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale. Previously we have seen Goofy as well but he wasn’t out, and of course other than Mickey they do not guarantee any specific characters. Coffee, juice (we recommend POG!), and most other beverages are included with the price of the buffet.
As mentioned in the video, we do recommend an earlier time due to Hawaii’s earlier time zone, and so we don’t have a few hours in the morning where everyone is so hungry and not wanting to get into pools/get wet before a nice sit down meal.
One big note- if you’re not staying at Aulani but are staying in Oahu – this would be the PERFECT choice! It’s the only way a non-guest can meet Mickey, and you can also shop the gift shops, walk around, dip your toes in the ocean, and enjoy checking out Ko’Olina resort as well.
I leave you with this photo of dolphin bananas because all three kids went nuts for these. They all grabbed one and ate it – so thanks Aulani for making healthy choices cute & fun!
Booking for this (and all) Aulani restaurant can be done directly on their website or by calling. This is one we recommend booking in advance as every day it tends to fill up!