Surprises at Aulani
For our final day in Hawai’i, I made plans to go back to Disney’s Aulani to view one or two of their Fireside Mo’olelo session. I found this event during the early stages of planning for my FFT proposal and I’ve been excited to see it ever since!
We started our day off at the Hale Koa for breakfast, and then I spent some time working on blog posts until it was time to leave for Aulani. At the hotel, we met Jason and Noel and made our way to the fire pit where they hold the Mo’olelo event and… there were tables piled up around the fire pit in place of the chairs. Weird… I looked around and slowly realized that there were some tables with nice white table cloths set up a few yards away and a few official looking people wandering around setting out decorations and checking things off on clipboards.
Surprise! The Fireside Mo’olelo event was cancelled due to a special event that hadn’t been planned when I made my plans. Ugh!
Since we were already at Aulani and had no other plans for the day, we grabbed lunch and spent some time wandering around again. Jason, being from the area and a big Disney fan, knew about a lot of little details of the hotel that I hadn’t heard of, including various cultural bits and story elements. For example, he showed us part of the path of the Menehune Adventure Trail. The Menehune (meh-neh-hoo-nay) are, according to legend, magical, mischievous creatures from the Hawaiian Islands. It’s thought that they can create incredible constructions such as canoes and buildings overnight. Aulani has hidden evidence of the Menehune all around the the resort, including along the high-tech adventure trail known as Menehune Adventure Trail. By solving riddles and other interactive clues, people can follow the trail to learn about the Menehune and discover secrets left by the shy creatures.
Scenery depicting the phases of the moon.
It was really disappointing to know that I’m not going to get to see the Fireside Mo’olelo while I’m in Hawai’i, but I’m glad I got some extra time to explore the visual storytelling elements at Aulani. I’ve heard there are some videos of the Mo’olelo sessions online, so hopefully I’ll be able to find one of those when I get home!
