Aulani's lagoon lets you dip into the cool waters of the Pacific without any worry of big waves or heavy currents.  The water was always calm and pretty cold.

There are plenty of beach chairs to go around.  The waiters come by to take your drink orders during the day, though it can get pretty busy during the weekend.  If you'd prefer a shadier seat you could always rent one of their Casabellas for a shadier bubble.  Zoey NEEDED to drink out of a pineapple, so we made that dream come true.

No matter how much we love the beach, the kids always insist on spending more time at the pool.  Aulani has built a great pool area.  With two water slides, a large lazy river, a kids splash area, and multiple pools and hot tubs to enjoy.  There are a lot of chairs in the pool area, but even with reduced crowds during COVID it was sometimes hard to grab chairs.  If you want to spend your day at the pool you'll want to grab some chairs early before they are all gone.

There were plenty of good eats around the resort.  The Poolside menu had some yummy volcano fries and Poke' Nachos.  You should definitely get the Shave Ice, it super cute and tasty.  I tried mine with the sweetened condensed milk, but it was sweet enough without it.  We had some great sushi over the at Olelo Room.  And of course, we couldn't pass on the Dole Whip!

We had a lot of fun making our own Mickey Aulani ears.  You get to pick 5 items to add to your ears.  You pick between metallic or lighted ears and then get to assemble them with little leaves.

Over all we had a remarkable adventure.  There is so much to do in Hawaii that we wish we had had a few more days to do it all,  We will definitely be on the look out for future deals to go back to this AMAZING resort.  We had so much fun!

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The pool was pretty big with a nice little quick service stand nearby.  Angie was able to grab some Piña coladas while the kids had a great time splashing around.  The water slide was a nice addition.  The kids kept running over to get in line for the slide, it wasn't big and scary but a gentle little slide into the pool.  Disney pools are open pretty late, so it's great to just pop down if you leave the park earlier.  Nothing like relaxing in the hot tub after a long day of walking the Parks.

Coronado Springs has 2 quick service locations, 2 dine-in locations, and a lounge area.  We took some time to sit and eat at each of the dine-in locations.  We were not disappointed!

You wouldn't think much of a place called Rix Sports Bar and Grill.  It's menu does lean towards burgers and nachos, but there was a surprise hit there.  We tried the Watchos, waffle fry nachos, and they were so good.  The queso sauce and bacon made this dish while the waffle fries remained crispy through the whole meal.  My daughter had some regular nachos and the chips became soggy after a while, unlike our waffle fries. 

At the heart of the resort you can find the 3 Bridges restaurant.  It's in the middle of the lake with some beautiful views of the rest of the resort.  The food follows the theme of the resort with varieties of Latin foods like  tacos and sangria.  The home-run of the evening were the shrimp and corn fritters.  These warm little nuggets of corn and shrimp were just delicious.  We actually came back another night for more of them.

This was the nicest resort we have stayed at so far.  The only negative is that it is a bus resort, so the bus is the only way to get to each park outside of taking a rideshare.  I would love to stay at this resort again because of the food options.  You don't want to always have to run off to grab a bite to eat, so it was very nice having some GOOD food right there on the property.  I highly recommend grabbing a room in the Gran Destino tower!

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The rooms have been newly refurbished in Pop, take a look at our video tour of our room.

 Each area of the resort is themed to a decade from 1950 all the way to 1990.  There are small touches and details in the rooms, but the big decor is outside.  Our room was located in the 50's area located near the 1960's Hippy Dippy Pool.  The Tramp was just outside to greet us.

The buildings are set along pathways with more of that fabulous wrought iron detail work in the rails and columns. The pathways have street signs to make you feel like you're walking around the French Quarter. I loved the names. We were near "Cake Walk."

Our room also had a large bathroom area with a double vanity. The full bathroom had a tub and shower combo with a waterfall shower head. Next to the bathroom there was a bench area with pegs and shelving. There was also a closet area next to the vanity on the right hand side where you could hang clothing and utilize a decent-sized wall safe. Across from the beds, we had a very large ornate wooden bureau with drawers over which was a flat screen TV (that we didn't use) and of top of which was a Keurig stocked with coffee and tea pods (that we did use, because I love coffee.) All of the dark wooden furniture was carved and detailed.

We stayed in a water-view room. This was the view from the railing outside our room. It's a beautiful courtyard and view of the river that winds from this resort to its sister resort, Port Orleans Riverside and also to Disney Springs. Which, is an added bonus: you can take a water taxi from here to Disney Springs!

Since we have two little ones, we were on the lookout to see if Port Orleans was kid-friendly. Clearly, there wasn't any "Mickey" theming here. So, we ventured to see what would light up a child's eyes here... and boy did we find it. Talk about a fantastic swimming area! The Mardi Gras theme is in full fun force! Water plumes by the gator statues and yes, that's a sea serpent water slide. What a fun interpretation of the theme!

But that's not all. We also found a huge splash pad and jungle gym for the kiddos to enjoy.

Overall, we really enjoyed our stay here at Port Orleans French Quarter. The rooms were inviting and comfortable and the theming was gorgeous. We also enjoyed having Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory onsite attached to the lobby to get delicious Mickey Beignets for breakfast. Check out our blog post about Sassagoula in the Good Eats tab. We know the kids will definitely want a "resort day" to enjoy that pool in between the parks. POFR has earned our stamp of approval and will most likely see us in the future.