Aulani and then NCL cruise

DCLCrazy64622

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 27, 2017
im sure there is a thread about this, but I can’t find it. For anyone who has done Aulani and then hopped on the NCL 7 day cruise, can you tell me the logistics of it? Was it worth the extra money to stay at Aulani in advance? I think we will do four nights before cruising. Any advice? I’m in the early planning stages of this. Thanks!
 
Not quite sure what you are asking. We did 7-nights at Aulani followed by the NCL cruise a couple of years ago. We have a car so we just drove to the port from Aulani. Then one of the party returned the car to the airport and caught a taxi/uber (can't recall which) back to the dock.
 
Is Aulani relatively close to the port? How many minutes would you estimate the drive? Did you stay on property the whole time or venture out? Is there enough to do on property for four days?
 
"Close" is a relative term, especially on Oahu. Locals will consider it far. People used to driving an hour to get to a major city/venue will think its close. Consider that you can get to the furthest part of the island in ~45 minutes. Nonetheless, its a good 30+ minutes from Aulani to the port mainly because of traffic.

We visit Aulani regularly (4 times in 4 years with #5 being planned) and spend time at the resort as well as hitting the rest of the island. A drive to the north shore one day. A day doing some shopping in Waikiki. A drive to Haialeua along the coast and back through the mountains. The farmers market at the Aloha Bowl. If you've never been, Pearl Harbor is a must. All of these are more partial days out. We still find time to relax at Aulani even when we do these trips.
 


Consider that you can get to the furthest part of the island in ~45 minutes.

In good traffic. We left Aulani one morning at 6:15 am to go to Pearl Harbor which should be about 45 minutes away. Stop and go traffic from the time we left Aulani until nearly all the way there. It took 90 minutes. We left Pearl Harbor at 5 pm and it took a little less to get back, again because of traffic (weekday). Consider traffic on a weekday going into and out of Honolulu to be similar to any major city. The only good thing is that it appears that the times when this occurs (basic early morning and late afternoon rush hour) are limited and that traffic is thin in between those times unlike a lot of other major cities. Make sure you have GPS though - the highways divide and merge constantly and we had to keep an eye on what lane you need to be in often on short notice.

Is there enough to do on property for four days?

Kind of depends on what you want and like to do. We were there with friends for 8 days. We went to Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island one day (flew there and back same day), Pearl Harbor, went parasailing and climbed Diamond Head, went to the Dole Plantation and North Shore one day. The rest we spent at the resort. Sometimes hanging around in our villa on the balcony all morning then most of the afternoon in the pool/ocean, then dinner, maybe an activity or two that the resort offers. Did the luau one night. Did a character breakfast. We didn't get to do some of the things at Aulani we wanted like hula lessons, cultural and art tour (we did one tour but there are three different ones), snorkel with the fish in the reef pool, learn to surf, etc. I think you could quite easily spend four days never leaving the resort and not be bored.
 
Did you stay on property the whole time or venture out? Is there enough to do on property for four days?

I would venture out. Even if you stayed on property, I would still recommend a rental car. Parking is free if you rent or stay on DVC points. It also gives you flexibility to leave property for dining options, even if you don't want to visit anywhere else. Aulani is in Ko Olina which is a planned "gated" community. Very few outside dining options within the immediate area. I also think Aulani lacks a bit in dining options for someone who doesn't want to leave.

With four days at Aulani, I would plan a day or two as a resort day and use the other two days to explore Oahu. You'll be seeing the other islands on the cruise, so Oahu is the only one you wouldn't be exploring otherwise. If you decide against staying at Aulani, I would stay in the Waikiki area - lots to do in walking distance, and closer to Port. Probably shuttles available too, so you wouldn't need a car.
 


We did the opposite. We stayed two nights in Waikiki (mainly to make sure all our luggage arrived), and did Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, and surf lessons from there for convenience. We then did the NCL cruise (which obviously has no Oahu days). We ended at Aulani, where we stayed 5 days, and only ventured off property twice, for Pearl Harbor (so we could go on a Sunday and avoid traffic) and the north shore. We really needed that relaxing part at the end after our first 10 days of go-go-go!! Just another way to consider it.
 
im sure there is a thread about this, but I can’t find it. For anyone who has done Aulani and then hopped on the NCL 7 day cruise, can you tell me the logistics of it? Was it worth the extra money to stay at Aulani in advance? I think we will do four nights before cruising. Any advice? I’m in the early planning stages of this. Thanks!
We did almost this same trip.
Only it was 5 nights Aulani followed by 1 night precruise in Waikiki Marriott (Ncl included).
We have DVC so that is the push that got us to Hawaii. Although even having DVC we splurged on a 1BR OV it is expensive!! So the 5 nights cost me more than my years worth of points.

Was it worth it.... hmmmm as we were in the ocean floating in heaven... DH starts asking “logistical” DVC questions about how much points are and such. I’m like WTH never showed any interest.... well that man loves Aulani so much he was slowly getting around to the point that...maybe in a year or so we pay down some more mortgage and maybe add on:worship:
I was slow on the uptake too.... I’m like huh we have enough points. Then I’m like... stop the presses DH says he wants some pointspixiedust: so maybe we will see... current prices cray cray.

Anyway so being I splurged so much and I heard such great things about Aulani I wanted to immerse myself and totally chill. We chose to not rent a car( even tho free Dvc parking).
Taxi from airport to Aulani I think like $80ish could prebook for cheaper.
Aulani to Waikiki lil further and taxi guy said he charge me I think 95ish but taxi fare actually would have been more so I lucked out. Marriot Waikiki to port was included from NCL.
We booked a private tour with Oahu private tours to north shore and it was great!!
What i didn’t expect was after waking up early(east coast) and finding those chairs 1st row in front of infinity pool overlooking the ocean... Heaven. I don’t need to move seriously.
We didn’t do anything I thought we would there and in the end it didn’t matter:-)
Happy planning
Kerri
 
We did almost this same trip.
Only it was 5 nights Aulani followed by 1 night precruise in Waikiki Marriott (Ncl included).
We have DVC so that is the push that got us to Hawaii. Although even having DVC we splurged on a 1BR OV it is expensive!! So the 5 nights cost me more than my years worth of points.

Was it worth it.... hmmmm as we were in the ocean floating in heaven... DH starts asking “logistical” DVC questions about how much points are and such. I’m like WTH never showed any interest.... well that man loves Aulani so much he was slowly getting around to the point that...maybe in a year or so we pay down some more mortgage and maybe add on:worship:
I was slow on the uptake too.... I’m like huh we have enough points. Then I’m like... stop the presses DH says he wants some pointspixiedust: so maybe we will see... current prices cray cray.

Anyway so being I splurged so much and I heard such great things about Aulani I wanted to immerse myself and totally chill. We chose to not rent a car( even tho free Dvc parking).
Taxi from airport to Aulani I think like $80ish could prebook for cheaper.
Aulani to Waikiki lil further and taxi guy said he charge me I think 95ish but taxi fare actually would have been more so I lucked out. Marriot Waikiki to port was included from NCL.
We booked a private tour with Oahu private tours to north shore and it was great!!
What i didn’t expect was after waking up early(east coast) and finding those chairs 1st row in front of infinity pool overlooking the ocean... Heaven. I don’t need to move seriously.
We didn’t do anything I thought we would there and in the end it didn’t matter:-)
Happy planning
Kerri

We just added on resale at Aulani for all of the above. My DH and I fell in love with this resort, so the plan is to do Hawaii every other year. Best part is we snagged a subsidized dues contract :)
 
We just returned from our trip, We did a week at Aulani and then got on the NCL Pride of America for the cruise. We rented a car thru Enterprise from the Airport with the drop off location being just outside the port. This was perfect. My husband dropped all of us off and then Enterprise was only a block away from the port entrance. Enterprise provided a free shuttle, but he could have walked.

As far as distance, Aulani is located on the Western side of the Island. When we arrived at HNL it took about an hour to get to the resort. If you plan on seeing the Island you will want a rental car. When staying on DVC Points parking at the resort is free.

We loved it so much we are already planning our next trip.
 
Glad you enjoyed your vacation. Would love to hear more about your experiences!!
 
We did the reverse. We did the NCL-PoA cruise first. We flew in on Friday stayed in Waikiki (no NCL ‘included’ which we found too pricey). Took a shuttle to the hotel and then to the port the next morning. We rented a car on our return tooks a taxi to Hertz (their shuttle was out of service for repairs) and then the rental car to Aulani. Th PoA leaves. And returns on Saturdays so traffic isn’t as bad as during the week. We are from the east coast so the time difference was a bit hard to get used to. Although it did make it easier to get up for early morning tours on the ship!
If you need more information about the cruise or tours from the ship go to cruisecritic.com and access the message, especially the port board for Hawaii. That was a great resource for planning our cruise. We used the ship’s tours on Maui and Mary Lou’s Big Island Tours both days on the Big Island-Hawaii (wonderful people small group of 5 or 6 in a mini van). We stayed on board the night we were in Kauai because most of the passengers go to the luau on Kaui. We had a better time and more restful one doing the Fia Fia luau at the Marriott Ko-olina Beach Club near Aulani. (The luau at Aulani hadn’t started yet when we were there.) We also made certain to be back on board for the lei making classes. We made Kukui nut leis, ribbon leis and orchid leis. Lots of fun.
The NCL-PoA cruise is a wonderful way to see more of the islands.
 

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