Aulani: What's the One Thing You Wish You Knew?

[alohamom]

the floral one is tuberose and purple orchid

 

[alohamom]

Took this straight from the Aulani page but it is exactly this lei

 

[fairytalelover]

View attachment 214149

Yikes. This one just looks like a bunch of black rocks.

 

[cgattis]

Yikes. This one just looks like a bunch of black rocks.

Well....they're nuts. Slightly smaller than a walnut, dark brown, and shiny. I bought one years ago from a guy selling them on a beach in FL and love it. Truthfully I'd love one of each. I may pay for a flower lei greeting at the airport and ask for these at Aulani.

 

[alohamom]

Well....they're nuts. Slightly smaller than a walnut, dark brown, and shiny. I bought one years ago from a guy selling them on a beach in FL and love it. Truthfully I'd love one of each. I may pay for a flower lei greeting at the airport and ask for these at Aulani.

You may want to do that the other way around. I think you can buy the kukui nut leis fairly reasonably at Island Country Markets or ABC stores whereas the nicer flower leis are more. Plus the Aulani ones have the gorgeous smelling tuberose on them (smaller white flowers) and they cost much more when in a lei. When we were there in August you could go to the club house where you borrow dvds and make your own simple orchid lei as well.

 

[cgattis]

You may want to do that the other way around. I think you can buy the kukui nut leis fairly reasonably at Island Country Markets or ABC stores whereas the nicer flower leis are more. Plus the Aulani ones have the gorgeous smelling tuberose on them (smaller white flowers) and they cost much more when in a lei. When we were there in August you could go to the club house where you borrow dvds and make your own simple orchid lei as well.

Ahhh, good thinking!!

 

[kdonnel]

Yikes. This one just looks like a bunch of black rocks.

At least to me it is surprisingly fragrant and remained so for several months.

 

[PattiPB]

At least to me it is surprisingly fragrant and remained so for several months.

So it will (1) stay fresh for a week, and (2) is allowable on the plane back to the mainland? If both of those are YES, I'll be thrilled. Thanks~

 

[kdonnel]

So it will (1) stay fresh for a week, and (2) is allowable on the plane back to the mainland? If both of those are YES, I'll be thrilled. Thanks~

I always brought them home. Didn't see anything that said they were prohibited. I have still have the ones from our first trip in 2012. They do lose their fragrance after a few months.

 

[heybets30]

I dont get it. Why do we have to add our photos? Isn't it like WDW and DCL where your photos are automatically added to your file as they take photos of you? Isnt there a magic band?

Fairytalelover - While we were there, and it doesn't sound like it's changed, NOPE, your photos are not all automatically added to a band or a card. Some are, not all are. If you get a photog in the pool with a gopro, they don't scan a card - you go into the shop and tell them when/where your photo was taken, and then you have to look up the photos and go through all of them until you find your pics. If you send your kids to aunty's, you have to scroll through all the event photos to find your kids & add them. Even though we hand picked our kids on the aunty's one, I still laugh because we have these random kids' photos within ours. It was cumbersome, the GoPro photo guy took a while to turn in his card, so we had to go back 3 times over 2 days to check before it got loaded, and I KNEW there was an awesome one of my daughter I really wanted to not miss getting.

 

[MSUmom]

Going in August - just bumping in.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

We will be there over Thanksgiving and it's been great reading everyone's tips!

 

[glencoe]

I just double checked and it's true!!! Good to know!

I wonder if those are the blenders that were left behind

 

[glencoe]

Going to the "hidden beach" beyond the Marriott to the little cove where the sea turtles and Monk seals were. We walked down there nearly every morning and walked out onto the rocks to enjoy the turtles, seals, crabs and waves.

The one negative thing I hadn't known about and wish I would have was how crowded the wonderful infinity edge hot tub was with children. It was more like a kiddie pool than a hot tub.

I know how much kids love hot tubs, but besides the age... they are a safety risk. It used to be the suction thing and danger of drowning, but there is also issues with the higher temps not being safe for the younger set, especially when they pop back and forth between a pool with a 20 degree difference on average. Yet wherever I go hot tubs are packed with kids.

 

[kittylady1972]

What a wealth of information. I'll have to remember this next year. We are in the very early stages of planning for a possible FIRST trip to Hawaii (for 4 of us...DH has been a few times on business). We will most likely stay with friends who plan to reserve a room at the Marriott next door...however we thought it might be nice to add a few nights at Aulani while there too. This will most likley be next June, so not sure what my chances are booking 7 months in advance.

 

[DizDragonfly]

What a wealth of information. I'll have to remember this next year. We are in the very early stages of planning for a possible FIRST trip to Hawaii (for 4 of us...DH has been a few times on business). We will most likely stay with friends who plan to reserve a room at the Marriott next door...however we thought it might be nice to add a few nights at Aulani while there too. This will most likley be next June, so not sure what my chances are booking 7 months in advance.

The JW Marriott that was next door is now a Four Seasons. There is the Marriott Beach Club a couple of coves over.

 

[kittylady1972]

The JW Marriott that was next door is now a Four Seasons. There is the Marriott Beach Club a couple of coves over.

Yes it's the Marriott Beach Club.

 

[happymommy]

Yes it's the Marriott Beach Club.

That's where we own! Going for 30 nights this summer! I love it so much there.

 

[pepperandchips]

What a wealth of information. I'll have to remember this next year. We are in the very early stages of planning for a possible FIRST trip to Hawaii (for 4 of us...DH has been a few times on business). We will most likely stay with friends who plan to reserve a room at the Marriott next door...however we thought it might be nice to add a few nights at Aulani while there too. This will most likley be next June, so not sure what my chances are booking 7 months in advance.

We had no problem booking at 7 months for a studio for the last week of May (including Memorial Day weekend) and could have gotten anything we wanted except the DVC hotel rooms. Hope you experience the same good luck! If you havent read marblebob's Hawaii/Aulani TR yet I highly recommend it. They did a Ko Olina split stay and he had good insight!

 

[FireflyTrance]

My one money saving tip is to visit Ama Ama for breakfast or lunch instead of dinner. The dinner is quite expensive and I found the breakfast and lunch to be great and probably 50% of the cost of what I would have paid at dinner. In general I found the food at Aulani to be very expensive and if I go again I want to get some grocery items at Target beforehand.