Considering our first trip and we are CLUELESS!

[94bruin]

Agree with 94bruin, regarding bringing certain items from home to supplement groceries bought on the island. We brought along salt/pepper, dry snacks (crackers, nuts, dried fruit, granola bars), coffee, sugar, coffee filters, cereal. I think that was it. Along those same lines, we also brought some powder dishwashing detergent, tide pods, etc. We brought a variety of sizes of ziplocks, and packed our dry snacks in small plastic containers to prevent them from getting squished in the luggage AND to give us some food storage containers while we were there. Finally, you'll want to pack reusable grocery bags, as HI does not allow the use of plastic bags, so you will have to purchase bags at the store if you don't bring your own!

If you are NOT staying though DVC, housekeeping will supply you with a dishwashing sponges, dish soap, dishwasher powder and washing machine detergent.

 

[HuskyGal]

I’m used to hotels supplying coffee filters. Do I have to bring my own? I see people saying they bought them at the store.

 

[jodybird511]

As 94bruin noted above, what is supplied and how much of it depends on whether you are staying on points or on a cash reservation, so if you are staying on points, you likely will not be supplied with enough to last your whole stay. Additionally, I believe that what Disney supplies is individual packs that include the filter and the coffee together, so if you want to use your own coffee, or delicious Kona coffee that you purchase there, you will need to have your own filters.

 

[monorailrabbit]

Hmm.... so sounds like we really need to consider getting a car. We are trying to do this on a "budget", or as much of one as we can, and do want to spend at least one day just relaxing at the resort. We aren't going on points, this would be OOP. We don't want to stay elsewhere, as, as backwards as this sounds, the whole reason we are doing this trip is to experience the Disney resort. Of course we want to do other activities, but staying somewhere else isn't really on our radar for options, if that makes sense. It will likely be a rather quick trip, so now I am thinking maybe a day to get there, a solid day at the resort, and 2 days with activities - Pearl Harbor, dolphins, horseback riding etc. I was thinking having a rental would be a headache, but it sounds like it would be more of a headache without one!

 

[jodybird511]

Hmm.... so sounds like we really need to consider getting a car. We are trying to do this on a "budget", or as much of one as we can, and do want to spend at least one day just relaxing at the resort. We aren't going on points, this would be OOP. We don't want to stay elsewhere, as, as backwards as this sounds, the whole reason we are doing this trip is to experience the Disney resort. Of course we want to do other activities, but staying somewhere else isn't really on our radar for options, if that makes sense. It will likely be a rather quick trip, so now I am thinking maybe a day to get there, a solid day at the resort, and 2 days with activities - Pearl Harbor, dolphins, horseback riding etc. I was thinking having a rental would be a headache, but it sounds like it would be more of a headache without one!

I agree about the rental car--I personally would not do Aulani without one--with regard to budget, I think you would end up coming out at least even by not renting a car and having to spend gobs of $$ on resort food. Also, not sure where you are traveling from, but you may want to consider a slightly longer trip, if at all possible. We travel from the midwest, so it's about 10-11 hours of air travel, and a 4-5 hour time difference to adjust to, so it's not a terribly easy trip to make. For us, we have needed to stay at least 8-10 days (total in Hawaii--not necessarily all at Aulani) to make it really worth it.

 

[94bruin]

Hmm.... so sounds like we really need to consider getting a car. We are trying to do this on a "budget", or as much of one as we can, and do want to spend at least one day just relaxing at the resort. We aren't going on points, this would be OOP. We don't want to stay elsewhere, as, as backwards as this sounds, the whole reason we are doing this trip is to experience the Disney resort. Of course we want to do other activities, but staying somewhere else isn't really on our radar for options, if that makes sense. It will likely be a rather quick trip, so now I am thinking maybe a day to get there, a solid day at the resort, and 2 days with activities - Pearl Harbor, dolphins, horseback riding etc. I was thinking having a rental would be a headache, but it sounds like it would be more of a headache without one!

Have you made your reservations yet? If not, you could try to rent points. It was too late for us but if it's early enough depending on what you are looking for you might be able to rent points through a broker At least that's what I'm going to try to do the next time we go.

If you stay thru DVC, parking is included
If not it's currently $37/night. One way ppl get around this is to do daily rentals. There is a car rental on site. Pre-plan which days you will be off-site and rent a car for those days. In the end, we decided to just rent a car for our entire stay bc we wanted the convenience of having a car at our disposal. It hurt but we were glad we did it it the end. We actually sat thru a DVC presentation and got a resort credit that covered the majority of the parking charge but not all of it.

 

[ChicosWife]

For our family of four, the cheapest onsite meal we had was $62, from Ulu.

 

[jodybird511]

Exactly!! That meal included one family size cheese pizza for my kids to share (to be fair, there were leftovers two of us ate for lunch the next day), a flatbread for myself, a flatbread for my wife, and four fountain drinks...I had budgeted $150 per day for food, and we estimated that we were able to stay about $500 under that budget for the length of our trip (10 days, including 3 on the Big Island in a condo) by buying groceries. There's no way we could have stayed on budget eating 3 meals per day for four ppl on property--heck, we blew past our daily budgeted amount with one meal the night we ate at Makahiki!

 

[ChicosWife]

Exactly!! That meal included one family size cheese pizza for my kids to share (to be fair, there were leftovers two of us ate for lunch the next day), a flatbread for myself, a flatbread for my wife, and four fountain drinks...I had budgeted $150 per day for food, and we estimated that we were able to stay about $500 under that budget for the length of our trip (10 days, including 3 on the Big Island in a condo) by buying groceries. There's no way we could have stayed on budget eating 3 meals per day for four ppl on property--heck, we blew past our daily budgeted amount with one meal the night we ate at Makahiki!

That is crazy! I think I may just wait until DCL does the next Hawaiian itinerary.

 

[jodybird511]

That is crazy! I think I may just wait until DCL does the next Hawaiian itinerary.

Gosh, I hate to discourage you, but I always like to know what I'm getting myself into. I adore Aulani and can't wait to return, but I would find it stressful to get to my destination and end up spending loads more than I had planned on!

 

[monorailrabbit]

Have you made your reservations yet? If not, you could try to rent points. It was too late for us but if it's early enough depending on what you are looking for you might be able to rent points through a broker At least that's what I'm going to try to do the next time we go.

If you stay thru DVC, parking is included
If not it's currently $37/night. One way ppl get around this is to do daily rentals. There is a car rental on site. Pre-plan which days you will be off-site and rent a car for those days. In the end, we decided to just rent a car for our entire stay bc we wanted the convenience of having a car at our disposal. It hurt but we were glad we did it it the end. We actually sat thru a DVC presentation and got a resort credit that covered the majority of the parking charge but not all of it.

Ok THIS makes me feel better! I would hate to rent a car to just have it sit there for the majority, because we really want to spend time at the resort. Do they provide transportation from the airport to the resort? We haven't booked yet, because we are wanting to go in 2019 and dates aren't out yet. For some reason, renting DVC makes me very very nervous. I'm sure a lot of it is fear of the unknown, but since this whole trip is unknown, I don't know if i want to add DVC to the mix.

 

[jodybird511]

Ok THIS makes me feel better! I would hate to rent a car to just have it sit there for the majority, because we really want to spend time at the resort. Do they provide transportation from the airport to the resort? We haven't booked yet, because we are wanting to go in 2019 and dates aren't out yet. For some reason, renting DVC makes me very very nervous. I'm sure a lot of it is fear of the unknown, but since this whole trip is unknown, I don't know if i want to add DVC to the mix.

Although we are DVC members, and used our own points for our most recent trip, we have rented points for other trips, and let me reassure you, in general, it is SO EASY and hassle free. Now granted, there have been times where people have had a situation where their reservation has been canceled, outside of their control, but from my understanding, this is extremely rare. We have rented from David's (advertiser on these forums) multiple times, and have two more upcoming trips this year where we rented--we have had no issues at all. You really do save a TON (and by TON, I literally mean thousands of dollars) of money, and for a trip this big, that makes a huge difference.

 

[94bruin]

That is crazy! I think I may just wait until DCL does the next Hawaiian itinerary.

We loved our time at Aulani, but it's definitely not a budget-friendly vacation. However, if you plan well, you can make sure you keep costs under control. In general, vacationing to Hawaii is expensive. It's a US State, so the standard of living is higher than many Caribbean nations. Labor is more expensive, shipping food and supplies is just more expensive. Only you can decide if that's worth it to you. Coming from the West Coast, we have only vacationed in Hawaii and have never considered the Caribbean. If you have never been, honestly there is so much more to the entire state than Aulani. If this is your first time, maybe you should consider a different way to vacation in Hawaii. Maui is awesome for first time visitors and there are condos there to make vacations more affordable.

Ok THIS makes me feel better! I would hate to rent a car to just have it sit there for the majority, because we really want to spend time at the resort. Do they provide transportation from the airport to the resort? We haven't booked yet, because we are wanting to go in 2019 and dates aren't out yet. For some reason, renting DVC makes me very very nervous. I'm sure a lot of it is fear of the unknown, but since this whole trip is unknown, I don't know if i want to add DVC to the mix.

Aulani does contract with a shuttle service, but it generally is not included. However, since we booked our vacation through Disney, they did offer free shuttle service and one free day of car rental. In the end, convenience won out and we rented a car from the airport and didn't use the shuttle or free rental day. I was also nervous about the whole point rental idea. However, the more I read about it the more confident I became with going through a broker. I personally would never to a private transaction, but I think many people have rented points successfully privately. Unfortunately, the broker didn't have our exact availability, but the next time I'm going somewhere with DVC, I'll definitely check first! You have time to research it and think it through.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I had a $30 meal at the pizza place with more than enough for a meal for the two of us with leftovers...

 

[happymommy]

Food costs are going to be higher...grocieries...more expensive...mcdonalds...more expensive...you’re less likely to notice the price increase at the nicer dining places. Basic rule of thumb for what groceries will be the most expensive vs. almost anywhere else in the US...size/weight/perishability/fragility...its still going to be cheaper to run to target, costco, etc. but maybe not by as much as some might expect.

The flipside to this is that there are a huge variety of different types of food...and of coarse stuff like luaus where spending more could be very worth it. Breakfast is probably the meal to “cheap out” on as there really isn’t anything particularly unique to hawaii as far as breakfast foods go (unless you wanna count stuff like pineapple pancakes, coconut syrup for pancakes, etc.)...tho the character buffet at aulani is good for a disney character breakfast (thats not saying much food quality wise...but it is one of the better ones disney does food wise)

I live in Maryland, and the prices at Target and Costco are pretty much the same as here, other than bread and eggs. That being said, I lived on Oahu and have been back at least a dozen times. We go every other year at least, and own at the Marriott Ko Olina, which we prefer over Aualni (they have many grills, and they are available 24/7 versus a few short hours dinner only). We don't care for food at the restaurants on site at either place. We do love many places in Waikiki. Also in Kapolei we have our favorites.

We are in the same boat. We are Disney cruisers, but want to visit Aulani, but am so used to everything being included in the price. Are the food packages reasonable? Is there a lot to do at the resort, to not have to leave?

No food included. You wouldn't want it anyway; it is overpriced! We go out in town. Sushi Bay is our favorite!

I would never cruise Hawaii. You can't experience anything. Just go and explore or relax!

Aulani is a Hawaii resort that is DISNEY in your face. Honestly if you want Disney go do Disney, if you want Hawaii, do Hawaii. I've walked though Aulani a couple times. It's night and day vs. Marriott. No, we have no Mickey Mouse (and I am an Annual Passholder to WDW).

 

[alohamom]

Ok THIS makes me feel better! I would hate to rent a car to just have it sit there for the majority, because we really want to spend time at the resort.

This is an option but it is about 30% more to rent for the day from the on site Alamo and the hours are limited so you need to be back by 5 or you get charged until the next day and would have to pay parking.

For example, I checked a random day, September 19th, to rent a car from Alamo from 9 to 5 at Aulani and with tax it came out to $88.92 for an economy car. to book the same car for a 24 hour period from the Alamo at the airport is $58.
The bottom line is yes, you can rent a car at the resort for a strictly time limited day but it will cost you almost the same as if you had it for 24 hours and paid parking.
To top it all off, it you use a less expensive car rental agency like Thrifty or Dollar from the airport location, you can get a 24 hour rental for the same day for a low as $46.

 

[alohamom]

I had a $30 meal at the pizza place with more than enough for a meal for the two of us with leftovers...

Us too. My son loves pizza so we have had it from Ulu and from Pizza Corner across the street. Both were actually not bad pizzas, were really big (like enough for four of us) and were around that $30 price point.

I think once you add salad, drinks, etc - that is when the price starts to creep up.

The way to deal with that is to purchase supplies over at Island Market or in town if you decide on a car

 

[alohamom]

We don't want to stay elsewhere, as, as backwards as this sounds, the whole reason we are doing this trip is to experience the Disney resort. Of course we want to do other activities, but staying somewhere else isn't really on our radar for options, if that makes sense.

I totally understand your POV, but because of the location of Aulani you do need to travel to other parts of the island to get to where these types of activities take place.

I have no idea if this place is any good, I have never been and I am not recommending them however I did look up horseback riding that is close to Ko Olina and found this place

https://ohikilolo.com/

They charge $125 for two hours and it goes up from there. I am thinking you might be able to get an uber out to them easier than going up to the North Shore or to Kualoa.


There is also a dolphin snorkel that if offered from this place. It is dolphins in the wild so there is no guarantee they will even be there and I am not sure about how ethical these types of excursions are. Again I have not used them and cannot say if they are good or bad but it looks like they are based right in Ko Olina but I dont know where the boat sails from, you would have to check and see before you book. They charge $140/per person
Here is the link

http://koolinafun.com/ocean/snorkel-tours

 

[94bruin]

This is an option but it is about 30% more to rent for the day from the on site Alamo and the hours are limited so you need to be back by 5 or you get charged until the next day and would have to pay parking.

For example, I checked a random day, September 19th, to rent a car from Alamo from 9 to 5 at Aulani and with tax it came out to $88.92 for an economy car. to book the same car for a 24 hour period from the Alamo at the airport is $58.
The bottom line is yes, you can rent a car at the resort for a strictly time limited day but it will cost you almost the same as if you had it for 24 hours and paid parking.
To top it all off, it you use a less expensive car rental agency like Thrifty or Dollar from the airport location, you can get a 24 hour rental for the same day for a low as $46.

This is an option but it is about 30% more to rent for the day from the on site Alamo and the hours are limited so you need to be back by 5 or you get charged until the next day and would have to pay parking.

For example, I checked a random day, September 19th, to rent a car from Alamo from 9 to 5 at Aulani and with tax it came out to $88.92 for an economy car. to book the same car for a 24 hour period from the Alamo at the airport is $58.
The bottom line is yes, you can rent a car at the resort for a strictly time limited day but it will cost you almost the same as if you had it for 24 hours and paid parking.
To top it all off, it you use a less expensive car rental agency like Thrifty or Dollar from the airport location, you can get a 24 hour rental for the same day for a low as $46.

It would probably cost over $100 via tax to get to and from the airport in the first place, so you'd have to add that into the cost of the airport day rental. Not to mention time lost traveling to the airport, so I don't think it makes sense to compare rates at the Aulani vs the airport. What we did when we were trying to decide transportation was to decide what days we would be on-site vs off-site. Also, I can't vouch for this, but when we made our initial reservation, our Disney reservation agent told us that if we returned the car after hours, we could return the car to the valet to avoid parking charges. She did tell us to confirm this with Alamo. In the end, since we rented for our entire stay, we didn't have the chance to test this out.

For our 7 night trip, we planned for 3 excursions - one to Costco/Kapolei/Dole Plantation, one to the North Shore and another to Pearl Harbor. Cost of daily intermediate car rental x 3 = $90 x 3 = $270. Parking = $0 Airport transfers (this will vary depending on if you take a taxi vs shuttle.) For this example, I'm going to use a flat-rate taxi service called Charley's Taxi - They charge $55/way. It will be cheaper if you use a shuttle, but then you are may have to deal with other pick-ups and drop-offs. Total transportation cost if we rented for 3 single days: 270+110 = $380.

Our 7-night Costco car rental was $195 (we even upgraded to a full-size car). Parking was $37x7 = 259. Airport transfers = $0. Total transportation cost = $454.

In the end, convenience won out. (Our actual savings would have been greater than the $74 difference here because we were offered RT airport transfers plus one free daily car-rental, but I didn't include it in the above example because that perk isn't always available.) We didn't have to do go the to rental counter on 3 separate occasions, saving time there. Also, my husband was really worried that they would run out of cars (not my worry, however.) We decided to save money by purchasing our own groceries and eating in. Having the car at our disposal the entire time allowed us to make unplanned trips to Kapolei for groceries. We also sat through the DVC time-share presentation which gave us $250 resort credit, which almost covered the parking. Now for you, your priorities and actual rental rates may be different. Only you can decide what's right for you. I'm just letting you know what we decided for our trip.

If you end up renting points, you'll save money on the parking (as well as hotel costs!)

 

[wed100105]

I wouldn't hesitate to rent points and stay DVC. We own Wyndham Vacation Resort points, and staying in timeshares has totally changed our vacation style. Using a broker would give you an added level of protection and security.

I second a car rental. You'll save so much on food costs by buying some items at Target or another grocery store.