First Trip to Aulani... First Trip to Hawaii

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Hello everyone. DH and I decided to venture beyond Disneyland and Disney World and go to Aulani. I’m so excited. I’ve never been to Hawaii. We love some on the go time but also looking forward to relaxing a bit. 16 hours a day at WDW is a bunch of things except relaxing. I will be looking for any and all tips.
Thank you... I can’t wait to start really planning.

 

[Ceryssa]

Oh you’re going to love Aulani!! It’s gorgeous and the Ko Olina area is lovely: There’s more than enough to do at the resort to keep you busy, but you’ll do yourselves a disservice if you don’t venture out. Will you be staying on Oahu the whole time or will you be visiting any of the other islands as well?

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Oh you’re going to love Aulani!! It’s gorgeous and the Ko Olina area is lovely: There’s more than enough to do at the resort to keep you busy, but you’ll do yourselves a disservice if you don’t venture out. Will you be staying on Oahu the whole time or will you be visiting any of the other islands as well?

Thank you for the reply. We are definitely interested in some of the sights around the island. Not sure about other islands... not that we aren’t open to it, I just know very little about Hawaii. I’m sure transportation will be an issue to figure out.

 

[NancyDVC]

We took the 7 day NCL Pride of America cruise around the islands and then spent 8 nights at Aulani. Great way to seere to see more islands. On the cruise you spend 2 days/ 1 night at Maui, 2 days at the Big Island/Hawaii (2 different ports sailing past the lava flow into the ocean between stops) and finally2 days/1 night at Kauai sailing past the Napali Coast as you depart.
While we were at Aulani we spent a day at the World War 2 Valor in the Pacific National Monument (USS Arizona, USS Missouri, USS Bowfin and Pacific Aviation Museum). We went to the Dole Plantation and the North Shore as well. And we did the Swap Meet (about 1/4 of it) one day too.
The CMs are a wonderful resource for places to visit, shop and eat, especially if you want to save $ or find local things. At the Valet Desk they have preprinted directions to all the local sights with return directions on the reverse so you can get back.
Be sure to check the Daily Iwa for activities. There are so many free things to do at the resort-tours, storytelling, games etc. If you are DVC members there is a tour for members of the best Grand Villa in DVC! (And I love GVs especially VB, HHI and OKW!)
Check this board as well as the FB page ‘Disney’s Aulani Trip Planning’. I found both to be very helpful.
Also Hawaii.com for events and tours. I started a notebook with notes of things we wanted to do and see, Except for the time change (6 hours difference from NY to Hawaii-they don’t do daylight savings time so from April to Novemebr there is an extra hour difference) we had a blast!

 

[Ceryssa]

Thank you for the reply. We are definitely interested in some of the sights around the island. Not sure about other islands... not that we aren’t open to it, I just know very little about Hawaii. I’m sure transportation will be an issue to figure out.

Well each island has a different "feel". Aulani is on O'ahu of course, and you've got Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, the North Shore, tons of Hawaiian historical and cultural attractions, and of course all the ecological and water sport tourism options. It's a very active, vibrant place, especially Waikiki. Do yourself a favor and rent a car. Traffic around Honolulu sucks but that's where a lot of the tourist attractions are. I hated Waikiki at first but the longer I was there the more it grew on me. It's a quick half hour or so flight between islands.

Maui is very chill and laid back; it reminds me a little of Negril in Jamaica. I cried when I had to leave; it's my favorite place ever. Kauai is more remote, a great place for peace and quiet. It's beautiful there (although of course all the islands are). And Hawaii Island is great for outdoor activities and soft adventure sports.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

We took the 7 day NCL Pride of America cruise around the islands and then spent 8 nights at Aulani. Great way to seere to see more islands. On the cruise you spend 2 days/ 1 night at Maui, 2 days at the Big Island/Hawaii (2 different ports sailing past the lava flow into the ocean between stops) and finally2 days/1 night at Kauai sailing past the Napali Coast as you depart.
While we were at Aulani we spent a day at the World War 2 Valor in the Pacific National Monument (USS Arizona, USS Missouri, USS Bowfin and Pacific Aviation Museum). We went to the Dole Plantation and the North Shore as well. And we did the Swap Meet (about 1/4 of it) one day too.
The CMs are a wonderful resource for places to visit, shop and eat, especially if you want to save $ or find local things. At the Valet Desk they have preprinted directions to all the local sights with return directions on the reverse so you can get back.
Be sure to check the Daily Iwa for activities. There are so many free things to do at the resort-tours, storytelling, games etc. If you are DVC members there is a tour for members of the best Grand Villa in DVC! (And I love GVs especially VB, HHI and OKW!)
Check this board as well as the FB page ‘Disney’s Aulani Trip Planning’. I found both to be very helpful.
Also Hawaii.com for events and tours. I started a notebook with notes of things we wanted to do and see, Except for the time change (6 hours difference from NY to Hawaii-they don’t do daylight savings time so from April to Novemebr there is an extra hour difference) we had a blast!

Oh my that sounds amazing!!! I’m sure we will have to do something like that on a separate vacation. We are planning on January 2019... we have a very big wdw trip planned dec 2019 so $$ will be somewhat of an influence

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Well each island has a different "feel". Aulani is on O'ahu of course, and you've got Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, the North Shore, tons of Hawaiian historical and cultural attractions, and of course all the ecological and water sport tourism options. It's a very active, vibrant place, especially Waikiki. Do yourself a favor and rent a car. Traffic around Honolulu sucks but that's where a lot of the tourist attractions are. I hated Waikiki at first but the longer I was there the more it grew on me. It's a quick half hour or so flight between islands.

Maui is very chill and laid back; it reminds me a little of Negril in Jamaica. I cried when I had to leave; it's my favorite place ever. Kauai is more remote, a great place for peace and quiet. It's beautiful there (although of course all the islands are). And Hawaii Island is great for outdoor activities and soft adventure sports.

Thank you for this post. I can’t wait to go through all the info you posted. We are going to look into everything.

 

[ElenaJane]

Just wanted to say that DH and I will be doing our first Aulani trip also! We are so excited! I am used to planning every minute of a WDW trip. For our time at Aulani though, I plan on doing a lot of sitting and staring at the Ocean. That's my big "plan"

 

[kiford]

We flew to the Big Island to spend time at Volcano National Park (amazing!). It was a long day - flight left at 6:00 am and we flew back on the 8:15 pm flight. It's only about a 30-40 minute flight and if you're only going for the day, it's much easier than the usual flights since you only need a day bag (I only took a small backpack) and you don't need to be there too early because of it being an interisland flight. I would definitely do it again and probably will consider going to some of the other islands for the day next time.

Yes, the traffic around Honolulu is awful, particularly at rush hour although not too bad in the off-times. I think left Aulani at 4:30 am or so and had plenty of time to park, get through security and then waited about 15 minutes at the gate before boarding.

 

[Alice-in-wonder]

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[Alice-in-wonder]

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[dolewhipdreams]

If you haven't already, I definitely recommend looking into renting DVC points at Aulani. Since it's a newer resort and few people have it as their home resort (compared to others at WDW), they tend to go pretty quickly. If you have dates figured out, you can book as early as 11 months out. It will save you so much money- not only on the room rate, but you also don't have to pay the $37/day parking fee if you stay on DVC points!

We just spent 9 days on Oahu, with three of them at Aulani. It was an absolutely incredible trip and Oahu is an amazing place.

 

[cgattis]

Just wanted to say that DH and I will be doing our first Aulani trip also! We are so excited! I am used to planning every minute of a WDW trip. For our time at Aulani though, I plan on doing a lot of sitting and staring at the Ocean. That's my big "plan"

That was my plan too, and I only did it once!!! I ended up spending way more time in the lazy river than I expected; finding all the hidden animals was so much fun. But no matter what you do, I can virtually guarantee you will love it!!!

 

[scottmel]

Count us in too for July 2018 first time visitors! But can't resist being so close to DL without stopping so I have too! Flying from East Coast. Visited DL several times and WDW Too many too count! I found Hawaii planning intimidating initially. Now I have my days pretty much sketched out we are at Moana Surfrider in Waikkiki for 5 night and Aulani for 5 nights. SO MUCH TO DO. This book has been AMAZING

https://www.amazon.com/Oahu-Reveale...&qid=1515356959&sr=8-1&keywords=oahu+revealed

I also decided to do private tours, we really like that type of stuff so. A dis board member recommended https://www.oahuprivatetours.com and we booked a two day tour with them.