How bad is Standard View?

[jltdone]

787 was the villa number - I did post photos in the thread up top April / May 2018.

I saw your views the other day very nice. I actually liked it so much I requested that exact room number. I was told by CM on the phone that she couldn't put the request it for that room cause it is a island view. Then I went back and looked at the room numbers and views and it is under the island view.
Do you know if you got an upgraded view at check in?

 

[ray3127]

Been to Hawaii, but not Aulani (yet). Planning to go in 2021 for our 10th as well, and am committed to an Ocean View. We are 'view' people, and will be spending more time in our room than most. I understand those that do not, but given your past vacation habits, you seem like you would love that view as well. The link to the post views/photos gives you a great idea of the layout.

However, we are also DVC members and will be staying on points when we go. I will echo others' suggestions to please look into renting DVC points. You are literally throwing away thousands of dollars if you book it the conventional way. I can attest to using David's as well. Top notch. The biggest "catch" is you have to pay all up-front and there are no cancellations (though I think they may offer some type of insurance? Not sure).

 

[Anna Chassereau]

Thank you all so much for your words of advice and insight!! I ended up booking us in an Island Gardens View Room for 8 nights in June...I decided on this just to maybe have a nice view of palm trees...possibly mountains rather than likely having a view of the parking lot. (I know parking lot can still happen with island gardens view too but there’s also a chance it may not lol) I of course would have loved an ocean view but just couldn’t bring myself to pay that much more...we’re definitely “view people” but paying $3,000 more for a view was giving me heart palpitations!! Lol

We’re SO excited and can’t wait to experience Aulani and Hawaii!! Thanks again!

 

[kyton]

Jltdone, I can't recall being upgraded. All I know is that I'm stingy LOL and always book the cheapest option. Since we go yearly to Oahu and don't spend a lot of time in the room that is my modus operandi!

 

[Noah_t]

Jltdone, I can't recall being upgraded. All I know is that I'm stingy LOL and always book the cheapest option. Since we go yearly to Oahu and don't spend a lot of time in the room that is my modus operandi!

I feel like using the term stingy to describe yourself is not very acurate when it comes to someone who stays at Aulani.

 

[kyton]

Maybe not for some Noah but for us, it is.

 

[alohamom]

Thank you all so much for your words of advice and insight!! I ended up booking us in an Island Gardens View Room for 8 nights in June...I decided on this just to maybe have a nice view of palm trees...possibly mountains rather than likely having a view of the parking lot. (I know parking lot can still happen with island gardens view too but there’s also a chance it may not lol) I of course would have loved an ocean view but just couldn’t bring myself to pay that much more...we’re definitely “view people” but paying $3,000 more for a view was giving me heart palpitations!! Lol

We’re SO excited and can’t wait to experience Aulani and Hawaii!! Thanks again!

This is an excellent compromise!

 

[Mommy2Logan]

We didn’t do the ocean view. Instead we did poolside gardens and were able to come twice in one year.

 

[Mommy2Logan]

Wanted to add that we did get upgraded to an ocean view down the road at Marriott Beach Club during a split stay in April and it was nice to the see the ocean but not $400 more a night nice. At least not for our income. We would rather use that money towards another trip.

 

[SonomaCountyDad]

We've stayed twice, with a third trip planned for next year. For all trips, we rented points. For the first trip, there were no standard rooms available, so we splurged for the ocean view. It was absolutely magnificent, but we paid an arm and a leg for it. I don't think that view can ever be beat, so I refuse to stay in ocean view again since I don't want to be disappointed. For our second trip, we took the standard room and extended the stay. The same goes for our upcoming third trip. Was it worth it once? Yes. But now we are going for five nights instead of three, and I just can't justify the cost.

 

[Noah_t]

We've stayed twice, with a third trip planned for next year. For all trips, we rented points. For the first trip, there were no standard rooms available, so we splurged for the ocean view. It was absolutely magnificent, but we paid an arm and a leg for it. I don't think that view can ever be beat, so I refuse to stay in ocean view again since I don't want to be disappointed. For our second trip, we took the standard room and extended the stay. The same goes for our upcoming third trip. Was it worth it once? Yes. But now we are going for five nights instead of three, and I just can't justify the cost.

I agree totally with the above comment.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Thanks for all the info, looking into renting points to stay at Aulani in this upcoming spring. Glad to hear that people had good experiences with Davids and DVC rental store. Quick question, if you do rent points for a regular hotel room, does that not include service to the room like the villas/studios would? Is there a way to pay to have the room serviced each day? There's something about getting a bed made up and the bathrooms super clean that makes me feel like vacation .

 

[Noah_t]

There's so few hotel rooms in the DVC side you will be hard pressed to find them. Also no they do not include housekeeping. 30$/day is the price to get a studio cleaned I believe. It's gets more expensive for the bigger rooms too.

 

[jltdone]

There's so few hotel rooms in the DVC side you will be hard pressed to find them. Also no they do not include housekeeping. 30$/day is the price to get a studio cleaned I believe. It's gets more expensive for the bigger rooms too.

IS this only for points?
What if Im booking directly with disney do we get mousekeeping everyday?

 

[foodiddiedoo]

IS this only for points?
What if Im booking directly with disney do we get mousekeeping everyday?

I paid cash for a 2 bedroom villa at BLT and we had daily mousekeeping.

 

[Lewisc]

You should assume a standard view is no view. Anything else is a bonus.
Discounted rates at Aulani, COSTCO, AP whatever, are frequently similar to the cost of renting points. You'll lose free parking but gain daily housekeeping. My understanding is upgrades go to cash customers not points reservation. Last year I was upgraded from a studio to a 1 bedroom (island view)

 

[Karlrob]

Standard View - no contest for us. At our stay there we had a standard view which turned out to be nothing to look at! But we kept the shades closed for privacy, went to the lobby to sit and look and out to the pool for better views. We cannot justify the extra for the view, especially when we are in the room and the curtains are closed. We enjoyed our stay every bit as much

 

[heaven2dc]

Both Deluxe studio and standard rooms are close to the lobby. Deluxe studios with standard view will be lower floors by the convention center (to the left of the building if you are standing in the lobby looking out towards the lagoon). The standard rooms with standard view will be to the right of the lobby lower floor rooms by the parking structure. The higher floors on both sides are island garden views. I would book standard view because there are so many places to see the scenery outside of the room. Hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[braysmommy]

All I know is any view will be better than my office view at work....oh wait I don't even have a window at work! Looking forward to our first stay at Aulani this May.

 

[Briechen]

We are DVC members, home resort Copper Creek. We just booked a standard studio for 4 nights at Aulani for the end of January (first trip there). We opted for this room type because of how we want to allocate our points for the rest of the year. Doing a standard view room vs. ocean view allows us to stay at Copper Creek longer when we go to WDW September 2020 by saving 32 points. We can use this to get 1 night in a 1 bedroom villa (28 points) or 2 nights in a deluxe studio (30 points). So it was worth it to us to use our points we were saving for a standard view to get a longer trip at WDW. When we went to CCV last month we had a great view and we literally went on our balcony 2 times in 7 days even though we were in our room quite a bit.