Long time DVCer, 1st time Aulani - May 2022, here we come!

[carone0318]

Hey everyone.... WE ARE GOING TO HAWAII (and Disneyland again)!

A little background:
My family have been members since 1999. We own at BWV, HH and since this past summer SSR. My husband and I will be married 27 years come March 18th!! Holy moly, that is a long time and we are in our youthful 50s!

My kids have grown up going to Disney, my daughter's first trip was when she was just shy of 3 (that is the trip we became members). My son wasn't even born when we bought, but he did get his first hair cut on his first trip when he was 16 months old. My kids are now 25 and 20, my son will be 21 in a few weeks (Valentine's Day). And for the record, we have 3 dogs. 2 full basset hound girls and my silver fox boy who is a bagel (that would be a basset hound, beagle mix) who is 13 going on 14 in April. I would be remiss not to mention the turtle, Leo, he's part of the family too. Pretty cool to watch him eat his mealworms, he loves them! Ok, now back to business.

We have done countless trips to WDW, a handful of trips to HH and even did a Disneyland (and San Francisco) trip on points, oh and a couple of cruises (not really my jam, but I tried twice). I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and since we are DVC members, hey we want to go to Aulani. We will be using points. I booked at the 7 month window, since that is not our home resort and we have an ocean view 2 bedroom unit for 7 nights, May 19th - May 26th. We checkout on the 26th and then flying to LAX and will be in the Disneyland area for an additional 3 nights. We decided to do this stop in CA to help with jetlag. We are coming from the east coast and thought , it may help us adjust on our way back. We will see.

I am "Betty tour guide" as I do all of the planning and the fam usually just follows along for the experience. Hawaii is a big trip, with lots of expenses so I decided to keep a costs spreadsheet to document my out-of-pocket expenses and also to note the dates I made reservations. When I plan trips, I fully emerge myself. I've joined several Aulani specific FB groups and also Oahu groups. What I notice the most is that people want to know when to book excursions, what excursions to book and how much do things cost.

This is my Aulani/Disneyland documentary, stay tuned, more to come!

 

[FrannyFrogs]

Following! We will be visiting Aulani (and Hawaii) for the first time in June.

I am jealous of your smart thinking to join DVC right away when your child was 2. We made our first visit when ours were 2 and 4 and we all fell in love with Disney, then returned every year or two paying cash for deluxe rooms! It took me eleven years to figure out that I needed to join DVC!

 

[carone0318]

Following! We will be visiting Aulani (and Hawaii) for the first time in June.

I am jealous of your smart thinking to join DVC right away when your child was 2. We made our first visit when ours were 2 and 4 and we all fell in love with Disney, then returned every year or two paying cash for deluxe rooms! It took me eleven years to figure out that I needed to join DVC!

It's ok at least you finally took that step and it's no looking back now. Our best friends owned and we went on a trip with them back in 99 and that was all it took, we bought right in. I think back then our initial buy-in was like $72 per point for BW. Then shortly thereafter we paid $67 for HH. The costs per point right now is crazy, not sure I could do it, but tons of people do.

So, you're going in June, right after me. I simply cannot wait, I watch videos and scour FB groups basically every day. I'm in NJ and it's cold here and my trip planning is my escape.

 

[carone0318]

Let me introduce the cast of characters:

Me - 50 something mom
DH - 50 something dad
DD - 25
DD's boyfriend - 28
DS - will be 21 on Valentine's Day
DS's girlfriend - will be 21 by the time we go.

We have a 2 bedroom ocean view at Aulani, then we fly to LAX and since DVC has instituted the you can't borrow more than 50% rule, we will be staying at a non-Disney hotel. I currently have 3 booked and will have to decide which one we go with. I'd list them right now, but I don't remember them off the top of my head.

We're planning for 2 days at Disneyland/California Adventure. We've done it before, about 10 years ago, but "the friends" haven't been, so it will be new for some.

 

[suse66]

Following along! We are hoping to do Disneyland and Aulani in August 2023 so will be eager to hear all your plans!

 

[carone0318]

We decided we wanted to do Hawaii last June/July. Since we were booking with our DVC points, we couldn't actually book the room until October. That doesn't stop me from planning!

Airfare: We had frequent flyer miles available with United, American and Southwest. The great thing is, I'm not a fan of book round trip tickets anyways, so this trip we are using multiple airlines. We are basically half way between Philadelphia (PHL) and Newark (EWR), slightly closer to PHL and I would prefer there but hey money talks and if the flights are better (time wise) at EWR and cheaper, then I am not opposed to going there.

We decided on United out our EWR. United offers a non-stop flight, need I say more. If we didn't have any miles to use or anything, I would of definitely considered Hawaiian Airlines, but again money talks and I have 6 tickets to buy! So, I booked the United flight 8:30am arrives 1:30pm (HNL). I booked the tickets in August, I was able to get (5) Economy tickets for $462.52 per person and then I splurged and upgraded up to Economy Plus with the more spacious seating. I was also able to get the other ticket on miles and then just had to pay the upgrade to Eco Plus out of pocket ($160). My total costs for these 6 tickets was $3331.60 for 6 people.

We then decided that we would stop on the back end of our trip for a couple of days at Disneyland. I mean who doesn't want to go to Disneyland and fingers crossed it helps with the jet lag on our return to the East Coast! I was looking at various combinations and due to the frequent flyer miles we had, we opted to fly home from LAX on American and we are going to fly into PHL since American has a hub there, lots more flight options, better pricing (then flying in to EWR on American). I was able to get (2) tickets on miles and then we had enough American Airlines Gift Cards to purchase the remaining (4) tickets ($1235), ummm YAY! Then I again opted to upgrade all 6 seats to the Extra Cabin Space Seating (total $315.20). (BOOKED August as well)

So, now we just needed to get from HNL to LAX. There are plenty of options out there, but I knew if I waited out until the Southwest window opened that I wasn't going to get a better price because of our frequent flyer miles.

The May window for Southwest opened on December 8th, I started stalking the website at 7am, checking every 15 minutes, knowing it will probably open between 7-10am EST. I was able get the tickets, they were $199 per person (more than I wanted to spend, but at least I don't have to pay for luggage and also I need to consider that we will be flying into LAX on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend). I was able to get (4) of our tickets on miles ($22.40 after the fees) and then pay out of pocket for 2 ($398). Lastly, I opted to add the Early Bird to the tickets so I automatically get checked in for seating. I made the error of forgetting to do that and it was not fun. I really have no desire to sit next to strangers for 5.5 hours. I paid the stupid $150 for all 6 Early Bird tickets and called it a day!

Air is complete! When all's said and done, total $4217.20 for 6 people, which includes upgraded seating (NOT first class) for all 6 of us going to HNL and coming home from LAX. I'm thinking that's pretty good. We will just get a car services for our rides to EWR and home from PHL,.

 

[FrannyFrogs]

You did great on maximizing your points & miles for air travel!

We're flying from Boston and doing Disneyland on the way to HI. We had originally booked an international trip for this summer, but decided to switch to a US based destination because the Covid/international flights thing is just so iffy. So I had booked with Delta to Europe, and was able to switch those tickets and get our 4 tickets BOS to LAX (then 2 nights Disneyland), and LAX to KOA all nonstop and first class(!) and still have quite a bit of credit left with Delta. Looks like Delta offers a few first class seats for certain dates and times on these flights for only $150 more than the comfort plus seats, which is TOTALLY worth it to me! Both flights are 5 plus hours. The family will probably be ruined for coach, lol.

We'll spend a week on the Big Island, then take Hawaiian Airlines from ITO to HNL. A week on Oahu, then Hawaiian nonstop HNL to BOS. I paid out of pocket for these, but it's one of their lower-priced dates and I feel like we are going to be exhausted and just really not want to deal with a connection on the way home (although I could have used my remaining Delta credit for a connecting flight. Delta extended all their credits for another year I know we'll absolutely be able to use it before it expires.) I'd love to be able to upgrade the HNL to BOS to the lie-flat first class, but it's like $1500/person and that's for sure out of reach.

I read your plan and now second guessing myself on whether it's better to stop at Disneyland on the way to or from Hawaii! It's probably going to be an amazing trip either way!

 

[carone0318]

You did great on maximizing your points & miles for air travel!

We're flying from Boston and doing Disneyland on the way to HI. We had originally booked an international trip for this summer, but decided to switch to a US based destination because the Covid/international flights thing is just so iffy. So I had booked with Delta to Europe, and was able to switch those tickets and get our 4 tickets BOS to LAX (then 2 nights Disneyland), and LAX to KOA all nonstop and first class(!) and still have quite a bit of credit left with Delta. Looks like Delta offers a few first class seats for certain dates and times on these flights for only $150 more than the comfort plus seats, which is TOTALLY worth it to me! Both flights are 5 plus hours. The family will probably be ruined for coach, lol.

We'll spend a week on the Big Island, then take Hawaiian Airlines from ITO to HNL. A week on Oahu, then Hawaiian nonstop HNL to BOS. I paid out of pocket for these, but it's one of their lower-priced dates and I feel like we are going to be exhausted and just really not want to deal with a connection on the way home (although I could have used my remaining Delta credit for a connecting flight. Delta extended all their credits for another year I know we'll absolutely be able to use it before it expires.) I'd love to be able to upgrade the HNL to BOS to the lie-flat first class, but it's like $1500/person and that's for sure out of reach.

I read your plan and now second guessing myself on whether it's better to stop at Disneyland on the way to or from Hawaii! It's probably going to be an amazing trip either way!

My dh and I were supposed to go to Germany March 2020 and we were booked on points, when that cancelled the points went back into his account, which is why I think we had so many points. I get the whole Covid/International flights thing.

Maybe I should go check what upgrading would cost for even just my dh and I. I mean, if I could upgrade us, it's not a bad thing for our adult kids "to want." ha ha

And I agree with you, Disneyland on either end is good!

 

[carone0318]

I guess that I should mention that I was looking at rental cars when we decided to go, through Costco. I wasn't so concerned about having our airline tickets or not, but once I knew the flights I wanted, before I even bought them I was booking car rentals.

Right now I have a 7 night minivan rental through Costco (with Enterprise) for $590 for HNL.

I also have a 3 night minivan rental through Costco (with Alamo) for $306 for LAX.

I constantly check these prices and if they improve, I cancel and rebook. No harm, no foul.

I really don't think that I am going to do better considering the cost of inflation that continues to go up, but will monitor and will see.

 

[carone0318]

Dreary rainy day here at home... dreaming of Hawaii!

So, our check in date for Aulani is May 19th and I was able to book our reservation with points on October 19th. I was monitoring what I wanted at the 7 month window for a couple of weeks and I was always able to get it, so I was confident that I would be able to as well when it was the real deal.

So I originally booked a 2 bedroom pool view for 7 nights right at 7am (online), so I had a reservation. Then at 9am, I called Member Services and upgraded to the Ocean view. I was short 9 points, so I did a one time purchase for the 9 points ($19 per point) and we are now officially confirmed for a 2 bdrm Ocean View, yahoo!

Later that day I called Aulani and requested a cabana and was able to make a reservation for our last day, Wednesday, May 25th. I figured the guys in our party will go golfing that day and I wanted to keep it open since it was our last day in Hawaii.

 

[carone0318]

Hit a new bench mark, we are now double digits away from vacation... 99 days!

 

[carone0318]

Ok, so I have my flights, we have the room and rental cars, let's get to the fun stuff...

Some might come to think we are doing too much on our vacation, but I will start this all off by saying my husband is not a go on vacation and sit on the beach or by the pool kind of guy. I must have plans with things to do. He can do nothing a day here or there, but not too many.

Wednesday, May 19th - Flight lands at 1:30pm. We will go get rental car, drive to Aulani and dump off our bags. Then we will hit Costco/Target for food and drinks for the week. I was thinking that we could just get hot food from ABC store. I'm hoping to get a walk in before we die. That 11hr flight will be killer and I will feel like a blob after just sitting for so long, so a nice walk on the walkway around the coves (I hear it is 2.1 miles total).

Friday, May 20th - Since we will still feel East Coast, I am hoping to be up early and out, maybe around 5am and head to Diamond Head for a hike. The only other thing we have planned is the Luau at Aulani. I figure we can nap beforehand, if need be.

Saturday, May 21st -Kualoa Ranch 2hr ATV tour @ 10am

Sunday, May 22nd - I think this will be our Pearl Harbor Day. Can't book until 60 days out, but this is when I think we will go. Plan to hit the Swap Meet afterwards. I do have a reservation at Hula Grill for 5pm, thinking we can walk around Waikiki for a little bit. Since I have 6 adults I can't make a reservation for Duke's, but could make one for Hula Grill hence why it's there.

Monday, May 23rd - 3 of our 6 are going shark diving at 9am. The other 3 can hang somewhere up in North Shore.

Tuesday, May 24th - Mahini Hawaii Adventures. They will be picking us up @ 10am,

Wednesday, May 25th - I have a cabana reserved, the guys will go play golf this day.

Thursday, May 26th - We flight @ 7am to LAX for a 3 days at Disneyland. This night we will also be attending the Angels game and then on the 28th we will be going to the LAFC game. Our family has been to Disneyland before, but the "friends" have not been. All of the kids are big Marvel people, so they are looking forward to the Avengers Campus. Me, personally, I'm like whatever. Sadly since we are unable to borrow more than 50% we can't stay on site, so we will be within walking distance of the parks and will just walk to and from.

 

[carone0318]

Above is what I have planned thus far. I don't have a lot of food places yet and there are things I want to do, but I do have them marked on my spreadsheet yet.

Food - When I originally booked, I was thinking I would cook a meal or 2 in the room, just like we do when we go to Hilton Head. When you have down time and are not in a rush to get to a park, cooking is not such a big deal, plus my husband loves to cook. Now as we get closer, I am not sure we will do that (pure laziness). I don't know we will see. I think we might do the Makahiki character breakfast, if not that then dinner there. I just don't know but I do have some time to decide before I need to book. I definitely want to do Eggs n Things and Monkeypod, but maybe a Monkeypod happy hour. See this is where I'm pretty laid back and like whatever. I know if I want Makahiki, I need to make a reservation, so that will be a definite.

I want to do the Star Glazing (whatever it is formally called) at the resort, but not sure when. I don't feel I have to have that on the books so early, so will just financially plan for it and then book when there.

Of course I want to do the ever important.... shopping! I am a self professed Dooney & Bourke junkie, yup. I am particular about the size bags I generally buy. I love the zippered clutch wallets. I know they have one and then they have the large tote. I have to say I love my DVC large tote, but might be willing to get another one. Decisions, decisions, but fun good ones to make!

I only have 98 more days to think about which ones, yikes!

 

[stevevm]

Following

We are going for our first visit in July. Was supposed to be July 2020 but you know what happened

 

[carone0318]

Today marks 85 days, I love how it keeps getting smaller and smaller (that number, I mean). Husband is getting ready to make the guys golf outing tee time for Wednesday the 25th.

I noticed that Southwest has decreased our flight cost for HNL to LAX. We paid $199 and now it is $119, but it is only showing 2 tickets left. Kills me to know I could get it cheaper but can't because I need 6 tickets. Deep breath, Deep breath.

I'm always about the bargain.

 

[carone0318]

Wow, today we are down to 67 days!! I believe March 27th will be when I can get Pearl Harbor tickets at the 60 day mark for the day we are planning to go, yay!

I'm keeping an eye on our Southwest flight from HNL to LAX and it has decreased from $199 down to $129, made sure I got my credits.

I've also made 2 breakfast reservations for Eggs 'n Things across the street. I kind of would like to try Makahiki for breakfast but really don't want to pay for the current state of character meals. I know that every morning is now a character meal so I'm thinking we may just pass. I say that now, but would not be shocked if I change my mind, ha ha. I will mull this over up until the 30 day mark. Heard the grills are open and we will definitely cook at least one night on the grill, maybe 2, but we will do a surf & turf night in the room. Maybe I will put the kids in charge of slushi drinks to accompany the meal!

Oh, the other day, I called DVC and put in my room requests. We are 2bdrm ocean view. I definitely want Ewa building. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be as far to the end by the ocean to get the best possible sunset view or if we would prefer the long balcony of the 50 stack, so I made my first request in the 86 stack and then my second request the 50 stack. I know they are the opposite of each other, but if I can't get the 86 stack then I think I would prefer the long balcony.

I guess my last update is that I am doing good with my money/GC saving. I try to put away money/GC every week. I have an ambitious weekly goal and I have to say that I am doing quite well, for now.