Timeframe for reserving your chairs @ the pool.

[mz-s]

I agree. And to be fair, their booty WAS in those seats. The Aulani policy is that before 8am any seat that has been reserved (has a towel on it) must have someone there in the seat or else the towel will be removed and the seat made available. The staff was really good about enforcing the pool rules and before 8am staff members were patrolling every 15 minutes or so to remove towels from chairs with no one in them. Because of that, people were in their chairs up until 8am without question. After 8am the staff would come by about every 30 minutes or so to mark down the seats that were empty so they knew when to give those seats away. The staff was great. It was some of the people who got to the pool later in the day who were the problem. I witnessed a woman who tried to take over occupied seats being told that the family had literally just stepped away 10 minutes ago to take a dip in the pool and the woman went nuts. She said “this isn’t over” and went and got a staff member. When the staff member explained the rule to her she went full “Karen” and kept arguing. She finally gave up and left. Those are the kind of people I am talking about, and there were shockingly a lot of them. People know they have to be down at the pool early to get good chair spots, so if they chose not to then that is on them.

Frankly all this is making me second guess if I really want to visit this resort.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Frankly all this is making me second guess if I really want to visit this resort.

Haha. Nah. I would go. It’s amazing. We found the pool chair situation to be similarly competitive at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Not as bad, but the need to get a chair early was there. I think it will be similar at any resort, but more so at resorts that have a lot of kids…and Aulani definitely fits that description.

 

[AustinTink]

Frankly all this is making me second guess if I really want to visit this resort.

Same.

Maybe it's an evil ploy to keep away newcomers. "Don't come, there are no chairs for you!"

 

[lilsonicfan]

We were there about a month ago, during spring break for our kids (mid-late March) and did not find a huge issue with pool chairs, although we tended to take chairs closer to the lazy river. We would typically just ask the people sitting near the chairs if they knew which ones were occupied - as in, I'd point to chairs that just had a wet towel, and ask if these were saved. If people said they didn't know, or hadn't seen the occupant in a long while, or if the towel just really looked discarded and not a nice clean fresh one, I'd feel pretty safe removing it. There were lots of chairs like this- wet towels all crumpled up on the chair, but guests feeling too hesitant to remove them I guess.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We were there about a month ago, during spring break for our kids (mid-late March) and did not find a huge issue with pool chairs, although we tended to take chairs closer to the lazy river. We would typically just ask the people sitting near the chairs if they knew which ones were occupied - as in, I'd point to chairs that just had a wet towel, and ask if these were saved. If people said they didn't know, or hadn't seen the occupant in a long while, or if the towel just really looked discarded and not a nice clean fresh one, I'd feel pretty safe removing it. There were lots of chairs like this- wet towels all crumpled up on the chair, but guests feeling too hesitant to remove them I guess.

We always sat at the chairs around the "big pool", closer to the beach. Those seemed to be the ones that people got heated over. I will say, those chairs had great views of the beach and ocean (which is why we sat there). I can see why they were in high demand.

 

[WillGan]

We just got back from Aulani. The pool chair situation is crazy! We are east coasters, so luckily for us waking up early wasn't an issue since we were 6 hours time difference. The best chairs at Aulani have people taking them at 4:30 IN THE MORNING!! We were there during the week of west coast school breaks and Aulani was at 100% capacity, but we found that we could get the seats we wanted (other than those prized seats) if we were there at 6:30am. One morning we went at 7:00am and our "regular" seats were taken...we had to go to tier 3 seats. It's crazy.

And I will say that there is a heightened air of entitlement at Aulani, which is both crazy and hilarious. I witnessed several instances of grown adults having temper tantrums over pool seats. News flash...if you get to the pool at 11:00am you aren't going to find a seat! But that doesn't mean you can just move people's things and take their seats, which I witnessed and stopped BTW. There are some people who thinks the world revolves around them, I guess. It was crazy to see this behavior at a chill Hawaiian resort.

I hope that you had an amazing time! I get so nervous as our keiki get older and would need to gravitate away from the kid friendly chairs (not too sought after in the early hours) into the pool areas! I'll be ready to brave the situation again when we head there for a staycation during the 4th of July week!

 

[WillGan]

Same.

Maybe it's an evil ploy to keep away newcomers. "Don't come, there are no chairs for you!"

From what I saw from other responses, it's like this at other DVC resorts as well...

 

[Anal Annie]

We arrived last nite and I set my alarm for 6:00 this morning so I could get up to survey the chair situation from our balcony. I was relieved to see there was nobody down there. I peeked out every once in awhile but didn't really see any big rush so we took our time coming down. We came down around 7:50 just before the pool hut opened. More than enough chairs to share still by 10:00. We went over to meet Moana @ 9:45 and when we came back they had folded our towels over the back of chairs on their hourly rounds. I would say most chairs were full by 10:30 but I was relieved there were no 5:00-6:00 shenanigans to deal with.

 

[WillGan]

Today is a beautiful day! Glad you get to enjoy it!

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We arrived last nite and I set my alarm for 6:00 this morning so I could get up to survey the chair situation from our balcony. I was relieved to see there was nobody down there. I peeked out every once in awhile but didn't really see any big rush so we took our time coming down. We came down around 7:50 just before the pool hut opened. More than enough chairs to share still by 10:00. We went over to meet Moana @ 9:45 and when we came back they had folded our towels over the back of chairs on their hourly rounds. I would say most chairs were full by 10:30 but I was relieved there were no 5:00-6:00 shenanigans to deal with.

From other comments and people we talked to, I think the craziness happens during school breaks. When we were there it was school break for the west coast schools. Most people checked out on Saturday and the following day (Sunday) it was easy getting chairs and the craziness really seemed to die down. I’m glad to hear it is more mellow now!

 

[thelittledipster]

I’m confused, about to be a first time visitor… don’t you need wristbands to get in the pool area? Aren’t they only available starting at 8am? So how does one stake out a pool chair before getting a wristband and at what point do I need one?

 

[Winston Wolf]

Haha. Nah. I would go. It’s amazing. We found the pool chair situation to be similarly competitive at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Not as bad, but the need to get a chair early was there. I think it will be similar at any resort, but more so at resorts that have a lot of kids…and Aulani definitely fits that description.

No different than Disney Cruise Line too

 

[Anal Annie]

I’m confused, about to be a first time visitor… don’t you need wristbands to get in the pool area? Aren’t they only available starting at 8am? So how does one stake out a pool chair before getting a wristband and at what point do I need one?

You need a wristband to go into the pool. Some people go down and camp out on a chair with whatever personal belongings they have. Some families throw a Croc on each of 5 chairs and try to call them saved. They go @ 8:00 to get wristbands.

 

[MissScarlet]

I’m confused, about to be a first time visitor… don’t you need wristbands to get in the pool area? Aren’t they only available starting at 8am? So how does one stake out a pool chair before getting a wristband and at what point do I need one?

You can also pick up the wristband for the next day the evening before.

 

[pineapplepalms]

You can also pick up the wristband for the next day the evening before.

Can everyone do this? They told us only DVC members could pick up the night before.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

I’m confused, about to be a first time visitor… don’t you need wristbands to get in the pool area? Aren’t they only available starting at 8am? So how does one stake out a pool chair before getting a wristband and at what point do I need one?

You can get the following day’s wristband and new towels the day/night before. So people have the new wristbands and fresh towels to put on chairs when they are down there in the morning.

 

[Anal Annie]

So today is our 2nd resort / pool day after having spent the ENTIRE day yesterday on the North Shore. Here are my observations this morning. We decided to try for a new / different location today from what we had on Sunday. The full lounge chairs that face the lagoon with the nice views that are still within hearing distance of the Hawaiian music playing at the pool are definitely the more in-demand chairs. There are a couple of secluded spots with the chair / ottoman type chairs that get passed over in favor of the full loungers. The chair / ottoman setups were still available at 8:30 when I walked around (we once again came down around 10 of 8:00). I could see these prime spots filling early from our balcony around 7:00 tho so I knew we wouldn't get one of those as I don't think I will ever make it down THAT early. We ended up picking a spot in the middle of the 2nd row back facing the lagoon in order to get at least 1 chair under an umbrella. We are close to Ama Ama and Off The Hook. IF we didn't want ANY shade we could have gotten a chair in the front row as all the umbrellas were gone. The people next to us that we are sharing the umbrella with have not been here yet at all. Only signs of life are a towel on each chair and 2 Aulani refill cups on the side table. I walked over to survey the loungers that are on the deck below Ama Ama and I think we may try for those on our next pool day (Thurs). My observations there are that it is a very quiet location but not as convenient for a quick dip in the pool. Also, not as many umbrellas so get there early to snag the umbrellas. The upper deck can can hear the waterfall in front of Ama Ama for a little white noise ambience but the lower deck is definitely very quiet if you like complete silence without any stimulation at all...

 

[AustinTink]

So today is our 2nd resort / pool day after having spent the ENTIRE day yesterday on the North Shore. Here are my observations this morning. We decided to try for a new / different location today from what we had on Sunday. The full lounge chairs that face the lagoon with the nice views that are still within hearing distance of the Hawaiian music playing at the pool are definitely the more in-demand chairs. There are a couple of secluded spots with the chair / ottoman type chairs that get passed over in favor of the full loungers. The chair / ottoman setups were still available at 8:30 when I walked around (we once again came down around 10 of 8:00). I could see these prime spots filling early from our balcony around 7:00 tho so I knew we wouldn't get one of those as I don't think I will ever make it down THAT early. We ended up picking a spot in the middle of the 2nd row back facing the lagoon in order to get at least 1 chair under an umbrella. We are close to Ama Ama and Off The Hook. IF we didn't want ANY shade we could have gotten a chair in the front row as all the umbrellas were gone. The people next to us that we are sharing the umbrella with have not been here yet at all. Only signs of life are a towel on each chair and 2 Aulani refill cups on the side table. I walked over to survey the loungers that are on the deck below Ama Ama and I think we may try for those on our next pool day (Thurs). My observations there are that it is a very quiet location but not as convenient for a quick dip in the pool. Also, not as many umbrellas so get there early to snag the umbrellas. The upper deck can can hear the waterfall in front of Ama Ama for a little white noise ambience but the lower deck is definitely very quiet if you like complete silence without any stimulation at all...

What does it look like around 3pm when people are coming back to the resort after excursions or naps? Is it a madhouse?

 

[AZMermaid]

We were there about a month ago, during spring break for our kids (mid-late March) and did not find a huge issue with pool chairs, although we tended to take chairs closer to the lazy river. We would typically just ask the people sitting near the chairs if they knew which ones were occupied - as in, I'd point to chairs that just had a wet towel, and ask if these were saved. If people said they didn't know, or hadn't seen the occupant in a long while, or if the towel just really looked discarded and not a nice clean fresh one, I'd feel pretty safe removing it. There were lots of chairs like this- wet towels all crumpled up on the chair, but guests feeling too hesitant to remove them I guess.

At the Hilton Waikoloa they used these towel vending machine things and you were charged (or threatened to be at least) like $25 a towel if not returned via the vending thing. I thought this was a good way to combat people who can’t be bothered to drop their towel in the chute and free up some chairs.

 

[AZMermaid]

What does it look like around 3pm when people are coming back to the resort after excursions or naps? Is it a madhouse?

My experience has been around 3 the pool area starts clearing out and seats are much easier to find- except the wet crumpled towel ones.