We loved Aulani

cleophus12

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
I am not a DVC member but we did stay on points, so I hope I'm not stepping on toes by posting here. We had a great trip and just wanted to share some info. We were there from 5/26-29--not nearly long enough!

We arrived at Aulani early on Saturday, because we had disembarked from the Pride of America earlier that morning. We were staying DVC for the first time on rented points, so we rented a car since we would not have to pay for parking. We knew our room wouldn’t be ready, but we were willing to sit around the pool until the room was ready. We made a stop at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet and roamed around there for awhile. Our drive into Ko’Olina was uneventful, and from the moment we could see Aulani in the distance, our excitement began to grow. I had failed to put my bathing suit into my spare bag and had every intention of pulling it out when we arrived. But bell services were so efficient that when we pulled up, they had our bags unloaded and were whisked off to luggage storage before we could say, “Wait a minute!” So I went to the front desk and checked us in. Check in was a breeze, and when the cast member realized we did not have our welcome leis, she immediately sent someone to get them for us and give us our “Welcome Home” along with a beautiful flower lei. By the time we were all checked in, it was just after noon and we walked down to Off the Hook to have lunch. We shared a burger and a kids’ order of chicken strips. Our lunch was just under $30 and it was actually quite good. We found a spot by the pool and stayed until our room was ready around 2:30. We did some exploring during this time and felt like we saw most of the resort. We received a text when our room was ready. We were in Ewa tower, ocean view studio 856. We had an incredible view. Although many on these boards have discouraged using points for the ocean view, we loved the ocean view and the pool view we had. We could also hear the live music from the Olelo room each evening. And when the characters were out for their meet and greets, we could see them right below us. It was an amazing location.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled and going back to the pool. Then we got dressed, went to Target, and purchased our lunch for the next few days. Their Target doesn’t have the grocery selection our hometown Target has, but we found most of what we needed. Target didn’t have 6 packs of water, only cases, so we went to the Down to Earth store in the same shopping center and bought a few single bottles of water. We returned to the resort in time to go to storytelling with Uncle Ito and spend some time in the hot tub afterwards. My husband and daughter got up early each morning and hit the fitness center while I enjoyed my coffee on the balcony. I had bought a bag of Kona coffee earlier in the week and had carried coffee filters with me, so I enjoyed my own coffee rather than the pods provided in the room. We had purchased milk and cereal on our Target outing, so we had breakfast on the balcony as well. We got out Sunday morning and went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and did some exploring. We returned to the resort around 1:00 and spent the remainder of the day at the resort enjoying the pool and just being generally lazy. We went to Outback for dinner on Sunday night. Monday was Memorial Day and we had booked a scuba/snorkel excursion with Hawaii Nautical for the morning. They picked us up at Aulani at 8:30 and took us to their boat. The excursion was a bit disappointing. My husband has scuba dived on several occasions, but has never gotten certified, so he did the Discover Scuba with our daughter who was going for her first dive. The dive site was not as good as we had hoped it would be, and my husband was somewhat disappointed, but our daughter loved it. It was a fine morning, and they dropped us back off at Aulani around 12:30. The crew was very friendly. My daughter and I had a massage scheduled at Laniwai for 3 and we were told to come at 2 to enjoy the hydrotherapy gardens. What an amazing set up! We thoroughly enjoyed our hour in the gardens, and it passed all too quickly. We both scheduled the 50 minute Lomilomi massage and it was great. After the massage, we returned to the gardens to read and continue our relaxing afternoon. We left around 4:30 because we had a 6:00 reservation at AmaAma. Our dinner was delicious. I had the seafood paella and my husband had a steak, and both dishes were terrific. Our dinner was $94 and we felt it was worth every penny. We finished in time to get to the Starlit Hui at 7:30. This is an example of Disney entertainment at its best. It is very beautiful and seemingly authentic. We did not book a luau on this trip and do not regret that decision one bit. We are glad we saved our money because this show is just perfect. None of the hokey tourist stuff. The performers are great and the staging is lovely. We didn’t see a Disney character at all until the very end when they all come out to dance and take pictures. It was a perfect end to a nearly perfect day.
Tuesday was our last day sadly and we got up and had our breakfast at the Olelo room since we had eaten all our cereal. Then we went out to the pool for awhile until we had to check out. While we were at the pool, I looked up from my book to find Goofy (and I don’t mean my husband) standing right beside me taking pictures. How cool. We checked out at 11:00, and returned to the pool since our flight didn’t leave until 4:30. We used the lounge to shower and change and left the resort around 2:00. The lounge is a great addition to the resort. It is so convenient to be able to be able to shower, check flight status, etc., before hitting the road. I printed our boarding passes before leaving, and we were ready (but not ready) to go. I had checked the status of our flight to be sure it was leaving on time, so we could stay longer if it was late. The airline website said we were on time, so we left. However, when we got to the airport we were delayed for 3 ½ hours. The worst part about the delay was that we could have stayed at Aulani for 3 ½ more hours if we had only known about the delay.
We loved our stay at Aulani and hope to go back someday. While the food options are somewhat limited and rather expensive, if you purchase some breakfast food and sandwich making supplies, you can get around having to spend so much at the resort. Save the money for one or two really nice dinners and eat on the cheap otherwise. And I loved being able to get a Mickey bar outside of WDW! Had one every day!
 
Thank you for your report. Sounds like you had a great time. You stated that you stayed on points but are not DVC member. Did they end up charging you for parking? I'm just trying to clarify the parking as we have family that will be using our points for a stay and I'm not sure whether they will need to pay for parking or not. TIA :)
 
Since we were staying on points and were considered guests of a DVC member there was not charge for parking.
 



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