Wi-Fi horrendous

Airb330

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
My god I know it’s Hawaii and I shouldn’t be on the Internet much, but the Disney Wi-Fi here is useless.

200kbps at the adult pool

120 kbps in the ewa tower on the 12th floor.

Normally I don’t care as AT&T works fine. But AT&T also doesn’t work well all of a sudden since the last trip here. 1mbps in my room and at best 10mbps at the pool. AT&T and Disney have a joint venture and generally it works great at DL and WDW. Disney Wi-Fi isn’t working anywhere today including the luau.
 
How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.
 
We've been to Aulani 5 times now (with #6 coming in just a few months) and always found the wifi to be fine. Sure, there are some spots that aren't as good, but that's just the nature of wifi. If having a problem, sometimes just moving a couple of feet away helps.
 
I’m with the OP - the wifi is absolutely horrific. We own our own business and needed to do some work on our last stay, needless to say the wifi was so bad we ended up at the lagoon patching into the Four Season’s wifi. It along with the Marriott heck even the privately owned Beach Villas all have wifi that outstrips Aulani.
 


We just got back. WiFi was fine in the room most of the time, but not so great at the pool, where I tended to turn it off and use LTE instead. Not a big deal for us as LTE was always great and we have Verizon unlimited.
 
How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.

Hopefully your visit will put to rest any buyers remorse. I own at Aulani (have owned since the beginning), usually stay there every 2-3 years, and was there over Christmas. I encountered only limited issues with the internet. My phone was always attached, but sometimes when I went to attach my tablet it would tell me WiFi wasn’t available. When it did, I just used my phone.

Once you visit Aulani, you will be able to judge whether the negative reviews are credible. Hawaii is expensive. Aulani is a high end resort and has prices to match. It has also become more popular since it opened which means more people. Most complaints I’ve seen are about the food prices. If you do your homework and look at menu prices at local restaurants ahead of time, anyone can find food in their budget across the street or on property. Like any Disney property, making online reservations in advance is preferable to trying to get them onsite. If you want to go to Waikiki or other parts of the island, plan on renting a car. There is an Alamo on site and an Enterprise down the street. Of course, reserving a car in advance is recommended.

Aulani should send you a survey after you have checked out. Completing it will help them address any concerns that they feel need to be addressed. Let me know if you have any pressing questions.
 
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Hopefully your visit will put to rest any buyers remorse. I own at Aulani, usually stay there every 2-3 years, and was there over Christmas. I encountered only limited issues with the internet. My phone was always attached, but sometimes when I went to attach my tablet it would tell me WiFi wasn’t available. When it did, I just used my phone.

Once you visit Aulani, you will be able to judge whether the negative reviews are credible. Hawaii is expensive. Aulani is a high end resort and has prices to match. It has also become more popular since it opened which means more people. Most complaints I’ve seen are about the food prices. If you do your homework and look at menu prices at local restaurants ahead of time, anyone can find food in their budget across the street or on property. Like any Disney property, making online reservations in advance is preferable to trying to get them onsite. If you want to go to Waikiki or other parts of the island, plan on renting a car. There is an Alamo on site and an Enterprise down the street. Of course, reserving a car in advance is recommended.

Aulani should send you a survey after you have checked out. Completing it will help them address any concerns that they feel need to be addressed. Let me know if you have any pressing questions.

Agree with all of this. We have been to Aulani twice and have another trip planned for this summer. No resort is perfect, and all have pros and cons. I personally believe that the pros of Aulani far outweigh the cons. In fact, we ended up adding on points at Aulani, b/c we loved it so much. I actually agree that the food is somewhat limited and overpriced; however, we solved that problem by only staying in a 1 BDRM, such that we can do a lot of our own cooking. The chair issue? Yes, annoying. The wi-fi? Can be spotty at times. Do these things ruin my trip? Not at all. I think going in prepared for what to expect is key. Do your research and have strategies to deal with things that may be potential issues for you. With that in mind, Aulani is my very favorite place to go. It's a beautiful, high-end resort, there are tons of things to do, the cast members are lovely, my kids love it, etc. I can't say enough about it and wish I could get there more frequently! Enjoy your trip!
 


We found the wifi to be absolutely awful in the room but not so bad in the public areas. Trying to read and reply to e-mail in bed at night was nearly impossible. I started saving my e-mail responses to do at breakfast.

How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.

As for the rest of the trip to Aulani? Fantastic. Planning our return as soon as it's feasible with our schedules. And next time I'll get a roaming package that's not too expensive and just use that instead of wifi.

Food is definitely very expensive and there's not a lot of places to eat close to the resort so you're kind of stuck with it. We were, however, with friends on our trip so had a 2-bedroom and we did a few breakfasts in the room which was really nice because we basically ate it out on the balcony. Next time we'll maybe do a few dinners like that too; sitting outside looking at the ocean in front of us, mountains to the right and the koi pond right below us while eating, relaxing or having a drink was amazing. And the lazy river? Spent hours in that.
 
How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.
I've been to Aulani 4 times now and bought more points for last trip. It's a beautiful place and I love every aspect of it. Don't mind the haters... there will always be some.
 
Oh don’t get me wrong, Aulani is wonderful! Don’t let any negative reviews steer snyone away; however the Wi-Fi sucks. Sorry it does. I got 100mbps down in 2013 at Aulani and this trip it just didn’t work in the room or hardly anywhere. Coupled with the SHOCKINGLY HORRENDOUS AT&T LTE (it sucks on Maui too, where I am now), it became frustrating when I couldn’t send even a little text message.

I had issues with animal kingdom lodge Wi-Fi and they responded (in depth) about a change in vendor and increase in access points.Let’s hope Aulani gets it together...I just want Gmail to work, I don’t even want to stream anything. I’ll also be blowing up AT&T government support because their LTE is borderline negligent on Oahu and Maui (far worse on Maui, it doesn’t work on half the island).
 
I’m with the OP - the wifi is absolutely horrific. We own our own business and needed to do some work on our last stay, needless to say the wifi was so bad we ended up at the lagoon patching into the Four Season’s wifi. It along with the Marriott heck even the privately owned Beach Villas all have wifi that outstrips Aulani.
Right. It’s really bad. Usually I’d fall back to LTE and not care. But AT&T is apparently having some real severe issues with their lack of cell sites and over subscribing, which leads to a dead network. That coupled together was frustrating.

I’m on Maui now at the andaz. AT&T is absolute horrific and a borderline public hazard (I doubt it could even dial out to 911 on populated portions of the island) but the andaz Wi-Fi is solid at least. God forbid even google maps work but I’ll be taking this up to high levels at AT&T...
 
Don't mind the haters... there will always be some.
I’m not a hater - been to Oahu over 27 times, 5 of those Aulani, 11 in total in Ko Olina. Aulani has the worst wifi in the whole of the resorts in Ko Olina - irrefutable fact. Other then that the resort is fine.
 
I’m not a hater - been to Oahu over 27 times, 5 of those Aulani, 11 in total in Ko Olina. Aulani has the worst wifi in the whole of the resorts in Ko Olina - irrefutable fact. Other then that the resort is fine.
it's interesting - i don't get wifi on the beach... or the adult pool... and really why would i want that when i'm there. But in the gym I'm able to stream my workouts, and in my room watch my movies, so I guess it really depends where you are. I was working throughout the week during my last stay (the 4th time i've been). I did not have any issues in my room. I guess it depends on where you are at the resort.
 
How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.

@sweetpeakaris -I also felt like this after booking our first trip to Aulani. I had kind of always wanted to give it a try but I was worried it was going to be too Disney-fied and not authentically Hawaiian. Coupled with some bad reviews and the cost I remember thinking I had made a mistake booking a few nights at Aulani within a longer Oahu stay. So I went in with pretty low expectations. Turns out our family just loved Aulani, so much so that we stayed again the next time we went to Hawaii and for a much longer time. I know it is not for everyone but I suggest reading what comes up more than once in the negative reviews you are seeing and try to plan a strategy ahead of time for yourself that will lessen the issue. For example, obviously there isnt much you can do about the lack of poolside seating (it is a real problem in the busy times) but you can go to the attendant station and ask them to help you find a chair or two. They do sweeps every so often (or are supposed to) to find chairs that have been saved and not used. They will help you out.
 
I’m not a hater - been to Oahu over 27 times, 5 of those Aulani, 11 in total in Ko Olina. Aulani has the worst wifi in the whole of the resorts in Ko Olina - irrefutable fact. Other then that the resort is fine.
I’m at Aulani right this minute Wi Fi doesn’t not work thank god for Verizion hot spot. Feel like the internet is so bad they should not even offer it because of the frustration it causes!
 
I’m at Aulani right this minute Wi Fi doesn’t not work thank god for Verizion hot spot. Feel like the internet is so bad they should not even offer it because of the frustration it causes!
Please elaborate. Does it not work in your room? In the restaurants? Near the pools? Anywhere in the resort?
 
How disappointing. I just booked a trip for April and now I have buyers remorse after reading countless negative reviews.

You would not go over wifi? Or other bad reviews? The thing is with reviews is that some people are just pot stirrers. They like to complain either because they are just miserable people and are never happy or they like the attention. There are issues, yes, but I take those reviews with a grain of salt. If 80% of the people where saying how dirty the place was and had pictures to back it up, then I would listen to that. But the ones that complain about slow wifi, it does not affect us. We went for 2 weeks in 2017 and did not want to leave. And this was with my then 16yo daughter to had to keep all of her friends "updated". I was just thrilled to actually be able to go to Hawaii in my life. Go and enjoy time with your loved ones and soak in the natural beauty that you won't see anywhere else.
 
We’ve been six times and going agIn May. For 10 days. I’ve found wifi in the room to be good. And we always get a one bedroom ocean front in ewe building, 9th floor or above. I’ve streamed movies etc on my iPad without trouble. Out on the lanai it depends on what time of day. It’s pretty bad at the pool so I just use my Verizon unlimited data.
 

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