Aulani: What's the One Thing You Wish You Knew?

We went in mid January and learned that the Hawaii resident rate changes the resort on weekends. An extreme increase in guests on Saturday and Sunday pools were crowded. CM's told us they had 130 one night stays Saturday into Sunday. Quick Service breakfast took more than a half hour to acquire on Sunday Morning and the line was so long we saw guests mistakenly taking dirty trays off the garbage can outside where the line started. Tuesday through Friday night was perfect and went by too fast.
 
We went in mid January and learned that the Hawaii resident rate changes the resort on weekends. An extreme increase in guests on Saturday and Sunday pools were crowded. CM's told us they had 130 one night stays Saturday into Sunday. Quick Service breakfast took more than a half hour to acquire on Sunday Morning and the line was so long we saw guests mistakenly taking dirty trays off the garbage can outside where the line started. Tuesday through Friday night was perfect and went by too fast.
As a Hawaii resident I can confirm that yes this is true. Many of us will take a stay-cation to the resort arriving early Saturday and leaving late Sunday. I personally prefer to stay two nights but weekends can get crazy during high times. My family and I choose to go during the offseason when the resort is not busy as it's not my idea of relaxing when we have to wake up at the crack of dawn to find our spot by the pool! Ps...our rates aren't that low either. In fact for our next stay I'm seriously considering renting points!
 
Ula cafe. We have a free quick service breakfast. Is it just like say Saratoga in wdw choices? any recommendations.

Has anyone had this offer before? Wondering if it has to be breakfast or can use for lunch?

Thanks
 
Ula cafe does not have the normal Disney choices in food. It is all a bit different. (at least at lunch or dinner) We didn't ever go in there at breakfast.
 
At Ulu Cafe, I had their egg & cheese croissant sandwich one day & the french toast another. The sandwich was good, but not the french toast. We tried the donuts there and they were not good. My kids didn't like them either. I really liked the banana muffins. They also had oatmeal which we didn't try. I ordered a pizza from there one night which was good. There are a few choices for lunch/dinner meals which change each day. Some days my Dh liked the meal choices, other days he didn't. My kids never wanted the meal choices there. They liked the kids already made meals on the left side fridge section, like pbj sandwich or tuna sandwich both with fruits and veggies and came with a drink. They had salads in there too.
My kids liked the california rolls at the snack stand by the beach. DH & I liked the Blue Hawaiian frozen beverage at that stand too!

Some bits of info for those of you that have the Disney Visa & plan on using reward dollars there.
First, you can use your rewards card to pay for things at Ulu Cafe and the lobby store instead of charging to your room. I don't know about the other stands just b/c we didn't try it.
Second, we had a big amount on our rewards card to use which I wanted to apply towards our hotel room to greatly knock down that price. However, they charged the total cost of our room to our credit card the day we arrived, so I could't apply any of the reward dollars to it when I checked halfway through our trip. I wish I knew they would do that b/c I would have them use the rewards card to do that at check in. I was able to use rewards dollars on everything else we charged to the room, but I was still left with $700 that could have helped towards the room cost.
 
We both had and enjoyed the breakfast burritos at Ulu. My son got the yogurt and fruit prepackaged meal and I think my daughter had the French toast and ate it. They have a ton of muffins and pastries and we enjoyed all the ones we tried, especially the macadamia nut muffin.
 
I brought a Disney rewards visa as well. You could use it anywhere at the resort. For the kids armband, paddle board rentals, snacks, food, gift shop, etc. We are DVC and do not pay for room but had $59 in taxes and I used it to pay for that as well. On arrival I took charging off of our room cards and the final night I went down and paid for any balance with my rewards card.
 
We had that issue as well. We weren't paying for the room (DVC) but they charged the first $1000ish to our card before we went down and added gift cards to the bill. It ended up that they only had to charge another $30 at the end of the stay and we spent all our gift cards and Disney Visa money. I want to say they were willing to refund the charged amount, but we didn't have way more gift cards than the additional uncharged balance if that makes sense. I want to say we had an extra $100 or so in gift cards that they could not apply at the time we went to the desk and we knew we still had breakfast at Ama Ama and the photopass CD to cover, so it worked out okay. We just used the gift cards to pay for those directly. She did mention we could not put gift cards onto the room balance before there was a balance, so it seems like you have to find the sweet spot when there is a balance, but not so high a balance that they process the charge. Taking room charging off would have been a good idea.
 
A few questions:
There are conflicting posts about bringing your own beverages (including alcohol) down to the pool. I'd love to make some mixed drinks and bring some beer down. Will they allow that?

Was there anything you wished you had brought for the kitchen? Do they have blenders?

Is there a minimum age for the rainbow reef?

Thanks!
 
There is a sign at the gate leading to beach that says no alcohol beyond this point. I am sure you could bring down your own by the pool, just nothing in glass bottles.
 
Hi for two adults what would you book at aulani BEFORE you arrive
- restaurant
- refillable drinks

What else please :)

If you want to do Pearl Harbor, I would recommend doing the excursion from Aulani and book early. The presale tickets sell out quickly and if you try to just go there and get a ticket, it's likely your timed ticket to the Arizona will be later in the day from when you arrive. The excursion has the same restrictions but our tour operator was able to get us tickets for morning so that we didn't have to spend as long there. If you have a car and are driving to Pearl Harbor, I recommend being there when they open so you can get in and out.
 
Book any excursions ahead of time. There are very few that include transportation, if you haven't rented a car.

Make some time to visit another beach. We were very disappointed with Aulani's man made lagoon.
 
Book any excursions ahead of time. There are very few that include transportation, if you haven't rented a car.

Make some time to visit another beach. We were very disappointed with Aulani's man made lagoon.

How far away is the beach you recommend :)
 
A few questions:
There are conflicting posts about bringing your own beverages (including alcohol) down to the pool. I'd love to make some mixed drinks and bring some beer down. Will they allow that?

Was there anything you wished you had brought for the kitchen? Do they have blenders?

Is there a minimum age for the rainbow reef?

Thanks!


I've seen people bring their own beverages down to the grills to enjoy while cooking. Haven't noticed at the pools because I don't spend much time there.

You can request a blender from housekeeping.

Kitchen has most things you'll need, but we bought some aluminum foil to keep leftovers in and also to cover food from the grill up to the room. We did buy a silicon spatula to use for scrambled eggs and omelets (the room has the pancake turner style spatula), but that was all we needed. I do the cooking so I've kept the meals simple and within the range of the pots, pans and utensils provided. We also brought/bought dishwasher tablets and a small bottle of washing detergent. Housekeeping had delivered additional paper towels and TP on request.

I've seen some very young children in the Reef, but I would say the youngest is about 4-5. Just a guess as I'm looking at the fish, not my fellow snorkelers. Everyone is required to wear a flotation vest; for adults it's inflatable and for children it's solid, so the child must be large enough to wear at least the smallest available vest. There are also two viewing windows so if you don't want to snorkel, or don't want to pay to use the Reef, you can view some of the fish from there. By the way, the water is very cold. Most people don't stay too long.
 
How far away is the beach you recommend :)
DH and DD took a surfing lesson for DD's 21st birthday. It included transportation - with "girls who surf" company. I don't know where we went, but it was beautiful. Warm, clean, pretty waves. What I expected Aulani's beach to be like. We did not rent a car, since I wanted hubby to relax. We should have rented the car. Lol
 
Best beach we found was at the end of the road, if you keep driving on the highway and do not get off at the exit for Aulani...stay on that road until it dead ends at one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! Probably a 30 min drive at most,, goes through some small town areas, and beautiful scenery. If you look on a map, you will see how the highway ends. There are even restrooms and a shower. Very windy, though.
 
A few questions:

Is there a minimum age for the rainbow reef?

Thanks!

Checked with the CM at Rainbow Reef earlier today. There is no age limit on for Rainbow Reef, however young children need to wear a flotation device (provided and required for everyone in Rainbow Reef), and has to be capable of snorkeling on their own.

Just passing on what they told me a couple hours ago.
 

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