Need help with first trip to Aulani.

We have a trip booked to Aulani for May 20-29.This is our first trip to Aulani. We have a ocean view studio room. We have a daughter who is 11. I need some tips on dining, activities, excursions and room requests. It's time to start making dining reservations. I have already requested a higher floor. Do I need to request a certain tower? We will probably rent a car so we can explore the island.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Congrats on your upcoming trip to lovely Aulani, Jcooper131! It is my very favorite Disney resort anywhere! There are a LOT of threads with fabulous info on Aulani, including some very good trip reports. Please do read these in addition to whatever comments you get here as they are very informative.

You most likely will want a rental car. We always rent and I usually find the best prices either on www.discounthawaiicarrental.com or at Costco Travel.com (you must be a Costco member for this). I would go ahead and book the cheapest car you can find that you would be happy with and then just keep checking the rates as often the prices will drop as your dates get closer. But NOT always. Since Hawaii is all islands, there are a finite number of cars to rent on each island. If inventory gets low the prices will skyrocket. You can bank on that. So go ahead and grab a no-credit card guarantee rental so that you can readily cancel if indeed you do find a better price later.

I love AMA AMA for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was very nice as well, especially if you book a sunset time because the views of the sunset are amazing. I personally prefer the first 2 meals of the day there. Incredibly beautiful setting, great service and very good food, IMO.

There is truly outstanding live Hawaiian entertainment nightly in the 2 lounges, Olelo Lounge and Off the Hook. The Off the Hook entertainment is sometimes moved to AMA AMA, especially in inclimate weather. And do NOT miss one of the Starlit Hui shows! It is awesome! They generally perform this twice weekly during most of the year. (busy times they may do 3x/week)

I have stayed in ocean view accommodations on each of my 3 trips to Aulani and they are gorgeous. I've stayed in both the Waianae and Ewa towers and found the views to be sterling in both. I do not have a strong preference after staying in both.

If you have never visited Pearl Harbor, you will definitely want to either book an excursion through Aulani, or do like we did and go on your own. You can reserve tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial in advance though the rules are constantly changing on how far out you can do this. It only costs $1.50 each (or that's what it was this January) to reserve your ticket. We went early in the morning but be aware that rush hour traffic is a very real thing on Oahu. We got smack dab in the middle of it the morning we left Aulani at around 7:00am for Pearl Harbor. Allow a little over an hour to get there if you are driving into Honolulu on a work day.

Do a circle drive of the island to see the North Shore and the gorgeous east side of the island. The only palace on U.S. soil is Iolani Palace in Honolulu. The Bishop Museum there is also highly touted though I have yet to do that. It's on my list.

If you are a Costco member, there is a very nice Costco no more than a 5 minute drive back toward HNL. Great place to buy some poke or sashimi and some goodies for your kitchenette. And there's a BigTarget (not a SuperTarget) across from it.

Plan on some days to just enjoy the resort. The pools are amazing as is the lagoon. Oh, and the Laniwai Spa is in my personal Top 2 spas anywhere!! Very pricey but an amazing experience!

Happy planning!

Thank you very much for the info. I am a Costco member. I will go ahead and book a car now and then keep a eye on the prices. We plan on making sure we enjoy the resort. We always to do that when we got to Vero Beach.

Do I need to book a reservation for the Starlit Hui?

jcooper131 said:

Thank you very much for the info. I am a Costco member. I will go ahead and book a car now and then keep a eye on the prices. We plan on making sure we enjoy the resort. We always to do that when we got to Vero Beach.

Do I need to book a reservation for the Starlit Hui?

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No reservations for Starlit Hui, just get there early if you want a mat to sit on to watch the show. We had an island/garden view 2 bedroom in March, and could see part of the show (and hear it) from our balcony! The Starlit Hui is also just a show, no food. If you want the full luau Paradise Cove is just a short walk down the street.

keaster said:

No reservations for Starlit Hui, just get there early if you want a mat to sit on to watch the show. We had an island/garden view 2 bedroom in March, and could see part of the show (and hear it) from our balcony! The Starlit Hui is also just a show, no food. If you want the full luau Paradise Cove is just a short walk down the street.

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Have you ever done the Paradise Cove luau? We are trying to decide if we would just be happy with the Starlit Hui or should we do both.

jcooper131 said:

Have you ever done the Paradise Cove luau? We are trying to decide if we would just be happy with the Starlit Hui or should we do both.

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We did it and thought it was really good. Beautiful setting, fun games and activities before the meal, great entertainment! But if the meal part isn't a big deal then the Hui would be fine.

keaster said:

We did it and thought it was really good. Beautiful setting, fun games and activities before the meal, great entertainment! But if the meal part isn't a big deal then the Hui would be fine.

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Good to know. The meal is not that big of a deal to us.

Remember this is not WDW -- we visited early May this year and made dining reservations only a few days in advance. To be sure, you may want to make them a few months in advance -- just no rush now. Only 2 restaurants take reservations AMA AMA and Makahiki. You'll want to also plan eating off site. There is a Pizza place across the street that your daughter may like and a few restaurants (many like The Monkey Pod). If you have a car, many more choices. I would recommend renting a car to tour the island. Do a search for "Disboards Aulani" --- huge amount of info available that helped us plan our trip including finding good spots to tour and dine. Enjoy!!! It is a beautiful resort!

PlutoFan10 said:

Remember this is not WDW -- we visited early May this year and made dining reservations only a few days in advance. To be sure, you may want to make them a few months in advance -- just no rush now. Only 2 restaurants take reservations AMA AMA and Makahiki. You'll want to also plan eating off site. There is a Pizza place across the street that your daughter may like and a few restaurants (many like The Monkey Pod). If you have a car, many more choices. I would recommend renting a car to tour the island. Do a search for "Disboards Aulani" --- huge amount of info available that helped us plan our trip including finding good spots to tour and dine. Enjoy!!! It is a beautiful resort!

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I made a couple of reservations for AMA AMA and Makahiki yesterday. I wanted to make sure we got eat at AMA AMA at sunset. We can always cancel the ones we don't want. We are definitely renting a car. We want to be able to explore the island. Thank you for the tips. We will check into the restaurants you mentioned. We like eating places we don't have at home.

jcooper131 said:

I made a couple of reservations for AMA AMA and Makahiki yesterday. I wanted to make sure we got eat at AMA AMA at sunset. We can always cancel the ones we don't want. We are definitely renting a car. We want to be able to explore the island. Thank you for the tips. We will check into the restaurants you mentioned. We like eating places we don't have at home.

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I was terribly disappointed in AMA AMA. I thought the food was awful and so did my husband. We did not have any drinks (only water) and the bill was over $150 before the tip.
The service was slow. We had much better food at the cafe and the quick service places by the pool.
The buffet was very good.

Sorry to hear your experience at AMA AMA was so unsatisfactory for you, Grammy4Lizzy. Never fun to expect one thing and get another.

I have stayed at Aulani 3 different trips and each trip ate at AMA several times. As I mentioned before, we prefer breakfast and lunch to dinner there, but both DH and myself loved the entire experience from our service, to the food, of course the setting, and we feel their prices are de rigueur for a high end Hawaiian beachfront hotel. DD#2 and I were there a few weeks ago and ate at AMA AMA a few times and she loved it as well. Sounds like you had dinner, Grammy4Lizzy? If you ever go back to Aulani, try breakfast or lunch and see what you think.

jcooper131 said:

We have a trip booked to Aulani for May 20-29.This is our first trip to Aulani. We have a ocean view studio room. We have a daughter who is 11. I need some tips on dining, activities, excursions and room requests. It's time to start making dining reservations. I have already requested a higher floor. Do I need to request a certain tower? We will probably rent a car so we can explore the island.

Thank you in advance for any help.

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We will be there the same time as you ( May 20th - June 1st) and we also have booked ocean view studio. Great information here. We are so excited Haven't done any planning yet.....better start soon

We just went this past October. We stayed in the Ewa, 7th floor. LOVED IT!

Ama Ama at sunset is amazing! We did a lunch there and a dinner. Both were excellent! It was actually cheaper for us (3 adults, 1 child) to eat there than the buffet at Makahiki. I was not impressed with the buffet dinner.

You can get your Pearl Harbor tickets starting at 7am the DAY BEFORE you want to go. I got up early , logged on and was able to pick our time, lots of choices. We chose 11:30am (i think)..left the hotel around 9ish, missed traffic but GPS lead us the wrong way. We still made it! Parking is Free.

All of us loved the character breakfast. The food was so good!

We stayed 6nights, one being the night we arrived. Getting ready to book us for next year and we are adding a night.

One thing we didn't do was the Macadamia Nut Farm. Our friends that live there said it's awesome..we did the Dole Plantation..never need to do that again! Next we will do the Nut Farm. Drive the island for sure!!

Have a blast! It's an awesome place !

disneycrazy2004 said:

We will be there the same time as you ( May 20th - June 1st) and we also have booked ocean view studio. Great information here. We are so excited Haven't done any planning yet.....better start soon

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Cool. Is this your first time at Aulani? We booked a rental car from www.discounthawaiicarrental.com. They had the cheapest I could find at the time for a full size. You can cancel anytime if you find a better deal.

Jcooper131, very good advice on Discount Hawaii Car Rental. I almost always get my best prices for Hawaii car rentals from either DHCR or Costco Travel. And in most cases, they include a free second driver.

jcooper131 said:

Cool. Is this your first time at Aulani? We booked a rental car from www.discounthawaiicarrental.com. They had the cheapest I could find at the time for a full size. You can cancel anytime if you find a better deal.

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First time there! Thanks for the tip, I will look into the car. I was looking online at the excursions, but they were kind of pricey.

disneycrazy2004 said:

First time there! Thanks for the tip, I will look into the car. I was looking online at the excursions, but they were kind of pricey.

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I have been looking at excursions too. I haven't figured out what we all we want to do. I know we want to do Pearl Harbor.

My daughter was 12 when we went to Aulani last summer. We frequent Disney ALOT and have been on over 20 Disney cruises and she said it was the most awesome thing and place she has ever been. 5 months back home and we still talk about it all the time and count our days to return. She loved the Paradise Cove luau that was down the street and all the activities before hand. She got her hair done in the teen spa. I think it was called the Wahine experience or something like that and they did her hair in beautiful braids and flowers. I think it was $45. She also loved the family hula lessons. One time Goofy "taught" the class and another time Stitch did. She also loved the family ukulele lessons. We walked over to the little cove down the street and saw a monk seal one day and a sea turtle the other day. She took a surf lesson and we went to the North Shore and found lots of sea glass and more turtles. She never stayed in the kids club but went in one time to just see what it was and said it reminded her of the kids clubs on the cruises. We did the character breakfast one day. I could go on and on. We absolutely loved it. I did a mini version trip report in the trip reports section.

jcooper131 said:

We have a trip booked to Aulani for May 20-29.This is our first trip to Aulani. We have a ocean view studio room. We have a daughter who is 11. I need some tips on dining, activities, excursions and room requests. It's time to start making dining reservations. I have already requested a higher floor. Do I need to request a certain tower? We will probably rent a car so we can explore the island.

Thank you in advance for any help.

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Just got back from 5 nights. Was amazing. As for eating, we found a few things.

1. For the costs, I found Ama Ama dinner to be mediocre. Yes the view is great, but the food was average at best.
2. breakfast at both Ama Ama and Makimaki was very good.
3. Monkey Pod across the street for dinner was some of the best food I have ever had in my life. It's way better than anything at Aulani. It's a very short walk. They have happy hour from 4:30-5:30 and live entertainment.
4. For lunch we actually found the hotdogs and fries from the shack and the hot plates from ulu cafe to be really tasty and cheap.
5. The spa we amazing.
6. You want to get to the beach early, 8-9:00am to get a good chair and rent any paddle boards or kayak, or get a boogie board. These go fast.
7. Ole Room has really good food for dinner as well. They have a Hawaiian dinner -pate for $20 with Kailua pork and poi, Lomi Lomi and calamari.

Also, we made dining reservations way in advance and ended up switching them the day before and while we were there without any issues as we found that we stayed on california time and were hungry at early times than we had thought.