Aulani - is it really that great

[Iceman93]

I've spent over four years of my life in hotels due to frequent business travel. Those are almost all in 4- and 5-star hotels and resorts. I've also taken my family to Disney resorts around the world, including almost every deluxe there is. I've enoyed Ritz-Carltons, Four Seasons, and boutique and local luxury places all over the place.

Aulani is easily the best resort I've every visited. It is a combination of the design/decor, build quality, materials, attention to detail, variety of experiences, and (most importantly) the universally outstanding quality of every single cast member we encountered that puts Aulani in a class by itself. It is luxurious without being pretentious, anticipatory of your needs without assuming what those needs may be, clean and pristine without being sterile or antiseptic, authentically Hawaiian without being in-your-face native, fun for children while also perfectly appropriate for adults... Quintessentially Disney, in short.

Yes, to the OP, it's really that great.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

It is all that and a bag of Hawaiian chips! Sorry, couldn't resist! We always thought GCV was tops, but having visited Aulani, it got bumped to second place. Aulani is number 1 in our book.

 

[surfer_ed]

Yes it is that great, just got back. I put it on par with the cruise.

The check in experience it out of this world.

I could not get my wife and kids to leave the resort to do other Hawaii stuff

I love Vero but here the service is much better, the water slides are amazing and they have free lawn chairs, boogie boards and sand toys. (BTW Why doesn't Vero have these for members?)

My only negative is that the studios are a little smaller and the food options are limited or pricey.

 

[spiceycat]

I've spent over four years of my life in hotels due to frequent business travel. Those are almost all in 4- and 5-star hotels and resorts. I've also taken my family to Disney resorts around the world, including almost every deluxe there is. I've enoyed Ritz-Carltons, Four Seasons, and boutique and local luxury places all over the place.

Aulani is easily the best resort I've every visited. It is a combination of the design/decor, build quality, materials, attention to detail, variety of experiences, and (most importantly) the universally outstanding quality of every single cast member we encountered that puts Aulani in a class by itself. It is luxurious without being pretentious, anticipatory of your needs without assuming what those needs may be, clean and pristine without being sterile or antiseptic, authentically Hawaiian without being in-your-face native, fun for children while also perfectly appropriate for adults... Quintessentially Disney, in short.

Yes, to the OP, it's really that great.

boy it really sounds so great!

thanks everyone!!!

 

[dtauer]

I agree with all of the other comments, Aulani is truly amazing. The decor, the attention to detail, the cast members, all top notch. As the previous poster, I've stayed in some very exclusive and expensive resorts, and Aulani is right at the top of the list.

However, a couple of things to remember. Aulani is west of the airport, the "typical" Hawaii is to the east. What I mean by this is that the lush rainforests, green mountains, dramatic cliffs are closer to the south-eastern edge of the island. Around Aulani is a little more sparse in regards to vegetation and although there are mountains, they aren't quite the same. Not bad, just different. I would compare the mountains and vegetation to be more like Colorado on the east end of the island, and Arizona/New Mexico on the Aulani side. Don't get me wrong, I love the rocky mountains of New Mexico, it just isn't the typical Hawaii look you see on TV.

There isn't much around Aulani. There's the Ko Olina harbor, and the Ko Olina area is great by itself, but many of the attractions are on the Eastern side of the island. We still found a lot to do in the area surrounding Aulani, but you will need to navigate the Hawaii freeways to see things like Haunama Bay, Diamond Head, rain forest hikes, Koko Crater etc.

My family LOVES Aulani and I agree that it is a top notch resort in every way. However, the area around the resort and the roads to get there are more flat and desert-like than lush and green as you might picture Hawaii. Once we got there, we loved everything else about the resort.

 

[MinnesotaChill]

There isn't much around Aulani. There's the Ko Olina harbor, and the Ko Olina area is great by itself, but many of the attractions are on the Eastern side of the island. We still found a lot to do in the area surrounding Aulani, but you will need to navigate the Hawaii freeways to see things like Haunama Bay, Diamond Head, rain forest hikes, Koko Crater etc.

Oh, but there is the North Shore. We loved the North Shore and I know Hawaii Food Tours is starting a North Shore tour in, I think, May. We had so much fun at Aulani and loved the resort so much (without our kids) that we hardly did anything near the airport or further east.

My ONLY complaint was the kids in the hot tubs. There are two and it just feels like the infinity hot tub could be for adults only, at least around sunset. The kids have such a great, huge pool, it doesn't make sense for them to be in the hot tub. Keep in mind, I HAVE kids. I don't mean a few kids in the hot tubs either, I mean parents with multiple kids using the hot tubs as a pool. Not only is this not relaxing, it means they can't make the hot tubs very hot because kids are known to go into them.

 

[dsneygirl]

I've spent over four years of my life in hotels due to frequent business travel. Those are almost all in 4- and 5-star hotels and resorts. I've also taken my family to Disney resorts around the world, including almost every deluxe there is. I've enoyed Ritz-Carltons, Four Seasons, and boutique and local luxury places all over the place.

Aulani is easily the best resort I've every visited. It is a combination of the design/decor, build quality, materials, attention to detail, variety of experiences, and (most importantly) the universally outstanding quality of every single cast member we encountered that puts Aulani in a class by itself. It is luxurious without being pretentious, anticipatory of your needs without assuming what those needs may be, clean and pristine without being sterile or antiseptic, authentically Hawaiian without being in-your-face native, fun for children while also perfectly appropriate for adults... Quintessentially Disney, in short.

Yes, to the OP, it's really that great.

I love your analogy. It is so far beyond any place else we have ever stayed and this really captures it.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Oh, and not only is it easily the BEST DVC resort, but it also has the best housekeeping! I complimented Aulani on everything when I did the survey, and when I contacted Member Satisfaction. I told Mem. Satisfaction that Aulani had Customer service RIGHT in every way, and I especially mentioned how marvelous the housekeeping was. Such a refreshing change from what we have experienced at WDW the past couple of years!

By the way, when I spoke with Mem. Sat. about the hot tub issue, she agreed with me that it was something that probably needed to be changed. She said the was certainly president for it since the Cruise ships have "adults only" hot tubs, so no reason Aulani can't keep one for adults only too. She promised to bring it up at the next monthly director's meeting. She said it has been a common theme coming from Aulani, so it looks like I wasn't the only one bothered by the hot tub being used as a kiddie pool.

 

[ACDSNY]

My nephew is at Aulani and says it is beautiful and better than any of the WDW resorts.

Yes, it's the best DVC resort!!! I agree with all the previous posters on the excellent attention to detail and great service at Aulani. I LOVE this resort.

We didn't use infinity hot tub very often once we found the quiet one back by the lazy river and Ewa tower. Pretty secluded and usually we were the only ones using it.

 

[JasonCFamily]

Thank you. All very helpful!

 

[dtauer]

Oh, but there is the North Shore. We loved the North Shore and I know Hawaii Food Tours is starting a North Shore tour in, I think, May. We had so much fun at Aulani and loved the resort so much (without our kids) that we hardly did anything near the airport or further east.
QUOTE]

I agree that the North Shore is great, but it's still quite a drive from Aulani. It is closer than the Waikiki Beach area so we did do more on the North Shore (including the Shark Cage dive - incredible!) because Aulani is closer to the North Shore.

My comment was more around staying in the Waikiki Beach area as we have in the past. Five minutes to Diamond Head, 10 minutes to Manoa Falls, 10 minutes to Haunama Bay, 10 minutes to Koko Crater, 10 minutes to Tantalus/Round Top Drive.

Aulani is not "inconvenient", it's just further than the Waikiki Beach area to some of the most popular destinations. It's especially a long way to PCC and Kuloua Ranch.

We LOVE Aulani, but it's a little further out, and the surrounding area isn't the "classic" Hawaii look with green mountains and rain forests.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Oh, but there is the North Shore. We loved the North Shore and I know Hawaii Food Tours is starting a North Shore tour in, I think, May. We had so much fun at Aulani and loved the resort so much (without our kids) that we hardly did anything near the airport or further east.
QUOTE]

I agree that the North Shore is great, but it's still quite a drive from Aulani. It is closer than the Waikiki Beach area so we did do more on the North Shore (including the Shark Cage dive - incredible!) because Aulani is closer to the North Shore.

My comment was more around staying in the Waikiki Beach area as we have in the past. Five minutes to Diamond Head, 10 minutes to Manoa Falls, 10 minutes to Haunama Bay, 10 minutes to Koko Crater, 10 minutes to Tantalus/Round Top Drive.

Aulani is not "inconvenient", it's just further than the Waikiki Beach area to some of the most popular destinations. It's especially a long way to PCC and Kuloua Ranch.

We LOVE Aulani, but it's a little further out, and the surrounding area isn't the "classic" Hawaii look with green mountains and rain forests.

I for one like that it's away from the hubub of Honolulu and Waikiki. We drove over to that part of the island several times to do Diamond Head and to shop one day. It's not a long drive as long as you don't go during rush hour.

As for the PCC, it's much faster to go there via the North Shore route than it is around the East side of the island. We left PCC after the evening show, and we were back at Aulani inm about 40 minutes.