booking Aulani at 7 months

[Anal Annie]

Hey guys, perhaps you can offer some advice or help with some of my fears.
My Fiance and I have decided that we want to get married at Aulani in the summer of 2014. She is a teacher, so the summer is basically all we have to work with.

We will be booking a combo of rooms for ourselves and family, totaling 18 people, split between a 2 bedroom, a 1 bedroom and 2 studios.

Here is where the fear comes in...we can book our wedding date 1 year out, but cannot get our rooms until 7 as we own at BLT. The only way we are able to afford this wedding in Aulani is to use our points.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks as to doing the best we can to gurantee rooms for a week, or any specific weeks of the summe that seem to be slower.

We can pretty much leave June 27th, 2014, and anytime in between then and the middle of August.

Any help would be greatly appreciated it.

Personally I would be nervous about trying to grab that many units at 7 months and I would want to be working on my wedding plans before 7 months...but then we're also a little "points challenged" and would be on a tight budget for using them. Do you have enough points to book any type of unit that is available or are you limited to having to book only certain views (ie all must be standard or island view)? I think that would severely limit your odds. Have you considered the idea of contacting David's service - maybe you could rent out your BLT points and use that money to then rent points from an Aulani owner so you could book earlier than 7 months?

 

[nyisles84]

Personally I would be nervous about trying to grab that many units at 7 months and I would want to be working on my wedding plans before 7 months...but then we're also a little "points challenged" and would be on a tight budget for using them. Do you have enough points to book any type of unit that is available or are you limited to having to book only certain views (ie all must be standard or island view)? I think that would severely limit your odds. Have you considered the idea of contacting David's service - maybe you could rent out your BLT points and use that money to then rent points from an Aulani owner so you could book earlier than 7 months?

Thanks for the response. We have enough points, between my fiance and my own and her parents points with a little bit of banking to be able to get a room for all from Standard up until an Island view room. Ocean View would be out for us. So that gives us 3 categories worth of rooms to work with.

We have condisered renting the points and then using then renting from an aulani owner. Our concern is not getting back what we put into it.

There is one other option someone mentioned to me, which I am strongly against, but was to walk the reservation a week or so in advance.
While I know this is legal and within my rights to do, I've never felt comfortable with it and almost feels like cheating. I wonder if for this one time in this special situation if I should consider that.

 

[BCV2003]

I have a similar situation where we had to pick a wedding date but want Aulani as the honeymoon location. It was getting very difficult to get both together at the 7 month mark. We were close to making it happen with one venue and when I called DVC to check availability two days before I would have been able to book, they actually remember that I make the reservation from that date and then adjust the last two days.

We ended up setting up a date for our wedding and booking the venue. We are just hoping that next month we are able to book Aulani.

Another option for you may be to see if there is an Aulani owner that would want to do a trade. Although with the number of rooms, you would may need more than one owner to trade.

 

[nyisles84]

I have a similar situation where we had to pick a wedding date but want Aulani as the honeymoon location. It was getting very difficult to get both together at the 7 month mark. We were close to making it happen with one venue and when I called DVC to check availability two days before I would have been able to book, they actually remember that I make the reservation from that date and then adjust the last two days.

We ended up setting up a date for our wedding and booking the venue. We are just hoping that next month we are able to book Aulani.

Another option for you may be to see if there is an Aulani owner that would want to do a trade. Although with the number of rooms, you would may need more than one owner to trade.

We are considering the finding multiple aulani owners and looking at transfers, it just may get a little dicey finding that many points to be transferred in. We do not want to rent as then we are not in control of the points and are at the whim of the other owner.

My understanding is that Disney Fairy Tale Weddings requiresa $2000 down payment that is non refundable. They will allow you to change the dates once.

We basically have about 6-7 weeks of summer to work with. I am hoping they would understand the logistics of how DVC works and would maybe be a little more lenient on that end.

It's just a little nerve wrecking and I really do not like the idea of walking a reservation of 5 rooms for over a week to gurantee something.

 

[Chickkypoo]

We're getting married just outside of Honolulu in November and are hoping to stay on Aulani during part of our honeymoon as well. Here's hoping we all get the reservations we need!

 

[julmops]

Hi all, resurrecting an old thread instead of creating a new one if I may ...
Today is the 7 months window for me as we will be there on Jan 30th next year ...
However I need 8 nights and only can book 7 today ...
What is the best approach?
Book all 8 nights tomorrow or else?
I'm looking at Ocean View Studios only.
Thanks!

 

[bamor]

Book you seven nights now, call tomorrow and add on your 8th night.

 

[julmops]

Thanks a lot! Just booked 7 nights and will contact them tomorrow to add an extra night

 

[crisi]

They must have a lot of people grab nights on their initial reservations then cancel off some later.

It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people book hoping for an airfare deal, then when the airfare deal doesn't come through cancel and book closer to home. Especially if you can cancel within your banking window and can just bank and try again next year.

Airfare to Hawaii can be a really big expense.

 

[Anal Annie]

It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people book hoping for an airfare deal, then when the airfare deal doesn't come through cancel and book closer to home. Especially if you can cancel within your banking window and can just bank and try again next year.

Airfare to Hawaii can be a really big expense.

Yeah, we may be saving having to spend $6K oop on our accomodations on this trip but we're spending way over $3K to GET there!! Airfare is WAY up over what it used to be and doesn't seem to be coming down any time soon.

 

[lovetotraveltx]

Anal Annie and Gonzalji, We will be at Aulani from August 4 through the afternoon of the 9th. So we will cross for a day or two.

Let's share info as it gets closer as maybe I'll have food or stuff I won't need to lug with me

 

[Anal Annie]

Anal Annie and Gonzalji, We will be at Aulani from August 4 through the afternoon of the 9th. So we will cross for a day or two.

Let's share info as it gets closer as maybe I'll have food or stuff I won't need to lug with me

This is an old thread from last year so I think Gonzalji has come & gone!! We were SUPPOSED to have gone last year and had to cancel at 8 days out due to a medical emergency with DS. This year is a re-plan for us - we will be arriving the afternoon of the 8th so we cross with you by 1 day.