I think you must get a new ticker now!
Yes I must! Booking a room is one step but that's easily cancelled in most cases, even with points. Flights though...that makes it real!
I wish I lived so close to Hawaii as you! A flight from here starts at about triple the price you paid for two people... But then I guess I have the advantage of a million other destinations being close by like Paris, London etc.
It's funny, in flight time FL is a little bit closer but not much, but there are so few direct flights that it's not as easy to get to without it taking an entire day to do it. With the time change, even a direct flight eats up a ton of time. Hawaii on the other hand is crazy with flight options and a lot more directs, so that is where us west coasters go, though I've been to FL over twice as many times lol. I'm in the minority, as are the boys. Their friends have all been to HI, many annually, whereas they've been to FL.
When we bought DVC we really did plan to use our points at Aulani, the nice thing about being relatively close with so many flights is that we can be flexible and go at the lower point seasons. I really considered getting points there but as we will probably never really "want" to go during peak time, I didn't feel I needed the home resort advantage. What is pretty exciting to me is that if we love it, it is definitely a place we could go to once all the kids are gone, on a very regular basis with our points and that's just pretty darn cool.
Historically we've been able to get there for around $300 each if we really track and pay attention. The last few years have been a LOT higher and certain times of year are brutal so it's been much more in the $500-900 range. I think we paid $800 each for our last trip which was pretty brutal. I consider anything under $400 a good deal and I think at full price these would have come in about $410 each. There were non direct options for less though.
You do have a lot of pretty spectacular places close to you...much closer than Hawaii is to me! I really wish it wasn't so expensive to get to Europe from here. I would love to take the kids over there but the flights are ouch! Someday, I really really hope!
Totally missed this, but yeah!
When are you going again? Missed the FB announcement. But this is really awesome! I guess living on the west coast has its advantages in making Hawaii much more accessible than living over yonder on the East Coast.
Happy planning!
Well the FB was a limited announcement, didn't need the kids seeing it! It was just on a couple of disney pages but I think you are on at least one of the two I posted it on. Anyway...we are going 5/21-28. It is more accessible from a flight standpoint for sure, time wise on the non stop it's a little bit further but not bad, maybe 30 minutes. It's pretty exciting to me to check it out. Realistically, after the kids are gone, I could see us using points here on a fairly regular basis since we do have the flexibility to go in off season and Jeff can only handle so much WDW. LOL.
It will be a very different kind of Hawaii trip for us. In the past we've done condo's on other islands. Neither of which were right on the beach though they were ocean view. It will be a little hard not having the full kitchen but it will be awfully nice to have the beach right there without driving and full resort amenities. Plus it will be very nice to spend some time with my family there, my favorite cousins are there! It will help us plan the family trip there too, hopefully for Feb or April of 2015 I'm thinking and I'm thinking that will be a 2 island trip but we will see. Of course with all of this I'm looking at the points for HI, the points for the NYE trip and going hey...where are the extra points for girls trips? Sigh. Never enough huh. Out before you start.
It was interesting though. I could have easily gotten a studio or 1B in Cabo for the same, or less points. Flights would have been more and weren't as cheap which is why HI won by a landslide, plus heaven forbid something happened I still have flexibility with the points. For $95 I don't understand why folks say RCI trading is such a bad deal, those places were gorgeous! I guess maybe because the rack rates at those places aren't as high as at WDW or Aulani so they don't feel they are getting as much for their points? I dunno but I do know we will be using ours at one of them in the future for sure, it's an easy trip from here.
Yay for Aulani!!
Ooohh...I really want to go there! So excited for you!
Yay is right! It is SO soggy here right now that it makes me smile just thinking about it.
Great beach pictures! The boys looked like they were having fun! Love the mermaid pic!
They were. They are going to be a bit mad about the Hawaii thing but I do think the NYE trip will make up for it. I'm grateful they are old enough to get that we can only do and afford so much and that the big trip with cousins will mean waiting now. They also do understand that couple time is important to us. However, since Jeff and I are also going to SF in 2 weeks they may be a tad bitter. Don't think they care so much about SF in Dec but Hawaii is another story. I am going to have to assure them that they get to go the next time, and stick to it.