American Idol in February?

[Batlin]

Hi all! We have a vacation planned at Aulani for 2nd week of February. I just found out that American Idol often films at Aulani during that time. I’ve been trying to search different boards on how disruptive this is - does anyone have any recent experiences they could share?

 

[J-Dog]

There is pretty much a thread every year on the Aulani sub-forum about this. I found the last two years fairly easily by searching:

Thread 'For those that care. American Idol 2025 dates.'

Sep 12, 2024

Per emails, looks like American Idol will be dates between February 6th - 13th

• VGCgroupie
• Replies: 15
• Forum: Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa

• 

S

Thread 'American Idol filming at Aulani in early 2024?'

Nov 3, 2023

Anyone have any information regarding American Idol filming at Aulani in January or February?

Any e-mails informing them about a “television production”, as some guests received months earlier in prior years?

• Scrappy2023
• Replies: 91
• Forum: Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa

tl';dr: Some people don't notice at all, but some people are really bothered by American Idol being there.

 

[Batlin]

Yeah I read those already. There’s one/a couple people who think it’s the most horrific thing ever to happen and then others who seem ok with it. Was kind of hard to get a sense of the truth. Perhaps Aulani has events like that throughout the year and it’s no big deal? I’ve never been to Aulani so wanted to ask. I thought I’d done a lot of research before I scheduled our vacation and somehow missed that LOL.

 

[J-Dog]

Yeah I read those already. There’s one/a couple people who think it’s the most horrific thing ever to happen and then others who seem ok with it. Was kind of hard to get a sense of the truth. Perhaps Aulani has events like that throughout the year and it’s no big deal? I’ve never been to Aulani so wanted to ask. I thought I’d done a lot of research before I scheduled our vacation and somehow missed that LOL.

If you've already read those, then I'm not sure what you're asking - there won't be any new opinions since the most recent thread, seeing as how the Idol stuff won't happen again until next year.

There is no "truth". Opinions are going to vary because, well, people have different opinions....

 

[JoeHawai’i]

We’ve been to Aulani around a dozen times. This past February with American Idol filming at the resort was the worst experience of all of them. Many of the normally scheduled activities were not scheduled (uncle story time, pool party, hula show by pool, etc), and areas of the resort were closed off from time to time to accommodate them filming interviews. Security was also rude and were making up rules like preventing us from walking on the beach or down the path along the lagoon.

 

[WDWLODGE]

For us 2024 was our first trip to HI. We unknowingly booked our stay during AI. They began setting-up a few days after we got there. There were 3 things that we had planned on doing that were cancelled, Story Time with Uncle, the DVC Party & Star Gazing. Fortunately, we were able to book the Star Gazing next door at the 4-Seasons. We felt the pool area was largely unaffected. We didn't even find the stage setup on the beach to be too intrusive. We hadn't watched the show in over a decade, but we did find it interesting and took in some of the practice and the first night of filming before we departed. We didn't have any issues with security or getting around the resort otherwise. Maybe it was because it was our first trip to HI and we were just thrilled to be there, but we didn't feel like the filming affected our trip much at all.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

We’ve been to Aulani around a dozen times. This past February with American Idol filming at the resort was the worst experience of all of them. Many of the normally scheduled activities were not scheduled (uncle story time, pool party, hula show by pool, etc), and areas of the resort were closed off from time to time to accommodate them filming interviews. Security was also rude and were making up rules like preventing us from walking on the beach or down the path along the lagoon.

Wow those were some our fav things, that’s lame as heck.
I really think Disney needs to advertise this well well in advance . It’s not fair for people to be surprised

 

[Batlin]

I think I was mostly worried about the pool/beach areas being closed off or something. Sounds like we can work around it. We’ll just treat it as a combo Universal Studios/Disney vacation

 

[VGCgroupie]

For us 2024 was our first trip to HI. We unknowingly booked our stay during AI. They began setting-up a few days after we got there. There were 3 things that we had planned on doing that were cancelled, Story Time with Uncle, the DVC Party & Star Gazing. Fortunately, we were able to book the Star Gazing next door at the 4-Seasons. We felt the pool area was largely unaffected. We didn't even find the stage setup on the beach to be too intrusive. We hadn't watched the show in over a decade, but we did find it interesting and took in some of the practice and the first night of filming before we departed. We didn't have any issues with security or getting around the resort otherwise. Maybe it was because it was our first trip to HI and we were just thrilled to be there, but we didn't feel like the filming affected our trip much at all.

Have you also done Aulani Star Gazing? If so how the 2 compare? Or are they the same? I didnt love the one at Aulani.

 

[WDWLODGE]

Have you also done Aulani Star Gazing? If so how the 2 compare? Or are they the same? I didnt love the one at Aulani.

It is basically the same thing. The gentlemen that runs the Aulani Star Gazing also runs the one at the 4 Seasons. We had a Groupon Coupon.

 

[VGCgroupie]

It is basically the same thing. The gentlemen that runs the Aulani Star Gazing also runs the one at the 4 Seasons. We had a Groupon Coupon.

Awesome. Maybe I will give that one a go in the future to see if it's any different. Especially if there is a Groupon. We didnt see any planets only stars which I guess it is called star gazing.. our biggest issue was people who let their kids do whatever they want and the poor guy who runs it isnt a stern guy so the parents get away with the kids getting away with nonsense.