At Aulani NOW!! Observations

[Scott5150]

Hey gang, been here since Saturday. Staying in an ocean view studio. If you are vaccinated, there is no reason that you should not come. Masks on indoors, not required outdoors. Vaccine card and ID required to eat at ANY restaurant in Hawaii. We have eaten at Longhi’s, Monkeypod, and Haleiwa Joes - all great and no problem as long as we had the proper documentation. We did not follow the Hawaii Safe Travels arrival process properly (forgot the day of arrival health screening) and had to finish it on the island when we arrived. The process was so efficient that we still had to wait for our bags at baggage claim. Needed the QR code from Hawaii safe travels to rent a car at National. Weather is great. Pools are great. With very slight modifications I am having the same Aulani vacation as before Covid. Mahalo!

scott

 

[dreamit]

Thank you for posting. It’s great to hear things have been going smoothly for you and that the additional rules/restrictions are not affecting your vacation. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[Quilty]

Great to hear. We will be there in two weeks.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hey gang, been here since Saturday. Staying in an ocean view studio. If you are vaccinated, there is no reason that you should not come. Masks on indoors, not required outdoors. Vaccine card and ID required to eat at ANY restaurant in Hawaii. We have eaten at Longhi’s, Monkeypod, and Haleiwa Joes - all great and no problem as long as we had the proper documentation. We did not follow the Hawaii Safe Travels arrival process properly (forgot the day of arrival health screening) and had to finish it on the island when we arrived. The process was so efficient that we still had to wait for our bags at baggage claim. Needed the QR code from Hawaii safe travels to rent a car at National. Weather is great. Pools are great. With very slight modifications I am having the same Aulani vacation as before Covid. Mahalo!

scott

I know this is a silly question but how much plexiglass is up in the lobby, gift shops, QS, etc? It's such a small thing but it makes everything feel so cheap to me. It feels like the bulletproof glass at a CVS in the bad part of a major city.

Also, I assume still no sighting of refillable mugs, lei greeting, or infused water at the valet stand?

 

[Van@Disney]

I’d also love to know if one can use a refillable mug for coffee and tea. And the drink stations. I am particularly fond of the infused water stations. I ned constant water to manage the heat. I’m Canadian, anything over 20 c seems hot to me.

 

[FoodieFriend]

I’d also love to know if one can use a refillable mug for coffee and tea. And the drink stations. I am particularly fond of the infused water stations. I ned constant water to manage the heat. I’m Canadian, anything over 20 c seems hot to me.

Unfortunately the drink stations are not available at this time. All soft drinks are bottled or you can bring your own on to property or have grocery delivery to Aulani. I do not know when they plan to have them available again. We were just there during the last weekend in September & are going again this weekend. If I hear anything from CMs, I'll report back.

 

[Kristie71]

I’d also love to know if one can use a refillable mug for coffee and tea. And the drink stations. I am particularly fond of the infused water stations. I ned constant water to manage the heat. I’m Canadian, anything over 20 c seems hot to me.

I am from the Chicago area and same here with heat. I normally just keep refilling a bottle of water when i am at DW. was looking forward to the infused water and do the refillable mug (i dont do it at DW) with iced tea. Guess that i will just have to keep refilling a bottle like i normally would do. Bummed but ok with it. Now Ama Ama being closed was a big disappointment. I started planning this trip back in 2019 (not booking it of course) to celebrate my 50th birthday (nov 2021). I wanted to have my b-day dinner at Ama Ama since i like this restaurant a lot. Instead i am doing Noe at the Four Seasons. It wont suck. Have to go with the flow for this trip.

 

[OKW Lover]

Hope you enjoy your visit. You apparently arrived the day after we left. We were there 9 nights and really enjoyed our stay!

 

[JLemaire7]

Hey gang, been here since Saturday. Staying in an ocean view studio. If you are vaccinated, there is no reason that you should not come. Masks on indoors, not required outdoors. Vaccine card and ID required to eat at ANY restaurant in Hawaii. We have eaten at Longhi’s, Monkeypod, and Haleiwa Joes - all great and no problem as long as we had the proper documentation. We did not follow the Hawaii Safe Travels arrival process properly (forgot the day of arrival health screening) and had to finish it on the island when we arrived. The process was so efficient that we still had to wait for our bags at baggage claim. Needed the QR code from Hawaii safe travels to rent a car at National. Weather is great. Pools are great. With very slight modifications I am having the same Aulani vacation as before Covid. Mahalo!

scott

Thank you for posting. We have a trip planned in February and this is all good information to know.

 

[Scott5150]

I know this is a silly question but how much plexiglass is up in the lobby, gift shops, QS, etc? It's such a small thing but it makes everything feel so cheap to me. It feels like the bulletproof glass at a CVS in the bad part of a major city.

Also, I assume still no sighting of refillable mugs, lei greeting, or infused water at the valet stand?

Lots of plexiglass - but I am used to it. No mugs, lei, or water. Still having a great trip!

 

[Scott5150]

I’d also love to know if one can use a refillable mug for coffee and tea. And the drink stations. I am particularly fond of the infused water stations. I ned constant water to manage the heat. I’m Canadian, anything over 20 c seems hot to me.

No refillable mugs. We went to target and got several gallons of water at $1.29 each

 

[jujubiee4]

Hey gang, been here since Saturday. Staying in an ocean view studio. If you are vaccinated, there is no reason that you should not come. Masks on indoors, not required outdoors. Vaccine card and ID required to eat at ANY restaurant in Hawaii. We have eaten at Longhi’s, Monkeypod, and Haleiwa Joes - all great and no problem as long as we had the proper documentation. We did not follow the Hawaii Safe Travels arrival process properly (forgot the day of arrival health screening) and had to finish it on the island when we arrived. The process was so efficient that we still had to wait for our bags at baggage claim. Needed the QR code from Hawaii safe travels to rent a car at National. Weather is great. Pools are great. With very slight modifications I am having the same Aulani vacation as before Covid. Mahalo!

scott

Even being vaccinated do you still have to test before entering Hawaii? This was our experience in April.
Thank you for update on how things stand at hotel.

 

[OKW Lover]

Even being vaccinated do you still have to test before entering Hawaii?

No. If you are fully vaccinated in the US there is no need to test before entering Hawaii right now.

 

[DisneyinPA]

How was your flight? What route did you take? Airline price to Hawaii have never been better. We were planning on going two years ago and had our room booked but airline price were too high then and never came down. One day hopefully I’ll get to Aulani.

 

[JC1984]

I have found it cheapest to get yourself to the West Coast and then flying to Hawaii from there. I got round trip out of Long Beach on SWA for $198 round trip which I feel was a great deal. I found flight from my airport to LAX for $140 round trip. If I was to book from my airport to HNL it was over $800 round trip and I live in the West. Just a thought.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I have found it cheapest to get yourself to the West Coast and then flying to Hawaii from there. I got round trip out of Long Beach on SWA for $198 round trip which I feel was a great deal. I found flight from my airport to LAX for $140 round trip. If I was to book from my airport to HNL it was over $800 round trip and I live in the West. Just a thought.

Amen. For me, East Coast to California plus California to Hawaii costs about the same as East Coast to Hawaii direct. I prefer flying direct when I'm heading West, but it helps my kids a TON with the time change if we stay overnight in California on the way home.

 

[JC1984]

Amen. For me, East Coast to California plus California to Hawaii costs about the same as East Coast to Hawaii direct. I prefer flying direct when I'm heading West, but it helps my kids a TON with the time change if we stay overnight in California on the way home.

I am also originally from Anaheim so we usually stop and see family and take the kids to DLR. So it works out. Usually when you have direct flights from any airport it is usually a wash. But when you live in a fly overstate it costs a lot more to get anywhere. That’s why doing the splits ends up being cheaper; you gotta play the game.

 

[lorenni]

Even being vaccinated do you still have to test before entering Hawaii? This was our experience in April.
Thank you for update on how things stand at hotel.

I believe it depends on where you where vaccinated. If you don’t live in the US and so were vaccinated outside the US then you have to test out of the quarantine requirement. So, coming from Canada, fully vaxxed with Pfizer, we aren’t considered vaccinated for the quarantine rules and we must test instead.

We *are* considered vaccinated for purposes of the Oahu rules.

 

[jimmymc]

I have found it cheapest to get yourself to the West Coast and then flying to Hawaii from there. I got round trip out of Long Beach on SWA for $198 round trip which I feel was a great deal. I found flight from my airport to LAX for $140 round trip. If I was to book from my airport to HNL it was over $800 round trip and I live in the West. Just a thought.

This is pretty common. Airlines charge a premium for flying direct to Hawaii. For me it's worth the extra money if they offer direct from Detroit, but that's not too common.

 

[AquaDame]

I didn’t want to start my own thread but we’re heading home right now and I wanted to put my thoughts out somewhere.

Overall it was more crowded than I’d hoped in the pool area (of course) and they closed the lazy river at 6pm so we had to make sure to hoof it back to enjoy it one day in the afternoon instead. They made sure everyone had their black bands on before heading into the restaurants but cleaning was still iffy. I found a pair of underwear tucked on top of the couch and there were food remnants in the kitchenette sink when we checked in. Then you see the placard talking about extra cleaning… it made us laugh. They were very good about taking out our trash daily during the room checks which I appreciated. We did not get towels or anything else at any point (we were there 4 nights so I think that is to be expected).

No one was reminding guests to put their masks on when they entered from the pool, so many did not bother. A couple families tried to bring their entire group onto the elevator with us so we asked them not to. Thankfully no one argued (max is 4). I’m glad we were on the top floor - it made grabbing one much easier on the way down.

Drinks were great but the sushi rolls were mostly rice. Nigiri was much better. The line at the coffee bar at the four seasons was nonexistent whereas the place across the street had a long line. Both had matcha and both were good. We easily could have had our breakfast from the four seasons too - they have chia seed and yogurt bowls ready to go and a host of pastries. Also malasadas and musubi if either are your jam.

I didn’t see a single character, but we did not seek them out. I did get to listen to stories by the pool at night which I enjoyed and we played the menehune hunt which was very fun.

halloween merch was very tiny and they only had a kids shirt and a very cheap feeling hat that was Hawaiian/Halloween so I did not buy anything. The other items were generic Halloween park style stuff. Tons of options for Aulani specific though so I still left happy.