Aulani August 2015

[Lorelai71]

Howdy,
I am hoping for a trip next August to Aulani and didn't find a thread so I thought I would create one.

Thinking we can share ideas, plans or just get excited together.

 

[IggyLans]

We are just in early stages of planning an Aulani trip next July/August.... haven't narrowed down our exact dates, yet, but we still have a bit of time before 7 month booking window

 

[lovetotraveltx]

We are going this August in less than 2 weeks. Would be glad to report anything back. We have 2 nights waikiki, 5 nights Aulani and 4 nights Maui.

Have fun planning. There are lots of useful threads on here, do a search for dining, car rentals, activities, etc.

 

[Lorelai71]

We just in early stages of planning an Aulani trip next July/August.... haven't narrowed down our exact dates, yet, but we still have a bit of time before 7 month booking window

We might be there at the same time. I'm also looking at the same time period. I do have 100 points in Aulani so I can get started at the 11 month mark but I will have to book the rest at 7 months. I want to stay for two weeks.

Yes, yes and yes. Lovetotraveltx. Have a fantastic time. I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

 

[lovetotraveltx]

We might be there at the same time. I'm also looking at the same time period. I do have 100 points in Aulani so I can get started at the 11 month mark but I will have to book the rest at 7 months. I want to stay for two weeks.

Yes, yes and yes. Lovetotraveltx. Have a fantastic time. I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Thank you!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

We've been eagerly awaiting the 7 month booking window for the last couple of years!

We are celebrating our 40th birthdays with (hopefully) a 6 night Aulani stay and then a few nights at VGC

 

[Lorelai71]

We've been eagerly awaiting the 7 month booking window for the last couple of years!

We are celebrating our 40th birthdays with (hopefully) a 6 night Aulani stay and then a few nights at VGC

Hi Amy, praying we all get what we want.

Does anyone know what days are harder to book in August at the 7 month mark?

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi Amy, praying we all get what we want.

Does anyone know what days are harder to book in August at the 7 month mark?

I have nothing scientific to support it but I've read several times how crowded & full the resort seems to be on the weekends so I think a lot of locals (could be from the other Hawaiian islands) come just for the weekend. I think crowds lighten up in general starting mid-month in August because US schools start to go back. There are a few that wait for September but most go back by at least the last week of August (that's when ours starts). This includes most colleges too. I've seen several specials being offered at Aulani recently (+ even a deal for DVC members to book with discounted points) to book 4 nights and get the 4th one free + a $100 / day resort credit. I think the deals start around August 15 or 16th so that would make me think they won't be as booked up by then and supports my theory. We are there from the 8th - 15th then we're going to Maui for 3 nights before heading home. With the time difference heading east we get home about 5 days before school starts. Just enough time to recover from our jet lag and get the last minute back-to-school stuff done. One of the specials I saw starts right when we leave Aulani. I read about someone who had a reservation for this time frame and he was able to call MS and get the reduced point rate and he got some of his points back.

 

[Lorelai71]

I have nothing scientific to support it but I've read several times how crowded & full the resort seems to be on the weekends so I think a lot of locals (could be from the other Hawaiian islands) come just for the weekend. I think crowds lighten up in general starting mid-month in August because US schools start to go back. There are a few that wait for September but most go back by at least the last week of August (that's when ours starts). This includes most colleges too. I've seen several specials being offered at Aulani recently (+ even a deal for DVC members to book with discounted points) to book 4 nights and get the 4th one free + a $100 / day resort credit. I think the deals start around August 15 or 16th so that would make me think they won't be as booked up by then and supports my theory. We are there from the 8th - 15th then we're going to Maui for 3 nights before heading home. With the time difference heading east we get home about 5 days before school starts. Just enough time to recover from our jet lag and get the last minute back-to-school stuff done. One of the specials I saw starts right when we leave Aulani. I read about someone who had a reservation for this time frame and he was able to call MS and get the reduced point rate and he got some of his points back.

Bummer. I can't take vacation the last two weeks of August, which seems like the best time.

A little over a week to go for you. You must be so ecstatic!

 

[Anal Annie]

Bummer. I can't take vacation the last two weeks of August, which seems like the best time.

A little over a week to go for you. You must be so ecstatic!

Early to mid-August is doable too - don't dispair!!! I think LATER might be easier but we have been lucky enough to book this same early August time frame 2 yrs. in a row. Of course only a studio, but I feel very lucky just the same. I'm excited but almost afraid to think it will really happen. We were originally supposed to do this trip LAST August and 8 days before we were to leave our DS had a spontaneous pneumothorax (the 1st of 3 - he a 2nd one in Nov. and a 3rd one in Feb) and wasn't allowed to fly for 3 weeks so we had to cancel the entire trip!! He went on to have 2 more pneumothorax's and has subsequently had lung surgeries now on BOTH lungs. I was really afraid that we wouldn't be able to book it 2 yrs. in a row but we were. In order to have enough points to re-plan for this year we had to downgrade from OV to IV at Aulani and knock a day off the trip & downgrade where we're staying on Maui but we're going. The IV's tend to go faster than the OV's bcuz they're less points and we just crossed our fingers we could get it so we wouldn't have to borrow any more points than necessary. Honestly we probably wouldn't have re-planned it for this year if it wasn't for the fact that we'd booked most of our airfare on Alaska Air which gave us a full year to re-book and fly after we cancelled last year. Since it was money already spent that we'd never get back we didn't want to waste it 'cuz it was a lot. But financially it would've been better to have happened last year.

Anyway, I think you'll be OK. Just be online and ready to go at 8:00 when your 7 month window hits!! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!! You can do it!!

 

[Lorelai71]

Hi Annie,
So sorry to hear about your DS. I pray he is feeling much better now. Good that you were able to salvage the airfare.

Okay, I will set an alarm so I don't miss the time. I will be at work so I don't want to forget to call as soon as they open.

We normally stay in a studio which is perfectly fine for us even though we are three adults. I am going with my mom and brother. However, I was thinking of doing a one bedroom so we could do breakfast, lunch and maybe a few dinners in the room. I keep reading how expensive meals are. I don't really want to cook on vacation.

But a one bedroom is so many points. We plan to stay for 15 days.

My brother loves being able to see the ocean from the room but the ocean seems off in the distance so I don't think it is necessary but it sure would be nice. At Vero Beach we normally get OV in a studio and absolutely love it but the rooms there are closer to the ocean. We could afford OV in a studio but not in a one bedroom.

I keep thinking. Don't know when we will be able to get back to Hawaii so perhaps we should splurge for the one bedroom. Then I'm thinking if we rented a car then we could venture out and eat more reasonably.

Decisions, decisions....

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi Annie,
So sorry to hear about your DS. I pray he is feeling much better now. Good that you were able to salvage the airfare.

Okay, I will set an alarm so I don't miss the time. I will be at work so I don't want to forget to call as soon as they open.

We normally stay in a studio which is perfectly fine for us even though we are three adults. I am going with my mom and brother. However, I was thinking of doing a one bedroom so we could do breakfast, lunch and maybe a few dinners in the room. I keep reading how expensive meals are. I don't really want to cook on vacation.

But a one bedroom is so many points. We plan to stay for 15 days.

My brother loves being able to see the ocean from the room but the ocean seems off in the distance so I don't think it is necessary but it sure would be nice. At Vero Beach we normally get OV in a studio and absolutely love it but the rooms there are closer to the ocean. We could afford OV in a studio but not in a one bedroom.

I keep thinking. Don't know when we will be able to get back to Hawaii so perhaps we should splurge for the one bedroom. Then I'm thinking if we rented a car then we could venture out and eat more reasonably.

Decisions, decisions....

No, no, no!! You need to book this online at 8:00 SHARP!!! (Maybe you need to do it from home & call in late that morning?!) If you've never done it before you can go onto the DVC website and toodle around with it. Practice with a dummy res but don't BOOK it - just so you're familiar with the system. The online system opens at 8:00 so go log on a little early and have everything ready to go and as soon as you see the computer clock turn from 7:59 to 8:00 hit SUBMIT!!! The phones don't open until 9:00 to take calls. What you want could be gone by then!! That's a whole hour!! The other thing I have done when I know it's tight & I'm nervous is that I initially just book for 1 person (me) so I don't have to enter all the other names then I call MS later in the day to add the others by phone. Takes a little pressure off.

We considered the 1-bedroom last yr and would've had to book IV and maybe only go for 6 n instead of 7 n or something but ultimately DH said he wanted an OV so we went for the OV studio. I am not a big fan of cooking on vaca either but am planning to possibly cook 1 night on the grills if I can find a good price on some Mahi Mahi and we'll probably only do a couple of expensive dinners - we can eat kind of moderately if we don't order a lot of drinks OUT. Anyway, we had been planning for the trip LAST year and had banked some points so we had extra to use. When we cancelled we had to use those points by Nov. so we drove to FL instead so we wouldn't lose them and we were able to get 9 n in a 1-bedroom at SSR. We also made a long weekend trip in January which sucked down some extra pts. because Delta made us rebook AND FLY by Jan. on the flights we had to cancel with them (we hadn't booked everything with Alaska Air)…so then when it came time to plan for THIS year we were down about a 100 or so pts. from what we had to work with the year before. So we cut 1 n off of the CA portion and down graded from the OV to IV studio and still had to borrow some. (And we had to cut back on our resort on Maui when we rebooked over there.) ANYWAY, I have studied the IV pics posted in the views thread and think if we can get on a higher floor in that long wing of the EWA building we'll be satisfied with the view. Many of them also have a glimpse of the ocean so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Since you are going for so long and can't book everything all at once anyway maybe you could start out with a week in a studio then move to a 1-bedroom for the 2nd half?

Honestly tho, I would highly suggest tho that you consider the idea of island hopping. Hawaii is sooo beautiful and each island has its own personality. If you planned say 10 days at Aulani you could do the larger unit and then island hop for the remaining 5 days somewhere on another island. It is so far to go and so expensive to get there I really think if you're planning to go for that long you should consider the idea. (Just a thought.)

 

[DenLo]

August 15th is statehood day in Hawaii and the schools are closed. Lots of families take advantage of a three day weekend for that holiday and Labor Day as well. I have heard that those weekends were very busy at Aulani last year.

 

[Lorelai71]

Thanks Annie, I am so happy that you mentioned that it had to be online. I would have been so ticked if I had messed this up. I would love to do the other islands but unfortunately we don't have the extra cash to pay for a room for several nights.

Good idea about some time in a studio and the rest of time in a one bedroom. My only issue with this is that I am afraid we would love the one bedroom so much that we won't want to go back to the studio for future vacations. But then I'm thinking it is Hawaii, why not use the points. Airfare is already going to kill us.

Denise, thanks for the heads up for August 15th. Perhaps I could book that date with my 100 Aulani points at the 11 month window.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks Annie, I am so happy that you mentioned that it had to be online. I would have been so ticked if I had messed this up. I would love to do the other islands but unfortunately we don't have the extra cash to pay for a room for several nights.

Good idea about some time in a studio and the rest of time in a one bedroom. My only issue with this is that I am afraid we would love the one bedroom so much that we won't want to go back to the studio for future vacations. But then I'm thinking it is Hawaii, why not use the points. Airfare is already going to kill us.

Denise, thanks for the heads up for August 15th. Perhaps I could book that date with my 100 Aulani points at the 11 month window.

I know what you mean about the studio VS 1-bedroom thing. We ALWAYS use studios so we can stretch our points but when we cancelled last summer and switched to driving to WDW there were NO studios available for a last minute ressie anywhere so we HAD to book a 1-bedroom - and it worked out that there were exactly 9 nights available which used up all but like 6 points from our canceled DL & Aulani ressie - almost a perfect fit. But so yes, it WAS nice to be in the 1-bedroom for that long but we went back to a studio in January at AKV when we went and handled it fine. I think my fav. part was the king-size bed 'cuz we don't have one at home - so that made it feel special. But we'll be fine in a studio. We just put the 1-bedroom in perspective as a 1-time thing.

I "get" that the other islands are a lot of money out-of-pocket - I agree. We converted Amex Reward points to Starwood points and used those to book the Sheraton on Maui. We had enough points to cover 2 nights and then we managed to get a Starwood Member rate on the 3rd night so it's only like $335 or something. That one night is the only night we're paying out-of-pocket for the whole trip. Maybe if you think about it you have some other reward points of some sort that you could use to book a few nights somewhere?! OR maybe you could do a trade for a week with your other DVC points (just a thought). We couldn't do that this trip bcuz the VGC uses so many points and we started out in the hole. But it's something we may plan for if we ever get to go back again.

ANYWAY, have fun planning!! I'm sure it will be fabulous whatever you decide to book!