Aulani cabana check out day

[jillmc40]

I cant decide if a cabana on check out day is a good thing or bad thing. Anyone have any input? Our flight is 5:30, so we would have to leave by 4? We also have a character breakfast that morning.

We are only there 1 night, they don't have any available the day we arrive.

I could move the character breakfast or cancel.

What do you think? Cabana on check out day or no? It is a lot of money so I don't know if it is worth it or not :/

Jill

 

[Girimama33]

If your flight leaves at 5:30, you should be leaving much earlier than 4. It takes 45+ minutes to get to the airport from Aulani. You should arrive at the airport at least an hour and a half before your flight in order to go through the agricultural inspection and security.
It is completely up to you if you want to enjoy the cabana during the morning/early afternoon on your last day. If it were my choice, I probably wouldn't.

 

[Ambassador]

We just returned this week from Aulani, and were surprised by the crowds! Even so, we felt a Cabana was not necessary: we always found chairs at the pools and beach. Most Cabanas were empty!

We had a 4:30pm flight. The day before checkout we were granted a late check out at noon. We also used the Launa Lounge to dry bathing suits. We left before 1:30 for our 4:30 flight, which was just right for dropping off rental, check-in, bag drop, security and long walk to gate (take shuttles if available).

 

[jillmc40]

Thank you both! I didn't realize we would have to leave so early! I will cancel the cabana and use the lounge right before we leave. Ooohhh, it's' going to be so hard to leave

 

[Anal Annie]

We just got back from Hawaii this past week. We did have a cabana rented for our last full day at Aulani (were leaving for Maui early the next morning) but decided they weren't worth the $300 so we canceled it mid-way thru our week. Our flight home from Maui was a 9:40 pm red-eye so we DID rent the equivalent at the Sheraton on Maui for our last day over there - BUT it was only $75 and TOTALLY worth it. The additional $225 at Aulani is absurd. But it's supply & demand - they all looked to be rented every day (at least there were signs in front of them with names on them anyway). Another factor for us that we decided to nix it was that the further away from the building we got the worse the wi-fi was until eventually there was NO wi-fi - if we'd have been over where we WANTED to be there wouldn't have been any wi-fi at all. Without wi-fi our DS17 wouldn't have stayed (and he was the main reason we were going to get one).

What I did when I packed up to leave was in addition to our pool bag with our sunscreens & hats & whatever I also packed a backpack that we'd brought to use for excursions etc. with our change of clothes & toiletries + a plastic bag for our wet, sandy stuff etc. We just kept 2 bags + our collapsible cooler with us all day. I know we could've left it with Bell Services with the other junk but I didn't want to have to bother with going up to get it. I also kept our smallest carry-on bag empty when I packed and I put everything else in all the other bags so that once we were all changed and cleaned up and ready to collect our luggage back from Bell Services I just dumped all this stuff we'd had with us all day into this empty carry-on when they brought the bags out. The plastic bag for our wet stuff, sandy flip flops, the now empty cooler, the backpack, everything went into this empty suitcase except for the sunscreens which had to be checked - so those went into an outside pocket on a larger bag. Easy peasy.

BTW I agree that you should probably allow about 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get to the airport, drop off your rental car & get thru ag inspection & security etc. We had a morning flight to Maui and hit rush hour traffic.

IMHO the cabanas at Aulani are too few and over-priced.

 

[jillmc40]

Thanks Annie! Hope you had a great trip! Those were all great tips.

 

[juncker]

How about just renting a Casabella on the Ama Ama lanai area? I think you can get one for only $45 for the day.

 

[jillmc40]

How about just renting a Casabella on the Ama Ama lanai area? I think you can get one for only $45 for the day.

I'll look into that! That sounds like a much better price

 

[herc1997]

How about just renting a Casabella on the Ama Ama lanai area? I think you can get one for only $45 for the day.

Just got back from Aulani and the Casabellas on the beach are $45. The ones on AMA AMA deck are part of the executive lanai. That comes with two casabellas as well as a table and chairs and additional chaises. That one is on the left. I think that ran $325 or $350. The farthest away on the right are two rentals, each have two casabellas.

We did the one on the beach one day and it was well worth it. We made it a beach day. I was there early enough to secure boogie boards and sand toys.

 

[Girimama33]

The Ama Ama Executive Lanai costs $275 + tax to rent.
We had a few days with a cabana (costs $325+ tax) and one day with the Executive Lanai in July 2014. We really loved having a home base and not having to worry about securing chairs and making sure no one moved in on them. The EL was especially nice since it over looks the beach. For us, having the cabanas/lanai were totally worth the price...as long as you are able to enjoy most of the day there.
The Casabellas are a great alternative for a decent price.