Aulani & Disneyland - September 2016 Honeymoon PTR! Update 3/25

[amalone1013]

So, once I book my probably SW flights for our Disneyland trip this summer, I will obsessively check prices lol. I had no idea! Thanks!!

 

[kastoney]

Fun fact: Aulani charges for parking. $37/day I believe. DVC members get free parking. If we weren't DVC members, I probably would look at the rental car situation differently. $37 is a lot!

That is crazy to charge people that much to park. Glad you don't have to pay, but that really is absurd.

have thought about renting a car for only the first half of our Aulani stay, because we plan to do a few resort days and a few activity days, but I think we'll just spread our days out and keep the car the whole time.

I think you'll really enjoy having the car. We rented ones in both Maui and Oahu and enjoyed the freedom it gave us.

We've only rented a car a few times in the past, but we had success with Alamo. I like that (with pretty much any rental car company) you can book and re-book when the price drops.

Two quick suggestions I use since I know you are all about saving money ; ) If you belong to Costco you can book rental cars from them and I've found them to be much cheaper than the rental car sites. I also book cars through Priceline a lot. You don't know who you will get but you can name your own price. I usually start really low and slowly work my way up, but if you know what the rental car companies are charging you can figure out what would really be a good deal.

e are thinking of doing a car service (not a limo, just a ride to the hotel). Still haven't decided. I know there are shuttles out there too, so that is also an option. On our first night in Disneyland, we are planning to do Napa Rose at 8:30 PM. Our plane lands at 2:30 PM so I hope 6 hours is enough time to get from LAX to Disneyland and check in/freshen up/scoot off to dinner. I've heard the shuttle can run late and stuff which worries me, only because we'll have a bunch of luggage and at that point maybe a car service will just be easier. Something to think about!

Great idea. We did the same thing on our Disneyland honeymoon and it worked out great.

I know that with only 2 days, we won't get to do everything we want. If we add a 3rd day to our ticket, and drop the hopper we currently added on, we'll have a 3 day base ticket which comes with a MAGIC MORNING! We bought our tickets before the price increase, so we're looking at $66 total if we drop the hopper and upgrade to 3 days.

Love the scheming. Something tells me you'll be in a park on that last day ; )

In 4 days, I was able to get 8,854 points back just by checking SW's site. Now our total flight price for a RT ticket from PIT-LAX is $304, which I think is really reasonable. I always figured it was like $500 to fly to California. Currently the flight is costing us 17,000ish points per person, also pretty reasonable considering I thought it would be somewhere like 25,000-30,000 per person!
That 8,000 points is probably the equivalent of a one way ticket from PIT to MCO, so I'll take it!

How, this is great. I don't fly SW very often (they don't fly out of the airport nearest our house) so I had no clue they offered this. What a great perk. We generally fly United or Jet Blue who sadly do nothing like this

 

[Vernie822]

So, once I book my probably SW flights for our Disneyland trip this summer, I will obsessively check prices lol. I had no idea! Thanks!!

Haha!! You are welcome, I seriously probably check once a day and it always pays off!!

Two quick suggestions I use since I know you are all about saving money ; ) If you belong to Costco you can book rental cars from them and I've found them to be much cheaper than the rental car sites. I also book cars through Priceline a lot. You don't know who you will get but you can name your own price. I usually start really low and slowly work my way up, but if you know what the rental car companies are charging you can figure out what would really be a good deal.

Thank you! We don't have a Costco near us, but I have heard great things about the Costco in Oahu and with car rentals.. so maybe I'll look into that. And Priceline! I always forget about the name your price. I've been looking into rental car prices and I know they drop but if I could find a low-ish price through Priceline that I'm comfortable with I may just say OK and book it and forget about it.

Great idea. We did the same thing on our Disneyland honeymoon and it worked out great.

I'm thinking it may be for the best, I know I would be a mess if I'm late to Napa Rose because of a shuttle lol.

Love the scheming. Something tells me you'll be in a park on that last day ; )

HAHA.. Us Disnerds think alike I'm hoping I will be too hahaha.

How, this is great. I don't fly SW very often (they don't fly out of the airport nearest our house) so I had no clue they offered this. What a great perk. We generally fly United or Jet Blue who sadly do nothing like this

Yes! SW is great since they fly out of PIT so often and Buffalo too (even shorter of a drive for us but the airports not as big). Once you book flights, you have the "Change Flight" option to click, and you just click it and choose the date of your flight, and it gives you all of your options. No change fees and you can change one leg at a time since they're priced each way. So if you see the price is lower, you just click to rebook and it will refund you the $$ you paid (in a credit to be used w/in a year of booking) or in points!

 

[alohamom]

Congratulations on your up coming wedding! You are a planner extraordinaire and I am joining in on this PTR, hoping you will do a honeymoon TR!!! Also, your engagement pics are awesome, I love the mickey head cut out of the "O"

2. Financially, we could make it work. I'll talk about this in future posts, but we ended up with a 2 week Hawaiian vacation for about what the cost of a nice week-long Sandals vacation would've cost us.

BIG YES TO THIS! I tell people this all the time!!!

We decided this would be the best option to break up the flight and give us a relaxing first day, even if it included a flight to LAX. We did not want to fly Pittsburgh to Honolulu the day after our wedding!

Very smart, we have done this in the past when our kids were little and it made the different segments of travel more of an adventure plus you are rested when you finally get to Hawaii and you can truly enjoy arriving more.

(he said he preferred the Wailea beaches as opposed to Kaanapali),

Yes indeed, Kaanapali has eroded over time and there are some stretches that have almost no sand, like towards the Hyatt Regency. Another thing is, if you decide to go to Black Rock as you mentioned in your report, the last time I was there the parking was minimal and hard to find. I know there is parking at the Whalers Village shopping center but it is pricey. I would look and see if anyone validates parking for there. I would suggest the Hula Grill on Kaanapali beach for a place to eat, strictly because they have an area right on the beach called the barefoot bar where they encourage you to take off your shoes because it is literally right on the beach-so fun to feel the sand between your toes! Plus they have Hula Pie for dessert, ice cream, chocolate, mac nuts-mmmm so good!

http://www.hulagrillkaanapali.com/

We have to return our rental car & our plane ride is only about an hour. So this day will be split between Maui and Oahu, with some pool/beach time in the morning and the flight in the afternoon.

You might want to give your self an extra half an hour to get to the airport, traffic can also get clogged up on Maui

The flight is only about 50 minutes long, which I imagine will go by pretty quickly. Our plane lands around 4 PM, which after reading a few TR’s, concerns me a little because hello, RUSH HOUR!

I think if you know this ahead of time you will be ok. Maybe agree that you are going to be on a crowded highway of a major city in rush hour and that is that. WE had our kids look for California or other out of state license plates. The odd person has their vehicle shipped over so they do exist. The best part is, once you pass the exit for Pearl City, the traffic really begins to thin out.

Note to self, consider water shoes. I don’t care if I’m nerdy, I got bit by a crab once on my toe and I’ve been scarred for life ever since.

YES! I was body surfing with my son two years ago up in the North Shore and my foot scraped an urchin. It was not good.

Plaza Inn - I read that this is a QS for dinner & that the fried chicken is amazing. Although I probably wouldn't want something that heavy.

I really like Plaza Inn in DL because it is on the quiet side, the food is delicious and stopping to eat there because of this kind of recharges you. You could always split the plate, there is enough for two, then you might still have room for the churro funnel cake!

I know that with only 2 days, we won't get to do everything we want. If we add a 3rd day to our ticket, and drop the hopper we currently added on, we'll have a 3 day base ticket which comes with a MAGIC MORNING!

Last time we went to DL, we had the 3 day ticket that included the Magic Morning and I can honestly tell you, it was the DL of my dreams. Main street wasnt crowded, you could take everything in with a sense of calm and not have to rush to anything. We enjoyed a great QS breakfast and strolled to our first ride, it was blissful so if you can convince him to do that Magic Morning-DO IT!

A $68 price drop in the matter of 2 days. So that was another 5,208 points back into our account.

Well, there is your Magic Morning price savings right there!

 

[Vernie822]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the tips!!

Congratulations on your up coming wedding! You are a planner extraordinaire and I am joining in on this PTR, hoping you will do a honeymoon TR!!! Also, your engagement pics are awesome, I love the mickey head cut out of the "O"

THANKS! I am so pleased with the way they turned out! I plan to take lots of pictures on vacation, hopefully I'll get a TR in there but my notes may be limited.. I definitely want to give tips/tricks on how the trip worked for us, there's not a ton of Aulani reports out there but I appreciate the ones I have come across. I LOVE to plan and it makes me a lot less anxious when I can read other people's experiences to at least mildly know what to expect.

BIG YES TO THIS! I tell people this all the time!!!

I was so happy that it turned out this way! The ONE thing I have noticed about a Hawaiian vacation is that it requires a lot more planning than a Sandals all inclusive.. but I keep remembering how fun it will be and how happy we will be that we took the time to plan.

Very smart, we have done this in the past when our kids were little and it made the different segments of travel more of an adventure plus you are rested when you finally get to Hawaii and you can truly enjoy arriving more.

Phew! This was my fiance's idea. I know we'd both be flustered if we flew Pittsburgh to Hawaii on Sunday (day after the wedding) and neither one of us wanted to lose a full day traveling on Monday. So I hope this will work out for the best!

Yes indeed, Kaanapali has eroded over time and there are some stretches that have almost no sand, like towards the Hyatt Regency. Another thing is, if you decide to go to Black Rock as you mentioned in your report, the last time I was there the parking was minimal and hard to find. I know there is parking at the Whalers Village shopping center but it is pricey. I would look and see if anyone validates parking for there. I would suggest the Hula Grill on Kaanapali beach for a place to eat, strictly because they have an area right on the beach called the barefoot bar where they encourage you to take off your shoes because it is literally right on the beach-so fun to feel the sand between your toes! Plus they have Hula Pie for dessert, ice cream, chocolate, mac nuts-mmmm so good!

http://www.hulagrillkaanapali.com/

That pie is right up my alley! I love nuts and chocolate... yum. Good to know, we were considering Whalers Village after stopping at the beach. My coworker did mention that Black Rock had really limited parking so I will have to keep that in mind.

You might want to give your self an extra half an hour to get to the airport, traffic can also get clogged up on Maui

Good to know! Thanks.

I think if you know this ahead of time you will be ok. Maybe agree that you are going to be on a crowded highway of a major city in rush hour and that is that. WE had our kids look for California or other out of state license plates. The odd person has their vehicle shipped over so they do exist. The best part is, once you pass the exit for Pearl City, the traffic really begins to thin out.

I figured if we anticipated traffic, we'd be a lot less frustrated when we're in it. Plus we'll probably be taking everything in and looking around so hopefully it won't be too much of a pain. Wishing I'd scheduled our flight a little earlier but I think we'll be ok!

YES! I was body surfing with my son two years ago up in the North Shore and my foot scraped an urchin. It was not good.

Water shoes may be in my future then!

I really like Plaza Inn in DL because it is on the quiet side, the food is delicious and stopping to eat there because of this kind of recharges you. You could always split the plate, there is enough for two, then you might still have room for the churro funnel cake!

Good idea! It seems like the chicken isn't too greasy but I think that's something we could totally split.

Last time we went to DL, we had the 3 day ticket that included the Magic Morning and I can honestly tell you, it was the DL of my dreams. Main street wasnt crowded, you could take everything in with a sense of calm and not have to rush to anything. We enjoyed a great QS breakfast and strolled to our first ride, it was blissful so if you can convince him to do that Magic Morning-DO IT!

Ah... I may need to do it then!

 

[kpearl]

I know it's been awhile since anything has been posted here but I just wanted to say I hope you have a wonderful wedding weekend ! I look forward to pictures from the big day and your honeymoon! Enjoy every moment, be sure to take it in, and have a blast. Wishing the two of your many, many years of happiness together!