Aulani Friends Trip - 6 Studios & 1 Two Bedroom for 8 Families?

[that1jeff]

Aloha Neighbors,

The wife and I are thinking of surprising our friend group with an epic 4-night Aulani trip in the next 3-4 years. There are 8 separate families. Each family is a party of 4 or less. Except for one family which is a party of 5. So I'm thinking of booking 6x Island Studios to cover 6x families. And then 1x Two Bedroom Standard to cover the party of 5 + another family.
For peak season, I added this up to be 904 points total. We would have 300 pints, so we would need to bank & borrow + buy 4 OTU points to get us to the 904 points we need.

A few questions...

-My understanding is that each room can be a separate reservation, correct?
-Each reservation can have a different credit card on file for incidentals and room purchases?
-Each reservation can also pay for their own transient tax directly?
-Concerning parking, only 2x cars total would get free parking, correct? (And NOT 2x cars per reservation/room?)
-Any other limitation to my plan I'm not considering?

Thanks for the insight!

 

[intamin]

1. Yes each room will require a separate reservation
2. Yes they can have a different credit card on file
3. Yes, you can even pay transient taxes with a Disney gift card
4. No, you would receive 2x cars per reservation

 

[DaveNan]

Studios go pretty quick. Unless you are buying 300 at Aulani, that's alot of rooms to get at 7 months. Additionally - OTU points can't be bought until 7 months, so even if you own at Aulani, you will be at risk for the entire trip, waiting to the 7 month mark. I would look at the rental market for many of the rooms before the 7 month mark, or if you are already a DVC member, the transfer market for a few points before the 7 month mark.

 

[that1jeff]

Studios go pretty quick. Unless you are buying 300 at Aulani, that's alot of rooms to get at 7 months. Additionally - OTU points can't be bought until 7 months, so even if you own at Aulani, you will be at risk for the entire trip, waiting to the 7 month mark. I would look at the rental market for many of the rooms before the 7 month mark, or if you are already a DVC member, the transfer market for a few points before the 7 month mark.

Yes, we bought 300 at Aulani.

Oh! Forgot about the 7 month stipulation on the OTU points. Thanks for calling that out.

 

[intamin]

Yes, we bought 300 at Aulani.

Oh! Forgot about the 7 month stipulation on the OTU points. Thanks for calling that out.

Make sure you secure the 2BR standard first.

I would drop one of the island/garden view studios to standard to not have to deal with the one time use points and then everyone else in island/garden view. You’ll have no issues getting island/garden view at 11 months.

 

[that1jeff]

Make sure you secure the 2BR standard first.

I would drop one of the island/garden view studios to standard to not have to deal with the one time use points and then everyone else in island/garden view. You’ll have no issues getting island/garden view at 11 months.

Good thinking. Will do!

Yes, was just thinking the same thing once I reminded that OTU points can only be used at 7 months.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Aloha Neighbors,

The wife and I are thinking of surprising our friend group with an epic 4-night Aulani trip in the next 3-4 years. There are 8 separate families. Each family is a party of 4 or less. Except for one family which is a party of 5. So I'm thinking of booking 6x Island Studios to cover 6x families. And then 1x Two Bedroom Standard to cover the party of 5 + another family.
For peak season, I added this up to be 904 points total. We would have 300 pints, so we would need to bank & borrow + buy 4 OTU points to get us to the 904 points we need.

A few questions...

-My understanding is that each room can be a separate reservation, correct?
-Each reservation can have a different credit card on file for incidentals and room purchases?
-Each reservation can also pay for their own transient tax directly?
-Concerning parking, only 2x cars total would get free parking, correct? (And NOT 2x cars per reservation/room?)
-Any other limitation to my plan I'm not considering?

Thanks for the insight!

This is one of those things that sounds good in theory…. like a destination wedding….. but when it comes down to the actual execution….people backing out after pricing out flights and vacation days, someone gets sick, kids events, job change/loss….

 

[that1jeff]

This is one of those things that sounds good in theory…. like a destination wedding….. but when it comes down to the actual execution….people backing out after pricing out flights and vacation days, someone gets sick, kids events, job change/loss….

Brings up another question for me. If a family does back out, how easy is it to change the name on the reservation if I wanted to last minute give the booking to someone else? (Like I family member that wouldn't be offended that I didn't invite them to a friends trip in the first place. lol)

 

[intamin]

Brings up another question for me. If a family does back out, how easy is it to change the name on the reservation if I wanted to last minute give the booking to someone else? (Like I family member that wouldn't be offended that I didn't invite them to a friends trip in the first place. lol)

It's extremely easy to swap the people. You can do it all on the member website.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Brings up another question for me. If a family does back out, how easy is it to change the name on the reservation if I wanted to last minute give the booking to someone else? (Like I family member that wouldn't be offended that I didn't invite them to a friends trip in the first place. lol)

Should be easy to do. Call MS to change lead guest. Other guest changes can be done online.

(I would recommend not making all the bookings with you as the only traveller - runs the risk of someone at MS thinking these are duplicate bookings and canceling some of them…)

 

[AstroBlasters]

Brings up another question for me. If a family does back out, how easy is it to change the name on the reservation if I wanted to last minute give the booking to someone else? (Like I family member that wouldn't be offended that I didn't invite them to a friends trip in the first place. lol)

You would be taking a huge risk because there are a myriad of threads that lament how people will start backing out within 90 days, flights for new people will be prohibitively expensive, and the points will be put in holding and have to be fire sale’d because you won’t be able to bank them…. and it can cause friction or resentment in a friendship if someone backs out at the last minute OR feels obligated to go even though they don’t want to/can’t afford to but feel they have to….

 

[crisi]

Brings up another question for me. If a family does back out, how easy is it to change the name on the reservation if I wanted to last minute give the booking to someone else? (Like I family member that wouldn't be offended that I didn't invite them to a friends trip in the first place. lol)

Easy to change the reservation - but it may be difficult to convince someone to spring for airfare on short notice. Short notice Hawaii airfare is expensive. Short notice car rental is prohibitive for a lot of people.

'My advice - don't SURPRISE people - you are asking them to spend a lot of money on airfare and food and spend their vacation time - which for a lot of people is precious - to go somewhere you want to go. Hawaii may not be on their list. If it is on their list, Oahu may not be (it isn't my favorite island and we've only gone because we had points). If Oahu is, the Disney resort - on the wrong side of the island and being Disney - may not be. Put out feelers ahead of time and make sure people are enthusiastic about the idea. Spell out "if we do this, this is what you'd need to cover and the approximate cost." Make sure everyone has flexible vacation time (for instance, I just switched jobs and won't have an entire week of vacation for months yet) Even then, be prepared. We've had family cancel Disney trips due to death and illness.

 

[that1jeff]

Another thought I had...

As stated before, to pull this off I would need to bank and borrow my 300 points. (For 900 total points). I understand that banking and borrowing points are final transactions. But theoretically I could potentially "save" up to 300 points from the current UY and bank them for the following UY as long as I cancel...

1) - Within the banking window
2) - 31 days or more in advance of my check-in date

Is that correct?

And I can specifically assign which points (banked, borrowed, current UY) are allocated to specific reservations/rooms, correct? So I can essentially choose which reservations I would deem to be the least at risk of cancellation, and make sure those are booked with either banked or borrowed points? And reservations which may be at higher risk of cancellation are booked with the current UY's points?

For example, even if all my close personal friends get gravely ill or die, I can at least mourn my loss in a 2 Bedroom Standard Villa. And I could cancel some studios originally meant for said gravely ill and recently deceased friends, and potentially save as close to 300 points as possible.

 

[intamin]

Another thought I had...

As stated before, to pull this off I would need to bank and borrow my 300 points. (For 900 total points). I understand that banking and borrowing points are final transactions. But theoretically I could potentially "save" up to 300 points from the current UY and bank them for the following UY as long as I cancel...

1) - Within the banking window
2) - 31 days or more in advance of my check-in date

Is that correct?

And I can specifically assign which points (banked, borrowed, current UY) are allocated to specific reservations/rooms, correct? So I can essentially choose which reservations I would deem to be the least at risk of cancellation, and make sure those are booked with either banked or borrowed points? And reservations which may be at higher risk of cancellation are booked with the current UY's points?

For example, even if all my close personal friends get gravely ill or die, I can at least mourn my loss in a 2 Bedroom Standard Villa. And I could cancel some studios originally meant for said gravely ill and recently deceased friends, and potentially save as close to 300 points as possible.

This is correct, you will just lose some flexibility from overborrowing and those current use year points that you bank will have to be used by the end of the following use year on a trip somewhere. This is obviously as opposed to if you didn’t borrow those points in the first place where you would could use those future UY points next year or the following year by banking but I understand the circumstances you’re in currently trying to book these hotels for everybody.

You can’t specifically assign where the banked/borrowed points are but once you’ve cancelled a reservation that has either banked/borrowed points you can go back into a reservation that has current UY points and click modify and go through without changing anything and the system will replace the current UY points woth banked/borrowed points.

I’m in the process of something similar actually right now, we’re holding a major family event at WDW next year at RIV in May. I have like 3 different 2BRs reserved and a Grand Villa for part of that, also going to be taking up a bungalow for a night. My partner asked me to book a 2BR for her family for the entire duration but then said she may decrease to a 1BR and I advised her against it because of potentially overborrowing lol so I’m just holding a few days and may potentially switch it to a 1BR which I’m not that worried about still being there in a couple months.

 

[kilik64]

Whats the rental market for Aulani like? Worst case if you have someone cancel and them doing so puts you in a bind with banked/borrowed points, you could rent the res as a confirmed booking most likely.

 

[that1jeff]

This is correct, you will just lose some flexibility from overborrowing and those current use year points that you bank will have to be used by the end of the following use year on a trip somewhere. This is obviously as opposed to if you didn’t borrow those points in the first place where you would could use those future UY points next year or the following year by banking but I understand the circumstances you’re in currently trying to book these hotels for everybody.

Yup. Understood.

You can’t specifically assign where the banked/borrowed points are but once you’ve cancelled a reservation that has either banked/borrowed points you can go back into a reservation that has current UY points and click modify and go through without changing anything and the system will replace the current UY points woth banked/borrowed points.

Oh ok. Got it! Thanks!

I’m in the process of something similar actually right now, we’re holding a major family event at WDW next year at RIV in May. I have like 3 different 2BRs reserved and a Grand Villa for part of that, also going to be taking up a bungalow for a night. My partner asked me to book a 2BR for her family for the entire duration but then said she may decrease to a 1BR and I advised her against it because of potentially overborrowing lol so I’m just holding a few days and may potentially switch it to a 1BR which I’m not that worried about still being there in a couple months.

Woah! Nice! How many days total, if I may ask?

 

[that1jeff]

Whats the rental market for Aulani like? Worst case if you have someone cancel and them doing so puts you in a bind with banked/borrowed points, you could rent the res as a confirmed booking most likely.

I'll look into that and keep that as a potential option as well.

I have a few cousins that do ok financially with pretty flexible schedules so I'm not too worried about finding replacements if people cancel. Or hell, if people cancel, maybe I just upgrade all the accommodations as close to 900 points as possible. 1 and 2 bedroom villas for everyone!! lol

 

[Chuck S]

Here's a "just in case" thought...

Be sure that your trip falls falls within your banking window in case someone cancels. Write down each reservation number, and which ones use banked or borrowed points, then if someone cancels a reservation, that uses banked or borrowed points, go ahead and cancel it. then go online and modify a reservation that used all current use year points. Click all the way through it without changing anything. it will now use the banked/borrows points for the existing reservation you want to keep, freeing up your current use year points to bank.

 

[that1jeff]

Here's a "just in case" thought...

Be sure that your trip falls falls within your banking window in case someone cancels. Write down each reservatin number, and which ones use banked or borrowed points, then if someone cancels a reservation, that uses banked or borrowed points, go ahead and cancel it. then go online and modify a reservatin that used all current use year points. Click all the way through it without changing anything. it will now use the banked/borrows points for the existing reservation you want to keep, freeing up your current use year points to bank.

Woah. Nice pro level move right there. Thanks for sharing that!