Aulani Honeymoon

[topsy]

After a few years of to-ing and fro-ing, we have finally set the date for our wedding and are now able to start booking our honeymoon!

We'll be travelling to Hawaii in March 2015, via LA so we can visit Disneyland for the first time, then on to Hawaii staying on the Big Island for 6 nights and on to Oahu to finish off with 5 nights at Aulani.

As you can imagine with paying for the wedding, we are hoping to keep honeymoon costs as low as possible. I am shocked at the price for a room at Aulani!

With this in mind, I am here asking fro help from you lovely Disers! Can anyone offer advice as to how to reduce the cost at Aulani and/or Disneyland? I'm thinking of renting points but even through someone like David's the price is over $4000!

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

 

[myty5]

What's at Hawaii Island that makes you want to go there ?, maybe save some money by going straight to Aulani

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[Girimama33]

The Big Island is a great place to visit with the volcano and Kona Coast.
HI is expensive, and Aulani is super expensive. We have a great discount on our rooms due to SIL being a CM....but even with the discount the room is pricy.
Sometimes they may offer 25% discounts for non peak times like March...not guaranteed though.
If you want to save $ with DLR...stay offsite.

 

[owensamo]

What kind of room are you looking at for a DVC rental? DVC now offers hotel rooms at Aulani that would be a discount - a week in March 2015 (before the 27th) would be 140 pts or $1820 at $13pp. Even a studio is not much more - so I'm not sure where you're seeing $4k for 5 nights? Are you looking at a 1 bedroom? Those seem to be running in those numbers, but Hotel rooms and Studios are all around $2k or less for a full week.

Some ways to save money on this trip - pack only in carry-ons! Saving baggage fees will help give you a little more breathing room, and you can ship stuff home if you need to. Also - if you do a DVC rental in a hotel room or studio, you have access to free laundry services so you can use those.

Where are you staying on Hawaii? We're doing a similar trip this summer (Aulani and Hawaii) and staying at my BIL's timeshare on the big island. There are a handful of timeshares on the island you might be able to rent fairly inexpensively. Alternatively, there are a number of vacation rentals - apartments, homes, etc - on places like http://www.vrbo.com/ or http://www.airbnb.com that might give you an unique experience at a low price. We've used vrbo in the past for rentals in PA and NY with good experience.

Finally, check and see if you have any airline miles/hotel points/credit card rewards you can use! We charge everything to my DH's AA card for miles so we can fly inexpensively (and first class when possible!) - it helps a lot with the cost! If you're a Costco member, try booking rental cars through there - we usually end up saving a lot of money there. Also, we invested in a Hawaii Entertainment Book for our trip this summer, and using a coupon on a snorkeling excursion more than made up for the cost of the book. There are also coupons for a number of other things (Pearl Harbor, PCC, restaurants, etc) in the book that can help make some of the attractions more budget-friendly.

So congratulations! And good luck with the planning - for us it's half the fun of a vacation!

 

[topsy]

What's at Hawaii Island that makes you want to go there ?, maybe save some money by going straight to Aulani

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

We're from the UK and this is likely to be the only time we'll ever get to see Hawaii, so we want to take advantage of this and see as much as we can. Also, the Big Island has Volcanoe's National Park!

The Big Island is a great place to visit with the volcano and Kona Coast.
HI is expensive, and Aulani is super expensive. We have a great discount on our rooms due to SIL being a CM....but even with the discount the room is pricy.
Sometimes they may offer 25% discounts for non peak times like March...not guaranteed though.
If you want to save $ with DLR...stay offsite.

Is your SIL staying with you on vacation? I have a good friend who is a CM and was going to ask if they get any discounts but I figured they would probably have to be staying with us?

What kind of room are you looking at for a DVC rental? DVC now offers hotel rooms at Aulani that would be a discount - a week in March 2015 (before the 27th) would be 140 pts or $1820 at $13pp. Even a studio is not much more - so I'm not sure where you're seeing $4k for 5 nights? Are you looking at a 1 bedroom? Those seem to be running in those numbers, but Hotel rooms and Studios are all around $2k or less for a full week.

Some ways to save money on this trip - pack only in carry-ons! Saving baggage fees will help give you a little more breathing room, and you can ship stuff home if you need to. Also - if you do a DVC rental in a hotel room or studio, you have access to free laundry services so you can use those.

Where are you staying on Hawaii? We're doing a similar trip this summer (Aulani and Hawaii) and staying at my BIL's timeshare on the big island. There are a handful of timeshares on the island you might be able to rent fairly inexpensively. Alternatively, there are a number of vacation rentals - apartments, homes, etc - on places like http://www.vrbo.com/ or http://www.airbnb.com that might give you an unique experience at a low price. We've used vrbo in the past for rentals in PA and NY with good experience.

Finally, check and see if you have any airline miles/hotel points/credit card rewards you can use! We charge everything to my DH's AA card for miles so we can fly inexpensively (and first class when possible!) - it helps a lot with the cost! If you're a Costco member, try booking rental cars through there - we usually end up saving a lot of money there. Also, we invested in a Hawaii Entertainment Book for our trip this summer, and using a coupon on a snorkeling excursion more than made up for the cost of the book. There are also coupons for a number of other things (Pearl Harbor, PCC, restaurants, etc) in the book that can help make some of the attractions more budget-friendly.

So congratulations! And good luck with the planning - for us it's half the fun of a vacation!

I have to admit, I was looking at a one bedroom rather than a studio. I love the idea of having the walk in shower and large Jacuzzi tub, it is our honeymoon after all!

I am keen to see what Disney will charge for a regular room in March but the prices are not released yet. I have seen some good deals on their website for a free night or resort spending money so that might be good for us. If we don't book a DVC room there may be a chance of a bit of pixie dust and an upgrade! I believe DVC reservations never receive upgrades?

Also on the Big Island we want to stay in Hilo as that side of the island has more sites and activities that suit us.

Thank you all for your replies!

 

[Girimama33]

My SIL is going on the trip with us. It is a family trip (Mom, Dad, Brother and Sisters and their families)
Typically, there is a discount a CM can use for someone when they are not going on the trip with them, but it is less. You should have your friend call when and find out if they would be able to book anything on your behalf.

 

[CrazyDuck]

Also on the Big Island we want to stay in Hilo as that side of the island has more sites and activities that suit us.

Thank you all for your replies!

The big island is such a dive.... Especially in Hilo! There are no nice hotels! Also everything is so far there! You don't want to spend the majority of your time driving around in a car. There are no nice beaches, well maybe one, one beach on the whole island and it's 2 hours from Hilo. I don't understand people's fascination with the volcano. It's just a smelly rock field. You don't really see anything besides a hole in the ground..

If you want to see real Hawaii go to Kauai. Lush landscapes, nice hotels, great beaches, nice people.