Aulani: Hotel or Villa?

[DizMagic]

Hi. We are 2 adults looking to celebrate our 20th anniversary next June (2016) at Aulani. We have NO interest in cooking or preparing meals, will be eating out and also no interest in laundry or any other "household" chores. I have been looking around to see if the Hotel or Studio Villa would be better for us. The only must we need is ocean view. Is there a better view form the Hotel or Villas? What about proximity to activities / dining / etc? Any insight would be helpful.

 

[drusba]

One wing of the resort is hotel rooms (which includes some 1BR and 2BR suites), the other wing is DVC studios, 1BRs, 2BRs and 3BRs. The hotel room wing is available only for cash through Disney and not on points using DVC except for 8 standard view rooms -- not ocean view but mainly parking lot and garage view rooms. Thus, unless you want to do a cash reservation through Disney, you cannot get an ocean view hotel room. The standard view hotel rooms for DVC are very nice and larger than the studios but, like with other DVC rooms, you do not get daily cleaning service unless you pay extra for it (and it is not cheap). Moreover, you are not likely to even get a DVC hotel room on points unless youi reserve 11 months out because those and any standard view DVC rooms at Aulani can go quickly almost any time of year once the 11 month window opens.

As to the DVC studios, there is a booking category for ocean view but as many have reported there is no guarantee of full ocean view but just of partial ocean view with the result that some ocean view rooms have better views than others and you cannot assure getting the better ones.

For studios, ocean view is usually the last to fill. However, much of June (after the first 5 or 6 days) is one of Aulani's high DVC demand times of the year and even ocean view is hit or miss and much that is open can disappear quickly once the the 7 month window opens.

 

[Sir William]

Hi. We are 2 adults looking to celebrate our 20th anniversary next June (2016) at Aulani. We have NO interest in cooking or preparing meals, will be eating out and also no interest in laundry or any other "household" chores. I have been looking around to see if the Hotel or Studio Villa would be better for us. The only must we need is ocean view. Is there a better view form the Hotel or Villas? What about proximity to activities / dining / etc? Any insight would be helpful.

Ocean view are on the higher floors and some of the lower floors that are closer to the beach. Distance from the activities, dining, etc depends pretty much on how far you are from the elevators and how long you have to wait for one. Once you're at ground level, you're only a short walk away from anything. The resort isn't really that large compared to some of the resorts at WDW.