SeanSD
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2022
- Messages
- 192
We just returned from a quick 4 night Aulani trip and I’ll briefly offer my impressions. We are an adult couple from San Diego.
Flight delayed and arrived after 6 (rush hour traffic in Uber) so was dark. Did online check in but was super fast anyway. Room was 1027 Waianae lobby tower. We paid for island garden but this was partial ocean with a pretty nice ocean and mountain view. We could see parking garage directly below but didn’t bother us as we didn’t look down. Nice room plenty of space. Bathtub was big soaker tub, although was a big step over to get in and out of the shower.
Walked the grounds after unpacking, beautiful even at night. Grabbed wristbands for next day. Ended up getting burgers with fries at Off The Hook. $21 I think but they were big, we could have split one.
Thursday up early hit gym at like 6 am and it was busy. Soon learned that Aulani has many early birds. Maybe due to travelers time changes. After that we grabbed coffee at pool bar and did a walk by beach. The coffee and sunrise beach walk became our morning ritual. After hitting room to change we ended up going down to pool to grab chairs after hearing how chairs got swooped up so early. Well we didn’t really have to worry so much. We got chairs by grotto pool each day and only some front rows got taken by 7:30. We happily took second row or third row and were available at 8 every day. One day we got the level up by cabanas that gave a little ocean view also. We got açaí bowl and breakfast platter at Ulu. Morning at pool did water slides so fun and a trip around lazy river, got some character photos in, then shifted to beach and ocean around noon. Plenty of beach chairs available. Decided to go back to shower and change to walk to shopping center. Hit Monkeypod for happy hour pizza, $12 I think and really good. Hit ABC but didn’t really buy much. Came back and signed up for make your own ears and photopass and got sunset photos at the beach. That night was Ohana Movie Night and Greatest Showman. Not my fave Disney movie but was fun and would recommend movie night. Bring blankets, pillow and snacks!
Friday was morning coffee and walk, then grotto pool, character breakfast at 11, good food and very fun. Pics with Mickey and Minnie. Chip and Dale were the strolling characters. Food was plenty, pastries, fruit plate, I got French toast and Portuguese sausage she got Mac nut pancakes. Left VERY full. We did beach after that. We had luau that night and was a highlight of the trip. Very well organized, I have been to a few luaus and this one was best organized and minimal lines. Nice pre-show activities, good food, entertaining show, a great time.
Saturday I got gym very early like 4:30 am was quiet but still couple people in there, then our morning coffee and walk. We did pool in am, another ride on raft water slide. We went to try and look at turtles at Paradise Cove but monk deals were blocking the beach at Secret Beach. GF did make your own ears which was a hit. Did pool service lunch, couple of character photos. That night we got a flatbread pizza for dinner that was good. We did the family animation activity (free) and that was really fun to sketch a Disney character. The instructor very good and for someone who has ZERO artistic or drawing skill my Pluto came out pretty good! It is quick like 30 minutes and we wished we did It earlier in trip ad we likely would have done it a couple of times.
Sunday (departure day) we signed up for Luana Lounger just extended our Aulani time a little. Coffee and sunrise walk, grotto pool again and got breakfast wrap from Ulu. Last character photos that morning also. Checked out and dropped bags at bell service. Last pool time, then Luana Lounge to shower and change. Grabbed last souvenirs at shop and headed to airport. They have a Ko Olina lounge at airport you can sign up for and it’s free but it’s nothing special. Comfy furniture, chargers and nice hostess but we ended up heading up to gates for shops and just sit and they had seats with chargers at nearby gate.
All in all a very nice short trip. We also tried shave ice, Dole Whips, Volcano fries, all good. We found some cast members super friendly and full of Aloha spirit (Kawaii server at pool bar, Anna Joy bartender at Off the Hook, Norma our housekeeper, everyone at Luau, pool bar baristas at 6 am lol, the character photography teams and of course characters, store staff and the front desk staff.). Some of the non front facing staff not so much. We would say hi to someone passing in walkway or hallway and barely get a response. Little surprising but I get that various staff (cleaning, maintenance, etc) are busy and maybe aren’t part of the customer facing staff. Just felt a little different than on a Disney cruise where almost everyone you see offers smiles and hellos.
I know the prices at Aulani are high and we were prepared. Our planned splurges were character breakfast and luau and we ended up grabbing pricey Off the Hook dinner out first night after being tired and hungry due to very delayed flight. In retrospect we could have just split the burger or grabbed Ulu that would have been fine and cheaper. Ulu offers reasonable prices and Monkeypod happy hour pizza is a great deal and quality food in a nice setting. We also got the souvenir cup for free refills or coffee and soda and definitely felt it was worth it. In addition to our “fancy” early morning coffees for walk, we would get the free refill coffee to have with breakfast and by pool and found that coffee was perfectly acceptable (Honolulu Coffee company I think it says on the dispenser). They have Joffreys K cups in room but I’m not a big Joffreys fan. The soda machines usually had most stuff we wanted and I liked that we had option of various sugar free sodas, Powerade zero, and I think sugar fee lemonade or something else. We also had our hydroflask to get our cold water refills all the time.
I know the pool temps are a big topic and yes lazy river and main pool were chilly. Hence most people flocked to grotto pool and it was PACKED from 10-4. We did our early grotto pool swims around 8:30-9 before they got ridiculously crowded. The “serene” pool was only slightly chillier and we went in there for a bit one day. Really wish they could make this adult pool to have one quieter non-splashing pool for adults. That was the second most busy pool, likely due to water temp. The main pool is so much bigger and if that was warm would have alleviated the crowded grotto pool. I think the ocean temp was probably as warm as the main pool. Hot tubs pretty busy all trip. We went to grotto hot tub shortly after it opened one day that was it. Most times hot tubs packed.
Shops were nice, we mainly bought stuff at the regular Disney item shop. An Aulani spirit jersey and an Aulani adult shirt with Stitch (rare find).
Since it was such a short trip we hadn’t planned to leave resort other than Monkeypod shopping center and to get our full Aulani experience.
Flight delayed and arrived after 6 (rush hour traffic in Uber) so was dark. Did online check in but was super fast anyway. Room was 1027 Waianae lobby tower. We paid for island garden but this was partial ocean with a pretty nice ocean and mountain view. We could see parking garage directly below but didn’t bother us as we didn’t look down. Nice room plenty of space. Bathtub was big soaker tub, although was a big step over to get in and out of the shower.
Walked the grounds after unpacking, beautiful even at night. Grabbed wristbands for next day. Ended up getting burgers with fries at Off The Hook. $21 I think but they were big, we could have split one.
Thursday up early hit gym at like 6 am and it was busy. Soon learned that Aulani has many early birds. Maybe due to travelers time changes. After that we grabbed coffee at pool bar and did a walk by beach. The coffee and sunrise beach walk became our morning ritual. After hitting room to change we ended up going down to pool to grab chairs after hearing how chairs got swooped up so early. Well we didn’t really have to worry so much. We got chairs by grotto pool each day and only some front rows got taken by 7:30. We happily took second row or third row and were available at 8 every day. One day we got the level up by cabanas that gave a little ocean view also. We got açaí bowl and breakfast platter at Ulu. Morning at pool did water slides so fun and a trip around lazy river, got some character photos in, then shifted to beach and ocean around noon. Plenty of beach chairs available. Decided to go back to shower and change to walk to shopping center. Hit Monkeypod for happy hour pizza, $12 I think and really good. Hit ABC but didn’t really buy much. Came back and signed up for make your own ears and photopass and got sunset photos at the beach. That night was Ohana Movie Night and Greatest Showman. Not my fave Disney movie but was fun and would recommend movie night. Bring blankets, pillow and snacks!
Friday was morning coffee and walk, then grotto pool, character breakfast at 11, good food and very fun. Pics with Mickey and Minnie. Chip and Dale were the strolling characters. Food was plenty, pastries, fruit plate, I got French toast and Portuguese sausage she got Mac nut pancakes. Left VERY full. We did beach after that. We had luau that night and was a highlight of the trip. Very well organized, I have been to a few luaus and this one was best organized and minimal lines. Nice pre-show activities, good food, entertaining show, a great time.
Saturday I got gym very early like 4:30 am was quiet but still couple people in there, then our morning coffee and walk. We did pool in am, another ride on raft water slide. We went to try and look at turtles at Paradise Cove but monk deals were blocking the beach at Secret Beach. GF did make your own ears which was a hit. Did pool service lunch, couple of character photos. That night we got a flatbread pizza for dinner that was good. We did the family animation activity (free) and that was really fun to sketch a Disney character. The instructor very good and for someone who has ZERO artistic or drawing skill my Pluto came out pretty good! It is quick like 30 minutes and we wished we did It earlier in trip ad we likely would have done it a couple of times.
Sunday (departure day) we signed up for Luana Lounger just extended our Aulani time a little. Coffee and sunrise walk, grotto pool again and got breakfast wrap from Ulu. Last character photos that morning also. Checked out and dropped bags at bell service. Last pool time, then Luana Lounge to shower and change. Grabbed last souvenirs at shop and headed to airport. They have a Ko Olina lounge at airport you can sign up for and it’s free but it’s nothing special. Comfy furniture, chargers and nice hostess but we ended up heading up to gates for shops and just sit and they had seats with chargers at nearby gate.
All in all a very nice short trip. We also tried shave ice, Dole Whips, Volcano fries, all good. We found some cast members super friendly and full of Aloha spirit (Kawaii server at pool bar, Anna Joy bartender at Off the Hook, Norma our housekeeper, everyone at Luau, pool bar baristas at 6 am lol, the character photography teams and of course characters, store staff and the front desk staff.). Some of the non front facing staff not so much. We would say hi to someone passing in walkway or hallway and barely get a response. Little surprising but I get that various staff (cleaning, maintenance, etc) are busy and maybe aren’t part of the customer facing staff. Just felt a little different than on a Disney cruise where almost everyone you see offers smiles and hellos.
I know the prices at Aulani are high and we were prepared. Our planned splurges were character breakfast and luau and we ended up grabbing pricey Off the Hook dinner out first night after being tired and hungry due to very delayed flight. In retrospect we could have just split the burger or grabbed Ulu that would have been fine and cheaper. Ulu offers reasonable prices and Monkeypod happy hour pizza is a great deal and quality food in a nice setting. We also got the souvenir cup for free refills or coffee and soda and definitely felt it was worth it. In addition to our “fancy” early morning coffees for walk, we would get the free refill coffee to have with breakfast and by pool and found that coffee was perfectly acceptable (Honolulu Coffee company I think it says on the dispenser). They have Joffreys K cups in room but I’m not a big Joffreys fan. The soda machines usually had most stuff we wanted and I liked that we had option of various sugar free sodas, Powerade zero, and I think sugar fee lemonade or something else. We also had our hydroflask to get our cold water refills all the time.
I know the pool temps are a big topic and yes lazy river and main pool were chilly. Hence most people flocked to grotto pool and it was PACKED from 10-4. We did our early grotto pool swims around 8:30-9 before they got ridiculously crowded. The “serene” pool was only slightly chillier and we went in there for a bit one day. Really wish they could make this adult pool to have one quieter non-splashing pool for adults. That was the second most busy pool, likely due to water temp. The main pool is so much bigger and if that was warm would have alleviated the crowded grotto pool. I think the ocean temp was probably as warm as the main pool. Hot tubs pretty busy all trip. We went to grotto hot tub shortly after it opened one day that was it. Most times hot tubs packed.
Shops were nice, we mainly bought stuff at the regular Disney item shop. An Aulani spirit jersey and an Aulani adult shirt with Stitch (rare find).
Since it was such a short trip we hadn’t planned to leave resort other than Monkeypod shopping center and to get our full Aulani experience.
