FoodieFriend
DisneyFan
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2015
I'm a Hawaii resident that had DVC points to burn & got a 1 bedroom Ocean view & studio ocean view for the President's Day weekend. Our room arrived at 930am, got our room keys, got our pool wristbands after showing our DVC cards then found some pool chairs. Due to covid/social distancing, all pool areas are open to all guests (no more adults only pool for now!), no refillable mugs/drink refill stations, no spa services & we were told the resort was about 40% capacity. It felt more crowded than that & the parking lot was PACKED. I also did hear that for the next two weeks, capacity will be increased to 70% for spring break. YIKES!!!
There's a sign at the entrance to each elevator bank that says "one party or 4 guests per elevator". People do not follow this & this also slows down getting an elevator at 8am (pool opening), 11am (check out) & 3-6p (check-in/room ready/dinner).
Mask wearing away from the pool areas are being followed by all guests, the pool area is full of people who feel that because they're in their swimsuits, no mask required. I really thought the policy was if you were going into or out of the water, you don't have to wear a mask. But there were people in line to get towels, buying shave ice or looking for seats that did not have their masks on at all. I kinda wish Aulani would have announcements like WDW has that remind people of the mask wearing rules. CMs at the towel counter were trying to enforce mask wearing but were being met with a lot of resistance. sad face.
Our fridge in the 1 bedroom made awful tasting ice. We just kept getting ice from the ice machines instead. I wonder if the water lines need to be cleaned out after being shut down for a while.
We did have a nice relaxing stay & one of our rooms was ready around 12pm. Yay! We had a beautiful view from the 6th floor. I gave up our "near lobby" room request to get first available room instead. Until elevator capacity increases, I'd advise sticking to near lobby.
We had a great charcuterie platter from Foodland Kapolei R. Field's counter, boneless chicken for lunch on the 2nd day from Zippy's, a delicious dinner from Mad Bene for Valentine's Day & lunch on the beach from Off the Hook delivered by terrific CMs. We also had dole whips & popcorn (free refills for DVC members) from Ulu Cafe.
OH!!! For the first time ever, Aulani is offering a kamaaina shopping discount of 20%! You don't have to be a hotel guest to shop either! Just bring your parking ticket in when you go to Kalepa's Store & if you spend $50, you will get 1 hour of free validated parking. Hale Manu (the store with higher end merch like Dooney & Bourke, Alex & Ani, Tommy Bahama etc) is only open from 5-8p daily. Also the DVC Member discount is 30% which a CM told me is almost as much as the CM discount! And if you like Duffy & Friends (this is NOT for Pete Werner of the DIS), most items are buy one, get one free AND they give you the kamaaina or DVC discount on top of that. We got some super great deals as my family in Japan & my friend in Utah loves Duffy & Friends! Sorry, I'm unsure what time Kalepa's Store opens but I know it closes at 9pm & the Aulani website only has their original hours of 7a-11p which i know is not correct. I believe if you download the Aulani app on your phone, you will be able to see the operating times of the pools, stores & restaurants.
Hope this helps anyone coming to visit soon!
There's a sign at the entrance to each elevator bank that says "one party or 4 guests per elevator". People do not follow this & this also slows down getting an elevator at 8am (pool opening), 11am (check out) & 3-6p (check-in/room ready/dinner).
Mask wearing away from the pool areas are being followed by all guests, the pool area is full of people who feel that because they're in their swimsuits, no mask required. I really thought the policy was if you were going into or out of the water, you don't have to wear a mask. But there were people in line to get towels, buying shave ice or looking for seats that did not have their masks on at all. I kinda wish Aulani would have announcements like WDW has that remind people of the mask wearing rules. CMs at the towel counter were trying to enforce mask wearing but were being met with a lot of resistance. sad face.
Our fridge in the 1 bedroom made awful tasting ice. We just kept getting ice from the ice machines instead. I wonder if the water lines need to be cleaned out after being shut down for a while.
We did have a nice relaxing stay & one of our rooms was ready around 12pm. Yay! We had a beautiful view from the 6th floor. I gave up our "near lobby" room request to get first available room instead. Until elevator capacity increases, I'd advise sticking to near lobby.
We had a great charcuterie platter from Foodland Kapolei R. Field's counter, boneless chicken for lunch on the 2nd day from Zippy's, a delicious dinner from Mad Bene for Valentine's Day & lunch on the beach from Off the Hook delivered by terrific CMs. We also had dole whips & popcorn (free refills for DVC members) from Ulu Cafe.
OH!!! For the first time ever, Aulani is offering a kamaaina shopping discount of 20%! You don't have to be a hotel guest to shop either! Just bring your parking ticket in when you go to Kalepa's Store & if you spend $50, you will get 1 hour of free validated parking. Hale Manu (the store with higher end merch like Dooney & Bourke, Alex & Ani, Tommy Bahama etc) is only open from 5-8p daily. Also the DVC Member discount is 30% which a CM told me is almost as much as the CM discount! And if you like Duffy & Friends (this is NOT for Pete Werner of the DIS), most items are buy one, get one free AND they give you the kamaaina or DVC discount on top of that. We got some super great deals as my family in Japan & my friend in Utah loves Duffy & Friends! Sorry, I'm unsure what time Kalepa's Store opens but I know it closes at 9pm & the Aulani website only has their original hours of 7a-11p which i know is not correct. I believe if you download the Aulani app on your phone, you will be able to see the operating times of the pools, stores & restaurants.
Hope this helps anyone coming to visit soon!
Is capacity set by the resort or by Oahu? Seems weird that Disney can change the numbers as it suits them.
Thanks for posting.
