Aulani or Disney Cruise better for a 5/6 yr old?

[RooRach0906]

Which would be better or more fun for a 5/6 year old?
We were thinking we may take one of the two as a getaway for us but have no idea which will be better for us to take or leave her. She has pretty much only been to Disney World on vacations and she loves it there but we have never took her to the beach so we are not sure how she would react to any of that. She does love pools tho. TIA.

Mods if this is in the wrong place please move.

 

[SuperRob]

Tough decision. Your whole family would enjoy both, but I personally think the cruise would have a slight edge, for no other reason than the shows being a lot of fun and the cost of the food being included in the trip (food is very expensive in Hawaii). The pool complex at Aulani is great, but I bet your child would really enjoy Castaway Cay as her first beach, since you say she's never been.

Whatever you choose, you'll have an amazing time!

 

[msabol01]

Tough decision indeed. I would say there are quite a few similarities between the two. Aulani has incorporated some elements of the cruise line such as a children's center (Auntie's Beach house). I would lean towards DCL given her age and your proximity, but am a big advocate for both.

I think the considerations I would take into account with your situation and child are:

1) how does she do with air travel? Honolulu is at best a 10-11 hour direct flight from the east coast, much longer if you have to connect.

2) will you be more likely to goi to Hawaii or the cruise again? At 5 or 6 chances are they may not remember details of the trip. Pictures may help.

3) similar to air travel there is a six hour time change in HI so how well does she adapt and / or how regimented is her daily sleep schedule. Paradise isn't quite as fun if you're getting up at 3 am every morning.

4) how much time can you take off? You can easily do the cruise with 7 or 8 days if vacation. You can certainly do the same for HI, but for us, two weeks the minimum. Two days are lost to travel and it takes a few days to shake the jet lag

 

[crisi]

How well does she fly?

I LOVE Hawaii (we didn't do Aulani) but the flight there and back was horrible. Its really long, it crosses a lot of timezones leaving you jetlagged and your kids jetlagged. I had a cold on the way down, and flying with a cold is horrible. Because of the travel time, expense, and jetlag, you really want to take a longish vacation if you go - maybe even do more than one island - Aulani and Oahu is a different Hawaii that Kauai or the Big Island. When we got back we said "it was a great vacation, we are glad we did it, but we really don't need to do it again if we can find a beach in Mexico for half the money and an easy plane trip."

 

[amym2]

We took a Disney cruise when our kids were 5 and 7 and they loved it! We just went to Aulani this past October when the kids were almost 10 and 12. I agree with the others, we were glad we waited on Aulani until the kids could better handle the time difference and flying for 9+ hours. I'd do the cruise if I were you!

 

[RooRach0906]

Tough decision indeed. I would say there are quite a few similarities between the two. Aulani has incorporated some elements of the cruise line such as a children's center (Auntie's Beach house). I would lean towards DCL given her age and your proximity, but am a big advocate for both.

I think the considerations I would take into account with your situation and child are:

1) how does she do with air travel? Honolulu is at best a 10-11 hour direct flight from the east coast, much longer if you have to connect.

2) will you be more likely to goi to Hawaii or the cruise again? At 5 or 6 chances are they may not remember details of the trip. Pictures may help.

3) similar to air travel there is a six hour time change in HI so how well does she adapt and / or how regimented is her daily sleep schedule. Paradise isn't quite as fun if you're getting up at 3 am every morning.

4) how much time can you take off? You can easily do the cruise with 7 or 8 days if vacation. You can certainly do the same for HI, but for us, two weeks the minimum. Two days are lost to travel and it takes a few days to shake the jet lag

1) We have only done 2 1/2 hours flights with her. We did one connecting one recently which was fine for her. She does well flying but towards the end she is getting antsy to get up.

2) I don't know if we will ever do either again to be honest. This is kinda a trial run to see how we like them. I would say we would be more likely to do another cruise as the money to fly there and do a 4 day cruise is the same as our flight to Hawaii for the 3 of us.(I'm talking mid range accommodations on the cruise too.)

3) We have never taking her to a different time zone but she is a pretty go with the flow kid. Even when she was a every day napper at home on trips she would only do like one or two quick naps in the stroller and would still be happy.

4) Currently I do not work and would probably wait until after the trip to get a job. (Waiting for DD to start school.) My husband has a lot of time off he can take whether he will or not is a totally different question. We really only have enough points to do a week at Aulani tho. (We will not be using points for the cruise)

 

[RooRach0906]

How well does she fly?

I LOVE Hawaii (we didn't do Aulani) but the flight there and back was horrible. Its really long, it crosses a lot of timezones leaving you jetlagged and your kids jetlagged. I had a cold on the way down, and flying with a cold is horrible. Because of the travel time, expense, and jetlag, you really want to take a longish vacation if you go - maybe even do more than one island - Aulani and Oahu is a different Hawaii that Kauai or the Big Island. When we got back we said "it was a great vacation, we are glad we did it, but we really don't need to do it again if we can find a beach in Mexico for half the money and an easy plane trip."

She flys pretty well but even I am worried about the flight to Hawaii.

 

[RooRach0906]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I really appreciate all the great information!

I also think we should take her on the cruise and go to Hawaii by ourselves. I am a little bummed tho because that would change years in our original plan to be in Hawaii on our 10 year anniversary but I will get over it.

I am also concerned about the flight but because I am a nervous flier and will probably have to get some sorta of anxiety relief for me to make it to Hawaii. (I freak out on just our 2 1/2 hour flights to FL.

Thank you again!

 

[udflyer00]

I think that is a great decision. We have 4 kids (now in between 5-12 years old) and have done 2 cruises with the kids. Our last cruise was when our youngest was only 2 1/2. Everyone on the cruise had a blast, but with her being under 3 she wasn't allowed to go to the kids club. Our older ones though, which were 5-10 at that time LOVED the kids club! It's definitely one thing Disney Cruise Line does is well, Kids activities. Some nights my wife would make me go get the kids before they'd actually "called" because they had been there too long, and when I did show up to pick them up they were always bummed to leave. I think the cruise will be nice for that reason, your daughter can enjoy the kids club, while you and your husband can get some alone time on the ship to swim, walk, relax, go to the spas, etc... I haven't been to Hawaii, but I have a friend that lives near Aulani and has spent a few nights there now as a local, and he's told me it's fun and unique, but it's definitely not DCL... I think you guys will have a great time on the cruise, we always do. Just be sure to pack some kids dramamine or pickup those sea bands as a precautionary... Our 5 year old did get sea sick on the 2nd day. We got him those bands and he was good to go the rest of the trip!

Keep us updated on the itinerary you choose!

 

[bethy]

I love Aulani and have been there twice and will go again. But for a child of her age I'd choose a cruise just based on the flight alone. Aulani is a 6 hour flight from us and that alone is pretty brutal.

Hawaii is really great but I personally would never go there just for the beaches. The beaches on the Caribbean are better. Hawaii is an awesome vacation if you love nature and like to explore and see and do things you can't do anywhere else in the world (more or less.) A six year old isn't going to old enough to do half those activities and definitely wouldn't appreciate them if she could. She's going to be happy just playing on the beach and in the pool and hanging with the characters. She'll also have the best time if her parents are also relaxed . . . You can do all that on DCL.

I'd take her on a long trip to Hawaii when she's older and will remember it (and I'd visit more than one island besides visiting Aulani.)

 

[dsneygirl]

We took my son to Aulani 1 month before he turned 6 and it was amazing. One of the best trips of our lives. We flew to SD and went to the zoo and Sea World, then 10 days at Aulani and 5 days at DL on the way home.

Flights were 5.5 hours and then 5.5 hours from Cali.

My son loved it. We spent 9 of 10 days at the resort and on one was bored for a second. Our days were filled with the pool, beach, pool, beach repeat. He loved Aunties and the Menehune trail.

The time change was a non issue. We were up at 6am every day and crashed by 8 or 9. We had a 1 bedroom villa and had 80% of our meals there. We never wanted to leave.

We didn't do it for him we did it for us. Same as people say that little kids will never remember Disney but people keep taking them.

 

[DisWitt]

I'll just chime in that my two DS's, 4 & 7, love love love Aulani (or 'Lani as they call it). They have each done two cruises and twice at Aualni and on a regular basis - like weekly - they ask to go back to 'Lani. It's all we hear about and we haven't been in a year! But neither is a bad decision.

 

[crisi]

We took my son to Aulani 1 month before he turned 6 and it was amazing. One of the best trips of our lives. We flew to SD and went to the zoo and Sea World, then 10 days at Aulani and 5 days at DL on the way home.

Flights were 5.5 hours and then 5.5 hours from Cali.

My son loved it. We spent 9 of 10 days at the resort and on one was bored for a second. Our days were filled with the pool, beach, pool, beach repeat. He loved Aunties and the Menehune trail.

The time change was a non issue. We were up at 6am every day and crashed by 8 or 9. We had a 1 bedroom villa and had 80% of our meals there. We never wanted to leave.

We didn't do it for him we did it for us. Same as people say that little kids will never remember Disney but people keep taking them.

From the West Coast the flight is shorter and the time zone change less severe - and its pretty much six of one half a dozen of the other for both flight and time zone if you fly to Orlando or fly to Honolulu. The East Coast pretty much doubles your flight and time zone switch. Its a different question from the West Coast.

 

[ldo]

we live in DC and LOVE Hawaii. If it was 5-6 hrs away, we would go EOY. But, from DC it is at least 1 connection (we use FF miles) and 12+ hours of flying. We took the family 9 years ago and had a blast (youngest was 3). But, we decided that it is just too long to fly--plus you have to take a red eye to get back to the East Coast. We probably won't go back until all kids are in college.

 

[RooRach0906]

I just wanted to say Thank you very much for all of your input! After talking to DH we decided it would be best to go to Aulani by ourselves and on the cruise with our DD. I am excited about doing a vacation without our DD as we have not even had a overnight by ourselves since she has been born. I do think we should start getting her used to that tho.

 

[Daisyduck49]

Disney Cruise for sure!

 

[dsneygirl]

From the West Coast the flight is shorter and the time zone change less severe - and its pretty much six of one half a dozen of the other for both flight and time zone if you fly to Orlando or fly to Honolulu. The East Coast pretty much doubles your flight and time zone switch. Its a different question from the West Coast.

I realized I didn't post that we started on the east coast and used the 3 days in Cali as a buffer. Coming back we did the same thing.