Aulani Owners Thread - ALOHA!

[aymekae]

Can you lock the door from your patio? Just wondered about leaving it unlocked. We will be there in May and have booked a pool view. First floor might be nice if you can somehow lock the door. With 2 iPads, a laptop, jewelry, etc. I would be worried leaving the patio door unlocked.

They had a couple of different locks on the sliding door. I'm sure they were chosen with small children in mind.

 

[wdrl]

They had a couple of different locks on the sliding door. I'm sure they were chosen with small children in mind.

I think eva was asking whether you can lock the patio door from the outside. It would be nice to be able to exit the first floor villa via the patio door and lock it while you are outside.

 

[eva]

I think eva was asking whether you can lock the patio door from the outside. It would be nice to be able to exit the first floor villa via the patio door and lock it while you are outside.

Yes, that was what I was asking. If you can't lock the patio door from the outside, I don't see any benefit to being on the first floor. I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my room unsecured while at the pool or beach.

 

[monami7]

I am a DVC Member but my home points are not at Aulani - Looking to buy or trade points to get booked for 2013 after Christmas for the 11 month booking window. Please contact me if anyone is interested. Thanks

 

[eandesmom]

Thanks for all of the great info. I just called DVC and tried to put a specific room request on my reservation. They told me that I would need to request the room once we got there because Aulani would not be able to see my request when we check in. Does that sound right? Sorry, again, I am new at this!

That is not correct. They can put a request in and it will show on Aulani's end. I just called and confirmed mine was there directly with the front desk. I email my room requests in, it seems to work much better than a phone call. With a phone call they always try to minimize or limit it in a way that it loses the specifics I've asked for.

 

[luv2sleep]

Anyone stay over Christmas? How was the weather? Was it crowded?

 

[eva]

That is not correct. They can put a request in and it will show on Aulani's end. I just called and confirmed mine was there directly with the front desk. I email my room requests in, it seems to work much better than a phone call. With a phone call they always try to minimize or limit it in a way that it loses the specifics I've asked for.

What email address did you use for sending your requests? We plan to add one to our May reservation. Thanks!

 

[eandesmom]

What email address did you use for sending your requests? We plan to add one to our May reservation. Thanks!

Just log into member services, use the contact form and put your travel plan number in the subject line. What I love about it is then you get an email confirming that they got your request back (along with the disclaimers) but still, you can save it if need be. After I read what you were told I actually called Aulani (mostly as I had a few other questions) and was able to speak to the front desk who pulled up my ressie and saw the request right there The problem with a phone request is most often MS will generalize it versus keeping any specifics you want. So for example at OKW last summer they'd have entered "millers road area" when what I wanted was upper floor, water view buildings xx, xx ,xx,xx,xx preferred in that order. And while there aren't any garuntees, I did get my exact request on that one, as well as at Vero so I do think the very specific request can't hurt. A specific villa? Chances are slim but if you give them enough to work with and a clear idea of what is important to you, it should help.

For Aulani my request reads as follows for our ocean view studio.

I would like to make the following room request. 1st choice: Ewa Building, long wing facing the pool, high floor (prefer 12 or higher). 2nd choice: Waianae Building, facing the pool, high floor (12 or higher).

Will I get it, who knows but it never hurts to ask! We will find out in May.

 

[eva]

Just log into member services, use the contact form and put your travel plan number in the subject line. What I love about it is then you get an email confirming that they got your request back (along with the disclaimers) but still, you can save it if need be. After I read what you were told I actually called Aulani (mostly as I had a few other questions) and was able to speak to the front desk who pulled up my ressie and saw the request right there The problem with a phone request is most often MS will generalize it versus keeping any specifics you want. So for example at OKW last summer they'd have entered "millers road area" when what I wanted was upper floor, water view buildings xx, xx ,xx,xx,xx preferred in that order. And while there aren't any garuntees, I did get my exact request on that one, as well as at Vero so I do think the very specific request can't hurt. A specific villa? Chances are slim but if you give them enough to work with and a clear idea of what is important to you, it should help.

For Aulani my request reads as follows for our ocean view studio.

I would like to make the following room request. 1st choice: Ewa Building, long wing facing the pool, high floor (prefer 12 or higher). 2nd choice: Waianae Building, facing the pool, high floor (12 or higher).

Will I get it, who knows but it never hurts to ask! We will find out in May.

Thanks so much! When in May are you going? We will be there from the 11th to the 19th.

 

[Leilanie94]

My family and I will be there the weekend of January 18, 2013. We are celebrating both my boys birthdays.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Anyone stay over Christmas? How was the weather? Was it crowded?

We left the 22nd, but it was full when we left. Our friends who were traveling with us left the 20th and had tried starting a few weeks ahead to add additional nights on cash, but it was sold out. We didn't feel crowded ever. It was hard to find a chair poolside, but if you took one by the towel checkout there was plenty and for us, we used the lazy river and water slides the most.

The weather was nice- 70's mostly, a couple days hit 80. It was pretty windy and rained in little spits. The CM's were all bundled up and many apologized for the "bad weather" as if sprinkling in the 70's was terrible! I think it got "better" after we left.

The good news is that DH gave me the go-ahead to add on there!! I won't until our VGC is paid off which is about a year away. But we are planning a return for spring break or June of 2015, so the timing will work out great to use that 11 month advantage!! So excited. We absolutely loved it.

 

[ACDSNY]

The good news is that DH gave me the go-ahead to add on there!! I won't until our VGC is paid off which is about a year away. But we are planning a return for spring break or June of 2015, so the timing will work out great to use that 11 month advantage!! So excited. We absolutely loved it.

I can understand why you'd want to add on at Aulani. We came back 3 weeks ago and I'm trying to fight add-on-itis really bad as we want to go back June 2014. We only need a small add-on so I really wanted VGC, but nothing is available in our UY so thinking Aulani might win out.

 

[TifffanyD]

We just booked our flights for June!! Pretty happy with the itineraries and very happy with the price... I was figuring 1k per pax at worst... maybe 850 on average... and got it down to 700! YAY! Excited to be welcomed home! 5 months away...

 

[Anal Annie]

We just booked our flights for June!! Pretty happy with the itineraries and very happy with the price... I was figuring 1k per pax at worst... maybe 850 on average... and got it down to 700! YAY! Excited to be welcomed home! 5 months away...

Good deal!! Tell me about your flights!! Which airline / travel website did you use? Are you going straight from FL? I have been watching for our flights in August....so far they are looking to be WAAAY over $1,000 (incl. a stop in CA) no matter which way I attempt to set them up.

 

[stacieps]

Good deal!! Tell me about your flights!! Which airline / travel website did you use? Are you going straight from FL? I have been watching for our flights in August....so far they are looking to be WAAAY over $1,000 (incl. a stop in CA) no matter which way I attempt to set them up.

We are doing a combo Oahu/Aulani and VGC trip 6/28-7/12.
I watched fares for a while using Kayak. I watched "multi-city" prices and also prices booking separately. I ended up booking separately: non-stop Boston - LAX (6/28-7/12) and non-stop LAX - HNL (6/28-7/7). Total per person was $890. Booking a multi-city ticket would have been over $1,000pp.

So, we fly
6/28 BOS - LAX (mid-morning arrival)
6/28 LAX - HNL (4:30ish departure, so we have several hours at LAX)
7/7 HNL - LAX
7/12 LAX - BOS

Our BOS-LAX r/t is Virgin America, LAX-HNL r/t is Delta.

Good luck!

 

[Anal Annie]

We are doing a combo Oahu/Aulani and VGC trip 6/28-7/12.
I watched fares for a while using Kayak. I watched "multi-city" prices and also prices booking separately. I ended up booking separately: non-stop Boston - LAX (6/28-7/12) and non-stop LAX - HNL (6/28-7/7). Total per person was $890. Booking a multi-city ticket would have been over $1,000pp.

So, we fly
6/28 BOS - LAX (mid-morning arrival)
6/28 LAX - HNL (4:30ish departure, so we have several hours at LAX)
7/7 HNL - LAX
7/12 LAX - BOS

Our BOS-LAX r/t is Virgin America, LAX-HNL r/t is Delta.

Good luck!

Yeah, I have been using both Kayak and Airfare Watchdog.... I have priced EVERY airline and EVERY airport in the DC area between the here and LA...and again pretty much everything possible between LA and HI. I agree, the "multi-city" thing is generally higher than pricing separate....I can't believe how much the mainland flights are between here & CA. SW is the cheapest so far (They have ONE one-way for $186 and the rest are all over $200)...but they haven't released their dates far enough into August for me to price a return... May end up using Hawaiian Airline between LA and HI. Get this...their cheapest flight to HNL is to fly to Maui and transfer rather than just going direct. Go figure. It would be like $109 pp cheaper to do that. The cheapest Hawaiian Airline flights from LA to HNL then a hop to Maui then back to LA are currently running about $646 pp - there are 3 of us so we're looking at over $1,900 just for that portion....and then the DC - LA round trips are looking to cost around $400 pp at best so that's another $1,200. So about $3,100ish just for flights. I really thought I'd be able to find cheaper flights between DC and LA.

 

[TifffanyD]

Good deal!! Tell me about your flights!! Which airline / travel website did you use? Are you going straight from FL? I have been watching for our flights in August....so far they are looking to be WAAAY over $1,000 (incl. a stop in CA) no matter which way I attempt to set them up.

I put a farewatch on Kayak for both the thursday and friday, to see which was cheaper. It came back today with $713 on Thursday with 2 stops or $709 on friday with one. We are flying Tampa -> Atl -> Honolulu. Not direct from FL but a short hop to Atlanta. A decent layover there - like 2.5 hours on the way there and 5 hours on the way back. Lowest price ended up being with Delta.

ETA: When I went to Delta.com and tried to get the price it wouldn't work... I had to click through from kayak to get it. My TA couldn't seem to get the price on kayak or delta... got something more expensive with an 11 hour (???) layover. So I grabbed it fast.

 

[Abevans31]

Quick question, if we live locally can we use DVC points to just book one night at Aulani? I keep seeing that there is a minimum stay required (on certain blogs but nothing official), and that just doesn't sound right to me given the whole DVC flexibility angle and all.

Thanks!

 

[luv2sleep]

Quick question, if we live locally can we use DVC points to just book one night at Aulani? I keep seeing that there is a minimum stay required (on certain blogs but nothing official), and that just doesn't sound right to me given the whole DVC flexibility angle and all.

Thanks!

I booked one night this past October and it was no issue at all.

 

[eva]

We booked United direct from Chicago to Honolulu for $726 each. Then I booked through Hawaiian Island from Honolulu to Kona on the Big Island. I ended up booking through them the hotel too and saved a fortune. I really wanted to stay at the Fairmont Orchid in a deluxe ocean view. But no matter where I looked the cheapest I could find was a 30% discount. But the room was still $365 a night with tax. Well, through Hawaiian Air I got round trip flights and four nights at the Fairmont in a delux ocean view for under $1,500. Pretty much got the flight for two for free.