Aulani - pool chairs in August?

[amystevekai&bump]

hi all

After a two year wait, I can finally say that we go to Aulani NEXT month!!

I have spent so much time over the last 48 months pouring over these boards for anything related to Aulani, so I know that the lack of available pool chairs comes up quite a lot!

As a result of reading lots of helpful stuff (thank you all), I ended up booking the Upper Level Ama Ama casabellas for four days and a cabana for our fifth pool day whilst we are there, as I know we will be wanting long pool days, but also don't want to worry that we are going to lose our seats if we decide to go off for a leisurely stroll/lunch or spend hours in the lazy river!

I'm now debating cancelling some of our casabella days, as I'm wondering whether they are actually necessary? I know that the weekends can get very busy with locals, so I would keep my Saturday rental and I've got the cabana booked for the Friday which is a Hawaiian public holiday. But as for the three week day rentals, would you bother keeping them?

I'm a sun worshipper and it looks as though the casabellas are in the shade, so not ideal, but equally I don't want to have to be up at the crack of dawn staking out three pool chairs together (for the four of us) and then having to stay put guarding them!

Has anyone been recently or indeed during mid August last year? How was the pool chair situation? If you were me, would you keep the casabellas or do you think that we will be fine just getting regular seating?

Many thanks for any advice

 

[PetePanMan]

We just got back on Wednesday and apparently the resort was at near capacity.

The pools, beach and chairs were definitely busier on the weekends. Top chair locations are staked out pretty early but we always found chairs at any time of day. Things start to open up again in late afternoon.

Staff do occasionally check for unused chairs (inactive for 1 hr) by folding up towels and placing them on chair backs. If they are unmoved one hr later they supposedly will remove towels. Most people just come back and throw their towels back on chair so it all starts over again. Personally I found the chair enforcement rather sketchy. If you plan to use pool and beach for most of day I would simply stake out your preferred area early and you should be fine.

The Ama Ama deck is one of our favorite areas of the resort so I don't think you can go wrong with the casabellas there and then you don't have to worry about anything. I believe this area might be a bit shady in morning (shadow of building) but it does get nice sun for much of day. They also have casabellas for rent on beach (actually on grass just above beach) which you might want to consider as well if you are really interested in sun

Have fun - this place is tough to beat

 

[amystevekai&bump]

We just got back on Wednesday and apparently the resort was at near capacity.

The pools, beach and chairs were definitely busier on the weekends. Top chair locations are staked out pretty early but we always found chairs at any time of day. Things start to open up again in late afternoon.

Staff do occasionally check for unused chairs (inactive for 1 hr) by folding up towels and placing them on chair backs. If they are unmoved one hr later they supposedly will remove towels. Most people just come back and throw their towels back on chair so it all starts over again. Personally I found the chair enforcement rather sketchy. If you plan to use pool and beach for most of day I would simply stake out your preferred area early and you should be fine.

The Ama Ama deck is one of our favorite areas of the resort so I don't think you can go wrong with the casabellas there and then you don't have to worry about anything. I believe this area might be a bit shady in morning (shadow of building) but it does get nice sun for much of day. They also have casabellas for rent on beach (actually on grass just above beach) which you might want to consider as well if you are really interested in sun

Have fun - this place is tough to beat

Thank you so much for replying, your post has really helped me make up my mind.

We have a casabella booked for our first full day and I was worried that it would be too late to cancel it upon arrival, if we decided that the location wasn't for us. So I think I'll cancel that day and just get up early that day to find a good spot, and for the time being ill keep the other reservations, as it sounds like the Ama ama deck might be good too!

I must admit I can't wait - although having planned it for soooo long, it feels a bit unreal!!

 

[jtkboston]

When in August are you going? My family is going at the end (Aug 26-Sep 3), starting to get excited to see our home resort!

 

[Sir William]

hi all

Has anyone been recently or indeed during mid August last year? How was the pool chair situation? If you were me, would you keep the casabellas or do you think that we will be fine just getting regular seating?

Many thanks for any advice

We are here now. As stated by PeterPanMan, the resort is at near full capacity during the summer, and it's especially full on the weekends. We just finished our second weekend here and on both it was insane trying to find a chair. Not so bad during the week. DW likes to sit by the pool and read, while I prefer to do the lazy river, hot tub and Rainbow Reef and then leave (I'm not a pool or beach person). She stakes out her chair and I just left my stuff on or under it instead of trying to get my own chair. She spends most of her beach/pool time sunning and reading so the chair was rarely vacant, but we did notice of lot of chairs had no one in them all day - people just dumped their stuff, came back every so often and moved some of it around to make it look like they were actually using the chair, and then disappear again.

 

[Girimama33]

I would keep the Casabella bookings and locate a chair close by in the sun on the Ama Ama deck. If you let the CM's know you are using a chair on that side in the sun, they will likely not move your stuff.

 

[alohamom]

We were there the second week of August last summer and it got progressively busier through our stay. Our kids are older teens so the need to stake out a home base around the pools wasnt a priority however one of the days (I dont remember which one) it was so crowded we just could not find a chair, One-single-chair! We ended up taking our flip flops off, placing them discreetly to the side of the chair area and hoping they would not get moved. My point is, if you are looking for a group of 3 or 4 chairs you might not be able to find them. If one will do then you should be good. Please dont let me scare you, the way the pools are laid out, even when it is busy it did not feel crazy like some places can, hope you have a great time!

 

[AllyBri]

Are there any tables with umbrellas by the pool?
Thank you.

 

[DenLo]

Are there any tables with umbrellas by the pool?
Thank you.

There umbrellas tables for the restaurants, Off the Hook and Ulu Cafe and the bar near the adult pool. All of the tables with umbrellas belong to the restaurants not part of the pool area. You can sit there when ordering food but you are expected to vacate them for the next guest that might want to eat. There are covered and uncovered tables near Ulu Cafe, but once again they are for restaurant guests. There are umbrellas with the lounge chairs, usually one umbrella for every six or eight chairs.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Thanks so much everyone for replying

Can I just double check - what's the latest you can make a cancellation to avoid being charged please?

We are arriving at Aulani at about 2pm on the day before our first casabella is booked. If there's a 12 hr cancellation policy then we would still have time to check out the location and cancel it if it doesn't seem right for us. But if it's 24hrs - then we will need to decide before we fly out

 

[amystevekai&bump]

When in August are you going? My family is going at the end (Aug 26-Sep 3), starting to get excited to see our home resort!

We are there from August 15th to 23rd, so will just miss you! But have a terrific time though!

 

[Girimama33]

It is a 24 hour policy to cancel.

There are umbrellas with small tables attached throughout the pool area. If you are there at a high capacity time, you will want to secure one of them early.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

It is a 24 hour policy to cancel.

There are umbrellas with small tables attached throughout the pool area. If you are there at a high capacity time, you will want to secure one of them early.

Thanks ever so much I've got some thinking to do then!