Aulani Poolside Villa - Ground preference?

[OCLover]

I have a 1 b Villa poolside villa reserved for 4/7 arrival. On online check-in the only options for room requests were ground floor. This may be silly question, but would I want that? I guess my only concern is status of expansion work at this point. My fear is if they stick me near something that is being worked on, ruining the enjoyment of patio. Would room with balcony be better?

 

[Anal Annie]

I probably wouldn't want that...but I haven't been there yet. Why don't you just wait & check in at the resort instead and then you can ask for a better location?

 

[Cinderpamela]

I have never heard of a room category called "poolside" there is a "Poolview" and that would include rooms up to the 5th floor. The thing thats making me wonder is that its only giving you groundfloor.... perhaps there truly is an option for poolside.... it would be groundfloor only.

I would be tempted to call MS if it was not your intention to only be on the first floor. Maybe put in a room request with them to be noted on your reservation with what floor you would prefer.

I phoned in a request for 5th floor so that we would also be able to see the ocean while paying less points for the poolview category and it was a great view.
You might want to check out the Aulani Views thread that has been put together by "wdrl" he has done a great job, and its super helpful to get an a feel for the resort and the different views:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2907389

 

[adamak]

I have the same problem. Looks like online checkin won't let you type in specific requests. The only box to check is ground floor, which seems stupid (I booked a standard view 1 b). I am going to call them and hope they can key that in.

Hey, I'm checking in on 4/7 too. Yay.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I have a 1 b Villa poolside villa reserved for 4/7 arrival. On online check-in the only options for room requests were ground floor. This may be silly question, but would I want that? I guess my only concern is status of expansion work at this point. My fear is if they stick me near something that is being worked on, ruining the enjoyment of patio. Would room with balcony be better?

I would think the only "poolside" would be ground floor by default. I wouldn't worry too much about being near the construction area, since they had those rooms all closed when we were there last month. I'm sure the reason is because of construction noise. By the same token, they were working on the lanais of the ground floor units when we were there. They were installing little railings on them. I suspect it is to keep people from walking up to them thinking they are an entrance into the building when they are actually an entrance into a room.

For what it's worth, I would NOT want either a poolside OR a ground floor room.

 

[wdrl]

In general, there seems to be a disconnect between the preferences offered by online check-in system and the DVC resorts. I wouldn't put too much stock in the choices offered because they seem to be generic rather than tailored for specific resorts. If I remember correctly, one of the preferences for BLT was "no balcony", which pretty much eliminates all but a handful of villas.

For what its worth, some people love the ground floor villas that face Waikolohe Valley. It gave them easy access to the Valley and they liked having the characters interact with them as the characters walked passed their villa.

 

[Pakey]

I have been there and I can see the appeal to ground floor pool view. You can walk from your villa to the pool without going down the hallways. Many on here have reported doing that.

We had pool view, 5th floor and had to walk down to the elevators then walk back towards the pool making it more of a hike. I did not mind it though.