Aulani room views worth the points?

[NJDVCmember]

Hi everyone. Thinking of getting away last minute. See there are one bedroom available in October and November at Aulani. All points levels. Is the Ocean view really a ocean view? Worth the extra points?

This will be our trip for next year's points.

Any advise????
THANKS!

 

[BillPA]

To me, yes. If I travel that far, I want to see the ocean. Any other view could be anywhere, I want to know I'm in Hawaii. But I will not stay at DVC, there are many ocean front resorts for much le$$.

 

[southerngirl528]

Hi everyone. Thinking of getting away last minute. See there are one bedroom available in October and November at Aulani. All points levels. Is the Ocean view really a ocean view? Worth the extra points?

This will be our trip for next year's points.

Any advise????
THANKS!

I'm with BillPA re: view. For us, YES, every time we have stayed at Aulani we have done OV villas. The plus side is that they are easier to book for those of us that do not own at Aulani Resort and have to book at 7 months. We have a GV OV booked for next year! Woohoo!

 

[Boardwalkin]

For us the view is not important as we spend no time in the room. We had ocean views our first few trips and while the view is great we really didn't utilize it. If you are going to spend time in your room and on the balcony I would say book OV. If you are like us and will be by the pool and sightseeing all day then book a room using less points.

 

[msp2mco]

We've been to Hawaii once and stayed at Aulani part of the time. We are glad we booked an ocean view room. Although we weren't in the room a lot, it was so nice to sit on the balcony and enjoy the ocean view.

 

[alldiz]

Coming from NY I’m going to say a hard yes
Happy planning
Kerri

 

[DenLo]

Definitely worth the points IMO. Hawaii means ocean to me. And there is nothing like sitting on your balcony and enjoying the view and listening to evening music at the Aulani lounges if you have a Waikoloa Valley view of the lazy river and pool.

 

[keaster]

For us the view is not important as we spend no time in the room. We had ocean views our first few trips and while the view is great we really didn't utilize it. If you are going to spend time in your room and on the balcony I would say book OV. If you are like us and will be by the pool and sightseeing all day then book a room using less points.

While we LOVE ocean view, we will book island/garden view to accommodate more trips! We use our balcony in the morning and evening, but the rest of the day we are either at the beach/pool or elsewhere on the island.

 

[dvc_john]

Depends if you really get an 'ocean view'. The only time I booked 'ocean view', I got a view mostly of (what was then) the JW Marriott next door, including the parking garage with roof top tennis courts, and a very distant sliver of ocean view in between. The same room one floor down was classified as 'island view'.
Since then I've been happy to just book 'island view' and save the points. If I could really be sure of getting one of the fantastic ocean views, I would book it. But you can never be sure.

 

[jamiecarr@dvcstore]

For an Ocean View I would say yes, regardless of time spent in the villa, as when you are in the villa, the view will be worth it. When I was there I had an Island/Garden View and as
dvc_john said, my view was the side of a building, not really much of the island, though some gardens below. If I wasn't booking Ocean View then I would probably skip Island/Garden and book Standard. Hope that helps. Have a great trip!

 

[jodybird511]

Nope--I don't think it's worth it. I'd rather spend fewer points and be able to stay longer because of that. Also, fyi, if you research well, you can make a room request for a variety of "island garden" category rooms, all of which provide a partial ocean view, without the OV price tag, in terms of number of points! We've been to Aulani twice--first time we did Island Garden and had the ocean view. Second time, we actually did standard view to be able to add on an entire extra day for the point difference, and it was actually wonderful.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We book OV. Two were fabulous, one was so-so, but still ocean view. I will always book OV if available. I do the same at VB.

I use the balcony and enjoy seeing the ocean. We were far away, but saw dolphins splashing in the ocean this time. There were small boats of dolphin watchers enjoying seeing the frolicking too! I love water features, and have a fish pond at home.

Bobbi

 

[jodybird511]

We also used the lanai a LOT, even when we had the standard view. We basically had mountain view, which, who can complain? I will say, I did research and specify highest possible floor to eliminate the possibility of a view obstructed by the parking or conference center, but still...these were the views from our standard view. Did not detract from lanai use at all. That being said, we have a family condo in Naples, FL, so we get plenty of ocean other times during the year, so maybe that's why it doesn't feel as important to me.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

We’ve booked them IG, Pool, and OV(thrice). It really depends on your regular life I think. The beach and water is a big part of our usual life and therefore not as big of a deal for us to have OV although OV is spectacular.

My favorite view so far has been IG. We go in the winter so the IG side of W tower has the sun in the am and more privacy, still has OV but also the luau and the golf course/mountain.

Because of the sun factor, from April- oct, I would do OV in W tower or else the sun will beat on your room most of the time.

Pool view is not worth the points as it’s down in the foliage so the room is much darker and you have the ambient noise of the goings on.

Any which way, you can’t go wrong. Aulani is the bomb. It’s a home resort for us and we’re so glad!

 

[keaster]

We had an island view 2 bedroom in August...and had a great view of the rather large grass fire that erupted across the road!

 

[paige2755]

Hi everyone. Thinking of getting away last minute. See there are one bedroom available in October and November at Aulani. All points levels. Is the Ocean view really a ocean view? Worth the extra points?

This will be our trip for next year's points.

Any advise????
THANKS!

Hi,
We were there in June of this year. We had a split stay. The first was OV ( it was a partial and looking out at the resort next door). The next was an island view (this was also partial ocean view and looking out at the Disney Luau). We felt that the OV from each room was equal. However, the one designated OV was more costly. Good Luck! The resort is beautiful!

Tiffany