Aulani Studio or 1 Br

[htmlkid]

I'm flip flopping back and forth if I should keep my Studio or Upgrade to a 1BR. I'm very concerned that the cost to eat out every meal is going to run into the thousands after looking at the Aulani website and the cost of meals at the restrauants.

For those of you that have stayed there, is the savings in the cost of meals worth the extra points for a 1br.

Also for those of you that have been there, what is the difference between a standard view and an island view?

 

[taaren]

How long are you staying for? And with how many people? We're going in a studio, but only going to be there for a short weekend. I don't know if I'd want to stay more than 3 or 4 days in a studio with more than just me, the DH and DS5.

Keep in mind that eating on-site is not your only option. Food in Hawaii isn't cheap, but if you don't mind venturing off-site there's some ridiculously tasty food nearby that's very reasonable. Lots of plate lunch places end up being $7-8 per person (usually includes rice or noodles, some kind of meat (bbq chicken, breaded and fried chicken, short ribs, etc), and potato-macaroni salad.

We're planning on doing just bagels/cereal in the room for breakfast, cold sandwiches and chips for lunch by the pool, then heading out for plate-lunch style dinners or maybe trying some local noodle shops (Asian style noodles and dumplings tend also be delicious and cheap) ... and we'll be splurging on things like Roy's souffle for dessert but still plan on keeping our food costs for the 3 of us around $50/day.

 

[taysmom]

1 bedroom. Best decision I made at Aulani. I flip flopped my room so many times over the 11 months and ended up with a 1 bed standard view for 3 people. There is a safeway store at barbar's point just before the resort. We stopped and bought plenty of food to last for the week with very little left. I was proud
I'm already planning my next trip and even though it will be 2 of us, I'll still book a 1 bed. The full kitchen is worth it.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I visited the model Studios and 1 bedrooms at Disneyland last month and the Studio was tiny. Wow... The studio had a small refrigerator so, I think in a studio you'll have trouble storing the food. We go to Hawaii a lot and have our menu down for the week. We usually plan 1-2 meals out for breakfast; 3 lunches out and 3 dinners out. So, we'll eat 5 breakfasts in, 4 lunches in and 4 dinners in. I make sure our meals can carry over. For example, I'll make fajitas for dinner one night and the next day we'll use the leftover meat and make nachos for lunch. If we go during the holidays Costco always has tons of stuff to make a turkey meal with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, etc.. that I will make that the first night in and we'll have turkey sandwiches and leftovers all week. But the first thing I do is plan what we are going to do each day and then, figure out the meals. Sometimes if you are on the other side of the island it isn't feasible to drive back for dinner. If you plan on hanging out at the resort the entire time then, it might be easier to make most meals in. For a week stay in Hawaii for a family of 4 you can easily spend $1000 to $1500 for week including groceries and resturant meals. We tend to eat at nicer sit down restaurants we figured if we are going to pay more for our food it better be good. I look at Tripadvisor and yelp for reviews as well as others. Good luck but I'd go with the 1 bedroom to have the larger refrigerator and washer/dryer in the unit.