A little background first...
DVC member since 2005 at OKW and SSR. Invited to a preview of Aulani at DL resort summer of 2010 and bought that day. I couldn't wait to spend time back in the islands. We used to vacation on Oahu and Kauai annually but started Disney cruising so switched. With the new ships out and pricing me out of cruising in florida, I was thrilled to switch to a disney DVC property on my favorite vacation spot.
So in December 2010 I booked our trip for 3 at thanksgiving in 2011. BTW, I changed my mind several times over the next 6 months. Studio mountain,garden view, ocean view, 1 bdrm ocean/garden etc. Finally settling on 1 bdrm mountain view. I had NO problem switching back and forth even after the 7month window. In fact, I purposely changed at the 7month window to use points from another contract and put my points back and banked for a 2012 trip.
I know flights can be expensive for the holidays and I cannot stress enough that if you want to go to hawaii at the holidays, book as soon as the flights open. I used miles for my tix and had to book asap, however I watched the flight prices and did not realize how fast the prices would rise. Almost $300 per tix in less than 3 months.
Fast Forward to Nov. 2011:
Day 1
Traveling to Oahu is Myself 42 (43rd birthday during the trip) DD 13 and DC (cousin) 17. This is my cousins belated sweet 16 present and her first trip to the islands. My dd has been with me 3 previous times and I've been a few more with out her over my lifetime.
Our Hawaiian flight left on time and even got us in 10 min early and right above the baggage claim which was nice. I have not flown in a few years and was unpleasantly surprised that they were charging for earphone (ipod ear buds would not work). Overall thought a nice flight. Hawaiian Airlines is my preferred travel to the islands. If you can use them, I'd recommend it. I spoke with many others here who took continental/united/american and all had horror stories of delays, missed connections and 24 hour trips to arrive to the islands. UGH!
I decided to rent a car for this trip as I wanted to show the cousin the island attractions. I have never been to Ko'Olina before and I am glad I rented a car. The price per person of a shuttle was $60 which was about the price of the car rental for the week. I'm sure we could have taken a cab for less or had a car service pick us up for less, but I wanted a car so I chose this route. The resort has a car rental service FYI, if you don't want to rent at the airport.
My plan was to go to the grocery store before getting to the resort, but then I was afraid our room wouldn't be ready. So straight to the resort we went.
I'm not going to lie...the view driving out to the resort leaves ALOT to be desired. I was a little afraid. I usually stayed in Waikiki on the beach or at turtle bay in North Shore so seeing alot of industrial was not such a magical view, but then after kapolei, you can see the resort along with the marriott and something magically changes. We all started smiling and getting excited. Ko'Olina is a pretty area once you get off the freeway.
We pulled into Aulani and up to check in. They will take your car for you for free while you check in FYI. We were greeted by so many alohas. They also gave each of us a beautiful orchid lei. It was very nice and while they did not introduce you like the cruise lines, we felt very welcomed. They offered us a lovely glass of fruit infused water and walked you to the desk to get checked in.
For me at check in I had to link two different ressies together as I used different contracts to book our week stay. This created a seperate problem. While I had charging rights with our room key, they could not get it to work on any of our cards. I have gotten 5 sets of room keys and today I will be headed down to the desk to fix the current set. Additionally, while I linked the ressie and secured the same room for the entire week, I still received messages reminding me of check out time on the day of my first ressie end. I had to go to the front desk to confirm that we were not required to move.
They apologized and let me know we could stay in the same room.
Our villa was ready WOOHOO! We headed up to the room, dropped our bags, checked the whole thing out, changed and headed back down to the car and the store. Safeway is about 5 min. back down the highway in Kapolei. It was the closest grocery store. It's in a large shopping center with a Chili's, many fast food and other stores. There is a costco close by also if you have a larger group. We purchased about $200 in groceries hoping to last most of the week. After lunch and shopping we went back to the resort. The bell men were very helpful and brought our groceries right up with the girls while I parked the car. DVC member park for free otherwise it costs. I didn't pay attention to the price but I will look and post later.
I came back to the room and we all put on our suits and headed to the pool area to check it out. We did everything even though it was after 5. It was beautiful all around however everything closes early so we really didn't check out the stores, restaurants etc. We were still 2 hours ahead so off to bed we headed around 7pm.
Day 2 and pictures to come...
DVC member since 2005 at OKW and SSR. Invited to a preview of Aulani at DL resort summer of 2010 and bought that day. I couldn't wait to spend time back in the islands. We used to vacation on Oahu and Kauai annually but started Disney cruising so switched. With the new ships out and pricing me out of cruising in florida, I was thrilled to switch to a disney DVC property on my favorite vacation spot.
So in December 2010 I booked our trip for 3 at thanksgiving in 2011. BTW, I changed my mind several times over the next 6 months. Studio mountain,garden view, ocean view, 1 bdrm ocean/garden etc. Finally settling on 1 bdrm mountain view. I had NO problem switching back and forth even after the 7month window. In fact, I purposely changed at the 7month window to use points from another contract and put my points back and banked for a 2012 trip.
I know flights can be expensive for the holidays and I cannot stress enough that if you want to go to hawaii at the holidays, book as soon as the flights open. I used miles for my tix and had to book asap, however I watched the flight prices and did not realize how fast the prices would rise. Almost $300 per tix in less than 3 months.

Fast Forward to Nov. 2011:
Day 1
Traveling to Oahu is Myself 42 (43rd birthday during the trip) DD 13 and DC (cousin) 17. This is my cousins belated sweet 16 present and her first trip to the islands. My dd has been with me 3 previous times and I've been a few more with out her over my lifetime.
Our Hawaiian flight left on time and even got us in 10 min early and right above the baggage claim which was nice. I have not flown in a few years and was unpleasantly surprised that they were charging for earphone (ipod ear buds would not work). Overall thought a nice flight. Hawaiian Airlines is my preferred travel to the islands. If you can use them, I'd recommend it. I spoke with many others here who took continental/united/american and all had horror stories of delays, missed connections and 24 hour trips to arrive to the islands. UGH!
I decided to rent a car for this trip as I wanted to show the cousin the island attractions. I have never been to Ko'Olina before and I am glad I rented a car. The price per person of a shuttle was $60 which was about the price of the car rental for the week. I'm sure we could have taken a cab for less or had a car service pick us up for less, but I wanted a car so I chose this route. The resort has a car rental service FYI, if you don't want to rent at the airport.
My plan was to go to the grocery store before getting to the resort, but then I was afraid our room wouldn't be ready. So straight to the resort we went.
I'm not going to lie...the view driving out to the resort leaves ALOT to be desired. I was a little afraid. I usually stayed in Waikiki on the beach or at turtle bay in North Shore so seeing alot of industrial was not such a magical view, but then after kapolei, you can see the resort along with the marriott and something magically changes. We all started smiling and getting excited. Ko'Olina is a pretty area once you get off the freeway.
We pulled into Aulani and up to check in. They will take your car for you for free while you check in FYI. We were greeted by so many alohas. They also gave each of us a beautiful orchid lei. It was very nice and while they did not introduce you like the cruise lines, we felt very welcomed. They offered us a lovely glass of fruit infused water and walked you to the desk to get checked in.
For me at check in I had to link two different ressies together as I used different contracts to book our week stay. This created a seperate problem. While I had charging rights with our room key, they could not get it to work on any of our cards. I have gotten 5 sets of room keys and today I will be headed down to the desk to fix the current set. Additionally, while I linked the ressie and secured the same room for the entire week, I still received messages reminding me of check out time on the day of my first ressie end. I had to go to the front desk to confirm that we were not required to move.
They apologized and let me know we could stay in the same room.
Our villa was ready WOOHOO! We headed up to the room, dropped our bags, checked the whole thing out, changed and headed back down to the car and the store. Safeway is about 5 min. back down the highway in Kapolei. It was the closest grocery store. It's in a large shopping center with a Chili's, many fast food and other stores. There is a costco close by also if you have a larger group. We purchased about $200 in groceries hoping to last most of the week. After lunch and shopping we went back to the resort. The bell men were very helpful and brought our groceries right up with the girls while I parked the car. DVC member park for free otherwise it costs. I didn't pay attention to the price but I will look and post later.
I came back to the room and we all put on our suits and headed to the pool area to check it out. We did everything even though it was after 5. It was beautiful all around however everything closes early so we really didn't check out the stores, restaurants etc. We were still 2 hours ahead so off to bed we headed around 7pm.
Day 2 and pictures to come...