Aulani trip planning, um...

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

Ok, so DVC points for stay . Would you use a TA to book everything else?. Airfare (From Michigan),Car rental for your stay, Pearl Harbor tour. Maybe a luau dinner(which one should we avoid).
Or do you do this all on your own.
We belong to AAA, not to Costco yet(we're looking into it). TIA

 

[bobbiwoz]

We, well DH does it all on his own! My job is saving the points and then booking. I booked this morning!

We will use our Capital One card points for most of air charges.

Last year, some of our group did book one of the specific Pearl Harbor tour. If you do that book as early in day as possible and leave plenty of time to get there.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

We did Aulani (from NY) the past 3 summers. We did all of the planning ourselves and had no issues. I can't really speak too much on flights for you bc we're lucky enough to have a Hawaiian Airlines direct flight straight from NY to Honolulu. Best advice for rental car would be to definitely rent from the airport and not at Aulani. The price difference is unreal. We used Budget at the airport and had zero issues any of the times. We booked any "excursions" that we've done on our own also. They have tremendous help at the resort with these things also. We actually made a concerted effort to do as much as we could naturally and not get caught up in making it too "toury". As for the luau, Paradise Cove is right next to Aulani so it's super easy and convenient. We enjoyed it. A ton of people do the luau at the Poly Cultural Center, but just be aware that's on the opposite side of the island. I'd be glad to answer anything else that you might be curious about or help out anyway we can.

 

[Psychodisney]

I liked having the car rental from Alamo. We picked our minivan up at the airport. Had some issues with the brakes and since there is an Alamo desk at Aulani, we were able to get a new car there.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

I liked having the car rental from Alamo. We picked our minivan up at the airport. Had some issues with the brakes and since there is an Alamo desk at Aulani, we were able to get a new car there.

Yea, that makes sense. My point was more so not to actually do the rental from Aulani, not Alamo in general. When we went for our honeymoon we took a limo from the airport to Aulani and then rented a car there. The other 2 trips we rented straight from the airport and it was at least half the price, if not less, than what it was to rent from Aulani.

 

[lizard1]

I booked everything we did on my own. I got a discount on a car rental through my car insurance company that a TA wouldn't have had access to (it was a couple hundred LESS than what was available on hawaiidiscountcarrental.com). For Pearl Harbor, the only thing that you need to book in advance is the Arizona memorial and that is simple as well (as long as you can be online when the time opens). The rest of the Pearl Harbor stuff can be bought the day you are planning to do it onsite. As for the luau, unless your TA has actually been, then they can only go off of the information on the travel sites, same as you can. Plus, there are so many seats at the luaus that it isn't something that you have to book NOW to get to do, so you can take your time looking into it and book when you are ready.

The only thing that I would maybe want assistance with is the airfare, but that is if you aren't familiar with the pricing and when to buy and what is a good rate for tickets.

 

[Anal Annie]

Ok, so DVC points for stay . Would you use a TA to book everything else?. Airfare (From Michigan),Car rental for your stay, Pearl Harbor tour. Maybe a luau dinner(which one should we avoid).
Or do you do this all on your own.
We belong to AAA, not to Costco yet(we're looking into it). TIA

I always do everything on my own - even when we went to Europe and did our Med cruise. With a little help from the internet (Trip Advisor reviews etc) it's easy enough to do on your own. You can easily book your own PH tix and sign up for a rental car thru Discounthawaiiancarrental.com (or Costco if you join). You can try Priceline for rental cars too. I use Kayak and Airfare Watchdog for airfare - I watch consistently when I'm even thinking about planning so that I'm familiar with fares and know a good deal when I see it. I personally think the luau's are better on other islands (hopefully while you're going all that way you're island hopping for a few nights). There's also the airfare matrix website where you can put together any combination of flights. You can't use it to BOOK but you can compare any possible air combination. When you book your air just look at the total time duration if you're not flying direct. Some transfers can add a lot of time - try to avoid that and look for direct if you can. It's an adventure - have fun!!