Aulani Update

[asunutgirl]

We were at Aulani last week for 5 nights. Our last trip was August 2013 and the construction was still going on. Here our some thoughts/tips/observations since our last vacation:

* The resort was at capacity. Having the extra pool open helped a lot in making it feel less crowded.
* The cast members were definitely enforcing the 1 hour chair rule. I saw folks losing their spot. If you plan to be gone from your chair more than an hour, don't expect your stuff to be there when you get back. (I'd be interested to know if they are more lax on this when the resort isn't full.)
* There were cast members helping folks find chairs. I don't remember that before.
* The Marriott next door is closed down. My husband talked to the security guard and he said it will be closed for a year. Based on the lack of activity going on, they are definitely doing the construction on island time.
* Because of the above, no more Starbucks next door. And you can't walk that way - the area is closed off. If you want to walk along the beach, you have to go left towards the Marriott timeshare property. No more walking access to the "secret beach."
* We tried to get reservations at Monkeypod and it was full. Ended up eating a fair amount of dinners in our villa.
* We had a 2 bedroom this time and it was heaven with 2 teenagers who wanted to sleep forever. Allowed us to eat breakfast and move around without waking them up.
* No whales around. They seem to have moved on from Oahu.
* If you have SCUBA divers in your group, I highly recommend Kaimana Divers. Not a fancy operation but excellent service. Ask for Kim - she was great. And ask to dive the west side. Conditions were fabulous last week.
* We have friends who live on Honolulu. Because we had a 2 bedroom and there were only 4 of us, we were able to add them to our reservation as guests and they were able to spend a day with us. Their kids had a blast and thought it was so cool to have their own room keys!
* We were there for Easter Sunday. There was nothing in the way of services on the property, although I know a family that went to a local catholic church in the area. There were some bunny themed desserts at the buffet on Sunday night but not much in the way of any additional celebrations. (Although I don't know what they did at Auntie's as my kids are past that age.)

If anyone has questions, I'll answer them if I can.

 

[PlutoFan10]

Thanks for the info!

 

[ngl]

Thanks for the great report. Were you there the nights prior to Easter Sunday or after? Just curious regarding the crowds as we are contemplating Aulani for next Easter (my kids go to Catholic school and always get the week after Easter off so was curious). Real bummer re Marriott as I heard that was a good "diversion". We have a 7 and 5 yr old and were really hoping for more Easter fanfare. Oh well. Our kids will be 7 & 5 when we go and want to make sure there is enough to do for them. (We live in FL so a long trip!) They are great swimmers so hopefully will have fun with all of the offerings there but any other insight about Aulani and activities is greatly appreciated!

 

[ngl]

Btw, just read on line that the JW Marriott that closed will re open as a Four Seasons and is set to open Q1 of 2016

 

[asunutgirl]

We arrived on Sat and stayed until Thurs. Sorry - really not much Easter fanfare. But, hey - it's Hawaii!

Not only was the resort full but our flights to and from the mainland were completely sold out as well. It is a very popular spring break destination for us west coasters.

It is a beautiful resort and you'll have a great time!

 

[nabi]

Did you happen to make note of which nights the Starlit Hui are going on? Did you keep your daily Ewa (sp?)?

 

[asunutgirl]

I didn't not keep the list of daily activities. I think the Starlit Hui was M/W/F.

 

[moonlightgraham]

We were also at Aulani during the week leading up to Easter and can confirm it was at capacity. They did have an Easter egg hunt but we had to ask a cast member at Aunty's Beach House about it. I don't recall seeing it advertised in the Daily Iwa. Anyway, here are my thoughts on our first visit:

1. We rented a car at HNL but will probably do a shuttle next time and just do a daily rental from the resort when we want to tour. The off-site rental car lots are a zoo, the construction in the area horrible and the traffic on the H1 at rush hour is as bad as anything Atlanta has to offer. It was a real buzz-kill having to wait an hour for our car and then having to navigate the traffic after our long flight from the east coast. We only used the car one day for a circle tour of the island and the shops in Ko olina are easily walkable. So, think long and hard about the need for a rental car.
2. Unit View. We had a dedicated 2br ocean view. My request to overlook Waikolohe Valley and be near the ocean was met completely. We were assigned 886 which is the first dedicated 2br after the Grand Villa in the Pahse 2 Ewa building. The upside to this location was the great ocean and Waikolohe Valley views (will post some when I get time). The downsides were the long walk to the elevators,(and equally long walk back to the pool/beach), the noise from the slides that we directly overlooked and the abbreviated master balcony that we hardly used. Next time we may opt for a dedicated room in the phase 1 Ewa Building and would also be content with a quieter, non-Waikolohe view.
3. Executive Lanai. We had the Executive Lanai for a day and while it was nice, I doubt I would rent again. It just wasn't worth the $275 expense in my opinion for our group of four. In fact, I had also reserved a Cabana for Easter Day but cancelled after our Lanai day.
4. Pool Chair Logistics. One advantage of flying from the east coast is that one easily awakens early enough to take part in the pool chair reservation game. The prime chairs will start being taken by 6am (if not earlier), and by 8am I noticed most good spots gone. Given I was easily waking at 5am, I was able to get my pick of chairs every morning, (thus, the need for the Executive Lanai was mostly moot). I didn't notice the level of policing by cast members that the OP did so just accept it and have an early riser head down to the pool deck, or be disappointed.
5.The food gets a knock and while it's not the greatest we did have a wonderful Easter meal at Ama Ama and the character breakfast at Makahiki was well done. They struck a good balance between the Disney characters and the Hawaiian theme.
6. Aulani really is a beautiful resort and the villas are awesome. If you can take the guided tour of the resort you'll learn some of the amazing detail and meaning behind the construction and symbols you will see that went into it's making. Very, very impressive.
7. As an east coaster that spends most of our DVC points at WDW we had high hopes and expectations for Aulani and they were met. While we can't afford a Hawaiian vacation every year we will most definitely be back at some point in the not too distant future.

 

[ngl]

Thanks moonlightgraham for your information as well. We are DVCers that live in FL (1 hr from Disney) and are planning an Easter trip next year to Aulani (we went to Beaches this year in the Turks and being "Disney people" were concerned about that but we loved it!) It sounds like the pool chair thing is a pain (although w a 6 & 4 yr old we rarely sit at the pool or beach so not needed). I am hearing the lines were long for everything - slides, dinner, etc. Not sure if people just aren't used to it or truly unbearable. Would like to hear your opinions.

 

[moonlightgraham]

There were definitely lines for the slides, getting the daily wrist bands, and for the morning drop-offs at Aunty's Beach House but we expected it and found them nothing compared to the lines at other Disney venues. We've done two spring break cruises (Fantasy and Dream) and have done WDW during peak times as well so we've experienced the worst of Disney lines and anticpated waits but they were manageable and not as bad as I expected to be honest.

The slides open at 8am and you can ride both several times before the lines build too much. Do the Tubestone Curl first as that will back-up before the Vertical slide. We were able to hit both slides several times early before the lines built and that helped a lot.

Despite the pool chair situation there will always be chairs available somewhere. I can't say the same thing on our cruises. Aulani has many nooks and crannies around the pool and beach area and you'll quickly find a favorite spot. Even if you're late arriving you'll be able to get a chair.

As for Aunty's Beach House, do the online registration and have the forms printed out and in hand and avoid the long lines in the morning and go later in the day to register your kids. You'll find no lines after the morning crush. The only premium event the kids (7yrs and 12yrs) did was the Chip and Dale night but they gave that a so-so rating. They liked it well enough but at $80 per child I expected more of a wow from them. As it was it turned out to be pretty expensive babysitting but it did give us a nice sunset dinner for two at Ama Ama.

Also another tip if coming from the east coast, if you plan to do the character breakfast schedule that on your first morning. We had ressies at the 7am open and avoided the iines for pix and buffet that built later in the morning. Given the time change you will be up well before 7am and actually will have time to go reserve pool chairs come back for the buffet and return to your prime location chairs after breakfast.

As with anything Disney-related if you do a little pre-planning, get an early start, avoid peak times you can avoid some of the lines. That still might not be the care-free resort experience some expect but all-in-all, compared to other Disney venues during peak times, Aulani handled the crowd very well.

 

[Mduff]

1. We rented a car at HNL but will probably do a shuttle next time and just do a daily rental from the resort when we want to tour. The off-site rental car lots are a zoo, the construction in the area horrible and the traffic on the H1 at rush hour is as bad as anything Atlanta has to offer. It was a real buzz-kill having to wait an hour for our car and then having to navigate the traffic after our long flight from the east coast. We only used the car one day for a circle tour of the island and the shops in Ko olina are easily walkable. So, think long and hard about the need for a rental car.

What time did you arrive at HNL? Our flight arrives in August at 5am and we were planning on renting a car and driving to Aulani. We figured the cost of the shuttle roundtrip would be half the cost of the rental. Hate the thought of early morning driving though (DH will do that) after traveling from the East Coast overnight.

 

[moonlightgraham]

What time did you arrive at HNL? Our flight arrives in August at 5am and we were planning on renting a car and driving to Aulani. We figured the cost of the shuttle roundtrip would be half the cost of the rental. Hate the thought of early morning driving though (DH will do that) after traveling from the East Coast overnight.

We arrived at 3pm and were in the rental car around 4:15 so we were in the teeth of rush hour leaving Honolulu. You should have much lighter crowds at the rental car counter with your arrival time plus the traffic heading west at that time will be light as well.

 

[ngl]

Moonlightgraham - excellent information! Thank you so much. Like you, we have done the Dream at Tgiving and used to the crowds there and hit DisneyWorld just about every other month or so (and now during holiday peak times since my oldest started school) so probably used to it as well. I find that people who have not experienced a lot of Disney venues expect a serene and calm setting and well, let's face it - that's really not what Disney is about. It is all for the kids and with that comes loudness, laughter, and lines lol! Thanks again!

 

[christmas angel]

No more access to the "secret beach"??? waaaaah!!! I was SO hoping to see the monk seals and the sea turtles I read so much about!!! Oh dear...

 

[Girimama33]

We were there in March when they were building the fence between Aulani and the Four Seasons that is blocking the access to the secret beach. The construction noise was very evident if you were on the beach or the Ka Maka Landing. Hopefully, it has quieted down since then.

 

[moonlightgraham]

We were there in March when they were building the fence between Aulani and the Four Seasons that is blocking the access to the secret beach. The construction noise was very evident if you were on the beach or the Ka Maka Landing. Hopefully, it has quieted down since then.

It really hasn't quieted down. On weekdays there was a pretty steady parade of dump trucks moving through and around the property and when they would dump their payload the dump gate would really make a loud bang. It wasn't frequent enough to call it a nuisance but it startled me a few times.

 

[kungaloosh22]

We were there in March when they were building the fence between Aulani and the Four Seasons that is blocking the access to the secret beach. The construction noise was very evident if you were on the beach or the Ka Maka Landing. Hopefully, it has quieted down since then.

Could you tell if that's a construction fence, or a permanent fence?

 

[jcmh71]

Could you tell if that's a construction fence, or a permanent fence?

According to the local news, it's been removed. http://khon2.com/2015/03/26/controversial-ko-olina-wall-removed-from-public-beach/

 

[Girimama33]

It was just a construction fence. Good thing they had to remove it. I found it odd considering it is a public beach.

 

[kungaloosh22]

According to the local news, it's been removed. http://khon2.com/2015/03/26/controversial-ko-olina-wall-removed-from-public-beach/

Great news. Thanks for the update!