Aulani Villas & Views -- REVISED 07/22/2017

[ludari]

I agree with Minnie222 that waiting til construction ends so you can enjoy all the new stuff is ideal. But for those who already have plans they can't change, I would say not to worry about it. I never noticed the beeping of trucks backing up or was bothered by a few construction walls here and there.

Can anyone confirm when the construction is scheduled to end at Aulani?

 

[wdrl]

Can anyone confirm when the construction is scheduled to end at Aulani?

When the enhancements were first announced last year, the target completion date was around June 2013. In the last month, I've read posts from others who have recently been to Aulani that the completion date has been pushed back to September.

Aulani has several projects ongoing at this time. It wouldn't surprise me if most are finished by June, but that one or two drag out for a while longer.

 

[wendypooh]

Hi all, going to Aulani in May/June - I have a 1br standard view booked - I'm going through this thread to get all the info I can, but, can anyone suggest which building, etc.... I should request - I know I prob. won't get a "good" view, but -- I can dream right! LOL Should we request a high floor etc.?? I don't want to see/hear the construction if possible. Thanks for any help!!

 

[wdrl]

Hi all, going to Aulani in May/June - I have a 1br standard view booked - I'm going through this thread to get all the info I can, but, can anyone suggest which building, etc.... I should request - I know I prob. won't get a "good" view, but -- I can dream right! LOL Should we request a high floor etc.?? I don't want to see/hear the construction if possible. Thanks for any help!!

Aulani's Standard View one-bedroom villas are facing either the street, the island, or the convention center. I'd try to get as high a floor as possible -- Standard View villas can be as high as the 7th floor -- just to get a little better view of things.

You won't have to worry about seeing or hearing much from the construction from your villa. All the the Standard View villas (excluding the Grand Villas) are on the opposite side of the resort, away from the current construction sites. You will be assigned either the Ewa Phase 1 Building, which is physically closest to the lobby and General Store, or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building Phase 3. Since the same bank of elevators services both wings, it really doesn't matter which wing you end up with.

Enjoy your stay at Aulani. It really is a great resort!

 

[dizneekrazee]

Hi, we will be visiting Aulani for the 1st time in 6 weeks. We are booked in a standard island/garden view room. Is any building better than another based on view or construction noise? Are upgrades ever given? Is there any area I would want to request to avoid?

Thank you

 

[Cinderpamela]

Hi, we will be visiting Aulani for the 1st time in 6 weeks. We are booked in a standard island/garden view room. Is any building better than another based on view or construction noise? Are upgrades ever given? Is there any area I would want to request to avoid?

Thank you

With an Island/Garden View I would go look back at page one at the grid that Wdrl posted with all the Island View rooms listed by color coding and see all the options for the long hall in the Ewa tower.

Many of the Island/Garden View's on the back (non pool side) long hall of the Ewa building come with a bonus ocean view that is beautiful. So a higher floor on the long hall would be the best view.
__________________

 

[wendypooh]

Aulani's Standard View one-bedroom villas are facing either the street, the island, or the convention center. I'd try to get as high a floor as possible -- Standard View villas can be as high as the 7th floor -- just to get a little better view of things.

You won't have to worry about seeing or hearing much from the construction from your villa. All the the Standard View villas (excluding the Grand Villas) are on the opposite side of the resort, away from the current construction sites. You will be assigned either the Ewa Phase 1 Building, which is physically closest to the lobby and General Store, or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building Phase 3. Since the same bank of elevators services both wings, it really doesn't matter which wing you end up with.

Enjoy your stay at Aulani. It really is a great resort!

Thank You so much for taking the time to answer, I appreciate it!!

 

[lovesthebeach]

Thank you! I called in my requests! I guess we shall see if they are granted. My last request failed at the VGC I did get my theme park view but it was on the first floor and we had a big black spider visit us and they told us it is common.

22 more days!!!!!!!!

How do you call in a request? Do you call the resort directly or do you call member services?

 

[Cinderpamela]

How do you call in a request? Do you call the resort directly or do you call member services?

Call it in to Member services.

 

[amym2]

Finally hit our 7 month mark today and booked our Aulani trip! We'll be in a dedicated 2bdrm island garden view. Sounds like our best bet for a good view would be in the long wing of the Ewa tower on a high floor. I've never made a request for any room at any resort. So I just call member services and say I'd like to request a high floor in the long wing of the Ewa tower? Will they know what I mean or is there a better way to say it?

Now the fun begins. Off to reserve interisland flights, rental cars, and activities!

 

[Disneypal]

What a wonderful thread!!! You have done an excellent job and I thank you!!!
This will be our first time to Aulnai. I have tried to find out as much information as possible but still have a couple of questions:
1. When reading through these post everyone mentions Standard View Villa, we have a Standard View Studio I am not 100% sure but don't think they are the same thing? If they are not the same thing what building and floor should I request? Any view would be good except looking into another building
2. When I made our reservation we booked with AAA discount so we couldn't add transportation but they gave me the info for Cloud Nine, any opinions on them, if we should just rent car or take taxi.
3. They also informed us that the Adult Quiet Pool would be closed due to construction during our stay, is this a big deal for 2 adults?
4. Any suggestions for food or entertainment during our stay and do we need reservations?
Thanks!

 

[wdrl]

What a wonderful thread!!! You have done an excellent job and I thank you!!!
This will be our first time to Aulnai. I have tried to find out as much information as possible but still have a couple of questions:
1. When reading through these post everyone mentions Standard View Villa, we have a Standard View Studio I am not 100% sure but don't think they are the same thing? If they are not the same thing what building and floor should I request? Any view would be good except looking into another building
2. When I made our reservation we booked with AAA discount so we couldn't add transportation but they gave me the info for Cloud Nine, any opinions on them, if we should just rent car or take taxi.
3. They also informed us that the Adult Quiet Pool would be closed due to construction during our stay, is this a big deal for 2 adults?
4. Any suggestions for food or entertainment during our stay and do we need reservations?
Thanks!

1. The word 'villa' is a catch-all word used for all DVC vacation homes regardless of size. A Standard View Villa might be a studio, a one-bedroom, a two-bedroom, or even a three-bedroom vacation home.

The word 'Standard' denotes the view classification of the villa. At Aulani, the Standard View villas are the least expensive of the four view categories. However, this is the category that most likely will have views of the driveway, the street, the parking lot, or other buildings.

At Aulani, the Standard View studio villas are located either in the Ewa Building closest to the lobby (villas with room numbers ending xx55 or xx57), or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building (villas with room numbers ending xx65 or xx69). Based on the reports I have read, neither Building offers better views than the other.

2. A one way taxi ride from Honolulu Airport to Aulani will run about $60-$80, and I have heard some reports as high as $100. I haven't explored shuttle services and their prices, but they might be a bit less than taxi fares.

Renting a car might turn out to be the cheapest way to go. I know it was for us. At the seven month mark, I reserved a car from Alamo for 8 days at the cost of about $470, fees included. Periodically, I checked prices to see if I could get something cheaper. About six weeks before our trip, Alamo was offering a mid-size car for about $135 for the same 8 day period. I canceled our original reservation and rebooked a car at the lower price.

By having a car, we were able to do some sightseeing on Oahu (North Shore, Pearl Harbor). Also, we drove to the Super Target in Kapolei and bought milk, bread, lunch meat, TV dinners, etc. This allowed us to eat in our villa for some meals, helping us cut down on our meal expenses.

3. The official Aulani website states that all of the construction projects won't be completed until September 2013. My guess is that the Wailana Quiet Pool won't reopen until all the construction is completed. When we were at Aulani in September 2012, we used the Wailana Pool a few times. But even if it hadn't been available to us, we would have found lots of other places around the main pool. So, in my opinion, the loss of the Wailana pool won't put a damper on enjoying Aulani.

4. You can probably wait until you arrive at Aulani to make reservations for Ama Ama and/or Makahiki. Ama Ama is relatively expensive and the reviews have ranged from great to poor. we had a really good dinner at Ama Ama, but at $175 for a dinner with wine for two, it wasn't a place that I'd eat at frequently.

Hope this information helps. I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay at Aulani!

 

[lurkyloo]

1. When reading through these post everyone mentions Standard View Villa, we have a Standard View Studio I am not 100% sure but don't think they are the same thing? If they are not the same thing what building and floor should I request? Any view would be good except looking into another building

...Or the ROOF of another building!

Standard View Villa could refer to any type of room with a Standard View (studio, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom). I would say to request 5th floor or higher—our Standard View Studio was on the 4th floor and that was our view. Granted, if we'd been in the rooms on either side of us, the view would have been better, so really all you want to do is avoid Room #457.

2. When I made our reservation we booked with AAA discount so we couldn't add transportation but they gave me the info for Cloud Nine, any opinions on them, if we should just rent car or take taxi.

We hired Go 808 Express to get our friends out to Aulani from the airport, and they really liked them. It was $55 each way. We rented a car because we had a ton of sightseeing we wanted to do. People who plan to spend most of their time at the resort sometimes just rent a car from Aulani's Holo Holo Tour Desk for the day, though when our friends investigated this, it would have cost them about $80/day, whereas we got a rental car for 6 days for $180 through DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com.

3. They also informed us that the Adult Quiet Pool would be closed due to construction during our stay, is this a big deal for 2 adults?

It wasn't a big deal to we two adults! There are plenty of other bodies of water to hang out in, and if one of them gets too noisy/splashy, you can always go find another that isn't.

4. Any suggestions for food or entertainment during our stay and do we need reservations?

We only made a reservation for Alan Wong's Restaurant in Honolulu (THE best meal of our trip and one of the best we've had EVER). At Aulani we pretty much walked in whenever, but perhaps it was a slow time (first week of February). I'm doing a trip report about our Aulani visit right now that's also packed with a lot of planning details (prices, hours, links), which you might find helpful. You can find it here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3068356

 

[dreamlinda]

Renting a car might turn out to be the cheapest way to go.

My guess is that the Wailana Quiet Pool won't reopen until all the construction is completed.

Hope this information helps. I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay at Aulani!

Ditto to the above, we found renting a car was cheaper and certainly more fun and flexible than using other transportation.

And, about that "Quiet pool" ~ when we visited it was being used most of the time by people with small children. I think it seemed safer and easier to keep an eye on the small ones in the quiet pool than in the Valley, and we found lovely quiet areas of the Valley to enjoy so it was a win / win.

Have a super time, I know we did!!!

 

[epgirl]

Aulani recommends booking airport transfers with Charley's Taxi Service. www.charleystaxi.com They have a flat one-way fee of $55. I, however, will be renting a car during my stay.

 

[Meemoo]

Hey there,

We are booking a Standard View Deluxe Studio for our next trip - does anyone know what would be ideal to put in as a request to avoid the less pleasant standard view rooms?

 

[letitsnow]

Here is what we requested for our stay in an ocean view studio in January:

"First choice: high floor with room number ending in 04, such as 1404;
Next choice: high floor with room number ending in 54 or 56, such as
1654;
Last choice: high floor with room number ending in 64, such as 1664."

We were given 1656 and we loved it. It had the non-angled lanai, so there was plenty of room. We were next to 1654, which has a slight obstruction due to the Aulani arch (this is not present on any floor other than the 16th).

Because you are travelling with others in a island view, I would probably not ask for anything in the Wainae building (XX04 or XX10). Instead I would add high floor with room number ending in 84 (long wing of Ewa buidling, closest to ocean, angled lanai).

For the island view, I would ask for the other rooms to be on the same floor as the ocean view, preferably in the long wing of the Ewa building.

I hope this helps. -- Suzanne

We got room 954 and I feel like I had the best room in the hotel...until we toured the Grand Villa room 1001.

Thank you for your suggestions! We absolutely loved it there! Even having to stay in a studio since that's all we could afford it was still great! The room was perfect for my family of 5.

We got spoiled as we are checked into Sheraton Princess and it is really depressing.so if you can't decide to stay at aulani at the beginning or the end of your trip...for sure do it at the end!!

I'll have to figure out how to upload pictures from my phone.

 

[wdrl]

Hey there,

We are booking a Standard View Deluxe Studio for our next trip - does anyone know what would be ideal to put in as a request to avoid the less pleasant standard view rooms?

Aulani's Standard View one-bedroom villas are facing either the street, the island, or the convention center. I'd try to get as high a floor as possible -- Standard View villas can be as high as the 7th floor -- just to get a little better view of things.

You won't have to worry about seeing or hearing much from the construction from your villa. All the the Standard View villas (excluding the Grand Villas) are on the opposite side of the resort, away from the current construction sites. You will be assigned either the Ewa Phase 1 Building, which is physically closest to the lobby and General Store, or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building Phase 3. Since the same bank of elevators services both wings, it really doesn't matter which wing you end up with.

The word 'Standard' denotes the view classification of the villa. At Aulani, the Standard View villas are the least expensive of the four view categories. However, this is the category that most likely will have views of the driveway, the street, the parking lot, or other buildings.

At Aulani, the Standard View studio villas are located either in the Ewa Building closest to the lobby (villas with room numbers ending xx55 or xx57), or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building (villas with room numbers ending xx65 or xx69). Based on the reports I have read, neither Building offers better views than the other.

I cut and pasted some earlier comments I posted about Standard View Villas. Just five posts before this post lurkyloo posted a photo of the view from Standard View #457, which has the dubious distinction of "Least Appealing View" at Aulani. So unless you get villa #457, you'll end up with a so-so view.

Keep in mind that even though the view from your Standard View villa might not be much, you'll still be situated in a great resort.

Have fun on your stay!

 

[Disneypal]

The word 'villa' is a catch-all word used for all DVC vacation homes regardless of size. A Standard View Villa might be a studio, a one-bedroom, a two-bedroom, or even a three-bedroom vacation home.
The word 'Standard' denotes the view classification of the villa. At Aulani, the Standard View villas are the least expensive of the four view categories. However, this is the category that most likely will have views of the driveway, the street, the parking lot, or other buildings.
At Aulani, the Standard View studio villas are located either in the Ewa Building closest to the lobby (villas with room numbers ending xx55 or xx57), or the Short Wing of the Ewa Building (villas with room numbers ending xx65 or xx69). Based on the reports I have read, neither Building offers better views than the other.

Thank you for the clarification!

A one way taxi ride from Honolulu Airport to Aulani will run about $60-$80, and I have heard some reports as high as $100. I haven't explored shuttle services and their prices, but they might be a bit less than taxi fares.
Renting a car might turn out to be the cheapest way to go. I know it was for us. At the seven month mark, I reserved a car from Alamo for 8 days at the cost of about $470, fees included. Periodically, I checked prices to see if I could get something cheaper. About six weeks before our trip, Alamo was offering a mid-size car for about $135 for the same 8 day period. I canceled our original reservation and rebooked a car at the lower price.
By having a car, we were able to do some sightseeing on Oahu (North Shore, Pearl Harbor). Also, we drove to the Super Target in Kapolei and bought milk, bread, lunch meat, TV dinners, etc. This allowed us to eat in our villa for some meals, helping us cut down on our meal expenses.

Since we are only going to be at Aulani for 3 days we wanted to immerse ourselves in all this Aulani and hadn't planned on leaving plus we didn't want to pay the steep price for parking. After reading the post about lack of food choices and high prices we are rethinking. We are also checking out Cloud Nine, Go808 and Charlies Taxi on recommendations. Thanks!!!

The official Aulani website states that all of the construction projects won't be completed until September 2013. My guess is that the Wailana Quiet Pool won't reopen until all the construction is completed. When we were at Aulani in September 2012, we used the Wailana Pool a few times. But even if it hadn't been available to us, we would have found lots of other places around the main pool. So, in my opinion, the loss of the Wailana pool won't put a damper on enjoying Aulani.

Thank YOU!

You can probably wait until you arrive at Aulani to make reservations for Ama Ama and/or Makahiki. Ama Ama is relatively expensive and the reviews have ranged from great to poor. we had a really good dinner at Ama Ama, but at $175 for a dinner with wine for two, it wasn't a place that I'd eat at frequently.

Glad to hear that it isn't like WDW where if you don't have a reservation you probably won't get to eat there. After taking in what everyone has said about Ama Ama I think we will be skipping due to lack of enthusiasm and price.

...Or the ROOF of another building!
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...751192d4c3.jpg
Standard View Villa could refer to any type of room with a Standard View (studio, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom). I would say to request 5th floor or higher—our Standard View Studio was on the 4th floor and that was our view. Granted, if we'd been in the rooms on either side of us, the view would have been better, so really all you want to do is avoid Room #457.

Let me first say that your thread and post are amazing and so helpful! Your room suggestions have been noted and request have been sent. Sorry about your room!

We hired Go 808 Express to get our friends out to Aulani from the airport, and they really liked them. It was $55 each way. We rented a car because we had a ton of sightseeing we wanted to do. People who plan to spend most of their time at the resort sometimes just rent a car from Aulani's Holo Holo Tour Desk for the day, though when our friends investigated this, it would have cost them about $80/day, whereas we got a rental car for 6 days for $180 through DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com.

We are in the process of checking out the above mentioned services. Thanks again!!!

It wasn't a big deal to we two adults! There are plenty of other bodies of water to hang out in, and if one of them gets too noisy/splashy, you can always go find another that isn't.

Great to know and after reading all of your thread I value your opinion!

We only made a reservation for Alan Wong's Restaurant in Honolulu (THE best meal of our trip and one of the best we've had EVER). At Aulani we pretty much walked in whenever, but perhaps it was a slow time (first week of February). I'm doing a trip report about our Aulani visit right now that's also packed with a lot of planning details (prices, hours, links), which you might find helpful. You can find it here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3068356

If we decide to rent a car Alan Wong's and Leonard's are at the top of my list!

Ditto to the above, we found renting a car was cheaper and certainly more fun and flexible than using other transportation.
And, about that "Quiet pool" ~ when we visited it was being used most of the time by people with small children. I think it seemed safer and easier to keep an eye on the small ones in the quiet pool than in the Valley, and we found lovely quiet areas of the Valley to enjoy so it was a win / win.
Have a super time, I know we did!!!

Examining cost effectiveness, dining options and car rental/shuttle companies as I type. Thanks for the encouraging review on the quiet pool vs quiet areas in the Valley. We will be looking for your hidden spots in the Valley. We are so excited and thrilled to be spending another anniversary with Disney!

Aulani recommends booking airport transfers with Charley's Taxi Service. www.charleystaxi.com They have a flat one-way fee of $55. I, however, will be renting a car during my stay.

I have sent a request for a quote but when I asked Aulani they only gave me the info for Cloud Nine who I have also sent a quote request.

We got spoiled as we are checked into Sheraton Princess and it is really depressing.so if you can't decide to stay at aulani at the beginning or the end of your trip...for sure do it at the end!!

We are staying in Oahu for a couple days at the beginning of our trip at Hilton Hawaiian Village (stayed there before and it is very nice), then going over to The Big Island for several days and staying at Hilton Wiakoloa Village (never been there) and then returning to Oahu and going to Aulani. I had been torn as to stay at Aulani at the beginning or the end but was happy to see your suggestion!

Thank you all so much for your wisdom and suggestions we can't tell you how much it means!

 

[NC State Tigger]

We are booked in a 2 bedroom ocean view and another studio ocean view for our Oct trip to Aulani. Will we have "angled" lanais or is there a request we could make that would get us "non-angled lanais"? Which would have more space?

The floorplans I've looked at show the angled lanais with dedicated 2 bedrooms having a lanai off the master bedroom and one off the living area, but not off the 2nd bedroom. The lock-off 2 bedrooms show an additional lanai off the "studio" portion as well. Is this correct? If so, I guess we need to decide if we want to loose the addition bed to gain the lanai. DD, DSiL and DGD(3 yrs old) would be in the 2nd bedroom. Right now I have the dedicated booked, but the lock off is still available for our dates. Which do you think would be better for us?