Aulani, What view do you suggest?

[ToodlesRN]

I will be booking our stay soon for May and wondering what the views look like from the room? I've googled for pictures but am only getting pictures of the rooms not pictures from the balcony of the view.

Im leaning towards the island view, pool view and ocean view. I did see an ocean view picture and it looked so far away like they weren't even on the beach front more from the side, if thats the case I'd rather save my points and book another view room.

Anyone have any suggestions and/or pictures from the room with the view?

Thanks!!

 

[vacationclub]

I will be booking our stay soon for May and wondering what the views look like from the room? I've googled for pictures but am only getting pictures of the rooms not pictures from the balcony of the view.

Im leaning towards the island view, pool view and ocean view. I did see an ocean view picture and it looked so far away like they weren't even on the beach front more from the side, if thats the case I'd rather save my points and book another view room.

Anyone have any suggestions and/or pictures from the room with the view?

Thanks!!

You can watch my video below. Parts are shot from an Ocean View Deluxe Studio on the DVC tower. It's closer to the lobby part, so you're physically farther away from the ocean, but you see the entire pool area below you then the ocean beyond that straight out. The closer you get to the ocean the more you are forced to turn your head to see the ocean to the side, unless you stay at an end unit that looks straight out, which I think are the most expensive larger villas.

The ocean view was well worth it. Sunsets every night, just amazing.

 

[ToodlesRN]

You can watch my video below. Parts are shot from an Ocean View Deluxe Studio on the DVC tower. It's closer to the lobby part, so you're physically farther away from the ocean, but you see the entire pool area below you then the ocean beyond that straight out. The closer you get to the ocean the more you are forced to turn your head to see the ocean to the side, unless you stay at an end unit that looks straight out, which I think are the most expensive larger villas.

The ocean view was well worth it. Sunsets every night, just amazing.

Thanks! the video was great. I have the feeling that the units on the end are the grand villas. I'm use to when we stay on Waikiki beach the ocean view rooms are right on the beach side front. So I was surprised to see that not only do you get the ocean view you also get the pool area too!

 

[ACDSNY]

I started out with a island view for our January trip and later changed it to a pool view as the pool area looks great. I didn't have enough points left for the oceanview so it wasn't an option for me.

vacationclub - beautiful video of the resort. I'm almost to single digit countdown and can't wait.

 

[taaren]

Just got back from a stay in an OV studio. My first choice would have been standard, second choice pool but we only made the reservation about a month out ... here's the view looking down from the studio:

and here is one looking out towards the ocean:

and even though we can see the ocean any time we like from our driveway the view from the 10th floor was truly breathtaking and we spent a lot of time on our balcony ... that being said if we went again I think I'd have to go pool view since its the same view only floors one through severn.

 

[vacationclub]

I started out with a island view for our January trip and later changed it to a pool view as the pool area looks great. I didn't have enough points left for the oceanview so it wasn't an option for me.

vacationclub - beautiful video of the resort. I'm almost to single digit countdown and can't wait.

Thanks, Aulani and Oahu are simply incredible. If you listen to the DIS podcasts, take their advice about the food. There is simply NO PLACE to eat at Aulani that doesn't require you to sign a mortgage. Rent a car...absolutely rent a car, even if at the resort just one day at a time.
Aulani's food options are this:
-Ama Ama, "fine dining" (and I use that term loosely) that cost us $184 including tip for two people, each with one drink, and then we were hungry and went to the store for snacks afterwards.
-A buffet (cant think of the name) but it cost's over $40 per person each time.
-A quick service bar only open at certain times, but again about $12-$18 with limited selection, barely anything resembling a good ol' burger or wrap.
-And, the store where you buy hot pockets, frozen pizza, bagels, etc and heat them in your microwave....that's it. We did a lot of that after seeing the insane food prices and lack of choices.
-there's room service that we didn't try, but the Podcast reports that the service was bad and the prices outrageous for simple food.

For the rest, walk across the street to a few places to buy supplies (ABC store) or eat in a few restaurants for half the cost and twice the quality, or drive your car a few miles into the retail area for all the chains including Chilis, Subway, etc. etc. Even walk to some other resorts and use their restaurants. Aulani food is ridiculous.

 

[ToodlesRN]

Just called for the dates we want and the cast member said she stayed in a standard view and it was perfect had views of the landscaping. That being said I was going to book that view as we have another trip later in 2012 and want to have enough points for both trips. The only rooms available are the pool view and ocean view for the whole stay.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Just got back from a stay in an OV studio. My first choice would have been standard, second choice pool but we only made the reservation about a month out ... here's the view looking down from the studio:

and here is one looking out towards the ocean:

and even though we can see the ocean any time we like from our driveway the view from the 10th floor was truly breathtaking and we spent a lot of time on our balcony ... that being said if we went again I think I'd have to go pool view since its the same view only floors one through severn.

I wonder if you can request 7th floor if you go with pool-view? I know a request is not guaranteed, but it might be worth a try. Hmmmm.....

 

[ToodlesRN]

I wonder if you can request 7th floor if you go with pool-view? I know a request is not guaranteed, but it might be worth a try. Hmmmm.....

Good idea!!

 

[vacationclub]

Good idea!!

I think the floor height determines the view category. For example we had an ocean view, but if we were below a certain floor level that same position becomes a pool view because the pool is simply in the way.

 

[ACDSNY]

Thanks, Aulani and Oahu are simply incredible. If you listen to the DIS podcasts, take their advice about the food. There is simply NO PLACE to eat at Aulani that doesn't require you to sign a mortgage. Rent a car...absolutely rent a car, even if at the resort just one day at a time.

For the rest, walk across the street to a few places to buy supplies (ABC store) or eat in a few restaurants for half the cost and twice the quality, or drive your car a few miles into the retail area for all the chains including Chilis, Subway, etc. etc. Even walk to some other resorts and use their restaurants. Aulani food is ridiculous.

Thanks for the advice. I doubt we get to cover too much of the island as we're only there for 3 nights and primarily to go to Pearl Harbor.

This is just a quickie stop at Aulani to check it out to see if we want to bring the extended family out in a year or two when a couple of the younger ones are a little older.

We'll have a car for the whole trip and will eat out and about while we're site seeing around the island most of the time. I did schedule one character breakfast just to check it out.

Normally we'd stop and buy groceries, but since it's such a short stay before heading to Kauai and Maui we're just winging it.

 

[spleen]

Our views from our pool view room balcony on the 3rd floor (lobby level)

 

[ToodlesRN]

Our views from our pool view room balcony on the 3rd floor (lobby level)

Great pics spleen!! Since you live in Hawaii maybe you can help me out by picking final dates? Trying to avoid major crowds heard the end of April and first week of May are busy, the Japanese are celebrating a holiday other than that anything else?
All are a Tuesday to Tuesday stay
April 17-24th
May 8-15th
May 15-22nd

Thanks!

 

[lilpooh108]

Just got back from our 4 night stay, pics & report will follow shortly but the view thing was an interesting topic we discussed all week long.

Pool view is no higher than 5th floor (according to the DVC guide who gave us the Grand Villa tour), so you can request 7th floor but you will not get it. The CMs at Member Services booking your stay might put in your request, but you will not get it. We called Aulani and they said that they have a hard time figuring out room requests placed by MS since the configuration of the buildings/view assignments are different once you get there. It seems like different CMs may be giving out different info on what floor constitutes what view---the varying info from CMs was an issue we had while staying at Aulani (not a biggie, but it seems like there were alot of people being trained and big wigs from Orlando present at the time that we were there--right before Christmas).

Island view is anything that faces the mountain side, which is 6th floor (I believe) and above. This means that if you book a standard view, you will very likely stare into the parking structure. I booked an island view, and I was on the 9th floor overlooking the valet parking structure. We hated the view. We could hear traffic and see lights from the parking structure. I guess it could have been worse--if we were lower we would have stared into the parking structure.

Ocean view units (anything less than a grand villa) will have a slanted view of the ocean overlooking the pool area. The ONLY units with direct ocean "front" views (i.e., the two faces of the Ewa and Waiane towers facing the lagoon) are reserved for Grand Villas. This means that your oceanview studio will have a slanted balcony towards the ocean.

Hope this helps.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Just got back from our 4 night stay, pics & report will follow shortly but the view thing was an interesting topic we discussed all week long.

Pool view is no higher than 5th floor (according to the DVC guide who gave us the Grand Villa tour), so you can request 7th floor but you will not get it. The CMs at Member Services booking your stay might put in your request, but you will not get it. We called Aulani and they said that they have a hard time figuring out room requests placed by MS since the configuration of the buildings/view assignments are different once you get there. It seems like different CMs may be giving out different info on what floor constitutes what view---the varying info from CMs was an issue we had while staying at Aulani (not a biggie, but it seems like there were alot of people being trained and big wigs from Orlando present at the time that we were there--right before Christmas).

Island view is anything that faces the mountain side, which is 6th floor (I believe) and above. This means that if you book a standard view, you will very likely stare into the parking structure. I booked an island view, and I was on the 9th floor overlooking the valet parking structure. We hated the view. We could hear traffic and see lights from the parking structure. I guess it could have been worse--if we were lower we would have stared into the parking structure.

Ocean view units (anything less than a grand villa) will have a slanted view of the ocean overlooking the pool area. The ONLY units with direct ocean "front" views (i.e., the two faces of the Ewa and Waiane towers facing the lagoon) are reserved for Grand Villas. This means that your oceanview studio will have a slanted balcony towards the ocean.

Hope this helps.

Ok, then maybe I will book a pool-view and request highest floor possible. Even though those 3rd floor pictures are stunning!!! It just looks like you can't go wrong with a pool-view, huh?

 

[CarolynK]

I wonder if you can request 7th floor if you go with pool-view? I know a request is not guaranteed, but it might be worth a try. Hmmmm.....

We just returned (early this morning) from seven nights in a 2-BR OV and we were on the 7th floor. Does it say somewhere that floors 1-7 are pool view?? I'm interested to know, because, while we could see the ocean from our balcony (though barely from inside the room itself), this was not the view I expected at all. The pool is beautiful, but if we ever go back, we definitely will save points and go with Island Gardens view. The building also matters: we were in the Waianae Tower, and it looked like the Ewa Tower would have better OV's; we could not see the sunset from our villa. Most of the Ewa Tower isn't open yet.

 

[ACDSNY]

Ok, then maybe I will book a pool-view and request highest floor possible. Even though those 3rd floor pictures are stunning!!! It just looks like you can't go wrong with a pool-view, huh?

That was my thought too. I'll let you know if it works for us.

 

[ACDSNY]

We just returned (early this morning) from seven nights in a 2-BR OV and we were on the 7th floor. Does it say somewhere that floors 1-7 are pool view?? I'm interested to know, because, while we could see the ocean from our balcony (though barely from inside the room itself), this was not the view I expected at all.

I believe the oceanview category starts on the 6th floor, 1 - 5 are pool view.

 

[spleen]

Great pics spleen!! Since you live in Hawaii maybe you can help me out by picking final dates? Trying to avoid major crowds heard the end of April and first week of May are busy, the Japanese are celebrating a holiday other than that anything else?
All are a Tuesday to Tuesday stay
April 17-24th
May 8-15th
May 15-22nd

Thanks!

Golden Week (which is the big Japanese holiday) starts around 4/28th and ends around 5/6th. As you get closer to summer, the hotels in general tend to get busier because of graduation travel and summer travel (from the Japanese side of things). I personally would go that April week that you're thinking about but any of those 3 weeks would probably work out OK.

We just returned (early this morning) from seven nights in a 2-BR OV and we were on the 7th floor. Does it say somewhere that floors 1-7 are pool view?? I'm interested to know, because, while we could see the ocean from our balcony (though barely from inside the room itself), this was not the view I expected at all. The pool is beautiful, but if we ever go back, we definitely will save points and go with Island Gardens view. The building also matters: we were in the Waianae Tower, and it looked like the Ewa Tower would have better OV's; we could not see the sunset from our villa. Most of the Ewa Tower isn't open yet.

I'd agree, I think the Ewa Tower would have better OVs and you'd have a better chance of catching sunsets. We were in the Waianae Tower and were definitely oriented the wrong direction to see anything resembling a sunset. Of course, it's really easy to go downstairs to watch the sunset off the pool deck too.

We spent a lot of time in the room (because of our small kids) but actually didn't spend a lot of time on the balcony. When (not if!) we go back to Aulani, we'll go for the cheapest view that we can find - standard if we can get it and if not, island view, in order to save points.

 

[CarolynK]

...I'd agree, I think the Ewa Tower would have better OVs and you'd have a better chance of catching sunsets. We were in the Waianae Tower and were definitely oriented the wrong direction to see anything resembling a sunset. Of course, it's really easy to go downstairs to watch the sunset off the pool deck too.

We spent a lot of time in the room (because of our small kids) but actually didn't spend a lot of time on the balcony. When (not if!) we go back to Aulani, we'll go for the cheapest view that we can find - standard if we can get it and if not, island view, in order to save points.

Too true about the sunset, I know, I know....

We actually kept the balcony door in the living room wide open quite often, to enjoy the incredible weather, and it was windy enough most of the week that we had a great breeze blowing in. Our kids are 16 & 14, so no worries there