Best time to go for smaller crowds

[chefconti]

We're planning our first trip to Aulani and am having a hard time figuring out when the best time to go is for smaller crowds. Obviously the summer months and major holidays are busy, but what about beyond that? Any insight or chart would be very helpful. We would ideally like to go during the first two weeks of December for 10 nights. Thanks!

 

[GooglyBear808]

I can only give my input on our stay at Aulani (May 9, 2016 - May 14, 2016), the resort didn't feel crowded at all! We always found a chair or two by the pools, we always found a seat at Olelo Room during happy hour and Aunty's Beach House didn't ever have a line to drop off or pick up our children. The line for the water slides was at most 15 minutes! The only 'busy' area was around the main entrance, the front desk, and Kalepa's Store. More people will chime in with their experience in staying in the beginning of December!

 

[catmegs]

We went the second week of November... in the mornings it felt practically deserted (I have pictures of us swimming in the pools/ lazy river and being the only people there!). It was incredible, but two drawbacks. Being the slowest week the slides were down for maintenance, and the weekends were still swamped with locals. If you want to get technical you can guess slow times by using other crowd calendars e.g. check for Disneyland crowds and assume similar crowd ratings. Also factor in Japanese holidays (e.g. Golden Week). Also a safe bet that if rates are low on the Aulani booking website, expect lower crowds. Beginning of December should be moderately low.... but plan to sightsee outside of the resorts on the weekends to avoid the weekend crowds.