Can't believe we are already back from Aulani

[lovetotraveltx]

Our two-weeks flew. Got back to Texas past midnight.

Had an awesome trip. Will post a report and pictures soon!

 

[AZMermaid]

Can't wait to see pics are hear about your trip!

 

[DVCTigger]

Looking forward to your report and pictures....DH and I leave tomorrow for our 19 night trip!!

 

[DenLo]

Love to see your photos and hear about the trip. Have a good rest.

 

[CocosMeme]

That is the only drawback to booking trips 7 months to a year out. You spend so long planning, anticipating, and looking forward to it that when it is over it is a bummer! WE had so much fun at Aulani almost 2 years ago and really want to go back. Oh but the happy memories!

 

[Girimama33]

Coming back sucks! My poor DH suffered withdrawals for a week. Fortunately, he wanted to start planning our next trip to get him in a better mood. We are going to Maui for a week in March and then Oahu for 4 days. We weren't planning on going to Aulani originally, but now it looks like that is going to be where we spend our Oahu days/nights.

Can't wait to hear the details about your trip!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Can't wait to see your pictures! We have 6 more sleeps until Hawaii!!

 

[3monkeys4me]

That is the only drawback to booking trips 7 months to a year out. You spend so long planning, anticipating, and looking forward to it that when it is over it is a bummer! WE had so much fun at Aulani almost 2 years ago and really want to go back. Oh but the happy memories!

YES!! We have been planning our trip for a long, long time. Like almost 2 years. We started planning when our friends first got orders to Hickam and then needed to put in Dh's time off 16 months in advance. Originally, we weren't going to stay at Aulani at all since the primary reason for our visit to to spend time with our friends but since their kids will be in school for thee first week we are there we decided to stay at Aulani.

OP, I can't wait to see your pictures! We have a little less than 4 months to go.

 

[jerseygal]

Our two-weeks flew. Got back to Texas past midnight.

Had an awesome trip. Will post a report and pictures soon!

Goes so fast! Wow!

Hope that you had an AWESOME TRIP!
I was "dragging" for a few days after...Took me awhile to "recharge"..
A GORGEOUS place!

Always fun planning the "next one"!

 

[Anal Annie]

I can't believe we just got home a few hours ago too!! Time really flew by!! I also hope to find time to write a TR (although it may take awhile to get around to it with DS's school about to start next week). We finished our trip with 3 nights on Maui where we went to Haleakala for sunrise and tried zip lining. We had a late night (9:40 pm) flight last night out of Maui via Portland and got back to DC around 5:40 pm today. I'm pretty whipped right now. It was an amazing trip and we really liked Aulani. I think my biggest peeve with the resort was the lack of affordable onsite CS meal options after 5:30. Unless you want to eat appetizers, the Ulu Cafe is your only option.

Locally we also ate at Monkey Pod, Pizza Corner, Roy's and the Hard Rock Cafe in Waikiki. I think we had 3 dinners at Ulu Cafe simply because it was our only option. We did not try Ama Ama but did try Makahiki one night. It was good, but pricey.

We hope we can afford the flights back again in a few years. It's a shame the airfare is such a killer.

 

[wdrl]

I can't believe we just got home a few hours ago too!!

We hope we can afford the flights back again in a few years. It's a shame the airfare is such a killer.

Welcome back, Anal Annie. Get some rest and please fill us in on the details of your trip.

 

[jerseygal]

I can't believe we just got home a few hours ago too!! Time really flew by!! I also hope to find time to write a TR (although it may take awhile to get around to it with DS's school about to start next week). We finished our trip with 3 nights on Maui where we went to Haleakala for sunrise and tried zip lining. We had a late night (9:40 pm) flight last night out of Maui via Portland and got back to DC around 5:40 pm today. I'm pretty whipped right now. It was an amazing trip and we really liked Aulani. I think my biggest peeve with the resort was the lack of affordable onsite CS meal options after 5:30. Unless you want to eat appetizers, the Ulu Cafe is your only option.

Locally we also ate at Monkey Pod, Pizza Corner, Roy's and the Hard Rock Cafe in Waikiki. I think we had 3 dinners at Ulu Cafe simply because it was our only option. We did not try Ama Ama but did try Makahiki one night. It was good, but pricey.

We hope we can afford the flights back again in a few years. It's a shame the airfare is such a killer.

Yes, it is a shame that airfare is SO EXPENSIVE and long flights to the east coast!
Sounds like Maui was beautiful as well!
Glad that you had a WONDERFUL VACA!

 

[Anal Annie]

I am unpacking & doing laundry today and just completed my online survey that they sent us from Aulani. I was pleased to see that it looks like they are addressing a couple of the other issues we had noticied by asking about them on the survey. It was much, much more thorough than any survey I've done for any of the WDW resorts. I think they must be aware of the issues if they've included them on the survey - so hopefully they will address them one day. There were questions asking about the room keys (whether or not we had issues with them working which we DID) and about the wi-fi reception (which SUCKED whenever we were outside of the building). There was even a question about if we had added a room request and if it had been met (which it was not)!! These are all firsts for a Disney survey that I can remember doing and I was happy to be able to comment on them. I also made a comment on the dining part about the short hours available for an affordable meal outside of the Ulu Cafe. While the cafe was GOOD, the only thing on it that changed from day to day was the sandwich of the day (which BTW was probably the best deal in the whole resort). So it made for really limited meal options in the evenings. A fact which forces people to leave the resort for evening meals that they can afford. Perhaps if they expanded the regular menu hours at Off the Hook or offered more than appetizers at the Olelo Room more people would eat onsite?!

Even tho we had a couple of gripes we still really loved Aulani. And as we feared, wished we had done Maui first and finished with Aulani. We love Maui but can't afford to stay any place as nice so Aulani was truely special.

 

[apple9117]

can't wait to see pictures! we're going in march

 

[lovetotraveltx]

I am unpacking & doing laundry today and just completed my online survey that they sent us from Aulani. I was pleased to see that it looks like they are addressing a couple of the other issues we had noticied by asking about them on the survey. It was much, much more thorough than any survey I've done for any of the WDW resorts. I think they must be aware of the issues if they've included them on the survey - so hopefully they will address them one day. There were questions asking about the room keys (whether or not we had issues with them working which we DID) and about the wi-fi reception (which SUCKED whenever we were outside of the building). There was even a question about if we had added a room request and if it had been met (which it was not)!! These are all firsts for a Disney survey that I can remember doing and I was happy to be able to comment on them. I also made a comment on the dining part about the short hours available for an affordable meal outside of the Ulu Cafe. While the cafe was GOOD, the only thing on it that changed from day to day was the sandwich of the day (which BTW was probably the best deal in the whole resort). So it made for really limited meal options in the evenings. A fact which forces people to leave the resort for evening meals that they can afford. Perhaps if they expanded the regular menu hours at Off the Hook or offered more than appetizers at the Olelo Room more people would eat onsite?!

Even tho we had a couple of gripes we still really loved Aulani. And as we feared, wished we had done Maui first and finished with Aulani. We love Maui but can't afford to stay any place as nice so Aulani was truely special.

Just did a search for the email with the survey. Found it and I will fill it out!

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Annie, how was the Sheraton on Maui? Did you snorkel off the beach? How did your cabanas compare to each other? Thx!

 

[Anal Annie]

Annie, how was the Sheraton on Maui? Did you snorkel off the beach? How did your cabanas compare to each other? Thx!

The Sheraton was just OK and yes, we brought our snorkeling gear to go off-shore there. We stayed there in 2006 too and I would say that NOTHING had been updated or changed since then. We remembered it being a much better experience the last time we were there. Of course coming from Aulani ANY PLACE would be a step down!! But it was definitely starting to show it's age this time around (the orig. building was built 50 yrs ago). The koi pond was nasty - the water was so dark you could hardly see the fish and the tropical water lilies were in sad shape as well (I have a small garden pond at home that looks much better). The carpet in the hallways was pretty worn out too. They don't have a whole lot to offer for breakfasts. (A buffet for $30+ and A La Carte pancakes etc. for $19+ and a small Starbucks food cart with some croissants for like $5.) The only food we ate onsite was poolside - pricey but OK I guess. We did Mickey D's for breakfast one morning and pop-tarts that I'd brought from home another morning. I forget what we did the other morning. We ate out dinners in the Whaler's Village and Lahaina most of the time. They are supposedly about to start some renovations at the Sheraton, although I don't know to what to extent - but they sure do need a lot of them. Hopefully they will restore it to the kind of property it SHOULD be.

Having said all this we used Starwood points to cover our first 2 nights and got a Starwood Member rate for our 3rd night (a little over $300) so that was our only night out-of-pocket for the entire 2 weeks we were gone. So I feel like I can't complain TOOOO much for that because really, we had a deal. But if I were a full fare paying guest for every night (over $400 / n) I wouldn't have been so happy.

The cabana there at the Sheraton was OK (they call them gazebos while what they call a cabana is what they call the casabella chairs at Aulani). It doesn't really include anything except 4 dedicated lounge chairs with some space & privacy and 12 towels. There is no frig or fan or TV or anything - BUT it's also only $75 which is a DEAL compared to the $300 DVC rate at Aulani. Lounge chairs here were as equally in demand as at Aulani but they didn't enforce the chair saving thing much. Our first afternoon we got to the pool in late afternoon and found some chairs facing the beach in the grass outside the pool area - but we felt like we were almost on the public beach area - and it was downwind from the smoking spot which bothered our DS. (Maui has a lot more Europeans than on Oahu and many of them tend to chain smoke.) The first morning I got up early and went down to the pool around 7:00 to grab 3 chairs which would have some shade before we got breakfast. Even going at 7:00 I missed getting some of the "better" ones. They don't have umbrellas every 3 chairs like they do at Aulani so you really need to choose some early so you don't fry yourself. They have a few built-in permanent thatched roof umbrella things but they're pretty spread out. You'd have to go to the beach and RENT chairs and umbrellas (which they run out of if you go too late) if you want guaranteed shade. I went back to the chairs 2 or 3 times tho to add stuff to them (the towel hut thing didn't open until 8:00). But we were down there ready to use them pretty early. We were still one of the first ones to actually GO to the pool. I didn't want to do the saving bit but there's really no other way to do it. It's a totally ridiculous situation and it's way too hot there in the summer to not have some shade available. We went to Haleakala and zip lining on the next day and didn't even go to the pool at all. But we really enjoyed having that dedicated gazebo thing for our last day. It was nice to not have to rush down there at 7:00 to hawk for chairs and to take our time packing and going down. We also had extra stuff with us that day since we had to check out of the room (a backpack with a change of clothes & some toiletries etc. for our flight that night etc.). It was worth the $75. We ended up canceling our cabana at Aulani a few days before we left - they just didn't look like they were worth the $300. They were all right on top of each other and the further away from the building you got the worse the wi-fi reception was - this was a problem for DS so we tried to find chairs that at least had SOME signal. The "family" cabanas at Aulani were located outside of wi-fi range.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Thanks! We'd be staying there on points also. Sounds old and dingy, not sure that is the type of place we'd want to stay to celebrate our 25th anniversary, even if it is close to Black Rock. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

Thanks again!

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks! We'd be staying there on points also. Sounds old and dingy, not sure that is the type of place we'd want to stay to celebrate our 25th anniversary, even if it is close to Black Rock. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

Thanks again!

I'll go thru a few of my pics from the Sheraton later & upload a few for you. It just can't compare to Aulani - Aulani is a 5-star and the Sheraton is more of what I would call a 3 1/2-star now. It was probably a 4 star at some point. And for points vs CASH it's not that bad. Starwood has raised the points so high now it's hard to swing ANY nights (at least for us). We did Aulani first then Maui bcuz that's how we usually end our trips (always start with Oahu and finish with Maui and visit any other islands in-between) AND because we were using Alaska Airline and their flight schedule was much better for us (shorter layovers) to leave from Maui vs HNL. But if we'd have started here THEN gone to Aulani it would've been night & day.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks! We'd be staying there on points also. Sounds old and dingy, not sure that is the type of place we'd want to stay to celebrate our 25th anniversary, even if it is close to Black Rock. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

Thanks again!

Wow. I just flipped thru our pics and realized that I'd hardly taken ANY of the Sheraton. NONE of the lobby area or anything. I took a few cell phone pics of our room and the view from the room right when we got there. It's OK - just not as elaborate or as nice as Aulani… And if you did a cash rate comparison Aulani would be significantly more anyway and would reflect that difference.

Since we booked on pts. it was a "standard" view room on the backside of the resort near the tennis courts & parking lot. We could get a small glimpse of the ocean WAY off in the distance tho. We only had an IV studio at Aulani tho too - this trip was totally on a budget for us this time. I also took one of our gazebo there & one of one of the poolside restaurants. You can see in that one the type of thatched roof umbrella thingys like what they have around the pool.

DH (in the white rash guard) getting ready to jump off Black Rock

I would say if you're looking for something nicer and you have the points (or if money is no object) try to book the Westin Ocean Resort Villas. We didn't have enough points to do that one this time and I really didn't want to pay out-of-pocket for more than 1 night so we went with the Sheraton.