We were at Aulani last month. The resort exceeded our expectations. It is fantastic! The service was up to Disney standards. We had no issues with our room. The pool chair situation is bad. There simply is not enough space for the number of pool chairs for the amount of people the resort holds. People will send out a member of their family to go out at 7:00 a.m. and park themselves in a chair to reserve chairs for their family for the day. If you are not sitting there at 8 when the pool officially opens, then they remove all your things, but if someone is in one of the chairs, they do not. People rush out at the official opening at 8 to find chairs because then they can leave the stuff there and go back to their rooms. During the day, the rule is that if you are not at the chairs for an hour, then they will remove your things and you have to go get them at the area where you get wristbands and towels- we only saw them attempting to enforce that rule in the afternoons- and then it is a difficult rule to enforce.
It is not hard to get a chair in the beach area- it is the pool area where there are issues. The first day we did the character breakfast so we did not get out to the pool until 10, and we could not find even one chair all day- just empty chairs everywhere with people's things on them. That day, we did not see them enforce anything all day. We just moved our stuff around and found a spot to drop it in the area where we were. The second day we got out about 9 because I could not get DD moving and there were no chairs to be found anywhere. A few hours later, we wound up finding a chair in the sun in the very back corner of the pool area. I was sitting there for quite a while and I saw very few people in that area, mostly just chairs with things on them. They were enforcing in the afternoon. They put the warning towels up next to us and I told them I would move to the chair next to me under an umbrella when they moved the stuff, but when they did move the things, someone was following them and then grabbed the chair before I could even move my shoe from my chair to that one to grab it. Of course, then those people left to play, so I was sitting in the sun again with the empty umbrella chair next to me. If you aren't out before 8, you can forget about a chair anywhere that you can actually see the pool- at least that was how it was when we were there in July. Our other resort day, I went out at 8:10 and Dad's were literally racing out the door running to try to get chairs like they were at rope drop at the parks- or trying to get to Anna and Elsa in their peak days. At 8:10, I did manage to find a chair with an umbrella way in the back (where you can't even see the pool because of the rows of chairs in front of you), but by 8:45 there were no chairs left anywhere that I could see. Even so, the resort was absolutely fantastic and while an annoyance, the issue did not hamper our trip. I would not hesitate to go back to Aulani. We absolutely love it there!
Waaaaaa - ok next... Anyone know of any comparable hotels in the area? I know I know... nothing really compares to Disney. I heard Sheraton Waikiki? UG so bummed. Thanks again ya'all 
