Considering buying Aulani

[KayKayJS]

Hi guys! We have rented points to go to Aulani twice in the last 2 years. Last year we did the DVC tour and it made us want to buy in even more, but at the price I knew I could do better on resale.

As a new potential buyer, I just have a few questions.

About us:
-Live in Orlando/AP holders
-Currently just a couple + baby on the way, but envision potentially borrowing/banking or paying for points to take both sides of family to Aulani
-Love Disney's Vero Beach
-We will travel in the non-peak seasons as we have a lot of flexibility on dates

Questions:
-Does it make sense for us to buy at Aulani or elsewhere? This is likely where we'd use the points most of the time. Probably every two years for a week. For a while, just a studio would be fine. We do live in Orlando so we can take advantage of staycations and be very flexible if we wanted to use the points here at home. We also LOVE vero beach so we will definitely use them there some too.
- Use year? If we tend to travel to Aulani in Fall/Winter , do we need to buy August use year? I saw a smaller contract with a June use year I was interested in making an offer on.
-How many points? Should we just get enough for a studio every 2 years? Somewhere around 75pts? I figure if we like it we can add on later, and we would likely have to, if we wanted to do a grand villa at Aulani when the baby on the way is 4-5.

Any suggestions or information I should know before putting in an offer?

Thanks!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I am going to say what I say a lot: The only real value of Aulani points is to travel to and stay at Aulani. I would not recommend them as "network points" to book mostly elsewhere, or as a direct purchase (since most of the "member perks" don't apply for Hawaii).

A few other thoughts:

• What do you think of as peak seasons? For DVC in Orlando, peak is October through the marathon in January, plus any long weekend or runDisney weekend. At Aulani, highest demand includes times like late May-early June, as well as every holiday.
• If you buy Aulani, buy points enough for a view, not just Standrd. Standard is a very small category at Aulani. You would need to be booking 11 months out.
• Long term, will you have the flexibility you have now? Keep that in mind.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If the main intent of the points is actually for Aulani then it probably makes sense to buy Aulani points. I don't know if you are aware but there are contracts with subsidized dues that you can run across now and then. The cost per point of those is more than non-subsidize but if you hang onto the contract for a number of years it might be worthwhile to look at those as the MF's are lower. I'd recomment buying around the amount you'd need for your intended travel To go every other year you can use banking or borrowing so buy 1/2 the required points for the stay. I'd give a tiny bit of cushion but as you mention you can add on if that became necessary. For a one time GV stay I'd probably look at a point transfer into your account vs purchasing a contract to cover it.

 

[jodybird511]

I, personally, would not find 75 points to be enough, b/c I would never want to stay in a studio. Although I'm sure the studios are perfectly comfortable, as you know (since you've been there before), food is SOOOOO expensive at Aulani, so you can save a very significant amount of money by doing, at least, breakfasts and some lunches in your villa. For that reason alone, I feel like it's worth it to buy enough points to get a one-bedroom. Agree with Aurora, though, even if you are planning on a studio, you also need to be budgeting for view other than standard, given the small inventory. Also, you mentioned just being a couple with a baby on the way now, but will you remain a family of 3 forever? Even if you do, do you want to be "stuck" in a studio all together when your now-baby is a teen? It's important to plan for the long term.

 

[disneynutz]

What will owning Aulani gain you? What will owning a resort at WDW gain you?

Bill