Deciding on view at Aulani

[Psychodisney]

I remember seeing some threads with pictures of views from peoples' villlas but I can't find them.

We're trying to decide what to go for. Part of me says go all out and get the ocean view. This may be our only trip to Hawaii. The other part of me says it is a big point difference for 10 days to have ocean view vs. standard view.

Does anyone have any pics of views to help us decide?

Thanks!

 

[darly2004]

We are not DVC owners, but considering to be. Aulani is one of the properties that is luring me in since I LOVE Hawaii. To me, it is completely worth it to have an oceanview in Hawaii. There is nothing like being able to wake up in the morning and be able to see the ocean from your balcony.

One question... how booked up is the Aulani now? If we decide to buy it may be resale for another resort (maybe AKL). I just want to make sure it will be possible for us to get the Aulani 7 months out. We are thinking of doing Hawaii in 2012.

 

[Psychodisney]

I haven't heard anyone not being able to get their 2012 dates We'll see.......

 

[jjwelch24]

We booked in October for a stay over Spring Break week and had no trouble getting a room.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Since we have to book at the 7 month window, I suspect we'll take whichever two bedroom view we can get. I'm kind of hoping for preferred view at the very least.

 

[slowly]

I remember seeing some threads with pictures of views from peoples' villlas but I can't find them.

We're trying to decide what to go for. Part of me says go all out and get the ocean view. This may be our only trip to Hawaii. The other part of me says it is a big point difference for 10 days to have ocean view vs. standard view.

Does anyone have any pics of views to help us decide?

Thanks!

IMO it really doesn't matter the view at Aulani since the beach is just steps away. Trust me, I would rather save the points and either stay longer or come back sooner if you can. The resort has so much to offer that you end up being outside since it's so nice. We were upgraded to the "OV" in our 1 bdrm and the best view I had was the pool. Yes, I can see the ocean but it wasn't a clear view of it.

 

[taaren]

If you want to spend time on your balcony, I'd say ask if Island View is available if you want to save points.
Standard View I've seen some reports that people were pretty disappointed in, parking lot, etc. That being said the Pool View and Ocean View are the same except OV is the higher floors.
I really wanted Island View for myself for our trip next month, though that's mostly because if we want to, we can put some beach chairs on our lawn or stand on the driveway to watch the sun setting into the ocean so the island views of the mountains are calm and relaxing to us, or even pool view would have been great since that's the primary attraction for neighbor islanders. Unfortunately all they had left by our late booking date (had to get some other ducks in a row) was ocean view so I'll post pictures of it then.

 

[buckbart]

We were making a reservation through a DVC owner last week for March 2012 and he was unable to get our first choice of dates we wanted for a 2 bdrm, island view. Thankfully there is some flexibility when we stayed and we bumped our stay there to the first part of the vacation, instead of at the end. He did reserve a 2 bdrm dedicated island view for us at the beginning.

 

[Psychodisney]

We ended up booking OV. We figured this may be our only Hawaii visit so we're going all out. I hope I won't regret my decision.

 

[slowly]

We ended up booking OV. We figured this may be our only Hawaii visit so we're going all out. I hope I won't regret my decision.

The only thing I disagree with is the fact that this may be your only trip! Since you have DVC, you should look for a credit card that enables you to get points for travel. Capital One is one I like. In addition, keep looking online for flights. I have lived in HI since 95 and travel at least once or twice a yr to the Mainland. I have family in NJ and since 95 have never paid more than $700 round trip. That includes FL! I also have paid for my parents to come out and actually I was able to get flights cheaper for them from NJ.

Once you visit Aulani, you will have many reasons to return! I feel that way and I live here. Yes, life is tough! BTW we are going this Thursday!

If you have any questions about HI and or Aulani let me know. My wife is born and raised here so if I don't know she definitely will know.

Aloha!

 

[Psychodisney]

Thanks slowly! I'll shoot questions your way for sure! I'm hoping flight go down. Right now we're looking at about $1K per ticket (5 of us). I do use Capital ONe Venture so I have points for at least one ticket. Do flight prices fluctuate(sales) for HI? We're going first week on June.

 

[taaren]

Thanks slowly! I'll shoot questions your way for sure! I'm hoping flight go down. Right now we're looking at about $1K per ticket (5 of us). I do use Capital ONe Venture so I have points for at least one ticket. Do flight prices fluctuate(sales) for HI? We're going first week on June.

They do tend to fluctuate, but also it might not drop since June gets busy here. A good fare for West Coast to Hawaii (Las Vegas, Settle, SFO, LAX, San Diego) is $400 RT, (a great fare would be $300-350, but that's generally off-season) and then I'd guess another $300 RT to get from one of those gateway cities to Illinois (I went to college in Michigan and occasionally fly there to see friends/relatives). So if you see something in the $700-$800 range per person pre-taxes & fees, snag it. If you don't you might want to think about doing the trip in multiple legs might bring the airfare down some, but then the won't transfer your luggage for you, you have to go through security again, etc. When we go farther than the West Coast we like to overnight in California to break up the long plane hours (unless we're doing stand-by travel, which is a monster all its own).

 

[slowly]

Thanks slowly! I'll shoot questions your way for sure! I'm hoping flight go down. Right now we're looking at about $1K per ticket (5 of us). I do use Capital ONe Venture so I have points for at least one ticket. Do flight prices fluctuate(sales) for HI? We're going first week on June.

Another great thing with Cap ONe is you can book rental cars on the reward site and you can either use points or your CC. For example I was able to book a 10 day full size rental from Avis for $218 w/tax in LA! I recently checked for someone for Feb in HI and it came out to $280 for a wk.

Prices start going up the first week in June your best bet is using milage if you have them. The airlines know that summer break starts. When we travel to the Mainland we always try to fly out during Memorial weekend. My suggestion is to look every morning and at night to check for fares. It only takes a couple of minutes to check. I use Orbitz to get a price range and if I see a good price I then go directly to the airline's website. Another way is to check to see how much it would be to fly from SF or LA to HI with Hawaiian Airlines. They have to fill flights coming back. You will need to make sure your flights are on time. Airlines have an agreement to check in bags for each other I think. I may be wrong though. They used to in the past.

 

[PinMan]

ocean view is the best if you have the points to spare , the sunsets are awesome . island view is the mainland or golf course , nothing great . as far as airfare 700.00 from Boston , mass.

 

[bwvBound]

We're trying to decide what to go for. Part of me says go all out and get the ocean view. This may be our only trip to Hawaii. The other part of me says it is a big point difference for 10 days to have ocean view vs. standard view.

So find a happy place in between: POOL VIEW?

We did 8 nights in an Ocean View unit in September and certainly enjoyed it as we spend lots of time on our balcony. For future trips, we both agreed we would be content to save points by booking the pool view instead. Pool/Ocean units share similar direction/view except that pool view units have "obstructed views" thanks to the lovely landscaping, water slides, etc. (Still a great view to have?)