Last day of our Hawaii vacation and some musings about next year's trip --
We love Aulani, so much that we're talking about staying over Christmas for a third year in a row; but, gosh it's expensive. We paid the rack rate for a standard room this year, and it was $664/night. Last year, we had a standard view studio and paid $634/night. Luckily, we received an upgrade to an island gardens view room last year and were upgraded to a partial ocean view room this year. Looking at next year's rates for Christmas week, a standard room is $704/night, an island gardens view room is $784/night, and a partial ocean view room is $869/night. Taking advantage of Disney Gift Card discounts, Shopkick, Ebates (and I'm guessing I'm missing out on Swagbacks?), and having both my wife's and my CSR travel credits refresh in early December really helps lessen the hit to the wallet.
I know if you own or rent
DVC, the cost of staying at Aulani is likely to be significantly lower, but making a reservation directly with Disney gives us the flexibility to modify or cancel our reservation up to 5 days before the start of our trip, which we value. But if you're paying rack rates that high, it becomes very hard to justify leaving the property and not making the most of all the inclusive amenities -- of which there are lots,
e.g., Aunty's Beach House for the kids, character dining at Makahiki, character meet and greets around the resort, family activities out of the Pau Hana Room, live local music at the restaurants, onsite tours, the lazy river, water slides and multiple pools, an enclosed lagoon, etc. At the same time, Ko Olina is really a bubble of luxury out in West Oahu, without a lot of everyday conveniences like Starbucks, reasonably priced dining or much shopping options. Yes, you can drive to nearby Kapolei for Starbucks, dining, Target, Costco, etc. but visiting other parts of the island with Aulani as a base camp is going to be a trek. We stayed 5 nights last year, which felt too long if you're going to spend most or all of that time onsite; so we stayed only 4 nights this year, which felt like a good amount of time to enjoy all of Aulani's amenities. We did trek back to town a few times during our stay at Aulani for family holiday gatherings, so even 3 nights of nothing but Aulani might've worked for us.
Next year, we're thinking of splitting our Hawaii vacation between a hotel in Waikiki and Aulani. Staying with family is nice and free, but it can really be ... too much. The CSR's UR portal doesn't show hotel availability for December 2018 yet, but using Thanksgiving week as a proxy I'm seeing Aulani rooms available starting at about 35k UR/night or DVC studios for 42k UR/night. By comparison, some really fine hotels in Waikiki are priced between 17k-25k UR/night. This price difference really makes staying in Waikiki a more palatable option while exploring all of Oahu, before moving to Aulani for a few days to cap off your stay with some Disney magic.
P.S. For those like
@Angrose who are thinking of staying at Aulani over Christmas, keep in mind that Aulani has a limited activities schedule on Christmas Eve and Day, so allow for two or more extra days before or after Christmas if you plan to enjoy the family activities or kids programs at Aunty's Beach House.