Ideal length of stay, and to stop at DL or not?

[WDWRNTLK]

Hi all -
I have multiple questions for you! We are planning our trip end of May 2018. This will be our 15 year wedding anniversary/20 years together celebration trip. But I can't bring myself to leave our son at home, so we will have a 10 yo with us, lol.

1- What is the ideal length of stay at Aulani?
Right now I'm looking at either 14 days or 10 days, depending on whether or not we spend a few days at DL or not. Worth noting, we are NOT beach people at heart. Yes, we will enjoy spending some time on the beach, but plan to have a car to drive around and explore outside of the resort.

2- Opinions on breaking up the trip with a stop at Disneyland?
I'm pricing both options, and the dummy airfare looks like it is a smidge cheaper to break up the trip, but not enough to really matter much. Last time we were in DL was about 3 years ago. We are annual WDW people.

Info for decision making purposes:
We will be using our DVC points for Aulani and DL.
Planning to have this trip be about 2 weeks long, give or take.
We would like to save $ as much as possible, but I'm not strictly pinching pennies.

Love to get your opinions!

 

[kdonnel]

Our trips are always over the kids school spring break so limited to 7-10 days.

Our trips in the past have always been 3-5 days at Aulani and 3-4 days on another island. One trip we did stop at DL on the way for 2 days, that was fun. It was our first trip to DL and we really enjoyed ourselves doing what was different and what is mostly the same. That same trip we also visited Maui and spend 4 days there and 3 days on Aulani. The 3 days at Aulani was a bit rushed as was the 2 days at DL. I would suggest at least 4 days chunks at each destination. You do lose about a half day traveling between islands.

If I had 2 weeks available I wouldn't spend it all at Aulani. Even if I stopped at DL for 2-3 days I would split the remaining time between Aulani and a second island. While there is a lot to see and do on Oahu, the other islands are great too!

 

[KBinCO]

We did 6 nights and it was perfect. I probably could have used one more night. Go ahead and stop at Disneyland, especially if you don't get there often. We stopped in the Bay area on the way and on the way back for a night each and it was a nice break.

 

[EagleRockTony]

RE Disneyland Resort (we are longtime AP folks): DLR is pretty torn up right now with ToT being redone, RoA fenced off, no Fantasmic, no DLRR, and Star Wars Land being built. By May 2018, all projects should be done except for Star Wars. May is a great month for DLR especially if you can avoid the weekends. And it's a hard place to beat if you're 10! I'd absolutely stop for 2 or 3 days. Fourteen is a lot four Aulani.

 

[ldo]

flying from Hawaii to east coast usually involves a red eye. if you can break it up for the same/less $, I would do that. Plus at 10 yrs old, DL is a cool stopover for a few days. 10 days will give you plenty of time to explore Oahu. For 14 days, I would want to go to a 2nd island which you could easily do with DVC points thru RCI. Hilton (HGVC) just banked a lot of their big island timeshare weeks in RCI for 2018.You can log onto your DVC account and see what is there for HGVC in RCI. The Hiltons are fabulous and we love that part of the Big I--just throwing it out there. Elaine

 

[ktlm]

Last summer we stopped at DLR on the way home from Hawaii. The flights were not any more expensive booking separate legs. It worked out great for us because we wound up leaving Hawaii a day early due to a tropical storm so we would have been sad to have just gone home. We wound up with an extra day at DLR instead. It was a fun way to end the trip.

 

[Soccerluvinmama]

We always do 10 days, which I find perfect. It's hard for me to count the day I arrive and the day I leave, since those feel like partial days. So, 8 full days. Our schedule is usually...day 1 - arrive, day 2 & 3, resort days, day 4 - off resort activities, day 5 resort day, day 6 off resort activities, day 7 resort day, day 8 off resort activity, day 9 resort day, day 10 depart.

 

[MightyDuck001]

I was originally planning a stop at DL but skipped it in favor of doing another island. I wanted to stay at the DL hotel because it's my favorite and I'm a there or bust person but the cost for the hotel alone much less the park tickets was just too much so I opted instead to go to Kauai for a few days and got an ocean view room and still spent less than I would have on Disneyland. It would've been great but the cost was just too high.

 

[nkereina]

IMHO, I would not spend 10-14 days solely at Aulani. We spent 6 nights at Aulani, alternating resort days and sightseeing days. It was perfect for us. We were Hawaii for a total of 16 nights and the rest of our time was spent island hopping, which was worth it to be able to see as much as we did. We loved Kauai the most but also enjoyed Maui. If you aren't beach people, I do think you'd be bored with that much time on one island and at one resort. Ko Olina is also secluded, so there's not a ton to do in the immediate vicinity.

We came from the East coast but had no desire to make a stop at Disneyland. We wanted to maximize our time in Hawaii, and were anxious to just get there and then get home on the way back. Disneyland will be a separate vacation for us someday.

 

[alldiz]

We are going to Hawaii/ Disneyland for the 1st time this July.
Our trip is 17 days.
We are from the east coast direct flights To Hawaii 1hour longer.
So we are stopping on way to Hawaii at DL.(our 1st trip also) Hoping this helps with Jetlag as well!
We were lucky enough to snag a studio at GCV at 7mos, as well as 1br OV at Aulani.
We are doing 3 nights DL
5 nights Aulani ( no car immersion)
1 night Waikiki (pre-cruise
7 night POA cruise.

I would not spend that much time at Aulani. Have you considered a cruise around islands? You can see so much more of islands, being you have a lot of time.

With that much time I Would do 2 islands if no cruise.

With that said we are staying 5 nights and with preplanning dosent feel like enough time.
I think flying to Hawaii 7 nights should be plenty at Aulani and stay the additional nights at north shore or Waikiki or both. If you stay on Oahu.
This way you can tour and spend less time in the car and more time enjoying Aulani.
Either way happy planning
Kerri

 

[debg]

Everyone is different. We spent 14 full days at Aulani in 2016 and plan to do 14 more in 2018. DD & new husband spent 14 full days there in 2014 (honeymoon) and were with us last year for the full 14 days. None of us think it's too many days to be at Aulani/on Oahu. We're very laid back vacationers though - we found ourselves quite busy enough simply with Oahu. We do all hope to spend a week on Maui sometime in the future, but not by cutting down on our Aulani time. I'd say the least number of days I'd want is 10 full days - so 12 with travel.

 

[jeneric997]

We are traveling from the east coast and with teenagers so we planned 4 nights at DL, 5 nights Aulani, 7 nights Kauai, and 10 nights Big Island. We booked the home to lax/lax-hnl/hnl-home on one ticket and all the internal Hawaiian fights on a separate ticket.

We are using DVC for both DL- room reservation and Aulani villa. If DVC makes it more affordable you should what works for you! I don't think it made much of a difference price wise to do the stop over at LAX.

 

[alldiz]

We are traveling from the east coast and with teenagers so we planned 4 nights at DL, 5 nights Aulani, 7 nights Kauai, and 10 nights Big Island. We booked the home to lax/lax-hnl/hnl-home on one ticket and all the internal Hawaiian fights on a separate ticket.

We are using DVC for both DL- room reservation and Aulani villa. If DVC makes it more affordable you should what works for you! I don't think it made much of a difference price wise to do the stop over at LAX.

Wow.....now that's a vacation