Just back from Aulani and GCV, Have now stayed at all 11 Resorts!

[LBHouse]

Just back from our Honeymoon at Aulani and Grand Californian Villas. Can now say I have stayed at all of the DVC resorts.

Had a beautiful one bedroom at Aulani from Sept 4-10 and again at GCV from Sept 10-15. Both resorts are beautiful and I would be happy to answer any questions.

I have lots of pictures on Facebook and will try to figure out how to post them here.

 

[Jay2009]

Welcome to the DIS!

I would be happy for you about all the stays if I weren't so jealous!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Sounds like you had a great trip!!!

 

[DVC Dude]

I am still at 10 of 11 DVC resorts...Hawaii is a little too far away

 

[DenLo]

Congratulations on the DVC milestone and Best Wishes on your marriage. Aulani for a honeymoon sounds wonderful.

I love to see any photos you would be willing to share. To post photos here you need to upload the photos to another photo sharing site, like photobucket. com. Then you post the image url to your post here on the Disboards. It will look something like this:

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/ . . . . . IMG]

I left out some characters so a picture doesn't post.

 

[shalom]

Just back from our Honeymoon at Aulani and Grand Californian Villas. Can now say I have stayed at all of the DVC resorts.

Congratulations! On both the marriage and staying at all the DVC resorts.

 

[moredisneyplease]

congrats on your recent marriage and the DVC milestone!!!!

 

[kmedina]

Weclome to the boards. Congratulations on your wedding. Those are the two resorts at the top of my list. Would love to hear more about either! My DH is resistant to Aulani, since he thinks there is nothing to do there away from the main island. Please share your experience, so I can get him on board with going there. Thanks!

 

[AnnaS]

Wow - welcome to the boards and congratulations on your marriage and having stayed at all the dvc resorts. We have a few left.

Can't wait and would love to see your pictures. My son is getting married next year around this time and is thinking of staying at Aulani too with a stay in CA - not sure if they will repeat Napa - GCV sounds like a great idea too.

Where did you travel from? Were 6 nights enough or too much at Aulani? What about at GCV - was the time enough or too much. Did you rent a car in Hawaii?

 

[bwvBound]

I am still at 10 of 11 DVC resorts...Hawaii is a little too far away

LOL! For us, Hilton Head is the "far one."

 

[LBHouse]

Where did you travel from? Were 6 nights enough or too much at Aulani? What about at GCV - was the time enough or too much. Did you rent a car in Hawaii?

We traveled from the Grand Rapids, MI area. Flew from GRR-ATL, ATL-HNL.

We rented a Jeep Wrangler (Thrifty, $173), two door soft-top. Was really nice for driving around the north shore with the top down. There is no-way I would go back to Aulani without a car. Food choices at the resort are way to limited to make it work. Found good restaurant selection and shopping in Kapolei. Our favorite part of the trip was heading up to the north shore for breakfast, watching the sunrise and surfers.

6 nights would be my minimum stay, any shorter and the flight would be to much. We are resort/beach/pool kind of people so I could happily stay for a few weeks with no problems.

6 nights at GCV would be about perfect for us, We actually stayed Sunday-Friday this year. Drove to Las Vegas for a work convention, and flew home from there. Went to California Adventure once and Disneyland once. Planning to go back next year and spend a full week so we can get out and see Southern California a bit. We never actually left the resort this year, parked the car and left it parked.

 

[LBHouse]

My DH is resistant to Aulani, since he thinks there is nothing to do there away from the main island. Please share your experience, so I can get him on board with going there. Thanks!

Honestly? There is nothing to do....

We found Honolulu and Pearl Harbor (Wakiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, etc) to be dirty, crowded and the worst traffic I have ever seen. We spent the better part of two days doing the 'Must See' places, felt like we really wasted those days and wished had had just stayed at Aulani.

The North Shore was wonderful, I was awake by 4:00am anyway, so we drove up a couple of times to watch the sunrise and eat breakfast. Lots of great beaches, food, shopping.

I dont really enjoy the tours (helicopter, boat, horseback, etc) since I always leave thinking it wasn't worth the money. $100+ for a 1-2 hour tour seems kinda ridiculous. That being said, we didn't do anything like that, so if you like those things you might find more to do. We did buy a luau package from the tour desk at Aulani, but we only stayed for an hour and went back to the resort. From what we could tell the theme for the night was 'The Bar is Open'. Almost as though the whole point was to drink as much as possible...The staff at Aulani was great and they gave us a full refund and were able to get us a great sunset view table at AMA-AMA that same evening.

I think Aulani is by far the best DVC resort in terms of service and quality, nothing else really comes close. It feels like a luxury hotel. The staff is amazing, the pools are great, the swimming lagoon is a nice feature.

We will be back to Aulani soon (we have family in Japan, so it's a convenient half-way place), but I would say for my money....I would take a Florida vacation, just because of the flight time and expense. For what we spent just on airfare for my wife and I we could do a nice 10 day WDW or Hilton Head trip.

 

[kmedina]

Honestly? There is nothing to do....

We found Honolulu and Pearl Harbor (Wakiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, etc) to be dirty, crowded and the worst traffic I have ever seen. We spent the better part of two days doing the 'Must See' places, felt like we really wasted those days and wished had had just stayed at Aulani.

The North Shore was wonderful, I was awake by 4:00am anyway, so we drove up a couple of times to watch the sunrise and eat breakfast. Lots of great beaches, food, shopping.

I dont really enjoy the tours (helicopter, boat, horseback, etc) since I always leave thinking it wasn't worth the money. $100+ for a 1-2 hour tour seems kinda ridiculous. That being said, we didn't do anything like that, so if you like those things you might find more to do. We did buy a luau package from the tour desk at Aulani, but we only stayed for an hour and went back to the resort. From what we could tell the theme for the night was 'The Bar is Open'. Almost as though the whole point was to drink as much as possible...The staff at Aulani was great and they gave us a full refund and were able to get us a great sunset view table at AMA-AMA that same evening.

I think Aulani is by far the best DVC resort in terms of service and quality, nothing else really comes close. It feels like a luxury hotel. The staff is amazing, the pools are great, the swimming lagoon is a nice feature.

We will be back to Aulani soon (we have family in Japan, so it's a convenient half-way place), but I would say for my money....I would take a Florida vacation, just because of the flight time and expense. For what we spent just on airfare for my wife and I we could do a nice 10 day WDW or Hilton Head trip.

Thanks for the info. We will get there eventually. It will just take some time for me to coax him. A vacation where you do not do much (Aulani) appeals to me almost as much as a vacation where you do a lot (WDW).

 

[AnnaS]

Thank you so much for the wonderful info. I would have no problem staying at Aulani either - but it's so far/long flight - who knows when one might return so I would think one would try to see as much as possible too.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Congratulations on your marriage!

I've not stayed at Aulani or GCV, maybe someday!

 

[ACDSNY]

May you have a long and happy marriage. I think after we visit Aulani in January it's going to be added to my favorite resorts along with VGC. Sounds like we'll need to take a drive up North too.

 

[majortom1981]

Did alunai remind you of AKV specifically kidani village?

My home resort is akv kidani and from the pics of alunai it seems like they took the african design of kidani and made it hawaiin.

Specially with the dark woods and the room design.

 

[LBHouse]

Did alunai remind you of AKV specifically kidani village?

My home resort is akv kidani and from the pics of alunai it seems like they took the african design of kidani and made it hawaiin.

Specially with the dark woods and the room design.

The arching roof in the lobby mainly. The rooms have much better lighting, and the patterns are not as bold on the fabrics/textiles. The woodtrim is much lighter color in person than it looks in the pictures. It is almost an orange instead of the chocolate brown.

My wife said like the stairway leading to the restaurant felt alot like Kidani/Sanaa.

The main lobby is not as grand as the "Lodges" in Orlando or the GCV. It's certainly beautiful and very well done, but it does not have that 'Wow" factor when you walk in. Your attention is drawn through the lobby to the pool area. Where in AKL your attention is the lobby, the savannah, but not really the pools.

I guess I would say I see similarities...the big difference for me, I could see our house decorated like Aulani and have it feel very comfortable and inviting. AKL is sort of over the top. A great resort, a great vacation place, but I could not imagine decorating my own home that way...it's just too much.

 

[DisneyFan68]

Just back from our Honeymoon at Aulani and Grand Californian Villas. Can now say I have stayed at all of the DVC resorts.

Had a beautiful one bedroom at Aulani from Sept 4-10 and again at GCV from Sept 10-15. Both resorts are beautiful and I would be happy to answer any questions.

I have lots of pictures on Facebook and will try to figure out how to post them here.

Congrats!!! I know each resort has it's perks, but if you had to rank them, what would be your top 5 or if you want, rank for all? I hope to one day be able to say I've stayed at all of the DVC resorts. So jealous!

 

[LBHouse]

Congrats!!! I know each resort has it's perks, but if you had to rank them, what would be your top 5 or if you want, rank for all? I hope to one day be able to say I've stayed at all of the DVC resorts. So jealous!

It is very hard for me to separate the 'Resort' from the 'Experience'. Any hotel or resort we stay in get compared to OKW. My Dad first bought points back in 1994, so I pretty much grew up with vacations to OKW. I bought my first points right after high school in '99, have been going 2-3 times a year ever since...pretty much feels just like home to us. When you factor in the ease of getting to Orlando from MI, the lower prices, and no time zone changes, it just makes a perfect getaway for our vacation style.

HHI is very nice. We love the laid back atmosphere and the colors. The beach is wonderful (and we are from Michigan, we have by far the best beaches ANYWHERE) We had a trip planned for HHI in June 2012, but the wife is pregnant and due that week...so we had to cancel. But otherwise, any chance we get, we go.

#1 OKW
#2 HHI
#3 AUL
#4 GCV
#5 AKL


If I am ranking only the 'Resort' itself (no location or flight time or other expenses considered):

#1 AUL
#2 GCV
#3 HHI
#4 OKW
#5 AKL

I have only spent just one night at BLT, and haven't been to Vero since I was 15 years old. I can certainly see BLT being a favorite as our kids get to be a bit older. We most likely wont spend time at Vero just because we can get to HHI faster and easier.