My Aulani Experience, followed by Grand Californian/Disneyland

[4DisneyAddicts]

Good morning from Aulani!

Today is my last full day of a week long stay.
I thought I'd share my general thoughts and experiences as reading these reports was so helpful to me with my planning and prep. Fair warning, it is not all high praise. Please don't mistake this for complaining, I just want to share my thoughts so you can have an honest review from my perspective. All adult members from my group were in agreement with my thoughts (at least that's what they told me!). If something bothered me or didn't live up to our expectations I kept it all in perspective and just remembered how lucky I am to be here in the first place.
This is going to be kind of long, sorry!

First, we are a party of 13. 2 families are DVC who shared a 2 bedroom ocean view villa. Our other family had a standard view studio. We are 6 adults and 7 kids from 9-17. We are pretty seasoned Disney travelers, mostly at WDW, and have traveled as a group on several Disney cruises and WDW trips. For us, the ocean view was worth the extra points.

Aulani is definitely a beautiful resort and we had a FABULOUS time.

My husband and I celebrated our 20th anniversary while here, definitely one we won't forget.

Here goes...

Our flight from the east coast to LAX and LAX to HNL was pretty uneventful. One other family overnighted in San Fran and the other flew in same flight as we did, but the next day. I prefer just getting here and getting the travel over in one day, but everyone has their own preferences.

Checkin was okay. I did not do online check in because we added a night at the beginning for a one bedroom standard view and I was hoping to just get in to the 2 bedroom if it was available. Plus the room charging privileges almost always get messed up when I do online checkin because we have 2 different families. The good news was the 2 bedroom was available on that first night so we wouldn't have to move rooms and check out/checkin.
I was a little surprised they told me I would have to pay the difference in points since it was dinner time and I was saving them the time and resources of room cleaning and check out/in process. NOT COMPLAINING. Just knowing that sometimes they upgrade people for free at other resorts and we were here for a celebration I was hoping they would just do it for the one night.
No big deal, we were glad we didn't have to move and spend the time at the front desk the next day. I did not receive my requests for highest floor possible or tower, but since they accommodated my switch from 1 to the 2 bedroom I was okay with that. Overall the room was good. It was clean and in great shape, with the exception of several dents in the fridge and a slight mildew smell in master toilet room. We had the same smell in the BLT toilet room before. We did tell them when we booked and when we confirmed that we were celebrating a big anniversary, but they didn't seem to know this when we checked in. We did receive the nut and flower lei greeting. It happened so fast I barely snapped a picture of my husband receiving his. Be prepared if you want photos of this. Other boys in the other families received the little tiki necklaces instead of nut leis. If you ask I'm sure you could have a choice.

We slept 9 in there comfortably. We were on the 6th floor in the Ewa tower. I wish I had asked if a higher room was available because we were just above the tree line, but we could still see the ocean. By the time we checked in I had been up for about 20 hours and I just wasn't on top of my game. We overlooked the Hawalei (?) lawn where they have the movies and show. I ended up liking it because it was pretty quiet and private. I thought I wanted to overlook the pool area but didn't miss it. Another plus was we had the super long patio with sliding door access from all 3 rooms. Not sure if this is on all dedicated 2 bedrooms or not.

Our view. Room 660.

On our way to Aulani saw a rainbow. Surprisingly the only one we saw.


After we put our bags in the room we went for a walk around to check things out. At first it was a little overwhelming in the pool area, but we figured out walking routes within a day or two. I like how it was laid out so areas seemed more isolated and it wasn't like one huge complex. We spent a lot of time by the pools and beach and enjoyed every second of it. I did have a cabana reserved for three days and will share about that in a later post. That unfortunately didn't work out as hoped.

We ate at the Ulu Cafe and the kids went to the room to sleep as DH and I went food and necessity shopping. We were exhausted but I'm glad we got it done the first night so we had all we needed for ourselves and other families as they arrived the next day.
First we went to Costco because it closed at 8:30 and also because I knew some items would be too big to purchase there and it would determine the Target list. We were surprised how busy Costco was so close to closing time. But, it wasn't too bad. We bought coconut rum. Alcohol was definitely cheaper here than anywhere else on the island. All the families went back another day to restock a few things. The sunscreen was a big savings here. There was a rebate on up to 2 sets of Neutrogena 70 SPF, 2 spray cans and 2 small tubes. $11.99. Any after 2 sets were $14.99. One can was almost $13 at the resort. One thing we did that we found worked out great was buying a prepared sandwich tray. It was a tray of turkey and cheese, Ham and cheese, and roast beef and cheese croissant sandwiches. It came with 2 containers of spreads. There were about 12-15 full size sandwiches precut in thirds or quarters. I think it was $25-$29. Can't remember exactly. We ate all of them and they were super convenient. DH used the ham and cheese to make omletes some mornings and then there was a croissant for breakfast sandwich or just by itself. For bagel lovers Costco has Einstein bagel packs. We have Einstein bagels in the Philly area, not sure if that is regional or not. They had plain and onion. Very fresh. We bought 2 cases of water for all 13. Since there is free ice water by the pools we probably didn't need all of it but used most of it. Another thing we did was we bought a combo pack of Tupperware at Target. We used them for bringing food to the pools and on day trips. We plan to use the containers to store items in checked bags. We used the tip to bring a small soft sided cooler and I would definitely recommend this. You can pack items in it so it doesn't take much space at all. I also brought a freezer pack and am glad I did because it was hot every day. Worked great for keeping drinks cold, especially on trips around the island. DH used this for golfing too. I also packed a couple of Tervis cups to bring our own drinks to the pool. Other items from Costco were multi packs of macadamia nut carmel candies. Much cheaper than other places on the island and many of us are using them to bring home to friends and family. They ended up only costing a few dollars a box. The rest was just snacks and pre sliced cheese tray. At Target I bought lemonade mix for the kiddos (pitcher in the room), crackers for cheese, pop tarts and cereal, milk, yogurt, and ice cream treats. We also bought cream cheese, butter and ketchup there since we didn't need Costco size. As a side thought, you can get ketchup, mayo, Tabasco, butter packets, relish and mustard at self serve area of Ulu Cafe so you don't need to buy them if you're willing to make the trip to the cafe and bring a small supply to the room. No cream cheese though. Remember your Target credit card if you have one for the 5% discount.
I did not have my Costco card on me for the second trip but they printed me a pass since I had picture ID.

Aulani from the plane!

More to follow....

 

[4DisneyAddicts]

Moderators, feel free to move to DVC trip reports if you'd like. Initially I didn't intend to make this a trip report but it kind of grew in to one. I don't know if I can move it myself. Thanks!

 

[rnorwo1]

I just booked our flights for next May. We will have an extended family trip, 11 total. I am looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[4DisneyAddicts]

Back from Hawaii and Disneyland so I hope to complete my reviews this week.

Update: if you recall from my first post I said they were able to let me stay in my 2 bedroom the entire stay so I wouldn't have to switch rooms after the first morning. I didn't see a deduction of points but I saw a charge on my Visa from DVC so I called. Member services told me they didn't know what the charge was for and they have a record for deducting points for the one night room upgrade. Problem was their records indicated 20 more points than we were told. It took 3 different people, but they finally agreed to only charge us the points we were told by the front desk. If you are in the same situation, get it in writing. I will still need to follow up to make sure they deduct the correct amount.
Oh and the charge was for room charges. Not sure why it said DVC on Visa and not Aulani.

You may also recall that I didn't do online checkin so they wouldn't mess up the room charges between the 2 families on the account. I checked out room bill after the 4th night and they indeed had mixed up the room charges. It was fixed with a visit to the front desk. In addition, at checkin I requested they split the room tax between the 2 families and they didn't. Not big deals but I do t like taking vacation time waiting in line at the front desk to address these issues. I ended up just paying the room tax since it wasn't discovered until after we checked out. Plus the other family is very fair and generous in splitting expenses when they aren't in their favor so it wasn't worth changing it.

Pools and beach.

We spent probably 4 out of 7 days by the pools and on the beach. Typically I am a sightseer so pool days are not my norm. We had reserved a cabana for 3 of our days. I called nearly 7 months in advance to book them and requested one by the family pool. I was told since I was one of the first to book I should have no problem with my request. I know getting seats is an issue and with such a big group we liked the security of knowing we had a home base with a fridge and safe. Plus, we are very fair skinned and like shade for parts of the day. Unfortunately the first day we had a cabana we were assigned one by the noisy little kid play area. I called when we found out the evening before and the people who manage the cabanas were unavailable. It was kind of annoying that you don't know which cabana you have until 4pm or so and then you can't speak with anyone after 7:00 or so. If placement is important to you just know you have to either be in the room or be able to check your messages in the room before the cabana staff is done for the day. It is a small window of time.
I explained that I had put in the request when I booked and all that, but they didn't seem to care. I explained that we didn't have young children in our group for that area and that is why we wanted the family pool. I would have thought they would have considered that when assigning cabanas. As a group we decided to cancel the cabanas for the week. I was disappointed because this was one extra special treat we were looking forward to. Obviously this is not a critical problem in the grand scheme of life, but the entire way it was handled (or not handled) kind of bothered me. The attitude was almost like "oh well". Lucky for us we are east coasters so getting up early to secure great seats was not a big deal most days. I just felt badly that my husband and friend's husband were literally up at 5 am to get pool seats. By the end of the stay they had adjusted to Hawaii time and I am sure would have preferred some extra sleep.


Bottom line, if you or someone in your family don't mind getting up early to secure seats, don't waste money on a cabana. The 3 family pool cabanas didn't have a good location anyway. The guys were able to get nice semi private patios between the pools and beach each time and they enjoyed their coffee and pastries in the morning. Just be willing to be up and out by 6 or 7 for premium spots. There was literally a man sleeping on the lounge chairs at 5am several of the mornings to save seats for his group.


They were enforcing the one hour rule at times but with such a large group we always had someone in our area watching our items anyway.

Something we found a little surprising was how many non resort guests appear to have been coming from the beach area up to the pool area. There were gates but you did not need your room card to open them. You also did not need your room card to enter the hotel. There were devices for you to scan your room card but you didn't need them as the doors just opened for everyone. So it didn't seem super secure in that respect. Overall I felt safe but was a little surprised by that.

Ocean was super warm and so were the pools. I actually got in both several times because I was hot. It was very refreshing.

Lazy river was fun but got crowded. Lots of kids splashing and having fun, including my own I'm sure, so just don't expect a quiet experience and you will enjoy it. I did the tube slide and that was fun. I just am not patient with lines or I would have done it a lot more.

The drink and food service by the pool (servers) was slow and sometimes hard to find. Most of the time we just walked to Ulu, Ophies (closed the first few days) and Mama's. The food was pretty good and reasonable. I had a burger one day, California rolls one day, and lots of shaved ice! Otherwise we brought food down in our cooler.

Several kids did the rainbow reef and enjoyed it a few times during the week. Many of us shared a Paddleboard and that was fun too.

Here is one of the small semi private patio areas we used for our pool area. It was perfect. For a party of 13. It had a table with few chairs, a couple umbrellas and several lounges. The pool was behind us a short few steps.

 

[wanderlust7]

Great picture of Aulani from the plane!