Plan activities ahead or last minute?

[justme0729]

We are thinking about going to Aulani and are wondering... do we need to plan our excursion activities in advance like at WDW or would we be able to wake up and see what we feel like doing? We are thinking we would want to do Pearl Harbor, Kuala Ranch ATVs and ziplining, Diamond Head hike, and maybe just go drive to some other beaches. Do any of these activities really require that we book a date ahead of time?

Thanks!

 

[Rubygoose]

You need to make reservations at Kualoa ranch - they were very busy when we were there last week. I don't know about Pearl Harbor, though. I would highly recommend renting a car and just driving around and stopping at the beaches. You should reserve your car ahead of time if you are renting from Alamo at the resort - I reserved ours with Air Miles, and when we were picking up the car, the man ahead of us in line was trying to get his rental a day earlier and was told there wasn't anything available in the size he wanted (mini van) until noon, and this was at 7:30am. Also, if you want to go to the swap meet/market at Aloha stadium, you need to look into what days this is available. You really don't need to do nearly as much planning as at WDW or DLR, but it's nice to have a bit of a framework and then just drive around and stop wherever the road takes you.

 

[crystal1313]

From what I have read (we are going in July-so someone correct me if I am wrong), you can reserve Pearl Harbor tickets 2 months in advance from your date online, you can also reserve them the day before your date online (but I believe it's a small amount of tickets and the online window opens up @7 in the morning), or you can get up super early and go stand in line at Pearl Harbor for tickets. We are hoping to reserve the tickets online at the 2 month window. Hope that helps! Other than that, we plan on just going with the flow and mainly just relaxing at the resort. =)

 

[vikequeen]

We are at Aulani now. We booked our pearl harbor tickets the day before we wanted to go. times were more limited, but it can be done, even now at a relatively high travel time. We also went ziplining on the north shore today (we also went last year). highly recommend it, but you should plan ahead for that one. Times book up. diamond head can be last minute. go very early or the parking lot will be a nightmare.