Read lots of bad reports - is this true?

[princesscinderella]

We had no blankets either but we just requested them and they brought them no problem. Just check the pull outs and tv bed to make sure you have all the bedding a while before you want to go to bed in case you are missing items. We had the same problem with missing bedding & blankets for the pull outs at Grand Californian DVC too so it’s not just an aulani issue.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

I completely agree with you.

It's just that a lot (i.e. most) of the 1-star reviews on the internet - whether product reviews, hotel reviews, etc. - seem to indicate that everything was bad and NOTHING whatsoever was good about that particular product, which I usually find hard to believe. Maybe those people "forget" the good stuff in their effort to complain, or maybe they do have an agenda, but those are the reviews that I tend to disregard right away.

Even better are the 1 star reviews where the reviewer says “food was good, service was reasonably fast, and the restaurant was nice, but…”. Somehow, the one thing that the reviewer was insulted by (and probably won’t affect anyone else) invalidates everything else about the restaurant.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Even better are the 1 star reviews where the reviewer says “food was good, service was reasonably fast, and the restaurant was nice, but…”. Somehow, the one thing that the reviewer was insulted by (and probably won’t affect anyone else) invalidates everything else about the restaurant.

I like to pay attention to those. Unfair to downgrade so severely is my opinion but what they are saying may or may not be important. Things like "they were out of a lot of things" would be helpful to me or "it's the only restaurant around" or "it closes too early", etc. There's def. a lot of nitpicky reviews where I can roll my eyes at whatever got them miffed though, that's true enough there!

I feel the worst though when people mess up and put 1 star when they mean 5 star..oof

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I find the bedding covers very thin so I always ask for two extra blankets as soon as we check in.

My understanding is that you're meant to sleep with the sliding glass doors open, but instead most people do what they do at most hotels and let the A/C rip.

 

[Kwami]

My understanding is that you're meant to sleep with the sliding glass doors open, but instead most people do what they do at most hotels and let the A/C rip.

Surely that isn't the case for ground-floor rooms. Also, bugs.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Surely that isn't the case for ground-floor rooms.

I would imagine not.

Also, bugs.

Aulani has screens, which I don't think most (any?) other Disney resorts do.

 

[jimmymc]

My understanding is that you're meant to sleep with the sliding glass doors open, but instead most people do what they do at most hotels and let the A/C rip.

I can't speak for what you're supposed to do at Aulani, but many homes and cheaper accommodations around the island do not have AC and people sleep with windows open. I prefer it cooler when I sleep so the lack of blankets has never been an issue personally.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I can't speak for what you're supposed to do at Aulani, but many homes and cheaper accommodations around the island do not have AC and people sleep with windows open. I prefer it cooler when I sleep so the lack of blankets has never been an issue personally.

It's really quite wonderful. With the windows open and ceiling fan on, it's the perfect temperature for me. The only problem is the clinking of dishes and utensils if you're anywhere near the convention center.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can't speak for what you're supposed to do at Aulani, but many homes and cheaper accommodations around the island do not have AC and people sleep with windows open. I prefer it cooler when I sleep so the lack of blankets has never been an issue personally.

Our condo we stayed at in Makaha did not so we slept with the ceiling fan on, the patio door with the screen and the glass slats at the front of the unit open. While a little warmer than we'd like it was still doable.

In a place though that has AC it would be incredibly wasteful and non-ecofriendly to expect guests to have the open air to cool them down and yet still have AC. I think the reasonable assumption for anyone staying at a hotel with AC is to utilize it. While I don't think required to have a blanket it is nice in the absence of other things to throw on the bed for comfort or warmth.

There's a reason why many hotels on the island have AC because that's what guests are going to expect.

 

[jimmymc]

Our condo we stayed at in Makaha did not so we slept with the ceiling fan on, the patio door with the screen and the glass slats at the front of the unit open. While a little warmer than we'd like it was still doable.

In a place though that has AC it would be incredibly wasteful and non-ecofriendly to expect guests to have the open air to cool them down and yet still have AC. I think the reasonable assumption for anyone staying at a hotel with AC is to utilize it. While I don't think required to have a blanket it is nice in the absence of other things to throw on the bed for comfort or warmth.

There's a reason why many hotels on the island have AC because that's what guests are going to expect.

It makes sense for hotels to have it, especially ones catering to mainlanders or in hotter/more humid parts of the island.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

It makes sense for hotels to have it, especially ones catering to mainlanders or in hotter/more humid parts of the island.

Right but this makes me even more puzzled about the "blankets aren't warm enough" argument.

If it's hot and humid outside, but you're cold at night, it's because you have the A/C set too low. Just.... turn the temperature up.

 

[mmouse50]

Stayed 7 nights in July - 2 bd villa on cash. Room was clean upon arrival but no bar soap for bathroom sinks - called and it was delivered within 15 minutes. We did have trash pickup every day which I thought was weird because I thought it was supposed to be every other day and even on some of those days they made the beds for us, but never took the housekeeping tip envelopes that I had left on the bed just in case they happened to show up. Towels were left every other day. We did call for a blanket or two (there were 8 people in total) because truthfully we would have never of thought to sleep with the doors open (that is just something you don't do in Texas - too humid). But all in all we had a great time with our stay there.

 

[kevtlas]

only stayed once years ago and thought our room was very clean. Don’t remember about the blankets

 

[imbelle]

Not that I can fault Aulani for this but when we first got to our room and opened our mini fridge, we were blasted by the smell of pot. I borrowed some cleaner from the housekeeper who was in the hallway and wiped it out myself. We opened the windows and doors. Nothing could get rid of the smell so we finally had to have them come switch out the mini fridge.

 

[Paul Stupin]

You know, I’m not sure it’s worth it any longer to defend Aulani for people who are spooked by overly negative internet reviews. My advice is, if you’re really bothered by what you read, cancel your trip! Don’t come! Stay somewhere else!

It happens to be one of my favorite hotels, and I’m a huge fan, but if I can help make the pool a tad less crowded for all of us who really like Aulani, why not?

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Sargassum

What is this?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What is this?

It's a type of seaweed, or brown algae if you want to think of it as that. The Caribbean, especially Riviera Maya in the last several years being so bad, has been plagued by it. When it reaches the shores it piles up (like imagine several feet or more high if not dealt with) and then decomposes and lets off a very nasty smell.

Google Cancun or just Mexico and you'll see a lot of stories about it. The government is trying to combat it by having netting placed out in the ocean trying to catch it before it makes it to the shore line.

When we were searching for hotels one of the things to take special importance to was how well were they at getting the sargassum. Daily clean up was preferred. I forget if it was Tulum or somewhere close by in Riviera Maya where the beach was unable to have heavy machinery on the beach due to environmental reasons of the stability of the beach and so clean up was more difficult.

The hotel we end up choosing in part because of its location on the Hotel Zone (fairly north and deep into the Hotel Zone) with the rocky parts to it does still get sargassum but much less so than some other hotels we saw.

 

[Paul Stupin]

It's a type of seaweed, or brown algae if you want to think of it as that. The Caribbean, especially Riviera Maya in the last several years being so bad, has been plagued by it. When it reaches the shores it piles up (like imagine several feet or more high if not dealt with) and then decomposes and lets off a very nasty smell.

Google Cancun or just Mexico and you'll see a lot of stories about it. The government is trying to combat it by having netting placed out in the ocean trying to catch it before it makes it to the shore line.

When we were searching for hotels one of the things to take special importance to was how well were they at getting the sargassum. Daily clean up was preferred. I forget if it was Tulum or somewhere close by in Riviera Maya where the beach was unable to have heavy machinery on the beach due to environmental reasons of the stability of the beach and so clean up was more difficult.

The hotel we end up choosing in part because of its location on the Hotel Zone (fairly north and deep into the Hotel Zone) with the rocky parts to it does still get sargassum but much less so than some other hotels we saw.

What hotel did you choose? My wife and I have thought about going but the sheer number of hotels and new developments is a bit intimidating.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What hotel did you choose? My wife and I have thought about going but the sheer number of hotels and new developments is a bit intimidating.

We settled on Hotel Riu Palace Peninsula

A lot of the reason was for the view of the room we ended up booking which was the suite jacuzzi. There's a jacuzzi on the extremely large balcony (the room itself is over 750 sq feet and the balcony is over 300 sq feet). There is an adults only portion of the hotel property (3 or 4 separated multi-room but called villas) but their views from the balconies are low since it's only 3 IIRC levels high and obstructed so we opted to not stay in that section. My sister-in-law and her bf however will be because the room category we booked sold out (there's only like 20 or so).

But other parts were no dining reservations needed, no limit to number of dining in a la carte restaurants per week (I believe Iberostar for the most part had that for example), is large enough but also small enough and has access to a sister property next door during the day (those people do not have access to the place we're staying at) some of the resorts we looked at were mega ones with 4-5 large portions of the hotel on the same property so that's what I mean by large enough but also small enough. It has easy access to the ferry to Isla Mujeres (10-15 min walk on the beach). Although like many hotels in Cancun far away from Xcaret Park however we know we'll be going there and they do have transportation to get us there and we'll probably do a tour with them as well. The hotel offers free transportation to and from the airport.

It is a lot to go through TBH so I completely understand being intimidated. We spent multiple weekends looking and countless YouTube videos. The property is a tad less tropical feeling than I wanted (it's modern in style) but other things worked well for our situation.

 

[Paul Stupin]

We settled on Hotel Riu Palace Peninsula

A lot of the reason was for the view of the room we ended up booking which was the suite jacuzzi. There's a jacuzzi on the extremely large balcony (the room itself is over 750 sq feet and the balcony is over 300 sq feet). There is an adults only portion of the hotel property (3 or 4 separated multi-room but called villas) but their views from the balconies are low since it's only 3 IIRC levels high and obstructed so we opted to not stay in that section. My sister-in-law and her bf however will be because the room category we booked sold out (there's only like 20 or so).

But other parts were no dining reservations needed, no limit to number of dining in a la carte restaurants per week (I believe Iberostar for the most part had that for example), is large enough but also small enough and has access to a sister property next door during the day (those people do not have access to the place we're staying at) some of the resorts we looked at were mega ones with 4-5 large portions of the hotel on the same property so that's what I mean by large enough but also small enough. It has easy access to the ferry to Isla Mujeres (10-15 min walk on the beach). Although like many hotels in Cancun far away from Xcaret Park however we know we'll be going there and they do have transportation to get us there and we'll probably do a tour with them as well. The hotel offers free transportation to and from the airport.

It is a lot to go through TBH so I completely understand being intimidated. We spent multiple weekends looking and countless YouTube videos. The property is a tad less tropical feeling than I wanted (it's modern in style) but other things worked well for our situation.

Thank you so much for this! This will totally jump start our planning.