Im glad you liked it enough to consider purchasing DVC, imagine after you spend thousands on Aulani DVC and then someone suggests you stay at another place in Hawaii and not at Aulani where you own DVC because you have a complaint about something. That is where I was coming from.
Also if I misquoted you I apologize.
Fair point.
My feedback to the OP re: the suggestion of staying elsewhere wasn't intended as a personal attack to you or anyone. Sometimes,
some people can end up feeling kind of burned out on staying at a particular place every vacation. If the lei greeting is a "I absolutely must have ___" kind of thing, then either one should consider NOT staying at a resort that does not offer a lei greeting included in the room rate OR one should find other alternatives.
Re: staying at other places -
I fully expect that I won't want to stay at Aulani on every vacation. I'm going to want to go to WDW sometimes
instead of Hawaii. So we'll go to WDW instead sometimes. For future Hawaii trips, 1 of my kids has already asked if we could try visiting a different island next time. Sure! If we're DVC owners by the time that trip comes around, then we might start at a different island and end with a few nights at Aulani.
I do think that it's totally fine for the OP to discuss their concerns/issues here. In another thread, for example, somebody had mentioned how it was a bit frustrating that some of the special effects for the menehune scavenger hunt didn't work. If my kids were young enough to be interested in that, then yeah, I'd probably be frustrated, too.
Similarly, if somebody feels that getting a lei is really important to them and they really liked getting them for free when Aulani first opened, yeah, I'd probably feel frustrated, too, that it hasn't been an option for awhile now. It's not on the proverbial menu anymore. Does it suck? YES. Is there anything that you can do about it to get Disney to change its mind? Probably not.
It's sort of like when a restaurant at a Disney park changes its menu a bit. For example, at the Hungry Bear restaurant at DL what feels like not too many years ago, they had a fried green tomato sandwich. That was an awesome sandwich. I got it every time we went. Then they changed the menu. No longer available. Then for awhile, you could get that sandwich at Cafe Orleans, but that would mean a TS meal instead of QS...and my kids don't like any of the other stuff on the Cafe Orleans menu. Did that suck? YES.
Did it ruin our trip? No. Did I pout for a little bit about it? Yeah, but then at some point, I had to move on. It's no longer on the menu...so you either continue at that place & order something else OR you go elsewhere.
Free leis aren't on the menu anymore at Aulani. So get a lei from elsewhere. Or don't. Be frustrated, get it all out, totally normal. Submit a formal complaint to Aulani management about it. But expect that it likely won't change any time soon.
In the meantime, for a fee, somebody can meet you at your gate at the airport and provide a lei greeting. That's even before you get to Aulani. It is free? No. But if a lei was really important to me, I'd think that was an ok alternative that would get everybody in my travel group in the Hawaii vacation mood.
