We just got back from a 10 day trip to Aulani, first time to Hawaii for the family (Me, DW, DS13, DS9) and like all of the posts above everyone was just completely amazed with Hawaii. It was pretty expensive, but so worth it. Definitely our new happy place. We rented a car for the entire trip, drove to some different areas on our own vs. taking excursions. We loved it. Our new goal is to make Aulani or at least Hawaii an every other year family vacation. We took direct flights from TX and tickets were around $1200 each. But we didn't shop around at all.