What happened to Aulani?

[wdrl]

I have a couple of thoughts / questions about Aulani - probably don't belong on this thread but I'm just gonna throw 'em out there anyway to see if I can get a nibble on them...

One - how much are the MF's for Aulani? I didn't see them on the brochure...

Disney has stated that Aulani's MF are $4.31/point.


Two - For those who have purchased - what UY are you getting for buying so early? If we wanted to go in 2012 & would be using banking & borrowing couldn't we still wait awhile to buy? I mean will 2010 points "keep" until we want to go or do we need to buy this year in order to HAVE enough for 2012?? I'm getting myself confused by trying to think too far ahead.

Aulani buyers are not getting any points for 2010. It appears that 2011 points are being given for all 8 UYs. Of course, the Aulani points cannot be used in the DVC network until Aulani opens on August 29, 2011. Also, if I recall correctly, one of the promotions I've read about was that Disney promised to pay the 2011 MFs if the buyer bought 160 points by a certain date. I don't know if that promotion is still active.

Three - We don't plan on going to Hawaii again until Aug. of 2012...so even if we owned there we couldn't even make a ressie until Sept. of 2011...that is still over a year away - isn't buying there NOW a little premature?! I mean, it's just giving DVC our money way before we need to, right? I realize prices will go up but IF we bought we'd be talking maybe 50 points as we wouldn't spend our whole trip on Oahu. Just need a few nights...we stay in studios so 50 pts. = 150 pts with banking & borrowing & could go a long way. With the current charts (based on what's happened the past couple of years I'm assuming they WILL change them) we could stay 6 nights in an IV studio or 5 nights in a PV studio during the summer months. OR 3 nights in a SV one-bedroom. That's almost perfect for as often as we could go and considering we'd also plan time on Maui.

I am just trying to think this out...I see posts here & there saying that Aulani will be unavailable at 7 months then I see posts saying it will be the 2nd largest resort behind SSR...most of the time nobody has trouble getting into SSR at 7 months...so is it really necessary to even THINK about it this far out just so I can have a purty new siggie?!

All we can do is make educated guesses about Aulani's availability at 7 months. Its a large resort, so perhaps there will be lots of inventory available for non-Aulani owners to book at the 7-month mark. But there are several factors that might make Aulani harder to get than the average DVC resort:

1. Aulani is opening in phases and, according to DVCNews.com, only 297 studios, 1-BR, 2-BR, and GVs are scheduled to be open before 2013.
   
2. Disney may not have declared all of the completed villas for the DVC membership by the date of your visit. Keep in mind that only 86% of BLT has been declared for the Membership even though its been open for over a year.
   
3. Aulani is new and many Members might be anxious to try it out. You, me, and a few thousand other DVCers are probably thinking of trying out Aulani in 2012.
   
4. Up to 35% of Aulani will be sold as Fixed Weeks. Thus, instead of have 297 villas available for points bookings by 2012, there might only be about 193 villas.

OH, almost forgot...anybody know the SF of the villas??

Studio = 356 sf

1 bedroom = 756 sf

2 bedroom = 1,125 sf

Grand Villa = 2,174 sf

My wife and I are hoping to book a studio for 7 days in May or June 2012, so we, too, are wondering what the availability will be at Aulani at the 7 month mark. But I think the DVC booking patterns are changing now that BLT and AKV-Kidani Village are online. We were able to get into BWV and some friends got BCV for this year's F&W at the 6-month mark, although BWV and BCV are supposedly hard to get. So who knows what will happen at Aulani?

Good luck and I hope you get what you want!

 

[Anal Annie]

My wife and I are hoping to book a studio for 7 days in May or June 2012, so we, too, are wondering what the availability will be at Aulani at the 7 month mark. But I think the DVC booking patterns are changing now that BLT and AKV-Kidani Village are online. We were able to get into BWV and some friends got BCV for this year's F&W at the 6-month mark, although BWV and BCV are supposedly hard to get. So who knows what will happen at Aulani?

Good luck and I hope you get what you want!

Thanks for the scoop... I'm just not seeing the advantage of purchasing NOW other than getting in on the initial pricing & saving a few hundred dollars (and the purty siggie). I mean they're not giving you anything extra, right?! No developers points. No extra vacas. No points to bank. Nothing, right? We could just as easily wait for there to be some feedback on ressies / availability & see how it goes since it wouldn't affect us for another year. We have a Dec UY....not sure if that means anything in this equation or not?!

 

[adminjedi]

Thanks for the scoop... I'm just not seeing the advantage of purchasing NOW other than getting in on the initial pricing & saving a few hundred dollars (and the purty siggie). I mean they're not giving you anything extra, right?! No developers points. No extra vacas. No points to bank. Nothing, right? We could just as easily wait for there to be some feedback on ressies / availability & see how it goes since it wouldn't affect us for another year. We have a Dec UY....not sure if that means anything in this equation or not?!

Well, as we bought at the DL opening event, we got the lower price, and extra $2 per point discount, and we got 2012 dues paid by Disney as well. That isn't chump change

 

[Anal Annie]

Well, as we bought at the DL opening event, we got the lower price, and extra $2 per point discount, and we got 2012 dues paid by Disney as well. That isn't chump change

I guess the definition of chump change could depend on how many points you bought. WE are small potato owners.

We're only considering 50 points. With the current $6 off pp that would cost $5,400. After the price increase Nov. 1 there will likely still be some sort of incentive at some point - let's say another $6 off again as that seems to be a number that DVC likes, so the price would be $120 less $6 or $114 pp so 50 pts. would be $5,700. Only $300 more. The dues would only be $215. Not that I want to pay any more than I HAVE to but $300 isn't enough to convince me I should give DVC our money NOW if I can't even make the reservation I want for another year. I am more comfortable having the money in our bank acct. and liquid given these numbers.

 

[DisWitt]

I'm in the camp that bought immediately into Aulani and there are a few things that went into the decision.

1. If you have the money liquid today and ARE going to buy in at some point, keeping the money in a money market account or savings at today's rates mean you'll be losing $'s if DVC increases the price at all. Heck, with the way the stock market is going, putting your $ into Aulani might be a better bet!

2. I've been lurking here and watching DVC for the last 3-5 years. The prices from DVC don't go down. At the outset, prices were $102/point + no dues for 2012. Sure, we didn't get a "free" 3-day cruise, but with all of the restrictions and such, that's not worth much $ anyway (a good cash price is under $1000 anyway).

3. DVC has a great track record. Their other resorts are so awesome, and the company has been head-and-shoulders above the rest of the industry.

To AnalAnnie's post, you might want to be cautious with the plans for SV. 1) there are VERY FEW of those rooms, and 2) the views look like they'll suck really bad.

Keep in touch. I'm planning a week in Phase I during September 2011!

 

[Garthilk]

Part of the problem in my own view is the cost to travel. Reletively speaking, the cost to travel to WDW from the East Coast, or DL from the West Coast is reletively cheap. Cheap travel makes for more visits, more visits a better use of your vacation property. If you cannot afford to get to the property, then that's an issue.

To Fly From the West Coast
Generally $300 to $450 for one round trip ticket in winter and off-season, so for two tickets you would pay $600 to $900. Prices will go up to $500 to $650 ($1000 – $1300 for two tickets) in the summer and around holidays. Now if you have a family of 4. Roughly about $1200 to $1800.

To Fly From Middle America
Price to Hawaii from the central mainland U.S.: Tickets will start at $600 apiece generally in the winter and offseason and hopefully won’t go up past $750. In the summer and peak season you could pay as much as $850 to $1200 per ticket. A family of 4 could end up paying as much as $3200 just to goto their DVC.

To Fly From East Coast
Airline ticket prices from the east coast: Expect to pay $850 apiece as your cheapest price in the winter and the offseason. In July, if you book early, you may still be able to find some $850 rates, but if you don’t, you could pay $1500 easy. Or $3000 for a couple. A family of 4 could expect to pay $4000 in airfaire rather easily.

To Fly From Japan / Asia
In Hawaii’s low season you can find tickets for $750 or so. In the summer, prices can start at $1100 apiece if you book early. For a family of 4 in the peak season, expect to drop $5000 rather easily in many cases.

Yearly Dues
Add in the dues you pay on top of the yearly travel cost. An extra $1000 a year for 250 points. Another factor to consider on top of the travel.

 

[DisWitt]

Yep, airfare is totally a factor for ANYONE buying ANY property in Hawaii whether they live there full or part-time. But that's just one issue. Personally, I haven't paid for a family vacation flight in years... that's why my wife and I use our airline rewards cards and for business travel, I try to be loyal to one or two airlines. If you book in advance, you can get rewards flights to/from Hawaii from LAX for 22,500 miles. That's cheaper than the regular 25,000 miles for a domestic ticket.

And keep in mind that while AHV may be our "home", we can trade to places in Anaheim and drive or WDW and take advantage of cheap airfare there, too.

But as they say in DVC presentations, you need to look at your family's vacation habits. If you've been doing something for the last 20 years, what's to say that that's not going to continue? For me, my family has been vacationing in Hawaii at least once a year for the last 75+ years (my grandparents, then parents, then me). We have factored those expenses into our budget.

AHV (and DVC in general) are just a way of pre-paying the lodging expenses and getting a discount in the process. Looking at a projection of MF increases (3-5%/yr) and the initial buy-in, if we own AHV for 50 years, we're getting at least 50% off our lodging -- and that's using a pretty cheap comparison room rate and NOT inflating that rate for the 50 years.

 

[adminjedi]

Yep, airfare is totally a factor for ANYONE buying ANY property in Hawaii whether they live there full or part-time. But that's just one issue. Personally, I haven't paid for a family vacation flight in years... that's why my wife and I use our airline rewards cards and for business travel, I try to be loyal to one or two airlines. If you book in advance, you can get rewards flights to/from Hawaii from LAX for 22,500 miles. That's cheaper than the regular 25,000 miles for a domestic ticket.

And keep in mind that while AHV may be our "home", we can trade to places in Anaheim and drive or WDW and take advantage of cheap airfare there, too.
But as they say in DVC presentations, you need to look at your family's vacation habits. If you've been doing something for the last 20 years, what's to say that that's not going to continue? For me, my family has been vacationing in Hawaii at least once a year for the last 75+ years (my grandparents, then parents, then me). We have factored those expenses into our budget.
AHV (and DVC in general) are just a way of pre-paying the lodging expenses and getting a discount in the process. Looking at a projection of MF increases (3-5%/yr) and the initial buy-in, if we own AHV for 50 years, we're getting at least 50% off our lodging -- and that's using a pretty cheap comparison room rate and NOT inflating that rate for the 50 years.

You sound like you crunch the numbers just like my DH and me! Aloha, neighbor!

 

[Anal Annie]

Part of the problem in my own view is the cost to travel. Reletively speaking, the cost to travel to WDW from the East Coast, or DL from the West Coast is reletively cheap. Cheap travel makes for more visits, more visits a better use of your vacation property. If you cannot afford to get to the property, then that's an issue.

To Fly From the West Coast
Generally $300 to $450 for one round trip ticket in winter and off-season, so for two tickets you would pay $600 to $900. Prices will go up to $500 to $650 ($1000 – $1300 for two tickets) in the summer and around holidays. Now if you have a family of 4. Roughly about $1200 to $1800.

To Fly From Middle America
Price to Hawaii from the central mainland U.S.: Tickets will start at $600 apiece generally in the winter and offseason and hopefully won’t go up past $750. In the summer and peak season you could pay as much as $850 to $1200 per ticket. A family of 4 could end up paying as much as $3200 just to goto their DVC.

To Fly From East Coast
Airline ticket prices from the east coast: Expect to pay $850 apiece as your cheapest price in the winter and the offseason. In July, if you book early, you may still be able to find some $850 rates, but if you don’t, you could pay $1500 easy. Or $3000 for a couple. A family of 4 could expect to pay $4000 in airfaire rather easily.

To Fly From Japan / Asia
In Hawaii’s low season you can find tickets for $750 or so. In the summer, prices can start at $1100 apiece if you book early. For a family of 4 in the peak season, expect to drop $5000 rather easily in many cases.

Yearly Dues
Add in the dues you pay on top of the yearly travel cost. An extra $1000 a year for 250 points. Another factor to consider on top of the travel.

Since the flight schedules are only released around 330 days out I can't check for August of next year yet but I CAN check for July. A multi-city round trip which includes island hopping & a stop at DL from Washington to HNL to Maui to LAX and back to Washington is currently priced at $1,089. For Hawaii we usually fly on Delta so we can convert Amex Reward points to Skymiles. The last time we went in 2006 we were able to book all of our flights on Skymiles. That is pretty much in line with the kinds of prices we've paid in the past and is also approx. how much we're looking at for our flights next summer to Paris & Barcelona for our Med cruise. Next summer we're hoping to book at least 2 of us on our Cap One miles so we don't have to pay all of it out of pocket. Travel in general is not cheap any more and is just a factor that must be considered when planning a big trip.

We try to go to Hawaii just every 5 years for several reasons. First, if we went EVERY year it wouldn't seem as spectacular and we wouldn't crave it the way we do from only going every few years. Second, the cost. It takes time to save up Reward Points between trips. Third, our vacation time is limited and a 12 hour (at best) flight on either end makes it only worthwhile to go for 10 days or so. If we use up 10 days on one trip it limits any other trips we want to do to shorter long weekend type trips. Fourth, we like to do OTHER vacations too - which goes back to limited amounts of vacation time. We also like our years where we have 2-3 trips to FL and we like to cruise about once every 3 years + there are other destinations to go to etc. Hawaii would lose some of its magic if we went ALL the time - it would be like eating ice cream EVERY day. A small add-on with plans to use it with banking & borrowing every 5 years is a perfect solution for us. On the 2 years we DON'T use it for Hawaii we'd simply use the points at 7 months for something else. (We typically book our DVC trips at 7 months anyway.)

The ideal situation for US tho would be simply to be able to get in at 7 months without having to lay out an additional $6,000 to DVC for that 11 mo. priority. But since we DO go on a semi-regular basis it's not an unreasonable thought to buy a small contract. One other drawback for US is that Oahu is not our fav. island. If it was Maui we'd definitely spend more time there. I know from past trips that we can book a hotel room on Oahu pretty cheaply so I'm not sold on the idea yet that it's a necessary purchase. We know we rarely spend much time in our rooms when on vaca so we rarely, if ever, book anything but "standard" or "cityview" type rooms. We usually just book the lowest available category. The one given for us is that we'd usually go in the summer when school is out.

I am a definite supporter of using any and all methods to rack up miles to cover these types of expensive tickets. It's just THE way to go!! You really need to look into a way of collecting miles or reward points or something!!

 

[gkrykewy]

Disney may not have declared all of the completed villas for the DVC membership by the date of your visit. Keep in mind that only 86% of BLT has been declared for the Membership even though its been open for over a year.

Actually, this is generally a positive for 7-month bookings rather than a negative. Yes, it means that there will be fewer total units available, but while a resort is for sale, there will be more units available (declared) than have been "sold" - so there's guaranteed to be 7-month availability, since there aren't enough owners to have booked up all the declared points prior to 7-months.

You indicate that BLT is 86% declared, and IIRC it's about 60% sold. So this 26% gap is going to be available to book at 7 months regardless of what owners do (obviously varying by room type, season, etc, but there will be availability).

 

[wdrl]

Actually, this is generally a positive for 7-month bookings rather than a negative. Yes, it means that there will be fewer total units available, but while a resort is for sale, there will be more units available (declared) than have been "sold" - so there's guaranteed to be 7-month availability, since there aren't enough owners to have booked up all the declared points prior to 7-months.

You indicate that BLT is 86% declared, and IIRC it's about 60% sold. So this 26% gap is going to be available to book at 7 months regardless of what owners do (obviously varying by room type, season, etc, but there will be availability).

You make an excellent point. DVD has declared for the DVC inventory far more Units at BLT and AKV than they have sold. If every owner of BLT or AKV used their points exclusively at each resort, there would still be about 66 two-bedroom BLT villas and 34 two-bedroom AKV villas left over for other DVC members to book. This overcapacity caused by declared-but-unsold points at BLT and AKV (and to a lesser extent SSR) means that the DVC network has more rooms than owners at this time. And you are right: DVD will declare more Aulani Units than it will have sold by 2012, so there should be a little bit of overcapacity for non-owners to grab at the 7-month mark.

Anal Annie cited SSR as an example of how a large DVC resort usually has availability at the 7-month mark. When I was responding to her questions about Aulani, I was just trying to explain why it might be premature to consider Aulani as a huge DVC resort. Sure, it will be the second largest resort (based on points) once it is fully built. But in 2012, when she intends to visit, Aulani probably won't be even half its intended size. Aulani will have 460 Vacation Homes when its completed, but in 2012, the actual number for booking with points will probably be around 150.

 

[gkrykewy]

Anal Annie cited SSR as an example of how a large DVC resort usually has availability at the 7-month mark. When I was responding to her questions about Aulani, I was just trying to explain why it might be premature to consider Aulani as a huge DVC resort. Sure, it will be the second largest resort (based on points) once it is fully built. But in 2012, when she intends to visit, Aulani probably won't be even half its intended size. Aulani will have 460 Vacation Homes when its completed, but in 2012, the actual number for booking with points will probably be around 150.

Completely agree, but my general view on Aulani is that it will be perfectly doable at 7 months. In the near term, the gap between sold and declared units will mitigate the small inventory issues related to the phasing, and in the long term, that's a big resort!

 

[mamaprincess]

I admittedly haven't read through this thread except for a couple of posts but those I saw say Aulani is big. My take on that is that it will be the only Disney resort in Hawaii. With no other Disney resorts to compete with in that location, it's size shouldn't be an issue. If you want to have a Disney experience in Hawaii, you will have no other option but Aulani. I don't know if the effects of it's size will be comparable to WDW based DVC where there are so many options. I don't think it can be compared to other DVC's in other locations either. They aren't located in a vacation hot spot like Hawaii. Just my two cents.

 

[rparmfamily]

Was there today, we went to the lagoon in front of it. They were building a large sand castle (with Mickey on a surfboard) right in front of it. I wish I had my camera. Lots of people were taking pictures though, so hopefully one will pop up here or on the web! I take it the sand castle is for some sort of ad or promo. There was a whole crew out there working on it, with beige "Aulani" tshirts.

 

[DisWitt]

Was there today, we went to the lagoon in front of it. They were building a large sand castle (with Mickey on a surfboard) right in front of it. I wish I had my camera. Lots of people were taking pictures though, so hopefully one will pop up here or on the web! I take it the sand castle is for some sort of ad or promo. There was a whole crew out there working on it, with beige "Aulani" tshirts.

What?! You didn't have your camera? Slap your hand right now and promise that you'll go back and get us Aulani-porn so that we can drool for another 12 months.

For others looking for Aulani porn, check out today's MousePlanet post. It has photos of the model room. I love the mini Murphy bed! http://www.mouseplanet.com/9366/Aloha_from_Aulani_the_newest_Disney_Vacation_Club_property

As for capacity, keep in mind that SSR doesn't book up because there are so many DVC rooms also nearby. Aulani is out in HI all by itself. And while people dog Oahu a lot ("it's not Maui"), I've heard that Ko'Olina is as good as is gets and that the Marriott is doing really well.

 

[rparmfamily]

What?! You didn't have your camera? Slap your hand right now and promise that you'll go back and get us Aulani-porn so that we can drool for another 12 months.

For others looking for Aulani porn, check out today's MousePlanet post. It has photos of the model room. I love the mini Murphy bed! http://www.mouseplanet.com/9366/Aloha_from_Aulani_the_newest_Disney_Vacation_Club_property

As for capacity, keep in mind that SSR doesn't book up because there are so many DVC rooms also nearby. Aulani is out in HI all by itself. And while people dog Oahu a lot ("it's not Maui"), I've heard that Ko'Olina is as good as is gets and that the Marriott is doing really well.

I know I know!!!!! I didn't even have my PHONE on me!! (to take a pic!) It was a huge sandcastle too, bigger than a car!

You can tell Aulani is being built as a complete resort, not just a fancy hotel. They are working on the pool structure (I think a volcano?) now, the metal framing is up and it looks huge. It is absolutely gorgeous there. And it's far from Waikiki, all you hear is the ocean, and the occasional plane overhead (it's in the path for HNL.)

I did notice some rooms/offices done by the edge of the sand/grass areas, I assume they are models. Next time I'll bring my camera!

 

[jerseygal]

PICS OF VOLCANO POOL! CAN'T WAIT TILL THIS STARTS SHAPING UP!

THIS RESORT WILL BE GORGEOUS! CELEBRATING 30 YR ANNIVERSARY IN SEPT.2013! YOUNGEST WILL BE TUCKED SAFELY AWAY IN COLLEGE! CAN'T WAIT!

 

[IandGsmom]

We just added on some point to Aulani today. Cant wait to go, planning on 2012!

 

[gkrykewy]

As for capacity, keep in mind that SSR doesn't book up because there are so many DVC rooms also nearby. Aulani is out in HI all by itself.

In terms of demand, that cuts both ways. People stay in the WDW DVC resorts for WDW, not for the DVC resorts.

 

[kikiq]

I just watched the second DVC/Aulani TV promo this weekend. it's definitely being promoted in Southern California. And did I read somewhere in this thread that the VGC sales were NOT what "folks" expected? I just received a mailing from my guide saying that VGC only has March Use Year left. They started selling early 2009 and is "approaching sellout in just a few weeks".
And a little reminder that we have until Oct 31 to purchase Aulani before the price goes up. We are seriously thinking about it.