At Aulani now - One & Done? The Answer is...

[sueg]

I'll start with a disclaimer. DH & I are not beach/pool people. But Hawaii was on our bucket list & we are DVC, so here we are.
Opted for first class non stop flight - Newark to Honolulu. Can't say enough good things about this expensive, but SO WORTH IT experience.
Waited a long time for Alamo shuttle & ended up standing on a crowded bus with our luggage at our feet. We had "skip the counter" so right to our car, but the few employees that we did encounter were "disinterested".
Aulani is crowded, our room wasn't ready. We went to Foodland and by the time we finished shopping, room was ready.
Got an ocean view 1 BD, which is far back in building (room 912 near elevator), so it is mainly a pool view w/ noise. We can see the ocean from the left side of our balcony.
Nice dinner at Moneypod and got some ground Kona at coffee shop next store.
As you can see from the time of this post, I'm not adjusting to time change. Drinking coffee on balcony, while DH sleeps. Definitely will make an early exercise/yoga class.
Early days on our fit with Aulani.

 

[alohamom]

hmmm, Ive always wondered about the interior rooms facing the pool and the noise. I know the glass in the doors is heavy and people say you cannot hear anything in your room once it is closed but what is the point of the ocean view if you are not going to use it, right?

 

[disrailfan]

We were just there the 10th of March through the 16th of March and we were in 954. I thought the noise would be a problem from the Pool area as well but it was not. We were in a Studio. We loved the pool areas and the Beach area but they were very crowded. In the future we will go during a less busy time of year. Seemed to be a lot of KIDS and Young adults there during our stay so it must have been someones Spring Break.

We are considering going back next February if the Stars all align. Want to go and enjoy a few more island things. This trip we did do Pearl Harbor, Roy's Original and some things right there in the resort area.

 

[Soccerluvinmama]

We were just there the 10th of March through the 16th of March and we were in 954. I thought the noise would be a problem from the Pool area as well but it was not. We were in a Studio. We loved the pool areas and the Beach area but they were very crowded. In the future we will go during a less busy time of year. Seemed to be a lot of KIDS and Young adults there during our stay so it must have been someones Spring Break.

We are considering going back next February if the Stars all align. Want to go and enjoy a few more island things. This trip we did do Pearl Harbor, Roy's Original and some things right there in the resort area.

Be careful with February too. For a lot of schools, that's mid-winter break. For us it falls during the same week as Presidents day. We go this time every year, and this year was the last time we'll be doing that. We couldn't even get a chair on the beach most days. Insane! It's the busiest I've ever seen it. One employee mentioned that they don't really have a slow season anymore. I'm hoping that's not true....

 

[CaliAdventurer]

I've been there feb, april, dec so far. April and Feb were jammed packed. The week before xmas was lovely (we didnt book 11 mos to the day and so missed the week after xmas) and serene albeit a bit cool. The calm before the storm. We're making it a tradition!

 

[longboard55]

Give it a couple days

 

[oceanmarina]

Sounds like you had a great flight down - have only flown first class once and it was amazing! And on a long flight like that from the east coast, it must have been so nice! Please update us & let us know how the trip is going.

 

[sueg]

Nice day. It is definitely crowded, with many Japanese families with young children. It's not "Golden Week" in Japan, because I researched that prior to booking. Maybe some other holiday??
Sunrise yoga was interesting. Instructor gave me a hard time about not having a reservation 12 hours in advance. But there was an available spot/mat, so she "agreed" to let me join. Rather than instruct to a class with an empty matThis was a fee activity. She knew her stuff, but gave no individual guidance. Going to try different exercise tomorrow.
Spent the day reading & gazing at the ocean, did not actually sit on the beach. Grabbed two chairs, on a level facing beach, at about 7:30 and held on for dear life. Twice, when DH or I left our chair, Aulani employees came and gave us a one hour warning. I agree that they need to do something about saving chairs, but I think that a family member should be able to be "away from their chair". Left at about 2, but couldn't sit and read on balcony because there was music activity at pool for about an hour. There were no available chairs anywhere by 9AM & I saw families staking their chair well prior to 8 AM, as I returned from yoga.
Going to Roy's for dinner and going to try to stay awake later so I am not up at 2 AM.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Nice day. It is definitely crowded, with many Japanese families with young children. It's not "Golden Week" in Japan, because I researched that prior to booking. Maybe some other holiday??
Sunrise yoga was interesting. Instructor gave me a hard time about not having a reservation 12 hours in advance. But there was an available spot/mat, so she "agreed" to let me join. Rather than instruct to a class with an empty matThis was a fee activity. She knew her stuff, but gave no individual guidance. Going to try different exercise tomorrow.
Spent the day reading & gazing at the ocean, did not actually sit on the beach. Grabbed two chairs, on a level facing beach, at about 7:30 and held on for dear life. Twice, when DH or I left our chair, Aulani employees came and gave us a one hour warning. I agree that they need to do something about saving chairs, but I think that a family member should be able to be "away from their chair". Left at about 2, but couldn't sit and read on balcony because there was music activity at pool for about an hour. There were no available chairs anywhere by 9AM & I saw families staking their chair well prior to 8 AM, as I returned from yoga.
Going to Roy's for dinner and going to try to stay awake later so I am not up at 2 AM.

Kids in Japan have a school break right now. Their school year starts in April for them so they always have a break in March.

 

[Littlelulu01]

I know many west coast schools have spring break this week, last week and next week. About half my fb friends are posting pictures of their Hawaiian island vacations today.

 

[sueg]

We walked to Roy's for dinner. Pretty, but not really fancy. We ate outside, nestled in the golf course. We both had salads, native fish entrees (I had butterfish), a local mushroom side dish which was so delicious, I could have drank the sauce. Luckily there was no bread service at Roy's or we would have sopped it all up. One glass of wine & one cup of coffee. $200 including tip.
Decided today was no beach/pool. We drove up Farrington Highway on our way to the North Shore, not realizing the official road ends. (Map from rental car company said our contract was void if we continued to drive on this road.) But we got some beautiful picture and then circled back towards Aulani, to drive to Haleiwa. Really cute town. Lunch at Kono Cafe and shave ice at Masimoto's

 

[blondietink]

That road that "ends" is full of boulders and other various types of rocks. You need a monster truck to drive it, which we have seen in the past. Even a jeep won't make it. It is just as bad on the other side on the north shore.

 

[buffettgirl]

I wonder if I saw you at Kono! My husband and I went there for lunch yesterday.

 

[sueg]

After Haleiwa, I started to not feel well & spent Saturday evening in Kunia Urgent Care. I have an upper respiratory infection. We missed going to church & ate a not-so-good pizza from Pizza Corner, after we got out of the pharmacy. That's the bad news.
However, the good news is Kunia Urgent Care was wonderful (Better than urgent care that I used for our son at WDW) Condition is very treatable and I got enough meds into me to keep our 8AM ticket for Pearl Harbor. We did the Arizona Memorial & bowfin submarine. But my energy level is low, because the hacking cough wakes me throughout the night. So we may return to tour Battleship Missouri. We are big history buffs and my Dad was WWII Navy, so this trip was major for us. From Pearl Harbor, we went to Anna Miller's for lunch. I had the Portugese bean soup & DH had banana/macadamia nut pancakes. Famous strawberry pie to go. Vert reasonable & filling. But there was a 25 minute wait for a table.

 

[Micca]

Following with interest for an Aulani trip for us sometime down the road. Sorry to hear about the respiratory infection, sure hope you feel well enough to have some fun on your trip. We aren't really beach/pool/water activity people either but as you said, a trip to Hawaii is something we always figured we'd do and as a DVC member might as well make the most of it. Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[Midoria]

Following with interest for an Aulani trip for us sometime down the road. Sorry to hear about the respiratory infection, sure hope you feel well enough to have some fun on your trip. We aren't really beach/pool/water activity people either but as you said, a trip to Hawaii is something we always figured we'd do and as a DVC member might as well make the most of it. Looking forward to the rest of your report!

The prevalent assumption that to enjoy Hawaii you have to like beaches and sun is popular, but incorrect. Of course, everybody has their favorite beach like they had their favorite restaurant, but it doesn't mean they want to be there all the time. I'm a huge fan of things like waterfalls, greenery, and mountains. If you can find me anywhere, it's usually in one of those places. In fact, I even chose my current place of residence because I liked how high up it was.

I guess you may be in a rock and a hard place because of the DVC thing, though. From what I understand, that would make your whole stay a lot more fordable, but it may not necessarily be the best place for you to stay. Shoot, Oahu might not even be the best for you.

 

[wdrl]

Twice, when DH or I left our chair, Aulani employees came and gave us a one hour warning. I agree that they need to do something about saving chairs, but I think that a family member should be able to be "away from their chair".

I agree what you are saying about a family member should be away from their chair for a reasonable time. Unfortunately, we have seen a couple situations at Aulani where guests aren't very considerate of others. Once, first thing in the morning a mom and kids claimed chairs for themselves and an extra one for dad, even though dad was golfing that morning. When dad finally showed up after lunch, he said he was tired and going back to the room to nap. Thus, he never used the chair the family had saved for him. And the kids spent all their time in the pool or on the beach and hardly used the three chairs they had saved. So, for most of the time, the mom was surrounded by four unused chairs.

 

[sueg]

We found a 5 PM (Sunday) mass in a church in Kapolei. After mass, we decided to return to MonkeyPod because we really enjoy it on the first night of our trip. It is amazing how a different server & a different seat location can change your opinion of a restaurant. On our first visit, we arrived early for our Open Table reservation (of course, because our east coast clocks) and stumbled onto reduced prices for Happy Hour. We had a wonderful server and were seated upstairs. Shared a butternut squash pizza, a kale salad & roasted brussel sprouts. All delicious and with a glass of wine about $40 with tip. Last night, no reservation, 20 minute wait for table. Seated downstairs next to the bushes that run along the road. Buggy. Families had their children burning off energy on the grass. I had fish tacos with VERY fresh fish. DH has nut crusted mahi mahi. He loved the fish, but hated the spicy greens on the side. His dish was $39 which was only $10 cheaper that Roy's which was a much better overall experience. One glass of wine. $90 tab including tip. Going to member meeting this AM. See if I can get a chair in our non beach/non pool location after the meeting.

 

[msp2mco]

We just returned from 3 nights on the Big Island and 4 nights at Aulani. We had a fabulous time and commented that we didn't think it was as busy as we expected from reading the DIS boards. By mid-morning, we always found chairs on the beach, and it seemed during the busiest times, we found chairs in the adult pool area (all of us are 18+). I can see where you wouldn't find chairs around the main pools though.

We had an ocean view 2-BR nestled in the back corner, and we loved it (1250). We overlooked the pool and the ocean beyond, and it was always in the shade. One night we could hear the music from the bar, even with the doors closed.

We found the cast members friendly and helpful, but we didn't have any special requests while we were there. We used the hospitality room after check-out, which was nice.

In Honolulu, we ate at MW Restaurant, higher end regional Hawaiian cuisine that is locally sourced, which I would highly recommend. I don't think there were many tourists there; it looked like locals and business people.

We aren't really beach and pool people either, but we loved every minute of our stay at Aulani.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have been to aulani four times and are going again in May for 10 days. We love it even though its a long plane ride from Chicago. We have an adult disabled daughter and we always bring her friend and get a one bedroom ocean view in the EWE building. They love the character sightings and the community house for crafts. We have been all around the island, as well as other Hawaiian islands, and love to do nothing but sit by the pool all day and read. We rarely go to the beach even. We love the character breakfast one morning and always do a dinner at AMA AMA. The rest of the time we usually go across the street or drive into kapolei. We have a friend in Honolulu and we always add him as our fifth person in the room so he can get a room key and come over in the afternoon to swim with us. We get free parking for two cars as DVC members so he can park his car there for free.

We bring our tennis rackets and used to play st the Marriott next door. It's now a four seasons but they still have the courts so I'm sure we will play there almost every day. And I love the fitness center and the workouts on the beach. I'm the one to get up in the morning and get chairs. I go down at 730, get a latte, sit in a chair until 8, get the towels when the pool house opens and then save the chairs with towels. I run upstairs, make breakfast and head back down to the chairs. i see lots of chairs that people never use all day which is a shame. We use our chairs all day except when in the lazy river or on the slides.

Aulani has become our happy place. We own at several DVC resorts, but aulani has become our favorite.