Is Aulani busy in late August?

RatherDrive

DVC - BWV

Joined

Nov 25, 2013

• Apr 17, 2017

• #1

We finally booked our trip to Aulani on points this summer, last week in August, and even got an awesome deal on flights!! We are currently in the middle of planning our adventures on Oahu and were wondering if the resort will be as crowded as the DVC availability calendar is showing. We booked exactly at the seven month window and were not able to get our date, we had to shift by one day so no big deal. A few days later we were looking to see if we could move our week and saw that there was no availability for a week stay only a few days spread out over the last two weeks in August. So this got us wondering on how crowded the resort will be.

Has anyone visited Aulani at this time and how busy was the resort?

 

alohamom

DIS Veteran

Joined

Oct 31, 2003

• Apr 17, 2017

• #2

We have been in August a couple of times, the last time was the third week of August last year. It was pretty busy but we still enjoyed it. The lazy river never felt crowded. The lines for the slides were not too bad, like 10-15 minute waits but less later in the day. The lagoon did feel a little crowded to me, but you could still swim.

 

RatherDrive

DVC - BWV

Joined

Nov 25, 2013

• Apr 18, 2017

• #3

Thanks! Not overly worried but just wondering just the same.

Still lots of planning and decisions to be made over the next little while. Got the big items out of the way, resort and airfare so the rest should be easy!!

 

alohamom

DIS Veteran

Joined

Oct 31, 2003

• Apr 18, 2017

• #4

RatherDrive said:

Thanks! Not overly worried but just wondering just the same.

Still lots of planning and decisions to be made over the next little while. Got the big items out of the way, resort and airfare so the rest should be easy!!

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The planning is the fun stuff! Have a great time...

 

A

Angelaann

Earning My Ears

Joined

Sep 1, 2016

• Apr 18, 2017

• #5

RatherDrive said:

We finally booked our trip to Aulani on points this summer, last week in August, and even got an awesome deal on flights!! We are currently in the middle of planning our adventures on Oahu and were wondering if the resort will be as crowded as the DVC availability calendar is showing. We booked exactly at the seven month window and were not able to get our date, we had to shift by one day so no big deal. A few days later we were looking to see if we could move our week and saw that there was no availability for a week stay only a few days spread out over the last two weeks in August. So this got us wondering on how crowded the resort will be.

Has anyone visited Aulani at this time and how busy was the resort?

Click to expand...

We were at Aulani the week before Labor Day through just after Labor Day weekend last year. It was pretty busy, but the staff said it was less busy than normal because some people opted to change their plans because of the forecasted hurricane. There was a marked drop off on Labor Day.

The pools were busy at peak times, but we avoided that by using them early or late. Chairs were tough to come by, so we rented cabanas. There was pretty much always chair availability at the beach and the adult pool. When we arrived, we tried to make some additional on property dining reservations, but were unable to to so. Also, the line for Auntie's started forming 6-7am. You can avoid the line by paying for the premium activities in advance.

 

marx

DVC Home: AKV

Joined

May 30, 2007

• Apr 19, 2017

• #6

We were at Aulani the two weeks leading into Labor Day in 2014 and 2015. While it was pretty busy two weeks prior to Labor Day, the crowds die down significantly after that first week. For me, it was mostly noticeable with pool chairs early in the morning. (I am an early riser and usually head down to read by the pool before 7am). When we first arrived most chairs had stuff on them before 9am, but beginning with the Monday prior to Labor Day most chairs were empty.

 

wl1117

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jan 4, 2009

• Apr 23, 2017

• #7

We'll be there then too! Our kids don't start school again until after Labor Day, so we like to travel the last week of August to try to avoid some crowds. Plus, our Use Year is Sept, so we were able to pull some points for the last few days of our booking by overlapping into Sept. I'm hoping for more moderate crowd levels. Happy planning!

 

RatherDrive

DVC - BWV

Joined

Nov 25, 2013

• Apr 24, 2017

• #8

wl1117 said:

We'll be there then too! Our kids don't start school again until after Labor Day, so we like to travel the last week of August to try to avoid some crowds. Plus, our Use Year is Sept, so we were able to pull some points for the last few days of our booking by overlapping into Sept. I'm hoping for more moderate crowd levels. Happy planning!

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Our kids start after Labour Day as well so we tend to try go anywhere the last two weeks of August to avoid the same crowds as you are talking about. Been doing that for years going to WDW and now Aulani. Not really worried about the resort being crowded since there is so much to see and do on the island. See you there!

 

L

longboard55

DIS Veteran

Joined

Oct 9, 2014

• Apr 24, 2017

• #9

In general Hawaii crowds drop off the last two weeks in August, but the first two weeks are very busy

 

H

happymommy

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 8, 2006

• Apr 24, 2017

• #10

There really is no "slow" time in Hawaii. You have guests coming from other countries, and from the US, like here in the Mid Atlantic, our schools don't start until after Labor Day.

I own at the Marriott, and they and Aulani are similar to Hilton Hawaiian Village: almost always full capacity. You won't find a time where they are at anything like 60% or so; it's always fairly full.