Just Returned from Aulani

LisaT91403

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
I just returned from my 3rd visit to Aulani (the first two visits being at the end of 2012 and end of 2013). This time, we split our stay...3 nights in Waikiki and then 3 at Aulani. We stayed in a 2 Bedroom Villa on each stay -- the first 2 times in Island View, and this time in Poolside Garden view. We rented a cabana and went to the luau, and my son did the Rainbow Reef and Menehune Trails.

So...just thought I'd post in case anyone had any questions I could answer. Aloha!
 
Best dessert you ate?
Best meal you ate?
Advice on getting pool chairs?
Did you get VIP for the luau - wondering if the VIP is worth it?
Can food/gift shop items be charged to the room via your room key?
 
Best dessert you ate?
Best meal you ate?
Advice on getting pool chairs?
Did you get VIP for the luau - wondering if the VIP is worth it?
Can food/gift shop items be charged to the room via your room key?

1.Chocolate soufflé at Roy’s
2. Grandma is a picky eater, so this was not a foodie trip. We really enjoyed Duke’s in Waikiki (perfect sunset view, and food was solid...but not “amazing” by any means).
3. We had a cabana one day. On another day, we went to the adult pool because that’s where we could find shade. My son was in the pools anyway, so he didn’t mind. He never sits still! On the third day, it was windy and gloomy, so chairs were easy to find. One place you should look is on the infinity pool deck right in front of the cabanas. I think people assume that the row of chairs on that deck belongs to the cabanas...but that‘s not true.
4. VIP wasn’t worth it for us because we aren’t drinkers. We arrived late (before dinner, but long after the activities started) because we didn’t care about the activities or seating. We were at the last table, and still enjoyed the show. But you have to decide what’s important to you.
5. Everything can be charged to the room. I think the only thing that didn’t go on the room charge were tips (e.g. for valet, bellman, etc.)

Hope this helps!
 


Where did you stay on Waikiki? Can you give a little recap of that part of your stay?
Considering a similar split.

Mahalo
:)
 
We are going to a 2 bedroom pool garden view on 2/3/20. Any advice for me for making a room request? I will be doing that next week..

Best on property meal?
Any must-dos on property?
how was the weather for you?

TIA!
 
Where did you stay on Waikiki? Can you give a little recap of that part of your stay?
Considering a similar split.

Mahalo
:)

We did a split this time for 3 reasons: 1) We had already stayed at Aulani twice, both times when my son was younger. I wasn't sure it would hold his interest for all 6 nights this time (but in retrospect, it might have). 2) For the dates that we were able to travel, Aulani was prohibitively expensive for the first 3 nights. 3) I thought it might be more fun to have the "action" of Waikiki before the relaxation of Aulani. Therefore, we did the first 3 nights in Waikiki, and the final 3 nights at Aulani.

We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian in the Mailani (modern) tower for our stay. We chose this property because it is on the best stretch of Waikiki beach, and beach access is literally right outside your door. We also liked the idea of having access to the Sheraton's water slide/pool. As it turned out, my son immediately dubbed the slide as "lame"...so that was the end of that.

We chose the Mailani tower because it's more our style than the historic Royal Hawaiian. A couple of nice things about this tower are that every room has an ocean view, and they include breakfast in the morning and cocktails/appetizers in the evening. The breakfast was supposed to be continental, but in addition to the fruit, pastries, yogurt, juice, and mimosas, there was always at least one hot item (bacon, sausage, or eggs) plus oatmeal and miso soup. We didn't know this when we checked in, but we found out during our stay that kids eat free (I know for sure at breakfast and lunch, but not sure about dinner) at the restaurant with a paid adult.

We had planned to do parasailing, but it was too windy so all tours were canceled. We ended up doing a short, 1-hour Segway tour, and my son really enjoyed it. My son and husband also rented jet skis, and had a blast. We spent the rest of the time at/on the beach with the $10 boogie board I bought at the local Target. There are no waves at all at Aulani...another reason why we decided to do Waikiki for a couple of days. We also had fun looking in all of the shops in the evening, and dinner at Duke's is really a classic Waikiki experience.

Since we traveled the first day, we really had just 2 days (and 3 nights) in Waikiki. We got up really early on our check out day, and went straight to Aulani so that we could get 3 full days and nights there.

If money were no object, I think it would probably be less disruptive to just stay at Aulani the whole time, and just venture into Honolulu for a day to do jet skis, parasailing, and play in the surf. But from an economic standpoint for this particular trip, it made more sense to do the split stay.

Enjoy!
 


We are going to a 2 bedroom pool garden view on 2/3/20. Any advice for me for making a room request? I will be doing that next week..

Best on property meal?
Any must-dos on property?
how was the weather for you?

TIA!

I had requested the "highest possible floor", and ended up on the 5th floor...which I believe is the highest you can get without having an Ocean View room. We could see the ocean, but were looking through the palm trees...as we were all the way at the end of the long wing (overlooking the Stitch statue, kind of near Aunty's). If we looked straight out our balconies, we could see the line for the waterslides, and the Four Seasons in the distance. I'm not positive, but it seems like a room closer to the lobby would have given nicer views of the lazy river?

I would post some pictures, but when I insert an image, it shows up upside down! Anyone know how to fix that?

Edit: Forgot to answer the other questions. I would say that none of our on-property meals were spectacular, but we didn't really try very hard since this was our 3rd trip. We enjoyed breakfast at Ama Ama because of the beautiful view and great service.

My son loved doing the Menehune Trail. He also enjoyed the luau, but I thought it was an over-priced waste of money. To each his/her own, I guess. He had never snorkeled before, but ending up enjoying the Rainbow Reef once he figured out how to use the snorkel. My favorite part was the cabana day :-)

The weather was just kind of "meh". It was windy all 3 days...so much so that they had every single pool and beach umbrella closed with zip ties. We had sunshine and warm weather for 2 days, and then the third day was cooler and gloomy, with rain in the evening. On the morning of our departure, it was pouring, and showed no signs of letting up.
 
I had requested the "highest possible floor", and ended up on the 5th floor...which I believe is the highest you can get without having an Ocean View room. We could see the ocean, but were looking through the palm trees...as we were all the way at the end of the long wing (overlooking the Stitch statue, kind of near Aunty's). If we looked straight out our balconies, we could see the line for the waterslides, and the Four Seasons in the distance. I'm not positive, but it seems like a room closer to the lobby would have given nicer views of the lazy river?

I would post some pictures, but when I insert an image, it shows up upside down! Anyone know how to fix that?

Edit: Forgot to answer the other questions. I would say that none of our on-property meals were spectacular, but we didn't really try very hard since this was our 3rd trip. We enjoyed breakfast at Ama Ama because of the beautiful view and great service.

My son loved doing the Menehune Trail. He also enjoyed the luau, but I thought it was an over-priced waste of money. To each his/her own, I guess. He had never snorkeled before, but ending up enjoying the Rainbow Reef once he figured out how to use the snorkel. My favorite part was the cabana day :-)

The weather was just kind of "meh". It was windy all 3 days...so much so that they had every single pool and beach umbrella closed with zip ties. We had sunshine and warm weather for 2 days, and then the third day was cooler and gloomy, with rain in the evening. On the morning of our departure, it was pouring, and showed no signs of letting up.




Was the 5th floor noisy from the pools?
 
Was the 5th floor noisy from the pools?

We weren’t really in the room when the pools were open. It seemed like the pool hours (8:00-6:00) were shorter than on our previous visits. I guess we were probably in the room when the pool opened, but we didn’t hear anything.
 
We just got back, so I'll take a swing at these too -

Best dessert you ate? - Fresh fruit platters at the cabana/lanai

Best meal you ate? - On property it was the character dinner buffet at Makahiki. Breakfast was good too and it was interesting to have options such as miso and fried rice for breakfast... for some reason my kids loaded up on the rice - to their defense, it was quite good. AMA'AMA had a wonderful view for dinners, but I wasn't super impressed with the food - my scallops for example were more steamed than seared - still good, but considering the price, they should be done better. Steak was well done when asked for medium. I'm sure they would have taken them back and prepared them as asked, but I'm on vacation and also just not the type to make a huge fuss as I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt that they did try their best.

Advice on getting pool chairs? - Get there early, around 7:30 for the best chairs. There are a cluster of chairs down near the beach behind the snack shop which seem to go overlooked for about a half hour longer than the other chairs. Make sure you revisit your chairs regularly, perhaps order a drink, since they do police the chairs and will collect your items and clear out the chair for others if you're away too long. I watched their process while drinking a mai tai followed by a lava flow... when they think they haven't seen someone use a chair, they will take the towel from the chair, fold it, then drape it across the back of the chair - some time later they will then collect the towel and any personal items.

Did you get VIP for the luau - wondering if the VIP is worth it? - You sit closer, have a better view, but also get in earlier to participate in the crafts earlier and longer - drinks are also included, although you do have to get up to get them. The price is marginal for adults, but when you consider that ages 10+ are priced the same as adults, is a bit much. We would still do the VIP again though.

Can food/gift shop items be charged to the room via your room key? Yes. There is a $2k limit to charges which can lead to some awkward situations - I was buying a photo pass when I hit that limit for the first time... kind of embarrassing being told that my charges were rejected. When this happens the front desk has to post the charges, then you get a clean slate again. For many this may never happen to them, but when you get a cabana at $450 and some time in the exec lanais at $375, it adds up quick. I asked about increasing the limit and was told no - they want people to be aware that they're racking up a huge bill.

Note on cabanas vs exec lanai - I personally enjoyed the lanai more than the cabana, although my wife has the opposite opinion. The cabana is trying too hard to be a room away from your room - it has a TV, fridge, sofas, etc. Both places will provide a fruit platter (delicious! rambutan, lychee, star fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, mango, papaya) although the cabana also includes a snack tray at some point during the day as well. Service is a bit better at the cabana since they're trafficked more - this is also a downside since they're in busier areas. Nice if you have small kids you want to keep an eye on, but if you want to just sit back, relax, and perhaps have a little privacy, the lanai is the way to go.
 
Note on cabanas vs exec lanai - I personally enjoyed the lanai more than the cabana, although my wife has the opposite opinion. The cabana is trying too hard to be a room away from your room - it has a TV, fridge, sofas, etc. Both places will provide a fruit platter (delicious! rambutan, lychee, star fruit, dragon fruit, pineapple, mango, papaya) although the cabana also includes a snack tray at some point during the day as well. Service is a bit better at the cabana since they're trafficked more - this is also a downside since they're in busier areas. Nice if you have small kids you want to keep an eye on, but if you want to just sit back, relax, and perhaps have a little privacy, the lanai is the way to go.

I will chime back in.

We had a few days on the exec lanai on our previous visit. We absolutely LOVED it. There was a ton of space, which was great for our group at that time (5 adults & 3 kids who were 5, 8 & 10). We loved it so much that we tried to reserve it again for this trip, but it was already booked. When we got to the resort, I inquired again, and they said that it might be available after all. I went to take a look at it, as it had been 6 years since our last visit. What I noticed was that there just wasn't a lot of shade. In looking back at old pictures, I realized that we were in the casabellas, but had towels draped over our legs because they were in the sun. Given that our group this time was just 3 adults and and almost 12 year old, we opted for the protection of the cabana. It totally saved us from the wind, and also the occasional (very brief) rain showers. I will say that we loved the view from the lanai...much better than from the cabana. But if you want lots of guaranteed shade, then the cabana is the better option IMO.
 

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