The lazy river / tube problem is actually a big problem. It’s one thing for the local public pool or waterpark to run out of tubes on a busy summer afternoon but a 4.5 star hotel, that someone is paying anywhere from 1k-4K a night should not be at capacity. I love Disney but ultimately choosing this resort over say the 4 seasons or the Ritz Carlton is bc of the pool amenities for the family.
@@DaydreamProjectTravel I do have a question y’all recommend a tour company? First half of our trip were in Waikiki and wanted to see Pearl Harbor and Kailua ranch on same day.
The amenities is a 10! The lazy river alone made it a 10. So many fun and cultural activities, pools, hot tubs, ocean, lawn, luau, characters, ocean activities and rentals, crafts, the snorkeling reef is so unique. We were there a week and I could just stay there. I think Aulani is by far the best Disney resort. I liked the evening talks and music too. The little interactive game was great!
So when you went to Aulani from the airport, did you use the limousine company that goes from the airport to Alani? Did you use how hell Shuttle that takes you from the airport resort, or did you use the Roberts Hawaii Airport Express to get you to and from the airport?
All the food was great and good variety. I liked all the fun drinks. It is expensive and wasn’t impressed with specialty coffee. I liked the food options across the street too. I miss island vintage coffee 😢
Thank you so much, that means the world to us! We filmed using the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, a really great point-and-shoot handheld camera that's very easy to get used to.
I did a solo trip to aulani in late August. your review was pretty dead on. One way I saved a lot on was through the Disney chase card. I had about 800 points transferred to a rewards card. So resort food and drinks pretty much already paid for. I would do the same next time and save those points up.
We wanted to book a 1 Bedroom 2 Queen Villa for our family of six (2 adults 4 children) and they said we couldn’t because it only sleeps five. They said we had to get a 2 Bedroom Villa which is like 4k more and waaaaaay more room than we need or want. We were wondering how they would even know if we booked a 1 Bedroom 2 Queen Villa with six instead of five people and they said something about wristbands which I didn’t see in your video. Wondering if we should roll the dice and get the 1 Bedroom and save 4k and try and get another wristband we may or may not need.
Hey Tyson; Aulani has a Property Rules and Policies page on their website that states, "Guests must wear a wristband to use the pools, pool chairs and beach chairs at Aulani Resort. A new wristband is required each day. Wristbands are provided only to Guests staying at Aulani Resort. The daily allocation of wristbands is based on the number of registered Guests in the Aulani Resort room, and cannot exceed the maximum occupancy for such specific room type." We usually stopped by a kiosk each evening to grab our wristbands for the next day, and theoretically cast members are monitoring this around the pool decks to ensure people not staying at the resort aren't using the private pool area. Did we see people during our stay getting kicked out of the pool deck? No. However, I can't in good conscience recommend that you attempt the 1-bedroom villa because I think there is some risk involved. Do you have any youngsters that will be 2 or under at the time of travel? If so, you should still be able to book that 1-bedroom without issue. I have heard frustration from others before about 1-bedroom villas at DVC properties sleeping 5 when the studio villas can sleep 4 (and most times, it's cheaper to book two studios than a 2-bedroom villa).
The only reason we were thinking a Villa was to save money on food. Eat breakfast and lunch in the room as much as possible and my youngest is 4 so almost
Hey, it is a DVC property. You see DVC in all the Parks and all the cruise ships. You can choose to interact with them or not. Try focusing on the mongoose darting in and out of the shrubbery instead of hiding from people who don’t want to waste your time or their time.
Luau is not thru disney. It is thru pleasant holidays and it costs 189 per person. Show and food was very good. Well worth the cost. My complaints about that resort is the privacy issues created by the ventilated doors in the suite, and of course the expensive food throughout. Otherwise beautiful and fantastic vacation! We had island garden view overlooking the luau and could see the ocean no problem They did not have the luau every night but when they did we cracked the door to listen to the music
We were not impressed at all. We had a bad start when we arrived and couldn't find check in. I told my s/o that we should watch a video so that we'd know where things were at Aulani and he told me that Disney is generally great with signage. He has been vacation club since a couple years after it started decades ago. Well - there was no check-in sign and no one to help us. Check-in is NOT when you walk in - you have to walk in and turn left (not right) at the "T." It wouldn't have been so bad but we were exhausted and because we absolutely had to valet the car (there is no other choice), we had our bags with us. Finally we found someone to ask and we were going the wrong way. We arrived at check-in a little flabbergasted. My s/o complained about the lack of signage. The gal at the counter should probably not be working for Disney. She mocked and bullied him, saying, "Oh well, your whole vacation is now officially ruined because there was no sign to check-in" Then she said that she would not check us in and we'd have to wait for someone else. That was really weird. A manager appeared to check us in and she was about as disingenuious as a person can be. We got to our room and there was garbage in the bin from the previous occupant as well as a few things in the dresser drawers. We didn't complain because of the horrible treatment we received mentioning the check-in signs. We wanted to see Oahu - not just the resort. We booked a non-Disney tour and Luau at Sea Life Park which were both awesome. Unfortunately, they each took over an hour in traffic to get to because Aulani is in such a bad location. We were both wishing that we'd stayed at the Holiday Inn and then we wouldn't need a car and we would have been right in the middle of everything. We had to change rooms on our last night and, honestly, we would have down graded to keep our same room but no one could offer that. We put our stuff in the car in the mean time because we heard horror stories of people who kept their bags with bell services and didn't get them in the new room until much later. In the mean time, we ordered pizza for roughly $20 each. We each only ate a little and had boxed left overs. When we got our rooms, we put the boxes on the area with the fridge for a little while and - yikes - there were these ants all over our pizzas. My s/o was exhaused with Aulani and didn't want to change rooms but he did want to let them know what was going on. He brought his any infested pizza to the front desk (I threw mine out) so that they would know there is an ant problem. We realized that the staff were talking about us amoung themselves which is a weird and very uncomfortable feeling. He told them that he was not looking to change rooms and he was not looking for compensation but that he just wanted them to know about the ant problem. They did end up crediting us the cost of the pizza so I credit that manager for his concern and not being condescending and disingenuous. On the positive side, we enjoyed the lazy river and watching sunset from the adult hot tub when we did not have our tours or luau (but note that most things close at 6 and everything is closed by 8). The place was a ghost town daily be 8:30pm which seemed odd to us as Disney people. All in all - I feel like if you are going to stay at the resort, you may as well not go to Hawaii, save a ton of money, and just go to the water slides in Orlando. If you want to see Oahu, this is a terrible location. You'll spend hours in traffic. On top of that, you'll deal with surly staff and crappy service for a TON of money that other people think is actually ok. It's not ok. If you pay for Disney service, why do you get lower than the Days Inn service?
I’m so sorry you had that experience during your trip; what you described is certainly unacceptable. It’s amazing to me that two groups of people can have such drastically different vacations even if they visit the same exact place. I do think that Disney has slipped over the last decade in terms of providing consistent guest experiences, I hope that consistency improves in the future!
The lazy river / tube problem is actually a big problem. It’s one thing for the local public pool or waterpark to run out of tubes on a busy summer afternoon but a 4.5 star hotel, that someone is paying anywhere from 1k-4K a night should not be at capacity. I love Disney but ultimately choosing this resort over say the 4 seasons or the Ritz Carlton is bc of the pool amenities for the family.
Thank you for your video we’re headed to Aulani for thanksgiving. Super excited 😊
Have a wonderful time!
See you there at that exact time. Drinking Mai tai.
@ haha same drink in hand and enjoying the pool 🤩
@@DaydreamProjectTravel I do have a question y’all recommend a tour company? First half of our trip were in Waikiki and wanted to see Pearl Harbor and Kailua ranch on same day.
The amenities is a 10! The lazy river alone made it a 10. So many fun and cultural activities, pools, hot tubs, ocean, lawn, luau, characters, ocean activities and rentals, crafts, the snorkeling reef is so unique.
We were there a week and I could just stay there.
I think Aulani is by far the best Disney resort. I liked the evening talks and music too. The little interactive game was great!
Agreed, we already want to go back! We haven't seen that combination of theming, amenities, and service at any other Disney resort.
So when you went to Aulani from the airport, did you use the limousine company that goes from the airport to Alani? Did you use how hell Shuttle that takes you from the airport resort, or did you use the Roberts Hawaii Airport Express to get you to and from the airport?
We actually used Lyft to get from the airport to Aulani and back! It was convenient for us and relatively inexpensive.
Really enjoyed the entire Aulani series!
Thank you so much for watching!
All the food was great and good variety. I liked all the fun drinks. It is expensive and wasn’t impressed with specialty coffee.
I liked the food options across the street too.
I miss island vintage coffee 😢
Jim Rohde!! wish he was running Disney. Ill be at Aulani soon
I loved your Aulani series. I’m subscribed and look forward to more of your videos going forward. Question, what camera did you guys use at Aulani?
Thank you so much, that means the world to us! We filmed using the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, a really great point-and-shoot handheld camera that's very easy to get used to.
I did a solo trip to aulani in late August. your review was pretty dead on. One way I saved a lot on was through the Disney chase card. I had about 800 points transferred to a rewards card. So resort food and drinks pretty much already paid for. I would do the same next time and save those points up.
That's a great tip, we'll have to consider getting that card for future Disney vacations!
We wanted to book a 1 Bedroom 2 Queen Villa for our family of six (2 adults 4 children) and they said we couldn’t because it only sleeps five. They said we had to get a 2 Bedroom Villa which is like 4k more and waaaaaay more room than we need or want. We were wondering how they would even know if we booked a 1 Bedroom 2 Queen Villa with six instead of five people and they said something about wristbands which I didn’t see in your video. Wondering if we should roll the dice and get the 1 Bedroom and save 4k and try and get another wristband we may or may not need.
Hey Tyson; Aulani has a Property Rules and Policies page on their website that states, "Guests must wear a wristband to use the pools, pool chairs and beach chairs at Aulani Resort. A new wristband is required each day. Wristbands are provided only to Guests staying at Aulani Resort. The daily allocation of wristbands is based on the number of registered Guests in the Aulani Resort room, and cannot exceed the maximum occupancy for such specific room type." We usually stopped by a kiosk each evening to grab our wristbands for the next day, and theoretically cast members are monitoring this around the pool decks to ensure people not staying at the resort aren't using the private pool area. Did we see people during our stay getting kicked out of the pool deck? No. However, I can't in good conscience recommend that you attempt the 1-bedroom villa because I think there is some risk involved. Do you have any youngsters that will be 2 or under at the time of travel? If so, you should still be able to book that 1-bedroom without issue. I have heard frustration from others before about 1-bedroom villas at DVC properties sleeping 5 when the studio villas can sleep 4 (and most times, it's cheaper to book two studios than a 2-bedroom villa).
The only reason we were thinking a Villa was to save money on food. Eat breakfast and lunch in the room as much as possible and my youngest is 4 so almost
Hey, it is a DVC property. You see DVC in all the Parks and all the cruise ships. You can choose to interact with them or not. Try focusing on the mongoose darting in and out of the shrubbery instead of hiding from people who don’t want to waste your time or their time.
Luau is not thru disney. It is thru pleasant holidays and it costs 189 per person. Show and food was very good. Well worth the cost.
My complaints about that resort is the privacy issues created by the ventilated doors in the suite, and of course the expensive food throughout. Otherwise beautiful and fantastic vacation!
We had island garden view overlooking the luau and could see the ocean no problem
They did not have the luau every night but when they did we cracked the door to listen to the music
We were not impressed at all. We had a bad start when we arrived and couldn't find check in. I told my s/o that we should watch a video so that we'd know where things were at Aulani and he told me that Disney is generally great with signage. He has been vacation club since a couple years after it started decades ago. Well - there was no check-in sign and no one to help us. Check-in is NOT when you walk in - you have to walk in and turn left (not right) at the "T." It wouldn't have been so bad but we were exhausted and because we absolutely had to valet the car (there is no other choice), we had our bags with us. Finally we found someone to ask and we were going the wrong way. We arrived at check-in a little flabbergasted. My s/o complained about the lack of signage. The gal at the counter should probably not be working for Disney. She mocked and bullied him, saying, "Oh well, your whole vacation is now officially ruined because there was no sign to check-in" Then she said that she would not check us in and we'd have to wait for someone else. That was really weird. A manager appeared to check us in and she was about as disingenuious as a person can be. We got to our room and there was garbage in the bin from the previous occupant as well as a few things in the dresser drawers. We didn't complain because of the horrible treatment we received mentioning the check-in signs. We wanted to see Oahu - not just the resort. We booked a non-Disney tour and Luau at Sea Life Park which were both awesome. Unfortunately, they each took over an hour in traffic to get to because Aulani is in such a bad location. We were both wishing that we'd stayed at the Holiday Inn and then we wouldn't need a car and we would have been right in the middle of everything. We had to change rooms on our last night and, honestly, we would have down graded to keep our same room but no one could offer that. We put our stuff in the car in the mean time because we heard horror stories of people who kept their bags with bell services and didn't get them in the new room until much later. In the mean time, we ordered pizza for roughly $20 each. We each only ate a little and had boxed left overs. When we got our rooms, we put the boxes on the area with the fridge for a little while and - yikes - there were these ants all over our pizzas. My s/o was exhaused with Aulani and didn't want to change rooms but he did want to let them know what was going on. He brought his any infested pizza to the front desk (I threw mine out) so that they would know there is an ant problem. We realized that the staff were talking about us amoung themselves which is a weird and very uncomfortable feeling. He told them that he was not looking to change rooms and he was not looking for compensation but that he just wanted them to know about the ant problem. They did end up crediting us the cost of the pizza so I credit that manager for his concern and not being condescending and disingenuous. On the positive side, we enjoyed the lazy river and watching sunset from the adult hot tub when we did not have our tours or luau (but note that most things close at 6 and everything is closed by 8). The place was a ghost town daily be 8:30pm which seemed odd to us as Disney people. All in all - I feel like if you are going to stay at the resort, you may as well not go to Hawaii, save a ton of money, and just go to the water slides in Orlando. If you want to see Oahu, this is a terrible location. You'll spend hours in traffic. On top of that, you'll deal with surly staff and crappy service for a TON of money that other people think is actually ok. It's not ok. If you pay for Disney service, why do you get lower than the Days Inn service?
I’m so sorry you had that experience during your trip; what you described is certainly unacceptable. It’s amazing to me that two groups of people can have such drastically different vacations even if they visit the same exact place. I do think that Disney has slipped over the last decade in terms of providing consistent guest experiences, I hope that consistency improves in the future!
Weird ratings for the food. Thanks
Disney is wrong 😊