Today we moved from Aulani to Ko Olina beach villas. We packed up in the morning and transferred our belongings over to the condo just next door. After checking in, we dragged out our departure from Aulani for the rest of the day. We changed back into our swim suits at the hospitality suite and enjoyed the amenities one last time. We revisited the tube slide, went around the lazy river a couple more times, got splashed at the pools and splash park. We took advantage again of the PhotoPass photographers and even splurged on dinner for the kids at Off the Hook, so that we could get pictures around sunset by the beach again. We glimpsed an amazing sunset for a few seconds before abruptly leaving as Everett needed to go to the washroom right away! The sun was huge, descending between a few clouds right above the horizon and the ocean itself.
Aulani is a great resort and we had a fantastic time. The Lobby gave us first impressions, a wide open space with an expansive balcony view onto the resort grounds and pools. Although Aulani is one of Disney’s newest resorts, the rooms where we stayed at were a little worn. We had a one bedroom villa which was sufficient for our family. A two bedroom would have been too much. When the kids went to bed in the living room (Everett loved the hide-a-bed hidden under the TV), we retired to our room anyways, too tired to do much else than veg on the phone or TV. The dining table with the built-in bench seats were good and more utilitarian than luxurious, as the vinyl seat covers could easily be cleaned, but at the same time looked like it had been clean a lot. The kitchen allowed us to warm up all the pre-prepped food we bought from Costco. The bathroom configuration was different, with the two bathrooms connected to each other, but worked with the kid’s using one sink, and adults the other, although it wasn’t as side-by-side sink. Being in the swimming pools or ocean for some 4-5 hours every day, we can’t see anyone really using the nice bath tub very often, so we filled it with laundry. On the second day, we moved from room 1469 to 771, sharing the same view as the Tilleys. The first suite had a mountain / parking lot view and was at the end of the hallway. Maria “complained” on our behalf, and we got an upgraded view. This was overlooking the grounds where the luau took place, so we could see some of the show. Also, you could see the ocean off in the distance and our next accommodations Villas at Ko Olina. But the downside was we could hear the elevators as we were right next to them, as well as the drumming of the luau. We got housekeeping at day 4 where the cleaned up our messes quite nicely. In between, there was garbage service. Once we weren’t in our room and the housekeeper did some quick wiping of countertops which was a nice surprise.
If there’s one thing that really impressed me with Aulani, it would be how clean they kept everything. I saw people mopping and servicing the public restrooms all the time. They seemed to have a good compromised on the problem with reserving beach chairs, cleaning unused chairs every hour. Despite this, there were still times where we found all chairs “occupied” but half used towels. Speaking of towels, there were no limits to how many towels one can take out, and lifejackets for little kids were included.
The kids didn’t enjoy the really wet play park as much as I expected. Everett did enjoy the tube slide, as well as swimming in the lazy river and all the other pools. There were warm enough that Everett didn’t freeze in the first 10 minutes and lasted most of the day.
It was fun to use the PhotoPass photographers and the $99 package is a fantastic deal, especially thinking back to our most recent Mexico photos for several hundred. Auntie’s is a great service, but our kids were just too young for it. It was fun running into Disney characters, mostly Moana because she was Sierra’s “best friend” even though we weren’t Disney crazy. Throughout the resort, we would find little Disney touches, like fiberoptic lit designs and pictures in the walking paths or rocks, magic wand sound effects when waterfalls start, and the little island that sinks into the koi pond.
Anything purchased on site was ridiculously expensive. We had two casual poolside meals for convenience which cost a heartbreaking $50 CAD each. You sure pay for that convenience! We ate at the buffet twice, once paid for by a timeshare talk, and once at the fine dining ‘Ama ‘Ama restaurant for Shannon’s birthday. The buffet is probably best value, $50 USD per adult enjoying king crab legs, poke, and prime rib, $26 for Everett (haha) who enjoyed pizza, and Sierra was free. We also went to one Character breakfast, which was good, but seeing as how our kids didn’t care for the entertainment, we canceled the second one. At the gift shop, we found a Moana set that we bought already back in Canada for Sierra’s potty training at double the price.
As time-share talks go, it was probably the least painful, at least compared to another we did at Vegas. It only took an hour, and it was interesting to hear about the financial part of buying into Disney Vacation Club. They offered tickets to the luau, but as the Whitkenzies and Tilleys recommended again, we went to the buffet instead.
We probably wouldn’t have come to Aulani had this trip not coincided with the Tilleys. But not that we have taken the trip, it was a good time and fun place to spend a week with the kids.
