Aulani for my 12 year old

[boferguson]

I'm curious for your thoughts on programming for my daughter, who will be about a month shy of her 13th birthday when we go to Aulani. At age 12, I know she is technically welcome at Aunty's, but I have to assume she is not in the target age range for most of their offerings. Have any of you gone with similar aged children, and did you find good options for them while they were there? Anything requiring advanced reservations? Your advice is appreciated....

 

[Van@Disney]

There is a special tween evening a few evenings a week But she might find it too young of a crowd. The menahune trial is fun for all ages. Best hope is she makes a friend or two at the pools. My daughter met a couple of lovely girls and they enjoyed hanging out together.

 

[RedStars]

I'll be there in April with my almost 12yo son; I'm banking on him finding friends at the pool and maybe the tween activities.

 

[gregf71]

When we stayed there in summer 2018, our daughter was 12 years old and was initially keen to check out Aunty's based on information provided by her younger cousins who visited in 2017. However, once we entered to get her checked in and claim her wristband, she immediately knew that it wasn't for her, that she had outgrown places like this. I think that we had a feeling this would be the case during our short Disney Cruise down to Mexico from San Diego in 2017, when she began growing weary of the kids clubs on board the ship. She used to adore them! We mentioned the few tween activities available at Aulani, but she just wanted to hang with us, which we were totally cool with. We did the stargazing thing as a family one night and the outside Menehune Adventure another night. Otherwise, it was a whole lot of swimming or floating around the wonderful lazy river. We are returning this summer for more days than 2018, and with her going to be 14 at the time of travel we will see if she wants to try some of the teen focused activities. Looking back at 2018 though, I really enjoyed spending the time together as a family.