Gamble with Aulani or cancel and head to WDW?

There was a twinge of sadness when I read of the announced opening that was literally 7 days before our planned check in. But I couldn't stomach the idea that all 8 in our group had to pass (and pay for) the covid test before hand.
Although I just today realized our wdw dates overlap perfectly Jersey Week and Veterans day. I already was a touch worried about elections not knowing what to expect during this crazy year and now I'm thinking there's going to be hardcore crowds.

Whatever, I think I'll second guess everything until I'm there. Even with my paranoia about what this altered travel experience may entail its still better than having no trip at all on the books.
We live in Hawaii. I would not take a chance with eight people. If it were just a couple Hawaii is beautiful right now, it's so nice to enjoy the beaches and mountains without a thousand other people.
 
Permission to type out loud?

I have been in massive travel planner mode with this Hawaii trip and I don't know what to do. We originally were going to do Maui(5 nights) and hop to Oahu (4 nights) over April. Covid blew that up so we moved the trips out and split them into separate trips so we do an island for a week--Maui spring break next year and Oahu to November 7-15 this year. Like in 50 days. We have 3 nights at Aulani booked and then were going to do a rental on the north shore for the other 5 nights.

There are 8 of us going (me, DH, dd12, dd8, bff, bff, their son, and my dad). With Hawaii's never ending lock down we pretty much resigned ourselves to cancelling Oahu all together and just going to WDW but with the "reopening" announced yesterday I am not so sure. Being at a presumably empty Aulani could be fun! But being at a mostly empty WDW park could also be fun! Literally everyone in my group doesn't care where we go so they are no help. This is a heavy burden :rotfl:

Here are my thoughts on each:

Oahu: uncrowded Aulani and beaches, cheaper rental cars right now BUT may be made up for by the fact that we all have to get a $140 Covid swab 3 days before which feels risky (I am a nurse, dad is a paramedic so perhaps more than average exposure--do we really want to invest time and energy into a trip that could get blown if 1 out of our 8 happens to test positive days before?), we can avoid people a little more which could ease some Covid stress, unsure if things like food trucks & fruit stands will be open and if the perception of locals will be that they don't want tourists back yet, if they spike with Covid are they going to shutdown again?

WDW: I wouldn't be borrowing half my 2021 DVC points as we would stay rental house the whole time, cheaper flights but more expensive car rentals by about $300 (although I am sure I could stalk for price drops), bigger and cheaper rental houses with pools/hot tubs/ water parks depending on resort, park tickets $$$$ (which can't be upgraded to gold AP right now so there goes discounts & free parking), more "peopley"--I can see some in our group being really irritated when they see masks being worn incorrectly or people getting "too close" (people in my group being disgruntled gives me anxiety--like it's my fault as the travel planner that everyone isn't having fun), if park attendance continues to be low and short wait times it will be the funnest trip of our life (nothing unlocks our collective childlike happiness like a crowdless park)--conversely if everyone and their dog decides to hop on the low crowd bandwagon we may not love the travel all the way there just to find busy parks with socially distanced lines wrapping around forever. BUT if it is crowded-hey, we go back to our rental place and chillax by the pool. Problem solved. For our group it would be about 2k more when all is said and done.

This feels like a real first world struggle here :laughing:. Also typing this out makes me sound really nuts--like maybe I could use an Xanax or something.
Even if you can get to Aulani your group will have to leave for decent food or cook. I'd rather do WDW, but then again those people aren't tested before getting on the plane to MCO. By flying to Hawaii, you at least know the people on the plane have been tested
 

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