Just Back from FABULOUS Aulani! PARADISE!

[jerseygal]

Wow, fireworks must be BEAUTIFUL over the ocean at Aulani!

Hope so for you! If so and you are there, PLEASE post a photo!

 

[luv2boys]

We will be there for 4th of july also!

 

[jerseygal]

Enjoy the 4th at AULANI!

Have a FUN AND SAFE trip!

 

[disneypoor]

I can't believe you've already gone! I think we were both planning this trip as our kids were getting ready to graduate. We arrive at Aulani on August 2nd. It sounds like your trip was fabulous!!! Love the pictures too! Did you request your specific rooms or just make a general request? I'm getting ready to call and just want to know how to go about requesting. TIA!!!!

Susan

 

[jerseygal]

I placed a request on my reservation very soon after getting reservation, probably 6 months prior to arrival with MS...
I did not request a specific room, but instead requested highest floor possible in Long Wing of Ewa Tower...I was "torn" with Wainaie Tower, which would have been more convenient to parking,fitness center and refill station...

I followed up with MS after I placed the initial phone call to make sure that the request did not get "lost in the shuffle"...

YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT TIME! ENJOY!

 

[disneypoor]

Great! Thank you for responding so quickly! We are so excited for this trip! We have been to Hawaii a few times but never Aulani. Can't wait!

Susan

 

[Lorelai71]

Thanks for the great trip report.

Can you tell a bit more about your air travel

I am trying to figure out how to get there next August. I live in PA in the Langhorne area so I could leave out of EWR or New York.

 

[jerseygal]

We debated a layover, but wound up making the right decision for our family.
Yes, going out was long, 11 hours nonstop from Newark, but discussing it later with my husband and 2 older sons, we all felt that once we were "on the plane" we would not have wanted to layover for an hour or so in the airport, only to have to board again. I guess we all feel that we wanted to "gut it out and just do the nonstop". Return trip non stop to Newark is 9 1/2 hrs.

There is one United Non stop per day I believe. We flew out of Newark at 9:15EST, arrived Hawaii time 2:15. The return was a red eye...left Hawaii at 8:10, arrived Newark the next day at 12:00PM.

I "watched" the fares and researched fares for about 2 months prior to the 7th month booking window. We traveled the day after Memorial Day and I got a great fare, but unfortunately when I researched it seemed that after the 2nd week of June, the rates shot up for the entire summer, except for the last week of August I believe. I believe that we paid $742 round trip, but fares in June, July, August were $1,000 at least.. Up until the 7 months, our dates were running at $715 round trip, then went up to $742...

Best of Luck Booking. PS...Met a couple from NY at Aulani and they raved about Hawaiian Air from JFK!

Hope that you love Aulani! We DID! Hoping to get back in 4-5 years!

 

[Anal Annie]

I placed a request on my reservation very soon after getting reservation, probably 6 months prior to arrival with MS...
I did not request a specific room, but instead requested highest floor possible in Long Wing of Ewa Tower...I was "torn" with Wainaie Tower, which would have been more convenient to parking,fitness center and refill station...

I followed up with MS after I placed the initial phone call to make sure that the request did not get "lost in the shuffle"...

YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT TIME! ENJOY!

This is pretty much how I worded our Aulani request too. Highest floor available in the long wing of the Ewa tower overlooking the Starlit Hui lawn. I called MS today to double check that it was still there. I put some specific room requests in for our VGC portion of our ressie since it's so small - didn't want to push my luck requesting anything any more specific at Aulani. I am hoping since it's bigger we'll get as lucky as you did with our request. Looks like a room on a higher floor ending in xx77 would be PERFECT!!

We leave for DL 2 weeks from tomorrow. I made our airport transfers today for here at home and in LA (renting cars in Hawaii). We're using National Airport in DC for the first time (usually use Dulles or BWI) so I booked a car service bcuz parking down there at National is pretty expensive. We could go offsite to a local hotel garage and save quite a bit over parking AT the airport but it would've only saved us about $25 over hiring a car door to door (and we're going both ways in rush hour) so I figured it would be less stressful too. Plus now we don't have to schlep our stuff from a hotel garage to the airport on a shuttle bus.

Lorelai71 - I agree that airfare is higher for pretty much all of June, July and all but the last week in August. The fares start dropping the week AFTER we return because more & more schools go back. I have done this trip to Hawaii 4x before. I have transfered thru Atlanta, Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, LA and Dallas depending on the airline (used Delta, United & American before). This time we're using a combo of Alaska Airline and Hawaiian - both are supposed to be excellent so I'm looking forward to trying them out. At least Hawaiian Air still feeds people. We are coming home from Maui without going back thru HNL - there were no direct flights back from Maui - at a minimum we would've had to go back thru HNL. Alaska goes thru Seattle & Portland on this route. So we'll get a birds eye view of Portland this time. I would never book it with more than 1 layover. Best duration times from the east coast with 1 layover is approx. 12-13 hours. Our flights ended up running around $1,300 pp including our hop to Maui. I believe stopping in LA for a few days on our way out is costing us a LOT more on the flights. If you go straight to HNL it should be a lot less.

 

[Lorelai71]

Thanks Jerseygal.

I wished I had been studying fares before so I could get an idea on what's good for August.

I think doing it all at once would be better for us too. I want to spend most of our time in Hawaii. A day in California means a day less at Aulani. Although it would be nice to see California.

I am so scared to even think that I can pull this off. Okay I will monitor Hawaiian also.

Maybe, just maybe you might get back sooner.

 

[Lorelai71]

Hi Annie, since you are going in a couple weeks and from the East Coast would you mine sharing your air fare prices and when you booked?

Also, I can't wait until you get back so I can hear all about your trip.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi Annie, since you are going in a couple weeks and from the East Coast would you mine sharing your air fare prices and when you booked?

Also, I can't wait until you get back so I can hear all about your trip.

We are breaking it up with 3 nights at DL and finishing with 3 nights on Maui so I may not be a good price to compare to unless you also decide to plan an extended trip. We got $221 one-way DC to LA on Alaska Air. Then the hop from LA to HNL was the real killer. The base price on Hawaiian was $484 but we upgraded to "extra comfort" for some extra legroom so that tacked on an additional $60 pp. Our hop from HNL to Maui (on Hawaiian) was $89 and our return (on Alaska Air) from Maui back to DC was $509 I think so it was about $1,350 or so total.

NOTE - we had originally planned this trip for LAST August and 8 days out our DS had a medical emergency with a collapsed lung and was not allowed to fly for 3 weeks minimum - so we had to CANCEL everything. When I booked it for LAST year the flight from LA to HNL was only $272 (on Delta). That leg was nearly double this year and the prices never fell - and believe me I hawked them good because we had to re-purchase that one out-of-pocket. When we cancelled last year Delta didn't charge us a penalty but they only gave us 1 yr. from the date of purchase to re-use the flights - so we went to WDW in January so we wouldn't lose out on the $800+ we'd spent. Hawaiian Air gave us 1 yr. from date of purchase to REBOOK so I was able to re-use that inter-island flight - but it went up from $65 to $89 so we had to put out a little more on that one too. Alaska Air actually gave us 1 year from our FLY DATE to reuse our tickets (but they charged us $100 each penalty). I was just thankful we didn't lose everything. I was able to rebook on them for approx. the same prices but we had to switch to flying on weekdays rather than weekends to match the same prices. I booked our flights both years in January for August (as soon as we confirmed our ressie at Aulani and DL). Both years the prices only went up after I booked...

 

[jerseygal]

Paid $758 round trip non stop United...Just looked it up in my files!

BEST OF LUCK BOOKING FARE AND ROOM!

I know that many book airline first, then book the DVC reservation, but since the fare is SO EXPENSIVE just couldn't take that risk!

I literally watched the flight every day...I was so excited that I thought I could get $715..Low and behold, it jumped up to $758...Still a GREAT fare.. It was CRAZY...it was the LOWEST of the summer...Who would have thought that the day after Memorial Day would be a low fare?

I love the red eye departing at 8:10PM since it gave us the whole last day to enjoy the resort! LOVED having the extra BEACH DAY!

GOOD LUCK booking in January for your August trip! Be prepared to take a reservation which is not standard at 7 months!

 

[disneypoor]

Annie,

I made the same exact room request as you and will be there at the same time. We might be neighbors.

Susan

 

[Anal Annie]

Annie,

I made the same exact room request as you and will be there at the same time. We might be neighbors.

Susan

We start on Aug. 5th with 3 n at DL then arrive at Aulani on Aug. 8th. Then we go on the 15th to Maui for 3 nights.
We leave TWO WEEKS from today!!

 

[disneypoor]

We start on Aug. 5th with 3 n at DL then arrive at Aulani on Aug. 8th. Then we go on the 15th to Maui for 3 nights. We leave TWO WEEKS from today!!

I was off with my dates. We check out August 8th, so maybe you'll get our room? It's almost here!!!!!!!

Susan

 

[stantoneileen]

We are planning a trip and this is a great guide. Thanks for taking the time to do this

 

[Kimmi96]

We debated a layover, but wound up making the right decision for our family. Yes, going out was long, 11 hours nonstop from Newark, but discussing it later with my husband and 2 older sons, we all felt that once we were "on the plane" we would not have wanted to layover for an hour or so in the airport, only to have to board again. I guess we all feel that we wanted to "gut it out and just do the nonstop". Return trip non stop to Newark is 9 1/2 hrs. There is one United Non stop per day I believe. We flew out of Newark at 9:15EST, arrived Hawaii time 2:15. The return was a red eye...left Hawaii at 8:10, arrived Newark the next day at 12:00PM. I "watched" the fares and researched fares for about 2 months prior to the 7th month booking window. We traveled the day after Memorial Day and I got a great fare, but unfortunately when I researched it seemed that after the 2nd week of June, the rates shot up for the entire summer, except for the last week of August I believe. I believe that we paid $742 round trip, but fares in June, July, August were $1,000 at least.. Up until the 7 months, our dates were running at $715 round trip, then went up to $742... Best of Luck Booking. PS...Met a couple from NY at Aulani and they raved about Hawaiian Air from JFK! Hope that you love Aulani! We DID! Hoping to get back in 4-5 years!

When did you book your airfare? We plan to go in May 2015 as well and I am currently watching fares. I have heard that you can get a good fare around Christmas.

Thank you-
Kim

 

[SingingMom]

After two years in a row traveling to Europe with Adventures by Disney, our first two choices were sold out, so we have decided to visit Aulani! Never been to Hawaii, so it's exciting. We have a nonstop from Newark, but after the flights to/from Germany, we figured we can handle it, as long as there is mindless tv!

Do you think we can book excursions when we get there or is it necessary to book them in advance? We will be there 10 days at the end of August - celebrating DD 21st birthday while we are there! Any advice is appreciated!

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Lorelai71]

Thanks Annie and Jerseygal. Your responses truly are very helpful. Now I have an idea of what to expect.

I definitely will check back in and let you guys know how I make out. I also started a thread called Aulani August 2015 so I will post there too.

Hawaii - I'm coming