Neighbor island visitors

[Melanie415]

Aloha! Just wondering if any neighboring Hawaii residents (or other frequent visitors) have been to Aulani and what their thoughts are on the stay. We have lived on Maui for 20 years and want to take my son for his 10th birthday, which happens to fall during the Hawaii school fall break. I work at a major resort on Maui that has an amazing pool/facilities and I realize that fall break is super busy with kama'aina. We decided that going the Monday following Fall break when HI schools start back up would be a better time to not have wall to wall people.
We are planning on 2 nights and 3 days (missing 3 days of school). In your opinion, is it really worth it for the Disney magic? We can staycation here on Maui at the Grand Wailea, that has an awesome beach but more importantly to us, a great water park. We go to the beach all the time. Is the addition of inter island flights (approx. $800 to fly to Oahu) worth it? We want to see some of Oahu maybe Kuala Ranch for the film tour, not too interested in going to the usual tourist destinations and getting some disney magic since we can't go to the parks this year. Is Aulani, that different a resort experience compared to other high end resorts?
also, has construction started yet?

 

[Midoria]

I guess my response would be to look at what Aulani offers that you can't get on Maui and see if it's worth the price.

 

[buffettgirl]

We've been for dinner and we've visited friends who were staying there, but I've never felt the need to go and stay. I don't really think the disney "magic" is anything special there, and in many ways, I almost feel like they're taking the beautiful Hawaiian culture and trying to make it their own. I don't really like that. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That said, I don't have a young child who might feel differently about the pools and slides, but you said you have that where you are. The beach is man made, so I"m sure it's going to pale to what you already have at home. I am a big disney fan, no question about it, but Aulani does absolutely nothing for me.

 

[corgi_monster]

We live on Oahu and took our daughter to Aulani for two nights for her birthday last month. I thought it was worth it because we got to spend a lot of quality family time together.

I’ve stayed at the Grand Wailea and at Kaanapali resorts a number of times. The Maui resorts have a very different vibe than Aulani. I feel like the Maui resorts are geared towards providing a more luxurious, relaxing, tropical paradise type of vacation. Aulani is definitely less luxurious than the Wailea, and while you can certainly have a relaxing vacation there, we found ourselves jumping from activity to activity. (I’m into commando park touring so I liked that!). Also, even though the Disney themeing is subtle compared to the Ca and FL resorts/hotels, I really felt like I was in the Disney bubble. I really felt like I was on vacation even though I was only 45 minutes away from home.