I’ve now been at the resort for a few days this trip. My family and I were most recently at the Aulani in June so I have a decently recent non-construction trip to compare it to. Here are my main thoughts around it so far:
1) The open pools are decidedly more crowded. My 4-year old and I spent a lot of time at the infinity pool (Ka Maka Grotto) in June and we were able to practice her swimming without many others around. This trip there are constantly people — mostly kids — coming between me and her. All of the people that would have previously been at the center main pool (Waikolohe) are now split between the infinity pool and the previously adults only pool.
2) Getting to Aunty’s Beach House is significantly more out of the way with the construction. Since the center of the pool area is sectioned off we now need to effectively go all the way back to the Pau Hana room to be able to cut across to the other side of the resort from the kid’s club. It‘s by no means a deal breaker but makes an already large resort with a lot of walking distance even longer.
3) The bubbles are no longer bubbling up as people go through the tunnel of the lazy river (Waikolohe Stream). I asked a lifeguard about this and her answer was they still ”turn them on sometimes.” After the pools were closed tonight I did see a lot of maintenance people with lights and snorkeling gear in the water in the area so I’m hoping this is just a temporary issue and not a permanent switch.
4) The Menehune Bridge area is going in full force. There are a couple changes that I noted here. First, the multiple goards/buckets that would fill up with water and tip over on unsuspecting people below previously have now been replaced with just one large canoe that only tips over once every about 8 minutes. Second, although the tiles look the same they now appear to be less slippery. We had chairs in front of this area one day in June and saw no less than 20 people slip and fall in one day on the wet tiles that day. It was dangerous and a liability. Yesterday we had the same chairs and didn’t see one person fall. This is a big improvement.
Conclusion: Even with the construction going on it’s still a great resort to be at with the family. Most of the facilities are up and going full steam ahead and it’s still the best resort we’ve found to spend days with the family at. BUT the construction is disruptive and I would gladly trade the $50/day credit that Disney is offering as compensation for the inconvenience for a fully operational resort.