- Joined
- Jul 17, 2013
Just got back from Aulani, and I know this might sound like sacrilege, but I was disappointed. To be completely balanced, here is the good:
1. The weather - Without question the weather is perfect in Hawaii in August compared to Florida with daily rain storms.
2. The Landscape - Beautiful mountains and the scenic ocean view from the resort, also tops Florida.
3. The pool - No resort in WDW has a lazy river + infinity pool + beach on the ocean
4. The food - Mostly not the big box food clearly used in WDW. At WDW you can tell they are ordering in bulk for every resort/park at once.
So what was disappointing:
1. The room - I know I was staying on DVC points and we don't get cleaning service every day, but it feels like they are cutting back every way they can. No dish or hand soap in the room on check in and only 3 tiny bottles in the shower. I get more from Holiday Inn. Plus the room wasn't exactly clean enough. It wasn't dirty, and I might be nit picky, but for the best of the DVC resort, I wanted it spotless on check in. Even they get cleaning service it isn't high end. Just didn't meet my standards on this. Certainly nothing more than you get at GF, WL, BLT, etc.
2. The cost - Holy smokes is everything expensive. We are a family of 5, so a dinner at Makahiki crossed $500 for us. Not something we could do more than once, but even once wasn't worth it. The price fix menu of salad, NY steak and cheesecake wasn't worth the money. Throw in some drinks and a tip. It just wasn't worth it. And the quick serve options are also expensive. The Luau, again family of 5 here, $178/person. Basically a thousand dollars for the show. Good show, but not worth a thousand dollars.
3. The stores - So disappointing. For a property that size, how are the stores that small? The Poly for example has a much bigger store with a much better selection of items. Give me a place to get lost in my options.
4. Not enough Disney - I know they want to keep the locals happy, but you can easily forget you are at a Disney resort. I don't want to forget that. I want to be surrounded by the magic. The characters are sparse and hard to find (unless you pay extra for a character breakfast). Things like Disney movies under the stars are once a week. We just didn't have that "in the Disney bubble" feel.
Overall, we are flying 5 people from the East coast, over 11 hours to Hawaii. The cost of flight, food, rental car and sightseeing was just astronomical. When you couple that with not enough Disney feel, poor shopping options, limited food options and a room that was just "meh", and we were disappointed. For us, flight to Orlando is under two hours, a quarter of the price and we are surrounded by limitless Disney food options and shopping within WDW. Sure there is no ocean at my doorstep and Florida has the regular rain storm, but for someone not local to Orlando, there just isn't anything that compares to living in Disney for that vacation.
Just my initial thoughts. Feel free to disagree.
1. The weather - Without question the weather is perfect in Hawaii in August compared to Florida with daily rain storms.
2. The Landscape - Beautiful mountains and the scenic ocean view from the resort, also tops Florida.
3. The pool - No resort in WDW has a lazy river + infinity pool + beach on the ocean
4. The food - Mostly not the big box food clearly used in WDW. At WDW you can tell they are ordering in bulk for every resort/park at once.
So what was disappointing:
1. The room - I know I was staying on DVC points and we don't get cleaning service every day, but it feels like they are cutting back every way they can. No dish or hand soap in the room on check in and only 3 tiny bottles in the shower. I get more from Holiday Inn. Plus the room wasn't exactly clean enough. It wasn't dirty, and I might be nit picky, but for the best of the DVC resort, I wanted it spotless on check in. Even they get cleaning service it isn't high end. Just didn't meet my standards on this. Certainly nothing more than you get at GF, WL, BLT, etc.
2. The cost - Holy smokes is everything expensive. We are a family of 5, so a dinner at Makahiki crossed $500 for us. Not something we could do more than once, but even once wasn't worth it. The price fix menu of salad, NY steak and cheesecake wasn't worth the money. Throw in some drinks and a tip. It just wasn't worth it. And the quick serve options are also expensive. The Luau, again family of 5 here, $178/person. Basically a thousand dollars for the show. Good show, but not worth a thousand dollars.
3. The stores - So disappointing. For a property that size, how are the stores that small? The Poly for example has a much bigger store with a much better selection of items. Give me a place to get lost in my options.
4. Not enough Disney - I know they want to keep the locals happy, but you can easily forget you are at a Disney resort. I don't want to forget that. I want to be surrounded by the magic. The characters are sparse and hard to find (unless you pay extra for a character breakfast). Things like Disney movies under the stars are once a week. We just didn't have that "in the Disney bubble" feel.
Overall, we are flying 5 people from the East coast, over 11 hours to Hawaii. The cost of flight, food, rental car and sightseeing was just astronomical. When you couple that with not enough Disney feel, poor shopping options, limited food options and a room that was just "meh", and we were disappointed. For us, flight to Orlando is under two hours, a quarter of the price and we are surrounded by limitless Disney food options and shopping within WDW. Sure there is no ocean at my doorstep and Florida has the regular rain storm, but for someone not local to Orlando, there just isn't anything that compares to living in Disney for that vacation.
Just my initial thoughts. Feel free to disagree.