Final Aulani Review/Tips/Links

I know my Aulani posts are long, so here are links to each day. I also wanted to give my overall thoughts on the resort and some tips for any friends thinking about going.

LINKS:
Aulani Trip--Day 1 (Thursday)
Aulani Trip--Day 2 (Friday)
Aulani Trip--Day 3 (Saturday)
Aulani Trip--Day 4 (Sunday)
Aulani Trip--Day 5 (Monday)
Aulani Trip--Day 6 (Tuesday/Wednesday--last day)

VIDEO:
Eric made this awesome video of our trip. I love it so much.

TIPS:
Flights: Don't be afraid of the long flight to get there. If I can do it, with three crazy kids and a pretty high fear of flying, anyone can.

Red eye: We loved taking the red eye home at 11:30pm. It gave us an entire extra day in Hawaii, and the kids slept for the whole first flight.

Stroller: If you have a kid younger than 4 years old, I recommend bring a stroller, mainly for using at the airport on the first and last day. There is no way we would have made it through the airport on our last day if we didn't have a stroller for Deke to conk out in.

Character meals: If you can, do both the character breakfast and dinner. Both were so fun, the food was delicious, and the character interaction was great.

Memory maker: Don't bother. There are photographers supposedly all over the resort so you don't have to worry about taking pictures, but we rarely saw them. It wasn't needed.

Breakfast: If you get Ulu Cafe meal credits with your room package, use them on breakfast. It's definitely the best meal of the day. The breakfast platter was more than enough food for two kids, the breakfast wraps were delicious, and I'm still dreaming about the cinammon roll that we had the last day.

Aunty's Beach House: Use it! The kids just loved it. It's pretty similar to the kids club on Disney cruises, where 3 years and older have full run of the place, but the staff really looked out for the little ones. Everyone had a blast, especially Eric and me, because dropping the kids gave us some down time (and I think we all needed some separation from each other). The only negative I'd say was that checking the kids in and out of the club wasn't nearly as efficient as the cruise, but it wasn't a big deal.

Stores: There are several really nice stores across the street from the resort--an ABC store with everything you might need, pizza place, Mexican restaurant, ice cream shop, etc.

Waimea Falls: If you're looking for a day trip, definitely head to this place. We all had fun, and it isn't a huge tourist spot so it wasn't overly crowded.

Rental car: This is an Alamo rental car right at Aulani, making car rental easy.

Travel agent: Use a Disney travel agent to book your trip. I love ours (Laura at Glass Slipper Concierge). She got us a great deal that included quick service meals, a day rental car, and free shuttles to and from the airport. I could have saved some money on our room by rental DVC points, but we actually got a better deal going through an agent when you added on the extras. Plus, it takes all the hassle out of booking.

Crowds/time of year: I had read a lot of reviews about how crowded Aulani can be but we didn't find that at all, probably because we went during low season. The weekend was a bit crowded, but not overwhelming. It was a bit of a challenge to find chairs at the pool but we always managed.

REVIEW:
Property: This resort is 100% amazing. It is a gorgeous property, and probably one of the--if not the--nicest hotel that I've ever stayed at. When we got off the plane and were trying to find our shuttle, we ran into some minor issues, but as soon as we walked into the hotel, we knew all was right in the world. You feel the Disney magic the second you get there, from the greeting with the leis and cold water to the stunning views from the lobby.

Activities: The resort has a lot of activities, although many of them require paying an extra premium. We didn't sign up for many of them because there is so much to do without paying more money. There aren't quite as many planned activities for kids as the Disney cruise, but still lots to do.

Dining: Overall, the food we ate was really good, but they didn't have a huge selection of casual places to eat. It was basically just the Ulu Cafe and then poolside dining. It would be great to have a larger quick service restaurant with more selection. Our room package came with one quick service meal per day at the Ulu Cafe, which we used for breakfast daily because the options the rest of the day were pretty limited.

Room: Our room was a really large and had two balconies, both with ocean views. Definitely worth the extra money. I posted some pics of our room at the bottom of this post. There was definitely enough space for all of us. We also loved having the full kitchen as well as the washer and dryer.

Disney-ness: The hotel isn't oozing with Disney, just the perfect amount, between the character meals, activities at the kids club, hidden Mickey's, and the availability of Mickey bars. What was 100% Disney was the customer service. It was amazing, just like you always get from Disney.

Final Thoughts: If you are all thinking about going to Hawaii, head to Aulani. Just do it! It was a wonderful trip. And, I think 5 nights there is perfect. A few more days and we might have gotten a little bored. If anything, I wish we could have stayed in Hawaii longer and gone to a few other islands, but we couldn't afford it this time.

A lot of people commented to me before we left that we were crazy for traveling on such long flights for just 6 days, but that didn't bother us at all. Because the vacation was so amazing, it made the flights well worth the time and expense. The kids are already asking when we can go back. I asked them which they liked best--Disney World, Disney cruise, or Aulani. As of today, they're all saying Aulani. :)