Aulani Disney Vacation Club Spotlight
Want a Hawaii vacation with a Disney twist? Then Aulani is a great spot!
Where is Aulani?
Located on the island of Oahu, about 20 miles away from Honolulu Airport in Kapolei. The resort area is called Ko Olina if you need a reference place.
Disney Vacation Club at Aulani
There are many different types of Villas available. Not only will the size of the room determine price, but also the view from your room. Below is the point chart to give you an idea of how much each room would cost (as a general rule, count of paying around $20 per point when renting from an online broker).
Here are the view types available:
H=hotel room (this is nearly impossible to rent, they fill up very quickly as not many are available for DVC owners, mostly Disney owned so don’t count on these to be able to rent)
S=standard view (parking structure view usually)
I= island garden view (this is the view we chose- most likely a view of the luau and gardens)
P=poolside
O=ocean view
Here is a post about all the DVC resorts and what is standard and what is preferred.
There are four options for villa size (again didn’t count hotel room since I’ve not seen them available). Studio sleep 4 (and an infant) with a queen bed and a sofa bed. One bedroom sleep 5 and have a full kitchen. Two bedroom and three sleep 9 and 12 and have multiple bathrooms in addition to full kitchen and laundry.
Activities at Aulani
Aulani is a great resort for families. The pool(s), the slide, the lazy river, snorkeling in rainbow reef (additional fee), character interactions, pool activities, private beach, and of course Aunty’s Beach House!
Aunty’s Beach House is a complementary kid’s club with great activities for kids. At this time, it is open and free for ages 5 and up. We didn’t have kids in our group, but wow it looks amazing!!!
They also as we have live Hawaiian music groups, ukulele lessons, Hula dance lessons, movie nights, storytellers and more… okay excuse me while I go make another reservation to Aulani!
click Here to see all the activities at Aulani!
Parking and Taxes
When renting DVC, all parking is free and included for the length of your stay for up to two cars, but there is a tourism fee that is charged to all visitors- mine was around $10 per night for a studio.
Restaurants
There are a few restaurants in the resort, including a quick service (which was great to grab lunch) and a sit-down restaurant (which wasn’t open when we were visiting but is now). There are some great restaurants within walking distance (monkey pod and the egg and I were great) and if you have a car, there are many with in 15 minutes. Just make sure you budget for Hawaiian food prices; it will be more expensive than you think. And don’t forget to get shaved ice with mickey ears!
Transportation
We took an uber from the airport, which was about $65 each way. We weren’t planning on exploring the island, just planting ourselves at the pool and beach and relaxing so we didn’t rent a car. There is also a shuttle that you can pay to get to and from the airport to Aulani and can be booked through the Aulani Web site. The best price we saw to rent a car was with Turo.
Pixie Point Gals Tips
You must get a pool band each day and they give you towels and the same time. Arrive early as pool chairs go quickly. They also frown on “reserving” a chair for the day and never using it. So cast member come by to check if a chair has been used. If it hasn’t, they signal it by draping the towel on the top of the chair. If they come by in a hour or so and the towel isn’t moved, they might take the towel and open up the chair for someone to use. Make sure you go back to your chair every once in a while! We wanted to be close to the ocean, listen to the sound and read a book, and lucky for us, chairs were easier to find there than up by the pools
We also loved brunch at Egg n things in the little shopping center close to the resort. We went more than once it was so good! But it’s small and you might have a wait to be seated. It was worth the wait!
We rented our points for this vacation from Facebook and paid half of Disney prices for the same room, and less than most chain hotels on the island!
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